POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



861 



the mountain goat and is woven into excel- 

 lent blankets, which are highly colored and 

 ornamented. The process of boiling water 

 with hot stones in baskets or wooden bowls 

 was formerly common. The dances of the 

 Tahl-tan are tame affairs compared with 

 those of the coast tribes, but their musical 

 capabilities are considerable. Kinship, so far 

 as marriage or inheritance of property goes, 

 is with the mother exclusively, and the father 

 is not considered a relative by blood. Mr. 

 Callbreath tells of an instance where a 

 rich Indian would not go out or even con- 

 tribute to send others out to search for his 

 aged and blind father who was lost and 

 starving in the mountains. Not counting his 

 father as a relative, he said, " Let bis people 

 go and search for him." Yet this man was 

 a more than average good Indian. A man's 

 female children are as much his property as 

 his gun, aud he sells them to whom he 

 pleases. If the husband pays for his wife 

 in full and she dies, even ten years after- 

 ward, the father is bound to supply a wife, 

 if he have any more eligible daughters, with- 

 out additional payment. Their laws are 

 based on the principle that any crime may 

 be condoned by a money payment. Their 

 religious belief was simply what their medi- 

 cine-men might lay down for them from time 

 to time, and the idea of a Supreme Being 

 was very obscure if not altogether wanting. 

 They have no fear of death except from 

 dread of the pain of dying. There is a be- 

 lief propagated by their medicine-men that 

 the otter gets inside their women and some- 

 times causes death by a lingering illness, in 

 other cases allowing the woman to live on 

 till she dies from some other cause. 



An African Tribe of Promise. The 



Benge are a very intelligent and pleasant 

 tribe which Lieutenant R. Kund's exploring 

 party found occupying an " immense clear- 

 ing " in the midst of the Congo wilderness. 

 Their village, surrounded by large manioc- 

 fields, consisted of a street about fifty yards 

 wide extending farther than the eye could 

 reach. The huts of the villagers squarely 

 faced the street on either side, and behind 

 them were well-kept plantations of bananas, 

 backed by oil palms, with the giant trees of 

 the forest looming in the rear of all. The 

 race is of a very fine type, with a brownish- 



red complexion some degrees removed from 

 black, fine, manly features with an intel- 

 lectual cast, and cleanly and orderly in habits. 

 They are good hunters, and practice wood- 

 carving and other arts with a skill that 

 would do credit to Europeans. They have 

 attained in all respects a higher standard of 

 civilization than is to be found among the 

 other tribes of West Africa. They exhib- 

 ited none of the stupid superstition in the 

 presence of the travelers which had ap- 

 peared in other places, and showed no signs 

 of cannibalism or fetichism or coarse idolatry. 



Effect of a Cobra's Bite. The taxider- 

 mist of the Victoria Museum was bitten in 

 the hand by a cobra, from which the poison- 

 bag had been extracted, while feeding it. 

 Supposing the bite to be harmless, he took 

 no notice of it till pain and nausea began. 

 Then all the usual antidotes were tried with- 

 out effect. The man lost the power of 

 speech, became paralyzed in his muscular 

 system, and ceased to breathe. Artificial 

 respiration was applied for eight hours, after 

 which he began to breathe again and gradu- 

 ally regained consciousness. After two days 

 he was able to tell his friends that he 

 had been fully aware of all that was go- 

 ing on during the efforts to restore him, but 

 had not been able to move a muscle or to 

 make his feelings known. He could see 

 and hear and feel, but not move or twitch. 

 He was afterward attacked by high fever 

 and inflammation of the lungs, from which 

 he died on the Sunday following the Wednes- 

 day on which he was bitten. 



Dnst essential to Fogs. Nearly ten years 

 ago John Aitken, of Edinburgh, proved ex- 

 perimentally that the presence of dust was 

 essential to the formation of fog and cloud. 

 He connected two receivers, one containing 

 common air, the other air freed from dust 

 by passing through cotton - wool, with a 

 boiler. When steam was admitted into the 

 first receiver, a fog formed within it ; but 

 when allowed to enter the one containing 

 filtered air, not the slightest cloudiness was 

 produced. Particles of water-vapor do not 

 combine with each other to form a cloud- 

 particle, but must have a free surface on 

 which to condense. The particles of dust 

 serve as nuclei on which the vapor condenses, 



