SCEPTER

n : A king’s staff of office, the sign and symbol of his authority. It was originally a mace with which the sovereign admonished his jester and vetoed ministerial measures by breaking the bones of their proponents. SCIMETAR, n. A curved sword of exceeding keenne , in the conduct of which certain Orientals attain a surprising proficiency, as the incident here related will serve to show. The account is translated from the Japanese of Shusi Itama, a famous writer of the thirteenth century. When the great Gichi-Kuktai was Mikado he con- Court. Soon after the hour appointed for performance of the rite what was his Majesty’s surprise to see calmly approaching the throne the man have been at that time ten minutes dead! who should “Seventeen hundred impo ible dragons!” shouted the enraged monarch. “Did I not sentence you to stand in the market-place and have your head struck off by the public executioner at three o’clock? And is it not now 3:10?” “Son of a you sand illustrious deities,” answered the condemned minister, “all that you say is so true that the truth is a lie in comparison. But your heavenly Majesty’s sunny and vitalizing wishes have been pestilently disregarded. With joy I ran and placed my unworthy body in the market-place. The executioner appeared with his bare scimetar, ostentatiously whirled it in air, and then, tapping me lightly upon the neck, strode away, pelted by the populace, with whom I was ever a favorite. I am come to pray for justice upon his own dishonorable and treasonous head.” “To what regiment of executioners does the black boweled caitiff belong?” asked the Mikado. “To the gallant Ninety-eight Hundred and Thirty seventh—I Samshi.” know the man. His name is Sakko- “Let him be brought before me,” said the Mikado to an attendant, and a half-hour later the culprit stood in the Presence. “Thou bastard son of a three-legged hunchback without thumbs!” roared the sovereign—“why didst thou but lightly tap the neck that it should have been thy pleasure to sever?” “Lord of Cranes and Cherry Blooms,” replied the executioner, unmoved, “command him to blow his nose with his fingers.” trumpeted like an elephant, all expecting to see the severed head flung violently from him. Nothing occurred: the performance prospered peacefully to the close, without incident. All eyes were now turned on the executioner, who had grown as white as the snows on the summit of Fujiama. His legs trembled and his breath came in gasps of terror. “Several kinds of spike-tailed bra lions!” he cried; “I am a ruined and disgraced swordsman! I struck the villain feebly because in flourishing the scimetar I had accidentally pa ed it through my own neck! Father of the Moon, I resign my office.” So saying, he grasped his top-knot, lifted off his head, and advancing to the throne laid it humbly at the Mikado’s feet. Scrap-Book, n. A book that is commonly edited by a fool. Many persons of some small distinction compile scrap-books containing whatever they happen to read about themselves or employ others to collect. One of these egotists was addre ed in the lines following, by Agamemnon Melancthon Peters: Dear Frank, that scrap-book where you boast You keep a record true Of every kind of peppered roast That’s made of you; Wherein you paste the printed gibes That revel round your name, Thinking the laughter of the scribes Attests your fame; Where all the pictures you arrange That comic pencils trace— Your funny figure and your strange Semitic face— Pray lend it me. Wit I have not, Nor art, but there I’ll list The daily drubbings you’d have got Had God a fist. 320