POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



429 



are no little pebbles on the track. It is 

 always difficult, and usually impossible, to 

 obtain evidence that is satisfactory, from a 

 legal point of view, to prove that the offen- 

 sive odors from a bone-boiling establishment, 

 or the emanations from a cess-pool, or the 

 water from a polluted well, have produced 

 such a definitely injurious effect upon the 

 health of those within the sphere of their 

 influence as to justify municipal interference 

 with vested rights in property, or the ex- 

 action of damage for sickness or death pro- 

 duced by them. This has heretofore been 

 due largely to the want of definite and 

 precise or, in other words, scientific knowl- 

 edge of the causes of disease and death. 



Cyclopean Strnetnres in Oceania. — One 



reason, said Mr. R. Stemdale, in the Inter- 

 national Congress of Orientalists, why the 

 remarkable architectural remains existing in 

 the many islands of the Pacific have attracted 

 relatively little attention is the idea that they 

 are comparatively recent. The early people 

 of the Caroline Islands were builders of 

 Cyclopean towers and pyramids, and are still 

 skillful in building great walls of rude stone. 

 While many islands have been peopled by 

 accidental castaways, the settlement of the 

 great mountain groups was effected by organ- 

 ized migrations of savage navigators fighting 

 their way from land to land, and carrying 

 with them their families and household 

 gods, and the seeds of plants and trees. 

 The copper-colored autochthones of eastern 

 Asia spread in the course of ages to the 

 Caroline groups, and were the progenitors 

 of the Palaos, Barbados, Hombos, Blancos, 

 and other families of gentle barbarians. 

 They were followed by another exdous of a 

 kindred race, ferocious and pugnacious, and 

 Cyclopean builders on a large scale. Their 

 strong castles, built on steep hills or sur- 

 rounded by deep trenches, attest the fre- 

 quency and destructiveness of their wars. 

 The architecture of their temples — immense 

 quadrangular, paved inclosures, surrounded 

 by lofty walls and containing within them 

 terraces, pyramids, artificial caverns and sub- 

 terranean passages — illustrate their religious 

 earnestness. Some of these structures were 

 mausoleums as well as temples, and are 

 spoken of by the present race of natives as 

 sepulchres of the ancient deities. The au- 



thor's brother, Mr. Handley Stemdale, had 

 found among the mountain ranges of Upolu 

 an enormous fort, in some places excavated, 

 in others built up at the sides, which led him 

 to a truncated conical structure about twenty 

 feet high and one hundred feet in diameter. 

 The lower tiers of stone were very large and 

 laid in courses, with what seemed to be 

 entrances to the inside in two places. It 

 was probably the center of the village, as 

 many foundations a few feet high were near 

 it. The Samoan natives had no tradition 

 respecting the people that may have inhabit- 

 ed this mountain fastness. 



Slavic Marriage Forecasts. — Many curi- 

 ous customs are preserved among the Slavic 

 nations from the olden time. Of these, 

 those relating to marriage forecastings are 

 perhaps of the most peculiar interest. In 

 some districts maidens on Christmas Eve 

 throw rings or melted lead and wax into a 

 vessel full of water, and, while fishing them 

 out, sing old songs, the verses of which fore- 

 tell, as they catch each object, the peculiari- 

 ties of their future husbands ; or bread and 

 money are mixed with the straw which on 

 Christmas Eve underlies the table-cloth ; and 

 the girl who in the dark draws out money is 

 promised a wealthy husband, while she who 

 draws bread must give up that dream. If the 

 counting of an armful of chips, gathered alone 

 and in silence from the wood-house, gives an 

 even number, the girl will find a mate ; but if 

 the number be odd she will have to live single. 

 The young people, blindfolded and in the 

 dark, pick from the straw with which the 

 Christmas-Eve supper-tables are strewed for 

 purposes of the divination. The drawing of 

 a green sprig promises a wedding, but of a 

 dry one, long waiting. Wine, beer, and 

 water are placed by a girl between two can- 

 dles on a table, and she retires to a corner 

 whence she can watch in the looking-glass. 

 If the man who is expected to come at mid- # 

 night drinks the wine, her married life will 

 be one of wealth ; if he drinks the beer, she 

 will enjoy a moderate competency ; if the 

 water is chosen, poverty awaits her. If 

 wreaths of flowers thrown into a stream 

 on midsummer eve float undamaged out of 

 sight, the omen is good ; but should the 

 wreaths break, or the flowers sink before 

 the watcher, the prospects of her future are 



