572 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



At an early hour the next morning the ryot 

 again repairs to the field and collects the 

 thickened juice from the capsules. The 

 juice is next emptied into an earthenware 

 pot, and the ryot is expected to expose it 

 every day to the air, but not to the sun ; to 

 turn over the mass daily, so as to insure its 

 being thoroughly dried ; to keep it free from 

 impurities or adulterations ; and to bring it 

 up to the highest standard of consistence 

 and strength. When he has persevered 

 with this process for three weeks or a month 

 he delivers the raw opium at the factory. A 

 dark, coffee-colored fluid, called puasana, 

 exudes from the juice when it is fresh, which 

 contains many of the active principles of the 

 drug, and is dealt with separately. Besides 

 the collected petals which form the envelope 

 of the drug, and the pussana, the ryot has 

 other sources of profit in the poppy. The 

 stems and leaves of the plant are left till 

 they become thoroughly dried up under the 

 hot winds of April and Maj'. They are then 

 removed, broken up into a coarse powder, 

 and used for the packing of the cakes. The 

 oil is used for cooking and lighting. The 

 seeds are like caraway and are sold as com- 

 fits ; and after the extraction of the oil a 

 dry cake remains, which is given to cattle 

 or sold for medicinal purposes. 



Time-reckoning on tlie Congo. — Ac- 

 cording to an account of the geography and 

 meteorology of the natives of the cataract 

 region of the Congo, given in the Mouve- 

 ment geographique, the day is the solar day, 

 in the length of which no variation (the 

 range being only about forty minutes) is 

 recognized. It is divided into four parts of 

 three hours each, which are indicated by 

 stretching the arm or pointing to the east 

 for sunrise ; 45° toward the east for nine 

 o'clock; toward the zenith for noon; Ah" 

 toward the west for three o'clock, and hori- 

 zontally toward the west for sunset. Each 

 hour has its name, that for sunrise meaning 

 "early," and that for sunset, "the sun is'dead." 

 If a native is asked how long it will take to 

 go to a certain village, he will answer by 

 pointing to where the sun stands at starting, 

 and toward where it will be when the point 

 is reached. Thus he indicates the number 

 of hours by the astronomical angle corre- 

 sponding with them. Four days form a 



week, and each day has its name. Public 

 markets are distinguished by the name of 

 the day on which they are held, and of the 

 chief, village, or group of villages that con- 

 trol them. Seven four-day weeks form a 

 month, which corresponds with the lunar 

 month. Long durations of time are ex- 

 pressed in moons ; the black does not take 

 account of years. Although he distin- 

 guishes the seasons and recognizes their 

 periodicity, he has no fixed point by which 

 to determine the revolution of the sun. The 

 five seasons of the Congo are that of abun- 

 dant and continuous rains (from the middle 

 of February to the middle of May) ; that of 

 the end of the great rains and the beginning 

 of the dry season, when the grass grows 

 high (middle of May to middle of July) ; the 

 dry season, continuing till the middle of 

 September — also the season of great hunts ; 

 the beginning of the lesser rainy season, 

 when the sapotas begin to grow (middle of 

 September till the end of November) ; and 

 the season of decreasing rains, or lesser dry 

 season, when the sapotas are eatable (De- 

 cember, January, and early February). The 

 phases of the moon are understood. The 

 new moon is called the child moon, and the 

 moon at its last quarter the dead moon. 

 The blacks know that the new moon is the 

 same that appeared in the preceding month, 

 but they have no explanation for the phe- 

 nomenon. They have no notion concerning 

 the stars, further than to recognize the 

 brightness of Venus and give it a name, 

 and to name the constellation of the Three 

 Kings. Atmospheric phenomena — rains, 

 droughts, thunder, rainbows, halos, etc. — are 

 attributed to the action of the spirits in- 

 voked by the fetich-priests. 



Evolution on the Railroad. — It is most 

 interesting, says Mr. W. Armstrong ^Yillis in 

 the Gentleman's Magazine, to trace how tena- 

 ciously the first railway managers in England 

 clung to the traditions of coaching. The 

 builders of the first railway carriages made 

 no allowance for the changed mode of pro- 

 gression and motion which was introduced 

 with the steam-engine. They retained the 

 short, narrow, stuffy body of the stage-coach, 

 set it upon four wheels of another make, and 

 then attached it to the engine as to a new, 

 enlarged kind of horse. With the increased 



