HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



233 



moon with devouring intent ; and their insatiable 

 brother, the wolf-shaped Miinagarm, sought to fill 

 liis capacious maw with the blood of dying men. 

 . At the time when the Lapps were accredited with 

 magical powers it was believed that certain men of 

 the race could at pleasure transform themselves, as 

 well as others, into the shape of wolves and bears ; 

 and it has been asserted that hunters on flaying such 

 vulpine or ursine semblances have found a Lapp belt 

 under the skin. What multitudes of werewolves 

 during the Dark Ages, when light was dim, used to 

 flock together on Christmas eve to revel and do all 

 manner of mischief, has been made known by Olaus 

 miagnus ; and it has also been believed that witches, 

 among other fearful shapes, could assume that of the 

 wolf. 



Even in later times the belief has prevailed that 

 Lapps had the power either to infest a district with 

 wolves or to draw them thence. In the Norske 

 Bygdesagn of L. Daa, published at Christiania in 

 1870, it is said that for centuries wolves had been a 

 great plague over all the bailiwick of Nyfylke, 

 excepting a large peninsula which was connected 

 with the mainland by a narrow isthmus called 

 Sandied. Across this isthmus, from time imme- 

 morial, a straw-rope had been stretched from sea to 

 sea, suspended on poles so Ivigh that the wolves could 

 not leap over it ; and under a rope thus extended, 

 experience had shown that they would not go. The 

 sheep, therefore, belonging to the peninsula could be 

 allowed to run out both summer and winter, which 

 M'as not the case with the numerous flocks on the 

 mainland, ^notwithstanding some annual contribu- 

 tions by the farmers there to a man for endeavouring 

 to keep the wolves aloof. But in 1777, " the year 

 when men write three sevens," a Lapp came to 

 Sandied, and learning the purpose of the rope, 

 offered for a moderate sum to clear the wolves from 

 the whole district, which, his terms being accepted, 

 was accordingly done. On being asked by the 

 farmers how long they might with certainty rely upon 

 the freedoniTfrom wolves, he answered. For the good 

 age of a man ; but quite possibly when seven and 

 seventy years had again elapsed, they might come 

 again. Remarkably enough, in 1854, a multitude of 

 wolves did again suddenly make their appearance in 

 Nyfylke, doing great mischief, and causing great 

 alarm among the people, to whom within man's 

 memory they had been unknown. An inscribed 

 silver tablet, bearing date 1777, hangs, or did hang, 

 in Roldal church, to which it was presented by the 

 parishioners of Hjelmaland, as a thank-offering for 

 the freedom from wolves they had that year enjoyed. 

 In common with the former practice of the Scan- 

 dinavian peasants, the Lapps refrain from speaking 

 of the wolf by its proper name, using as Von Diiben 

 remarks, various designations, which were first given 

 when he was believed to be an evil spirit, whom they 

 could coax into good behaviour. In Swedish folk- 



lore they are the most unhallowed of all beasts of 

 prey ; their occult influence, or animus, most potent 

 for evil of all. They can revenge attempted injuries : 

 a man in Norway who had thus offended them 

 shortly afterwards broke his leg. Everywhere it is 

 known that the glance of a wolf, itself unseen, will 

 cause the person against whom it is directed to be- 

 come suddenly hoarse. Yet, if while living the wolf 

 was altogether evil, he was of some use when dead. 

 His skin formed, and continues to form, the warmest 

 of winter robes ; the Lapland naid when he used to 

 journey in quest of information to the land of the 

 dead, would probably never have come back if he 

 had not, as a preparation for the journey, partaken 

 of wolf's flesh ; a dose of the same, wind-dried and 

 pulverized, served to stimulate Norwegian appetites ; 

 and wolf's lung was a chief ingiedient of the com- 

 pound which Norwegian apothecaries formerly pre- 

 pared as a remedy for consumption. 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Dr. Elkin, the astronomer of Yale University, 

 and formerly of the Cape of Good Hope, has, by a 

 long series of observations on the parallel of the star 

 Arcturus, arrived at the conclusion that it moves with 

 the inconceivable velocity of 38l?miles a second, that 

 is to say, it would traverse the distance from London 

 to Edinburgh between^two ticks of a watch. This is 

 twenty-one times faster than the speed of the earth 

 in Us orbit round the; sun. Dr. Elkin also finds that 

 Arcturus is so far away from us that his light, 

 travelling 190,000 miles a second, takes 181 years to 

 reach us. 



A LUMINOUS 'outburst in the sun was observed 

 recently by M. Trouvelot, at Paris, First, a 

 luminous spot appeared on the disc of the sun near 

 its western limb. It was of a golden yellow tinge, 

 and shortly afterwards a companion spot appeared a 

 little above it. The spectroscope showed the first 

 spot to consist of a central eruption, from which 

 volcanic bombs were thrown to heights above the 

 chromosphere, where they seemed to rest as dazzling 

 balls. A few minutes later these were replaced by 

 brilliant jets or filaments. On the next morning the 

 eruption was seen to be diminishing, and it finally 

 ceased in the afternoon. There was no corresponding 

 magnetic perturbation observed at Kew. 



A CURIOUS instance of one poison killing another 

 is reported from Yackandandah, Victoria, where Dr. 

 Mueller has recently administered strychnine in cases 

 of snake-bite. A solution of nitrate of strychnine in 

 240 parts of water, mixed with a little glycerine, is 

 prepared, and twenty minims injected hypodermi- 

 cally at intervals of ten to twenty minutes, according 

 to the virulence of the attack. In some cases a grain 



