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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



the mode of procedure. The first thing was to- 

 eat up all the food in the village, with the excep- 

 tion of a little rice and bread-fruit, etc. The lat- 

 ter was placed in little pottles, like those used at 

 home for strawberries, of a conical shape, about 

 two feet long and eight inches in diameter. These 

 were hung about the dead man's hut and tomb. 

 At night the ' iwi ' was supposed to come and 

 enter one of the pottles, to eat the food in it. 

 The maulooennas would then steal up, and close 

 the mouth suddenly and tie it up. It is then car- 

 ried with great care to the raft, which is towed 

 out to sea and let go. I saw the pottles all ready, 

 neatly made of cocoanut-leaves plaited together. 

 I was told that the ' iwi ' was invisible to all but 

 the maulooennas, an idea started, of course, by the 

 latter. The natives all seem to believe in their 

 powers ; but whether they do so themselves, I do 

 not know. It does not seem necessary to pack 

 the ' iwi ' off the same day the man dies ; for the 

 other day the sister of ' London,' the head-man 

 of Malacca, died, and her ' iwi ' was not sent to 

 sea till three months afterward. The maulooennas 

 appoint the day. Three months hence they will 

 have a great feast, paint their faces red, and all 

 get drunk and dance for two or three days. At 

 the end of a year the body is dug up, and the 

 skull thoroughly cleaned and reburied. I have 

 not ascertained the reason for this last ceremony. 

 These people arc a most interesting race, and very 

 little is known about them." 



The Iguana. — Mr. P. L. Simmonds, in a re- 

 cently-published work on "Animal Products," 

 says of the Iguana delicatissima, the large tree- 

 lizard of Central and South America, that, while 

 certainly not attractive in appearance, yet by 

 most persons in tropical countries its flesh is 

 highly esteemed. The eggs of the iguana, which 

 are somewhat smaller than those of the domestic 

 pigeon, are pronounced by Sir Robert Schomburgh 

 and others to be delicious. One of the lizards 

 will sometimes contain as many as eighty eggs, 

 which, when boiled, are like marrow. The inces- 

 sant destruction of the iguanas for the sake of 

 their flesh has made them very scarce, if not 

 altogether extinct, in localities where they were 

 once abundant. They were formerly so common 

 at the Bahamas as to furnish a great part of the 

 subsistence of the inhabitants. In Costa Rica 

 the large iguanas attain the size of small croco- 

 diles. The usual native mode of cooking is to 

 boil them, taking out the fat, which is melted and 

 clarified and put into a dish, into which they clip 

 the flesh of the iguana as they eat it. It was 



long before the Spaniards in America could con- 

 quer their repugnance to iguana-flesh, but, hav- 

 ing once tasted of it, they pronounced it to be 

 the most exquisite of all delicacies. Peter Mar- 

 tyr is made to say, in the old English translation 

 of his work, "De Rebus Oceanicis et Orbe Novo: " 

 " These serpentes are lyke unto crocodiles, saving 

 in bygness ; the call them guanas. Unto that 

 day none of owre men durst adventure to taste 

 them, by reason of theyre horrible deformitie and 

 lothsomnes. Yet the Adelantado, being entysed 

 by the pleasantnes of the King's sister, Anacaona, 

 determined to taste the serpentes. But, then, he 

 felte the flesh thereof to be so delycate to his 

 tongue, and to amayze without al feare. The 

 which theyre companions perceiving, were not 

 behynde hym in greedynesse ; insomuche that 

 they had now none other talke than of the sweet- 

 nesse of these serpentes, which they affirm to be 

 of more pleasant taste than eyther our phesantes 

 or partriches." 



In a series of experiments lately made in Eng- 

 land to determine the comparative strength of 

 iron and steel plates, the metal was subjected in 

 each case to the percussive force of .a charge of 

 1^ pound of gun-cotton. The steel plates meas- 

 ured f of an inch thick and the iron -pg- thick, 

 and the quality ranged from ordinary boiler-iron 

 to the best classes of steel. The plates, thirty in 

 number, were one by one placed on a concave 

 anvil and the charge was fixed about nine inches 

 above. The ordinary boiler-iron was indented to 

 the fullest extent of the cavity of the anvil and 

 fractured. The indentation on a plate of mild Bes- 

 semer steel tempered in oil was only If inch, and 

 there was no fracture. A plate of mild steel 

 (Siemens's), not tempered in oil, was indented 1 j£ 

 inch, and another, tempered, If inch. The re- 

 sults appear to show that steel is incomparably 

 superior to iron for boilers, locomotive-tires, rails, 

 and similar purposes. 



A highly-ingenious instrument for taking 

 soundings at sea while the ship is in motion has 

 been invented by Sir William Thomson. This 

 instrument consists of a copper tube attached to 

 the lower end of the sounding-wire, and inclos- 

 ing a slender glass tube and a small quantity of 

 sulphate of iron. As the tube descends the press- 

 ure of the water forces the sulphate into the 

 glass tube. It leaves a stain on the glass, and 

 according to the height of the stain is the depth 

 of the sea at that point. The instrument has 

 been tested with entirely satisfactory results. 



