424 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



that the soldiers who kept guard over the body of Christ on the cross 

 cast lots for his raiment. This was the custom at the execution of 

 malefactors. 



It is curious that the free Greeks were in the habit of rising early, 

 for, owing to the abundance of slaves, most of them had little compul- 

 sory work to perform except when on military expeditions. A law 

 of Solon prohibited teachers from opening school before sunrise or 

 holding it after sunset. To the casual reader this may sound ridicu : 

 lous. But to many of our older college graduates, it will occur that 

 they were required to attend prayers so early in the morning that they 

 had to be conducted by lamp or candle. An acquaintance of mine who 

 lived near a certain college used to relate that he well remembered hear- 

 ing young men pass his house in the dark of the morning who, while 

 completing the process of dressing, interspersed the performance with 

 occasional expressions not suitable for ears polite. The mood in which 

 such persons reached their destination was evidently not well suited 

 to the spirit of devotion which those early exercises were supposed to 

 foster. 



Many people believe, because they have read in books, that the 

 sight of the Indians was extraordinarily keen, and that they were able 

 to descry objects at a greater distance than was possible for white men. 

 This is an error, if the assertion is to be taken without qualification. 

 All savages have eyes trained to see those things that are necessary to 

 their preservation — game and enemies. Their sight is not by nature 

 more acute than that of the white man, but in some respects it was 

 better trained. The whites who lived among the Indians and were 

 compelled to defend themselves against their enemies saw just as far 

 as their enemies. It may be affirmed as a general principle that there 

 is nothing a civilized man can not do better than a savage. The latter 

 uses his reason to aid his instinct; the former makes his instinct sub- 

 servient to his reason. It is well known that sailors are able to discern 

 objects at sea at a greater distance than landsmen, but we have to do 

 here with a faculty that any one can acquire. The Indians did just 

 what the whites who lived among them did who subsisted on game and 

 were obliged to be on the constant lookout for enemies. Both had 

 acquired not merely the power to discern objects, but also training in 

 the interpretation of the signification of those objects that came within 

 visible range. It is probable, for reasons given above, that not only 

 the Indians as well as all tribes living on the same social level, but 

 also the backwoodsmen, retained their sight to a more advanced age 

 than is now generally the case; but that the eye of the former was 

 naturally more powerful than that of the present generation or that 

 of men in general is unsupported by trustworthy evidence. There is 

 no doubt that a child born with normal eyes in one of our large cities 

 can see objects just as far off and define them just as accurately with 



