FRIGGA 



2340 



FROEBEL 



has been called the swiftest bird that sweeps 

 the seas. Man-of-war bird is the older name 

 for the Fregata, but it is less distinguishing, 

 some of the large albatrosses being so called 



THE FRIGATE BIRD 



(see ALBATROSS). The frigate bird is a trop- 

 ical sea-bird of two species; the larger ranges 

 all round the world within the tropics; the 

 smaller is found only near the Eastern seas 

 from Madagascar to Moluccas and southward 

 to Australia. Both species breed in large col- 

 onies, and build their nests on rocks, high 

 cliffs or lofty trees on uninhabited islands. 

 The upper plumage is dark brown, with a 

 metallic gloss; the females have pink feet; 

 the males, black. The male acquires under 

 its bill a bright scarlet pouch which is capa- 

 ble of inflation. 



FRIGGA, jrig'gah, or FRIGG, a goddess in 

 Norse mythology, the wife of the god Odin, 

 who represented the spirit of life and per- 

 meated the whole universe. In some re- 

 spects Frigga corresponds to Juno, in classical 

 mythology. She was also known to other 

 Teutonic peoples, both on the Continent and 

 in England, where her name still survives in 

 the word Friday. Very often she is wrongly 

 identified with Freyja, who might be com- 

 pared more fitly with Venus. Frigga typifies 

 a mother's, love; Freyja, the love of youth. 

 Frigga knows the fate of all men, but she 

 neither says nor prophesies anything about it 

 herself. See ODIN; FREYJA. 



FRINGE TREE, a slender, narrow-topped 

 tree, twenty to thirty feet high, which blos- 

 soms in May and June and produces deli- 

 cately fragrant, fringelike flowers of dainty 

 beauty. It is found from Southern Pennsyl- 



vania to Florida and west to Arkansas and 

 Texas. In Southern Europe it is highly prized 

 as a beautiful exotic (not native) specimen 

 from America. A species found in China has 

 flowers with shorter, broader petals, but in 

 grace and beauty it cannot compare with the 

 American variety. 



FRO'BISHER, SIR MARTIN (1535-1594), the 

 first English navigator to search for a north- 

 west passage to India. He was a friend and 

 companion of Drake and Hawkins, and one 

 of the greatest seamen of the days of Queen 

 Elizabeth. Frobisher made three unsuccessful 

 attempts to reach India by sailing westward, 

 but proceeded little farther than the south of 

 Greenland. He later conducted many expe- 

 ditions against Spain, and was knighted for his 

 services against the great Armada in 1588 (see 

 ARMADA). After raiding many towns on the 

 Spanish coast, he died from the effects of a 

 wound received while attacking Brest. 



.FROEBEL jreb'el, FRIEDRICH WILHELM 

 AUGUST (1782-1852), a German educator and 

 child-lover, the founder of the kindergarten 

 (which see). In Thuringia, where he was born, 

 the name Froebel is to be seen carved in huge 

 letters in the cliffs 

 of a mountain 

 pass; and just 

 as deeply is his 

 name engraved 

 on much that is 

 best in modern 

 education. This 

 man who did so 

 much to make 

 other children 

 happy had him- 

 self a childhood FRIEDRICH FROEBEL 

 that was far from happy. Not long after he 

 was born, on April 21, 1782, at Oberweissbach 

 in Thuringia, his mother died, and his father, 

 a Lutheran pastor, neglected him sadly. The 

 stepmother who came to preside over the home 

 when the child was four years of age proved 

 the typical stepmother of the fairy tales, and 

 her harshness caused the quiet, dreamy child 

 to withdraw more and more into himself. In 

 after years it was probably the memory of 

 what he wished for in those early days that 

 gave him so true an understanding of the 

 child heart. 



When he was ten he went to live with an 

 uncle and in his school life was fairly happy, 

 though the teachers never understood him and 

 considered him little better than a dunce. 



