i 3 8 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



boat, propelled by paddle-wheels, and ear- 

 ning twelve persons, sailed upon the river 

 for several hours against the current, and 

 in spite of a violent wind ; but the opera- 

 tors were greatly inconvenienced by the 

 nitrous gas, which escaped in great quanti- 

 ties, and the spectators on the banks were 

 obliged, by the suffocating fumes, to leave 

 the place. Electric navigation may be con- 

 sidered to have originated with this experi- 

 ment. 



The Kafirs of Kafiristan. The Kafirs, 

 who inhabit the country called Kafiristan, 

 which lies south and southeast of the II in- 

 doo-Koosh Mountains, are so called by their 

 Mohammedan neighbors after a term sig- 

 nifying unbeliever, because they are not of 

 the Mohammedan faith. They are an Ar- 

 yan people of unknown origin and history, 

 divided into a number of tribes speaking as 

 many tongues ; they are ethnically distinct 

 from any of their neighbors ; their religion 

 is pagan, but neither Hindoo nor Buddhist, 

 and they arc in constant hostility with the 

 Mohammedans. Possibly they represent 

 the Aryan race in the nearest to the primi- 

 tive state in which it can now be found. 

 They have never been visited by a Euro- 

 pean. Colonel H. C. Tanner, who has fur- 

 nished an account of them to the Eoyal 

 Geographical Society, bas been nearer to 

 them than any other Englishman, having 

 been invited by influential Kafirs to visit 

 the country as their guest, but he was pre- 

 vented by sickness from getting any farther 

 than the country of the Chugani, a Kafir 

 tribe who have embraced Mohammedanism, 

 living on the borders of Kafiristan. The 

 Chugani live in the highest habitable parts 

 of the Kund range. They are of the Suni 

 faith, and are the only Mohammedans in 

 the region who allow their women European 

 freedom. One of the principal towns is 

 Aret, a village of six hundred houses, which 

 are built on the face of a very steep slope, 

 and arranged in terraces one above the 

 other. The view from below presents a 

 vast amphitheatre of carvings, with which 

 the wood-work of the houses is covered. In- 

 side, the furniture consists of cots (A7), 

 stools (std), and earthen vessels with Grecian- 

 looking ears, cheese-making utensils, and 

 agricultural implements wooden shovels, 



rakes, etc. stuck between the blackened 

 rafters ; and the impression on the whole is 

 one of superiority to most Indian habita- 

 tions. The burial-places are scattered 

 among the rocks in any spots not too steep 

 for them, and the graves are built with 

 stones and covered with slabs, so that the 

 bodies shall not come in contact with the 

 earth. Highly ornamented and fantasti- 

 cally carved posts stand at the head and 

 foot of the graves. The posts of a new 

 grave were painted red and adorned with 

 pegs, representing the number of enemies 

 the deceased had killed during his lifetime. 

 The Sanu Kafirs are a merry people, fond 

 of dancing, music, and wine, who shake 

 hands in the English fashion. Their relig- 

 ion is simple. Men call on the gods for aid 

 in battle, and pay offerings to them if suc- 

 cessful in the fight, storing the offerings in 

 the temples, some of which contain the 

 accumulations of hundreds of years. They 

 do not bury their dead, but place them in 

 wooden coffins and stow them away in 

 caves in the mountains. The country prob- 

 ably contains interesting antiquities, for 

 stones are told of with ancient writing en- 

 graved upon them ; ruins exist at Islam- 

 abad and at Bimbakot, the reputed capital 

 of the Hindoo Bim Raja ; and the petrified 

 remains of Noah's Ark are said to rest on 

 the shores of a lake on the summit of Kund, 

 while the legendary tomb of Lamech, 

 Noah's father, is in the plain below, and 

 the name of Noah seems to be very com- 

 mon. Colonel Tanner found an exact rep- 

 resentation of a Kafir knife in one of the 

 topes, and dug up a number of small, well- 

 executed pictures from the life of Buddha, 

 in limestone, at the same place. 



The Coal Production of the World. 



Professor von Neumann, of Vienna, esti- 

 mates, in his "Review of the Production, 

 Traffic, and Commerce of the World's Econ- 

 omy," that the annual product of coal in 

 the whole world increased from 136,000,000 

 tons in 1860 to 294,000,000 tons in 1877. 

 Great Britain was the leading producer, 

 during the whole period, and returned an 

 output of 137,000,000 tons in 1878. The 

 United States, which stands next, returned 

 55,200,000 tons in 1877. Germany, France, 

 Belgium, and Austro-Hungary follow in 



