CURIOUS CUSTOMS AND FACTS EXPLAINED.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 104, 21 August 1876, Page 2

CURIOUS CUSTOMS AND FACTS EXPLAINED.

[Compiled for The Evening Mail,]

Accepting the Chiltern Hundreds. —The Chiltern Hundreds' are Bumham, Desborough, and Stoke, an estate of the Crown on the chain of chalk hills that pass from east to west through the middle of Buckinghamshire, the stewardship whereof is a nominal office, with a salary of 20s. conferred on members of Parliament, when they wish to vacate their seats, as by accepting an office under the Crown a member becomes disqualified, unless he be again returned by his constituents.

Amende Honorable. —This was an infamous punishment inflicted in France in the ninth century on traitors and sacrilegious persons. The offender was delivered into the hands of the hangman ; his shirt was stripped off, a rope put round his neck, and a taper in his hand. He was then led into Court, and was obliged to beg pardon of Gocl and his country. Death or banishment often followed. Amazons.—The Amazons, according to Qnintus Curtius, were a race of women whose husbands were surprised by an ambuscade and all slain. The widows resolved to form a female state, and having firmly established themselves, they decreed that matrimony was a shameful servitude. Heredotus states that they were continually engaged in war, and, that they might be the better able to cast the javelin, they had their right breasts burned off. Breeches. —Among the Greeks this garment indicated slavery. In the year 394 the braccarii, or breeches-makers, were expelled from Rome, but soon after the use of breeches were adopted in other countries, and soon became general. Origin of the Word Cabal.—The word itself is derived from the Spanish cabala, secret knowledge, but in English history it has been applied to the Cabinet of Charles 11. in 1660; the word being formed from the initials of their names: Sir Thomas, afterwards Lord, (C) Clifford; Lord (A) Asliley ; the Duke of (B) Buckingham ; Lord (A) Arlington, and the Duke of (L) Lauderdale. Calligraphy.—ln the sixteenth century Peter Bales wrote the Lord's Prayer, Apostles' Creed, the Decalogue, two short Latin prayers, his own motto, day of the month, year of our Lord, and the reign of Queen Elizabeth (to whom he presented them at Hampton Court) all within the circle of a silver penny, so accurately done as to be plainly legible. The Calve's Head Club consisted of noblemen and gentlemen, who exposed raw calves' heads at the windows of the taverns on the anniversary of the execution of Charles I. Marriage op the Doge of Venice with the Adriatic. —The ceremony of the Doge of Venice wedding the Adriatic Sea was instituted in the year 1173, and took place annually on Ascension Day. The Doge dropped a ring into the sea from his State barge, being attended by all his nobility and foreign ambassadors. The ceremony was first omitted in 1797. Adullamites. Adullam, a cave to which David fled from the persecution of Saul about 1062 b.c. Mr. Horsman, the Hon. Robert Lowe, Earl Grosvenor, Lord Elclio and other Liberals who opposed the Franchise Bill in 1866, were characterised by Mr. Bright as Adullamites. Origin of Ear-rings.—According to the Mahommedans, Abraham began the practice of wearing ear-rings. In one of Sarah's jealous fits respecting Hagar, she declared that she would not rest until she had dipped her hands in Hagar's blood. In order to quiet Sarah, and to enable her to redeem her promise without upsetting her household, Abraham pierced Hagar's ears, and drew rings through them. From that time rings became the fashion.

A Cornish Miner's Journey.—The deepest mine in Cornwall is Dolcoath, now about 720 yards from the surface. One man has been working in the mine for over forty years. During all that time he has lived fiva miles distant from the mine ; so that he has been walking ten miles each day in addition to his labor, and a calculation which lias been made shows that the man has, during his forty years work, walked 120,000 miles, which is equal to about five times round the world, and half the distance to the moon.

The Descendants of Great Men.—lt is said that there is, no living descendant in the male line of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, Cowley, Butler, Dryden, Pope, Cowper, Goldsmith, Scott, Byron, Moore, Sir Philip Sydney, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake, Cromwell, Hampden, Monk, Marlborough, Nelson, Peterborough, Stafford, Ormond, Clarendon, Addison, Swift, Johnson, Walpole, Bolingbroke, Chatham, Pitt, Fox, Burke, Grattan, Canning, Bacon, Locke, Newton, Davy, Hume, Gibbon, Macauley, Hogarth, Sir Joshua Reynolds, David Garrick, John Kemble, or Ediuond Kean. The Bank of England.—The Bank of England was incorporated in 1649, It covers five acres, and employs nine hundred clerks. There are no windows on the street; light is admitted through open courts, therefore no mob could take tl'o bank without cannon to batter the walls< The clock is in the centre of the bank) and has fifty dials attached to it. Large cisterns are sunk in the court, and engines in perfect working order are always m readiness in case of fire.

The Length of Days.—At Hamburg, in Germany, the longest clay is 17 hours, and the shortest 7 ; at Stockholm, the longest 18and the shortest 5h ; St. Petersburgh 9, 'the longest 19, and tlio shortest 5 ; at Finland, 21 hours; at Wonderbus, in Norway, the day lasts from the 21st of May to the 2nd of July, the sun not getting below the horizon the whole time, but skimming along very close to it in the North. At Spitzbergen the longest day lasts three months and a half.