12 



HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIP. 



spondents who are continually doing so), but I am 

 appealing now to the large majority of collectors, to 

 all collectors ; and it is certain that to most it is more 

 inducement to collect species of an order in which 

 one takes no interest, if, by so doing, the means is 

 obtained of enlarging one's collection of the favoured 

 group. 



I have also great hopes that, by inducing collectors 

 to take Diptera, they may eventually gain some 

 partiality for the order on its own merits. 



By collecting all orders, a rule I have observed 

 ever since embracing the study of entomology, the 

 total number of species in my cabinets has nearly 

 doubled, which would never have been the case had 

 I confined myself to one single order. 



Not to be mistaken as to my meaning in these last 

 remarks, I may repeat that I do not advise the 

 beginner to study all orders, but only to collect them ; 

 so that, by the exchange of specimens, those studying 

 the various orders may reap mutual benefit. 



Considering the comparative abundance of in- 

 dividuals of Diptera during the whole of spring, 

 summer and autumn, and the ease with which the 

 majority of them may be captured, I should count 

 threepence a dozen a fair price to pay for Diptera, if 

 set, and the number of specimens of each species to 

 be sent I am inclined to limit to twenty. 



My object in writing the present paper is merely 

 to draw the attention of entomologists, especially 

 beginners, to the Diptera, and to induce them to 

 collect this order, if not for its own sake, out of 

 friendship for those who would make good use of the 

 specimens thus collected for them. 



{To be continued.) 



THE MAGIC MIRROR OF JAPAN. 



THE mirror in Japan is a most important feature 

 everywhere. In the temples it takes the place 

 of the cross of Roman Catholic countries ; it is found 

 among the regalia in the Imperial Palace ; at a 

 wedding it is a portion' of the bride's trousseau. It 

 constitutes, in short, a part of the national religion, 

 and the " Great Divine Palaces " at Tsehave attained 

 much renown from being the depository of the first 

 mirror, and are to the Japanese much as the Holy 

 Sepulchre is to the Greeks and the Armenians, as 

 Mecca is to the Mahometans. 



A Japanese myth tells how the Sun-queen once, 

 being very angry, shut herself up in a cave, and thus, 

 by her withdrawal, there came darkness over the 

 earth. The gods tried by various artifices to entice 

 her forth, but in vain. At length the first magical 

 mirror was made, and the Sun-queen, seeing her face 

 reflected in it, excited by curiosity and jealousy, 

 came forth. 

 At the creation of the Japanese empire, the Sun- 



queen presented it (along with two other treasures — 

 presents of the gods) to her grandson, telling him to 

 look upon the mirror as her spirit, and to keep it in 

 the same house, and on the same floor, as himself, 

 and to worship it as if he were worshipping her actual 

 presence. 



Ever since, this mirror, and the two other presents- 

 before-mentioned, have been a part of the regalia of 

 the emperor, the mirror ranking even before the 

 emperor himself. 



Thus mirror-worship came into practice, and soon 



Fig. 5.— Parallel beams of Light. 



Fig. 6. — Diverging beams of Light. 



spread among high and low in Japan. However poor 

 and simple the furniture may be, the mirror is an 

 indispensable portion of it — a sort of household god. 

 Professor Ayrton, when in Japan, tried to purchase 

 a magic mirror ; but he could not meet with one in 

 the shops, though Europeans supposed them to be 

 some standard Japanese trick : and he found the 

 Japanese themselves unable to explain how they 

 acquired their magic property ; but this was readily 

 interpreted to be by reason of the workman keeping 

 it a secret, as people paid ten or twenty times the 

 price for a magic mirror. 



