On how many mattresses did the princess in “The Princess and the Pea” sleep?
The Princess slept on 20 mattresses and 20 eiderdowns (fluffy featherbeds), between 2 of which was placed a single pea.
The Round Table seated 150 knights, with one place left open for the Holy Grail. The table’s design was conceived by Merlin to prevent any bickering about who would get places of honor.
One reason spilling salt is considered bad luck is because salt was once valuable and difficult to obtain. According to an old Norwegian superstition, a person is doomed to shed as many tears as it takes to dissolve the spilled salt. Another reason is the belief that spilled salt refers to the devil. In the…
According to legend you get the gift of eloquence when you kiss the Blarney Stone in Ireland. To reach the Blarney Stone, go to the southern wall of Blarney Castle in the village of Blarney, County Cork, Ireland. The stone is under the battlements there. Be warned: You have to hang head downward to kiss…
Before it became the Nazi symbol of Aryan superiority, the swastika had several meanings, all positive. In Sanskrit, the word swastika means “conducive to well-being.” The Aryans of India believed swastikas represented the sun’s motion across the sky, a symbol of its goodness and regenerative power. The Greeks and Persians believed it represented prosperity and…
The Egyptian pharaohs claim to be descended Ra, the sun-god. Ra is sometimes represented with the disk of the sun on his head and surrounded by Uraeus, the sacred flame-breathing asp.
In medieval times, the philosophers’ stone was the substance that alchemists claimed would turn base metals into gold. The great search for the stone laid the groundwork for the development of the science of chemistry.