Feoffee

“ Internal organs which are hidden from sight are sometimes represented—a characteristic of modern Pueblo art, where, as in pictures of antelopes, it is not uncommon to find the heart and œsophagus, or even the intestinal tract, drawn as if the animal were transparent. In a figure of a bird shown on plate LIX in my preliminary account of Sikyatki, where the artist apparently had no available space in which to represent the extremity of the tail, it is bent upward, and the tips of three feathers conventionalized into three triangles, one of the symbols of wing feathers, as elsewhere shown. ”

“ Three white feathers fluttered out of the box, swayed and rocked for a moment in the air, and then, one after another, settled gently down upon the floor. They lay like flakes of snow upon the dark polished boards. But they were not whiter than Harry Feversham's cheeks. He stood and stared at the feathers until he felt a light touch upon his arm. He looked and saw Ethne's gloved hand upon his sleeve. ”

“ Can any of your correspondents or readers give any authentic information as to the fact having been witnessed by any one, of the old story of the fox relieving itself of fleas by taking a feather in its mouth, and gradually, though slowly enough, retrograding itself into the water, first by legs and tail, then body, shoulders, and head to the nose, and thus compelling the fleas, to escape from the drowning element, to pass over the nose on to the bridge of the feather, which is then committed to the stream. ”

“ It is plain, I think, that having determined from an avian figure the form of the organs and appendages of the bird in their different modifications, due to conventionalism, we are able to recognize the symbolic forms adopted by ancient artists to represent the feathers of wing, tail, or body. If figures of feathers were so well drawn that we could identify them as such, we would have no difficulty in recognizing a feather when drawn on a fragment of pottery, where no other part of a bird was represented. ”

“ An accurately drawn feather in such cases would be easily recognized; but the feathers made by the ancient Hopi decorators of pottery were not accurate representations—they were symbolic. The only way we can identify them is by association. Having determined the head, body, legs, tail, and wings of an animal which must be a bird, we examine the separate components which form the tail and conclude what part represents a tail feather. ”

“ And if any Inheritance, whereof but one Suit is due, descend unto many Heirs, as unto Parceners, whoso hath the eldest Part of the Inheritance, shall do that one Suit for himself and his Fellows, and the other Coheirs shall be Contributaries, according to their Portion, for doing such Suit.
(6) And if many Feoffees be seised of an Inheritance, whereof but one Suit is due, the Lord of the Fee shall have but that one Suit; and shall not exact of the said Inheritance, but that one Suit, as hath been used to be done before. ”

“ And then Roy with a shamed look put the reins in his cousin's hands.
"I'll give them up. Granny always says I'm selfish. It was awfully mean to talk of my leg. Now then hurry! Gee-up!"
Dudley took the reins with a gratified smile, applied the whip, and the spirited little pony dashed along the road at such a rate, that a porter looked after them in dismay.
"Those two young gents will come to their death afore they're satisfied," he remarked, and another man responded:
"Yes, the little one is pretty well smashed up already, but legs or no legs, boys allays keeps their sperrits!" ”

“ Thus in the upper part of figure 7 we have one of the most common designs on ancient Hopi ceramics. There is nothing in it to suggest a bird's wing, but if we compare it with the wing on the undoubted figure of a bird (figure 6) we find a perfect homology.
The presence of eagle feathers on ancient Hopi disks, symbolic of the sun, is frequent, and feathers are still inserted in a cornhusk border on the margin of hoops covered with painted buckskin representing the sun in modern Tusayan ceremonies. ”

“ In a few hours would come the horrors of the House of Stone. But they were both thinking of the elms by the Lennon River and a hall of which the door stood open to the cool night and which echoed softly to the music of a waltz, while a girl and a man stood with three white feathers fallen upon the floor between them; the one man recollected, the other imagined, the picture, and to both of them it was equally vivid. Feversham smiled at last. ”

“ One—two—three—off! Hurrah for the Bertrams!"
The ponies were fresh, the hedge was cleared; but as old Ben was in the act of waving his cap aloft to give a cheer—there was a crash—a sharp cry—and a sickening thud the other side of the hedge. And when the old groom with beating heart and trembling limbs, reached the farther bank, Roy and his horse were prostrate on the ground. Dudley had cleared it safely, and now having flung himself from his horse was leaning over Roy in agony of terror.
"He's dead, Ben—he's dead—his pony rolled over him—oh, fetch a doctor, quick!" ”

“ Was there a chance of her ever being amongst that white-robed throng? If she could only go through tribulation! Had the little girl lying so white and still gone through it? These and other similar puzzling thoughts came crowding through her brain.
She was very quiet when she reached the farm. They were just sitting down to tea when she came in, and Mrs. Giles looked relieved when she saw her.
'We was wonderin' where you had got to,' she said. 'Ain't you tired? You look quite beat.'
'I've had a lovely afternoon,' was the child's answer, and the blue eyes shone up at her questioner ”

“ Captain Willoughby brought a token from Mr. Feversham. Ethne carried it back to the house in her hand. Her eyes were upon it all the way, her lips smiled at it. I do not think there is anything half so precious to her in all the world."
"A token?"
"A little white feather," said Mrs. Adair, "all soiled and speckled with dust. Can you read the riddle of that feather?"
"Not yet," Durrance replied. He walked once or twice along the terrace and back, lost in thought. Then he went into the house and fetched his cap from the hall. He came back to Mrs. Adair. ”

“ This habit, curiously enough, survives even now among some people. [36] However, to return to the Princess Ernalie.
When she picked up the feather she stood upright again and examined it carefully.
‘Why, how nice,’ she said. ‘It’s the old eagle’s feather. Now that’ll come in handy; my hat rather wanted a new feather, and it’ll just suit the colour of my hair and eyes.’
So she went to the looking-glass and held the feather close against her hair. But to her astonishment nothing was to be seen in the glass—not a vestige of herself; it seemed as if she had vanished altogether. ”

“ A FOX once saw a Crow fly off with a piece of cheese in its beak and settle on a branch of a tree. "That's for me, as I am a Fox," said Master Reynard, and he walked up to the foot of the tree. "Good-day, Mistress Crow," he cried. "How well you are looking to-day: how glossy your feathers; how bright your eye. ”

“ THE FOX AND THE CROW
A Crow was sitting on a branch of a tree with a piece of cheese in her beak when a Fox observed her and set his wits to work to discover some way of getting the cheese. Coming and standing under the tree he looked up and said, "What a noble bird I see above me! Her beauty is without equal, the hue of her plumage exquisite. If only her voice is as sweet as her looks are fair, she ought without doubt to be Queen of the Birds." The Crow was hugely flattered by this, and just to show the Fox that she could sing she gave a loud caw. ”

“ So far, however, as my knowledge of ancient Pueblo paleography goes, the symbols of the feather as here indicated are confined to ruins of villages which are purely Hopi in origin, although they may later be found elsewhere in Arizona or New Mexico.
I have shown in several previous publications on the ceremonials of the Hopi ritual the significant part which the figure of the feather plays in the decoration of altars and ceremonial paraphernalia, but I am unaware that any one has yet called attention to the very important use of the feather symbols in the decoration of ancient Hopi ceramics. ”

“ The awfulness of the fact itself, that his dear wife should have foxes instead of children, filled him with an agony of pity, and, at length, when he recollected the cause of their being foxes, that is that his wife was a fox also, his tears broke out anew, and he could bear it no longer but began calling out in his anguish, and beat his head once or twice against the wall, and then cast himself down on his bed again and wept and wept, sometimes tearing the sheets asunder with his teeth. ”

“ The decay in knowledge of the meanings of old symbols is due to the fact that most of the ancient symbolism has been replaced by the modern.
In their drawings of animals the ancient Hopi artists were often far from realistic. They violated many fundamental rules in perspective. This is well illustrated in profile figures. It often happens, for instance, in delineating the head of an animal, as seen from one side, that both eyes are represented. The feathers of a bird's tail, normally on a horizontal plane, are brought into a vertical. ”

“ Nurse called Daffy down from the tree. She had torn her frock, and had a large hole in the knee of her stocking.
"You would try the patience of Job," said Nurse, marching them up into the nursery. "It seems quite impossible for you to play as little ladies should. You make Master Bertie as naughty as yourselves. I shall have to give him a bath, and you will both sit for half an hour on your chairs for punishment."
The punishment chairs were placed in opposite corners of the nursery, and Freda and Daffy took possession of them with their faces towards the wall. ”

“ The sparrows flew away swearing; Lintie crouched on the ground, a heap of dishevelled feathers.
The student took him gently in his hand and carried him into the house.
“They’d all but done for him, the beggars,” he said to his friend. “I fancy he might come round if we only knew what to do with him. I say, I wish you’d see whether M—— has gone home; it’s only just round in New Square,—you know the staircase. He’ll like to see the bird anyhow, and he can doctor it if he thinks it worth while.” ”

“ He had his knife in his hand, he faced about suddenly and ran. There were two men waiting. Feversham ran at the man who held the lantern. He was aware of the point of a spear, he ducked and beat it aside with his left arm, he leaped forward and struck with his right. The Arab fell at his feet; the lantern was extinguished. Feversham sprang across the white-robed body and ran eastward, toward the open desert. ”

“ I had no sooner fired, than from all parts of the wood there arose an innumerable number of fowls, of many sorts, making a confused screaming and crying, and every one according to his usual note, but not one of them of any kind that I knew. As for the creature I killed, I took it to be a kind of hawk, its colour and beak resembling it, but it had no talons or claws more than common. ”

“ In an instant, without thought of consequences, the child darted to the nursery door and down the broad oak staircase.
"Poor pussy, I will run and fetch her in. I expect she has run away from the kitchen."
Sir Edward was writing at his study table, when an unusually violent gust of wind caused him to raise his eyes and glance out of the window. There, to his amazement, he saw, under the old oak tree on the lawn, his little niece, her golden brown curls flying as she battled with the elements, and struggled vainly to stoop and take the kitten in her arms. ”

“ Pheasants without tails tell a story of a young fox's spring that failed to bring him a- 247 - supper. Heads of rabbits, and nothing else, in snares, rejected maws lying near by—the disinterment of poaching cats which the keeper has buried—these show where hungry foxes have passed. By day their presence is revealed if a cock pheasant cries a sudden, uneasy, short alarm-note, by the screaming of jays, and by a particular blackbird note, which, if it does not mean stoat or cat, certainly bespeaks a fox. A crow may be seen suddenly swooping angrily as he passes over a field—a fox lurks there. ”

“ Nurse says it's too late, but I do want to be there. There's such a lot to be done now he has really come; and, Uncle Edward, may they kill one of the cows in the farm that are being fatted up? There's no calf, I'm afraid. May they? And may I go and tell them so? You will let me go, won't you?"
"Most certainly not; it is much too late in the afternoon for you to be going down there. It is getting quite dark, and as to one of my cattle being disposed of in that way, I should not dream of allowing it for one moment."
Milly's eyes filled with tears, which she vainly tried to restrain. ”

“ Cherubine and me feel quite dull. Fibo told me your daddy was dead. Are you very sad?"
"Of course we are," said Daffy. "We've cried gallons, and all the house is miserable, and everybody wears black dresses but us; it's a shame!"
"Do you like black frocks? Why?"
"Because they don't show the dirt," said Freda promptly. "We hoped Mums would give us some, but she won't."
"I s'pose you've been too miserable to think of being sheep."
"No-o," said Freda slowly; "we've laid plans for the stranger's bedroom, but it isn't ready yet."
"Mine is," said Dreamikins, with pride. "I maded the bed myself. ”

“ It is not being employed much, but well, and to the purpose, which will make us useful to the age we live in, and celebrated by those which are to come. As the multiplication of foxes and other vermin is a misfortune to the countries which are infested with them, so one cannot help throwing out a melancholy reflection, when one sees some particular classes of the human kind increase so fast as they do. But the most obvious meaning of this Fable is the hint it gives us in relation to authors. ”