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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



scorpion as he would to a cat. When, there- 

 fore, the scorpion came within range, the 

 mouse gave a squeak and bit him on the 

 back ; the scorpion at the same moment 

 planted his sting well between the mouse's 

 ears on the top of Lis head. The scorpion 

 then tried to retreat, but could not, for one 

 claw had got entangled in the fur of 

 the mouse. The mouse and scorpion then 

 closed, and rolled over each other like two 

 cats fighting, the scorpion continually stab- 

 bing the mouse with his sting, his tail going 

 with the velocity of a needle in a sewing- 

 machine. When the scorpion got tired, the 

 mouse got hold of his tail with his teeth and 

 gave it a sharp nip. The mouse seized the 

 opportunity, and immediately bit off two of 

 the scorpion's side-legs. He then retired, 

 and began to wash his face. I had expect- 

 ed, of course, that the poison of the scorpion 

 would have killed the mouse, but he didn't 

 seem a bit the worse for it. When I exam- 

 ined him the next morning he was quite 

 lively and well, and had nearly eaten up the 

 whole of the scorpion for his breakfast. Of 

 course I rewarded the mouse for his plucky 

 conduct by giving him some milk, and by 

 letting him go in a place where it was not 

 likely the cat would find him." 



Labor at the South African Diamond- 

 fields. The exploitation of the diamond- 

 fields of South Africa promises to exert a 

 mighty influence on the native populations 

 living north of Griqualand. No sooner had 

 the demand for labor arisen at the diggings 

 than vast numbers of the races known as 

 Mahawas, who live between the twenty- 

 third and twenty-fourth parallels of south 

 latitude, poured down from the country 

 bordering on the Limpopo, and eagerly took 

 service with the diggers. " They came in 

 large bodies," says Mr. J. B. Currey, secre- 

 tary to the government of Griqualand West, 

 " often as many as two thousand in a month, 

 arriving in a wretched state of emaciation." 

 They wear no clothing save a cincture round 

 the loins. They stay about six months, and 

 then they are sleek, well-made, and often 

 powerful men. They are very thrifty, and 

 generally have from eight to ten pounds in 

 money when the time for their departure 

 arrives. This they expend in purchasing 

 guns, powder, and lead, old military uni- 



forms, beads, brass wire, and perhaps a lit- 

 tle food, and set out for their own country, 

 each man staggering under his burden. 

 From the Mahawas the tidings of work and 

 pay at the diamond-fields spread to other 

 tribes living farther north, and in the early 

 part of 1874 appeared groups of Makalakas 

 from the great plains in latitude 20, a race 

 said to be without chiefs or laws or organi- 

 zation of any kind whatever. Still, degraded 

 as is their condition, they seem to possess 

 some remains of a more civilized state, and 

 to show signs of an intelligence superior to 

 that of the Mahawas. Parties of these peo- 

 ple continued to arrive during 1874 and 

 1875, and in the middle of the latter year 

 came the first party of the Maschonas, large, 

 powerful, jet-black men, from latitude 18 

 on the southern bank of the Zambezi. 



Remarking upon this curious movement 

 of the natives, Mr. Currey observes : 



" And this great stream of native labor re- 

 turns, after a few months, to the great ocean 

 from which it flowed, bearing with it, as is inev- 

 itable, some traces of the strange lands through 

 which it has passed, and some tinge of the things 

 with which it has come in contact. We cannot 

 prevent this, even if we would. For good or for 

 evil these natives have tasted of the tree of 

 knowledge, and know that they are naked. They 

 go back, with something to tell, and the strange 

 stories, that must be repeated from hut to hut 

 and village to village, the distorted accounts 

 which must be spread of our religion and our 

 laws, our virtues and our vices, our manners and 

 customs, will produce results greater than any 

 that all the missionaries of Europe could effect in 

 a century. Events novel and rapid, which we 

 have had no power to control, have unexpected- 

 ly placed us in immediate communication with 

 new tribes, and our connection with them en- 

 tails results which no indifference can ignore, 

 and from which no timidity can escape." 



Natural History of the American Ante- 

 lope. From an interesting paper in the 

 American Naturalist, by Judge Caton, we 

 select the following notes upon the natural 

 history of the American antelope : The ani- 

 mal is not a native of the Old World, and 

 is confined to a very limited portion of the 

 New. In size the prong-buck, or American 

 antelope, is considerably smaller than the 

 Virginia deer, the adult male rarely exceed- 

 ing four feet in length from tip to tip, and 

 three feet in height to the top of the shoul- 

 der. The hairs of this animal differ from 

 those of most of the hollow-horned ruminants, 



