The diamond stone

   Diamond, pure carbon, Symbol C. Brilliant, nonmetallic luster. Colorless or various colors. Transparent to opaque. Hardness 10. Specific gravity 3.52.

   Diamond is one of three pure forms of carbon, the other two being graphite and carbon black. While graphite and carbon black are very soft, the unique arrangement of the carbon atoms in the diamond makes it extremely hard and dense.
   The great beauty and scarcity of transparent diamonds make them highly valued as gems. The diamond is the birthstone for the month of April, and it is by far the most popular gem for engagement and wedding rings. The diamond is also an ideal industrial tool because it is the hardest natural substance known.
   The unit of weight for gems and industrial diamonds is the metric carat. One metric carat is equal to 0.2 grams or to 0.007 ounces.
   Men have long been fascinated by unusually large and beautiful diamonds. One of the earliest known large stones was the Great Mogul, a famous Indian diamond of about 280 carats. It has been lost since 1665 and may have been cut into smaller diamonds.

Explorers

   The earth isn't really any larger now than it was thousands of years ago. But the part that people know about has grown bigger. Now the floor of the deep sea is the only large part of the earth that no one has ever visited. Explorers have gone almost everywhere else.
   Explorers have set out on their travels for many different reasons. Some were just curious. Some hoped to discover better ways of reaching such places as the Spice Islands and India.
   Some explorers were missionaries. Some wanted to help build big empires. Some were scientists who wanted to make new discoveries. Some hoped to find great riches. Some just loved adventure.
   Exploring unknown parts of the world is never easy. Explorers suffer great hardships. Many have died before they could get back to tell what they had found.
   It is not always easy to be sure of what an explorer actually found out. Many early explorers mixed stories they made up with true stories. But some of the strangest stories the early explorers told were true.
The chart on the next page gives the names of some of the most famous explor­ers. It tells, too, a little about what they did.

Bow and Arrow

   The bow and arrow was man's greatest invention, after the spear, for hunting and self-protection. A man with a spear had to get very close to his enemy. He could shoot from a safe distance with the bow and arrow. He had more arrows to try again if he missed the first time. Man has used the bow and arrow for more than 10,000 years. The first bow was wood, pulled into a curve by a bow string.
   Arrows were reeds, with tips of stone and later iron or bronze. Ar­rows have feathers on the back end to make them fly straight and a notch to fit on the bow string. The arrow and the bow string were pulled back and released suddenly. The bow straightened out and shot the arrow through the air.
   Crossbows were built in Europe about 800 years ago. The bow had a rifle-like stock and was held sideways. It was so strong that sometimes it took two men to hook the string and arrow to the trigger. The arrow was fired by pulling the trig­ger.
   The fifteenth-century English longbow was best. It was made of wood. A good archer could shoot it accurately for 400 yards (364 meters).
   After about 1500, guns became more useful than bows and arrows for hunting and war.
Today the bow and arrow is used for sport—chiefly hunting and target shooting (archery).

Giuseppe Garibaldi, founder of modern ltaly

   Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882), was an Italian patriot prominent in the liberation and unification of Italy.
   The son of a fisherman of Nice, Garibaldi ran away from home and joined the Young Italy movement. This organization, under the leadership of Giuseppe Mazzini, aimed at the creation of an Italian state with a republican form of government. Garibaldi was implicated in a revolt staged by the patriots in Genoa, but he escaped to South America with a girl he later married. In exile he gathered around him a number of Italian refugees and formed the Italian Legion, or Red Shirts. In 1848, the year revolution swept Europe, Garibaldi returned to Italy to fight the Austrians. His men were defeated, however, and once again he had to escape, this time to Switzerland. Soon after, he was in Rome with Mazzini, who tried to set up a republic there. But the Italian patriots were driven out by a French army, This time Gari­baldi fled to New York. But his adventurous and patriotic spirit remained unbroken.
   In 1859 when France and Sardinia defeated the Austrians and unified most of Italy, Garibaldi was there to help. He set out with an army of only 1,000 men and conquered Sicily and the Kingdom of Naples.
Crowned with fame, Garibaldi retired to his farm and devoted the rest of his life to writing and helping patriots in other parts of Europe. He was elected a member of the Italian Parliament when he was 70 years old. Five years later he died.

How does a solar and lunar eclipse form?

   The Moon does not give off any light of its own. It would not shine if the Sun did not shine on it. Quite often— sometimes as often as three times in one year—the Moon travels into the Earth's shadow. With the Earth shutting off the sunlight, the Moon stops shining brightly. We say, when this happens, that there is a total eclipse of the Moon.

   Sometimes the Moon travels across just one edge of the Earth's shadow. Then only a part of the Moon is darkened. We say that there is a partial eclipse.

   Even during a total eclipse the Moon does not completely disappear. The air around the Earth bends some of the Sun's rays so they strike the Moon. Instead of disappearing, the Moon looks dull red.

There cannot be an eclipse of the Moon unless the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun—when the Moon is full. The Moon cannot get into the Earth's shadow at any other time.

Harriet Ware

   Harriet Ware was an American composer. She studied piano under William Mason and pursued further studies in piano, voice, harmony and composition in Paris and Ber­lín. She is one of the foremost women composers of the present day. Her compositions include numerous songs: The Cross (1909), Wind and Lyre (1912), and In an Old Garden (1921), and longer compositions: the cantata, Sir Oluf (1911), the one-act opera, Undine (1913), the chorus, Trees (1924), the ballet, White Moth (1925), and the choral symphonic poem, The Artisan (1929). She became the president of Harriet Ware, Publishers, Inc., in 1926.

What is Retrocognition?

   A vivid, realistic image, or vision, of past events, sometimes perceived by more than one of the senses, retrocognition is one of the rarer manifestations of ESR It differs from dejà vu in two ways: first, the scene is new to the percipient, and second, there is rarely any sense of person­al connection with what is seen. In fact, most reports suggest that the percipient has in some way, almost invariably unexpectedly, been treated to a sudden glimpse back through time. The expe­rience of Coleen Buterbaugh is a good modern example of retrocognition. An errand led Buterbaugh to a room on the campus of Nebraska Wesleyan University in which everything seemed "quite normal" at first. Then "about four steps into the room . . . the odor hit me. . . . I felt . . . someone in the room with me. ... I looked up, and there she was. She had her back to me, . . . She wasn't at all aware of my presence. . . . She was not transparent and yet I knew she wasn't real. . . . [But it was] when I looked out the window behind the desk, that I got frightened. . . . there wasn't one modern thing out there. . . . That was when I realized that these people were not in my time, but that I was back in their time."

Green turtle

GREEN TURTLE, a large turtle found in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. The green turtle, Chelonia mydas, may weigh as much as 500 pounds but the usual weight of market specimens is from 50 to 175 pounds. Its upper shell is a pale olive color with marbleized yellow markings; the popular name is derived from the green color of the fat. Since the under shell of this reptile is pliable, it must be turned on its back when removed from the ocean for the great weight of the turtle causes the under shell to press against the lungs, resulting in a quick death. Green turtles are highly prized for soup.

Game

What is GAME?. A variety of meanings are attached to this word, but generally it means "a competition." Games range from those played by children to athletic sports having explicit rules. Physical skill is not a necessary requirement of all games. In such games as cards and chess and in board games such as monopoly this characteristic is absent. In nearly all games there is a large element of skill.
   Most adult games are played with apparatus, the commonest being a ball or its variant, such as the puck in ice hockey or the shuttlecock in badminton. Sports without a ball, such as boxing, wrestling, skiing, or running, are not thought of as games but as matches or meets. This is not true, however, in such children's games as hide-and-go-seek and tag. The word game may also be applied to the division or subdivision of a contest, the contest itself being gen­erally called a match.

Gypsy people

A Spanish gypsy girl

   A nomadic people, Gypsies are believed to have left India by way of Persia and Egypt (hence the name Gypsy) sometime before the end of the first millennium A.D. Traveling in large bands into northern Europe and the British Isles, across Africa and into Spain, the Gypsies eventually established themselves throughout the Western world, including the United States. South America and Australia. Although some have been assimilated, the majority remain a people apart, speaking a separate language, Romany, and living Gypsy lives whether in the middle of New York or on the edge of a Hungarian village. As the perennial and osten­tatious "other" wherever they happen to be, Gypsies have been persecuted throughout history: in the Middle Ages they were accused of witchcraft; in World War II an estimated 500,000 European Gypsies were murdered by the Nazis. Despite lesser harassment today, some 5 million Gypsies are thought to live in various parts of the world.

Mummies

   The ancient Egyptians believed that a person's body should be kept from decaying after death. The body must be kept as it was so that the soul which had left it could come back to the tomb and find refuge in the body.
   To keep a dead body from decaying, the Egyptians used chemicals which dried it. They dried it very much as we now dry fish or beef. Then they wrapped it in layer after layer of linen. Several hundred yards of linen were needed. The layers of linen were held together with coatings of resin. A body that has been treated in this way is called a mummy.
   Mummifying a body took about 70 days. During that time woodworkers were busy making coffins, for the mummy of an important person had more than one. The coffins fitted one inside another. The innermost coffins were often beautifully painted, as the picture on the next page shows.
   Many museums now have Egyptian mummies. These mummies look very much as they must have looked centuries ago. The Egyptians' way of keeping a body from decaying was certainly a good one.
   Not all Egyptian mummies were mum­mies of human beings. There are mummies of almost every kind of animal known in Egypt. Among them are cat, gazelle, bull, and crocodile mummies.
   Not all mummies are Egyptian. In Peru in ancient times bodies were mummified, too. But to most people the word "mummy" means an Egyptian mummy.

Where is the tallest tree?

   The coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) once flourished from southern Oregon to central California, in protected stream valleys where heavy winter rains and dense summer fog provide plentiful moisture. Many mature redwoods—400 to 2,000 years old—grow higher than 300 feet.
   Redwood is a favorite for logging. In 1850 there were 2 million acres of old-growth redwood forest. Only 120,000 acres remain, 45 percent of that protected in Redwood National Park and three California state parks. Within Redwood National Park, the top of the tallest tree in the world (367.8 feet) wilted and died, then in 1989 broke off during a storm. At Montgomery Woods State Reserve, a coast redwood 367.5 feet high is considered the tallest tree in the world. Survival of redwood groves outside the park system is the source of an ongoing debate between the redwood industry and conservationists.

William Cullen Bryant

   The American poet and editor William Cullen Bryant was born on November 3, 1794, in Cummington, Massachusetts. His father was a doctor, who encouraged his son Cullen to write. When the boy was only 13, he published a long satirical poem, "The Em­bargo." He wrote his most famous poem, "Thanatopsis," a meditation on death, while he was a student at Williams College.
   Bryant had to leave college because he lacked funds to support himself. He was apprenticed to a lawyer and passed his bar examination before he was 20. After moving to Great Barrington, Massachusetts, he pursued a successful law career. In 1821 he married Frances Fairchild. He celebrated their ro­mance in "Oh Fairest of the Rural Maids."
   Bryant wrote sensitive descriptions of nature and the American landscape in such poems as "To a Waterfowl," "The Yellow Violet," and "Green River." Collections of his poems issued in 1821 and 1832 established Bryant as the leading American poet of his time.
   In 1825, Bryant moved to New York City to begin a new career in journalism. He rose to editor in chief on the New York Evening Post by 1829. He worked for the Post for over 50 years. On its editorial pages, Bryant supported such causes as abolition and the labor movement. He helped form the Republican Party and elect Abraham Lincoln.
   Bryant also continued to compose poems. In "The Flood of Years," he pondered life after death, and in "The Prairies," he described the vast American West. After his wife's death in 1865, Bryant began his popu­lar translation of the Iliad and of the Odyssey, published in 1870 and 1872. He lived an active life until his death on June 12,1878.

Fuchsia (plant)

   Fuchsia is a popular hose and garden plant prized for its colorful flowers of distinctive form. The funnel shapel flowers are red, pink, purple, white, or, more frequently, combinations of these colors. Hanging from the stems of the plant, they suggest pendant earrings and are often called lady's-eardrop. Most of the 80 species are native to tropical America, but a few are from New Zealand. Some are shrubby; others are vinelike. In warm climates they are grown outdoors as permanent plants. In cold climates they are grown in the garden or in a window box during the summer and as house plants in the winter. Fuchsias are propagated by cuttings.

What is a dialect?

Dialect, the speech characteristics of one group of people in contrast to those of another group using the same language. Dialects differ from one another in vocabulary and pronunciation and often in grammar. Since they retain the basic character­istics of the language, however, the various dialects in a language can nearly always be understood by a person who can speak any one of them. Within the past 75 years the scientific study of dialects has become a major branch of linguistics.

Infanticide in ancient times

   The life of a child was by no means sacred in the eyes of the ancients. Plato taught that a defective child should not be reared. In the various Greek republics it was considered an excusable act, if not a duty, to put an end to a maimed child. The Roman father decided whether the child should live or perish. The old Norse viking took the new born child on his arm. looked it over, and decided its fate. Until put a stop to by British occupancy, the women of India destroyed their infants, girls especially, with shocking freedom. Infan­ticide is still practised, it is said, in the South Sea Islands and among the natives of Australia. The Chinese are accused of the same crime. In modern countries the killing of a young child is regarded as murder and is punished as such. In modern cities foundling hospitals receive unwelcome children. That the temptation of infanticide may be lessened, babes may be secretly placed in a drawer in a hall to be taken out by an attendant on the other side of the partition.

Who was Gratian?

monk Gratian

Gratian was an Italian monk and founder of the science of canon law. He was probably a Camaldolite monk and was a teacher at the convent of St. Felix and Nabor in Bologna. About 1140 he compiled his scholarly work known as the Decretum Gratiani or Concordia Discordantium Canorum, a collection of the "Decretum," of canons, issued by the popes and councils up to that time. The work consists of three sections: the first is concerned with the sources and principies of ecclesiastical law and with religious persons; the second deals with canon law as it relates to property, marriage, and penance; the third is concerned with the use of liturgy and the sacraments. A revised version of the work forms a part of the Corpus Juris Canonici, a later and more complete compilation of canon law.

What is the Hollow Earth theory?

   According to the hollow-Earth theory, a race superior to our own lives somewhere beneath the surface of the Earth. Some proponents of this theory base their arguments on the existence of UFOs, which they say are not from outer space but from innermost space, and on some ambiguous comments made by Adm. Richard E. Byrd after he flew over the two poles.
   Though no one has ever located them, entrances to this fabulous world are said to exist at both poles.

The Hollow Earth

Fingerprints

   The skin on the ends of our fingers has ridges on it. These ridges show clearly through a magnifying glass. About 120 years ago an Englishman made an amazing discovery. He found out that no two people have exactly the same pattern of ridges on their fingertips. The Eng­lishman was Sir Francis Galton.
   The British government saw a way of putting this discovery to use. They began using fingerprints to track down criminals. A fingerprint is merely a record of the pattern of ridges on a person's finger. It is easy to make a fingerprint. All one has to do is to press his finger on an inked pad and then on paper. The English police started a file of the fingerprints of all the criminals they caught. Later, if finger­prints were found at the scene of a crime, the police could check with their finger­print files. In many cases they found that the crime was committed by someone whose fingerprints were on record.
   Now every police department has its fin­gerprint file. It is a big help in catching criminals. But fingerprints are useful in many other ways, too. Many hospitals fin­gerprint newborn babies. Then the babies cannot get mixed up. Soldiers are finger-printed. Their fingerprints help identify them if they are killed or badly wounded. Government workers are fingerprinted as a way of helping guard important secrets.

Where are the smallest wetlands areas?

   While current attention is focused on preserving the largest wetlands, millions of smaller areas have been lost to urban development. A conservative estimate is that 50 percent of wetlands have been lost worldwide. Aware that even the smallest wetlands can be used as feeding and resting habitat by numerous varieties of migratory birds, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands was formed in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971. An international treaty sets the framework for the conservation and intelligent use of wetlands and their resources. The organization has designated 1,148 wetlands sites—totaling 96.3 million hectares—of international importance. The three smallest designated sites are all about 1 hectare (2.47 acres) in size: Hosnie's Spring, Christmas Island, Australia; fie Alcatraz, Kamsar/Boke, Guinea; and Somerset Long Bay Pod, Bermuda, United Kingdom.

Boer War

   The Boers were European settlers of the land now called the Republic of South Africa. They fought for, and lost, some of their land in the Boer War, which was fought from 1899 to 1902.

   Dutch settlers first reached the southern tip of Africa in 1652. Protestant religious refugees called Huguenots arrived from France to join the Dutch in 1688. These and other settlers, called Boers (the Dutch word for "farmers"), claimed more and more farmland during the next 100 years. In 1835, they began to move north, where they established the areas called the Orange Free State, Transvaal, and Natal as the Boer republic.

Johannes Brahms

   Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Do you remember the words "Lullaby and goodnigth, with roses bedlight..." that might have been sung to you at bedtime when you were small? The words are from the lovely lullaby composed by Johannes Brahms. He wrote many kinds of music, including songs, dances, concertos, chamber music for small groups of violins, violas, and cellos, as well as symphonies for orchestra.
Brahms was born in Hamburg, Germany. His father, a musician, gave Johannes his first music lessons. The boy learned to play the piano so well that he gave his first public concert at age 14. He often played in restaurants to earn money for his family. He went on a concert tour of Germany at 20 as accompanist to a violinist. While on the tour, Brahms met the famous romantic composer, Robert Schumann, and his wife, Clara, a well-known pianist. The Schumanns realized Brahms' musi­cal genius, and quickly announced their new "discovery." Brahms and the Schumanns became lifelong friends. Many of the lullabies Brahms wrote were for the Schu­mann children. He never married.
   Brahms lived in Vienna, Austria, during the last 24 years of his life. He was a perfectionist and worked on his first symphony for ten years. He wrote four symphonies, and each of them is performed today. His German Requiem is one of the greatest choral works. Brahms is the third of the famous "three B's"—Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms.

Green frog

   The green frog is a frog three to five inches long, found in eastern North America, variable in color, but having in general the head and shoulders of brilliant green, shading to a dull olive. The green frog, Rana clamitans is distinguished from the bullfrog, which it otherwise resembles, by folds of skin along its sides. It hibernates in mud and moss, and molls three or four times a year. The eggs, laid during April, form jelly-like masses on twigs just beneath the water surface, and at first develop rapidly; the tadpole stage, however, may last for two years. The peculiar shrill cry of the young green frog gave rise to the old name, "screaming frog."

Oat (cereal)

   Oats are a cereal grain planted widely in the northern states. It may grow wild. The leaves are bluish-green on a stem up to five feet tall.
   Spring oats require wet, cool and even cloudy weather. Winter oats need to be grown in regions where the winters are not severe. They will do well in heavy, even poor, soils as long as they have plenty of water.
   Oats contain more protein, fat and minerals than other grains. However, it lacks gluten which is desirable in the flour necessary to make light bread. Man also uses oats as livestock feed, a nurse and hay crop, and straw bedding for livestock quarters.
   The flower is an inflorescence with some plants having as many as 60 hanging or upright spikelets. Threshing does not remove all of the pericarp or fruit wall which limits the quality of flour extracted from the starchy endosperm. The material left is called groat.

Oats

Nicolas Lupot

   Nicolas Lupot was the most famous of French violin makers: b. Stuttgart, 1758; d. Paris, 1824. He was one of the third generation of a family of well-known violin makers and has been called the "French Stradivarius".
   Lupot produced fine instruments quite early in his career, as those made by him at Orleans (Rué d'Illiers). He moved to Paris in 1794, setting up shop (1798-1803) at Rué de Grammont, next removing to Rué Croíx des Pelits Champs, at which place he produced the famous Italian copies. Lupot favored the Stradivarius form for his copies, but made some instruments on Guarnerius lines. His autograph was placed on many of his creations or copies. They are highly prized and priced by connoisseurs. Experts claim his weakest point to have been his varnish, which is usually thick, semi-opaque and lumpy.

Where is the longest hiking trail?

   The Appalachian Trail is the world's longest continuous footpath, running 2,167 miles from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine. The trail passes through fourteen states, two national parks, and eight national forests. Hikers are able to walk through the Unakas and the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina; the Blue Ridge Mountains from North Carolina to Pennsylvania; the Catskills in New York; and over the crests of the White and Green Mountains, and the Berkshires of New England. The highest point is at an elevation of 6,000 feet.
   Volunteers constructed the trail from 1922 until 1937 and continue to maintain it. In 1968 the trail became a part of the National Park System and is now called the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. At a pace of 14 miles per day, the entire hike takes 5 months.

What is Speaking in Tongues?

Speaking in tongues Primarily a form of religious expression characterized by an outpouring of nonsense syllables or foreign words unknown to the speaker, speaking in tongues is also a common psychic phenomenon. Glossolalia, as it is also called, has been known since the first days of Christianity: the Apostles of Christ gathered together on Pentecost are said to have burst forth in tongues when the Holy Ghost appeared to them and to have used the gift in their missionary work among non-Hebrew peoples. The phe­nomenon has had a cyclical popularity and respectability throughout history: outbreaks have included those at Lou-dun, in France, where a group of Ursuline nuns began speaking in several foreign languages (and were accused of being witches), and among dialect-speaking refugees from the Cévennes, who unaccountably spoke perfect French. The last 20 years have seen a revival of the practice among groups from virtually all the U.S. Christian denominations. Condemned early in the 1960s by church officials, speaking in tongues is now accepted as a legitimate religious phenomenon not only by fundamentalist sects but by the Roman Catholic and Episcopal churches. Glossolalia is less rarely manifested by non-religious persons, but it occurs occasionally among mediums, usually in the form called xenoglossy, or foreign tongues. Particularly adept at xeno­glossy was a young medium of the 19th century named Laura Edmonds, who allegedly conducted conversations in Greek, Spanish and Chippewa while in a trance. Psychologists diífer in their estimates of the healthiness of glossolalia: some see it as the manifestation of unresolved conflicts, while others regard it as a useful means of venting intense religious feelings.

Where is the highest point in the world?

   The height of a mountain is usually measured from sea level up. Using this basis, the world's highest peak is Mount Everest, 8,848 meters (29,028 feet) above sea level. Those attempting to scale the summit encounter avalanches, deep crevasses, ferocious winds, sudden storms, freezing tempera­tures, and oxygen deprivation. In 1953, Edmund Hillary, a New Zealand beekeeper, and Tenzing Norgan, a Tibetan Sherpa, were the first to reach the summit. Since then over 600 others have succeeded, and 160 have died trying. If the height of a mountain were measured from its base, even if the base was submerged in the ocean, the tallest mountain would be the volcano Mauna Loa on Hawaii Island: 33,796 feet from its base on the Pacific Ocean floor to its peak. By the traditional measurement standard, Mauna Loa's highest point is only 13,448 feet above sea level.

Origin of Bronze

bronze sword

   Sometime between 3500 and 3000 B.C., people discovered that mixing copper and tin would yield a new metallic substance, harder and tougher than either copper or tin. This new substance was bronze, and its discovery was an important event in human history.

   Before the discovery of bronze, most tools and weapons were made of stone, wood, or bone. Stone could be given a sharp edge, but it was hard to shape, and it broke easily. Bone and wood, being softer than stone, were easier to shape. But they also wore out more quickly.

What is a galvanometer?

   Galvanometer is an instrument for measuring an electric current or to show when a current has been reduced to a minimum. Most galvanometers depend upon the force produced when a current flows through a wire within a magnetic field. The d'Arsonval galvanometer is one of the best known. It consists of a permanent horseshoe magnet and a rectangular coil suspended in the strong magnetic field between the poles of the magnet. A current passing through the coil causes it to turn in the field.

Emily Dickinson, the reclused poet

Emiliy Dickinson (1830-1886)

   Emily Dickinson is often regarded as the finest woman poet in American literary history. Although she seldom left her home and saw few people, she recorded in her poetry "each ecstatic instant" of the life of her imagination. Her poems are short, often witty, and highly original in thought and technique. Their unconventional grammar and rhymes and their ability to capture subtleties and intensities of mood have greatly influenced modern poetry.

   The Dickinson family was dominated by the strong personality of Em­ily's father, who was a prominent lawyer, a Congressman, and the treasurer of Amherst College. Neither Emily nor her sister married. Both devoted themselves to caring for their father and, after his death, for their invalid mother. Emily had more than the usual for­mal education for a girl of her day, studying at Amherst Academy and, for a year, at South Hadley Female Seminary (now Mount Holyoke College).

Grebe (bird)

   Grebe is a common name for diving birds that belong to the family Podicipedidae. They are closely related to the loon. Grebes maneuver skillfully on water but are very clumsy on land. The legs are so located that the birds maintain an upright position when they sit. They often flop along on the belly, as seals do. The bill is cone-shaped, the head crested, the wings short, and no tail is visible. Because there is no functional tail, the feet are used to form a rudder during flight. The upper parts of the body are brown and the under parts white. The plumage is compact and hairlike and, if it is well dressed by the bird it keeps the bird dry. The breast plumage is sought by milliners for use as hat trimming.
   Grebes are monogamous for a single breeding season. The nest is a "raft" built of twigs, grasses, and weeds. It floats in the water, anchored to aquatic plants near the shore. The eggs are greenish-blue and vary in number from two to nine. The female protects them from predators by plastering them with soft mud. This covering disguises the eggs from enemies, insulates them from the sun's rays and lowered temperature at night. Grebes feed on all kinds of water insects, crustaceans, fish, and feathers. It is not known why feathers are eaten.
   Some representatives of the group are: the western grebe, Aechmophorus occidentalis, of western North America, inhabiting fresh-water bodies in the summer and the sea in winter; the horned grebe, Colymbus auritus, found in the northern hemisphere; the dab-chick or pied-billed grebe, Podilymbus podiceps, found all over North and South America; and the eared grebe, C. nigricollis, an inhabitant of western North America and Central America.

Sumerian writing

   Sumerian writing looked quite different from Egyptian writing. While Egyptian hieroglyphics were carved on stone, Sumerian writing began as marks pressed into clay tablets. Because the writers used a pointed stick, called a stylus, most of the signs were combinations of wedge shapes. The Latin word for "wedge" is cuneus, so we call this writing cuneiform writing. There were about 600 cuneiform signs.
   The papyrus reed, which the Egyptians used to make paper, did not grow in Sumer. So the Sume­rians did not learn to make paper. Instead, throughout their history, they wrote on clay. They rolled out a lump of soft clay, made their wedge-shaped marks on it, and then allowed the clay tablet to dry until it was hard. Hardened clay would last for many years. It might shatter, but the pieces could always be fitted together.

Sumerian writing

What is an Observatory?

   An observatory is a place where astronomers study the Moon, the stars, the Sun, the planets, and other heavenly bodies in the universe. Observatories have instruments for studying the sky: large and small telescopes. spectroscopes, and cameras. Usually an ob­servatory can be recognized easily by the dome on the building that holds the telescope. Radio-observatoríes can be recognized by the large dish-shaped radio telescope.
   The telescope building usually has a lower section that is stationary. The dome which covers the telescope can be rotated. There is a slit from the top to the bottom of the dome. Through it the telescope can be trained on a section of the sky from the horizon to the zenith directly overhead. By rotating the dome, the astronomer can point the telescope at any section of the sky he wants to study.
   The astronomer must be near the eye-piece of the telescope or near the camera. For this reason, some observatories have floors or adjustable platforms that can be lowered or raised.
   Astronomers watch the sky and record Information, and often take pictures of the part of the sky they are studying. Then they analyze the information and pictures that they have gathered.
   An observatory situated on a high hill or a mountain is subject to little fog and dust. The air at high altitudes is thinner and is better suited for observing.

What is Graphology?

   The study of handwriting, graphology is used by some as a tool in the interpretation of personality. Although experiments have failed to demonstrate sufficient scientific basis for graphologists' claims, the idea that aspects of character and personality are displayed in the idiosyncratic loops, elisions, spacing and tilts that make up a person's script has a powerful logic for many people, including the managers of many large corporations who use graphologists to advise them on the weaknesses and strengths of prospective employees. Surely, believers feel, if a psychologist can deduce a subject's state of mind from his reaction to a set of images or inkblots, and if a child's sense of self can be determined from the kind of drawing he produces, then handwriting must be a useful, if not fool-proof, guide to character.
   One reason it is not is that it is a learned skill and one that is heavily weighted by cultural and national preferences, by continually changing aesthetic values and fashions in writing materials, as well as by the prejudices of the original instructor. Distinguishing what is individually significant, and therefore revealing, from what is simply acquired, habitual or imitative is difficult. Though the sort of correspondences that graphologists deal in—such as that widely spaced letters connote generosity; is that are only half crossed betray a procrastinator; carefully dotted is indicate a conservative, precise nature—are amusing, equally general conclusions can be arrived at by observing hairstyles or ways of dressing.
   One exception to graphology's limits is in detection of forgeries in signature. However muddled the message of handwriting, a person does develop a truly identifiable signature, and expert opinion on the legitimacy of what is so often an unintelligible scribble across a page is admissible in most courts of law.

Gaelic language

   The Gaelic is a language that is a member of the Goidelic group of the Celtic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The Goidelic group of languages is also sometimes called Gaelic. It includes Irish, Gaelic, and Manx.
   Because of the activities of the Irish League, Irish has had a strong revival. During the early days of the Irish Free State the use of the language was encouraged, and in 1942 Irish became part of the cur­riculum of the schools of the Republic of Ireland, known as Eire.
   Gaelic is spoken by about 100,000 people in the Scottish Highlands. To them the language is known as Gaedhelig, and they are Gaels. There is a Gaelic renaissance movement. It is centered in Inverness, Scotland, with branches in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Members of this movement have produced poetry and fiction.
   Manx is a language spoken on the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea. This language is almost extinct.

Who was William Blake?

William Blake English poet, painter, engraver, artistic and social visionary, Blake was one of the most expansive, versatile and undervalued artists of the early Romantic age. Born in London in 1757, Blake lived there in relative poverty and obscurity for all but 3 of his 70 years, although his imagination touched the world, the past and the future. He was apprenticed to an en­graver as a boy of 14 and remained a print-maker all his life. His own art developed out of the engraving process: he engraved his fantastic drawings on copper plates then watercolored the prints by hand, sometimes redoing a series several times over in deepening colors. In this manner Blake illustrated and issued all of his poems, which were allegorical, mythological and extraordinarily prescient of 20th-century psychological and social concerns: alienation, suspen­sion of sensibility in favor of rationalism, industrial violence and political repression were all interwoven in his sometimes apocalyptic, sometimes optimistic visions.

William Blake

Which bird is the smallest?

   The bee hummingbird (Calypte helenae), 2 inches long (including bill and tail), is the smallest bird. It weighs only .1 ounce (3 grams) and lays the smallest bird egg, the size of a small pea and weighing .02 ounce.
   Found only in Cuba, the population of the bee hum­mingbird is declining due to a loss of habitat as Cuba converts forested areas to agriculture, cattle ranching, lumber production, mining, and urban development. Less than 18 percent of Cuban land remains in its natural state.
   Several international organizations are working with the Cuban government and the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay to study the species' nesting habits and identify the areas within the untouched wilderness of eastern Cuba where it lives, with the hope of protecting some crucial habitat.

Thomas Gray

   Thomas Gray, 1716-71, English poet, was born in London. In 1727 he was sent to Eton, where he formed a close friendship with Horace Walpole, son of the prime minister, and with Richard West, son of the chancellor of Ireland. At Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1734, he became even more closely acquainted with Walpole and in 1739 the two students began a long tour of the Continent, one of the few significant events in Gray's quiet life. Dur­ing this trip he was greatly impressed by French and Italian classicism and at the same time began to exhibit the strain of romantic melancholy, which, combined with classic austerity of form and diction, was to characterize his greatest verse. At Reggio, in 1741, the friends quarreled and separated, and Gray went on alone to visit Venice and the Grande Chartreuse before returning to London.

What is insanity?

   Insanity is a disordered condition of the mind. The ancients considered a loss of mind due to the bewitching influence of Luna, or the Moon, hence the words lu­nacy and lunatic. Loss of mental power is due to any one of many causes and takes many forms. Insanity may or may not be accompanied by wasting away of the brain, that is to say, a breaking down of cells. Popular names for insanity consisting merely of derangement are melancholy, stupor, hallucination, mania, epilepsy, and hysteria. Melancholy is accompanied by depression; mania by unusual exaltation or similar mental acuteness. A third class of cases is entirely distinct from these mentioned. Weak-mindedness, idiocy, and imbecility are due to an undeveloped brain. We cannot speak of loss of mind in these cases, for the patients have never possessed well ordered minds, but are dull and incapable of other than physical routine.

What is Evil Eye?

   Evil eye Belief in the power of certain individuals to harm others merely by looking at them has probably existed in one form or another since before mankind began to keep records. References to it have been found in the annals of the ancient Sumerians, Egyptians and Babylonians; in Greek and Roman mythology; even in the Bible, which counsels in the Book of Proverbs, in the King James Version, "Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye. . . . The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up." Though not as prevalent today as in the past, the belief can still be found in many areas of the world, including parts of Asia, northern Africa, southern Europe and some Mesoamerican Indian cultures.
   The use of the evil eye—sometimes called overlooking—is most commonly thought to be motivated by envy. (In societies where the belief is strong, in fact, a compliment or display of admiration, especially from a stranger, may well be taken as a concealed threat.) The supposed effects of the evil eye can assume myriad forms, ranging from financial troubles and romantic disappointments to headaches, sudden fa­tigue, accidents, illness and even death. To ward them off, a wide variety of invocations, gestures, amulets and other defenses may be employed by potential victims. Two of the best-known ges­tures, long familiar in Mediterranean countries, are the mano cornuia (Italian for "horned hand"), in which a fist is made with the forefinger and pinkie extended, and the mano in fica, in which a fist is made with the thumb protruding between the forefinger and middle finger.
   Interestingly, overlooking is not always thought to be voluntary or maliciously intended. Indeed, there have been numerous cases over the years of prominent and highly regarded figures—including at least one pope— who were nevertheless reputed to possess and use the power, however involuntarily.

Where is the oldest living tree?

   In California's Bristlecone Pine Forest, within the White Mountains of the Inyo National Forest, stands a grove of ancient bristlecones. One gnarled tree here, named Methuselah, at 4,723 years of age, is considered the world's oldest living tree.
   The bristlecone pine tree (Pinus longaeva) is found in six western states (California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico), but the oldest known specimens—more than 4,000 years old—are located on the windswept, arid ridges of the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. They grow at an elevation between 10,000 and 11,000 feet, in alkaline soil. No other tree survives in this harsh environment. Bristlecone pines are 1,500 years older than the second oldest trees, the giant sequoias, but only about one-fourth the size, up to 60 feet in height and 36 feet in circumference.

Mosaic art

   At least 2,000 years ago people were making pictures and designs out of tiny bits of colored stone. Pictures and de­signs made in this way are called mosaics. One mosaic may have thousands or even millions of tiny pieces in it. Making a mo­saic takes a great deal of patience. The tiny pieces have to be set in some kind of cement, and each one must be set in just the right place.
   Some of the finest early mosaics were made in northern Africa. In some of these mosaics there were such birds as swans, peacocks, and flamingos surrounded by leaves and flowers. They were very bright in color. Other mosaics were designs that looked like richly woven carpet.

   When the little Roman city of Pompeii was dug out after it had been buried under lava and ashes for 18 centuries, some beautiful mosaics were found. One is a battle scene 17 feet long. It is now in a museum in Naples. This mosaic looks like a painting. The tiny pieces are marble—red, yellow, olive-green, black, and white.
   In the Middle Ages mosaics were made for churches. The tiny pieces were colored glass. They caught the light and sparkled like jewels. Some of the mosaics were pic­tures of Bible characters. In many the back-ground was all one color, often gold.
   Many people call the Taj Mahal the most beautiful building in the world today. Its walls are decorated with mosaic.

Braille system

   Some people read with their fingertips instead of their eyes. They read braille, a special alphabet invented for the blind. Braille letters are groups of little bumps (sometimes called dots) on the surface of a sheet of heavy paper. A braille reader, such as the woman in the picture, reads by running her fingers over the bumps. Braille is named for Louis Braille, a blind science and music teacher. Braille, who lived in France, developed the dot system of printing and writing in the early 1800s, while he was teaching in an institute for the blind.
Braille is arranged in symbols called cells. Each cell can hold up to six dots, and a "full" braille cell is shown on continuation:

.  .

.  .

.  .

   A cell can indicate the sign for one letter of the alphabet, for part of a word (such as -ed), or for a number, depending on the position of the dots. Other dot signs stand for punctuation marks. An experienced reader can read about 80 to 90 braille words a minute.
   Two methods are used to write braille. A brailler—a. keyboard machine—works something like a typewriter, but it raises dots on the paper. A slate is a two-piece metal frame divided into cell spaces. The frame holds the paper firmly. The writer uses a stylus, a pointed steel shaft with a handle at one end, to press the signs into the paper back-ward, from right to left across the page. The page is turned over after the message is written, and the cells are read from left to right. also read: sight, special education.

Where is the lowest point in the world?

   Ruling out the floors of the oceans, the lowest point in the world is the surface of the Dead Sea (1,296 feet below sea level), which is a salt lake fed by the Jordan River and with no outlet other than evaporation. A full 27 percent of the Dead Sea's water is actually solid substances, including six times more salt (sodium chloride) than is found in ocean water. The solids in the water enable a human body to easily float on the surface.
   The lowest point in the Western Hemisphere is Death Valley: 282 feet below sea level at Badwater in southeastern California. This is also the hottest area in the United States; the National Weather Service recorded temperatures here higher than 120° Fahrenheit for 43 consecutive days during the summer of 1917.

What is a subpoena?

   A subpoena (in legal procedure in England and the United States) is a process or a mandatory writ issued usually by a court or a quasi-judicial body, such as a legislative committee, directing the party named in the writ to appear at a certain time and place for the purpose of testifying or furnishing documentary evidence required in a legal proceeding or quasi-judicial hearing. In the United States many administrative agencies have statutory authority to issue subpoenas. A witness is served with a subpoena by having a copy of it delivered to him personally; at the time of delivery he is also shown the original subpoena and is paid a statutory fee. A witness who fails to appear in obedience to a subpoena may be punished for a contempt of court, and is liable also for damages sustained by the aggrieved party. The witness may, however, postpone his appearance for reasonable cause, such as illness or death in the family.
   In the United States, in those States having codes of civil procedure, subpoenas used in legal proceedings before a court may be issued in the name of the court by the attorney requesting the appearance of the witness; in other proceedings, such as supplementary proceedings, the subpoena must be signed by the court itself.

Who were the Buffalo Soldiers?

   The Buffalo Soldiers were African Ameri­can cavalrymen who fought in the Indian Wars in the American West. They belonged to the ninth and tenth regiments, which were created in 1866.

   The term "Buffalo Soldiers" was reportedly first used in the summer of 1867 when the black soldiers fought against Cheyenne warriors for the first time. The Cheyenne called the cavalrymen Buffalo Soldiers be­cause, like the buffalo, the men fought ferociously when cornered. And because the buffalo was sacred to the Native Americans of the Great Plains, the term must also have implied some respect for the soldiers. The members of the ninth and tenth regiments proudly accepted the name, and the tenth regiment's flag even had a buffalo on it.

Bernal Díaz del Castillo

   Bernal Díaz del Castillo was a Spanísh soldier and author. Born Medina del Campo, Spain, about 1492. Died Guatemala, about 1581.
   Díaz's monumental work, The True History of the Conquest of New Spain (Historia verdadera de la con­quista de la Nueva España, 1632), is a firsthand account of the conquest of Mexico from 1514 to 1568. In a fresh, natural way, Díaz described both great events and the daily life of the common soldier.
   Díaz participated in several military campaigns in the New World and from 1519 to 1521 was with Hernando Cortez in the conquest of Mexico. Late in life, Díaz settled in Guatemala.

"Guernica" by Pablo Picasso

   Although he lived in France, Pablo Picasso had been born in Spain and was keenly sympathetic to the Loyalist cause during the Spanish Civil War. This painting expressed his outrage over the bombing of the town of Guernica, which had no strategic value. Using only blacks, grays, and whites, Picasso evoked anguish and horror with his distorted figures writhing in agony under a stark electric light. The painting was on tour in New York City in 1939, when World War II began. Picasso suggested that it stay in the United States until "the re-establishment of public liberties" in Spain. "Guernica" was returned to Spain in 1981 and was placed in the Prado Museum in Madrid.

Lithium

   Lithium is the lightest metallic element known. It was discovered in 1817 by a Swedish chemist, J. A. Arfvedson. It is a silver-white metal that tarnishes easily.
   Lithium is found for the most part in North America and Africa and is mined with pegmatite (granite) ores.
In industry, it is used in manufacturing glass and ceramic products and in lubricants. It can easily be worked, extruded or drawn and so may be used for delicate parts.
   The atomic number of lithium (symbol Li) is 3; its atomic weight is 6.941; its boiling point is 1342 °C. and melting point is 181 °C.

Lithium floating in oil

What is a Lyceum?

   The Lyceum (Latin, from the Greek lykeion), is a sacred enclosure at Athens, with covered walks, where Aristotle lectured. Because of these philosophical associations, the word has been used in modern languages to denote various types of educational institutions, such as the French lycée. In England and the United States the term was generally applied to literary and scientific institutions engaged in what today would be called adult education, rather than to schools and colleges of a more formal type. In New York City, for example, a Lyceum of Natural History was founded in 1818, and it continues to exist as the New York Academy of Sciences (so called since 1876).

Lyceum of ancient Greece

What is Cryptomnesia?

Cryptomnesia An unconscious, or hidden, memory that when recollected is taken for new thought, cryptomnesia also encompasses a variety of apparent mental anomalies concerning actual events, information, ideas and images. Most common are incidents in which a person suddenly evinces fluency in a language never studied; gives false in­formation while in a hypnotic trance; or plagiarizes another's work unintentionally and with no thought to obscuring the fact. An instance of the first is the case of an uneducated young woman who suddenly began declaiming in ancient Greek and Hebrew while in a high fever. It turned out that she had once worked as a maid for a scholar who was accustomed to reciting aloud in those two languages. An example of the second is the famous episode of Bridey Murphy, the Irish alter ego of a U.S. housewife named Virginia Tighe. Under hypnosis, Tighe most convincingly "became" Bridey Murphy and in a heavy brogue described her former life in detail. On investigation, it was learned that as a child, Tighe had known the family of an Irish woman whose maiden name was Bridie Murphy, and the memory had remained intact but unrecognized in Tighe's unconscious until it emerged under hypnosis. Tracing incidents of plagiarism to cryptomnesia is trickier, since the dissociation process that takes place is so effective that it is virtually impossible for the plagiarist to recollect knowledge of his original reading or viewing of the material in question. Many eminent figures have found themselves embarrassed by unintended plagiarism of others' work. Among them was Sigmund Freud, who, on excitedly announcing to his longtime friend Wilhelm Fliess, a Berlin physician, his theory that individuals begin life as bisexual beings, was informed that Fliess had suggested the same idea to Freud two years earlier. The reminder stirred Freud's conscious mem­ory, and he eventually recalled the original conversation in full. He was, however, rudely shaken by the episode.
"It is painful to have to surrender one's originality in this way," he confessed.

Are all black holes the same size?

   British physicist and mathematician Stephen William Hawking (1942- ) is exploring the possibility that numerous mini-black holes were formed right after the "big bang," the initial explosion in which the universe was formed. The basis for this prediction is that the same conditions existed then as exist when a massive star collapses.

Hera (mythology)

   Hera, in Greek mythology, a daughter of Cronus and Rhea, and the sister and wife of Zeus. She corresponds to the Roman Juno. The name Hera means the "chosen one." She was the type of a faithful wife and mother, and was treated with reverence by the other gods, Zeus him­self respecting her counsels, although she must obey him unquestioningly. She was jealous, but with excellent reason, for her husband was often faithless. The disposi­tion ascribed to Hera by Greek writers is much that of a modern termagant. When she became too obstinate and quarrelsome Zeus punished her. Once he hung her up in the clouds with her hands bound and anvils tied to her feet. Later writers give Hera the character of queen of heaven, sec­ond in power to Zeus only. Hera aided the Greeks in the Trojan war, because Paris, son of King Priam of Troy, gave the golden apple inscribed "for the fairest," not to her, but to her beautiful rival Aphrodite. In art, Hera is represented as a majestic wom­an, wearing a diadem and clad in flow­ing drapery. In her right hand she holds a sceptre. The Graces and the Hours were her handmaids, and Iris, the rainbow, was her messenger.

Mars (Roman mythology)

   Mars, the Roman god of war, whence such expressions as martial, or warlike, and a follower of Mars, or soldier. He was regarded also as a patron of husbandry. In art Mars is represented as a powerful, eager youth, with helmet, spear, and shield, ready for conquest. The great parade ground in Rome was called the Campus Martius, or Field of Mars. Mars is the Greek Ares.

Orion (myth)

   In mythology, Orion was the son of Neptune. He was of great stature and fol­lowed the hunt. His adventures were nu­merous. The most important, however, as well as the last, was that with Diana with whom he engaged in the chase. Despite her vows of perpetual virginity, Apollo became alarmed lest his sister should marry her gigantic companion. Observing him one day wading in the sea with his head just visible, Apollo chaffed Diana, wagering that she could not hit that black object yonder on the water. In ignorance of what she was doing the archer goddess took fatal aim and killed him. When the waves rolled her dead lover to her feet she was distracted with grief and placed him in the heavens, where he still pursues the Pleiades and followed by his faithful dog, Sirius.
   The constellation of Orion is the most brilliant in the heavens. Four of the bright­est stars form a quadrangle; three others, near the center, are known as Orion's Belt.

Orestes (myth)

   In Greek mythology, Orestes was the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, king and queen of Mycenae. When Aga­memnon returned from the Trojan War, Clytemnestra and Aegisthus laid a plan to murder him and his son. They were suc­cessful so far as Agamemnon was con­cerned, but Orestes was saved by his sister Electra, who had him carried secretly to his uncle Strophius. When grown to man­hood, Orestes returned to Mycenae and avenged his father's death by slaying both Aegisthus and Clytemnestra. Orestes, though he had been advised by an oracle to take his mother's life, was, in consequence of the deed, driven frantic by the Furies and pursued from land to land. At length he was directed by an oracle to bring from Tauris in Scythia a statue of Artemis, said to have fallen from heaven. Accompanied by Pylades, his cousin, who had been his faithful companion, he went to Tauris. The people of this place were in the habit of sacrificing strangers, who fell in their way, to the goddess. Orestes and Pylades were seized, bound, and borne to the temple. But the priestess of the temple was Iphigenia, Orestes' sister, who had years be­fore been snatched from death on the altar by Artemis. Iphigenia saved the prisoners from death and all three returned to My­cenae. Orestes was at last purified of his sin by Minerva and relieved from the per­secution of the Furies. Both Sophocles and Euripides have used this story for the sub­ject of tragedies.

The titan Prometheus (myth)

   In Greek mythology, Prometheus was one of the Titans, the giver of fire to man, and, according to some ac­counts, the creator of man. His name signi­fies forethought. He turned against Cro­nus and the Titans in their great battle with Zeus, enabling the latter to conquer. Zeus now began to arrange the universe to suit himself. First he separated the land from the sea. Then he made the mountains, val­leys, and plains, the rivers, lakes, and for­ests. Here he placed living birds, beasts, and fish, but he was still unsatisfied. Then Prometheus came to his aid again, and, kneading some earth and water together, created man. Later, so the legend runs, he became dissatisfied with the plans of Zeus for the destruction of mortals and the creation of a new race. Prometheus alone in the council of the gods was kind to man. He taught him the primitive arts that render human life possible. He assisted the children of men by conveying fire to them concealed in a hollow reed. For this act of insubordination Zeus caused him to be chained to a rock in the Caucasus, and send a vulture daily to tear open his vitals. As fast as Prometheus healed by night the vulture tore him open by day. Finally, however, Hercules killed the vulture and set Prometheus at liberty. He returned to Olympus and became the wise counsellor of the gods. Aeschylus, the great Grecian dramatist, made Prometheus the subject of three noted plays, one of which, Prometheus Bound, has been preserved entire. The steadfastness with which the hero of the play endures the agony to which he is sub­jected, his indomitable will, and his abso­lute refusal to bow at the nod of Zeus, excite the reader's admiration.

Hecuba (mythology)

   In Grecian legend, Hecuba was the second wife of Priam, king of Troy, and the mother of Hector. She had many children. She lost all her sons by the Tro­jan war. They were all slain with the ex­ception of Helenus, who deserted and joined the Greeks. Hecuba saw the body of Hector dragged around the city by the victorious Achilles. After Achilles had been slain by Paris, another celebrated son of Hecuba, the mother must needs wit­ness the death of her daughter Polyxena, who was sacrificed on the tomb of Achilles by whom she had been beloved. Paris him­self was slain by one of the poisoned arrows of Philoctetes. The unhappy queen at last witnessed the death of her youngest son, Polites, and saw her husband murdered by the cruel Pyrrhus. She herself and her daughter, Cassandra, were carried away as slaves by the Greeks. On the coast of Thrace the body of Hecuba's only remain­ing son, Polydorus, was washed to her feet by the waves. He had been murdered by Polymnestor. Hecuba avenged this last woe by slaying Polymnestor. Then in her des­pair she leaped into the sea. According to some accounts the gods transformed her into a dog, in pity, but the dog sprang into the sea. The place where this occurred was called Cynossema, "the tomb of the dog." The story of Hecuba has furnished the sub­ject for many Greek tragedies. The most famous of these is Hecuba by Euripides. Euripides represents Hecuba as a noble, virtuous woman and a tender mother, on whom fate has inflicted terrible sufferings.

Penelope (myth)

   In Greek legend, Penelope was the wife of Ulysses and mother of Telem­achus, who was but an infant when his father left home for Troy. During the ten years' siege and the years that followed before Ulysses reached home again, Penel­ope, who was a beautiful woman, had many suitors. They tried to persuade her that her husband was dead. Penelope promised to choose a husband as soon as she had finished the weaving of a web to be used for the funeral canopy of Laertes, her husband's father.
   She worked at the web each day, but at night unraveled all she had woven. Thus Penelope's web has become proverbial as a thing constantly in process of construc­tion, but never completed.

Who was Neptune (mythology)?

   Neptune, the Roman god of the sea, corresponding to the Greek Poseidon. In art, Neptune is represented as a stately, bearded man carrying a trident in token of sovereignty over the sea. Ofttimes he rides in a seagoing chariot drawn by dolphins and surrounded by monsters of the deep.

Neptune by Agnolo Bronzino

Pygmalion (myth)

   In Greek le­gend, Pygmalion was a sculptor and king of Cyprus. He had an aversion to women, but, having made an ivory statue of great beauty, he fell in love with it and besought the gods to give the statue life. His prayer was granted and the beautiful statue became a living woman whom Pygmalion made his wife. W. S. Gilbert used this story as the basis of a play, Pygmalion and Galatea. In the play, Pygmalion is a married man. He and his wife Cynisca are a devoted couple who have prayed the gods for the power of calling down blindness each upon the other in case of unfaithfulness. Pygmalion prays for life for his statue, not because he is in love with his ivory virgin, but because the creative instinct of the artist has become so strong a passion with him that nothing short of a living statue will satisfy it. The statue becomes alive, and Pygmalion is so infatuated with the work of his hands that his wife believes him untrue and calls down blindness from heaven upon him. Galatea, seeing the unhappiness she has caused, vol­untarily returns to her former state—a life­less statue.

Theseus (mythology)

   In Greek legend, Theseus was the national hero of Attica. He was a son of Aegeus, king of Athens, and Aethra, a princess of Troezen. Aegeus was obliged to leave Aethra before the birth of the child. He placed his sword and sandals beneath a large stone and charged Aethra that, when their son should be strong enough to roll the stone away, she should send him to his father. When the mother thought the time had come, she led Theseus to the stone which he moved with­out difficulty. The youth then chose that road to his father which he knew to be beset with the greatest difficulties. On the way he fought and slew a son of Hephaes­tus, who was in the habit of terrifying and attacking travelers. He also killed Pro­crustes, the "Stretcher." Procrustes had an iron bedstead to which he fitted every person whom he could persuade to lodge with him. If the guest was too short for the bed he was stretched; if he was too long, a piece was chopped off. Several other evildoers were met by Theseus and disposed of before he reached Athens.

Icarus (mythology)

   Icarus, in Greek legend, the son of Daedalus. Daedalus furnished his son with wings and made a pair for himself that they might escape horn Crete. Daed­alus taught his son to fly and the two start­ed out hopefully. But Icarus was excited by the novelty of journeying through the air. He flew too high and the sun melted the wax by which his wings were attached to his shoulders. The poor lad fell into the sea and was drowned. The sea was named the Icarian Sea in memory of Icarus.

Romulus (Roman myth)

   In mythology, Romulus was the first king of Rome. According to tradi­tion, he was the son of Mars and the vestal virgin, Rhea Silvia. On the birth of Rom­ulus and his twin brother Remus, the king ordered the vestal virgin to be executed and the twins thrown into the Tiber. The boys were placed in a cradle and set afloat. Instead of overturning, however, it floated to the roots of a wild fig tree, where it rested after the subsidence of the waters, leaving the twins on dry land. They were suckled and brought up by a she-wolf, until they were found by a shepherd who took them to his wife. On growing up, the secret of their birth was discovered and they together inherited the throne of their grandfather, Numitor. Romulus founded Rome in 753 B. C. He was worshiped as a divinity under the name of Quirinus.

Poseidon (mythology)

   Poseidon was one of the principal Greek divinities. He was a brother of Zeus, Hades, Hera, Hestia, and Demeter. The rule of the sea fell to him by lot. His palace was in the depths of the Aegean, near Euboea. Here he kept his horses with bra­zen hoofs and golden manes. With these horses, in time of storm, Poseidon drove in a char­iot over the waves which became smooth as he approached. The monsters of the deep recognized his sovereignty and sported about his chariot.

Poseidon, ruler of the seas

Pluto, the underworld god (mythology)

   In classical mythology, Pluto was the god of the lower world. An earlier Greek title was Hades, the Unseen, still preserved as the name of his dwelling place. By the Romans he was called usually Tartarus, Orcus, or Dis. Pluto means bestower of riches. It was given to this god as the pa­tron of the mines. He was the brother of Zeus. His wife was Persephone, the daugh­ter of Demeter. The Greek conception of the ruler of the dead was very different from the Christian conception of the devil. It was his duty simply to keep order in the lower world. He was in no way the sub-duer and seducer of mankind. He was stern and pitiless in the maintenance of dis­cipline, but he was in no sense the enemy of the human race. As in the case of the devil, however, his appropriate color was black. Black cattle were sacrificed in his honor.

Diana of the Romans (myth)

   Diana, in Roman mythology, the god­dess of the moon, of the open air of the country, mountains, and forests. Since her attributes were similar to those of the Greek Artemis, the two were in later times identified. Originally, Artemis was the daughter of Zeus, and twin sister of Apollo. Apollo was the god of day, of light, of music, and of song. He was called Phoe­bus, the shining one, and, because of her close association with him, his sister was called Phoebe. Apollo came to be identi­fied with Helios, god of the sun; so Ar­temis was identified with Selene, goddess of the moon. Thus the three distinct char­acters, Diana of the Romans, and Artemis and Selene of the Greeks, were gradually-confounded, although in some re­spects stories concerning them were con­tradictory. For instance, Diana—at her own desire, for she had many suitors— remained a virgin, while Selene became the mother of fifty daughters. Finally, in the times of the later mythology, Diana, either on account of her character or her name, became the favorite; and the stories of Artemis or Selene or any goddess asso­ciated with the moon, as Luna and Hecate, gathered about her figure, which is most often seen in representations of art.

Helen of Troy (mythology)

   Helen, in Greek legend, the most beauti­ful woman of antiquity. Her home was at Sparta. She was the daughter of Zeus and Leda. In girlhood, the hero Theseus ran away with her to Athens. Her broth­er Castor brought her back to Sparta. She was finally given in wedlock to Menelaus, the king. Paris, son of Priam, king of Troy, heard of her beauty, and, with the aid of the goddess Aphrodite, won the love of Helen and fled with her to Troy. Here she abode for twenty years. Menelaus, her husband, called all Greece to arms and precipitated the Trojan War. After the death of Paris, and the destruction and sack of Troy, Helen became the mate of the Greek warrior, Deiphobus. When Troy fell Menelaus es­corted her with honor to her Sparta home. Of all the characters in Grecian legend Helen was the most beautiful, the most de­sired, and the least securely possessed. Even after death, so runs the story, her shade was mated with that of Achilles on the Stygian shore.

The Sirens (mythology)

   In Greek mythology, the sirens were young maid­ens who sat on a certain island or promon­tory of southwestern Italy and sang songs of such bewitching sweetness that passing sailors, forgetting their duties, were drawn to their destruction on the rocks. Accord­ing to Homer, Ulysses, voyaging homeward to the faithful Penelope, filled his sailors', that is to say his rowers', ears with wax and lashed himself to a mast where he was pow­erless to change the course of the ship. In this way he succeeded in getting safely out of reach of the enchantresses. One account has it that, on being resisted for the first time, the sirens flung themselves into the sea, where they still lie, huge, dangerous rocks. In Greek art, the sirens are figured often as having the wings and legs of birds, with the bust and upper parts of maidens. Each is carrying a musical instrument. No doubt the myth of the sirens is akin to the later belief in mermaids and to the Ger­man legend of the Lorelei or river-siren of the Rhine.

Ulysses and the Sirens

Charon (mythology)

   Charon, in classical mythology, the ferryman whose duty it was to trans­port the souls of the dead over the rivers of the lower world. Charon was the son of Erebus and Nox. He is described as an old man, gloomy and sad of countenance, with a matted beard and squalid clothing.
   Lucian, a Greek writer of the second century, in his Dialogues of the Dead, rep­resents the souls of the dead as offering Charon excuses for delaying their passage across the stream from which there is no return. In Ben Jonson's tragedy, Cati­line, so many souls are represented as seek­ing passage at one time in Charon's boat that
The rugged Charon fainted,
And asked a navy rather than a boat,
To ferry over the sad world that came.

   Charon is represented by some writers as bearing the souls first over the Acheron, then over the Cocytus, and lastly over the Styx. In the sixth book of the Aeneid, Aeneas descends to the lower world with his guide, and finds Charon on the shores of the river Acheron, where it empties into the Cocytus. Virgil does not keep the riv­ers distinct, however, for Aeneas is taken across the "Stygian flood" in Charon's boat.
   Charon's fee was a small coin—an obolus or a danace which, at the time of burial, was placed in the mouth of the deceased.

Mercury (mythology)

   Mercury, the son of Jupiter and Maia. In Roman mythology he is the messenger of Jupiter. He is represented usually as an active young mail wearing a winged hat and a pair of winged sandals. Mercury was a divinity of many natures. He was the god of darkness; hence the protecting divinity of thieves. He was by turns the god of agriculture, of science, and of com­merce. He was also the patron of art and the protector of the herdsman, the traveler, and the athlete. Mercury was charged with conveying the shades of the departed to Hades. His Greek counterpart is Hermes.

Saturn (mythology)

   Saturn was an ancient divinity of the Ro­mans, identified at an early date with Kronos or Chronos of the Greeks, with whom, too late to save the potato from going under however, he had little in common. Saturn was believed to have appeared in Italy dur­ing the reign of Janus, and was the god who led the Romans out of the chaos of barba­rism into civilization by interesting the peo­ple in the arts of husbandry and gardening. Harvest-home festivals, called Saturnalia, held in December in honor of Saturn, were scenes of rustic revelry and mirth. Later, the Saturnalia became noted as seasons of general debauch, and the term is now one of reproach. As compared with lively, quick Mercury, Saturn was dull and phleg­matic. A saturnine face, therefore, is one adjudged gloomy, dull, sluggish, or unin­teresting. Saturday or Saturn's day is named in honor of this divinity.

Cyclops (mythology)

   In Greek mythology, Cyclops was a giant with a single circular eye in the middle of his forehead. The word Cy­clops means "round-eyed." There seem, to be several distinct legends. According to one account, there were three Titanic Cyclops, sons of Heaven and Earth. They labored in Mt. Etna under the direction of Vulcan, forging the thunderbolts of Zeus, the helmet of Pluto, and the trident of Poseidon.

   In the adventures of Ulysses, Homer de­scribes a race of one-eyed Cyclops, who lived solitarily in the caves of Sicily, rear­ing sheep and goats. When Ulysses and a number of his companions applied to one of them, Polyphemus, for aid, the Cyclops shut them up in his cave with his flocks, closing the entrance at night with a huge rock that twenty men could not have rolled away from the door. In the morning he sent his flocks out to feed, but guarded the doorway, so that his prisoners might not escape. At each meal he devoured two of them. Ulysses tried to pacify the giant by giving him a bottle of wine which he had hoarded for an emergency. The only satisfaction he obtained, however, was a promise that he should not be eaten until the last. Becoming desperate, he laid plans with his companions; and that night, while Polyphemus lay asleep, he placed the end of his staff in the fire until it was a glowing coal. This he thrust into the gi­ant's only eye, depriving him of sight, and causing him to howl with pain. Polyphe­mus groped around the cavern in vain, try­ing to capture the Greeks, who skillfully evaded him by keeping among the sheep. In the morning they tied rams together, three and three, and by clinging to the wool on the bellies of the central rams they made their escape through the doorway, though the Cyclops felt the sheep as they passed that his prisoners might not escape. As soon as they passed beyond his reach, Ulysses and the remaining companions dropped to the ground. They bore the sheep aboard their boat and made off. When a short distance from the shore Ulysses could not refrain from taunting the Cyclops, who broke off a huge fragment of rock and threw it toward the sound of Ulysses' voice, almost swamping the ship.

Tantalus (myth)

   In Greek legend, Tantalus was the son of Zeus or Pluto. According to one account he stole the nectar and ambrosia of the gods. He was a confirmed gossip. For revealing the secrets of the gods Tantalus was con­demned to eternal thirst and hunger. Ae­neas saw him in the lower world. He stood in a pool, his chin level with the water; yet whenever he stooped his hoary head to drink, the water fled away and left his lips and throat parched with thirst. The boughs of fruit trees laden with luscious fruits, pears, pomegranates, apples, and figs bent over his head; yet whenever he put forth his hand to seize the fruit, the wind tossed the branches out of his reach. Our word to tantalize is derived from the name Tantalus.