7^4 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



no volcanoes in the moon. Volcanic action 

 can only take place where water is present. 

 The moon having no water, the idea of such 

 action there is precluded. M. Faye supposes 

 that the so-called " craters" of the moon 

 were formed, not by erruptive action, but 

 by the action of the fused mass of the in- 

 terior upon the crust, after it had begun to 

 solidify. The liquid mass was subject to 

 tides, which, surging against the crust un- 

 der the influence of the earth's attraction, 

 washed holes in it, when the fluid rose 

 above it, and formed ridsjes around the 

 holes, in the same way as the tidal waters 

 of the sea act upon shore-ice. The ridges 

 thus left formed the rings or circles of the 

 " craters." The continuing solidification of 

 the fused matter finally caused a forma- 

 tion of a bottom to the crater. Sometimes 

 the bottom, not yet firm, would yield to the 

 pressure of the molten mass beneath it, 

 which, rising through it again, left the cen- 

 tral hills which are remarked in some of 

 the circles. M. Faye does not deny that 

 water may have once existed in the moon, 

 and have been finally absorbed in the solid 

 matter, but he asserts that it could never 

 have existed in the shape of seas, or in such 

 quantities as to occasion volcanic action. 

 If it had so existed, evidence of its action 

 on the land would still be visible ; but no 

 feature of the moon's surface exhibits an 

 appearance attributable to any known action 

 of water. The appearance of the craters is, 

 moreover, not like that given by terrestrial 

 volcanic action, but is that which would be 

 given by the agency M. Faye supposes. 



ArroM-Poison of the Sontli-Sea Islands. 



Ilerr Weisser, of the German war-ship 

 Ariadne, has obtained from a Christianized 

 native of the South-Sea Islands a descrip- 

 tion of the preparation of the poisoned ar- 

 rows and spears of his people. It is a mat- 

 ter of intricate processes, and is the pe- 

 culiar business of a class who possess the 

 secret. The spear and arrow heads arc made 

 from the arm and leg bones of persons who, 

 having died of acute diseases, have been 

 buried for five or six months. The spear- 

 heads are made of the larger bones of the 

 leg, to which the shaft, inserted in the hol- 

 low, is bound with a string of bark. The 

 other bones are sawed with an instrument 



mjide from the spines of an echinus into 

 pieces an inch or two long, and ground down 

 to a fine point for arrow-heads. The poison 

 is prepared from several plants, three of 

 which are almost invariably used. The 

 most poisonous of them is the toto, a large 

 tree, bearing handsome white flowers and a 

 red, almond-like nut, the juice of which, 

 sprinkled into the eyes, produces blindness, 

 taken internally, death, and which seems to 

 be allied to the spurges. Another plant, 

 called pulu, is of the family of the dog- 

 banes; and the third plant, called nasola 

 and fanuamamala^ is another spurge, rep- 

 resented in Samoa by three species. The 

 leaves of these trees, stripped of their stems 

 and points and dried, are pulverized ; a pow- 

 der of the scrapings of old weapons is add- 

 ed ; the mass is wrapped up with a sea-worm 

 (holothuria) in a leaf of colocassia. The 

 foul liquid which results from the dissolu- 

 tion is thickened with more of the powder 

 into a thin paste ; earth gathered from the 

 neighborhood of a wasps'-nest, and pulver- 

 ized with a thigh-bone, is put in ; the mixt- 

 ure, having been dried in the sun, is treated 

 with the oil of an old cocoanut; a dark, 

 cloudy oil is formed after a month of ma- 

 nipulation, and this is put away for a year 

 till it becomes of the consistency of fat, 

 when the poison is considered ready for use. 

 The spear and arrow heads are smoked in 

 a furnace prepared for the purpose with a 

 particular wood. The manipulator takes a 

 small portion of the poison, rubs it care- 

 fully upon the arrow-head, and again smokes 

 the latter. The prepared heads are wrapped 

 in the dried flower-stalk of a tacca-plant, 

 and are then put in a quiver made of the 

 cylindrical stems of the banana, and hung 

 over the fire to dry, for dampness spoils the 

 preparation. The poison is fatal if taken 

 internally, but no man ever thinks of re- 

 venging himself on his enemy by adminis- 

 tering it to him. "Women, however, are said 

 sometimes to rid themselves of an unloved 

 husband in this way. The effect of wounds 

 by the poisoned spears and arrows is ordi- 

 narily great local pain, followed by general 

 disturbance of the system, ending in a few 

 days in convulsions, lockjaw, and death. 

 Sometimes, if the wound is cut out immedi- 

 ately, the patient recovers ; at others, the dis- 

 ease assumes a more gradual form, but ends 



