136 



KNOWLEDGE • 



[Mauch 2, 1883. 



'J^3*si7:^GS?52*:^SS^ 



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WAXEN IMAGES OF ENEMIES. 

 [736] — Mr. E. Clodd might, perhaps, like to know that the 

 making of waxen images to cause death (by piercing or melting) 

 to the person in whose likeness the image was made, was a form of 

 sorcery known to, and practised by, the ancient Egyptians. In Mr. 

 Le Page Renouf's introduction to his translation entitled " An 

 Abstract of a Case of Conspiracy," in Vol. viii. of " Records of the 

 Past," he will find particulars of a case of the kind,* temps. 

 Rameses III. I need not, of course, remind him of the Second Idyll 

 of Theocritus. Amelia B. Euw.^rhs. 



CHIBPING SPIDER. 

 [737] — Your correspondent asks if there is a "Chirping Spider" 

 in Britain. I have bi>cn an interested observer of the spider family 

 for some years, but never knew one with that accom))lishment ; 

 there is one, however, which makes a ticking sound like a gentle 

 tap — it is the " death-watch " of the superstitious. It is not very 

 commonly heard, but on one occasion I saw one in the very act. 

 It was done with the right fore-leg, and the wonder is how the 

 effect could be produced by such means. In this way the male 

 spider calls to the female, and it is evident that sometimes he has 

 to call long and loudly. Perhaps " D. M.'s" disturber was only a 

 cricket on the stump. S. H. W. 



STAYS. 

 [738] — No one has, in the course of the coutroversy upon the 

 above subject, noticed the very important point, how tight-lacing 

 affects a woman's vital capacity, and I am the more surprised at 

 this, as it is a matter which c;in easily be settled by means of the 

 spirometer. In my vocation as a voice trainer I pay special 

 attention to breathing, and I find that after the removal of close- 

 fitting stays women register an increase of from 25 to 50 per cent. 

 in their breathing. This speaks for itself, and requires no further 

 comment. Emil Beh.xke. 



ETYMOLOGY OF MISLETOE. 



[739] — The discussion on the right etymology of the word 

 " Misletoe" has greatly interested me, but I do not think that (so 

 far as the original meaning of the word is concerned) any of your 

 correspondents have arrived at the trnth. In your issue of Jan. 19, 

 you remark that one " Taranaki," in writing on this eubject, has 

 derived it from the Saxon word, mistil, sprawler; and you yourself 

 (from yonr remarks on the meaning of " mizzling rain ") seem to 

 favour this derivation. 



But I venture to assort (on the authority of the Rev. I. Bosworth, 

 D.D., F.R.S., F.S.A.B., Ph. of Leyden, &c.), that it is derived, not 

 from the word mi'.-d?, a sprawler, bnt rather from niistel, which 

 means a cloud or darkness. That such a gentle, inoffensive kind of 

 plant as our little misletoo should bo called the "twig of darkness" 



* Those particulars are in the fragmentary Lee and RoUin 

 papyri, which are not translated. 



seems at first sight incongruous ; bat on secondary consideration, it 

 becomes more easy of explanation. It will readily bo remembered 

 that it was by a twig of misletoe that Baldnr, the Scandinavian 

 Sun-god, was slain ; for (as Frigga said to Soki, when he asked hur if 

 everything had sworn to do him no hurt) "it (tlio misletoe) was 

 considered too young to take an oath." Bnt Buldur fell, "and 

 the shadow of darkness covered the whole earth." 



G. Clavkring Mesnard. 



PLANCHETTE-WRITING. 



[740] — I hope I shall not be taking up too much of your valnable 

 time if I ask you to give me your opinion on the real working agency 

 in the " Planchette." Doubtless you have seen it, so that I need 

 not describe its action. Some time ago I began trying experiments 

 with it, having at the time the full conviction that, where no 

 trickery was involved, the writing was done by unconscious action 

 of the hands of the person who rested tliem on the machine ; but 

 this plausible solution, if correct, would entail new ideas of brain 

 action which would be very curious. I had the fortune to have a 

 lady friend for whom the Planchette wrote wonderfully well at all 

 times, so that I was able to try some curious experiments. On 

 placing her hand on the instrument (which I made myself by 

 drilUng a hole in the rim of a small plate and inserting a pencil) and 

 asking a question, the answer was written ■with wonderful celerity, 

 even faster than ordinary writing, and generally very legibly, though 

 in various handwritings, none in the least resembling in formation 

 of letters (which I consider a curious point) that of the operator 

 herself. The lady herself did not know what had been written till 

 she had read it. On more than one occasion the information con- 

 veyed was known only to myself or to some other person in the 

 room, and therefore, on the hypothesis of involuntary action, could 

 only be explained by a sort of Thought Reading. 



But the experiment I would particularly call your attention to is 

 this. I had several times mesmerised the lady in question, and as 

 usual in such cases, when asleep she could answer any questions 

 proposed, but had no knowledge on awakening of what had hap- 

 pened in the trance. (By the waj-, I found that, if she had lost or 

 mislaid things in her waking state she could generally say where 

 they were when asleep.) 1 thought of the experiment, therefore, of 

 causing her to place her hands on the plate when asleep. On 

 asking a question, an answer was written as usual, and, before 

 reading it myself, I then asked her what had been written, with 

 the full expectation that she would be able to say. She could not, 

 however ! Now this would seem to prove that the words written 

 were not evolved either from the brain in its normal state, or from 

 its peculiar condition in the mesmeric sleep. We must therefore 

 cither allow a third state not yet investigated, or come at length to 

 the idea of external supernatural agency, which I am most un- 

 willing to admit. As I have a great respect for your opinion as a 

 candid, unprejudiced scientific man, I take the liberty of asking you 

 what you think of the above experiments, which are, so far as I 

 know, quite original. 



A strange point I have observed about the writing of Planchette 

 is, tliat its character is generally totally opposed to that of the 

 operator. Thus I have seen the most terrible oaths written under 

 the hands of people who would abno.-it die sooner than use such 

 language themselves. 



Every new fact should be scientifically investigated in my opinion, 

 and the founding of a false theory on real facts should not prevent, 

 the facts themselves being allowed and studied. I believe some 

 yet unknown truth lies under the nonsense of spiritualism — if it 

 really be nonsense, and on that point 1 have not yet seen sufficient 

 evidence to decide, and would require very strong to convince me. 

 Still, here is my fact. I have seen a plate write, in a strange hand- 

 writing (and to write rapidly in a strauge handwriting is, I think 

 you will allow, almost an impossible feat) words unknown to the 

 person whose hands rested on it. (It is, I believe, impossible for a 

 person to tell a deliberate falsehood when mesmerically asleep, if 

 such proof of my friend's veracity were needed.) As to the matter 

 written I shall say nothing, as perhaps it is not to the point, though 

 interesting to me in the extreme. Now, if you are content to 

 accept the fact on my evidence, how do you explain it ? 



T.P.B., Lieut. R.A., F.R.A.S. 



[Where can one get a Planchette ? I know nothing of the weight, 

 structure, friotional resistances, <ic., of the thing. — R. P.] 



TlIK BO TREE AND THE GOD OF KNOWLEDGE. 



[711J — In January, 1880, I took a triji to Central India, and 

 while there amused myself by visiting Buddhist tombs and temples, 

 and in nearly all I found the Bo or liodhi Tree represented in 

 sculpture as an object of adoration and reverence. On the Sanchi 



