THE BLOOD AND ITS CIRCULATION 343 



country a few hundred years ago, when some one's nose 

 bleeds, a Latin hymn to the blood (beautiful in its con- 

 ception) begging it to stay its flow, as it did when the 

 soldier's spear pierced the side of the crucified Christ, is 

 sung. In a village in the hills near Naples I was taken 

 with an attack of nose-bleeding, and bathed my head 

 with cold water from a pretty fountain which supplied 

 the people with its pure stream. The women brought 

 handsome old brass basins and embroidered cloths of 

 the most delicate linen for my use. I heard a strange 

 chanting behind my back as I stooped over the water, 

 and when the bleeding had ceased I found that an old 

 man of the village had placed two straws in the form 

 of the cross on my shoulders, and was reciting the ancient 

 Latin hymn to my overflowing blood ! I obtained after- 

 wards from a friend the words of the same hymn as used 

 in long-ago days in English villages. 



One primitive race if not others, namely, the Austra- 

 lians, take a very prosaic and business-like view of the 

 blood. They use it as an adhesive a sort of liquid 

 paste or gum, always ready to hand ! In order to 

 fasten feathers or other decoration to a pole, the 

 Australian " black fellow," without wincing or hesita- 

 tion, and as a matter of course, makes a cut (with 

 a sharp piece of stone or glass) in his own arm, and 

 uses the convenient blood. It also serves them as paint, 

 as it has served many a chieftain of European race for 

 signing his name, and many a prisoner for writing in 

 the absence of ink. 



There is for some people a fascination in the sight of 

 blood which must not be mistaken for cruelty, although 

 it is accompanied by dangerous and undesirable emotion. 

 Just as other emotion-producing experiences such as 



