52 FROM AN EASY CHAIR 



with details intended to "fetch" the innocent reader. 

 The writer says Elephas columbi is as much larger than 

 the Siberian mammoth as that is larger than the horse 

 of to-day. The truth is that Elephas columbi and the 

 mammoth are as nearly as possible of the same size. 

 To writer goes on to tell of a " fossil horse," found at 

 the same place, " a wonderful two-toed animal marked 

 by his cloven hoof." That is cool impudence ; it is pre- 

 cisely "the double hoof" which none of the horse tribe 

 possess, but all the deer, cattle, and sheep do. He next 

 tells us that elephants and mastodons were never found 

 together before, but supposed to have shunned each 

 others company. This is an invention ; their remains 

 are found side by side all over Europe. Then suddenly 

 the surprising statement is made, like a bolt from the 

 blue, " England ceases to be the Mother Country and 

 Germany the Fatherland to us," and the pre-eminence 

 of America in providing the biggest thing on earth is 

 declared to have been already manifest "when the world 

 rose out of chaos." It is satisfactory to be told that 

 England is not the Mother Country of this silliness ; 

 but whether the world which solemnly prints and reads 

 it can be said to have yet " risen out of chaos " must be 

 regarded as doubtful. 



23. Mistletoe and Holly 



Christmas things and customs comprise much that 

 has great interest from a scientific point of view. Our 

 modern celebration of Christmas in England is a 

 combination of the Christian festival of the Nativity 

 with that of the Epiphany, and that of St. Nicholas, 

 who long ago was substituted for the sea god Neptune, 

 of classical mythology, by sea-faring folk. Santa Claus 

 or Saint Nicholas has his festival at the beginning 

 of December, but he has been carried over to Christ- 



