of this sort of thing. And
so it is that in hundreds of our words which we use to-day, without
thinking of the literal meaning at all, we have a picture of the lives
of our ancestors preserved.

We have, too, words taken from the names of some animals which never
existed at all. The writers of the Middle Ages told many tales or
fables of animals and monsters which were purely imaginary, but in
which the people of those days firmly believed. We sometimes hear
people use the expression a "basilisk glare," which other people would
describe as a "look that kills," meaning a look of great severity or
displeasure. There is a little American lizard which zoologists call
the "basilisk," but this is not the basilisk from which this
expression comes. The basilisk which the people of the Middle Ages
imagined, but which never existed, was a monstrous reptile hatched by
a serpent from a cock's egg. By its breath or even its look it could
destroy all who approached it.

Another invention of the Middle Ages was the bird called the
"phoenix." We now use the word _phoenix_ to describe some one who
is unique in some good quality. A commoner way of expressing the same
idea would be that "there is no one like him." It was believed in the
Middle Ages that only one of these wonderful birds could exist in the
world at one time. The story was that the phoenix, after living
through five or six hundred years in the Arabian desert, prepared a
funeral pile for itself, and was burned to death, but rose again,
youthful and strong as ever, from the ashes.

In these words we are reminded once again of another side of the life
of our ancestors.

CHAPTER X.

WORDS FROM THE NAMES OF PLACES.

We have already seen something of the stories which the names of
places, old and new, can tell us. But the names of places themselves
often give us new words, and from these, too, we can learn many
interesting facts.

Many manufactured things, and especially woven cloths, silks, etc.,
are called by the name of the place from which they come, or from
which they first came. _Cashmere_, a favourite smooth woollen
material, is called after Cashmir, in India. _Damask_, the material of
which table linen is generally made, takes its name from Damascus; as
does _holland_, the light brownish cotton stuff used so much for
children's frocks and overalls, from Holland, and the rough woollen
material known as _frieze_ from Friesland. _Cambric_, the fine white
m