a dwarf called Jeppe or Jep, who sat at Tycho's feet when he was at table, and got a morsel now and then from his hand. He chattered incessantly, and, according to Longomontanus, was supposed to be gifted with second-sight, and his utterances were therefore listened to with some attention. Once Tycho had sent two of his assistants to Copenhagen, and on the day on which they were expected back the dwarf suddenly said during the meal, "See how your people are laving themselves in the sea." On hearing this, Tycho, who feared that the assistants had been shipwrecked, sent a man to the top of the building to look out for them. The man came back soon after and said that he had seen a boat bottom upwards on the shore, and two men near it, dripping wet. Whenever Tycho was away from home, and the pupils relaxed their diligence a little, they set Jeppe to watch for him, and when the dwarf saw Tycho approach he would call out to them, "Junker paa Landet," i.e., the squire [is] on land.[1] When any one was ill at Hveen, and the dwarf gave an opinion as to his chance of recovery or death, he always turned out to be right.
There was plenty to do for all the young men at Uraniborg. Of course the astronomical work was always their principal occupation, but the laboratory was also in constant use. We have no knowledge of the particular direction of Tycho's chemical researches, but that he always took a very deep interest in chemistry is evident from more than one allusion to this subject in his writings. In several of his books are found a pair of vignettes, which illustrate the view of Nature as a whole, representing one idea under various
- ↑ Gassendi (p. 197), who had these details from letters written to him and Peyresc by the Danish physician and historian Ole Worm, has misspelt the exclamation of the dwarf as "Juncher xaa laudit." See also O. Wormii et doct. vir. ad eum Epistolæ, Hafniæ, 1751, and Gassendi, Epistolæ (Opera, vol. vi.), p. 527, where the name is misspelt Leppe. The word "Junker" (esquire), which always is used of T. Brahe, shows that he was not a knight.
