From very ancient times there existed a class of persons whose business it was to amuse the rich and noble, particularly at table, by jests and witty sayings. It was, however, during the Middle Ages that this singular vocation became fully developed. The symbols of the court fool were: the shaven crown, the fool's cap of gay colors with asses' ears and cock's comb and bells, the fool's sceptre, and a wide collar. Some of these professional fools obtained an historical reputation, as Triboulet, jester to Francis I. of France; Klaus Narr, at the Court of the Elector Frederic, the Wise of Prussia, and Scogan, court fool to Edward IV. of England. Besides the regular fools, dressed and recognized as such, there was a higher class called merry counsellors, generally men of talent, who availed themselves of the privilege of free speech to ridicule in the most merciless manner the follies and vices of their contemporaries. At a later period, imbecile or weak-minded persons were kept for the entertainment of company. Even ordinary noblemen considered such an attendant indispensable, and thus the system reached its last stage, and toward the end of the seventeenth century it was abolished. It survived longest in Russia, where Peter the Great had so many fools that he divided them into distinct classes.
A Cunning Astrologer.
An astrologer in the reign of Louis XI. of France, having foretold something disagreeable to the king, his majesty, in revenge, resolved to have him killed. The next day he sent for the astrologer and ordered the people about him, at a given signal, to throw him out of the window. The king said to him: "You pretend to be such a wise man, and know so perfectly the fate of others, inform me a little what will be your own, and how long you have to live." The astrologer, who now began to apprehend some danger, promptly answered, with great presence of mind, "I know my destiny, and am sure I shall die three days before your majesty." The king, on this, was so far from having him thrown out of the window, that, on the contrary, he took particular care not to have him want for anything, and did all that was possible to retard the death of one whom he was likely soon to follow.
Stone Barometer.
A Finland newspaper mentions a stone in the northern part of Finland which serves the inhabitants instead of a barometer. This stone, which they call Tlmakiur, turns black, or blackish gray, when it is going to rain; but on the approach of fine weather it is covered with white spots. Probably it is a fossil mixed with clay, and containing rock-salt, nitre or ammonia, which, according to the degree of dampness in the atmosphere, attracts it, or otherwise. In the latter case the salt appears, forming the white spots.
Crinoline in 1744.
Addison, who wrote a good deal about female fashions in the "Spectator," very much ridiculed the hoop-petticoat, which was so large, about the year 1744, that a woman wearing one occupied the space of six men.
Pagoda-shaped Head-dresses.
The head-dresses of the ladies in 1776 were remarkable for their enormous height. Fashion ruled its votaries then as arbitrarily as in our day. The coiffure of a belle of fashion was described as "a mountain of wool, hair, powder, lawn, muslin, net, lace, gauze, ribbon, flowers, feathers and wire." Sometimes these varied materials were built up tier upon tier, like the stages of a pagoda!