Nosebag

“ In the north of England, however, if the nose itches it is reckoned a sign that the person will either be crossed, vexed, or kissed by a fool; whereas an old writer tells us that "when a man's nose itcheth it is a signe he shall drink wine." Many omens, too, are gathered from bleeding of the nose. Thus Grose says, "One drop of blood from the nose commonly foretells death or a very severe fit of sickness; three drops are still more ominous;" and according to another notion one drop from the left nostril is a sign of good luck, and vice versâ. ”

“ A nose that rises with a sudden bulge a little below the eyes, and then falls again into a kind of hollow below, is petulant and noisy, void of science and of a very light understanding.
The nose that is small, slender and peaked, shows the person to be of a fearful disposition, jealous, fretful and insidious, ever suspicious of those about him, catching at every word that he can interpret to his own advantage to ground his dispute upon and also very curious to know what is said and done. ”

“ In vain did the lawyer tug at him, chuck his bridle, kick his sides, and use the most violent gesticulations to get him on. Whether he had a nose for the stables, or had been accustomed to Blackheath Red Cross on former days, he certainly had a nose, and until some one gently led him from the spot he would never be compelled to leave it. So he went by the name of Old Deuce's Horse, or, The Horse with a Nose.
Hast thou a nose to smell a rat? ”

“ Shall I make you a pair of slippers, or perhaps’ with a smile—‘a case for your nose?’
‘What have you to do with my nose?’ asked Jem. ‘And why should I want a case for it?’
‘Well, everyone to his taste,’ replied the cobbler; ‘but I must say if I had such a nose I would have a nice red leather cover made for it. Here is a nice piece; and think what a protection it would be to you. As it is, you must be constantly knocking up against things.’
The lad was dumb with fright. He felt his nose. ”

“ ON BRANDING THE NOSTRILS BEFORE SETTING DOWN TO MOULT Before setting down long-winged hawks that have been flown at great quarry, it is necessary to brand their nostrils, and this is especially necessary in the case of gazelle- and crane-hawks; for the orifice of the nose of a long-winged hawk is a pit, and when the throat of a gazelle is cut and the hawk pulls at the spurting throat, her nostrils become filled with blood, which congeals and stops the passage of her breath; the blood cannot be completely removed by washing, for the nostril is like a well. ”

“ Of a nose there is only what a chemist would call a trace. It seems hard to imagine that a dinky little nubbin like that, a dimple turned inside out, as it were, will ever develop into a regular nose, with a capacity for freckling in the summer and catching cold in the winter—a nose that you can sneeze through and blow with. There are no eyebrows to speak of either, and the skull runs up to a sharp point like a pineapple cheese. Just back of the peak is a kind of soft, dented-in place like a Parker House roll, and if you touch it we die. ”

“ MARY. But the taxis go faster, father, and you’ve only got to pay the same.
BROOME. Never mind that. Why should they injure a established trade? Why should they spoil other trades? What’s a country without its trades?
MRS. BROOME. That’s the way he talks.
BROOME. Mark my words. They’ll find out their mistake. Look what’s coming to the breed of horses. Look at nosebags.
[Pg 60]
LEONARD. Nosebags?
BROOME. Ay. I’ve been told of a firm as used to turn out a matter of two hundred nosebags a week and now they don’t do fifty. ”

“ The nose was long, too,—long and sharp, and always poking, poking itself everywhere. There never was such an inquisitive nose. Now it was lifting the lid of a pot on the kitchen fire (for Nasna was tame, and a great pet of her master's) , and scalding itself with the steam; now it was sniffing at a bottle of strong ammonia, without seeming to be troubled in the least by the smell; now it was in her master's pocket, trying to find out what it was that went "Tick! tick!"
[261]
But what do you think the nose did one day? ”

“ But let us return to the evolution of the nose. In these days of universal "Nature study" nobody need be told that the practice of breathing through the nostrils was introduced by the amphibians and reptiles. The former (frogs and toads) take to it only when they come of age, but lizards, snakes and all other reptiles do it from infancy. But the nose is not yet. That is something too delicate to come out of a cold-blooded snout covered with hard scales. Birds, too, by having their mouth parts encased in a horny bill seem to be debarred from wearing noses. ”

“ Thy nose, thy nose!’ he will cry, rushing up to him with a handful of snow, with which he will rub the feature attacked, if, on a nearer inspection, he sees that it is in danger. Of course people generally take the best possible care of their noses, so that the dreaded catastrophe does not often occur. We wrap up warmly, and leave only the eyes and mouth and nose exposed, so that nearly all the heat which escapes from the body has to pass through that channel, and thus effectually keeps it warm. ”

“ Discoveries have lately been made which prove that snuffles is a germ disease, a disease that fastens itself in the blood of the animal. It is not merely a nose disorder, so those remedies which look to a clearance of the nostrils are really working in the wrong direction. The proper way to cure such a disorder is to clear the system, drive out the germ from the blood, and it stands to reason that the nose discharge will cease when that is done. ”

“ If, with this form of nose, the nostrils are narrow and almost closed and the wings of the nose pinched, the indications are still more those given by the melancholy planet Saturn; the more elastic and freely moving the nostril with this form of nose, the more bright and the less sardonic the wit. A person with a broad Roman nose, having this violent downward curve over the mouth, is one to be avoided, for this combination denotes a secretly voluptuous temperament—a man or woman of strong passions hidden beneath a cold and reserved manner. ”

“ What is to be done with Lord Allen if he beat a watchman! In what a position will he stand if he fracture a lamp? One's hair may be cut to even shaved clean off; but your nose.—And then a few weeks,—a few months at farthest, and your hair has grown again: but your nose, like your reputation, can only stand one assault. This is really a serious view of the subject; and it is a somewhat hard thing that the face you have shown to your acquaintances for years past, with pleasure to yourself and satisfaction to them, should be pronounced illegal, or curtailed in its proportions. ”

“ Reginald had been getting quite bright that afternoon, and he answered to her direct gaze: “You have a perfect nose.” And just as she took in the compliment he went on, explanatorily, “a double-barrelled, back-action nose; a burglarious, lock-picking nose, that can shoot round three spiral staircases, down a back hall and unlock a door, all for the purpose of getting at a moss rosebud that you saw pinned on my lapel two hours ago, and which you don’t see there now! ”

“ Soc. Mine, I imagine, if, that is, the gods presented us with noses for the sake of smelling. Your nostrils point to earth; but mine are spread out wide and flat, as if to welcome scents from every quarter.
Crit. But consider, a snubness of the nose, how is that more beautiful than straightness? [233]
Soc. For this good reason, that a snub nose does not discharge the office of a barrier; [234] it allows the orbs of sight free range of vision: whilst your towering nose looks like an insulting wall of partition to shut off the two eyes. ”

“ I must answer ‘You are very kind, and I thank you; I am well, but I occupy my leisure hours in educating a coward! And that coward, sir, is my own son.’ Yes, my own son. And your nose! where did you get that nose, sir?”
II.
MY NOSE. From my earliest infancy the principal and dominant—too dominant—feature in my face, was an immense nose.
Now that this organ is a little disguised by a thick moustache, my friends, to flatter me, compare it to an eagle’s beak. But when I had no moustache, my companions who had no wish to flatter me, compared it to the beak of a Toucan. ”

“ If a foolish girl, by dint of squeezing and bracing with busk and bones, secures the conventional beauty of a wasp waist, she is tolerably certain to gain an addition she by no means bargained for, a red nose, which, in numberless instances, is produced by no other cause than the unnatural girth, obstructing circulation, and causing stagnation of the blood, in that prominent and important feature. Often, in assemblages of the fair, we have seen [291] noses faultless in form, but tinged with the abhorred hue, to which washes and cosmetics have been applied in wild despair ”

“ To increase his misfortune, not a single droshky was to be seen in the street, and so he was obliged to proceed on foot. He wrapped himself up in his cloak, and held his handkerchief to his face as though his nose bled. “But perhaps it is all only my imagination; it is impossible that a nose should drop off in such a silly way,” he thought, and stepped into a confectioner's shop in order to look into the mirror. ”

“ An east wind covers the nose with absurdity. It is a fierce light that beats upon a throne, and the nose, before assuming a central place, should perhaps, remarking the fact, have been better prepared to maintain its own dignity. But beyond this, impartial criticism cannot blame the feature. On the other hand, much can be said in its favor, and if Dr. Jäger is right, a great future lies before the nose. Lest it should be thought I exaggerate the importance of Dr. Jäger’s discoveries, I give the learned professor’s own words. ”

“ The nostrils are wide, and divided by an unusually large cartilage. It is furnished with large jaws, and teeth so sharp that it has been seen to drive them, when angry, into a thick plank. When in a rage it grinds them together, and, rubbing its long beard in a most curious way, leaps about in every direction. At the slightest cause of offence, it gives a savage grin, wrinkling the skin of its face and jaws, and threatening the offender with the most menacing grimaces. ”

“ That martial nose and that timid physiognomy! that poor face! which is quite ashamed to have such a nose attached to it, a nose almost.... What was I going to say? however, no matter. It is just as if you saw a gentle, peaceable, good-natured shop-keeper giving his arm in the street to some violent, insolent blusterer. Absurd contrast! a caricaturist would be delighted to meet with that boy! ”

“ When there are three or four scents all blended, all mixed together, can you distinguish that of the mole from that of the hare which passed quickly, or the bird which rested there?
KIKI-THE-DEMURE
Certainly I can. My nose is highly educated. It's small, regular, wide between my eyes, delicate at the chamois-skin end of my nostrils; the lightest touch of a blade of grass, the shadow of smoke tickles and makes it sneeze. It doesn't bother about distinguishing the scent of moles from that of—hares, did you say? But it delights in the trace left by a cat in a hedge ... I've a charming nose. ”

“ And the next I wanted to fight Grace Gilpin for Cheneston and start that very minute; me, the funny little thing with the snub nose who made people laugh!
Why did Heaven make me a funny little thing with a snub nose? It wasn't sporting; and I do think it handicaps one. One doesn't somehow expect a snub nose to be a Joan of Arc, or Florence Nightingale, or Mrs. Pankhurst, or anything thrilling and earnest and vital and glowing.
I think it's rotten to be born a quaint little thing that nobody takes seriously. ”

“ The nose has the partition between the nostrils narrower than in the other species of the family, and the nostrils are themselves more approximated, circular in form, and directed more downward than outward, thus showing some approach to the position of the nostrils in the Old World Apes. ”

“ There is a remarkable dereliction of the nose from the eyebrows. It was a practice with the race of nurses who existed when the captain’s nose came into the world, to pinch up that feature of our infant ancestors from an hour old, till “the month was up.” This was from a persuasion that nature, on that part of the face, required to be assisted. A few only of these ancient females remain, and it does not accord with the experience of one of the most experienced among them, that they ever depressed that sensible feature ”

“ Rarely is makeup used in the nostrils. A big nose will look very wide if made up, but a small and very straight nose can stand a very little number 18 rouge in the nostril—not lip rouge, which would be too dark. But it is very seldom that the nostrils are made up.
Unless very careful in removing makeup, your face will feel raw and chafed when you go out in the wind. Take time and plenty of cold cream in the removal of makeup, and dry and powder your face before exposing it to outdoor weather. ”

“ The nostrils are dilated, the nose extended, the face anxious, the eyes bloodshot and the back arched. Froth may accumulate around the lips, or the mouth may be held open with the tongue pendent. Sometimes a quantity of gas may suddenly escape with a loud noise, but without securing permanent relief. ”

“ If there is one thing this family is proud of, it is Gertrude's nose. We may not be clever, or rich, or beautiful, but we can always fall back on the nose; there's plenty of room on it for the whole family."
"Why," put in Phil, "the Pater has been offered a dollar a pound for that nose, and he wouldn't look at it."
"He couldn't see it," said Bell; "the nose was in the way."
"Why, one day we had been in bathing," said Phil, "and when we came back, Toots hung her nose out of the window to dry, and went to sleep and forgot it; and will you believe it? ”