POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



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photographer, gives so delicately correct a 

 relation of tones. It is to the proper use of 

 the proper means at their disposal that pho- 

 tographers need stimulating. The most im- 

 portant of these means are such as are 

 directed to securing the proper light effect 

 and relations of light values, and those which 

 give the focusing and relative interests of 

 the subject. Some of the simplest facts of 

 light are overlooked by photographers, who 

 have been governed by untrue and mislead- 

 ing conventions and dogmas concerning gra- 

 dation and brilliancy. Instead of deep black 

 prints usually in favor among them, it is of 

 first-rate importance in landscape pictures to 

 keep the shadows light. To repeat the im- 

 pression of outdoor light the whole picture 

 must be luminous, and not heavy and dark, 

 as is the effect of the ordinary style. Fur- 

 ther, the shadows when the sun shines are 

 lighter than when he is obscured. The 

 printing medium employed is an important 

 consideration. Mr. Davison finds excellent 

 qualities in the newest extra rough-surfaced 

 papers. Photography is good under suitable 

 conditions of light for representing transient 

 action and effects. Photography has pre- 

 eminently more of painting qualities than 

 any other monochrome process. It is not 

 specially limited to nor compelled to empha- 

 size facts of form. It gives form by means 

 of tone against tone — the best means of ren- 

 dering it — and its truth of form is unlimited. 

 It is equal to any other black-and-white pro- 

 cess. In nothing more than closed forms 

 is the delicacy of its tonal discriminations 

 shown. The quality of naturalness will tell 

 in the long run. Men will weary of empha- 

 sis, and graphic artists will leave past his- 

 tory, archaeology, and fiction to literature or 

 scientific drawing. 



A Voodoo Initiation. — A paper was com- 

 municated to the International Folk-lore 

 Congress in London by Miss Owen on Voo- 

 doo Magic, to the mysteries of which she 

 alone among white women had been initi- 

 ated. The ceremony of initiation began 

 with a walk at midnight, barefooted and 

 bareheaded, to a fallow field. The author 

 had to walk backward to the field, and when 

 there, to pull up, with her hand behind her, 

 a weed by the roots. She was then bidden 

 to run home and throw the weed under her 



bed, to be left there till sunrise. Next, the 

 weed had to be stripped of its leaves and 

 made into a little packet, to be worn under 

 the right arm for nine days. At the end of 

 this time the leaves of the packet had to be 

 scattered to the four winds, a few being 

 thrown at a time over the right shoulder as 

 the novice turned round and round, so that 

 they might fall north, south, east, and west. 

 When this was done the novice was ready 

 for instruction. Slie learned that the pre- 

 eminently lucky number which, when woven 

 into incantations, was irresistible, was four 

 times four times four; while ten was the 

 unlucky number. After this a knowledge 

 of the value of certain vegetable remedies 

 and poisons had to be acquired. Charms 

 were divided into four degrees. The first 

 were good charms, the hardest to work, be- 

 cause good is always more difficult to prac- 

 tice than evil ; the second were bad charms 

 and fetiches made in the name of the devil ; 

 the third had special reference to bodily 

 ailments ; and the fourth related to what 

 were called "commanded things," such as 

 earth and pieces of stick. After each lesson 

 both pupil and teacher had to get drunk, 

 either by drinking whisky or by swallowing 

 tobacco-smoke. To be thoroughly equipped 

 the novitiate must possess a conjuring-stone 

 — a stone black, kidney-shaped, and very 

 rare. These stones were supposed to oper- 

 ate most rapidly when the moon was full or 

 just beginning to wane. At other times, if 

 the stones were not efficacious enough, their 

 potency could be stimulated by a libation of 

 whisky. 



Cremation in Japan. — We are indebted 

 to a correspondent of the London Spectator 

 for the following interesting account of this 

 method of disposing of the dead in Meguro, 

 Tokeigo. It appears that cremation is the 

 general custom among the "Monto sect of 

 the Buddhists," a highly enlightened branch 

 of Japanese Buddhism, which holds to the 

 immortality of the soul as one of its leading 

 tenets. " The building is of plaster, with an 

 earthen floor, with stone supports for bodies. 

 The chimneys are wide, and are carried to a 

 considerable height, and there is no escape 

 of disagreeable effluvium over the neighbor- 

 hood. The bodies in the ordinary wooden 

 chests which are used for burial are placed 



