DANCE OF DOTS

Misters Muffet vs. Anna and the King

Thank you, Charley, for the recommendation of W.S.Bristowe's publications. Although I could only get my hands on a very slim volume, it was not remiss of kinky spider sex. There was also romance:

When Pisaura goes a-wooing he puts aside his own natural hunger, catches an insect, wraps it up in a parcel of silk, and hands it to his prospective bride as a wedding present!...Semaphore tactics would be useless for the males who have to court females that build webs. In these cases he signals his identity by means of distinctive jerks of the threads, a kind of Morse code. Many Linyphiid and Theridiid males set up distinctive vibrations along the threads by scraping a stiff spine or special tooth against a series of hard ridges, like a file, elsewhere on his body.

W.S.Bristowe was a well-travelled arachnologist, and visited Thailand. There he researched the story behind The King and I. He concludes that the real Anna Leonowens was not truthful in her accounts, which I feel ready to accept if only because I'm so charmed by his ADDENDUM to Spiders:

To the 1658 edition of Topsel's book was added somewhat unobtrusively Dr. T. Muffet's Theater of Insects. My quotations on p. 5 should have been attributed to Dr. Muffet and I now seek atonement by calling attention to Muffet's other claim to fame. I have suggested...that Patience, his daughter, was the Miss Muffet. The only correspondent to demur called my attention to an incident in Muffet's Diary describing a picnic in Epping Forest when he was forced to fly from some enraged wasps beside whose nest he had spread his lunch. The implication here would be that he himself was Miss Muffet and that the wasps were changed into a spider in order to help the Nursey Rhyme.

BLOG POST ADDENDUM: If you haven't heard, spiders can also travel to faraway countries. Look up ballooning spiders!

Curious catch of the day from Captain Sara

(your viewing experience may be heightened if you don't understand Japanese)

Wild child with your wild style

hair work

Chinese "Tapestry Poem" Palindrome

　　　 琴清流楚激弦商秦曲发声悲摧藏音和咏思惟空堂心忧增慕怀惨伤仁
　　　 芳廊东步阶西游王姿淑窕窈伯邵南周风兴自后妃荒经离所怀叹嗟智
　　　 兰休挑林阴翳桑怀归思广河女卫郑楚樊厉节中闱淫遐旷路伤中情怀
　　　 凋翔飞燕巢双鸠土迤逶路遐志咏歌长叹不能奋飞妄清帏房君无家德
　　　 茂流泉情水激扬眷颀其人硕兴齐商双发歌我兖衣想华饰容郎镜明圣
　　　 熙长君思悲好仇旧蕤葳粲翠荣曜流华观冶容为谁感英曜珠光纷葩虞
　　　 阳愁叹发容摧伤乡悲情我感伤情徵宫羽同声相追所多思感谁为荣唐
　　　 春方殊离仁君荣身苦惟艰生患多殷忧缠情将如何钦苍穹誓终笃志贞
　　　 墙禽心滨均深身加怀忧是婴藻文繁虎龙宁自感思岑形荧城荣明庭妙
　　　 面伯改汉物日我兼思何漫漫荣曜华雕旗孜孜伤情幽未犹倾苟难闱显
　　　 殊在者之品润乎愁苦艰是丁丽壮观饰容侧君在时岩在炎在不受乱华
　　　 意诚惑步育浸集悴我生何冤充颜曜绣衣梦想劳形峻慎盛戒义消作重
　　　 感故昵飘施愆殃少章时桑诗端无终始诗仁颜贞寒嵯深兴后姬源人荣
　　　 故遗亲飘生思愆精徽盛翳风比平始璇情贤丧物岁峨虑渐孽班祸谗章
　　　 新旧闻离天罪辜神恨昭感兴作苏心玑明别改知识深微至嬖女因奸臣
　　　 霜废远微地积何遐微业孟鹿丽氏诗图显行华终凋渊察大赵婕所佞贤
　　　 冰故离隔德怨因幽元倾宣鸣辞理兴义怨士容始松重远伐氏妤恃凶惟
　　　 齐君殊乔贵其备旷悼思伤怀日往感年衰念是旧愆涯祸用飞辞恣害圣
　　　 洁子我木平根尝远叹永感悲思忧远劳情谁为独居经在昭燕辇极我配
　　　 志惟同谁均难苦离戚戚情哀慕岁殊叹时贱女怀叹网防青实汉骄忠英
　　　 清新衾阴匀寻辛凤知我者谁世异浮奇倾鄙贱何如罗萌青生成盈贞皇
　　　 纯贞志一专所当麟沙流颓逝异浮沉华英翳曜潜阳林西昭景薄榆桑伦
　　　 望微精感通明神龙驰若然倏逝惟时年殊白日西移光滋愚谗漫顽凶匹
　　　 谁云浮寄身轻飞昭亏不盈无倏必盛有衰无日不陂流蒙谦退休孝慈离
　　　 思辉光饬粲殊文德离忠体一违心意志殊愤激何施电疑危远家和雍飘
　　　 想群离散妾孤遗怀仪容仰俯荣华丽饰身将与谁为逝容节敦贞淑思浮
　　　 怀悲哀声殊乖分圣赀何情忧感惟哀志节上通神祗推持所贞记自恭江
　　　 所春伤应翔雁归皇辞成者作体下遗葑菲采者无差生从是敬孝为基湘
　　　 亲刚柔有女为贱人房幽处己悯微身长路悲旷感生民梁山殊塞隔河津


This is the Tapestry Poem mentioned in Flowers in the Mirror. Lin Tai-Yi provides this explanation in the Notes:

The Tapestry poem is the pride and joy of Li Ju-Chen. It is, unfortunately, impossible to translate. The poem may be read backwards and forwards, up and down, in squares, whorls, diagonally, and in a dozen other combinations.

So, it is not a palindrome in the sense that the lines read the same in every direction, but the characters are placed in sequence which has meaning in relation to those around it. Please comment if there is a more correct term!
Although I rue the day (age 5?) I told my dad I didn't want to learn Chinese anymore, and thus can't translate any of it, this website appears to list poems contained within the Tapestry. It was found in this post:

The story of this tapestry apparently predates the novel, going back as early as a story about a Jin dynasty woman who crafted the 841 character weaving with 200-odd poems. I don't know if the author of "The Flowers in the Mirror" used an existing matrix or wrote his own. The novel, in any event, abounds with jokes, old legends, and linguistic curiosities--there's a great joke about a man named Wang and how he names his eight sons, for example.

In re other qishi: Su Dongpo was a poet known for his palindromes, among other things.
Posted by: zhwj at May 11, 2004 10:23 PM

A Gem from Flowers in the Mirror by Li Ju-Chen (or Li Ru Zhen), 1763-1830

Not long after, Lin's junk arrived at the Country of Split-tongued People, who had in their possession a rhyme scheme which was a jealously guarded national secret. It was said that once a man learned the rhyme scheme and knew the language of the Split-tonged People, he could learn other languages and dialects with no difficulty whatsoever.
The travelers tried to offer the two-headed birds Lin bought in the Country of Restless People for the rhyme scheme, but discovered that the people were under orders from the King not to divulge the secret to any foreigners. Old Tuo spent a day in the wine shops talking to the young people, but as soon as he mentioned the word 'rhyme', they immediately turned away from him. At last he found out that if a man disclosed the secret to a foreigner, he would be banished to another country to live a life of celibacy. Tang Ao was quite discouraged when Old Tuo returned to the junk and told him this.

The chapter goes on to detail how Old Tuo manages to obtain the rhyme scheme from the King after saving several members of the royal family with his extraordinary prescriptions.

At last they cast off, and Tang Ao opened the sealed envelope which contained the rhyme scheme, and what he saw appears [below]. When Tang Ao saw the list of words, he could make neither head nor tail of it, but Melody Orchid explained it to him, and the three men had a good time talking to each other in code (see Notes.)

Here from the Notes:

Rhyme scheme. This was an attempt to break down the Chinese language phonetically. The lists consist of Chinese characters or combinations of characters to represent a breakdown of consonant sounds in the vertical column, and vowel sounds in the horizontal column....The breaking down of the Chinese language into thirty-three consonants was Li Ju-chen's chief contribution to phonetics....It was the idea of the author that if a person memorized these two lists of sounds, by cross-reference, any word may be 'spelled' phonetically. If a number is given to each sound, people may talk to each other in a sort of code, in which case the author notes that number must be given also to each of the tonal values in the language. Thus, 33-22-1 might 'spell' the word chuang, meaning hamlet. Actually the breaking down of words and trying to spell them phonetically dates back to the 5th century. It is called fan chieh, and the system is in current use in Chinese dictionaries, to indicated the pronunciation of characters.