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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Spontaneous Combustion. Many fires, 

 which appear to be of mysterious origin, can 

 with great plausibility be referred to spon- 

 taneous combustion. Such was probably the 

 cause of a fire which destroyed the carriage- 

 shops at Forest Hill, Maryland, a year or 

 two ago. This is indicated by the fact that, 

 shortly after the shops were rebuilt, a hole 

 was burned through one of the floors and the 

 establishment narrowly escaped destruction 

 a second time from the spontaneous com- 

 bustion of a rag saturated with Valentine's 

 patent wood-filling, which had been left in 

 the paint-room overnight. Rags similarly 

 saturated had been carelessly left in the old 

 building just before the fire. To test the 

 liability of this substance to take fire, a cloth 

 was saturated with it and put in a tin bucket. 

 Combustion began within a few hours af- 

 terward. Lamp-black is extremely liable to 

 take fire spontaneously, particularly if a 

 small quantity of oil is in contact with it. 

 It can not be safely wrapped up in printed 

 paper on account of the danger from the oil 

 in the ink. A tub of loose lamp-black in a 

 carriage-shop in England was set on fire in 

 consequence of the presence of a palette- 

 knife on which a little oil had been left. 

 Even the dry paint which accumulates on 

 the blades of these knives near the handle 

 is sufficient to cause ignition. It is, how- 

 ever, only the small quantities of oil that are 

 dangerous; the peril is greatly reduced if 

 the lampblack is saturated with oil. The 

 danger of the spontaneous combustion of 

 coal in cargoes is generally recognized by 

 shippers and insurance-men. 



Chiriqni Funerals. M. Alphonse Pinart 

 has recently given an account, before the 

 Ethnographical Society of Paris, of the 

 burial-places and funeral customs of the 

 Dorasks, a people of the Isthmus of Darien, 

 whom he regards as of Mexican origin. 

 The burial-places, called huacas, which he 

 claims to have discovered and excavated, 

 are most abundant in the valley of Cbiriqui, 

 though they may be found in some other 

 places. They generally lie at the foot of 

 little hills, and are always marked by the 

 presence of stones covered with figures and 

 inscriptions. They are shaped like a well, 

 the entrance to which is marked by a cross 

 of stones, some twenty feet, more or less, 



in diameter, and are from six to thirty feet 

 deep. At the bottom are excavated niches, 

 corresponding with the four points of the 

 compass, in which are deposited the bones 

 and the articles that are buried with them 

 garments, vessels of most perfect shape 

 and finish, and ornaments of gold, either 

 solid or mixed with copper, representing 

 animals, and undoubtedly of artistic value. 

 The bones in these tombs are always bro- 

 ken, in accordance with a custom which pre- 

 scribes the breaking of them as one of the 

 peculiar features of the funeral rites. On 

 the death of one of the Indians, the body is 

 wrapped in a cotton shroud, and, after a 

 short ceremony with a funeral oration, is 

 borne to a solitary place in the forest, where 

 it is laid upon a kind of scaffold covered with 

 branches of trees, and left for a year. At 

 the expiration of this period, the kanitru, a 

 functionary expressly designated for this 

 duty, and who is the only one that can per- 

 form it without having to undergo a costly 

 purification, goes to the spot and prepares 

 the corpse for the final ceremonies. Re- 

 moving the limbs, he collects the bones, 

 cleanses them from all adhering flesh, and 

 breaks them up, together with the skull, 

 and compresses the fragments into a small 

 packet no larger than a new-born child. 

 Having performed this duty, he calls his 

 assistants, who have been waiting in the 

 vicinity, and they bear the packet to a kind 

 of catafalque, around which funeral services 

 are held through parts of three days. At 

 sunset of the third day the kanuru goes 

 alone with the body, the dresses, and the 

 ornaments that have been provided for 

 the sepulchre, to the family tomb. No 

 white man has ever been permitted to wit- 

 ness this part of the ceremonies. 



Capacity of Brazilian Indians. An an- 

 thropological collection, illustrative of the 

 life of the savage tribes of South America, 

 particularly of Brazil, is now on exhibition 

 in London. Besides the scientific and ar- 

 tistic value of the cabinet, the collector, 

 Senhor C. Ribeiro, seeks to commend the 

 value of the country for colonization, and 

 to remove prejudices against it. Among 

 other things, he wishes to show that the 

 Botocudos Indians are not the dangerous 

 ?a\ ages they have been reported, and that 



