March 



1883.] 



KNOWI^EDGE 



129 



and be gradually heated. The " big-endians " and the 

 " little endians " of Lilliput were not more definitely 

 divided than are certain cookery authorities on this (jvies- 

 tiou in reference to tish. I refer to the two which are 

 practically consulted in my own household, that by Mrs. 

 Beeton, and some sheet tablets hanging in the kitchen. 

 Mrs. Beeton says pour cold water on the tish, the tablets 

 say immerse in hot water. 



Confining our attention at present to the albumen, what 

 must happen if the tish or tlesh is put in cold water, which 

 is gradually heated ) Obviously a loss of albumen by 

 exudation and diti'usion through the water, especially in 

 the case of sliced tish or uf moat exposing much surface of 

 fibres cut across. It is also evident that such loss of 

 albumen will be shown by its coagulation when the water 

 is sufficiently heated. 



Practical readers will at once recognise in the " scum " 

 which rises to the surface of the boiling water, and in the 

 milkiness that is more or less diffused throughout it, the 

 evidence of such loss of albumen. This loss indicates the 

 desirability of plunging the tish or tiesh at once into 

 water hot enough to immediately coagulate the superticial 

 albumen, and thereby plug the pores through which the 

 inner albuminous juice otherwise exudes. 



But this is not all. There are other juices Viesides the 

 albumen, and these are the most important of tho jlavour- 

 ing constituents, and, vitli the otlier coiistilueuts of animal 

 food, have great nutritive value ; so much so, that animal 

 food is quite tasteless and almost worthless without them. 

 I have laid especial emphasis on the above, qualification, 

 lest tlie reader should be led into an error originated by the 

 bone-soup committee of the French Academy, and propa- 

 gated widely by Liebig — that of regarding these juices as 

 a concentrated nutriment when taken alone. 



They constitute collectively the exlractum carnis, which, 

 with the addition of more or less of gelatine (the less the 

 better), is commonly sold as Liebig's " Extract of Meat.' 

 It is prepared by simply mincing lean meat, exposing it to 

 the action of cold water, and then evaporating down the 

 solution of extract thus obtained. 



I shall return to this on reaching the subjects of clear 

 sonps and beef-tea, at present merely adding, as evidence 

 of the importance of retaining these juices in cooked 

 meat, that the extracts of beef, mutton, and pork may be 

 distinguished by their specific Uavours. Some Extract of 

 Kangaroo, sent to me many years ago from Australia by 

 the Rauiomie C!ompany, made a soup that was curiously 

 different in flavour from the other extract similarly pre- 

 pared by the same company. Epicures pronounced it very 

 choice and " gamey." When these juices are removed 

 from the meat, mutton, beef, pork, ic, the remaining solids 

 are all alike, so far as the palate alone can distinguish. 



Let us now apply these principles practically to the case 

 of a leg of mutton. First, in order to seal the pores, the 

 meat should be put into boiling water ; the water should 

 be kept boiling for five or ten minutes. A coating of 

 firmly-coagulated albumen will thus envelope the joint. 

 Now, instead of Ijoiling or "simmering" the water, set the 

 saucepan aside, where the water will retain a temperature 

 of about 180°, or 32° below the lioiling-point. Continue 

 this about half as long again, or double the usual time 

 given in the cookery-books for boiling a leg of mutton, and 

 try the effect. It will be analogous to that of the egg 

 cooked on the same principles, and appreciated accordingly. 



The usual addition of salt to the water is very desirable. 

 It has a three-fold action : first, it directly acts on the 

 superficial albumen with coagulating effect ; second, it 

 slightly raises the boiling point of the water ; and third, 

 by increasing the density of the water, the " exosmosis " or 



oozing out of the juices is less active. These actions are 

 slight, but all cooperate in keeping in the juices. 



i should add that a leg of mutton for boiling should 1 1- 

 fresh, and not "hung" as for roasting. The reasons for 

 this hereafter. Fish " to follow " in my next 



THE BIRTH AND GROWTH OF MYTH. 



IV. 

 Bv Edward Clodd. 



MANIFOLD are the phases of Mature ; manifold is 

 the life of man ; and we must not lend a too will- 

 ing ear to theories which refer the crude explanations of 

 an unscientific age, when the whole universe is Wonder- 

 land, to one source. Care ah /tomiw titiiim liiii, says the 

 adage, and we may apply it, not only to the man of one 

 book, but also to the man of one idea, in whom the sense 

 of proportion is lacking, and who si'cs only that for 

 which he looks. Here such caution is introduced as need- 

 ful of exerci.se towards the coiiiparativc mythologists who, 

 not content with showing — as abundant evidence war- 

 rants — that myth has its germs in the in\cstment of the 

 powers of nature with personal life and consciousness, 

 contend that the great epics of our own and kindred races 

 are, from their broadest features to minute detail, but 

 nature-myths obscured and transformed. 



Certain scholars, notably Sir G. W. Cox and Professor 

 de Gubernatis, as interpreters of the myths of the Indo- 

 European peoples, and Dr. Goldziher, as an interpreter of 

 Hebrew myth and cognate forms, maintain that the names 

 given in the mythopu'ic age to the sun, the moon, and the 

 changing scenery of the heaven as the myriad shades and 

 Heeling forms passed over its face, lost their original signi- 

 fication wholly or partially, and came to be regarded as the 

 names of veritable deities and men, whose actions and 

 adventures are the disguised descriptions of the sweep of 

 the thunder-charged clouds and of the victory of the hero- 

 god over their light-engulfing forces. But it is better to 

 state the theory in the words of its exponents, and for that 

 purpose a couple of extracts from Sir George Cox's 

 " Mythology of the Aryan Nations " will suffice. 



" lu the spontaneous utterances of thoughts awakened by out- 

 ward phenomena, we liavo the source of myths which must be re- 

 garded as primary. But it is obvious that such myths would bo 

 produced only so long as the words employed were used in their 

 original meaning. If once the meaning of the word were either in 

 part or wholly forgotten, the creation of a new personality under 

 this name wonhl become inevitable, and the change would be ren- 

 dered both more certain and more rapid by the very wealth of 

 words which were lavished on the sights and objects which most 

 impressed their imagination. \ thousand phraaeswould be used to 

 describe the action of a beneficent or consuming sou, of tho gentle 

 or awful night, of tho playful or furious wind ; and every word or 

 phrase become the germ of a new story as soon as the mind lost its 

 hold on the original force of tho name. Thus, in the polyonymy " 

 (by which term Sir Geo. Cox means the giving of several names to 

 one object) " wliich was the result of the earliest form of human 

 thought we have the germ of the great epics of latter times, and of 

 the countless legends which make up tho rich stores of mythical 



tradition and the legends so framed constitute the class of 



secondary myths" (p. 42). 



" Henceforth the words which had denoted the snn and moon 

 would denote not merely living things but living persons. . . . Every 

 word would become an attribute, and all ideas, once grouped round 

 a single object, would bninch off into distinct personifications. The 

 sun had been the lord of light, the driver of the chariot of the day ; 

 he had toiled and laboured for the sons of men, and sunk down to 

 rest, after a hard battle, in the evening. But now the lord of light 

 would be Phoibos Apolldn, while Uelios would remain enthroned in 

 his fiery chariot, and his toils and hibours and death-stnifrgles wonhl 

 be transferred to Herakles. The violet clouds which greet his rising 

 and his setting would now be represented by herds of cows which 



