MISCELLANEOUS FACTS AND FIGURES. 



801 



prophet-teacher, son of Mudjekeewis (the west 

 irind) and Wenonah, daughter of Nokomis. 

 He represents the progress of civilization 

 among the North American Indians. Hiawa- 

 tha first wrestled with Mondamin (maize), and, 

 having subdued it, gave it to man for food. 

 He then taught man navigation; then he sub- 

 dued Mishe Nahma (tJ,e sturgeon), and taught 

 the Indians how to make oil therefrom for 

 winter. His next exploit was against the ma- 

 gician Megissognon, the author of disease and 

 death; having slain this monster, he taught 

 men the science of medicine. He then mar- 

 ried Minnehaha (laughing water), and taught 

 man to be the husband of one wife, and the 

 comforts of domestic peace. Lastly, he taught 

 man picture-writing. When the white man 

 came with the gospel, Hiawatha ascended to 

 the kingdom of Ponemah, the land of the 

 hereafter. Among many other accomplish- 

 ments, when Hiawatha put on his moccasins, 

 he could measure a mile at a single stride. 



He had moccasins enchanted, 

 Magic moccasins of deer-skin; 

 When he bound them round his ankles 

 At each stride a mile he measured ! 



LONGFELLOW, Hiawatha, iv. 



Barber's Pole. The spiral red stripe on 

 a barber's pole is said to symbolize the winding 

 of a ribbon or bandage around the arm of a 

 patient upon whom the barber had operated in 

 the capacity of surgeon. In former times, 

 when the operation of bleeding was extensively 

 practiced, blood-letting formed a part of the 

 duties of a barber. 



Caste Among the Hindoos. Caste is 

 a term applied to the division into social classes 

 in India. To each of these classes certain pur- 

 suits are limited by the Laws of Manu, B. C. 

 960. 1. The Brahmans or sacerdotal class, 

 which " issued from the mouth of Brahma." 



2. The Chuttree or military class, which 

 " sprang from the arm of Brahma." 



3. The Ba'is or mercantile class, which 

 " sprang from the thigh of Brahma." 



4. The Sudras or servile class, which 

 " sprang from the foot of Brahma." 



The Pariahs and Chandalas are nobodies, or 

 worse, for it is pollution to be touched by such 

 " scum of the earth." 



American Flags. It is related that the 

 flag which was raised at Cambridge, January 

 2, 1776, by Washington, was composed of thir- 

 teen red and white stripes, with the crosses of 

 St. George and St. Andrew emblazoned on the 

 blue canton in place of the stars. This flag 

 was also carried by the fleet under command of 

 Commander Esek Hopkins, when it sailed from 

 the Delaware Capes, February 17, 1776. In 

 the following year, June 14, 1777, the Conti- 



nental Congress passed a resolution ' ' That the 

 flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, 

 alternate red and white ; that the Union be 

 thirteen stars, white on a blue field, represent- 

 ing anew constellation." How or by whom 

 the idea of the star was first suggested is un- 

 certain, although there are some who ascribe 

 it to John Adams, while others claim the en- 

 tire flag was borrowed from the coat of arms of 

 the Washington family. In this flag the stars 

 were arranged in a circle, although no form 

 was officially prescribed. It is supposed that 

 the first display of the National flag at a mili- 

 tary post was at Fort Schuyler, on the site 

 of the village of Rome, Oneida county, N. Y. 

 The fort was besieged early in the month of 

 August, 1777, and the garrison were without a 

 flag. So they made one according to the pre- 

 scription of Congress, by cutting up sheets to 

 form the white stripes, bits of scarlet cloth for 

 the red stripes, and the blue ground for the 

 stars was composed of portions of a cloth cloak 

 belonging to Capt. Abraham Swarthout, of 

 Dutchess county, N. Y., and the flag was un- 

 furled August 3, 1777. Paul Jones, as com- 

 mander of the "Ranger," .to which he was 

 appointed, June 14, 1777, claimed that he was 

 the first to display the stars and stripes on a 

 naval vessel. It is probable that the flag was 

 first unfurled in battle on the banks of the 

 Brandywine, September 11, 1777, the first bat- 

 tle after its adoption. It first appeared over a 

 foreign stronghold, June 28, 1778, when Cap- 

 tain Rathbone, of the American sloop of war 

 "Providence," captured Fort Nassau, New 

 Providence, Bahama Islands. John Singleton 

 Copley, the American painter, claimed to be 

 the first to display the flag in Great Britain. 

 On the day when George III. acknowledged 

 the independence of the United States (De- 

 cember 5, 1782), he painted the flag in the 

 background of a portrait of Elkanah Watson. 

 To Captain Mooers, of the whaling ship " Bed- 

 ford," of Nantucket, is doubtless due the 

 honor of first displaying the stars and stripes 

 in a port of Great Britain. He arrived in the 

 Downs with it flying at the fore, February 3, 

 1783. When Vermont and Kentucky were 

 added to the Union of States, the flag was 

 altered, the number of stripes and stars being 

 increased from thirteen to fifteen. In 1818 a 

 new flag, having thirteen stripes and a star for 

 every state, twenty at that time, was devised by 

 Capt. Samuel C. Reed, and this has remained 

 the form of the United States flag. 



Harbors. San Francisco may fairly claim 

 to have the most capacious natural harbor of 

 any of the world's great trading marts. It is 

 also one of the very safest. It is entered 

 through the Golden Gate, a passage a mile wide, 



