Ho Hsien-ku

Pinyin  He Xiangu,   in Chinese mythology, one of the Pa Hsien, the Eight Immortals of Taoism, and the only female (if Lan Ts'ai-ho is considered to be male). As a teenaged girl she dreamed that mother-of-pearl conferred immortality. She thereupon ate some, became ethereal, and found she could float across the hills at will. She returned home each evening carrying herbs collected during the

France, History Of, Peasants

The condition of many peasants deteriorated markedly in the 18th century; perhaps as many as one-third of them were sporadically indigent. This cannot be explained by a decline in the peasants' share of the land. In 1789, French peasants still owned about one-third of arable land, most of it in small plots of less than 10 acres (nobles owned about one-fifth of the land, the church one-sixth,

Colac

City, southern Victoria, Australia, on the southern shore of the shallow, 10 1/2-sq-mi- (27-sq-km) Lake Colac. Founded in 1837 and proclaimed a town in 1859, it became a borough and shire in 1864 and a city in 1960. Colac serves as the market for a closely settled region that produces onions, grains, flax, livestock, dairy products, and poultry. Its manufactures include farm tools, bricks, and flax products. Timber

Itching

Also called  Pruritus,  a stimulation of free nerve endings, usually at the junction of the dermis and epidermis of the skin, that evokes a desire to scratch. It has been suggested that an itch is a subthreshold sensation of pain; however, although both itch and pain sensations share common nerve pathways, they are generally considered distinct sensory types. Itching evokes a range of sensations,

Amaryllidaceae

Family of perennial herbs in the flowering plant order Liliales, containing about 65 genera and at least 835 species, distributed primarily in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. Members of the family have bulbs or underground stems; several strap- or lance-shaped leaves grouped at the base of the stem or arranged alternately along the stem; flowers usually with

Wyat, Sir Thomas, The Younger

Wyat's father was the renowned poet and diplomat Sir Thomas Wyat. As a young man he acquired a reputation for recklessness, and in 1543 he was briefly imprisoned for taking part in a London street riot.

Sayers, Gale

Sayers first gained national attention as a two-time