own hand, is of very doubtful authenticity, and other treatises bearing
his name, such as the Sommaire philosophique de Nicolas Flamel,
published in 1561 in a collection of alchemist treatises entitled Transformation
métallique, are certainly spurious.
FLAMEN (from flare, “to blow up” the altar fire), a Roman
sacrificial priest. The flamens were subject to the pontifex (q.v.)
maximus, and were consecrated to the service of some particular
deity. The highest in rank were the flamen Dialis, flamen
Martialis and flamen Quirinalis, who were always selected
from among the patricians. Their institution is generally
ascribed to Numa. When the number of flamens was raised
from three to fifteen, those already mentioned were entitled
majores, in contradistinction to the other twelve, who were
called minores, as connected with less important deities, and were
chosen from the plebs. Towards the end of the republic the
number of the lesser flamens seems to have diminished. The
flamens were held to be elected for life, but they might be compelled
to resign office for neglect of duty, or on the occurrence
of some ill-omened event (such as the cap falling off the head)
during the performance of their rites. The characteristic dress
of the flamens in general was the apex, a white conical cap, the
laena or mantle, and a laurel wreath. The official insignia
of the flamen Dialis (of Jupiter), the highest of these priests,
were the white cap (pileus, albogalerus), at the top of which was
an olive branch and a woollen thread; the laena, a thick woollen
toga praetexta woven by his wife; the sacrificial knife; and a
rod to keep the people from him when on his way to offer sacrifice.
He was never allowed to appear without these emblems of office,
every day being considered a holy day for him. By virtue of his
office he was entitled to a seat in the senate and a curule chair.
The sight of fetters being forbidden him, his toga was not allowed
to be tied in a knot but was fastened by means of clasps, and the
only kind of ring permitted to be worn on his finger was a broken
one. If a person in fetters took refuge in his house he was
immediately loosed from his bonds; and if a criminal on his
way to the scene of his punishment met him and threw himself
at his feet he was respited for that day. The flamen Dialis was
not allowed to leave the city for a single night, to ride or even
touch a horse (a restriction which incapacitated him for the
consulship), to swear an oath, to look at an army, to touch anything
unclean, or to look upon people working. His marriage,
which was obliged to be performed with the ceremonies of
confarreatio (q.v.), was dissoluble only by death, and on the death
of his wife (called flaminica Dialis) he was obliged to resign his
office. The flaminica Dialis assisted her husband at the sacrifices
and other religious duties which he performed. She wore long
woollen robes; a veil and a kerchief for the head, her hair being
plaited up with a purple band in a conical form (tutulus); and
shoes made of the leather of sacrificed animals; like her husband,
she carried the sacrificial knife. The main duty of the flamens
was the offering of daily sacrifices; on the 1st of October the
three major flamens drove to the Capitol and sacrificed to Fides
Publica (the Honour of the People). Some of the municipal
towns in Italy had flamens as well as Rome.
We may mention, as distinct from the above, the flamen curialis, who assisted the curio, the priest who attended to the religious affairs of each curia (q.v.); the flamens of various sacerdotal corporations, such as the Arval Brothers; the flamen Augustalis, who superintended the worship of the emperor in the provinces.
See Marquardt, Römische Staatsverwaltung, iii. (1885), pp. 326-336, 473; H. Dessau, in Ephemeris epigraphica, iii. (1877); and the exhaustive article by C. Jullian in Daremberg and Saglio, Dictionnaire des antiquités.
FLAMINGO (Port. Flamingo, Span. Flamenco), one of the
tallest and most beautiful birds, conspicuous for the bright
flame-coloured or scarlet patch upon its wings, and long known
by its classical name Phoenicopterus, as an inhabitant of most
of the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Flamingos
have a very wide distribution, and the sole genus comprises
only a few species. Ph. roseus or antiquorum, white, with a rosy
tinge above, and with scarlet wing-coverts, while the remiges
are black (as in all species), ranges from the Cape Verde Islands
to India and Ceylon, north as far as Lake Baikal; southwards
through Africa and Madagascar, eventually as P. minor. P. ruber,
entirely light vermilion, extends from Florida to Para and the
Galapagos; P. chilensis s. ignipalliatus, from Peru to Patagonia,
more resembles the classical species; while P. andinus, the tallest
of all, which lacks the hallux, inhabits the salt lakes of the
elevated desert of Atacama, whence it extends into Chile and
Argentina. Fossil remains of flamingos have been described
from the Lower Miocene of France as P. croizeti, and from the
Pliocene of Oregon. From the Mid-Miocene to the Oligocene
of France are known several species of Palaelodus, Elornis and
Agnopterus, which have relatively shorter legs, longer toes and a
complicated hypotarsus, and represent an earlier family, less
specialized although not directly ancestral to the flamingos.
Palaelodidae and Phoenicopteridae together form the larger group
Phoenicopteri. These are in many respects exactly intermediate
between Anserine and stork-like birds, so much so in fact that
T. H. Huxley preferred to keep them separate as Amphimorphae.
However, if we carefully sift their characters, the flamingos
obviously reveal themselves as much nearer related to the
Ciconiae, especially to Platalea and Ibis, than to the Anseres. This
is the opinion arrived at by W. F. R. Weldon, M. Fuerbringer
and Gadow, while others prefer the goose-like voice and the
webbed toes as reliable characters. (For a detailed analysis of this
instructive question see Bronn’s Thierreich, Aves Syst. p. 146.)
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| The Flamingo. |
The food of the flamingo seems to consist chiefly of small aquatic invertebrate animals which live in the mud of lagoons, for instance Mollusca, but also of Confervae and other low salt-water algae. Whilst feeding, the bird wades about, stirs up the mud with its feet, and, reversing the ordinary position of its head so as to hold the crown downwards and to look backwards, sifts the mud through its bill. This is abruptly bent down in the middle, as if broken; the upper jaw is rather flat and narrow, while the lower jaw is very roomy and furnished with numerous lamellae, which, together with the thick and
