Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1854-12-09
miscellaneous
GEOLOGICAL ERRORS.

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In days of yorc, when geological establishments
were not, the wisdom of our ancestors, strugglingl
not to prevent them from believing strange things,
and setting them forth to the world in all sim.
rlicity, finding credence for the must wonderful
assertions in the eager minds of the cravers after
knowledge. What would the youngest visitant
uf the Surrey or the Regents Park ray to I've told
that his inhexiblc and familiar friend the elephant
who kncels down that lie may mount to the pa
vilion on his back, has no joints? Aud yet Arts.
tpttle, DiodOrus. Strabo, Cassiodorus, and many
ether learned Thebans, with ancient honored
names, believed this to be the case, and thus ex-
press their conviction: 'Itc elephant having no
joints, is obliged to sleep standing; the hunters,
therefore cut the tree AGAINST which the animal
leans, as being once down he cannot rise again.
No sooner does this animal hear IA pig grurt than
ho takes to flight in the utmost terror"
LILLIAN asserts that he had seen nm elephant write
a%leiter. and another sage declares that he had
heard him speak! One could almost believe either
act Of our sasAcious friend, but still we are forced
to stipulate for an all-but.
a horse aud u pigeon were believed to have no
gall, but Piiny is caught tripping when, after
asserting this, he goes ON tn BAY that the gall OF
Il horse is poison F.! As for the pigeon, it was
thought p~rofane to disbelievc this omission of ma
ture in favor of II bird which has been chosen as
asymbol of all that was pure, gentle, and holy
With respect to our old friend the badger, he is
described by no less u philosopher than Albertus
MaSnus as having his legs shorter on one side
than on the other-although he adds, despair
ingly, it is impossible to prove il! Aldrovandus,
who agrees in the poor badgers defective forma-
ton, inserts Il saving clause by remarking, this
inequality (which would make him more splendid
than II badger isl cannot be observed. lie also
doubts that tho bear produces her cubs without
form and void, and begins Immediately to lick
them into shape, although such was the received
opinion in his day. l hardly dare to trust myself
to talk about singing swans, which were laid to
become melodiOus just before their death, and
thought by some naturalists to have very good
voices at all times, but to sing in places where no
one could hear them. Aldrovandus tells US in his
word that the swans on the banks of tn eThames
sing beautifully. Has any one, on a swan-hopping
expedition, ever heard them! The same authors
relate that the peacock is always uneasy in his
mind about the ugliness of his feet, and screams
when he looks at them. This superstition has
been useful to the poets Of the East, who intro
Gucc the fact into their verses, adding that the de-
tormity arose from the peacock having made
friends with the serpent of Eden, and combined
with that enemy of mankind against our first pa
rents. Sto-ks were generally believed to inhabit
OILY free countries, being thorough republicans in
their politics.
In the matter of the basilisk, salamander, and
phenix. although acknowledged to 0 rare crea.
lures, they were blieved TO exist as well as SER
penis having a head at each end but they seem
to have been abandoned rs mere hieroglyphics, or
chemical essence, ut an early period. The wolf
heS - WY III ~ lAfNS DNfN'N ~ 'NL' SA = NNf AH' I
ing his shape to witches and wizards, who found
pleasure in roaming about in his skin. Whoever
came upon a wolf ~unawares, and was seen first
by the animal, became Immediately dumb, as
many a classic poet has told us. without mention.
ing Virgil himself. This was brought about per-
haps on the same principle as those which made
the shadow of the hyena fatal to the voices of
dogs. Pliny is the authority for dogs always
losing their voices under its influence.
If there are such creatures as gryphona, who
were said to guard mines of gold, we have II chance
now of being able to describe them accurately,
from the observation of those naturalists who visit
California and Melbourne. Fuseli, in one Of his
singular pictures, represented one-we know not
from what authority an Arimaspian, in
illustration of n line of Milton. Both the actors
in his drama are sufficiently hidcous, and it would
be difficult to decide upon the species of either.
To judge by the long legs of the felonious Ari-
maspian, who had stolen some gold and been
found out by the gryphon, that native had no oc-
casion for the leaden soles to his boots which We're
necessary to the pigmies to prevent those little be
ings Of a foot high from being carried off in n high
wind. When mounted on p~artidges and engaged
in battle against their enemies, the cranes, this
small folk must have presented an animated mi
croscopic appearance. | thought we had caught
p pigmy at last in our late Aztec visitors. but it
appears that Central America has since repudiated
seek for specimens of the race in vain, except in
the dog-drawn caravan of my artful friend the self
asserted professor of the ultra-splendid badger,
which is responsible FOR these House
hold Words.