IN FRATERNAM MEAM

IN FRATERNAM MEAM

Tuesday, January 13, 2004

COMPILATION OF FABULOUS FALLACIES:
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(compiled by Tad Tuleja )

1. WHERE DOES INDIA INK COME FROM?
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most people call it Indian ink. ther preferred term is India ink and the really accuate term is the seldom used China Ink, for it was from china and ocassionally Japan, that the original "India Ink", found its way to the east.a mixture of lampblack (soot) and gum. the elastic gum from which the substance was made comes not from an Indian plant, from from tress found in the east Indies, Africa and latin America.

2. THE RICKSHAW IS NOT CHINESE
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in spite of its appearance in numerous films about Old china, the rickshaw came originally from Japan and was a western not an oriental idea. the human drawn, two wheeled carriage seems to have made its first appearance in Japan around 1870 and thougH no one seems certain who invented it, its agreed that some western missionary was responsible. American baptist missionary Jonathan Sconie, who was supposed to have devised the contraption to have his invalid wife carted around the streets of Yokohama.

3. THE BAGPIPE IS NOT SCOTTISH
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since Scottish pipers have popularized the bagpipe in modern times, it's oftern assumed that the instrument is native to the highlands. actually, the first primitive version was constructed by a middle easten, Hittite, music lover several hundred years before christ. it was a crude affair, composed of reeds stuck into a goatskin bag, but proud Scots should be wary of mocking its lack of sophistication. from the mediterranean, the bag pipe spread all over Europe, reaching Italy in in the 13th cent. England in the 14th cent and Scotland, not in the early 15th cent.

4. WHERE DID THE GUILLOTINE ORIGINATED?
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although it is widely believed that the inventor of the guillotine -- the most horrid symbol of the french revolution-- was supposed to be Dr. Joseph Guillotine, he did not himself invented it, but only recommended it to the French National Assembly that it be adopted as country official killing device, since it provided the condemned swift and humane end. the instrument makers were a German mechanic called Schmidt and the French doctor Antonin Louise, in whose honor it was orignally called the "Louison" or "Louisette". in scotland it was called "Maiden" in Germany it was called "Diele" the "Hobel" and the "Dolabra", in Italy it is called "Mannaia"

5. DID THE GUITAR CAME FROM EGYPT, TURKEY OR SPAIN?-
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the classical guitar is almost as firmly associated with Spain as the bagpipe is with Scotland; the image of Hidalgo serenading his lady beneath a balcony , with his "guitarra " in hand, remains a central icon of the Iberian culture.but the instrument was not invented there, it was only perfected. its ancient precursors, the "lyre" (Cithara) and the "Lute" (Pandoura) arose in Mesopotamia millenia before the birth of Christ. the basic featue of this instrument was introduced to Spain by the Arabs during their medieveal hegemony of the Mediterranean. structurally, the modern "Guitarra" has its beginning around the 13th cent., when Moorish influence on the Peninsula was profound.

6. THE TURKEY DOES NOT COME FROM TURKEY
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our preeminent symbol of Thanksgiving is, fortuitiously, truly an American birds. species of the wild turkeys roamed the entire North American continent long before Columbus landed, and the Conquistadores discovered in Mexicao that the Aztecs had domesticated the "Meleagris gallopavo" variety. the deignation "Turkey" came about because Europeans confused the American import bird that had been known in Europe since ancient times. this was the "Guinea cock" or "Guinea fowl" which didnt come from Turkey but had been brought to Europe through Turkey by Portuguese travelers who had gotten it from Guinea in West Africa. a more charming, though possibly apocryphal explanations is that one ascribes the name fo the Turkey to the Portuguese Jewish interpreter of Columbu's first journey, anme Jose de Torres. upon seeing his first speciamen of the the bird in New World, he cried out "Tukki, Tukki" which means "Big bird" in Hebrew.

7. WHERE DOES THE BOOMERANG COME FROM ?
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contrary to popular belief and opinion, not all boomerangs are designed to the thrower. those that do, made flat on one side and curved on the other, were perfectred by Australian aborigines, who have used them since prehistoric times in hunting, sport and war. the name "boomerang" itself is a modern spelling of an aboriginal name. but Australia is not the boomerang's early home. curved hunting sticks whcih produce the characteristics of whinning sound and which can be just as deadly as the Australian variety have been discovered in at least four regions of the earth. these regions are Indonesia, particularly in Borneo and Celebes; eastern Africa, which is Egypt and Ethiopia and the Indian sub continent, and the southwestern United States, where the Hopi, Acoma and Zuni Indians use this as weapons still to hunt smalle game.

8. TURKISH BATH IS NOT TURKISH
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to the European crusaders, high with the odor of sanctity, the baths of the Ottoman Empire must have neen an astonishing revelation. Europe was not ready yet then, it was severl centuries before the Turkish bath took hold in the western mind. from the beginning of the middle ages to the beginning of the 19th cent. perfume was more popular than soap. it was only after the post renaissance period that the bathing came back into favor. Turkish bath specifically was brought to London in 1862, by David Urquhart, who have spent much time in the East. the great bathersof the ancient world was the Romans, and basically the Turkish batch was just a variant of bath which they had brought to Asia Minor. the Turkish steam chambers was an outgrowth of the Roman "Laconicum" and the "elaboration of the sweat baths".

9. CHESS IS NEITHER EUROPEAN NOR MEDIEVAL
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Chess is not European. the knights and bishops wasa game it seemed were a shame. chess have been creared in the East, centuries before the Normans heard of castles, bu apeople to whome the elephants were no oddity. chess grew out of the gaem "Chaturanga" played first in 6th cent. India. "Chaturanga" meaning in Sanskrit, "four arms" is also word for "army" and it referred in the game as in life to the chariots, cavalry, infrantry and elephants .these four "arms" modified by the Europeans came to be gradually know as the bishops, knights, pawns, and rooks. this transformation happened in the 10th cent. Arab invaders frouhgt the game to Europe . the Arabs also gave its name "alschah-mat" meaning " the king is dead". this became the word "checkmate".

10. WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF SWASTIKA?
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Swastika was not invented by Hitler.it was only approp[riated in the host of may ancient symbols, erroneously used by the pure stock "Aryans", the Nazi made it stand, in the popular imaginations. among m,any traditions, the Swastika was a symbol of good fortune, from the Sanskrit, meaning "it is well". it has been found in ancient Greek and Mesopotamic coins and Celtic and Scandinavian artifacts and object and arts of worhipped from India.Early christians, who used it during the Roma Persecutions, called it "Crux dissimulata" or "crux grammata", because its twisted arms resembles four Greek gammas.

posted by infraternam meam @ 3:45 AM

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