POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



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laid upon the king, or which is raised to fore- 

 fend the evil-eye, and which is supposed in 

 Northern Africa to have great magic power, 

 has five fingers. According to the traveler, 

 Ibn Batuta, the people at Sarmin, near Alep- 

 po, will not speak of ten, but always of 

 nine and one, and a mosque at that place 

 has only nine cupolas. The Shiites in In- 

 dia take the greatest pains to avoid the num- 

 ber four, some of them going so far as to 

 use six-legged instead of four-legged bed- 

 steads ; and if one of them inadvertently 

 pronounces the number he will immediately 

 clear his throat as if to spit it out. 



The Oldest Geographical Society. — The 



Paris Geographical Society, the oldest ex- 

 isting society of that kind, was founded 

 on the 15th of December, 1821, when 217 

 persons recorded themselves as members. 

 Among these original members were men of 

 great eminence in their respective fields of 

 science. Of them, M. Vivien de St. Martin 

 is the only survivor. The " Bulletin " of the 

 society has been issued regularly since its 

 institution, and the series now forms in it- 

 self a library of 120 volumes. It has pub- 

 lished several volumes of accounts of travel, 

 many of them of great value, and has award- 

 ed 150 prizes for geographical research. Its 

 library includes more than 25,000 volumes 

 and pamphlets, 3,000 maps, and 600 portraits 

 of famous geographers and travelers. Most 

 of the learned professions and departments 

 of public service, and nearly all important 

 nations, are represented in its list of mem- 

 bers, in which also seven royal personages 

 — among them King Norodom I, of Cam- 

 bodia, and Sultan Syied Barghash, of Zan- 

 zibar — have had themselves enrolled. Since 

 the Franco-German War, the society has paid 

 particular attention to the study of geo- 

 graphical questions bearing on trade, to the 

 exploration of newly -opened regions, and 

 to the popularization of geographical knowl- 

 edge. 



Tastes for Strange Meats.— The fact, 

 which is made evident by the condition of 

 the remains, that the cave-men on occasion 

 ate wolves, foxes, and similar animals, has 

 been supposed to show that they were often 

 reduced to great misery ; but observations 

 among living men prove that there are tastes 



in such matters that are often as potent as 

 want. Some of the tribes of Alaska are 

 capable of eating with relish things that it 

 is disgusting even to mention in that con- 

 nection. There are tribes in Kamchatka, 

 Siberia, and Mongolia, according to travel- 

 ers in those regions, that are fond of the 

 flesh of wolves, foxes, and badgers, and 

 some believe that it brings them luck in 

 hunting. The Moquis Indians are said to es- 

 teem wolf's meat ; and the Earl of Southesk, 

 in the Saskatchewan, said that the flesh of 

 the large wolf was " very good eating," that 

 of the small one uneatable. Heusser tells 

 of Indians in Brazil who find the meat of 

 two species of this family much to their 

 taste. Chapman says that jackal-meat is 

 considered a great delicacy by the Balalas of 

 South Africa, and that they were surprised 

 to learn that the English did not like it. 

 The striped hyena is believed to confer magic 

 powers, and his flesh, hair, and teeth are ob- 

 jects of contention. According to Schwein- 

 furth, the people of Charzeh, of Berber de- 

 scent, eat all game, including hyenas. Ac- 

 cording to Livingstone, while the Maqua 

 reject the flesh of hyenas and leopards, 

 their neighbors, the Manganja, on Lake Ny- 

 assa, regard the flesh of the animals that 

 " make discords in the chorus of the 

 spheres " at night as delicious viands. 



An Ascetic Indian Tribe, — Sir J. H. Le- 



froy speaks of the narrative reports of the 

 officers of the Indian Survey as being full 

 of ethnographic and other curious informa- 

 tion. Take, for example, the account given 

 by Mr. G. A. McGill, in 1882, of the Bish- 

 noies of Rajpootana, a class of people who 

 live by themselves, and are seldom to be 

 found in the same village with the other 

 castes: "These people hold sacred every- 

 thing animate and inanimate, carrying this 

 belief so far that they never even cut down 

 a green tree ; they also do all in their power 

 to prevent others from doing the same, and 

 this is why they live apart from other peo- 

 ple, so as not to witness the taking of life. 

 The Bishnoies, unlike the rest of the inhab- 

 itants, strictly avoid drink, smoking, and 

 eating opium, this being prohibited to them 

 by their religion. They are also strictly en- 

 joined to monogamy and to the performance 

 of regular ablutions daily. Under all these 



