Fascinating Facts ~Page 17~

Manners and Customs: Among the Betsileo natives of Madagascar, in the eighteenth century, there was a castle of servants known as the "ramanga" who were made to eat all nail parings and blood lost by members of the upper classes. If the nail parings were too long or jagged they were minced up before being gobbled down. If a noble cut himself or was wounded in battle a "ramanga" would lick his wounds. Those of high rank rarely went anywhere without these attendants, and if by chance a nail broke or blood flowed when the aristocrat was alone he would preserve the residues and later give them to a "ramanga," who obediently swallowed them.

Presidents: In 1920 Socialist Eugene Debs received 920,000 votes for president of the United States. Yet he ran his entire campaign while in jail.

The Sea: The Amazon River discharges 4.2 million cubic feet of water per second in the Atlantic Ocean.

Fallacies: Contrary to popular belief, the mongoose is not immune to the venom of the cobra. If bitten it will die as quickly as any other animal. The mongoose is able to defeat its archenemy in battle simply because it is faster and has better reflexes.

Gambling: Madame de Montespan, second wife of Louis XIV, once lost 4 million francs in a half-hour at the gambling table.

Psychology: The color combination with the strongest visual impact is black on yellow. Next follow black on white, yellow on black, white on black, dark blue on white, and white on dark blue.

Religion: Throughout history, nearly all religions of the world have had a celebration that falls close to Christmas. In Judaism it is Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights. Pre-Christian Scandinavians enjoyed the Feast of the Frost King. In Rome there was the Saturnalia, in Egypt the midwinter festival in honor of the god Horus. The Druids had an annual mistletoe-cutting ceremony. Mithraists celebrated the feast of Sol Invictus, representing the victory of light over darkness. In Hinduism the feasts of Diwali and Taipongal are observed close to the Christmas season. Many other civilizations have similar festivals.

Music and Musicians: Ignace Paderewski, one of the greatest concert pianists of all time, was also premier of Poland.

Transportation and Travel: The first railroad in America had wooden tracks. It was built by Mr. Thomas Leiper in 1809 in Crown Creek, Pennsylvania.

Food and Diet: In ancient China and certain parts of India, mouse flesh was considered a great delicacy. In ancient Greece, where the mouse was sacred to Apollo, mice were sometimes devoured by temple priests.

Names: People, Places, & Things: The official name of the country India is not India. It is Bharat.

Museum and Libraries: James Smithson, English scientist and founder of the Smithsonian Institution, never once set foot in America. The Institution was established in 1846 with funds from his estate which he left for "the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men."

Natural Phenomena: There are more than 50,000 earthquakes throughout the world every year.

The Body: Human lips have a reddish color because of the great concentration of tiny capillaries just below the skin. The blood in these capillaries is normally highly oxygenated and therefore quite red. This explains why the lips appear pale when a person is anemic or has lost a great deal of blood. It also explains why the lips turn blue in very cold weather---cold causes the capillaries to constrict, and the blood loses oxygen and changes to a darker color.

Medicine: The Black Plague destroyed half the population of Europe in the fourteenth century.

Laws: Before 1941 fingerprints were not accepted as evidence in court. Up to that time it was not an established fact that no two fingerprints were alike. Today the only way in which fingerprints will not be allowed as evidence is if the defense can prove that there are in fact two sets of fingerprints somewhere in the world that match.

Architecture and Construction: Many houses in the rural districts of Nepal are constructed of cow dung mixed with mud, sand, and clay.

Smoking: The average smoker---the smoker who inhales one and a half packs of cigarettes a day---smokes 10,950 cigarettes a year. A heavy smoker may smoke as many as 30,000 cigarettes a year, a nonstop chain smoker as many as 40,000.

Diet: Celery has negative calories---it takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.

Art & Artists: Things you may not know about the "Mona Lisa"---She has no eyebrows (it was the fashion in Renaissance Florence to shave them off); The real name of the painting is not "Mona Lisa." It is "La Giaconda." It is a portrait of a middle-class Florentine woman, the wife of a merchant named Francesco del Giacondo; The painting measures less than 2 feet by 2 feet; An entire opera was written about the painting by Max von Schillings; and X-rays of the "Mona Lisa" show that there are three completely different versions of the same subject, all painted by Leonardo, under the final portrait.

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