17. What Oriental town is called the “Mother of Cities”?
Mecca, one of the oldest towns of Arabia, the capital of the province of Hedjaz, and, through being the birthplace of Mohammed, the central and most holy city of all Islam, is, on this account, called by the Arabs Om Al Kora, the “Mother of Cities.”
This title is also given by the native population to Balkh, in Central Asia, formerly a great city, but now for the most part a mass of ruins. This is a city of great antiquity, and was at an early date a rival of Nineveh and Babylon.
18. What seed was supposed to render its possessor invisible, and why?
Plants were once thought to impart their own characteristics to the wearer. Thus the herb-dragon was thought to cure the bite of serpents; wood-sorrel, which has a heart-shaped leaf, to cheer the heart; liver-wort, to benefit the liver, etc. Certain kinds of ferns have seeds so minute as to be invisible to the naked eye, and, carried about the person, were supposed to confer invisibility. Shakespeare says, “We have the receipt of fern-seed; we walk invisible.” (1 Henry IV., Act II., 1.)
19. What king prided himself on being the best cook in his country?
Louis XV. (1710–1774), the grandson of Louis XIV., is said to have boasted of being the best cook in France, and to have been much pleased when the courtiers ate eagerly of the dishes which he had prepared.
20. What island was discovered by two lovers?
There is a story to the effect that two lovers, Robert Machim and Anna d’Arfet, fleeing from England to France in 1346, were driven out of their course by a violent storm, and cast on the coast of Madeira at the place subsequently named Machico, in memory of one of them. The truth of this romantic story has recently been demonstrated by Mr. Major.
21. Where is the “Fat Man’s Misery”?