MAZES AND HOW TO THREAD THEM.

"In wandering mazes lost."
_Paradise Lost._

The Old English word "maze," signifying a labyrinth, probably comes from
the Scandinavian, but its origin is somewhat uncertain. The late
Professor Skeat thought that the substantive was derived from the verb,
and as in old times to be mazed or amazed was to be "lost in thought,"
the transition to a maze in whose tortuous windings we are lost is
natural and easy.

The word "labyrinth" is derived from a Greek word signifying the
passages of a mine. The ancient mines of Greece and elsewhere inspired
fear and awe on account of their darkness and the danger of getting lost
in their intricate passages. Legend was afterwards built round these
mazes. The most familiar instance is the labyrinth made by Dædalus in
Crete for King Minos. In the centre was placed the Minotaur, and no one
who entered could find his way out again, but became the prey of the
monster. Seven youths and seven maidens were sent regularly by the
Athenians, and were duly devoured, until Theseus slew the monster and
escaped from the maze by aid of the clue of thread provided by Ariadne;
which accounts for our using to-day the expression "threading a maze."

The various forms of construction of mazes include complicated ranges of
caverns, architectural labyrinths, or sepulchral buildings, tortuous
devices indicated by coloured marbles and tiled pavements, winding paths
cut in the turf, and topiary mazes formed by clipped hedges. As a matter
of fact, they may be said to have descended to us in precisely this