A calumet is a kind of pipe used by the American Indians for smokingtobacco. Its bowl is usually of soft red soapstone, and the tube a long reed ornamented with feathers. The calumet was used in the ratification of all solemn engagements, both of war and peace. To accept the calumet was to accept the proposed agreement, and to reject it was to reject the agreement. Research Calumet
Hieroglyphics (so called from the Greek hieros, sacred, and glypho, I engrave), is a term originally applied to the inscriptions sculptured on buildings in Egypt, in the belief that the writing was confined to sacred subjects, and legible only to the priests. The term has also been applied to picture-writing in general, such as that of the Mexicans and the still ruder pictures of the North American Indians.
Three different modes of writing were used by the ancient Egyptians, the Hieroglyphic, the Hieratic, and the Demotic. Pure hieroglyphic writing is the earliest, and consists of figures of material objects from every sphere of nature and art, with certain mathematical and arbitrary symbols. Next was developed the hieratic or priestly writing, the form in which most Egyptian literature is written, and in which the symbols almost cease to be recognizable as figures of objects. Hieratic writings of the third millennium BC are extant. In the demotic or enchorial writing, derived directly from the hieratic, the symbols are still more obscured. The demotic was first used in the 9th century BC, and was chiefly employed in social and commercial intercourse.
Down to the end of the 18th century scholars failed to find a clue to the hieroglyphic writings. In 1799, however, Bouchard, a French captain of engineers, discovered at Rosetta the celebrated stone which afforded European scholars a key to the language and writing of the ancient Egyptians. It contained a trilingual inscription in hieroglyphics, demotic characters, and Greek, which turned out
to be a decree of the priests in honour of Ptolemy V, issued in 195 BC. The last paragraph of the Greek inscription stated that two translations, one in the sacred and the other in the popular Egyptian language, would be found adjacent to it.
The discovery of an alphabet was the first task. The demotic part of the inscription was first examined by De Sacy and Akerblad, and the signification of a number of the symbols ascertained. The hieroglyphic part was next carefully examined and compared with the demotic and Greek. At last after much study Champollion and Dr. Thomas Young, independently of each other, discovered the method of reading the characters in 1822, and thus provided a clue to the decipherment of the ancient Egyptian writing.
Hieroglyphic characters are either ideographic, i.e. using well-known objects as symbols of conceptions, or phonetic, i.e. representing words by symbols standing for their sounds. The phonetic signs are again divided into alphabetical signs and syllabic signs. Many of the ideographic characters are simple enough; thus the figure of a man, a woman, a calf, indicate simply those objects. Others, however, are less simple, and convey their meaning figuratively or symbolically.
Water was expressed by three zigzag lines, one above the other, to represent waves or ripples of running water, milk by a milk-jar, oil by an oil-jar, fishing by a pelicanseizing a fish, i.e. fishing; seeing and sight by an eye; and so on.
The nature of the phonetic hieroglyphs, which represent simply sounds are more diffuclt to explain. Characters represent sounds, thus a picture of a knee represents a K sound. A lioncouchant represents the L sound. A reed represents the E sound The reed is doubled to represents the diphthong 'ai'. A noose represents the O sound. A mat represents the P sound. An eagle represents the A sound. The hand represents the T sound. A semicircle is found at the end of feminine proper names, and is the Coptic feminine article T.
The researches of Champollion satisfied him of the existence of homophones, or characters having the same phonetic value and which might be interchanged in writing proper names. The mouth, represents the R sound. The egg is found at the end of proper names of women, and is a feminine affix. The hook represents the S sound Vowels were only regarded by the Egyptians as they were needed to avoid ambiguous writing.
There are groups of hieroglyphs of which one element is an ideographic sign, to which a phonetic complement is added to indicate the pronunciation of the ideographic sign. The words of a text could be written in hieroglyphs in three ways: 1. By phonetic hieroglyphs, 2. By ideographic hieroglyphs; and 3, by a combination of both. According to Ebers, in the perfected system of hieroglyphics the symbols for sounds and syllables are to be regarded as the foundation of the writing, while symbols for ideas are interspersed with them, partly to render the meaning more intelligible, and partly for ornamental purposes, or with a view to keep up the mystic character of the hieroglyphics. Research Hieroglyphics
The Cuckoo (Cuculus) is a scansorial or climbing bird, the type of the family Cuculidae, now almost extinct in Britain. The note from which it derives its name is a love-call used only in the mating season. The greater number of species belonging to the genus are confined to hot countries, more especially India and Africa, though some are summer visitants of colder climates. In America no true cuckoos are found, the genus Coccyzus, to which the so-called American Cuckoo belongs, differing very essentially from them in its habits. The species best known in Europe, the Cuculus canorus, is a bird about the size of a small pigeon, though the length of the tail gives it at a little distance a strong resemblance to a hawk.
The adult bird is ashy-grey in colour, with a white breast barred across with narrow lines of grayish black; tail spotted and barred with white; bill black, touched at the gape with yellow; eyes and feet yellow. It appears in England about the middle of April, and in May begins to deposit its eggs in the nests of other species, giving the preference to those of the hedge-sparrow, meadow-pipit, or pied wagtail. The young Cuckoo ejects from the nest its young companions, and monopolizes the attentions of its foster-parents, which feed it for about five weeks after it is fledged. The young birds do not leave the country until the end of August or even September; but the adult birds commence their flight southward in July or at latest early in August. Their food consists largely of caterpillars (especially hairy ones), Cuckoos are one of only three species of birds that eat Cinnabar Moth caterpillars, with cockchafers, moths, dragon-flies, and other insects.
The female Cuckoo lays six or eight eggs, and each is placed in a different nest, by means of the bird's bill, as has been ascertained, being first deposited on the ground. Different strains of Cuckoo utilise different species of bird, each strain concentrating only on one species, and laying an egg which is identical in appearance to the eggs of the host species. Thus, one British strain of Cuckoo targets the nest of Reed Warblers only, and lays an egg identical in appearnce to that laid by the Reed Warbler, and it is possibly this factor which enables the Cuckoo chick to remain being cared for by its adoptive parents, even though the chick may grow many times larger than its parents. Research Cuckoo
Donax (Arundo donax)is a species of grass or reed inhabiting the southern parts of Europe; it grows to a great height and was formerly used for fishing-rods, etc. Research Donax
Emberizidae is a family of small birds belonging to the order Insessores and tribe Conirostres, typical genus Emberzza. It includes the buntings, the snow-flake, the yellow-hammer, and reedsparrow. The ortolan belongs to this family. By some naturalists they are classified as a sub-family of the finches. Research Emberizidae
The Reed Leopard (Phragmataecia castaneae) is a moth of the family Cossidae with a wing span of between 27 and 50 mm found in warmer parts of Europe and Asia flying from May to September at night. Research Reed Leopard
Thryogenes (formerly Erirrhinus) is a genus of Snout Beetles (Curculionidae) represented by three British species that live on reed-grasses in swampy locations. Research Thryogenes
Turmeric (Curcuma) is a perennial, reed-like plant of the ginger family native to India. The roots are hard and resinous and when ground yield a yellow powder with a marked aromatic odour which forms the base of curry powder and has been used as a dye in India and China for colouring silks, though it is not fast in light. Research Turmeric
Abbreviations
Research Calumet
