The Domestication of the Cormorant in China and Japan

Berthold Laufer - The Domestication of the Cormorant in China and Japan (1931)

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Laufer this time looks at how cormorants are trained for use in fishing.  How can you resist a chapter called "Relation of Cormorant to Otter Fishing and Egret Taming"?  Though as usual Laufer is mainly interested in the historical and ethnographic background there's a section on training methods in case you find a stray cormorant in your backyard and decide that's a more exciting way to acquire fish.  (As with training other animals for hunting the key point is to ensure that they don't eat the catch - cormorant trainers sometimes use a neck-collar.)  The closing chapter is an assortment of folklore, including the three times that Shakespeare mentions cormorants.

The Reindeer and Its Domestication

Berthold Laufer - The Reindeer and Its Domestication (1917)

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The next Laufer work is a look at the history of domesticating reindeer.  According to this the earliest reliable accounts are from the 15th century in Europe though there are stray references earlier.  Laufer also traces some mentions in Chinese literature before briefly describing some methods of domestication and wondering whether the practice of using reindeer to pull sleighs derives from the similar use of dogs.  This pamphlet is a bit more focused than other Laufer posts (and also not published by the Field Museum) but it's likely none of us have thought about this topic before.

Chinese Grave-Sculptures of the Han Period

Berthold Laufer - Chinese Grave-Sculptures of the Han Period (1911)

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The topic of the next in the Laufer series is amply indicated by its title - the Han period lasted from the 2nd century BC to 2nd century AD.  It's more focused and conventionally scholarly (in other words contains less did-you-know information) than other Laufer works that I'm posting but is short enough that it's not likely to get tedious and still interesting to those of us with antiquarian turns of mind.  Or you can just go to p25 and read the distinctions between types of dragons called lung, huang lung and ch'ih.

Ostrich Egg-Shell Cups of Mesopotamia

Berthold Laufer - Ostrich Egg-Shell Cups of Mesopotamia and the Ostrich in Ancient and Modern Times (1926)

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The next in the Laufer series starts with Mesopotamian cups made from ostrich eggs then looks at the birds in the Levant, Egypt, Africa, China and finally modern domestication in America.  As usual with Laufer there are such intriguing bits as examples of calling people ostriches as insults among Arabs, French and ancient Romans; mentions in the Hebrew Bible; the use of feathers as decoration; techniques for hunting them (some hunters waited in holes then used the first kill as a decoy for others); and even a quote from Macaulay about John Dryden, "His imagination resembled the wings of an ostrich. It enabled him to run, though not to soar."

Insect-Musicians and Cricket Champions of China

Berthold Laufer - Insect-Musicians and Cricket Champions of China (1927)

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The next in the Laufer series is this look at cricket musicians and fighters.  This isn't an entirely unknown topic (some experimental musicians have based work on insect sounds) but probably not familiar in any definite way.  "Corresponding for their fondness for crickets, the Chinese have developed a special literature on the subject."  Laufer then describes the development of this fondness and the poetry devoted to it, almost making it sound like the cricket is to Chinese poets as the nightingale is to English-language ones.  He describes the various containers as well as "cricket ticklers" (the second page below) which are "for inciting crickets to sing or fight".  The last half is about how crickets fight ("not so revolting as the bull-fights of Spain and Latin America").  He says the Field Museum has an extensive collection of the cricket "cult" - I wonder if it's still on display.

I asked somebody I know about the status of crickets in China today.  She hasn't lived there for about a decade but says you could still buy crickets from vendors on the street.  They came in little woven cages and were kept because they made pretty sounds but didn't live long.  People still fight crickets as well though she never saw that in person.

The Pre-History of Aviation

Berthold Laufer - The Pre-History of Aviation (1928)

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This time Laufer looks at human dreams of flying and attempts to do so.  Just consider chapter titles - "The Romance of Flying in Ancient China", "The Air Mail of Ancient Times", "Kites as Precursors of Aeroplanes" and the positively steampunkish (or even Fortean-sounding) "The Dawn of Airships in Ancient India".  It's full of nice stories such as "the Bodhisatva as a divine horse rescuing merchants from flesh-devouring ogres by carrying them from Ceylon to India, traversing the clouds and passing the sea to the other side" or the reports of St Peter fighting Simon Magus who was flying with "four fiery horses".  There are also more concrete accounts of kites, balloons and carrier pigeons that would eventually result in actual flight.  Laufer's detailed look into Indian and Chinese sources is admirably multicultural in a way that would be even remarkable today - I found one recent book that even starts with a chapter "The Prehistory of Flight" that covers only Europe.

Use of Human Skulls and Bones in Tibet

Berthold Laufer - Use of Human Skulls and Bones in Tibet (1923)

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Berthold Laufer's The Giraffe in Art and History was the subject of an earlier post.  He turns out to have written enough interesting titles that it seemed worth starting a small Laufer series.  Laufer wasn't a flashy stylist (don't hope for another Urne-Buriall) but he did have an eye for cultural oddities.  These publications are actually closer to pamphlets and were all produced by his employer, The Field Museum in Chicago.  They have available two biographical pieces (one, two) and a pretty extensive bibliography.

Let's start with Use of Human Skulls and Bones in Tibet.  This is a pretty short work, drawing mainly from traveler and ethnographer accounts of skulls used as ceremonial drinking vessels, occasional jewelry and sometimes musical instruments.  (The latter employed by more recent groups like Current 93 and Psychic TV.)  Laufer tries to tie this to more ancient usages (including an account from Herodotus) though not very convincingly.