FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



285 



to fit into the lunar month led to the substi- 

 tution iu some of the nations of three weeks 

 of ten days each. The author substantiated 

 his theory by citations from the literature 

 and traditions of many peoples. 



Hindu Godlings. — The godlings or in- 

 ferior deities commonly worshiped by the 

 masses of the Hindus, and described in Mr. 

 W. Crooke's book on the Popular Religion 

 and Folklore of Northern India, are of very 

 different character from the exalted concep- 

 tions of divinity described in the Vedas and 

 known to the select among high-caste Brah- 

 mans. They are very numerous, and are de- 

 scribed under the five headings of the god- 

 lings of Nature, heroic and village godlings, 

 the godlings of disease, the sainted dead, 

 and the malevolent dead. The godlings of 

 Nature include the sun, the moon, the demon 

 of the moon's eclipse, the rainbow, the Milky 

 Way — known also as the pathway of the 

 snake or the course of the heavenly Ganges 

 — Mother Earth, thunder and lightning, the 

 sacred junctions of rivers, sacred wells and 

 lakes, hot springs, waterfalls, sacred moun- 

 tains, hail and whirlwind, aerolites, etc. 

 The great rivers, especially the Jumna and 

 the Ganges, stand very high in the list of 

 benevolent Nature godlings. The heroic vil- 

 lage godlings form a numerous class ; and 

 there seems to be confusion between some, 

 of them and some Mohammedan saints in 

 high repute. The current from a ventilator 

 placed at the tomb of one of these saints to 

 furnish fresh air to the pilgrims was believed 

 by them to be his holy breath, and they went 

 round to worship it. The godlings of disease 

 are mostly goddesses, and are forms of Kali, 

 the goddess of death. There is a goddess of 



cholera, and one of smallpox, but none of the 

 plague ; whence it is inferred that that disease 

 is new to India. The belief in the good luck 

 of horseshoes is common in India, and so is 

 the custom of throwing rice after brides. 



Classification of Fibers. — While engaged 

 in cataloguing the fibers of the world, Charles 

 Richard Dodge found that a better classi- 

 fication was needed, and has published the 

 scheme which he devised. Besides the popu- 

 lar understanding of the term fiber as relat- 

 ing to those forms of filamentous substance 

 that can be spun and woven or twisted into 

 cordage, he would include under it rougher 

 substances that are plaited. In his classifi- 

 cation two groups of fibers are recognized, 

 based on cell structure. The first group in- 

 cludes fibers with fibro-vascular structure, 

 embracing three groups : bark fibers, derived 

 from the inner bark of exogenous plants; 

 woody fibers, comprising barked stems or 

 twigs, roots, the split wood of exogenous 

 plants, and wood-pulp ; and structural fibers, 

 derived from the structural system of en- 

 dogenous plants. The second group — fibers 

 of simple cellular structure — comprises sur- 

 face fibers, including the down or hairs 

 surrounding exogenous seeds or their enve- 

 lopes ; the hairlike growth found on stems, 

 leaves, and buds ; fibrous material produced 

 in the form of epidermal strips from the 

 leaves of palms, etc. ; and false fibrous mate- 

 rial — mosses and leaves used for packing, 

 and certain fungous growths. It is the con- 

 sideration of these useful native fibers that 

 makes it possible to enumerate a thousand 

 species of fibrous plants, while the world's 

 commercial fibers would hardly reach a total 

 of fifty species. 



MINOR PARAGRAPHS. 



In his sectional address on the Labor 

 Question before the British Association, Prof. 

 E. C. K. Gonner drew a parallel between the 

 present age and the Renaissance. Analogies 

 between the present period and that of the 

 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries offer them- 

 selves in different ways. Then, as now, the 

 time was one of discovery, and the discov- 

 eries of either period have had effects both de- 

 structive and constructive — destroying opin- 

 ions resting on certain narrow conceptions of 



the sphere of life, but giving opportunity for 

 new ideas and vaster conceptions. Each 

 period was a time of a new learning, and in 

 both knowledge has been sought in a return 

 from theories rigid and out of consonance 

 with life to life itself and the facts of life. 

 In the sphere of religion and morals the 

 likeness is strangely evident. In both cases 

 there was failure to distinguish between the 

 fleeting form and the abiding reality, and 

 there were particular tendencies, largely by 



