Research Results For 'Dragon'

ADULTERATION

Adulteration is a term not only applied in its proper sense to the fraudulent mixture of articles of commerce, food, drink, drugs, seeds, etc, with noxious or inferior ingredients, but also by magistrates and analysts to accidental impurity, and even in some cases to actual substitution.

The chief objects of adulteration are to increase the weight or volume of the article, to give a colour which either makes a good article more pleasing to the eye or else disguises an inferior one, to substitute a cheaper form of the article, or the same substance from which the strength has been extracted, or to give it a false strength.

Among the adulterations which were commonly practised around 1905 for the purpose of fraudulently increasing the weight or volume of an article are the following: Bread was adulterated with alum or sulphate of copper, which gives solidity to the gluten of damaged or inferior flour; with chalk or carbonate of soda to correct the acidity of such flour; and with boiled rice or potatoes, which enables the bread to carry more water, and thus to produce a larger number of loaves from a given quantity of flour. Wheat flour is adulterated with other inferior flours, as the flour from rice, bean, Indian-corn, potato, and with sulphate of lime, alum, etc. Milk was usually adulterated with water. The adulterations generally present in butter consisted of an undue proportion of salt and water, lard, tallow, and other fats; when of poor quality it was frequently coloured with a little annatto, and, at times, with the juice of carrots. Genuine butter should not contain less than 80 percent of butter-fat. Cheese was also coloured with annatto and other substances. Tea was adulterated chiefly in China with sand, iron-filings, chalk, gypsum, China clay, exhausted tea leaves, and the leaves of the sycamore, horse-chestnut, and plum, whilst colour and weight were added by black-lead, indigo, Prussian-blue (one of the deleterious ingredients used by the Chinese in converting the lowest qualities of black into green teas), gum, turmeric, soapstone, catechu, and other substances.

Coffee was mingled with chicory, roasted wheat, roasted beans, acorns, mangel-wurzel, rye-flour, and coloured with burned sugar and other materials. Chicory was adulterated with different flours, as rye, wheat, beans, etc, and coloured with ferruginous earths, burned sugar, Venetian red, etc. Cocoa and chocolate were mixed with the cheaper kinds of arrow-root, animal matter, corn, sago, tapioca, etc. Sugar was adulterated to some extent with flour. Tobacco was mixed with sugar and treacle, aloes, liquorice, oil, alum, etc, and such leaves as rhubarb, chicory, cabbage, burdock, coltsfoot, besides excess of salt and water. Snuffs were adulterated with carbonate of ammonia, glass, sand, colouring matter, etc.

Confections were adulterated with flour and sulphate of lime. Preserved vegetables were kept green and poisoned by salts of copper. The acridity of mustard is commonly reduced by flour, and the colour of the compound is improved by turmeric. Pepper was adulterated with linseed-meal, flour, mustard husks, etc. Colour was given to pickles by salts of copper, acetate of copper, etc. Ale was adulterated with common salt, Cocculus Indicus, grains of paradise, quassia, and other bitters, sulphate of iron, alum, etc. Porter and stout were mixed with sugar, treacle, salt, and an excess of water. Brandy was diluted with water, and burned sugar was added to improve the colour; sometimes bad whisky was flavoured and coloured so as to resemble brandy, and sold under its name.

Gin was mixed with excess of water, and flavouring matters of various kinds, with alum and tartar, were added. Rum was diluted with water, and the flavour and colour kept up by the addition of cayenne and burned sugar. For champagne gooseberry and other inferior wines were often substituted. Port was manufactured from red Cape and other inferior wines, the body, flavour, strength, and colour being produced by gum-dragon, the washings of brandy casks, and a preparation of German bilberries. Cheap brown sherry was mixed with Cape and other low-priced brandies, and was flavoured with the washings of brandy casks, sugar-candy, and bitter almonds. Pale sherries were produced by gypsum, by a process called plastering, which removes the natural acids as well as the colour of the wine. Other wines were adulterated with elderberry, logwood, Brazil-wood, cudbear, red beetroot, etc, for colour; with lime or carbonate of lime, carbonate of soda, carbonate of potash, and litharge, to correct acidity; with catechu, sloe-leaves, and oak-bark for astringency; with sulphate of lime and alum for removing colour; with cane-sugar for giving sweetness and body; with alcohol for fortifying; and with ether, especially acetic ether, for giving bouquet and flavour.

Medicines, such as jalap, opium, rhubarb, cinchona bark, scammony, aloes, sarsaparilla, squills, etc, were mixed with various foreign substances. Castor-oil has been adulterated with other oils; and inferior oils were often. mixed with cod-liver oil. Cantharides were often mixed with golden-beetle and also artificially-coloured glass.

The adulteration of seeds was largely practised also, the seed which forms the adulterant being of course of the most worthless kind that can be had. Thus turnip-seed was mixed with rape, wild mustard, or charlock, which are steamed and kiln-dried to destroy their vitality, so as to evade detection in the progress of growth; old and useless turnip-seed was also used fraudulently mixed with fresh seeds. Clover was also much mixed with plantain and mere weeds.

Acts against adulteration have been passed in various countries and at various times. In Britain there was a law against it as early as 1267.
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APOCRYPHA

Apocrypha (from the Greek, 'things concealed or spurious') is a term applied in the earliest churches to various sacred or professedly inspired writings, sometimes given to those whose authors were unknown, sometimes to those with a hidden meaning, and sometimes to those considered objectionable. The term is specially applied to the fourteen undermentioned books which were written during the two centuries preceding the birth of Christ. They were written, not in Hebrew, but in Greek, and the Jews never allowed them a place in their sacred canon. They were incorporated into the Septuagint, and thence passed to the Vulgate. The Greek Church excluded them from the canon in 360 at the Council of Laodicea. The Latin Church treated them with more favour, but it was not until 1546 that they were formally admitted into the canon of the Church of Rome by a decree of the Council of Trent. The Anglican Church says they may be read for example of life and instruction of manners, but that the church does not apply them to establish any doctrine. All other Protestant churches in Britain and America ignore them. The following fourteen books form the Apocrypha of the English Bible: - The first and second Books of Esdras, Tobit, Judith, the rest of the Book of Esther, the Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach, or Ecclesiasticus, Baruch the Prophet, the Song of the Three Children, Susanna and the Elders, Bel and the Dragon, the Prayer of Manasses, and the first and second Books of Maccabees.

Besides the Apocryphal books of the Old Testament there are many other books composed in the earlier ages of Christianity, and published under the names of Christ and his apostles, or of such immediate followers as from their character or means of intimate knowledge might give an apparent plausibility for such forgeries. These writings comprise: 1st, the Apocryphal Gospels, which treat of the history of Joseph and the Virgin before the birth of Christ, of the infancy of Jesus, and of the acts of Pilate; 2d, the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles; and 3d, the Apocryphal Apocalypses, none of which have obtained canonical recognition by any of the churches.
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ATTRIBUTE

In philosophy, an attribute is a quality or property of a substance, as whiteness or hardness. A substance is known to us only as a congeries of attributes.

In the fine arts an attribute is a symbol regularly accompanying and marking out some personage. Thus the caduceus, purse, winged hat, and sandals are attributes of Mercury, the trampled dragon of St George.
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BEOWULF

Beowulf is a famous English epic. The poem is rich in the accurate and picturesque portrayal of the daily life in England in the 6th century. The only existing manuscript of Beiowulf belongs to the 8th or 9th century, and is in the Cottonian Library (British Museum). From internal evidence it is concluded that the poem in its essentials existed prior to the Anglo-Saxon colonization of Britain, and that it must be regarded either as brought to Britain by the Teutonic invaders, or as an early Anglo-Saxon translation of a Danish legend. From the allusions in it to Christianity, however, it must have received considerable modifications from its original form. It recounts the adventures of the hero Beowulf, especially his delivery of the Danish kingdom from the monster Grendel, and his equally formidable mother, and lastly the slaughter by Beowulf of a fiery dragon and his death from wounds received in the conflict.
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DRAGON

Dragon was the Celtic word for a Chief. This has led to confusion through history where writers refer to a dragon being slain by a knight, and readers confuse the reality of a Celtic chief being killed, with that of a knight battling a massive fire-breathing, winged reptile.
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DRAGON OF WANTLEY

The Dragon of Wantley (Warncliff, Yorkshire) is an English legend about More of More Hall who slayed a monster. The story recounts how More procures a suit of armour studded with spikes and proceeded to the well where the dragon had his lair. Once their, the hero kicked the dragon in his mouth - the only vulnerable part - and killed it.

An explanation for the legend is provided by Dr Percy who says that the 'dragon' was actually an overgrown, rascally attorney, who had cheated some children of their estate, but who was made to disgorge by a gentleman named More, who went against him, armed with the spikes of the law, after which the attorney died of vexation.
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GUY OF WARWICK

Guy of Warwick is an old English metrical romance, whose hero is an Anglo-Danish knight said to have been the son of Siward, baron of Walllingford, to have become Earl of Warwick, and to have slain in single combat the Danish giant Colbrand, the Dun-Cow of Dunsmore, and the dragon of Northumberland, and many other wonderful feats. He is said ultimately to have become a hermit in Warwick.
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ORDER OF THE GARTER

The Order of the Garter (originally known as the Order of St George) is a British dignitary awarded for chivalry. The origin of the order, though sometimes assigned to Richard I, is generally attributed to Edward III, the legend being that the Countess of Salisbury having dropped her garter while dancing, the king restored it, after putting it round his own leg, with the words, which became the motto of the order, 'Honi soit qui mal y pense' - Shame be to him who thinks evil of it. The date of the foundation or restoration by Edward III of the order, as given by Froissart, is 1344, while other authorities, founding on the statutes of the order, assign it to 1350.

The statutes of the order have been repeatedly revised, more particularly in the reigns of Henry V, Henry VIII, Edward VI, and George III in 1805. Ladies are said to have been admitted up until the reign of Edward IV. Until the reign of Edward VI the common title of the order was the
Order of St George, and it still bears this title, as well as that of the Garter. The original number of knights was twenty-six, including the sovereign, who was its permanent head; and this number is still retained, except that by a statute passed in 1786 princes of the blood are admitted as supernumerary members.

The peculiar emblem of the order, the garter, a dark-blue ribbon edged with gold, bearing the motto and with a gold buckle and pendant, is worn on the left leg below the knee. The mantle is of blue velvet, lined with white taffeta, the surcoat and hood of crimson velvet, the hat of black velvet, with plume of white ostrich feathers, having in the centre a tuft of black heron's feathers. The collar of gold consists of knots alternating with garters inclosing roses, with the badge of the order, called the George pendent from it. This consists of a figure of St George on horseback fighting the dragon. The lesser George is worn on a broad blue ribbon over the left shoulder. The star, formerly only a cross, is of silver, and consists of eight points, with the cross of St George in the centre, encircled by the garter. A star is worn by the knights on the left side when not in the dress of the order.

The officers of the order are the prelate, the Bishop of Winchester; the chancellor, the Bishop of Oxford; the registrar, Dean of Windsor; the garter king of arms, and the usher of the black rod. There are a dean and twelve canons, and each knight has a knight-pensioner.
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UNA

Una is the heroine of the first book of Spenser's Faery Queene. She is the personification of truth, and having sought at the court of Gloriana (Queen Elizabeth I) a champion to slay the dragon which keeps her parents prisoner, secures the aid of the Red Cross Knights. They set forth together but get separated by the magic of Archimago, after which Una for a time is accompanied by a lion.
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ZODIAC

The zodiac was the name given by the ancient Greeks to the heavens. It was an imaginary belt in the celestial sphere, extending about 80 degrees on either side of the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun among the stars. The width of the zodiac was determined originally so as to include the orbits of the Sun and Moon and of the five planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) that were known to the people of ancient times.

The zodiac is divided into 12 sections of 300 degrees each, which are called the signs of the zodiac. Starting with the vernal equinox and then proceeding eastward along the ecliptic, each of the divisions is named for the constellation situated within its limits in the second century BC. The names of the zodiacal signs are Aries, the Ram; Taurus, the Bull; Gemini, the Twins; Cancer, the Crab; Leo, the Lion; Virgo, the Virgin; Libra, the Balance; Scorpio, the Scorpion; Sagittarius, the Archer; Capricorn, the Goat; Aquarius, the Water Bearer; and Pisces, the Fish. Because of the precession of the equinoxes about the ecliptic, a 26,000-year cycle, the first point of Aries retrogrades about 10 degrees in 70 years, so that the sign Aries today lies in the constellation Pisces. In about 24,000 years, when the retrogression will have completed the entire circuit of 3600, the zodiacal signs and constellations will again coincide.

It is believed that the zodiacal signs originated in Mesopotamia as early as 2000 BC . The Greeks adopted the symbols from the Babylonians and passed them on to the other ancient civilisations. The Egyptians assigned other names and symbols to the zodiacal divisions. The Chinese also adopted the 12-fold division, but called the signs rat, ox, tiger, hare, dragon, serpent, horse, sheep, monkey, hen, dog, and pig. Independently, the Aztec Indians devised a similar system.
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