86a 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ously unknown, to the truffle of all these 

 countries, and a new genus, the Tirmania, 

 to those of Africa. The history of the truf- 

 fle, as old as that of civilization, begins with 

 the most brilliant days of Greece and Rome, 

 was lost in the darkness of the middle ages, 

 and revived with the Renascence ; and at 

 a later period the delicacy spread from the 

 court to the tables of the rich, and is now 

 known in all ranks. Scientific acquaintance 

 with the plant has enjoyed a growth parallel 

 with that of its alimentary use, and with 

 methods of cultivation, which are wholly of 

 modern origin, having been established as 

 the result of the scientific investigations of 

 the present century. According to the latest 

 statistical report of the truffle crop, the total 

 production was valued, for the year 1889, 

 at $500,000. 



Superstitions about Saturn. — The some- 

 what dull and heavy appearance of the light 

 of Saturn as compared with that of the other 

 planets and of the stars of the first magni- 

 tude may, according to Paul Stroobant, of 

 the Royal Observatory of Belgium, help to 

 account for the baleful influence which the 

 ancients attributed to it. Recognizing it as 

 the most remote of the planets with which 

 they were acquainted, they paid it a special 

 regard. The Assyrians included the sun, the 

 moon, and the five planets known to them 

 among the superior divinities, calling them 

 the interpreting gods ; and of these Saturn 

 was the chief interpreter or revealer. They 

 called it Nisroch or Asshur, the god of time 

 or the year. Similar ideas prevailed in an- 

 cient Egypt. Julius Firrninius, speaking of 

 astral influences over the dispositions of 

 men, says, " if one is born under the influ- 

 ence of Mercury, he will be addicted to as- 

 tronomy ; if under Mars, he will embrace 

 the profession of arms ; if under Saturn, he 

 will devote himself to alchemy." This planet 

 was regarded by the Egyptians as a foreign 

 divinity, for its altars were built outside of 

 the cities, among those of the adopted gods. 

 Probably this usage came from the North, 

 for Plutarch, who locates the island of 

 Ogygia in the North, says that its people, 

 every thirty years, when Saturn went into 

 the sign of Taurus, sailed away to sacrifice 

 in another country. The Greeks regarded 

 Saturn as the god of time. Latin texts rep- 



resent Saturn as a planet dangerous to hu- 

 man life, and say that it brings rains and 

 four-day fevers. This planet likewise played 

 an important part in the astrology of the 

 middle ages. It was certainly known to the 

 Chinese 2500 years b. c, for they then had 

 ephemerides of the five older planets. Egyp- 

 tian monuments of the fifth and sixth dynas- 

 ties mention it. The most ancient precise 

 observation of Saturn known was made by 

 the Chaldeans in the year 5*79 of the era of 

 Nabonassar. Ptolemy fixes this on March 1, 

 b. c. 228. Ptolemy observed an opposition 

 of Saturn a. d. 127, which was the basis for 

 his determination of the elements of its 

 orbit. The sign ^ , employed to designate 

 Saturn, was not known to the ancients. La- 

 land derives it from the sickle of time. Some 

 persons believe that it stands for the figure 

 5, answering to the place of the planet in the 

 order of the system, as the sign % of Jupi- 

 ter may stand for 4. Alexander von Hum- 

 boldt says that the signs for the planets are 

 no older than the tenth century. Different 

 opinions prevail as to whether or not the an- 

 cients had any knowledge of Saturn's ring. 

 It is hardly probable. 



Jokes by Animals. — Among the incidents 

 of jokes played by animals upon one another 

 cited by a writer on The Animal Sense of 

 Humor, in the London Spectator, is that of a 

 jackdaw which, whenever it found its setter- 

 dog companions asleep, would steal up to 

 them and pull at the little fluffy tassels of 

 hair between their toes — where the animal 

 was more sensitive than in other hairy parts 

 of its body — unpleasantly waking them up. 

 At a certain house, a tame magpie was kept 

 in the stable yard with two kestrels. The kes- 

 trels were in the habit of sitting on the sides 

 of the water pails that stood outside of the 

 stable doors. At one time the magpie ap- 

 proached a kestrel from behind, seized its 

 long tail in its beak, jerked it violently, and 

 pushed it over into the pail ; but the kestrel 

 afterward caught the magpie and punished 

 it well. A cat expressed its dislike of a pea- 

 cock by jumping through its spread-out tail 

 when the bird was displaying its beauty and 

 exhibiting its own vanity, to the great dis- 

 comfiture of the fowl. The writer's dog, 

 which was accustomed to hunting rabbits, 

 showed its displeasure when its master had 



