140 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



weight each. As preliminary inspection is 

 not allowed, the bidding is purely specula- 

 tive. The bulk of the shells are now sent 

 to Trieste, a small number to London, and 

 a few to Havre ; and some of the finest and 

 largest shells are purchased for exportation 

 to Bethlehem, where they are engraved and 

 sold to pilgrims. 



Games of the Greek Islanders. — Some 

 of the games of the Greek islanders are de- 

 scribed by Mr. J. Theodore Bent, in an arti- 

 cle on " Greek Peasant Life," as wild, some 

 as amusing, and some as distinctly traced 

 to antiquity, " as probably all could if we 

 had ample records to go upon." At Easter- 

 time the maidens of many islands have the 

 game of swing. They hang a rope from 

 one wall of the narrow village street to the 

 other. On this they put some clothes to 

 form a seat, and two maidens seated side 

 by side, facing in opposite directions, swing, 

 and as they swirg sing local ditties, plaint- 

 ive for the most part, and in a high, shrill 

 voice. The young men try to pass by, and 

 are called upon for a toll of a copper apiece, 

 a song, and a swing. They generally sing 

 such words as these : " The gold is swung, 

 the silver is swung, and swung, too, is my 

 love with the golden hair." To which the 

 maiden replies, " Who is it that swings me, 

 that I may gild him with my favor, thr.t I 

 may work for him a fez all covered with 

 pearls ? " Having paid his copper, the 

 youth is allowed to pass, and another comes 

 by and does likewise. These games at Vo- 

 lathia, in Karpathos, take place on the Sun- 

 days in Lent, when the young men who are 

 home from their work on this day can be 

 present. " We are strongly reminded of the 

 game of swing which the maidens of Athens 

 played in remembrance of the death of Eri- 

 gone, who hung herself from a trea, when 

 they sang plaintive ditties in honor of her 

 name and garlanded themselves with flow- 

 ers, whereas now they sing solemn ditties 

 about the passion and resurrection of cur 

 Lord. Among the games played by the 

 boys of Samos, I saw one which bore a curi- 

 ous resemblance to single-wicket cricket. 

 They call it ' ball,' tr^dipos. There arc five 

 players on each side. One side is in ; the 

 other fields. The one who is in defends 

 his wicket, a stone erected on the grass. 



with his hand. When he hits the ball he 

 docs not run, but counts one when the ball 

 is sent beyond a certain boundary-line they 

 have. H the ball hits the stone, he is out. 

 In the mountain villages of Samos may still 

 be traced in various forms the ancient game 

 of SaKTvKoy eiraWafis, which we can see de- 

 picted on a vase for us in the Munich Mu- 

 seum. It exists still in Italy under the 

 name of morra, but in its simplest form it 

 has survived in Samos. We saw two little 

 boys playing together. One leaned against 

 a wall, head downward ; the other placed 

 his two fists one above the other on his 

 playfellow's back. ' Which hand is upper- 

 most ? ' he cried. The other guessed. 'No, 

 it isn't,' was generally the reply, accompa- 

 nied by a pretty smart smack. A more 

 elaborate form of this game is when two 

 boys, leap-frog fashion, stoop down, the 

 foremost against the wall, and the hinder- 

 most helping him. A third boy leaps on 

 the back of the one nearest to him, extends 

 a certain number of fingers, and cries, ' How 

 many fingers in the air ? ' The front boy 

 has to guess, and if wrong receives a smack 

 from the rider. Not only among boys is 

 this a popular game, but ttoo-o, 'How 

 many? ' is a favorite game at village-feasts. 

 Six men were playing it when I saw it, 

 three on each side. The three on one side 

 were called the beasts of burden, that is to 

 say, they turned their backs to the other 

 three, who jumped upon them. Having 

 done this, one of the riders put one hand 

 over the eyes of his ' beast of burden ' and 

 held the other in the air, and as he did so 

 extended some fingers and closed others, 

 and cried, irSaa, 'How many?' If the 

 beast of burden is stupid in guessing the 

 right number of fingers extended, he re- 

 ceives sundry boxes on the ears and general 

 rough treatment from his rider amid the 

 laughs and jeers of the bystanders. When 

 all three beasts of burden have guessed 

 aright, they change places with their riders, 

 who have to guess in their turn." 



Preparation for tbe End of the World. 



— Some of the people of Birmingham, Eng- 

 land, conceived recently that the end of the 

 world was at hand, and adopted various queer 

 means to mitigate the effects of the dreaded 

 event. Old women went to their Bibles, 



