A good story is told of Mozart, the great composer, at the time he was a pupil with Haydn. It shows that a long nose is sometimes useful:

Haydn one day challenged his pupil to compose a piece of music which he could not play at sight. Mozart accepted the banter, and a supper and Champagne were to be the forfeit. Everything being arranged between the two composers, Mozart took his pen and in five minutes dashed off a piece of music, and, much to the surprise of Haydn, handed it to him, saying, “There is a piece of music which you cannot play, and I can. You are to give it the first trial.”

Haydn smiled contemptuously at the visionary presumption of his pupil, and placing the notes before him, struck the keys of the instrument. Surprised at its simplicity, he dashed away until he reached the middle of the piece, when, stopping all at once, he exclaimed, “How is this, Mozart? How is this? Here my hands are stretched to both ends of the piano, and yet there’s a middle key to be touched. Nobody can play such music – not even the composer himself.”

Mozart smiled at the half-excited indignation of the great master, and taking the seat he had quitted, struck the instrument with such an air of self-assurance that Haydn began to think himself duped. Running along through the simple passages, he came to that part which his teacher had pronounced impossible to be played. Mozart, as many are aware, was endowed with an extremely long nose – prodigious nose, which in modern dialect, “stuck out about a foot.” Reaching the difficult passage, he stretched both hands to the extreme end of the piano, and leaning forward, bobbed his nose against the middle key, which “nobody could play!” Haydn burst into an immoderate fit of laughter and, after acknowledging the “corn,” declared that nature had endowed Mozart with a capacity for music which he had never before discovered.

From
“The Cyclopaedia of Anecdotes of Literature and the Fine Arts”

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The Osiris Legend

To avoid confusion you should be aware that there are two forms of the god Horus in this story, first we find him as the brother of Osiris, then later we find him called Harpocrates or Horus the infant son of Osiris.

The lord of all the earth is born.

In the beginning, there was the mighty god Ra and his wife Nut. Nut was in love with the god Geb. When Ra found out about this union he was furious. In his rage, he forbid Nut to have children on any of the 360 days that currently made up the year. Nut was very sad. She called on her friend, Thoth, to help her. He knew that Ra's curse must be fulfilled, but he had an idea. Thoth engaged the moon goddess, Silene, in a wager. At the time, Silene's light (the moon) rivaled the light of Ra (the sun). Thoth was victorious, he was rewarded with one seventh of Silene's light. This is why the moon now wanes each month. Thoth took this light and added five days to the calender, bringing the year from 360 days to 365. This gave Nut 5 days on which she could have children, while at the same time obeying Ra's commandment. On the first of these days, Nut gave birth to Osiris. On the second day Horus was born, Seth on the third, Isis the fourth, and Nephthys on the fifth day. At the time of Osiris' birth, a loud voice was heard all over the world, saying, "The lord of all the earth is born."

Osiris the mighty king.

Osiris grew and became a mighty king. He went about the job of civilizing his people. He taught them agriculture and animal husbandry. He gave them a code of laws to live by and showed them the proper ways in which to worship the gods. Egypt became a mighty land under his kind and gentle rule. His subjects gladly worshiped the ground on which he walked. When Egypt was civilized, Osiris left to bring his teachings to other lands. While Osiris was away, he left his wife, Isis, in charge. She ruled the country in the same fashion. But Osiris had an enemy, his bitter and jealous brother Seth.

Seth plots against the king.

Seth began scheming against the great king. He aligned himself with Aso, the queen of Ethiopia, and 72 other conspirators. But nothing could be done while Isis ruled the country, Her authority was unquestionable. Upon Osiris' return, an evil plot was put into motion. Seth secretly acquired the measurements of Osiris and began having a wonderfully decorated box built to fit those measurements. When the box was finished, Seth had a great feast to which he invited Osiris and the 72 conspirators. Having absolutely no evil in him, Osiris suspected nothing. When the feasting was done, Seth had the box brought out. He offered it as a gift to anyone whom the box fit. One at a time they tried to fit into the box until it was Osiris' turn. He layed in the box suspecting nothing. The conspirators slammed the lid, nailed it closed, and poured molten lead in the seam to seal his fate. They threw the great chest into the Nile river. Osiris was never seen again, walking in the land of the living.

Isis grieves for Osiris.

This news reached Isis and she was grief stricken. She put on her dress of mourning and set about trying to find the body of her husband. She knew well, the dead could not rest until they have had a proper funeral. Isis searched long, but found nothing. She asked every man and every woman if they had seen the giant box that contained her husband, but no one had. Finally, Isis asked some children who were playing by the Nile. They told her where Seth and the conspirators had thrown the chest into the river. After further investigation, and consultation with some demons, Isis learns that the chest had floated out to sea, to the land of Byblos and become lodged in a tamarisk bush. As if by magic the bush shot up and became a magnificent tree. The towering tree enclosed the ornate box within its huge trunk. The king of Byblos admired the great tree so much that he had it cut down and made into a giant pillar to support the roof of his palace.

Isis in the land of Byblos.
Meanwhile, Isis makes her way to the land of Byblos to recover the body of her husband. In Byblos Isis sits by a fountain and talks to no one, except the queen of Byblos' maidens. To these maidens she is quite pleasant, she braids their hair and breaths on them a wonderful perfume sweeter then the most fragrant flowers. Upon their return to the palace, the queen asks them, how they came by such wonderful perfume. They told her of the beautiful stranger they had met. The queen requested that Isis be brought to the palace where she was treated most graciously. She was appointed to be the nurse of one of the young princes.
Isis fed the young prince by giving him her finger to suck. Each night when the palace had retired Isis piled logs on a great fire, into which she would thrust the child. Then she would change into a swallow and flutter about mournfully chirping for her dead husband. Word of these strange happenings reached the queen. She could not believe these tales, so she decided to see for herself. That night, she hid herself, and sure enough, Isis built a fire and thrust the child in it. The queen squealed in terror and scrambled to save the child. Isis turned on the queen and rebuking her sternly, revealed her true identity. Explaining to the queen that with her magic she was tempering the child to be a god. But now his immortality was lost. Isis explained to the queen why she had made the journey to Byblos and her desire to have the giant pillar in which her husband was encased. The queen granted her wish.

Isis Returns to Egypt.

The pillar was taken down, cut open, and the great box was revealed. Isis took the chest and returned to Egypt but the mighty pillar remained in Byblos and was worshiped from that day forward. When she arrived, she opened the box and wept over her dead husband. She was joined by her sister, Nephthys in her sorrow. The sisters turn into Kites and circle the chest screeching in mournful tones. But Isis' thoughts soon turned to her infant son, Harpocrates, Horus the younger. She had left him in Buto and now had to retrieve him. She hid the box in a secret place, and went after her son.

Seth's evil revisited.

That night, while hunting by the light of the moon, Seth stumbled upon the finely decorated box. He was blinded with rage at the sight of his brother. He ripped Osiris into fourteen pieces and scattered them throughout Egypt. Isis learns of this new crime, and her grief is renewed. She once again sets out to find her husbands remains. She used a boat made out of papyrus reeds to conduct her search. It was believed that, because of this, a crocodile would never attack a papyrus boat, fearing that it might contain the mighty goddess. Where ever she finds a piece of Osiris, she buries it, and builds a shrine in that place. This is the reason that Osiris has so many tombs in Egypt.

The revenge of Horus.
In the meantime, Harpocrates has grown to manhood, and he is called Horus. Osiris has been resurrected as the king of the dead in the underworld. One day, Osiris appears to Horus in the land of the living. He convinces Horus to avenge the wrongs that have been committed by Seth. So, Horus tracks down Seth and a huge battle begins. Victory is elusive and the battle turns first to one side, then to the other. It is said that this battle of good verses evil still rages, but some day, Horus will be victorious and on that day, Osiris will return to rule the world.

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Ever wondered why cat hates rat ?

Answer lies in a legendary Chinese story — Animal astrology from Chinese mythology.

One day, the Lord Buddha called all the animals to a meeting. He told them that he had decided to pick the 13 most faithful animals, and reward each of them with their own year.

As soon as the animals heard this, they began to quarrel among themselves about who should have the honor of the first year, the second, the third, and so on.

The Buddha decided to settle this squabble with a contest. He gathered the 13 animals on the bank of a gushing river, and told them that they must swim across to the other side. The first to arrive would have the honor of the first year, and the second to arrive would have the second, and in this way, the order of all the years would be decided.

The night before the contest, the rat went to see is best friend the cat to discuss the race. They both agreed that the contest as unfair to them, as both of them hated water, and neither were strong swimmers.

So the pair went to see the Ox who was very large and a strong swimmer. He was also extremely good natured,  and he agreed to carry the rat and the cat on his back.

The next morning, most of the animals were up early in time to see the dawn spread her rosy fingers across the river. They limbered up for for the race, and very noisy about it they were too ! The Ox looked round for his friends, but he could not catch sight of the cat or the rat. So he stood by the bank of the river and was about to jump in with a great splash when the pair sprang out of the reeds and landed on his back. In this way, they set off into the deep, swirling waters of the river. Fortunately the Ox was powerful enough to swim across the current without any trouble, and soon the far bank was in sight. The cat crouched on the Ox’s head and swished his tail. The rat could see that his friend was getting ready to leap onto the bank ahead of them and take the first prize. He became so cross about this, that he pushed the cat into the water. Then he himself jumped onto the bank and won the honour of the first year for himself.

The Ox lumbered on, reached the bank just after the rat, and the second year was named after him. The Tiger was like a big cat, and hated water, but he had powerful muscles and managed to come in third. He was followed by the rabbit – who although he hated getting his ears wet – was very determined, and was helped by the dragon. The dragon was very concerned about the water getting into his nose and putting out his fire, but he managed to keep his head about water and took the firth year.

The horse was about to come in sixth, but he reared back to avoid stepping on the snake who slithered in just ahead of him. So the snake was sixth and the horse was seventh.

Next came a raft with the sheep, monkey and the rooster who took the eighth, ninth and tenth places.

Quite a while later, the dog paddled ashore and shook himself so that he sprayed all the others who had just managed to get dry. The dog took the eleventh year .

Finally, after a long, long time, the pig finally made it to the bank. He had slept in late, and only just made it to become the 12th animal of the Chinese Zodiac.

And what became of the cat? He was swept downstream by the strong current of the river, and he very nearly drowned. Eventually, he was washed up onto the bank where they had all started, and he shivered and shook with cold and rage. And so there are 12, not 13 years in the Chinese calendar, and there is no year named after the cat. And if you’ve ever wondered why cats hate rats so much – now you know !

And that’s the story of how the Chinese years and signs of the Zodiac came to be named after 12 animals.

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★ According to a legend, the city of Rome was founded by twins, Romulus and Remus.

★ Their father was Mars, the god of war,& their mother was a Latin princess.

★ The Latin King took the infants and put them in a basket.

★ He abandoned them on the banks of the Tiber River(a river in central Italy, flowing through Rome into the Mediterranean).

★ The King was afraid the twins might try to take his throne, so he left them to die.

★ A female wolf found the twins and fed them her own milk.

★ Finally some shepherds rescued the twins and raised them as their own children.

★ After growing up the boys decided to build a city in the place where they had been born.

★ Each brother decided to rule one part of the city.They each chose a hill from which to rule the new city.

★ 1 day Romulus and Remus got into a terrible fight. Remus was angry because his brother got a larger part of the city to rule.

★ Romulus killed Remus in this quarrel.This left Romulus's hilltop called Palatine the center of the new city.

★ The city was named Rome after Romulus.

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