Fibula

“ The sleeves are long and ample, the edges serrated in the form of leaves. The long flowing embroidered mantle is fastened by a gold fibula at the throat. Her flaxen hair falls in two long double plaits in front of her person, reaching almost to the ground; the plaits being first bound singly by a dark ribbon, and each pair bound together by a lighter ribbon. A thin gauze veil covers the head, which is surmounted by a crown of exquisite workmanship.
GREEK FIGURE.
From Hope's "Costume of the Ancients." ”

“ In ourselves, and in most quadrupeds, the leg contains two distinct bones, a large bone, the tibia, and a smaller and more slender bone, the fibula. But, in the horse, the fibula seems, at first, to be reduced to its upper end; a short slender bone united with the tibia, and ending in a point below, occupying its place. Examination of the lower end of a young foal's shin-bone, however, shows a distinct portion of osseous matter, which is the lower end of the fibula ”

“ In man, it is the latter which is the larger. The anterior tuberosity is visible under the skin.
The inferior extremity, less thick, is prolonged internally by a prominence which corresponds to the internal malleolus of man. In animals whose fibula is but slightly developed the tibia presents, on the external part of its [87] inferior extremity, a small prominence, which replaces the fibular malleolus. The ruminants must, however, be excepted, in which we find in this region a special bone, which certain authors look on as the inferior part of the fibula (see p. 97) . ”

“ The lower end of the fibula is much more slender, proportionally, than in the crocodile. The metatarsal bones have such a form that they fit together immovably, though they do not enter into bony union; the third toe is, as in the bird, longest and strongest. ”

“ It allows the disused fibula to retain a [148] potentiality of development fully equal to that possessed by the long-used tibia. It lengthens legs because they are used in supporting the body, and shortens arms because they are used in pulling. Whether it enlarges brain if used in one way and diminishes it if used in another, we cannot tell ”

“ One of the finest specimens of a fibula of this kind is here given, copied from the original, which was discovered about twenty years ago by labourers employed on the railway near the town of Amiens, at a spot where other objects of the Gallo-Roman period were met with. The place may probably have been the cemetery of the town, when the masters of the world [167] ruled there. ”

“ The four smaller circles and that in the centre are ornamented with bosses of a white substance, either ivory or bone, but the material is so much decomposed it is difficult to say which; these bosses are attached to the copper plate beneath by iron pins. The entire face of the fibula was originally set with small pieces of garnet-coloured glass laid upon hatched gold-foil. The upper and lower plates of this ornament are bound together by a band of copper gilt, slightly grooved. The acus is lost.
Fig. 444. ”

“ The fibula is complete, thickest at its upper end, where it generally unites with the tibia. The articulation between the tibia and astragalus is more complex than in other mammals, the end of the malleolus entering into it. The hind-foot is very like that of a rhinoceros, having three well-developed toes. There is no trace of a first toe, and the fifth meta-tarsal is represented by a small nodule. The terminal phalange of the inner (or second) digit is deeply cleft, and has a peculiar long curved claw, the others having short broad nails. ”

“ The most remarkable thing about the astragalus is the special development of the articular surface for the lateral malleolus, development that recalls the condition in anthropoids and climbing mammals. This seems to indicate that, as among anthropoids, the foot of the man of La Chapelle-aux-Saints should repose on its external margin, also that the fibula was relatively more powerful than is the case among modern races. ”

“ The odontoid process of the axis vertebra is somewhat cheese-taster shaped, as in recent Artiodactyles. There are fourteen dorsal vertebrae and a very large number of caudals. The radius and the ulna are completely separated, as are the carpals. There are five digits to the fore-limbs. The fibula is complete and independent. The hind-foot is four-toed. Several species of the genus are known. ”

“ The proximal end of this bone was divided into two condyles, answering to those of the femur, but not so strongly marked as these were; and beyond the outer condyle a large crest projected forwards and outwards from the front of the upper part of the shaft. The axis of the shaft has a strong twist in the same direction as that of the femur. The distal end is transversely expanded, and it closely repeats that of the Iguanodon.
The fibula is very imperfectly known to me; I believe it to be rather shorter than the tibia. ”

“ In life the men who use these weapons are clad, not with the Minoan loin-cloth, but with the garments which we associate with the Greeks of the Classical period, garments which require the use of the fibula or safety-pin to fasten them. ”

“ Their true age and intention remain to be determined.
With these antiquities were also exhibited two very interesting circular fibula) , of the "saucer" form, found by the late Mr. Inskip at Shefford. [16] They have been supposed to belong to the Anglo-Saxon period, and were discovered in an ancient cemetery, in which numerous Anglo-Roman vases and remains were found, but the interments were probably of successive periods of occupation. These interesting brooches were gilt, the centre chased with a peculiar design (see Woodcuts of fibulæ) , surrounded by impressed ornament. ”

“ One of the most interesting and important features of the complete specimen is the unusual preservation of a leg, with impressions of 15 or more vertebra;, and traces of curved ribs which are intercentral in position.
The femur is slender and expanded at the ends, with the articular surfaces well formed. The tibia and fibula are mere rods of bone, although the tibia has slightly expanded extremities. There is no osseous tarsus. There are 5 digits in the foot; the second one is entire and contains 4 phalanges; the other digits are incomplete. ”

“ The characteristic of the Boeotian fibulae is the flat plate which forms the foot (in some cases the central part or bow) , and is generally of a quadrangular form, decorated with an engraved subject, usually animals or birds of a similar type to those painted in the panels on the vases. More rarely ships or human figures are found. ”

“ The intermedium is a small, rounded element lying between the larger elements. The fibulare is rectangular and projects a considerable distance out from the tibia, but articulates directly with the large lateral distal tarsal. The centrale is triangular in form and is opposed directly by the tibiale and tarsalia 1 to 3. The phalanges are robust in appearance. The entire foot gives one the impression of a very broad structure. ”

“ The pubis is indicated as a calcified quadrangular plate in a specimen of Amphibamus grandiceps Cope (478) from the Mazon Creek shales, and it is present as a rounded osseous element among some of the Permian forms.
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(q) The leg (fig. 21, B) is composed of the femur, tibia, fibula, and 5 digits. The tarsus is usually cartilaginous, a single osseous tarsus (483, 484) being known (plate 23, fig. 1) from America. The distal phalanges may or may not be clawed, depending on the habits of life of the animal. The elements of the leg are ossified in a similar manner to those of the arm. ”

“ And so the Fig tree doesn’t tell anybody when it is going to bear fruit.”
The Fig trees had heard their doom. To the words that followed they had not listened; nor would they have understood much more of it than the child of its father’s meaning.
“What is this he calls our fruit?” they asked each other in fear and loathing. “Was that our fruit,—those green and purple swellings, that unspeakable weight of ugliness? Will it come year after year, and shall we never have a flower? The burden without the honor, without the love and praise, that beauty brings. ”

“ Wherefore, then, saith the Lord that the budding of the Fig-Tree shall foretell the end?
Because the Fig-Tree is the symbol of the Divine Woman, as the Vine of the Divine Man.
The Fig is the similitude of the Matrix, containing [82] inward buds, bearing blossoms on its placenta, and bringing forth fruit in darkness. It is the Cup of Life, and its flesh is the seed-ground of new births.
The stems of the Fig-Tree run with milk: her leaves are as human hands, like the leaves of her brother the Vine. ”

“ Under the name of the Ficus ruminalis, the Romans jealously guarded the sacred wild Fig-tree, upon the roots of which stranded the cradle containing the infants Romulus and Remus, when the Tiber bore it to the foot of the Palatine. Fig-trees are seldom affected by lightning, but this celebrated Ruminal Fig-tree of Rome was once struck during a thunderstorm, and was ever afterwards held doubly sacred; the ancients considering that lightning purified every object it touched. ”

“ It may have struck the reader as singular that those who eat of the forbidden figs are punished by the visit of a beautiful girl who whirls around with a buzzing sound till they are overcome by awe. Here be it noted first of all, that the fig, like the pear, is exactly the shape of a top, even the stem representing the peg. Now, in ancient Latin witchlore or sorcery, extraordinary magic power, or even sanctity, was attached to everything which made a humming or buzzing sound. ”

“ Though I lie weltering in my gore, my lips forever closed, my hand forever stilled, the record shall endure to show that I, the disgraced and the deceased Fibble, [266] would, from the confines of the silent tomb, beg forgiveness for my criminal indiscretion. I shall write all! My tears descending as I write bedew the sheet, and beneath my swimming eyes the lines waver, but in haste I write on, lest the slayer find me before my final task be done.
We were alone together. We were side by side. Upon a couch we sat in close juxtaposition. ”

“ From all these circumstances I should conjecture, that those female fig-flowers, which are closed on all sides in the fruit or receptacle without any male ones, are monsters, which have been propagated for their fruit, like barberries, and grapes without seeds in them; and that the Caprification is either an ancient process of imaginary use, and blindly followed in some countries, or that it may contribute to ripen the fig by decreasing its vigour, like cutting off a circle of the bark from the branch of a pear-tree. ”

“ All immense, all significant, all spectral despite its ponderous actuality; teeming with the infinite dust and debris of bygone story; ruins like rocks and rocks like ruins, one indistinguishable confusion and torrent of stone. Long ago from the floor of the little church they had unearthed the body of some beautiful unknown châtelaine. She had golden hair, like the maid of Pornic, that stretched down on either side to her feet. It was all that survived from the desecration, and it was deposited in Mistral’s museum at Arles. Fifine had seen it there; and, of course, Carabas. ”

“ Could orthodoxy have shewn a better case for love? But let the matter rest there. If stones are to be cast, here am I, blithe to be made their target. I am jealous for her good fame; not a copper farthing for my own.
But, while I insist on that specific truth, I make generally no pretence of drawing the portrait of any Fifine but the one commonly known to me. ”

“ The man who could “pinch” his own soul of buds, like a prize chrysanthemum, in order to develop one monstrous head, was always a fool to me. I prefer, improving upon Ancient Pistol, to make the world not only mine oyster, but my pepper, my Chablis, my feast of a hundred dishes from hors-d’œuvre to savoury; and so, if you like, the last decanter being drained, to sleep under the table. Most properly, Death is the only drunkard who never wakes with a headache.
Well, Fifine interested me; but Fifine was not my universe. ”

“ The Fig, as we eat it, is neither fruit nor flower, though partaking of both, being really the hollow, fleshy receptacle enclosing a multitude of flowers, which never see the light, yet come to full perfection and ripen their seed. The Fig stands alone in this peculiar arrangement of its flowers, but there are other plants of which we eat the unopened or undeveloped flowers, as the Artichoke, the Cauliflower, the Caper, the Clove, and the Pine Apple. ”

“ As she stood up, the picture she made—her face, half in glow half in shadow, the vivid life of her contrasting with the golden ruins of the walls—wrought with such ardour upon my imagination, that I felt that, if I failed in that moment to take advantage of the creative impulse its beauty awoke in me, I deserved to be writ down for ever more the emasculate cypher of her strictures. So very quietly I got out the block, pencils, and a handful of coloured crayons which I made it my constant practice to carry about with me.
“Fifine,” I said, “don’t move: stand just as you are. ”

“ You are about to fall into my jaws! I drink fire. I am fire myself; and from every quarter I suck it in—from clouds, from pebbles, from dead trees, from the hair of animals, and from the surface of marshes. My temperature supports the volcanoes. I cause the lustre of precious stones and the colour of metals."
The Griffin, a lion with a vulture's beak, white wings, red paws, and blue neck—"I am the master of the profound splendours. I know the secret of the tombs where the old kings sleep. A chain, which issues from the wall, keeps their heads erect. ”