POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



427 



close application to work. He remarks that 

 the restless movements of young infants are 

 almost always bilateral, though the two sides 

 may be affected either synchronously or al- 

 ternately. If an India-rubber ball connected 

 with a tracing apparatus be placed in each 

 hand of an intelligent child, and he be told 

 to squeeze with one hand only, the tracing 

 almost invariably shows that the ball had 

 also been squeezed, but with less force, by 

 the other hand. The " reaction time " the 

 interval between the giving of a signal and 

 the performance of a prearranged move- 

 ment was found to be double that in 

 healthy adults, and the duration of the 

 contraction three times as long. M. Binet's 

 observations indicate, against the conclusions 

 of Mill and Bain, that our ideas of space 

 are instinctive. A child three months old, 

 who, the author is certain, had never had a 

 fall, and was therefore without experience of 

 its discomforts, would lie contentedly across 

 a person's outstretched arms, if the hands 

 were placed in such a position as to prevent 

 its slipping down. If, however, the hands 

 and arms were depressed, so that the infant 

 would tend to slide down, it would show its 

 fear by at once screaming and struggling. 



Philosophy of Some Assassinations. 



By the customs of some countries kings are 

 not permitted to die natural deaths, but 

 must be killed by their successors. An 

 attempt to explain this usage is made by 

 Mr. J. G. Fraser, in his Golden Bough. In 

 primitive thought kings are credited with 

 the possession of powers of the utmost im- 

 portance and value to their worshipers. 

 In Japan the existence of the globe and all 

 that is upon it was supposed to depend upon 

 the well-being of the Mikado. Yet kings or 

 man-gods were subject to the law of death 

 like ordinary mortals; and in the case of 

 death the soul was believed to be extracted 

 from the body by the wiles of a demon or 

 sorcerer, or else voluntarily to go away never 

 to return, and in either case to be lost, with 

 all its virtues and benefits, to the worship- 

 ers. But if the soul could be caught in the 

 act of escaping, and in full vigor, then it 

 might still be kept present with the people. 

 Hence the only way of security was to kill 

 the man-god in order to make sure of catch- 

 ing his soul ; and to kill him when in full 



vigor, in order that the soul might be trans- 

 ferred with all its energies unimpaired to 

 the body of a suitable successor. ''The 

 people of Congo believed that if their pon- 

 tiff, the Chitome, were to die a natural 

 death, the world would perish, and the earth, 

 which he alone retained by his power and 

 merit, would be immediately annihilated. 

 Accordingly, when he fell ill and seemed 

 likely to die, the man who was destined to 

 be his successor entered the pontiff's house 

 with a rope or a club and strangled or 

 clubbed him to death. ... In the kingdom 

 of Unyoro, in central Africa, custom still 

 requires that, as soon as the king falls seri- 

 ously ill or begins to break down from age, 

 he shall be killed by his own wives ; for, ac- 

 cording to an old prophecy, the throne will 

 pass away from the dynasty in the event of 

 the king dying a natural death." There are 

 instances in which the king is allowed to 

 reign only for a definite term, fixed inde- 

 pendently of the signs of disease and decay, 

 and at the end of which he is either killed 

 by his successor or he immolates himself. 

 Formerly the reign of the king of Calicut 

 was thus limited to twelve years, after which 

 he was obliged to cut his throat in public. 

 Under a subsequent modification of the rule 

 a great feast was made at the end of the 

 appointed time, and, when this was over, any 

 guest who, after fighting his way through 

 the guards, succeeded in killing the king, 

 was allowed to reign in his stead. " So long 

 as the king could maintain his position by 

 the strong hand, it might be inferred that 

 his natural force was not abated ; whereas 

 his defeat and death at the hands of another 

 proved that his strength was beginning to 

 fail, and that it was time his divine life 

 should be lodged in a less dilapidated tab- 

 ernacle." 



The Znngariaa Desert. The desert re- 

 gion called Zungaria, which lies on the west- 

 ern borders of Mongolia, rises to a height of 

 about twenty-five hundred feet, but descends 

 from it at many points. The soil is chiefly 

 composed of the clay called loess, a mixture 

 of very fine sand and a gray or yellowish 

 calcareous earth. This argillaceous mass is 

 pierced, like a sponge, by numerous tubes or 

 pores, which are often lined with incrusta- 

 tions formed by herbaceous plants. The 



