182 



* KNOVV^LEDGE * 



[Sei'T. 21, 1883. 



■with 36 in., •which I shall have geared up to 50 in., should 

 be large enough for me, and I shall ride nothing larger than 

 this after this season. 



If my friendly antagonist, instead of trying to prove I 

 am wrong — on paper (a hopeless task, though he is so able 

 a writer that he is sure to make out an apparently good 

 case), will use the influence he has to get the manufacturers 

 to make him an Imperial Club, with 40-inch wheels 

 geared to GO inches to weigh under 45 lb. or 40 lb., if 

 possible, and will try the machine, I am certain he will go 

 no further with his arguments against small wheels. 



In the .50 miles Road Ride, which took place last 

 Saturday, ]\Ir. Marriott for the first time used a tricycle 

 which had wheels only 40 inches in diameter. These were 

 geared up to •'iG inches, that is, ran as if they were wheels 

 56 inches in diameter. The machine weighed only a trifle 

 over 46 lb. 



Mr. Marriott covered the distance in less time than it has 

 been done on any jrrevious occasion, though the road was 

 hilly and muddy, and the wind very strong ayaiiist him 

 on returning. 



In this ride !Mr. Marriott really covered 54 miles in 

 4 hours 7 minutes, and was unavoidably detained ten 

 minutes, so that the 54 miles were actually ridden in 

 3 hours 57 minutes on these small wheels. 



The future of the tricycle now lies with small-wheel 

 machines. Unfortunately, this is a matter easily mis- 

 understood by those who have not practically experimented 

 on the subject. 



Herbert Spencer begins a wonderful series of delusive 

 illustrations thus : — " It stands to reason that salmon will 

 be cheaper in Aberdeen than in London " — which is the 

 reverse of the fact. 



Similarly, I would say : — It stands to reason that a 

 large-wheeled tricycle will pass over an obstacle easier than 

 a small one. To make this proposition true, it is necessary 

 to add — other things being equal. 



But other things are not equal in our case, as by using 

 small wheels we get a much smaller and lighter machine, 

 and one that wDl pass more easily over obstructions than 

 a hea%-ier machine on larger wheels. 



" Sigma " altogether ignores the support my views have 

 received from the following authorities : — 



Mr. Marriott, one of the first manufacturers and the 

 finest rider of the day, whose letter I have forwarded to 

 the Editor. 



Messrs. Nixon and A. Salmon, the two best riders of 

 the London Tricycle Club, and Mr. Percy Letchfour, one 

 of the fastest riders of the Finchley Tricycle Club, all 

 racing men. Also Messrs. Salmon, Howard, and Grace. 



If, instead of instancing an aged clergyman, with but 

 slender experience, he can quote the names of some well- 

 known riders, who, having tried the new small-wheeled 

 machines, have gone back to large wheels, then he will 

 have gone some way towards proving that I may be wrong. 



On one point I can excuse " Sigma " for misunderstand- 

 ing me ; that is, where I intimated that I pretty well agreed 

 with the rough estimate that about one mile in each ten of 

 road will be found unrideable. I did not wish to occupy 

 space by explaining that, by unrideable I did not mean 

 that they cannot actually be ridden, but that it does not 

 pay to ride them. 



A hill which is just rideable will require the expenditure 

 of more than four times the power to ride it than it will 

 to walk it. 



Why do engineers make tunnels for locomotives to run 

 as nearly on a level as possible 1 Simply because it is a 

 great disadvantage to have to mount steep inclines on 

 wheels. 



THE BIRTH AND GROWTH OF MYTH. 



By Edwaud Clodd. 

 XVI. 



As we have seen, the totem is the clan-name indicating 

 descent from a common ancestor. It is also the clan- 

 symbol, badge, or crest. Where the tribes among whom it 

 is found are still in the picture-writing stage, i.e., when the 

 idea is expressed by a portrait of the thing itself instead of 

 by some sound-sign — a stage in writing corresponding to the 

 primitive stage in language, when words were imitative — 

 there we find the rude hieroglyphic of the totem a means of 

 intercourse between difl'erent tribes, as well as with whites. 

 A striking example of this is given in the sketch (Fig. 1), 

 which is a copy of a petition sent by some Western Indian 

 tribes to the United States Congress for the right to fish 

 in certain small lakes near Lake Superior. 



The bird represents the leading clan, the crane ; then 

 follow three martens, as totems of three tribes ; then the 

 bear, the man-fish, and the ca(>fish, also totems. From 

 the eye and heart of each of the animals runs a line con- 

 necting them with tlie eye and heart of the crane, to show 

 that they are all of one mind, and the eye of the crane has 

 also a line connecting it with the lakes on which the 

 tribes have their eyes, and another line running towards 

 Congress. 



In the barbaric custom of painting or carving the totem 

 on oars, on the bows and sides of canoes, on weapons, on 

 pillars in the front of houses, and on the houses themselves ; 

 in tattooing it on various parts of the body (in the latter case, 

 in some instances, together with pictures of exploits; so that 

 the man carries on his person an illustrated history of his 

 own life) we have the remote and forgotten origin of heraldic 

 emblems. The symbols of civilised nations, as, e.g., the Im- 

 perial eagle, which so many states of ancient and modem 

 renown have chosen ; the crests of families of rank, with 

 their fabulous monsters, as the cherub, the Greek gryi^s, 

 surviving in the griffin, the dragon, the unicorn, which, 

 born of rude fancy or terrified imagination, are now carved 

 on the entrance-gates to the houses of the great ; the 

 armorial bearings on carriages ; the crest engraven on ring 

 or embossed on writing-paper, these are the lineal de- 

 scendants of the totem ; and the Indians, who could see no 

 difterence between their system of manitous and those of 

 the white people, with their spread-eagle or their lion-ram- 

 pant, made a shrewd guess that would not occur to many 

 a parvenu applying at the Heralds' College for a crest. The 

 continuity is traceable in the custom of the Mexicans and 

 other civilised nations of painting the totemic animals on 

 their banners, flags, crests, and other insignia ; and it 

 would seem that we have in the totem the key to the 

 mystery of those huge animal-shaped mounds which 

 abound on the North American continent. 



The arlntrary selection in the " ages of chivalry " of such 

 arms as pleased the knightly fancy, or ministered to its 

 pride, or, as was often the case, resembled the name in 

 sound, togetlier with the ignorance then and till recently 

 existing as to the origin of crests, and also the discredit 

 into which a seemingly meaningless vanity had fallen, have 

 made it diflioult to trace the survival of the totem in the 

 crests even of that numerous company of the Upper Ten 

 who claim descent from warriors who came over with the 

 Conqueror. But there is no doubt that an inquiry con- 

 ducted on the lines suggested above, and not led into by- 

 paths by false analogies, would yield matter of interest and 

 value. It would add to the e%'idence of that common semi- 

 civilised stage out of which we have risen. Such names as 

 the Horsings, the Wylfings, the Derings, the Ravens, the 



