284 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



beginning of the Roman year, and the driv- 

 ing of the nail was thought to bring with it 

 prosperity fur the new year. Livy tells us 

 i , it when the gods seemed hostile and un- 

 moved by the distresses of the nation, the dic- 

 tator broke the spell of evil by driving in a 

 nail. Once a nail driven in had banished a 

 plague ; then a nail had healed discord, 

 riiny says that, if a nail be driven into the 

 pillow on which a man suffering from epilep- 

 sy has laid his head, it will heal him. In all 

 these notices we see iron used as destroying 

 the power of evil, breaking the force of dis- 

 aster, banishing disease, expelling death. 

 Consequently, nails were put in urns or fu- 

 nereal cists to keep away from them every 

 evil power, demons, witches, and as a pledge 

 of final restoration. The iron horseshoe 

 nailed to a door owes its power to break the 

 force of witchcraft not only to its being a 

 symbol of Odin's horse, but also to the met- 

 al of which it is composed. Shears were fre- 

 quently buried with bodies down till late in 

 the middle aires. It is said that even within 



O 



the memory of man they have been buried 

 in coffins with corpses in Swabia. Some- 

 times as many as five were laid in the coffin 

 with one corpse. The idea was the same as 

 with nails — the metal was the important mat- 

 ter, rather than the form it took. The steel 

 or iron was a preservative to the corpse, a 

 protection and an assurance of resurrection. 

 For the same reason that nails and shears 

 were buried with the dead, swords were laid 

 with them, and not necessarily because they 

 would need them in the next world. Even 

 Charlemagne was buried with his sword. The 

 Icelandic sagas are full of stories of cairns 

 broken into by heroes to rob the dead of 

 their swords. Already in historic times the 

 significance of the sword buried with the 

 dead was lost ; and in the Saga of Olaf the 

 Saint a ghost actually invites a Norseman to 

 break into his tomb and relieve him of his 

 sword and other valuables. 



Habits of the Manatee. — The London 

 Zoological Society has acquired a living spe- 

 cimen of the manatee, one of the only two 

 kinds of " herbivorous cetaceans " now ex- 

 isting. Concerning the habits of these ani- 

 mals, Miss Agnes Crane has written, from 

 observations of a pair several years ago in 

 the Brighton Aquarium, that lettuce and 



endives, of which they could eat thirty 

 pounds a day, formed their favorite food. 

 The male would devour at a pinch leaves of 

 the cabbage, turnip, and carrot. Both rel- 

 ished those of the dandelion and sow-thistle. 

 Sometimes the animals would swim about 

 and pursue the leaves floating on the water ; 

 at other times the plants were seized in their 

 mouths, drawn down, and eaten under the 

 water, while the hand-like fore-fins were em- 

 ployed in separating the leaves. The food 

 was invariably swallowed below the surface. 

 They are not at all at ease when out of the 

 water, but seem oppressed by their bulk. 

 The male was observed to make a few at- 

 tempts at terrestrial progress by turning 

 himself round and moving a few inches when 

 the tank was empty. With jaws and tail- 

 fin pressed closely to the ground, the body 

 of the animal became arched, and was moved 

 by a violent lateral effort, aided and slightly 

 supported by the fore paddles, which were 

 stretched out in a line with the mouth. 

 But the effect of these very labored efforts 

 was not commensurate with their violence ; 

 and their relation to active locomotion might 

 be compared to the state of a man lying 

 prone, with fettered feet and elbows tied to 

 his side. 



Odd Dishes of the Olden Time. — The 



cook-books of a hundred or more years ago 

 afford reading well adapted to excite curi- 

 osity of appetite, if we may speak in that 

 way. Their lists of pickles and flavors em- 

 braced a great many articles that we do not 

 think now of using in that way. Jams 

 were made of vegetables ; parsnips, raspber- 

 ries, etc., were made into cakes ; and beets, 

 potatoes, and oranges into biscuits. For 

 making violet cakes the directions were to 

 " take the finest violets you can get, pick off 

 the leaves, beat the violets fine in a mortar 

 with the juice of a lemon, beat and sift 

 twice their weight of double-refined sugar, 

 put your sugar and violets into a silver 

 saucepan or tankard, set it over a slow fire, 

 keep stirring it gently until all your sugar is 

 dissolved ; if you let it boil it will discolor 

 your violets ; drop them in china plates ; 

 when you take them off put them in a box, 

 with paper between every layer." Wines 

 were made of every fruit ; of such flowers 

 and vegetables as cowslips and parsnips ; 



