CORK, ITS MANUFACTURE AND PROPERTIES. 635 



They drink wine from the same jar, and are both seated upon one 

 mat ; congratulations are renewed and another feast spread, this time 

 at the house of the groom's parents. This concludes the ceremonies. 



Cases of sickness are generally treated by the application of roots, 

 herbs, and leaves ; each family possesses certain preparations, whose 

 composition is kept secret. There are no physicians, and they apply 

 their own remedies. 



When any one of their number dies, friends and neighbors hasten 

 to the mountains, hew down a tree, hollow it out, and, after having 

 washed and dressed the body, put sugar-cane into its mouth, and in- 

 voked the shades of the dead, place it in this rude coffin, open the eyes 

 so as to look heavenward, and then carefully seal it up. On the day 

 of burial, sacrifices are indulged in, according to the means of the rela- 

 tives of the deceased. The grave is usually made in a forest, and the 

 hewing of trees therein is superstitiously avoided. A soothsayer, or 

 priest, plants two reeds at the borders of a stream in such a manner 

 that the parents of the dead can pass underneath ; while doing this, 

 he sprinkles water upon them which had been used to clean rice. 

 After washing their clothes and cutting their hair, they enter the 

 house, and, in order to show the depth of their sorrow, throw every- 

 thing about the house into confusion. The priest arriving, he re- 

 proaches them, restores order, and sprinkles a kind of holy water in 

 order to drive out the evil spirits. 



The language of these tribes is a mixture of the Annamite and 

 Chinese. It is chanted in a manner peculiar to the former, but differs 

 somewhat in sound. Thirty-six letters comprise the alphabet, a pecul- 

 iarity of which is that there is no letter corresponding to our r. 



COKK, ITS MANUFACTURE AND PROPERTIES. 



By ARTHUR GOOD and WILLIAM ANDERSON. 



A CONSIDERABLE number of trees, including the cherry, birch, 

 -A- elm, plane-tree, and maple, produce a corky substance in their 

 bark, but in too thin layers to admit of economical use. In Brazil, 

 the bark of a tree of the family of Bignoniacece, and the pith of Pour- 

 retia tubercidata, of the family of Bromeliacece, furnish a kind of cork, 

 as does also the Euphorbia balsaminifera of the Canary Islands. But 

 none of these substances is capable of any important use. 



Two varieties of oak, the cork-oak ( Quercussuber), which grows in 

 the Mediterranean basin, and the Western oak ( Quercus occidentalis) 

 of Gascony, share the monopoly of the production of cork in thick- 

 enough sheets to be utilized. But the natural cork which they fur- 

 nish, and which is called male or virgin cork, has, whatever its thick- 

 ness, but slight commercial yalue ; and it is not employed industrially 



