POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



859 



twenty days, the pure sap is now but little 

 used. The black lacquer is made by adding 

 to crude or branch lacquer about five per 

 cent of the tooth-dye used by women, a 

 liquor formed by boiling iron filings in rice- 

 vinegar, exposing to the sun, and stirring 

 frequently for several days. In preparing 

 all the lacquers it is an essential object to 

 get rid of the water that exudes from the 

 tree with the sap. This can not be effected 

 without adding water, which is done in small 

 quantities, three times a day, for two or 

 three days. All the water then evaporates 

 together. No lacquer will dry till this pro- 

 cess has been gone through. If crude lac- 

 quer, which is originally of the color and 

 consistency of cream, is exposed to the sun 

 for a few days without adding water, it be- 

 comes black, or nearly so, thinner and trans- 

 lucent, but will not dry if applied to an ar- 

 ticle. If, now, water is mixed with it, it at 

 once loses its black color and its transpar- 

 ency, becomes again of a creamy color, only 

 slightly darker, and can be used after evapo- 

 ration of the water, like any ordinary lac- 

 quer, and will dry. The greatest difficulty 

 the lacquer-workers have to contend with is 

 that of obtaining a clear, transparent var- 

 nish. What is called transparent varnish is 

 really black to the eye, and has to be ground 

 and polished after application before it will 

 present a brilliant surface. 



Superstitions about Stone Implements. 



Richard Andree, a German anthropologist, 

 has remarked that, wherever prehistoric stone 

 implements have been found, whether in 

 Europe, Asia, Africa, or America, identical 

 ideas, agreeing frequently in the minutest 

 particulars, have been associated with them 

 in the popular mind. It is really astonish- 

 ing to find the negroes, the South American 

 Indians, the Burmese, and the different Eu- 

 ropean stocks entertaining the same super- 

 stitions respecting the origin and supposed 

 wonderful properties of the stone axes. Such 

 conceptions must be regarded as compara- 

 tively new, for they can only have origi- 

 nated after the implements had gone out of 

 use, and the casual finding of them would 

 be capable of exciting a mystified curiosity. 

 They would naturally appear to the finders, 

 who had no idea of their use, as something 

 wonderful, perhaps having their origin in 



another world ; and it would also be natural 

 to attribute mysterious properties to them. 

 The fall of meteoric stones would give a kind 

 of a justification to such notions. People 

 everywhere have thought the stone imple- 

 ments were the product of the lightning, or 

 its bolts, and that the noise of thunder was 

 caused by their striking the earth ; and the 

 belief is very common that the " thunder- 

 axe," which is driven deep into the ground, 

 will gradually rise to the surface again in 

 the course of some definite period, as seven 

 days, weeks, or years. The finder of one of 

 these mysterious objects esteems it highly 

 on account of the peculiar properties attrib- 

 uted to it, and transmits it to bis posterity. 

 Such stones are regarded as amulets in Asia 

 and Europe, and as fetiches on the Guinea 

 coast. They are believed to preserve one 

 against harm, to prevent sterility in women, 

 to give protection against fire and lightning ; 

 treasures are sought with them, and most 

 effective medical properties are attributed 

 to them. They have been believed to have 

 a kind of life, and to sweat on the approach 

 of a storm. These superstitions have no 

 footing among people who are still in the 

 stone age and acquainted with the use of 

 stone implements. Thus, no trace of them 

 is found in the South Seas and Australia ; 

 although a foundation for them appears to 

 be laid among the West Australians, in the 

 shape of a belief that certain smooth, oval 

 stones have fallen from the sky. 



A Subterranean River in Austria. One 



of the recent publications of the Austrian 

 Tourists' Club contains a description of the 

 " Recca Cave," which it is claimed must be 

 ranked among the greatest natural curiosi- 

 ties of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. 

 The cave is situated near the middle of the 

 Karst mountain-land, in the bare and sterile 

 plateau that spreads out above Trieste, in a 

 region rich with caves, and has been formed 

 by the flow of the Recca River under the cre- 

 taceous hills. Similar river-excavations are 

 common in the region, but that made by the 

 Recca surpasses all the others in extent. 

 Near the railroad-station of Vistrica-Ter- 

 novo, the Recca is a stream some fifteen or 

 twenty paces broad and two or three feet 

 deep. Thence it flows along the border of 

 the chalk and tertiary formations in a deep- 



