143 



FASCINES FASTING. 



finally, its falling down) ; and that of Blumenbnch, 

 that curiosity or fear, occasioned by the hissing and 

 noise of the rattles, impels the animal affected to 

 approach the cause of -the noise ; and endeavours to 

 show that the notion that any such fascinating power 

 is possessed by any animal, is entirely without foun- 

 dation. \Ve find, however, the following remarks 

 on this subject, in a very recent work of high reputa- 

 tion (Griffith's translation of Cuvier's Animal King- 

 dom, Reptilia) : " It has been almost universally 

 believed, tlrnt, by certain special emanations, by the 

 fear which they inspire, or even by a sort of magnetic 

 or magic power, the serpents can stupify and fascin- 

 ate the prey which they are desirous to obtain. 

 Pliny attributed this kind of asphyxia to a 

 nauseous vapour proceeding from these animals 

 an opinion which seems to receive confirma- 

 tion from the facility with which, by the assistance 

 of smell alone, the negroes and native Indians can 

 discover serpents in the savannahs of America." 

 The writer then mentions the opinions of Lacepede 

 and Kalm, and the fact that many travellers have 

 reported in favour of fascination. He then proceeds 

 thus : " But" this fact, which is so interesting in ani- 

 mal physiology, is not only far from being clearly 

 explained, but even far enough from being sufficiently 

 demonstrated. Notwithstanding the ingenious con- 

 jectures of Sir Hans Sloane on this subject ; the ob- 

 servations of Kalm, whose assertions were implicitly 

 received by Linnaeus; those of Lawson, Catesby, 

 Brickel, Colden, Beverly, Bancroft, and Bertram; 

 notwithstanding a work published, ex professo, on the 

 matter, by doctor Barton, of Philadelphia; and nok- 

 withstanding some recent accounts, by major Garden, 

 of the stupifying power of serpents, which he attri- 

 butes both to the terror which they inspire and to 

 certain narcotic emanations from their bodies at 

 particular times. it must be confessed that this 

 subject is still liable to controversy, and still involved 

 in a considerable degree of obscurity. On the other 

 hand, as the look of the dog stops the progress of the 

 partridge, so we might imagine that the presence of 

 man has a considerable influence over the faculties 

 of some very justly dreaded serpents, and obliges 

 them to obedience by, as it were, a certain kind of 

 fascination. From the most ancient times, certain 

 hordes of Arabia, such as the Psylli and the Marsi, 

 were acquainted with some art of charming and 

 taming those reptiles. Kaempfer, and many other 

 travellers, have left us accounts of the dance which 

 the Indians make the naia perform. We also know, 

 beyond any doubt, that the Egyptian jugglers cause 

 the asp of the ancients, the haje of the modern Arabs, 

 to play a variety of tricks at the word of command, 

 and that they seem to imitate the magicians of 

 Pharaoh, who pretended to turn their rods into ser- 

 pents. It is also a remarkable fact, that music has a 

 very considerable influence on these animals, to 

 wliich we cannot otherwise attribute any large por- 

 tion of sensibility." 



FASCINES ; bundles of boughs, twigs, &c., six- 

 teen feet in length, and usually one foot in diameter. 

 They are made on trestles, or any kind of support 

 placed about two feet asunder. The twigs are placed 

 on this machine, drawn tightly together by a cord ; 

 the bands are then passed round them at the distance 

 of two feet from each other. The twigs wliich 

 exceed a given length are cut off or bent back, and 

 the ends are bound into the bundle. Fascines are 

 used in sieges, hydraulic constructions, &c. Very 

 long, thin ones are used in constructing batteries, 

 whence they are called saucissions, or battery- 

 sausages. 



FASHIONABLE; one of those words which are 

 peculiar to a particular nation. Fashionable is as 



much an English word, springing from the English 

 liaracter, as comfortable. Other nations have words 

 to designate conformity to the mode, the quickly 

 changing mode, but fashionable designates much more 

 than this. Fashionable conveys essentially something 

 aristocratic. It means the manner in which the 

 ligher classes act, walk, speak, think, dress, travel, 

 jat. Fashionable is applied to every thing, action, 

 and disposition, whilst the corresponding words, 

 with other nations, only designate dress, furniture, 

 and other external material things. The Knglishare 

 in aristocratic nation ; not only because they are 

 governed by a powerful aristocracy, but because the 

 whole nation has an aristocratic disposition. Every 

 ndividual, far from considering the aristocracy as ;i 

 mere party, is anxious to ally himself to it, or to 

 approach it as much as possible, and to procure a 

 permanent connexion with it, by making wealth 

 permanent in his race. This is the case in England 

 n a very different sense from that in which it is true in 

 other countries ; and it is not strange that the English 

 should have formed a word expressive of this dispo- 

 sition, and that this word should be adopted by other 

 nations to designate this peculiarity. Even the 

 French, the masters of la mode, who have dictated, 

 at least since the general peace of 1815, the mode to 

 England also, even they have no word to designate 

 what the English mean by fashionable, which, as we 

 have said before, extends not only to dress and exter- 

 nal ornament, but to manners, disposition, and gene- 

 ral habits. The French have therefore adopted this 

 word. Thus a weekly publication appears at Paris, 

 under the title La Mode, Revue Fashionable. 



FASHION PIECES; the aftmost or hindmost 

 timbers of a ship, which terminate the breadth, and 

 form the shape of the stern. They are united to tht 

 stern post, and to the extremity of the wing transom 

 by a rabbet, and a number of strong nails or spikes 

 driven from without. 



FASTI ; marble tables in Rome, on which were 

 inscribed either the succession of the annual games 

 and festivals, or the names of the consuls, dictators, 

 &c. The former, the lesser fasti (fasti minores), 

 were nothing more than calendars, indicating the 

 times of the festivals. These were at first known 

 only to the pontifices, who announced them to the 

 people, to promote political purposes of their own, 

 or of the patricians. B. C. 204, C. Flavius, who 

 had been secretary to the Pontifex Maximus Appius 

 Claudius, exposed them to the people. From this 

 time they were publicly known. 



FASTING ; the partial or total abstinence of man- 

 kind and animals from the ordinary requisite supply 

 of aliment, by which is to be understood that quan- 

 tity which is adapted to preserve them in a healthy 

 and vigorous condition. The principal instances of 

 fasting, on record, are those which have arisen from 

 shipwreck and similar accidents, from peculiar men- 

 tal affections, or from the body being in a morbid 

 state, or from the two latter combined. In a 

 melancholy and well-authenticated instance of ship- 

 wreck, wliich occurred in the year 1795, seventy-two 

 individuals \vere compelled to take shelter in the 

 shrouds of the vessel, while the hull was covered by 

 the sea, where ail survived, during five days, without 

 a morsel of food ; but it appears that they were 

 enabled to catch a few drops of rain as it fell, and 

 some of them were drenched with the spray. A term 

 of abstinence still longer is equally authenticated in 

 the case of Thomas Travers, who, on Saturday, the 

 fourth of December, 1784, entered a coal-pit 270 feet 

 deep, the sides of which immediately fell in. The 

 quantity of earth was so great, that six days were 

 occupied in removing it ; and no one could at first ven- 

 ture to penetrate the pit, on account of the foul all 



