Leucadia

“ Probably these humane precautions were a mitigation of an earlier custom of flinging the scapegoat into the sea to drown, just as in Kumaon the custom of letting a man slide down a rope from the top of a cliff appears to be a modification of an older practice of putting him to death. The Leucadian ceremony took place at the time of a sacrifice to Apollo, who had a temple or sanctuary on the spot.610 Elsewhere it was customary to cast [pg 255] a young man every year into the sea, with the prayer, “Be thou our offscouring.” ”

“ Even the dissolute Suitors cannot be dismissed from life, without our being called to accompany their spirits past the Leucadian rock to the place of their destination. The warriors slain in battle with the Cicones are thrice invoked by the survivors [343] . ”

“ Arnold rejects the Leucadian rock legend as well as the alleged Phaon episode. His translation of the immortal hymn into English Sapphic metre is easily the best up to the time of its appearance, and is only rivalled by that of J. A. Symonds, first printed in Wharton’s edition of the poetess. The rhythm and the majestic lyrical qualities of the original are preserved in this rendering, but naturally something must be lost by the transfer of such a masterpiece from its original into any language. Arnold also gives translations of nine other fragments, and adds a number of illuminating comments. ”

“ The whipping with squills and figwood was intended to stimulate the reproductive energies of the φαρμακός, who represented the god of vegetation, annually slain to be born again. It is agreed that an actual human sacrifice took place on this occasion, replaced in later times by a milder form of expiation. Thus at Leucas a criminal was annually thrown from a rock into the sea as a scapegoat: but his fall was checked by live birds and feathers attached to his person, and men watched below in small boats, who caught him and escorted him beyond the boundary of the city. ”

“ The portion of this volume devoted to Sappho has a sub-title thus: “Odes of Sappho done from Greek by Mr. A. Philips,” and there is a so-called life of Sappho occupying four pages, chiefly devoted to a somewhat fantastic exposition of the Leucadian legend. The translations themselves have already been noticed. It was some years after this before another translation of the poetess appeared in English. In 1735 John Addison published an edition of Anacreon and Sappho, in which at the end there is a section devoted to the works of the poetess. ”

“ Clodio handed out the money, tempted by the hope of obtaining, at half its value, so cozy a nest in which to end his bachelor existence. In the evening Leocadia asked Segundo to show her the manuscript of his poems and to read [pg 259] some of them to her. Frequent mention was made in them, with reticences and transparent allusions, of certain blue flowers, of the murmur of a pine wood, of a precipice, and of various other things which Leocadia knew well were not inventions, but had their explanation in past, and to her unknown, events. ”

“ Leocadia did not dare to go herself, fearing to yield to the entreaties and melt before the prayers of the child, but where palpitated those fibers of her heart which still bled, and which Flores wrung with torture by her account of the sufferings of Minguitos, who declined visibly in health, and who always complained that they made sport of him in the shop and cast up his deformity to him.
Unsolvable mysteries of the human heart! ”

“ Leocadia, once they were in the diligence, tried to convince the boy that the change was for his good; describing to him the pleasant life that awaited him in that fine shop situated in the most central part of Orense, which was so lively, where he would have very little to do, and where he had the hope of earning, if not to-day, to-morrow, a little money for himself. At her first words the boy fixed on his mother his astonished eyes, in which a look of intelligence gradually began to dawn. Minguitos was quick of comprehension. ”

“ The fire burned with astounding rapidity. In its flames were consumed, first her honorable resolution to efface by the blamelessness of her conduct the stigma of the past, then her strong and deep maternal affection. Not for an instant did the thought present itself to Leocadia's mind that Segundo could ever be her husband; although both were free the difference in their ages and the intellectual superiority of the young poet placed an insurmountable barrier in the way of the aspirations of the schoolmistress. She fell in love as into an abyss, and looked neither before nor behind. ”

“ She had lived in it now for more than thirteen years, observing the most exemplary conduct, watching day and night over Minguitos, and living with the utmost frugality in order to rebuild the dilapidated house, which she had finally succeeded in doing shortly before her meeting with Segundo. Leocadia was a [pg 017] woman of notably industrious habits; in her wardrobe she had always a good supply of linen, in her parlor bamboo furniture with a rug before the sofa, grapes, rice, and ham in her pantry, and carnations and sweet basil in her windows. Minguitos was always as neat as a new pin ”

“ These authors seem to [22] have treated lepra and psora like the Greeks, by bleeding, melanogogues, and abstergent applications to the skin, such as the two hellebores, lime, lupines, &c.
In the translation of Haly Abbas, leuce is correctly described by the name of lepra. It is represented as a whiteness sometimes affecting the whole body, and it is said to be occasioned by debility of the assimilative faculty. When the hairs are white, and the skin does not bleed when pricked with a lancet or needle, the disease is incurable. ”

“ It seems that the affair would cost a fortune. No publisher will buy verses or even share with the author the expense of publishing them."
Leocadia answered only by a smile. The little parlor had a look of homelike comfort. Although winter had despoiled the balcony of its charms, turning the sweet basil yellow and withering the carnations, within, the hissing of the coffee-pot, the alcoholic vapor of the punch, the quietude, the solicitous affection of the schoolmistress, all seemed to temper and soften the atmosphere. Segundo felt a pleasant drowsiness stealing over him. ”

“ Intergradation between N. a. subsolana and N. a. leucodon occurs at lower elevations on the west side of the Sierra Madre Oriental as shown by specimens from nine miles southwest of Tula, Tamaulipas, and Sierra Guadalupe, Coahuila, from which places some specimens are paler than others, approaching leucodon in color, and are slightly larger than typical subsolana. Specimens assigned to leucodon from vicinity of Presa Guadalupe and from 1 to 6 kilometers south of Matehuala, San Luis Potosí, are typical of that subspecies in measurements but are darker than topotypes. ”

“ The expansion of the wings is 11⁄2 inches. The fore-wings are dull ochreous, with the veins obscurely indicated by black and white dots; there is a curved series of minute black dots near the termen. The hind-wings are pale ochreous, clouded with grey towards the termen. The cilia of all the wings are dull ochreous. This insect may be distinguished from Leucania unica by its larger size, duller coloration, less oblique termen of fore-wings, and simple antennæ in the male. ”

“ Heaven showed most distinctly here and again at Leuctra that those whom the Greeks call brave are as nothing if Good Fortune be not with them, seeing that the Lacedemonians, who had on this occasion overcome Corinthians and Athenians, and furthermore Argives and Boeotians, were afterwards at Leuctra so utterly overthrown by the Boeotians alone. After those who were killed at Corinth, we come across elegiac verses declaring that one and the same slab has been erected to those who died in Euboea and Chios, and to those who perished in the remote parts of the continent of Asia, or in Sicily. ”

“ That afternoon Leocadia said to Segundo:
"Do you know what, sweetheart? It is a pity that for the sake of a new suit or some such trifle you should lose the chance of establishing yourself and obtaining what you wish. ”

“ Leocadia entered the back shop. Ramon was there, with his shirt-sleeves rolled up, exposing his brawny arms, shaking a saucepan gently to cool the egg-paste which it contained; then he proceeded to cut the paste with a hot knife, the sugar fizzing and sending forth a pleasant odor as it came in contact [pg 097] with the hot metal. The confectioner passed the back of his hand across his perspiring brow.
What did Leocadia want? Brizar anisette, eh? Well, it was all sold. "You, Rosa, isn't it true that the anisette is all sold?" ”

“ Segundo could have wished that his fingers were pincers to pierce through the fabric of her gown, through the steel whalebones, through her inner garments, through the flesh and through the very ribs and fasten themselves in her heart, and seize it red-hot and bleeding and crush, tear, annihilate it! Why could he not feel the throbbings of that heart? Leocadia's heart, or even Victorina's, bounded like a bird's when he touched it. And Segundo, enraged, pressed his hand with greater [pg 164] force, undeterred by the fear of hurting Nieves, desiring, on the contrary, to strangle her. ”

“ He is built like an undeveloped boy who has suddenly suffered from too rapid growth. The Leccos, on the contrary, are beautifully developed physically; knotted muscles shift and play evenly under the soft skin and suggest a swift sureness of movement and a strength of endurance that are demanded in their life on the river. ”

“ In Leuchtenbergia, the tubercles fall away as the plant increases in height, leaving a bare, woody stem similar to that of a Yucca.
Cultivation.—The Leuchtenbergia has always been difficult to keep in health. It thrives best when kept in a warm, sunny house during winter, and in an exposed, airy, warm position under a frame during summer. It may be watered regularly whilst growing—that is, from April to September—and kept quite dry all winter. The soil should be well-drained loam, and the roots should have plenty of room. A specimen may be seen in the Kew collection. ”

“ The city of Leucas is situated at the head of this isthmus, resting on a hill which faces eastward towards Acarnania; the lowest part of the city lies on the sea front and is level. This makes it open to attack both by land and sea, for the shallow waters are more like a lagoon than like the sea, and the soil of the surrounding plain can easily be thrown up for lines of investment and siege works. ”

“ In summary and review, specimens from the eastern part of the range heretofore ascribed to S. leucoparia nearly all have much inflated mastoidal bullae whereas less than half of the specimens of Spilogale from western New Mexico and Arizona have these bullae as greatly inflated; but, in No. 147252 from the head of the Rio Mimbres of New Mexico the inflation of the bullae is more extreme than in any specimen that we know of that has been referred to S. leucoparia. ”

“ The holotype of Spilogale leucoparia Merriam, as pointed out above, is an extreme example of the extensiveness of the white areas of the pelage at the expense of the black areas. This feature occurs more often in the southwestern desert areas of the United States than it does farther north. In addition to the extensiveness of the white markings, the other two characters allegedly distinctive of S. leucoparia are broad and much flattened braincase and great degree of inflation of the mastoidal bullae. ”

“ We paddled out of the current and made a landing, while the young Lecco who had run the river on the bundle of sticks took on a sack of clean clothes.
The Leccos are very particular in these matters; each morning from out their home-woven cotton sacks they would don clean trousers and shirt, and at every opportunity, going up or down the river, they would stop and turn over to the Lecco wife the soiled ones and take aboard a clean supply. When a trip is too long for a complete outfit, they would get busy at each midday breakfast and wash their own. ”

“ These Leccos are among the finest Indians, or semi-civilized savages, I have met. They are sturdy and muscular, with a distinctly Malaysian suggestiveness, and very superior to any of the surrounding savage tribes of the interior. Yet they have neither religion nor superstition; they have no legend or tradition, and their only historical recollection is from the time when quinine bark was the main river commerce instead of rubber—the time of the “Great 185 Quina” they call it,—about half a century ago. ”

“ In the Ratama the roar and excitement drowned any emotion, but this was slowly waiting in uncertainty and speculating on how far one could really swim before being drawn under like a chip. Not far, that was certain, and 219 the Leccos watched this shifting, coiling passage in a silent gravity that they had shown nowhere else on the river. It is the breaking up of the logs and cargo that make the danger, at least to the Lecco—greater than the power of the river itself—and a white man would have no chance. ”

“ Leocadia, which they have there, is that of our Saint. The result has been, that it was ascertained beyond all doubt to be the same; since an authentic writing was found of the person who carried it thither by favour of one of our earliest kings, and he carried it from Oviedo without dispute ”

“ As remarked in the first part of this work, Leuckart long ago pointed to the Salmonidæ as probably furnishing the intermediate host of this worm; and he disproved the views of Knoch, of Petersburg, who thought he had reared Bothriocephalus latus in the dog in a direct manner. I have already called attention to the opinion of Dr Fock, of Utrecht, who thinks the human bearer may become infested by the consumption of the little fresh-water bleak (Leuciscus alburnus) . ”