Book Five : Chapter Two
Ye
Olde Worlde
| The formula for cold cream has hardly changed at all in the 1,700 years since it was originally made by the Roman physician Galen. |
In 1500 B.C. in Egypt a shaved head was considered the
ultimate in feminine beauty. Egyptian women removed every
hair from their heads with special gold tweezers and polished
their scalps to a high sheen with buffing cloths.
|
| In ancient China and certain parts of India, mouse meat was considered a great delicacy. |
In ancient Greece, where the mouse was sacred to Apollo, mice
were sometimes devoured by temple priests.
|
| In the marriage ceremony of the ancient Inca Indians of Peru, the couple was considered officially wed when they took off their sandals and handed them to each other. |
In 1400 B.C. it was the fashion among rich Egyptian women to place
a large cone of scented grease on top of their heads and keep it
there all day. As the day wore on, the grease melted and dripped
down over their bodies, covering their skin with an oily, glistening
sheen and bathing their clothes in fragrance.
|
|
The Inca Indians of Peru considered bridges to be so sacred
that anyone who tampered with one was put to death. Among
the most impressive Inca bridges were the chacas, or rope bridges,
that spanned great distances over gorges and rivers. They were
made of braided grasses woven together into a single cable as
thick as a man's body, and they were often as much as 175 feet long.
It took as many as a thousand people to build such a bridge, and many of these remarkable structures lasted more than 500 years. |
In eighteenth-century England, women's wigs stood as much as four
feet high. These remarkable head-dresses were dusted with flour
and decorated with stuffed birds, replicas of gardens, plates of
fruit, or even model ships.
Sometimes the wigs were so elaborate that they were worn continuously for several months, the owners unable - or unwilling - to disassemble the wig every evening and reassemble it every morning. They were matted with lard to keep them from coming apart, which made mice and insects a constant problem. Special pillows had to be constructed to hold these giant creations, and rat-resistant caps made of wire were common. The wig craze died out quite suddenly in 1795, when a hair-powder tax made their upkeep too expensive. |
|
In the early 19th century the words "trousers" and "pants" were
considered obscene in England. Women therefore referred to trousers
as "inexpressibles" or "a pair of dittoes." Later in the century the
taboo was carried to such lengths that piano legs were covered up
because they reminded people of their human legs.
This peculiar trait led Charles Dickens in 1836 to wrote the following lines in Oliver Twist: "I tossed off the clothes, got safely in bed, drew on a pair of ________." "Ladies present, Mr. Giles," murmured the tinker. "_________ of shoes, Sir," said Mr. Giles, laying great emphasis on the word. | |
|
| |
