Queer questions and ready replies

by Samuel Grant Oliphant

36. When did an American race have recourse to a stratagem similar to the celebrated wooden horse of Troy?

In order to destroy the last settlement of the Northmen in Greenland, “the savages,” says Dr. I. I. Hayes, the famous Arctic explorer, “had recourse to a stratagem worthy to be compared with the celebrated wooden horse of Troy.” Over an immense raft of boats, they constructed an immense scaffolding, and covered it with white sealskins to make it look like an iceberg. Filled with armed men, it floated down the fiord. It was seen by the sentinels and other people of the settlement, but was supposed by them to be nothing more than a harmless mass of ice, till it was run aground near the church. Then the Esquimaux rushed out of it, slaughtered the inhabitants, and destroyed the settlement.

37. Which was the first land discovered by Columbus?

The spot which he first reached was a small island, called by the natives Guanahani, to which Columbus gave the name of San Salvador, the Spanish for Holy Saviour. This was the island now known as Watling Island, as was suggested by Muñoz in 1793, and proved by Mr. R. H. Major in 1870, and not the island now called San Salvador.

38. With whom did the name America originate?

In a paper distinguished for great learning and able criticism, Mr. Major has shown that the word “America” first appeared on the Mappe Monde, drawn by Leonardo da Vinci, and he explains the circumstances which led to its adoption. The first map known to exist with the New World delineated upon it is that drawn by Juan de la Cosa, the pilot of Columbus in his second voyage. This map is dated 1500. Juan de la Cosa was with Ojeda and Vespucci, and afterwards with Ojeda in his last and ill-fated expedition. In May, 1507, just a year after the death of Columbus, one Martin Waldseemuller (Hylacomulus) wrote a book called Cosmographiæ Introductio, to which was appended a Latin edition of the four voyages of Vespucci. In this book, which was published at St. Dié in Lorraine, he proposed that the name America should be given to the New World. In 1508 the first engraved map containing the New World appeared in an edition of Ptolemy printed at Rome, but it does not bear the name of America. But in 1509 the name America, proposed by Hylacomulus in 1507, appears as if it was already accepted as a well-known denomination, in an anonymous work entitled Globus Mundi, published at Strasburg. The Mappe Monde of Leonardo da Vinci, to which Major assigns the date 1514, has the name of America across the South American continent.

39. What was the ancient name of the “ring-finger”?

The fingers, as anciently known, are: thumb; toucher, foreman, or pointer; long man, or long finger; lich-man, or ring-finger; little man, or little finger. The Romans believed that a nerve ran through the ring-finger to the heart. Both they and the Greeks called it the medical finger, and used it for stirring their mixtures, believing that nothing harmful could touch it without despatching a warning to the heart. The notion is said still to exist in some parts of England that salve must not be applied to the flesh or the skin scratched with any but the ring-finger.

40. Who was “The Beautiful Parricide”?

Beatrice Cenci was so called. According to Muratori, her father, Francesco, was twice married, Beatrice being his daughter by the first wife. After his second marriage he treated the children of his first wife in a revolting manner, and was even accused of hiring bandits to murder two of his sons on their return from Spain. The beauty of Beatrice inspired him with the horrible and incestuous desire to possess her person; with mingled lust and hate, he persecuted her from day to day, until circumstances enabled him to consummate his brutality. The unfortunate girl besought the help of her relatives and of Pope Clement VII., but did not receive it, whereupon, in company with her step-mother and her brother, Giacomo, she planned and executed the murder of her unnatural parent. The crime was discovered, and both she and Giacomo were put to the torture. Giacomo confessed, but Beatrice persisted in the declaration that she was innocent. All, however, were condemned, and put to death August, 1599, in spite of efforts made in their behalf.