Gymnosophist

“ They gleaned from the Mahometan religion, the relics of the Grecian philosophy, and the reveries of the Indian Gymnosophists, materials for an insensate doctrine, which rather encouraged than checked the passions. The Sofis have a book called Gulshen-raz, the mysterious garden, containing their opinions on theology, philosophy, and morals. As secrecy is the first precept of their order, it is difficult to ascertain its principles. It is said, however, that their doctrine is founded on that of Pythagoras; that they acknowledge one only essence, and believe in the transmigration of souls. ”

“ The Gymnosophists through their leader Sisimithres refused to witness human sacrifice and foretold that this one would never be consummated. Chariclea begged 75 them to stay and hear her case. (She had recognized Sisimithres’ name as that of the one who had given her to Charicles at Catadupa) . ”

“ Near this another tent was erected, raised considerably from the ground, in which were placed the images of the gods of the country—Memnon, Perseus, and Andromeda—whom the kings of Ethiopia boasted to be the founders of their race: under these, on a lower story, having their gods above them, sat the Gymnosophists. A large portion of the ground was surrounded by the soldiers; who in close order, and with their shields joined, kept off the multitude, and afforded a clear space sufficient for the priests to perform their sacrifice, without confusion or disturbance. ”

“ Most men have no inclination, no rapids, no cascades, but marshes, and alligators, and miasma instead. We read that when in the expedition of Alexander, Onesicritus was sent forward to meet certain of the Indian sect of Gymnosophists, and he had told them of those new philosophers of the West, Pythagoras, Socrates, and Diogenes, and their doctrines, one of them named Dandamis answered, that “They appeared to him to have been men of genius, but to have lived with too passive a regard for the laws.” The philosophers of the West are liable to this rebuke still. ”

“ We are not Indian Brahmins or Gymnosophists, who dwell in woods and exile themselves from ordinary human life. We do not forget the debt of gratitude we owe to God, our Lord and Creator; we reject no creature of His hands, though certainly we exercise restraint upon ourselves, lest of any gift of His we make an immoderate or sinful use. ”

“ Plainly here the Essenes are pronounced of the same faith as the Gymnosophists of India, who abstain from the bloody sacrifice, that is the Buddhists.
I will now jot hastily down the points of contact between one of these monasteries described by Philo and a Buddhist monastery. In the centre is the sanctuary. Round it, in an enclosure "four square," are ranged the cells of the monks. The monks in Thibet, according to the Abbé Huc, may be divided into three categories. ”

“ This species of gymnotus is about five or six feet in length. It is powerful enough to kill the largest animals when it discharges 18its nervous organs at one shock in a favourable direction. It was once found necessary to change the line of road from Uritucu across the Steppe, owing to the number of horses which, in fording a certain rivulet, annually fell a sacrifice to these gymnoti, which had accumulated there in great numbers. All other species of fish shun the vicinity of these formidable creatures. ”

“ The members of Gymnopus are adapted to a great variety of habitats, and therefore may contain much ecological diversity in terms of local adaptation ( [6] ) . However, in comparison to highly divergent taxa such as P. decaryi, each individual Gymnopus taxon represents a very small proportion of the total phylogenetic diversity of Pachypodium. In light of the always-limited resources available for conservation, an effort should be made to prioritize the protection of phylogenetically divergent lineages of Pachypodium as well as the overall genetic diversity of the genus. ”

“ Gymnotuses are plentiful enough both in the Amazon and its tributaries; and it was one of these living coils, about ten feet long, which, after uncurving itself like a bow, again attacked the diver.
Benito knew what he had to fear from this formidable animal. His clothes were powerless to protect him. The discharges of the gymnotus, at first somewhat weak, become more and more violent, and there would come a time when, exhausted by the shocks, he would be rendered powerless. ”

“ Resinous substances, glass, very dry wood, horn, and even bones, which are generally believed to be good conductors, prevent the action of the gymnoti from being transmitted to man. I was surprised at not feeling the least shock on pressing wet sticks of sealing-wax against the organs of the fish, while the same animal gave me the most violent strokes, when excited by means of a metallic rod. M. Bonpland received shocks, when carrying a gymnotus on two cords of the fibres of the palm-tree, which appeared to us extremely dry. A strong discharge makes its way through very imperfect conductors. ”

“ The Gymnosomata are carnivorous, feeding on Thecosomata and other pelagic animals, being provided for this purpose with a formidable buccal armature of hook-sacs and suckers. The intestine, as usual in carnivorous groups, passes straight from the stomach to the anus; the fins are not attached to the head, but to the anterior part of the body. The larva has a straight shell, which disappears in the adult. About 21 species are known, belonging to 7 genera. ”

“ The posterior end of the organ is positive, the anterior negative, and the current passes from the tail to the head. The maximum shock is given when the head and tail of the Gymnotus are in contact with different points in the surface of some other animal. Gymnotus electricus attains a length of 3 ft. and the thickness of a man’s thigh, and frequents the marshes of Brazil and the Guianas, where it is regarded with terror, owing to the formidable electrical apparatus with which it is provided. ”

“ They acted from a distance; that is to say, their electrical shock passed through a very thick stratum of water. We need not be surprised that what was observed in Sweden, on a single gymnotus only, we could not perceive in a great number of individuals in their native country. The electric action of animals being a vital action, and subject to their will, it does not depend solely on their state of health and vigour. A gymnotus that has been kept a long time in captivity, accustoms itself to the imprisonment to which it is reduced ”

“ It is a very remarkable fact that no Gymnospermous tree inhabits the Peninsula of India; not even the genus Podocarpus, which includes most of the tropical Gymnosperms, and is technically coniferous, and has glandular woody fibre; though like the yew it bears berries. Two species of this genus are found in the Khasia, and one advances as far west as Nepal. The absence of oaks and of the above genera (Podocarpus and Pinus) is one of the most characteristic differences between the botany of the east and west shores of the Bay of Bengal. ”

“ It depends upon the gymnotus to direct its action towards the point where it finds itself most strongly irritated. The discharge is then made at one point only, and not at the neighbouring points. If two persons touch the belly of the fish with their fingers, at an inch distance, and press it simultaneously, sometimes one, sometimes the other, will receive the shock. In the same manner, when one insulated person holds the tail of a vigorous gymnotus, and another pinches the gills or pectoral fin, it is often the first only by whom the shock is received. ”

“ A third sub-division of the Gymnosperms, the Ginkgoales, is represented by a single survivor, which is described in a later chapter as one of the most remarkable links with the past in the plant kingdom.
The Gymnosperms are geologically very much older than the Angiosperms. Members of this class played a prominent part in the vegetation of the Coal age and it is certain that they existed in the still older Devonian period. ”

“ The gymnoti and the torpedos then cause a twitching of the muscles, which is propagated from the part that rests on the electric organs, as far as the elbow. We seem to feel, at every stroke, an internal vibration, which lasts two or three seconds, and is followed by a painful numbness. Accordingly, the Tamanac Indians call the gymnotus, in their expressive language, arimna, which means something that deprives of motion. ”

“ The Gnomes, having no employment on the golf-links, had recently broken out of their compound and found their way into Eswareinmal, where they made themselves very much at home. They quartered themselves on several of the householders, and, having discovered that cooked food was more palatable than earth, they had no diffidence in helping themselves. In other respects they were inoffensive and inclined to be sociable, but, even in Märchenland, the most harmless and playful Yellow Gnome is not considered a desirable addition to any respectable family. ”

“ Gymnoplea.—First segment of hind-body footless, bearing the orifices of the genital organs (in the male unsymmetrically placed) ; last foot of the fore-body in the male a copulatory organ; neither, or only one, of the first pair of antennae in the male geniculating; cephalic limbs abundantly articulated and provided with many plumose setae; heart generally present. Animals usually free-living, pelagic (Giesbrecht and Schmeil) .
This group, with 65 genera and four or five hundred species, is divided by Giesbrecht into tribes: (a) Amphaskandria. ”

“ See Cuvier's Regne Animal volume 2. But the genus Torpedo, very different from that of the rays properly so called, has numerous species in the equatorial seas; and it is probable that there exist several gymnoti specifically different. The Indians mentioned to us a black and very powerful species, inhabiting the marshes of the Apure, which never attains a length of more than two feet, but which we were not able to procure. The raton of the Rio de la Magdalena, which I have described under the name of Gymnotus aequilabiatus (Observations de Zoologie volume 1) forms a particular sub-genus. ”

“ The mules and horses appear less frightened; their manes are no longer bristled, and their eyes express less dread. The gymnoti approach timidly the edge of the marsh, where they are taken by means of small harpoons fastened to long cords. When the cords are very dry the Indians feel no shock in raising the fish into the air. In a few minutes we had five large eels, most of which were but slightly wounded. Some others were taken, by the same means, towards evening.
The temperature of the waters in which the gymnoti habitually live, is from 26 to 27 degrees. ”

“ The gymnotus grows to six feet in length, and one of this size must be a more dangerous creature, if one happens to run up against it, than a man-eating tiger or a rogue elephant. Its habits are sluggish, as one might expect, for it has no need to get out of the way of anything, and it is a good deal easier for it to kill its prey by lying still in the mud, and allowing it to touch it, than it would be to pursue a fish, for instance, and rub up against it in the water. ”

“ Additional molecular phylogenetic work will be required to obtain better support for basal-branching relationships in Pachypodium, particularly the relationship between African and Malagasy species. This work will likely require the sequencing of additional loci, from both the chloroplast and nuclear genome. Resolution of relationships among species from [6] ’s ( [6] ) section Gymnopus will also require additional work. In Gymnopus, a number of widespread species (e.g., P. densiflorum and P. brevicaule) are non-monophyletic. ”

“ By some it is said to have been coined by Paracelsus (so Hatzfeld and Darmesteter, Dictionnaire) , who uses Gnomi as a synonym of Pygmaei, from the Greek γνώμη, intelligence. The New English Dictionary, however, suggests a derivation from genomus, i.e. a Greek type γηνόμος, “earth-dweller,” on the analogy of θαλασσονόμος, “dwelling in the sea,” adding, however, that though there is no evidence that the term was not used before Paracelsus, it is possibly “a mere arbitrary invention, like so many others found in Paracelsus” (N.E.D. s.v.) . ”

“ Body scaly: Carapus.
b. Body naked; an electric organ: Gymnotus.
The mouth is small or very small, and the modifications of the snout in the genera Sternarchus and Rhamphichthys recall those noticed among the Mormyridae. The air-bladder is divided into an anterior and a posterior part, united by a slender duct. [659] The vertebrae vary in number from 70 (Sternopygus) to 240 (Gymnotus) . Gymnotus is unique in this sub-order in having as many as 8 pterygials (actinosts) to the pectoral fin, as in Anguilla.
{580}
Fig. ”

“ So Hinpoha started out after Medmangi and Nakwisi and I went back home after these apples, which I’d forgotten to take along to Hinpoha’s. When I got to the corner of the street along came Gladys in the Glow-worm and said she had an errand to do for her mother in a hurry and we had better come straight out here without her and she would come later. I hurried over to Mrs. Varden’s house to tell the girls, but when I got nearly there I saw a black car standing out in front and Hinpoha and Nakwisi and Medmangi sitting in it as cool as cucumbers, thinking they were in the Glow-worm. ”

“ Gymnura [368] is also a Malayan form with the complete dentition of the last, but with fifteen pairs of ribs and a longer tail, consisting of twenty-three vertebrae as against fourteen. There is, as with Hylomys, but one species, G. rafflesii. This animal has a peculiar odour, resembling decomposed cooked vegetables. {510}The under surface of the tail is rough, and it is thought by Dr. Blanford that it may be of use to the animal in climbing. ”