- A Fool's Dance.—XIV. Century
The fool's dance, or a dance performed by persons equipped in the dresses appropriated to the fools, is very ancient, and originally, I apprehend, formed a part of the pageant belonging to the festival of fools. This festival was a religious mummery, usually held at Christmas time; and consisted of various ceremonials and mockeries, not only exceedingly ridiculous, but shameful and impious. A vestige of the fool's dance, preserved in a MS. in the Bodleian Library, written and illuminated in the reign of king Edward III. and completed in 1344, is copied below. - A Funeral procession in China
- A Game of Snowball
The two little boys are playing at snowball. These lads enjoy a fall of snow, and still better than snowballing they like making a snowman with a charcoal ball for each eye and a streak of charcoal for his mouth. The shoes which they usually wear out of doors are better for a snowy day than your boots, for their feet do not sink into the snow, unless it is deep. These shoes are of wood, and make a boy seem to be about three inches taller than he really is. The shoe, you see, has not laces or buttons, but is kept on the foot by that thong which passes between the first and second toe. The thong is made of grass, and covered with strong paper, or with white or colored calico. The boy in the check dress wears his shoes without socks, but you see the other boy has socks on. - A Gentleman at Arms
A Gentleman at Arms - A gong ringer
- A Greenland Eskimo Fishing
Much of his hunting is done from his canoe or kayak. This is narrow, sharp-pointed at both ends, and light. It consists of a slight framework over which skins are tightly stretched. The opening above is but large enough for him to get his legs and body through. When he has crept in, he ties a collar of skin, that surrounds the opening, about his body, below his arms, to prevent the water dashing into the kayak, and paddles away. His different weapons are all fastened in their proper places on top of the canoe, where he can seize them when wanted. The Eskimo are wonderful boatmen and drive their kayaks over the waves like seabirds. If they tip over, they easily right themselves. - A Group of Lapps
In the northmost part of the Scandinavian Peninsula and Finland live the Lapps. There are probably not more than ten or twelve thousand, all told. They have had much contact with the Finns, and speak a language related to Finnish. In many customs they resemble them. This is not strange, as the land they live in is much the same. - A Gypsy Girl
A gypsy girl lights a gypsy mans cigarette - A Half-Crownation
Great fun was made of this meagre spectacle, as we may see by the satirical sketch, by H. B., entitled, "Going to a Half-Crownation," where the Dukes of Cumberland and Sussex are shown in a hack cab, the King and Queen in a hackney coach, on the box of which sits Lord Chancellor Brougham, bearing the great seal; whilst the omnibus behind contains the Fitzclarences, the King's family by Mrs. Jordan. The peers and peeresses are on foot; first, Lord Grey carrying the Sword of State, then Lord and Lady Durham, and last, Lady Grey. The gentleman on horseback is Mr. Lee, High Bailiff of Westminster. - A Hand Corn Mill
A Hand Corn Mill - A Haymaker
A Haymaker - A home-made chicken coop built on the 'scratching-shed' plan
A chicken coop for grown fowls can be of almost any shape, size, or material, providing that we do not crowd it to more than its proper capacity. The important thing is to have a coop that is dry, easily cleaned and with good ventilation, but without cracks to admit draughts. A roost made of two by four timbers set on edge with the sharp corners rounded off is better than a round perch. No matter how many roosts we provide, our chickens will always fight and quarrel to occupy the top one. Under the roost build a movable board or shelf which may easily be taken out and cleaned. Place the nest boxes under this board, close to the ground. One nest for four hens is a fair allowance. Hens prefer to nest in a dark place if possible. A modern, up-to-date coop should have a warm, windproof sleeping room and an outside scratching shed. A sleeping room should be provided with a window on the south side and reaching nearly to the floor. - A home-made rabbit house
A rabbit hutch or coop is easily built from old packing boxes. One third of the coop should be darkened and made into a nest, with an entrance door outside and the rest simply covered with a wire front, also with a door for cleaning and feeding. The hutch should stand on legs above ground as rabbits do not thrive well in dampness. They will, however, live out all winter in a dry place. A box four feet long and two feet wide will hold a pair of rabbits nicely. Rabbits will become very tame and may often be allowed full liberty about the place if there are no dogs to molest them. The drawing shows a standard type of rabbit hutch. A boy who is handy with tools can easily build one. We can always dispose of the increase in our rabbit family to friends or to dealers. - A Horse baited with Dogs
A manuscript of the fourteenth century, in the Royal Library, contains the following cruel diversion: horse baiting with dogs - A Horse dancing to the Pipe and Tabor
A Horse dancing to the Pipe and Tabor - A Hungarian Ferry
A Hungarian Ferry - A Jamestown Blacksmith Working In A Forge Shop
A blacksmith, James Read by name, was a member of the first group of colonists who planted the Jamestown settlement in 1607. Perhaps he helped forge the small chisels which Captain John Smith mentioned (writing of the month of September, 1607): As yet we have no houses to cover us, our tents were rotten, and our cabbins worse than nought: our best commoditie was iron which we made into little chissels. Many small chisels have been unearthed at Jamestown, and one may wonder whether any were made during the hard autumn of 1607, when the state of the new colony was at such a low ebb. - A Jamestown Cabinetmaker At Work
Virginia in the seventeenth century was a woodsman's paradise, and there is every reason to believe that most of the furniture used in Jamestown houses was made by colonial cabinetmakers. In the forests grew magnificent specimens of oak, walnut, pine, cypress, cedar, maple, and many other varieties; and although contemporary records are scanty, it is believed that the "James Citty" furniture makers made skillful use of such woods. William Strachey, who reached Jamestown in 1610, wrote that the church furniture was made of cedar and black walnut: It [the church] is in length threescore foote, in breadth twenty foure, and shall have a chancell in it of cedar, and a communion table of blake walnut, and all the pewes of cedar, ... a pulpet of the same, with a font hewen hollow, like a canoa.... - A juggler
Preforming tricks with Jars This engraving exhibits a posture-master balancing two large China vases, and throwing himself into most extraordinary attitudes. - A Justing Toy
Persons of `rank` were taught in their childhood to relish such exercises as were of a martial nature, and the very toys that were put into their hands as playthings, were calculated to bias the mind in their favour. On the opposite page the reader will find two views of a knight on horseback, completely equipped for the just; four wheels originally were attached to the pedestal, which has a hole in the front for the insertion of a cord. The knight and his horse are both made with brass; the spear and the wheels are wanting in the original, but the hole in which the spear was inserted, still remains under the right arm, and it is supplied upon the print by something like it placed in the proper situation. This curious figure was probably made in the fifteenth century. The man represented may be readily separated from the horse, and is so contrived as to be thrown backwards by a smart blow upon the top of the shield or the front of his helmet, and replaced again with much ease: two such toys were requisite; each of them having a string made fast in the front of the pedestal, being then placed at a distance in opposition the one to the other, they were violently drawn together in imitation of two knights tilting; and by the concussion of the spears and shields, if dexterously managed, one or both of the men were cast to the ground. - A kafila of slaves
A kafila (caravan) of slaves - A lady and her son
The print is the representation of a Chinese Lady, and her Son. - A Lady at Play
The court of France was, at this period, the most depraved in morals, the grossest and most unpolished in manners, of any in Europe. The women of the bourgeoisie, envious of the great ladies, called them dames à gorge nue; and the latter retaliated by designating the women of the people as grisettes, because of their gray (grises) stockings,—a name retained almost down to the present day. In the sittings of the États Généraux, the President, Miron, complained bitterly of the excesses of the nobility, the contempt for justice, the open violences, the gambling, the extravagance, the constant duels, the "execrable oaths with which they thought it proper to ornament their usual discourse." - A lady of the Harem
A lady of the Harem - A Little Girl of Hainburg
A Little Girl of Hainburg - A Madi village being removed
When Speke, a traveller who discovered one of the sources of the Nile, was returning homeward, and passing through the country of the Madi, near the head of the Albert Nyanza, he saw similar huts to those which I have just described. In one of his books there is an amusing picture of a Madi village removing. The greatest burden is a conical roof, which four men are carrying on their heads. Other men and women are carrying a few sticks or baskets, but the all-important thing is the roof. These roofs are easily lifted from their posts, and Speke once saw a number of Turkish traders take off the roofs of a village without permission, and carry them off to make a camp for themselves. - A man
A man - A Man selling Betel
The practice of smoking tobacco is not more common, at least in the southern provinces of China, than that of chewing the areca nut, mixed with chunam, or lime made of shells, and wrapped up in a leaf of the betel pepper. Indeed this compound masticatory is in universal use throughout all India, the Oriental Islands, Cochin-china, and Tonquin. In addition to the little purse which every Chinese wears suspended from his belt as an appendage to his tobacco pipe and to hold the ingredients for smoking, whether tobacco, or opium, or both, he generally carries another to contain areca nuts broken into small fragments: the other materials, the betel leaf, and chunam are to be met with in every little eating shop, and on almost every stall in the bazar, or market, and are among the most common articles carried about the streets for sale. - A man servant
His dress is pretty nearly that of the class of people to which he belongs. The Chinese are excellent domestic servants and they are invaluable. - A Man with Pipes for sale
The very general use of tobacco throughout the whole extensive empire of China, and the still more extensive regions of Tartary, would seem to contradict the commonly received opinion, that this herb is indigenous only in America. One can hardly suppose that the Chinese, who are so remarkably averse from the introduction of any thing novel, would, in the course of three centuries, have brought the custom of smoking into universal use; yet so it is; men of all ranks and all ages; women, whatever their condition in life may be, and children even of both sexes of eight or ten years of age, are furnished with the necessary apparatus for smoking tobacco. In walking the streets, in almost all the occupations of life, the tobacco pipe is seldom out of the mouth. - A Mandarin
All officers of state, whether civil or military, from the highest to the lowest, have been named by the early Portuguese writers mandarins, from a word in their own language, mandar, to command; and this name, improper as it is, has preserved its ground ever since. The figure of a bird on the embroidered breast-plate of the annexed figure points him out as a civilian. A military officer wears the figure of an animal resembling the tiger. The degree of `rank`, whether civil or military, is marked by a small globe on the top of the cap, opake red coral distinguishing the highest, and brass the lowest `rank`: the intermediate colours are transparent red, opake and transparent blue, opake and transparent white. As a mark of imperial favour, one, two, or three feathers from the tail of the peacock are appended to the back part of the bonnet. All officers, whether civil or military, invariably wear thick-quilted boots, and, when in their court-dresses, embroidered petticoats. Most of them wear chains of coral, or agate, or coloured glass round the neck, as in the annexed figure. - A Mandarin in his common dress
The official habits in which all the mandarins are compelled to appear in public being made of the thickest silk, are exceedingly cumbersome, and not well adapted for the summer months, which are excessively hot even in the most northerly provinces; they therefore in private take every opportunity of throwing off their ceremonial garb, and assume a thin loose gown, tied with a belt round the waist. Their summer-hat is also made of light rice straw. The head is not encumbered with hair, which all ranks and ages shave close off, leaving only a small lock hanging down behind. The use of fans is universal. Even the military, when drawn out on parade-duty, make use of fans. It will be observed in this figure, that the spectacles worn by the Chinese are considerably larger than ours: they are made of cristal, glass being a species of manufacture unknown in China. - A Mandarin of Distinction
The dress of a Chinese is suited to the gravity of his demeanour. It consists, in general, of a long veil: extending to the ankle: the sleeves are wide at the shoulder, are gradually narrower at the wrist, and are rounded off in the form of a horse-shoe, covering the whole hand when it is not lifted up. No man of `rank` is allowed to appear in public without boots which have no heels, and are made of satin, silk, or calico. In full dress, he wears a long silk gown, generally of a blue colour and heavily embroidered; over this is placed a surcoat of silk, which reaches to the hand, and descends below the knee. From his neck is suspended a string of costly coral beads. His cap is edged with satin, velvet, or fur, and on the crown is a red ball with a peacock’s feather hanging from it. These are badges of distinction conferred by the emperor. The embroidered bird upon the breast is worn only by mandarins high in civil `rank`, while the military mandarins are distinguished by an embroidered dragon. All colours are not suffered to be worn indiscriminately. The emperor, and the princes of the blood only, are allowed to wear yellow; although violet colour is sometimes chosen by mandarins of `rank` on days of ceremony. - A mandarin's house
- A Mandarin's Officer
This gentleman is a sort of appendage to a man in power. Some half-dozen of them generally precede a mandarin of `rank` when he goes in procession, but more especially when he attends a tribunal of justice. Their peculiar province seems to be that of keeping off the crowd. The feathers they wear in their tall conical hats are from three to six feet in length, and are apparently the tail feathers of a peculiar species of pheasant, which is represented as very scarce. Some of them wear the tail feathers of the argus pheasant. - A Mandarin's Page
The Picture shows the page or body servant of a mandarin, to carry his papers, his writing apparatus, the cushion on which he sits, or lays his head; he takes care of his areca-box and his tobacco pipe, attends him on all occasions, fans him while asleep; and, if report speaks truth, serves him for other unworthy purposes. Every mandarin has one or more of these kind of boys whom, even in public, they treat with a familiarity which is not quite decorous. The upper vest, worn by the person in the annexed figure, is of fur, which in all the northern provinces is found to be absolutely necessary in the severe cold of the winter months. - A mandarin's servant on horseback
The annexed is a portrait of a true Tartar horse, which seems to be pretty much of the same breed as those of the Cossacks. The Chinese horses are precisely of the same kind. In fact, no pains whatever appear to be taken either for improving the breed, or by attention to their food, cleanliness, or regular exercise, to increase the size, strength, or spirit of the animal. A currycomb, or any substitute for it, is unknown in China. Indeed horses are not much in use. Wherever the nature of the country admits of canals or navigable rivers, travelling and conveyance of every kind are principally performed on the water. - A marriage procession
- A Mediæval Innkeeper
- A Merovingian Queen
A Merovingian Queen - A Mexican Orchestra
- A Military Post
At certain distances, more or less remote according to the nature of the country, along the roads, and the banks of the interior navigations, are placed small parties of soldiers from five or six to a dozen, and sometimes more. They are employed in conveying the public dispatches, and in assisting the magistrates to quell disturbances. The immense army of China is for the most part parcelled out in this way. Near each of these posts is a tall wooden building from whence they can see and communicate by signals with the next stations. The men till the ground, and perform other kinds of labour; but are always expected to turn out in their holiday dress when an embassador or any of their ta-zin or great men happen to pass the station, on which occasion they generally fire three little petards stuck into the ground with the muzzle upwards as a salute. - A monkey
A monkey - A Morai at Kayakakoua
A Morai [sacred place ] at Kayakakoua - A naughty pupil
- A Nautch Girl
The dances of the Nautch Girls consist in sudden transitions. The movement is sometimes slow and graceful; then by a change of the music it becomes all life, and exhibits the most rapid succession of violent actions, the performers twirling round with the velocity of a spinning top, and for such a length of time that it almost makes a person giddy to look at them. - A Nautch Girl, or singing girl
The Nautch girl in the picture was considered one of the most celebrated singers in Bengal. Her voice was extremely sweet, but sung in so low a tone, that it would have been impossible to hear a note unless within a few yards of her; but a powerful voice is not esteemed an excellence in an Indian singer. Each Nautch Girl is attended by her own musicians, who form themselves in a circle behind her, accompanying her voice with their instruments. - A new form of torture
Every mine has its lock-up for malingerers, deserters, and others. At the Witwatersrand the coolies are handcuffed over a horizontal beam. The floor is of concrete, and they may sit down, but the beam is so far from the floor that it is impossible for any but exceptionally tall men to sit while handcuffed. They must therefore squat, and for a change raise themselves in a semi-standing posture. - A Niam-niam girl
The social position of the Niam-niam women differ materially from what is found amongst other negroes in Africa. The Bongo and Mittoo women are on the same familiar terms with the foreigner as the men, and the Monbuttoo ladies are as forward , inquisitive and prying as can be imagined; but the women of the Niam-niam treat every stranger with marked reserve. Whenever I met any women coming along a narrow pathway in the woods or on the steppe, I noticed that they always made a wide circuit to avoid me, and returned into the path further on; and many a time I saw them waiting at a distance with averted face until I had passed by. - A Niam-niam minstrel
A Niam-niam minstrel As the darkness came on. our camp was enlivened by the appearance of the grotesque figure of a singer, who came with a huge bunch of feathers in his hat, and these, as he wagged his head to the time of his music, became all entangled with the braids of his hair. Altogether the head was like the head of Medusa. These "minne-singers" among the Niam-niam as known as "nzangah." They are as sparing of their voices as a worn-out prima donna; except for those close by, it is impossible to hear what they are singing. Their instrument is the local guitar, the thin jingling of which accords perfectly well with the nasal humming of the minstrel's recitative. The occupation of these nzangah, however, notwithstanding the general love of the people for music, would not appear to be held in very high esteem, as the same designation is applied to those unfortunate women, friendless and fallen, who are never absent from any community. - A Nubian Belle
A Nubian Belle - A nursery maid and two children
The annexed are portraits of a female servant, and of a male and female child, which will give a tolerably correct idea of the dresses worn by them respectively. That of the maid servant differs in nothing from her mistress, but in the materials; the latter generally wearing silk, and the one in question cotton. A Chinese woman of the meanest condition would feel herself degraded if not allowed to mutilate her feet. - A Pack Horse
A Pack Horse - A Pagoda
- A Park Orator
Separated from these people by another social gulf, and toward Marble Arch, are the unemployed listening to the park actors and park orators. If you are tall enough to look over the heads of an English crowd you will see in some of these `groups` strolling players at work. In the centre of one group a short, red-faced park orator declares that a Prime Minister has robbed him. - A peep into the sanctum sanctorum 6 June. 1724
- A physician bleeding a patient.
A physician bleeding a patient. (Conjectural sketch by Sidney E. King.) One of the members of the first colony was a surgeon, William Wilkinson by name. As the colony grew, other surgeons, physicians, and apothecaries, emigrated to Virginia. Their lot was not easy, for it appears that they were seldom idle in an island community having more than its share of “cruell diseases, Swellings, Flixes, Burning Fevers, warres and meere famine.” During archeological explorations, drug jars, ointment pots, bleeding bowls, mortars and pestles, small bottles and vials, and parts of surgical instruments were recovered. These, undoubtedly, were used countless times at Jamestown by unknown “chirurgions,” doctors of “physickes,” and apothecaries—men who tried to keep the colonists well with their limited medical equipment and scant supply of drugs. - A Porter carrying goods
A Porter carrying goods - A Posture-Master.—XIV. Century
The display of his abilities consisted in twisting and contorting his body into strange and unnatural attitudes. This art was, in doubt, practised by the jugglers in former ages; and a singular specimen of it, delineated on the last mentioned Bodleian MS., in the reign of Edward III., is here represented. The performer bends himself backwards, with his head turned up between his hands, so as nearly to touch his feet; and in this situation he hangs by his hams upon a pole, supported by two of his confederates. - A prepared drawing of the plat of a survey made for William Sherwood at Jamestown in 1680
A prepared drawing of the plat of a survey made for William Sherwood at Jamestown in 1680. “Roades” indicates the course of the “Greate Road” that connected the town with the mainland. On the left the isthmus that joined the “Island” to Glasshouse Point is shown.