The Magic Hair
Image courtesy of Boosinka via Shutterstock
Chapter 27 / Fun Facts
​
Mold and Mildew
Mold and mildew are types of fungi that thrive in moist environments. You can find them on wood, cardboard, carpets, fabric, food, insulation, decaying leaves and other organic materials. Mildew is usually gray or white in color. Mold can be black, green, red or blue.
These microscopic organisms reproduce by sending spores (miniscule seeds) into the air. When the spores land on a damp surface, they attach themselves and begin growing colonies. This can happen within 24-48 hours and continues until the source of moisture is eliminated.
While it may be gross in your bathroom shower, mold and mildew help break down organic matter such as garbage and fallen leaves. Mold is also needed to make some types of bread and cheese, as well as penicillin and other medications.
Fear of Rats
An exaggerated or irrational fear of rats or mice is called musophobia. It comes from the Latin “mus” (mouse) and Greek “phobos” (fear).
Many people have a much greater fear of rats than they do of mice. Size is probably one reason why. Rats can grow up to 12 inches [30.5 cm] in length—not counting their long tails. Plus, they will attack if cornered while mice will skitter away.
Necropsy
“Now about that same time, my dog suddenly died. So I cut him open to see what killed him.”
An examination of a human body after death is called an autopsy. A similar exam of an animal post-mortem (after death) is referred to as a necropsy.
The purpose of both examinations is to determine the cause of death. Sometimes, the tests can’t definitely say what the exact cause was, but can rule things out or suggest what they think happened.
Necropsies involve collecting samples from internal organs, examining the stomach contents and looking for signs of trauma.
Beeswax
Beeswax is a naturally occurring substance created by honeybees. Female worker bees have eight wax-producing glands on their abdomens. They use the wax to create honeycombs, which serve as shelters for the queen bee’s eggs.
In the Middle Ages, people began using candles made of beeswax. These did not produce the smoky flame or nasty smell of tallow candles, which were made from animal fat. In fact, beeswax has a pleasant odor when burned that comes from the honey and flower nectar found in the honeycomb.
However, beeswax candles were much more expensive than tallow candles, so only the rich could afford them. The churches of the time were some of the biggest users of beeswax candles.
​
Chapter 28 / Fun Facts
​
Crowbars
While she was securing the cargo, Renetta noticed the crowbar she had stolen from Gencarelli.
The crowbar is a metal lever used to remove nails or pry apart two objects. One end is usually flat, while the other end is forked.
The tool gets its name from the forked end, which resembles a crow’s foot. In the Middle Ages, the tool was sometimes called simply a “crow” or “iron crow.” William Shakespeare refers to an “iron crow” in his play, Romeo and Juliet.
Rainbows
Light beamed through the falling water. It created a rainbow of brilliant color.
Rainbows are caused when sunlight shines through drops of water. As the light enters and exists each drop in a process known as refraction, the round shape of the drop bends the beam. This splits it into separate wavelengths that appear as individual bands of color.
Most rainbows appear to be an arc, but that’s because we’re only seeing part of them. If you could view the whole thing—which you can from an airplane—you would see a full circle.
There are seven colors that make up a rainbow. They are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. They always appear in the same order with red at the top of the arc and violet at the bottom. That’s because red is the longest wavelength and violet the shortest.
Tapestries
Tapestries are works of art that are woven into textiles instead of painted on a canvas or wall. While some are used for clothing or pillow covers, most tapestries are quite large—often the size of an area rug.
Tapestry fragments survive from ancient Egyptian, Greek, Chinese, Syrian, Incan and Roman societies. However, the height of tapestry weaving occurred during the Middle Ages.
Medieval castles and churches were large, drafty places, made colder by stone walls and sparse furnishings. Tapestries were used as wall hangings to decorate the immense interiors. But they also provided a bit of insulation. Other uses included covering door and window openings, dividing large spaces into smaller ones and providing privacy around beds.
Their size and the difficulty of weaving a picture into material meant that only the wealthy could afford tapestries. Kings and nobles often commissioned images that showed them in battle, hunting or other scenes from everyday life. Christian churches used tapestries to illustrate Bible stores for their congregations who were largely illiterate (couldn’t read).
Bezoar Stones
“How long do I have to wait?” he sighed.
Poisoning has been a popular way to do away with enemies for ages. And it was much more effective when medicine and antidotes weren’t as sophisticated or available as they are today.
One fabled antidote that dates back to ancient times was the bezoar. Persian and Greek doctors in the first century made use of them. In fact, the word bezoar comes from the Persian word, padzahr, meaning counter poison. People in the Andes Mountains of South America also used bezoars well before the Europeans arrived.
By the 12thcentury, bezoars were highly prized by rich Europeans, particularly royalty. People who suspected that someone was trying to poison them would crush up some bezoar or drop the stone into their drink to see if it was tainted.
So what is this magic cure? It’s gross. A bezoar is a stone-like lump that forms in the digestive track of animals, and sometimes humans. The mass is caused by items that the animal eats but can’t digest. That includes hair, seeds, fruit pits, plant fibers, rocks and more. (Think of the hairballs that cats hack up.) Minerals in the stomach help the mass harden, while contracting stomach muscles make the “stone” smooth.
Food Tasters
Another way that rulers tried to avoid being poisoned was to employ food tasters. The taster’s job was to sample the food or drink before it was served to the monarch. If the taster felt no ill effects, the meal was safe for the royal family.
Surprisingly, the U.S. Secret Service still insists on using food tasters before the President is served in some foreign countries.
Chapter 29 / Fun Facts
​
Night Travel
Travel during the Middle Ages was slow and often dangerous, especially at night. It was not just the lack of streetlamps illuminating the dark that made it scary. Real terrors such as robbers and wildlife roamed the night, eager to pounce on unsuspecting travelers.
Then there were the imagined threats from werewolves, demons, dragons and other monsters. Many people further associated a lack of light with a lack of goodness, believing that devils and evil spirits ruled the night.
Birdsong
There’s some debate as to why birds sing so in the morning. Some people believe it’s to reconnect with their flock, which may have scattered during the night. Others theorize that the birds are re-establishing their territory, telling would-be intruders to keep out.
In addition to connecting with each other and establishing territory, birds use sound to attract a mate, send out danger warnings, and let others know that food is available.
Some bird species have only one song, chirp or call, while others have a repertoire that includes hundreds of different songs. And just like humans who speak a common language have regional dialects, the same species of bird may have distinctive songs depending on where they live.
Arnica
Arnica, or leopard’s bane, is a plant that resembles a daisy. It has been used as a medicine since the 1500s.
Today, you can find this homeopathic remedy in an ointment or cream. When you rub it into your skin, it helps soothe muscle aches, pains, strains, bruises, joint pain and arthritis. People have also used arnica to take the itch out of insect bites and poison ivy, to help heal scars and even to promote hair growth.
Arnica helps accelerate healing by stimulating the growth of white blood cells—the infection fighters in our bodies. It also dilates blood vessels so that the fluid under damaged skin can drain faster.
Coastal Bluffs
Coastal bluffs are formed when wind, sea spray and crashing waves erode the earth. They are even more vulnerable to erosion than river bluffs because of high tides and storms. These can cause waves to crash into the bottom of the bluff wall. Over time, the force of the water tunnels out the sand, dirt or rock of the bluff. When a tunnel gets wide and deep enough, the land can no longer support the weight of the wall above. Gravity causes the unsupported part of the bluff to slides down to the beach, altering its shape forever.
Chapter 30 / Fun Facts
​
Trichotillomania
“Did you pull all of these strands out of your head?” Elliot chimed in.
About 2% of the population has a disorder called trichotillomania. This compulsive hair pulling can be caused by anxiety, stress, sadness, anger, frustration, boredom or even nothing at all. It usually starts around puberty and most people don’t even realize that they’re pulling out their hair.
There are several theories for why people do this. One is that the slight pain is followed by an immediate feeling of release that may help lessen stress. It also may be that focusing on pulling out one’s hair allows a person to temporarily forget about what’s bothering them. Still another explanation is that increased anxiety makes it hard for some people to control their impulses.
Shadows
The light from a torch cast a shadow of one of the children headed down the hall toward her.
Light waves travel in a straight line. When the beams reach a solid object that they can’t pass through, they bounce back toward the light source. The area behind the object causes a dark spot in the shape of the object. This dark spot is better known as a shadow.
Oatmeal
Nici thought about her dream as she ate her oatmeal.
Oatmeal is made by grinding the seeds of oat grass and then cooking it. Unlike wheat, oat grass can handle short, wet growing seasons. That’s why it was so popular in places such as Scotland, Ireland, Germany and Scandinavia.
Universities in medieval Scotland even had a holiday that was all about oatmeal. Back then, students who lived on campus were expected to provide their own food, which was usually just oatmeal. Most students lived in rural areas surrounding the cities where the universities were located. So they periodically got long weekends to go back home and gather more oats to replenish their sack of “meal.” These long weekends were known as Meal Monday or Oatmeal Monday.
Wine Storage
The ideal way to store bottled wine is sideways in a cool, dark, humid place. This is because heat and light can ruin the wine’s taste. High humidity (the amount of moisture in the air) keeps wine corks from shrinking. Storing the bottle sideways also keeps the liquid in contact with the cork so that it doesn’t dry out.
Apparently, the ocean floor makes an excellent wine cellar. Vintage wines have been recovered from shipwrecks and are still drinkable after hundreds of years.
Perhaps that’s what convinced a winery in Chile to age its wines in the ocean. There are also seaside restaurants that store their wine stock in the ocean. When a patron orders a bottle of wine, one of the staff dives into the water to retrieve it.
Chapter 31 / Fun Facts
​
Medieval Entertainment
Traveling long distances during the Middle Ages was difficult, so people often stayed a while once they got to a far-off destination. The nobles traveling to a royal wedding would expect feasting and entertainment throughout their visit. What you might call the “royal treatment.”
Medieval entertainers included jesters, minstrels and troubadours, acrobats, jugglers, conjurers, fire-eaters and mummers (masked dancers, actors and merrymakers). Games and contests included archery, horseshoes and wrestling, plus sports similar to today’s golf, bowling and hockey.
There was also Gameball, an early version of both soccer and American football. Gameball was played between neighboring villages. Each “team” of villagers tried to get the ball into the other team’s goal. Other than that, there weren’t many rules, short of no murder or manslaughter. There were no limits to how many people could be on each team. Men and women could play. Players could carry, kick, pass or throw the ball to the goal. Goals could be anywhere from yards to miles apart.
The ball was an inflated pig’s bladder covered in leather. To this day, an American football is called a pigskin.
Smells
There’s a biological reason that familiar smells can cause you to remember something.
When you breathe in a smell, cells in your nose send electrical signals to your olfactory bulb. This is the structure in the front of your brain that identifies odors—otherwise known as your sense of smell.
The olfactory bulb is part of the brain’s limbic system. And the limbic system controls not only olfaction (odor identification), but also emotions, behavior and long-term memory.
This tight wiring wouldn’t cause this reaction, however, if it weren’t for conditioned responses. A conditioned response begins when you encounter a new smell. Your brain quickly forges a link between the electrical impulses being received by the olfactory bulb and the person, place, thing, etc. producing the smell. The next time you come across that smell, the link is already in your brain, ready to trigger a memory.
To understand how this works, think how the smell of chlorine prompts images of a pool. If you enjoyed summers spent by a pool, the chemical’s smell may bring on pleasant thoughts and memories. But if you had a negative experience—people laughing because you lost your bathing suit diving into the pool, for example—you might hate the smell of chlorine.
So years later you could walk into a laundry where someone is using bleach (which contains chlorine), and instantly be taken back to that embarrassing moment in the pool.
Whatever response they cause, we come across most new odors when we’re young. That’s why smells often cause us to remember childhood memories.
Linen
Linen is made from flax, a tall, reed-like plant. In fact, the word linen comes from the Latin “linum” and the Greek “linon”, which both mean flax.
To make linen out of flax, the plant can be soaked in water or cut and left to decompose in the field. This helps the hard outer shell separate from the long, soft fibers inside. These fibers are what is spun into cloth.
Linen is believed to be the oldest fiber used to make textiles. Dyed flax fibers found in a cave in the country of Georgia suggest people may have used linen for fabrics over 35,000 years ago. Fragments of linen cloth have been dated back to 8,000 B.C. The ancient Egyptians used finely spun linen for their tunics, and coarsely woven linen for boat sails. And of course, they wrapped their mummies in strips of linen.
Other uses for linen include canvas for paintings, a way to help yeast-based dough keep its shape while rising, and as book bindings and paper. U.S. currency, in fact, is 25% linen.
In the Middle Ages, linen was used to make gambesons. These were jackets padded with horsehair or scrap cloth. Gambesons could be used as armor, or worn under metal armor.
Some familiar words that have a connection to linen include:
• Line—linen thread was used to make a straight line
• Lining—wool and leather clothing often had a linen lining
• Lingerie—originally meaning underwear made of linen
• Spinster—from when single women showed off their spinning skills to attract a husband
High Heels
Both men and women wore high-heeled shoes for thousands of years. They may be a fashion statement now, but they once served a more practical purpose.
In ancient Egypt, butchers wore heeled shoes so they could walk above the blood and organs of the dead animals that fell to the floor. Ancient Greeks and Romans wore sandals with high wood or cork soles to keep their feet out of the garbage and mud in the street.
During the Middle Ages, both sexes attached pattens to their shoes when walking outdoors. These were wooden soles that protected the person’s expensive, sometimes fragile shoes.
In Asia, heeled shoes and boots helped keep the rider’s feet in the stirrups when riding a horse. Modern cowboy boots still have heels for this same purpose.
In time, high heels came to be a symbol of wealth. That’s where we get the term “well heeled,” which means rich. “Down at the heel” or “down at heel” is a way of expressing poverty.
​
Chapter 32 / Fun Facts
​
Pencils
Feeney took a pad of paper and pencil from his pocket, scribbled a note and showed it to the others.
Pencils actually date back as far as Roman times. Prior to then, a pen-shaped tool called a stylus was used to inscribe clay or wax tablets. When the Romans made their styli (plural of stylus) out of lead, they found it could still make indentations on tablets. But it had the added bonus of leaving dark streaks on surfaces such as wood or papyrus.
Lead was fine until a large deposit of graphite was discovered in England in 1564. The locals used it to mark their sheep so they could distinguish one person’s flock from another’s.
Graphite leaves a darker mark than lead, making it ideal for a writing instrument. But it’s very brittle, so it needs a holder. Early pencils were two wooden slats glued to a flat slab of pure graphite.
Today’s pencils use powdered graphite mixed with clay. Wherever the pencil makes contact with the paper or whatever is being written on, it leaves a trail of this mixture. Pressing down harder creates a thicker trail of the mixture, while a light touch leaves less substance and is therefore lighter.
Things written in pencil can be more durable than ink. Ink runs, but graphite is resistant to moisture. It also holds up to harsh sunlight and ages without fading.
Perhaps that’s why we have so many well-preserved drawings from Leonardo da Vinci. He often sketched in pencil.
Antidotes
Nici remembered that Lindor said that he was working on an antidote to the poison.
Antidotes are treatments or medicine used to fight poison. They work in one of three ways:
• Prevent the poison from being absorbed.
• Produce the opposite effects of the poison to neutralize its harm.
• Change the poison’s chemical structure so that it becomes harmless.
Poisoning has been a popular way to get rid of enemies for millennia. In the Middle Ages, nobility and commoners—and some Popes—employed poison rings, letters, lipstick, drinks and food. Italy even had schools devoted to teaching would-be poisoners.
Because of this, medieval people were interested in anything rumored to be an antidote, especially an antidote that would counteract any poison.
One such remedy touted as a universal antidote was the horn of the mythical unicorn. It was said that if you drank water or wine from the horn, or dipped it into your drink, you would be protected from the poison’s fatal effects. Nobles afraid of assassination attempts happily spent thousands of dollars to acquire the horns. What they were actually getting was a narwhal whale’s tusk, or sometimes a rhinoceros horn.
Apparently Catherine de Medici, daughter of the Pope at the time, believed in this unusual antidote. A piece of unicorn’s horn was part of her dowry when she married the king of France in 1533.
Wheezing
Wheezing is a high-pitched rattling or whistling sound that usually occurs when exhaling. It can be triggered by very cold air, exercise, illness or disease, asthma and allergens (something that causes an allergic reaction). Stress doesn’t cause wheezing, but it can make it worse.
One of the fastest remedies for wheezing is to remove whatever is causing it, if possible.
If you’re exercising, for example, stopping will allow your breathing to return to normal.
A cup of coffee might also work. The New England Journal of Medicinepublished a study showing caffeine to be an effective bronchodilator. A bronchodilator (bronco–dye–later) is a substance that enlarges the airways in the lungs so that it’s easier for air to move in and out.
A cup of tea is good for mild cases of wheezing. Tea contains a substance that reduces inflammation and relaxes muscles in the airways of the lungs.
Pitch
Pitch has been used as a waterproof sealant for ships since ancient Egyptian times.
Pitch, or resin, is the dried sap of trees. Sap is the sticky liquid that carries water and nutrients throughout the tree. When there is a cut in the tree’s bark—such as when a branch breaks off or an animal scratches the tree—sap flows to the wound. Its mission is to seal off the area so that harmful insects or organisms can’t enter and damage or destroy the tree.
Over time, the liquid hardens into a solid. The color can vary from deep gold to almost white to yellow-brown or red.
Amber, which is often used for jewelry, is actually fossilized resin. Pieces of amber sometimes contain perfectly preserved specimens of bugs or plants. This is because the insect or plant matter became trapped in the sap while it was still sticky. Additional sap oozed over top, entombing the prisoner. After millions of years, the resin transforms into a material that’s transparent like glass—making it easy to see what’s trapped inside.
Chapter 33 / Fun Facts
​
​
Hair Dyes
Carlton stroked his blond goatee, which had just been exposed. He had also dyed his hair.
If you’re a fan of dying your hair, you should be thankful you didn’t live in medieval times.
One recipe from that time period claimed you could bleach hair blonde by doing this:
Boil walnut shells and walnut tree bark, then add alum (a chemical compound) and oak apples (a growth on oak trees caused by parasites). Smear this on clean hair, cover with leaves and tie in place with string. Leave for two days.
Then apply the coloring made of henna, crocus and dragon’s blood (a bright red plant sap). Leave for three days, then wash with hot water.
After going to all that trouble, the person would naturally want to make sure their hair stayed well conditioned. A recipe for this suggested boiling very fatty bacon with several other ingredients—including three or four lizards. After straining the mixture, it was then ready to be combed through the hair.
Floodplains
“There’s an old abandoned well in the floodplain between the castle and the Roon River,” Tem said.
Floodplains are low, flat areas next to rivers and streams that flood periodically. Flooding may happen every year, every few years or as much as hundreds of years apart.
When a river rises so high that it jumps its banks, the water spreads outward along the low-lying floodplain. It deposits dirt, rocks, tree roots, minerals and other materials stirred up by erosion. The nutrients in these materials make the soil of the floodplain very fertile.
Ancient Egyptians understood this concept so well that they placed their farms on the floodplains of the Nile. They depended on the mighty river’s annual flood to leave behind enriched soil and provide water for irrigation.
Floodplains provide a natural system for filtering water. Layers of mud, rock, silt and clay build up from flood after flood. This is generally not as dense or compacted as land outside the floodplain. Water can drain through the soil more easily and collect in gaps known as aquifers. This filtering can make water drawn from an aquifer purer than water from the stream or river.
As beneficial as floodplains can be, they can also mean disaster when people build homes and even whole cities on them. New Orleans and much of Houston are built on floodplains, and both have had devastating floods that have devastated these low-lying cities.
Wells
Since water is essential to our survival, it’s not surprising that wells are some the first forms of human construction. The oldest known man-made well is over 10,000 years old.
In its simplest form, a well is just a hole dug in the ground deep enough to reach the water trapped below. People in different parts of the world have lined the sides of their wells with logs, rocks, brick and other materials to keep the hole from collapsing.
To make the well functional, the groundwater has to be brought to the surface. Larger wells may have a ladder or steps that lead down to the water. For smaller wells, water is drawn to the surface using a container. Older civilizations used leather or animal-skin bags attached to a rope. In time, these were replaced by buckets made of wood, and then metal. A hand crank known as a windlass made it easier to raise and lower the bucket.
The way we drill wells and pump water to the surface has changed over the years as technology has become more sophisticated. One thing that hasn’t changed, though, is that wells still go dry. This happens when the water is pumped or removed from the ground faster than it can be replenished through rain, floods, melting snow and other sources.
​
Chapter 34 / Fun Facts
​
Secret Passages
Hidden passages, tunnels and rooms were an important feature of many medieval castles. They let people come and go and conduct business secretly.
Hidden escapes were particularly useful when the castle was under siege. During a siege, the enemy would camp outside the fortified walls of the castle and not let anyone enter or leave. This posed a threat to the people living within because they could not get outside to gather food or water. A hidden passageway allowed provisions to be brought inside without the enemy knowing about it, and made it easy for people to escape under the cover of night.
Other civilizations and eras have also found use for secret passages. Ancient Egyptians built hidden tunnels and booby traps into the pyramids to foil grave robbers. During the French Revolution, Marie-Antoinette used a hidden passageway to escape an angry mob storming the Palace of Versailles (though she was later caught and beheaded). During U.S. Prohibition, people built hidden bars known as speakeasies to illegally serve alcohol. Anne Frank and her family fled to hidden rooms above her father’s business to escape the Nazis (though she too, was eventually caught and killed). Secret underground tunnels helped the Vietnamese conduct surprise attacks and quick escapes during the Vietnam War. In 2006, a tunnel was discovered under the U.S./Mexico border that was being used to smuggle people and illegal substances. And safe rooms are still built into private residences to protect high-profile people in the event of a home invasion.
Eyesight
Light bathed the dark tunnel. The children squinted in the brightness.
The human eye’s ability to adjust to different levels of darkness and light is called adaptation.
It takes about five minutes for the eyes to adapt from darkness to bright light. However, it takes about half an hour for the opposite to happen as the eyes go from bright light to total darkness.
During the quick dark-to-light adaptation, the pupil of the eye constricts (gets smaller). This reduces the amount of light that reaches the retina where the rods and cones reside. Rods and cones are specialized neurons that convert light into electrical signals that the brain can understand.
During the longer light-to-dark adaptation, the pupil dilates (gets bigger) to let in more light. While it doesn’t take the pupil half an hour to make this change, it does take the rods and cones that much time to adjust to low light levels and begin to see different shades of black. This is why the longer you sit in total darkness, the more objects you can see around you.
You can easily test this for yourself by going from a brightly lit room to total darkness. Note what objects you can see right away. Then observe how many more become visible as time passes. If you have a chance to be outside in an area far away from city lights, you can experience the same phenomenon after sundown.
Goosebumps
Goosebumps—also called goose flesh or goose pimples—occur when you’re cold, scared, in shock or experience something nostalgic or awe-inspiring. They look like the skin of poultry when it has been plucked.
Goosebumps are actually a reflex that happen without you even thinking about it. When you’re cold or emotional, your brain sends a signal to muscles that causes them to tense up. When hairs are attached to these muscles, it causes the hair to stand straight up and pulls up your skin, producing the bumps. For early humans, the function of this reflex was to provide additional insulation from body hair.
Many animals get goosebumps, too. When their flight-or-fight response is activated, their hair rises, making the animal appear bigger to predators. It’s particularly noticeable in porcupines, who raise their quills when they feel threatened.
Chapter 35 / Fun Facts
Medieval Wedding Feasts
People in the Middle Ages held wedding feasts to celebrate the day, no matter if the bride and groom were rich or poor. The local geography generally dictated what was served and was limited to what could be grown, foraged for, trapped, netted or caught. Royal feasts were more elaborate since they had the money for more specialty foods.
The menu was very heavy on protein. Meats often included beef, lamb and pork. All kinds of fowl were served, including ducks, geese, chickens, pheasants and quail. If a body of water was nearby, there might be fish, eels and oysters. Guests also feasted on cheese, butter and other dairy products. Sweets included tarts, custards and fresh fruit cooked in wine and spices. Food was spiced with salt, pepper, cloves, cinnamon and ginger.
Diners usually ate with their fingers and a knife, which could stab food from platters like a fork. Unless the guest was of a noble rank, they were expected to bring their own knife, spoon and drinking mug to the banquet.
The feasts generally lasted well into the night. This was because there was no way to preserve most of leftovers, so everyone just stayed until the food was gone.
Medieval Divorce
Medieval divorces didn’t technically exist. But that doesn’t mean that marriages didn’t end.
The only recognized way to dissolve a marriage was to “discover” that the two people hadn’t been legitimately married in the first place. Here are some of the things that could make a couple eligible for a marriage annulment:
• If it was discovered that one partner didn’t take their oath of marriage voluntarily, but was forced into it.
• One partner—or both—was already married to someone else.
• The couple were actually cousins. The church deemed it incestuous for couples to marry if they shared any ancestors going back seven generations. It was fairly easy to find some long-lost distant relative that the couple shared—or at least said they shared—so this was one of the more popular excuses for dissolving a marriage.
Of course, these rules mostly applied to aristocratic marriages. The church didn’t care that much about peasant couples. They could split up and as long as neither partner remarried, everything was fine. And by moving away to a distant town, they could remarry with no one being the wiser.
Chandeliers
Chandeliers date back to the fourteenth century. The word comes from the French word “chandelle,” which means candle holder.
The earliest versions of these light fixtures were just simple crosses that hung from the ceiling of churches, meeting halls and other large open spaces. They had spikes at the ends to hold the candles.
It didn’t take long for chandeliers to become status symbols for royalty and other wealthy people. The designs became more ornate over time and were made of metal and crystal.
In the 1800s, natural gas was used for home lighting, so chandeliers had to be modified. Once electricity came into fashion, these light fixtures were altered again. Although they’re no longer necessary to illuminate interiors, they’re still a popular staple of home décor.
Chapter 36 / Fun Facts
Toasts
“And now if you will all raise your goblets,” the sovereign requested.
“Here we go,” Carlton smiled from his hidden vantage point in the kitchen.
Raising drink containers to honor someone or something is actually an age-old tradition practiced by many different cultures. Ancient Chinese regarded alcohol as a sacred liquid so it was only used for sacrificial offerings to Heaven, the Earth and ancestors. Ancient Greeks offered up libations to honor their many, many gods. The Roman senate decreed that everyone should drink to the emperor’s health at every meal. Mayan priests drank chocolate, which they considered intoxicating, during religious ceremonies as an offering to the gods.
Around the 16th century in Western culture, these offerings started to be referred to as “toasts.” This had to do with the lousy wine that was available at the time. People would put a piece of stale bread in jugs of wine to soak up some of the acid and make it taste better. Since food wasn’t something to be wasted, they would also eat the toast once the wine had been poured.
The character Falstaff in Shakespeare’s play The Merry Wives of Windsor asks someone to bring him some sweet wine and “put a toast in it.”
Over time, toast came to refer to the words said in honor or celebration of a person or event.
Mustard
“Is there anything that can be done for my granddaughter?” Albert asked.
Mustard is actually a plant, not the condiment that should be called prepared mustard. Its plant family is closely related to many common vegetables, including broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and turnips.
Mustard seeds have been found in the tombs of ancient Egyptian pharaohs to help sustain them in the afterlife. Romans ground the seeds into a paste that they mixed with vinegar or wine for a spread much like the condiment we still use. Many civilizations have used mustard poultices and pastes to ease aches and pains, including toothaches. It’s also been used to clear up sinus congestion, stimulate appetite, prevent frostbite, and even treat scorpion stings. Today, mustard remedies are touted as treatments for weight loss, hair growth, boosting the immune system and regulating cholesterol.
The word itself comes from the mixture made by French monks who combined unfermented grape juice, called must, with ground mustard seeds. This resulted in a “burning must” or mustum ardens. That’s the source of the word “must ard.”
Flower Colors
Once the procession arrived, Thena knelt down and pulled up some of the neon yellow plants.
Flowers have different colors to help the plant survive. So why do some plants have less colorful flowers or no flowers at all? It has to do with how the plant pollinates.
Some plants need birds, bees and other insects to help them reproduce. These are the ones that develop brightly colored flowers and sweet nectar or fruit. Birds and insects are attracted to this, and land on the plant. Some of the pollen from the plant sticks to their feet. When they fly on to another plant, a bit of that pollen rubs off and pollination occurs.
But other plants reproduce when the wind blows their seeds or spores somewhere new. These are more likely to be dull-colored and bad tasting. For these plants, there’s no need to spend their energy being more attractive to pollinators because the wind does the work for them.
Dried Blood
How quickly blood dries when it’s outside of the body depends on several factors. These include how much liquid is in the drop or puddle, the surface that the blood lands on, plus the heat and humidity of the air around the blood. Clotting usually begins within three to 15 minutes.
Freshly dried bloodstains are somewhat glossy and a reddish-brown color. Sun and weather break down the clot over time and can leave a grey stain on materials that absorb some of the blood, such as clothing or carpet.