really possessing tail-like appendages, a great many references are given by G. M. Gould and W. L. Pyle (Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine, 1896, pp. 277-279, paragraphs on "Human Tails"). A very interesting leaden pilgrim's relic of the thirteenth century,* shaped like an ampulla (possibly intended to hold a trace of the saint's blood mixed with water), has on one side a figure of St. Thomas of Canterbury, with the hexameter line, Optimus egrorum medicus fit Thoma bonorum (“ Thomas is made the best physician for virtuous sick persons"); on the other side is a representation of two priests attending a sick person in bed. Here it may be remarked, however, that in England (to satisfy the curio-collector's demand for pilgrims' tokens, Mediaeval badges, weapons, &c.), some ignorant workmen in London, in the second half of the nineteenth century, manufactured numerous spurious badges, relics, &c., roughly cast in lead or brass (often bearing dates such as 1001 or 1301). They were buried ("planted") wherever excavations were going on, and then dug up again as "antiquarian finds," if persons likely to purchase them were observed to be watching the excavations. These ridiculous "antiques" were produced in great quantities, and many old curiosity shops soon became "flooded" with them, not only in London, but also in other towns of Great Britain, and gradually some of them found their way to other parts of Europe, and, indeed, beyond the limits of Europe. English travellers, still ignorant about them, occasionally bring them back, as curious antiques, to London, their original home, and American curio-hunters in London are warned against them by specimens exhibited in the Guildhall Museum, bearing impossible dates, &c. This type of falsaria may be discovered almost everywhere, just as may genuine Nuremberg counters (jetons, jettons, "Rechenpfennige ") of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 220 Now in the York Museum. Cf. G. Clinch, Handbook of English Antiquities, London, 1905, p. 203, and fig. 167. VI. DEATH AS AN EMBLEM OF STUBBORN PURPOSE DEATH'S - heads have been used as military devices in Germany, France, and England. The device was apparently first adopted by the Prussian Black Hussars" ("Death's-Head Hussars "), who were brought into existence by Frederick the Great in 1741. They wore a black uniform and a Death's-head instead of a cockade. The "Black Brunswickers," raised in 1809 by Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Brunswick-Oels (killed at Quatre-Bras, 1815), were likewise given a black uniform with a Death's-head as their badge, partly, it is said, as a token of mourning for the previous duke, who was mortally wounded at the battle of Auerstadt (October 14, 1806), in the war against Napoleon. A little bronze Death's-head, worn by the Prussian Black Hussars on their shakos during the war of 1815 against Napoleon, is illustrated (see Fig. 34). Three Prussian regiments, which at the present day represent the Black Brunswickers and the Black Hussars, continue to wear a Death'shead device. From the newspapers I understand that besides these the 21st Battalion of Chasseurs of the Reserve in the German Army received permission in 1915 to place skulls on its flags and on the headgear of the soldiers, on account of their work "in breaking through the Russian lines near Lodz" during the Great European War of 1914, &c. The famous Italian condottiere, Giovanni de' Medici (1498-1526), called "Giovanni delle Bande Nere," was popularly given this title on account of the sombre mourning dress worn by his terrible bands of mercenaries after the death of his kinsman, Pope Leo X (1521). According to another account, the "Bande Nere," which Giovanni founded, were so called only after the death of their founder, when they changed their uniform from white to black, in token of grief. In France a skull and crossed bones constituted the badge of the 9th Regiment of Hussars, which was formed in March, 1793, out of the second corps of "hussards noirs du nord." The device was apparently copied from that of the Prussian Black Hussars. The English 17th Lancers wear as a badge on their head-dress and collar a skull and crossed bones, with the words "or. glory" below (see Fig. 35), suggesting that the wearers of the badge are the "brave, who rush to glory or the grave" (Thomas Campbell, Hohenlinden). The object of this device ("Death or Glory "), which was introduced at the suggestion of Lieutenant-Colonel John Hale in 1759 (who was Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant of the newly formed corps), was to create emulation, and to commemorate the glorious death of General Wolfe at Quebec (1759).221 It was indeed, however, the ideal of obedience to duty and to his country's call that doubtless largely contributed to make Nelson the great English hero that he 221 Vide Major J. H. Lawrence Archer, The British Army; its Regimental Records, Badges, Devices, &c., London, 1888, p. 77. I am indebted to Mr. L. Forrer for this reference. was, an ideal exemplified by his famous signal at the Battle of Trafalgar (1805): "England expects that every man will do his duty." The feeling was the same that the Spartan band under their King Leonidas had who fell at Thermopylae (480 B.C.), and is well illustrated by the epigram of Simonides in the Greek Anthology (vii. 249) on the fallen heroes (English version by Bowles) : "Go tell the Spartans, thou that passest by, Lord Neaves 223 writes: "This Spartan obedience, which Simonides long ago celebrated, is that virtue which will in all times gain the ascendant both in war and in peace.' With such epigrams may be compared others in the Greek Anthology, on the extreme patriotism of Spartan mothers. Amongst those quoted on this subject by H. P. Dodd,224 one by Dioscorides (Anth. Graec. Palat., vii. 434, English version by Goldwin Smith) may specially be noted: "Eight sons Demaenaeta at Sparta's call Sent forth to fight; one tomb received them all. Sparta, I bore them but to die for thee."" "We are strong," said Napoleon, "when we have made up our minds to die"; but yet, victorious fighting and life are more valuable in a war than martyr-like death, and so it is not really surprising that words such as, "Pro patriâ mori, vivere est," "Dulce est pro patriâ 222 In regard to the soldier, "whose business 'tis to die," and to obey, cf. the famous lines in Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade :"Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die." 223 Lord Neaves, The Greek Anthology, Edinburgh, 1874, p. 25. mori," 225 or "Pro religione mori" or "Pro libertate mori, vivere est," have not found favour on military badges.226 Similar sentences do indeed appear on some medals and medalets, which, however, as they commemorate patriotic deeds, should be classed under Heading xi. A medal commemorating the capture of Breda in 1590 by the Dutch under Prince Maurice of Nassau, has the inscription, "Parati vincere aut mori." Boniface, Count of Savoy, who died in 1263, took as a motto, "Ni potior, morior" ("Unless I am master, I die "); but this approaches the idea of the saying, "Aut Caesar aut nihil." 227 This is perhaps the place to allude to works of art relating to "Death and Ambition" (cf. Part II. iii.), especially the insatiable ambition that has justly, or unjustly, been supposed to have no consideration for those pushed aside, killed, and trampled on in the pursuit of power and glory. Most of us have seen prints of a modern picture by P. Fritel ("The Price of Glory"), which was exhibited at the Paris "Salon" some years ago, representing a resplendent cavalcade of military con 225 Cf. Horace, Od., iii. 2. 14: "Dulce et decorum est pro patriâ mori"; and Macaulay, Lays of Ancient Rome-Horatius : "To every man upon this earth Death cometh soon or late, Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers And the temples of his gods?" The above-mentioned motto from Horace was placed on a memorial finger-ring of the notorious Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, who was executed for high treason in 1747 (cf. Part IV., subdivision ii.). 226 For personal and family mottoes of this kind, see J. Dielitz, Die Wahl- und Denksprüche, &c., Frankfurt-a-M., 1888. 227 I hear that a medal (1915) of the German Field-Marshal von Hindenburg has the device of an eagle and a death's-head on the reverse. |