POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



573 



himself the functions of judge, police offi- 

 cer, and executioner. He is distinguished 

 by his peculiar dress, and by his helmet, 

 which, reaching down to his shoulders, quite 

 conceals his face. It is made of basket- 

 work, so that the wearer can breathe freely, 

 and is painted in front as a terrible face. 

 When any person is accused by his neigh- 

 bor or otherwise blamed, he must pay the 

 duk-duk a sum of money as damage, and 

 this officer goes in person to the house of 

 the accused to see that all is made right. 

 If the accused will not settle, his house is 

 burned or he is speared. Women and 

 children dare not look at the duk-duk, for 

 fear they will die on the spot, and there- 

 fore run away and hide, whenever they know, 

 from the peculiar cry he utters to give no- 

 tice of his approach, that he is coming. 

 Men may be initiated into the mystery of 

 this office when they reach a certain age, on 

 payment of a prescribed sum, and, if they 

 do not do this, they must keep out of the 

 way of the duk-duk. The initiated must 

 never speak of the secrets of the mystery 

 out of the spot that is consecrated to it, 

 and the uninitiated must not go to that 

 spot. 



Temperature of the Glacial Period. 



Some geologists hold that the glacial phe- 

 nomena were the result of warmer, not of 

 colder, conditions of climate than now 

 exist. Their views are briefly summarized 

 by M. Millot, of the scientific faculty of 

 Nancy, France. For the production of 

 glaciers in temperate latitudes an active 

 evaporation at the equator, to furnish moist- 

 ure to be condensed into snow on the mount- 

 ains, is ahove all things necessary. Thus, 

 the quantity of ice produced will be within 

 certain limits proportioned to the heat re- 

 ceived at the equator. No heat, no evapo- 

 ration ; no snow, no glaciers ; on the other 

 hand, there will be no glaciers if it is too 

 hot for the snow to be deposited on the 

 mountain-tops. This was probably the case 

 before the glaciers appeared. Then, as the 

 heat of the sun gradually diminished, as it 

 is supposed to be doing regularly, the gla- 

 ciers begun on the mountains, small, but 

 growing, for the evaporation at the equator 

 was still infinitely greater than it is now. 

 So it may have continued for ages, the snow 



condensing on the mountain-tops, and the 

 sun lifting up immense quantities of water 

 to be condensed. This was a period of 

 maximum favorable conditions for glacia- 

 tion. Then, the sun still cooling, the 

 amount of evaporation fell off, till it 

 ceased to afford the excessive supply, and 

 the glaciers became stationary, then retro- 

 grade till they were reduced to the relatively 

 insignificant proportions in which they now 

 appear. This theory explains the deposi- 

 tion of glacial moraines in the midst of tree- 

 ferns and a Mediterranean vegetation ; for, 

 while the glaciers were extensive in conse- 

 quence of the immense precipitation every- 

 where but immediately upon them, a warmer 

 climate prevailed than is now enjoyed in the 

 same regions. This theory explains also how 

 Arctic animals, finding suitable conditions of 

 existence in the glaciated districts, came to 

 be mixed up, as is shown by their remains, 

 with the herbivorous animals of milder cli- 

 mates, which were separated from them only 

 by a line. This theory, unlike all other the- 

 ories of the glacial period, does not require 

 the supposition of any interruption of the 

 regular, normal order of climatic develop- 

 ment and events. 



Arts and Customs in New Guinea. Mr. 



Coutts Trotter, in an address before the 

 Royal Geographical Society, stated that 

 while the people of New Guinea are still 

 in the "Stone age," their artistic faculty 

 is strongly marked, especially among the 

 western tribes. This is shown conspicuous- 

 ly in the carved ornamentation of their 

 canoes, houses, implements, and weapons. 

 Their tastes are further seen in the habit 

 of adorning themselves with flowers and 

 leaves of crotons, dracaenas, coleus, be- 

 gonias, scarlet hibiscus, and the anise - 

 scented clausena. They are also alive to 

 the advantages of trade, the tribes on the 

 western coast having for centuries been ex- 

 changing the varied products of the coun- 

 try with the Malays, Bughis, Chinese, and 

 others, for cotton cloths, iron and copper 

 wares, knives, beads, mirrors, indigo, and 

 arrack. In conducting their inland trade 

 among themselves, they assume that inter- 

 tribal war is the normal condition of man, 

 and adopt ingenious devices to mitigate 

 inconveniences. But even the plan of set- 



