Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Japanese Comparisons

1895

The Japanese are apt at queer comparisons. A dolphin is always represented in sculpture as diving, head downward. So a man "walking dolphin" is either standing or falling on his head. A man with protruding teeth is called yamazakura, after the cherry tree, which puts forth its "ha" (leaves) before its "hana" (flowers), the same words meaning teeth and nose. A yamazakura man, therefore, carries his teeth before his nose. — New York Recorder.


The Growing Boy Ahead of the Anaconda

"I used to think," said Mr. Billtops, "that the anaconda did a wonderful thing when it ate at one meal enough for a dozen meals, even though it slept a month afterward. But, goodness! my oldest boy eats the anaconda's meal and then sleeps only one night." — Exchange.


Trivia

Camlet was first made in England during the reign of Elizabeth. It was so called not, as some suppose, from its being made of camel's hair, but from the river Camlet, in Montgomeryshire, on which the first factory was located.

During the reign of Vitellius lions from Africa were worth nearly $100 each.

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