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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



require a dry, bracing atmosphere, and sea- 

 breezes and frosts suit them ; and in the 

 morning after a snow-fall their tracks show- 

 where they have been scratching and play- 

 ing in it all night. But after a deep fall they 

 are soon in danger of starving. If there is 

 a tucnip-field near, they will scratch away 

 the snow at the roots and soon destroy the 

 crop ; if not, or if the surface of the snow 

 is frozen hard, they strip the bark from the 

 trees and bushes. While all the harmless ani- 

 mals are obliged to spend the greater part of 

 the day and night seeking food, their enemies 

 profit exceedingly. The stoats and weasels 

 find that they have only to prowl down the 

 stream-side to catch any number of thrushes 

 and soft-billed birds which crowd the banks 

 where the water melts the snow, and little 

 piles of feathers and a drop or two of red 

 on the snow show where the fierce little 

 beasts have murdered here a redwing and 

 there a water wagtail, or even a water-hen. 

 Water-shrews, water-rats, and otters all 

 dislike frost and snow, more, perhaps, be- 

 cause the streams are frozen and food is 

 more difficult to obtain along the banks, 

 than from any inconvenience the snow 

 causes them. Otters, even if the rivers do 

 not freeze, have a difficulty in finding the 

 fish, which in cold weather sink into the 

 deepest pools, and in case of some species 

 burrow in the mud. So they go down to 

 the sea-coast for the cold weather, and, 

 making their homes in the coast caves or 

 old wooden jetties and wharves, live on the 

 fish of the estuaries. Rats also often emi- 

 grate to the coast in snow-time and pick up 

 a disreputable livelihood among the rubbish 

 of the shore. Of all effects of weather, 

 snow makes the greatest change in animal 

 economy in the country- side, and weeks 

 often pass before the old order is restored. 



Where Women rule. — At the opening of 

 a paper on the political domination of wom- 

 en in Eastern Asia, Dr. Macgowan refers 

 to the condition of the aboriginal peoples 

 whom the Chinese found on Yellow River on 

 their arrival from Akkad. The Chinese then 

 possessed the rudiments of civilization, of 

 which the aboriginals were then destitute. 

 That this irruption of the Chinese was ante- 

 rior to the invention of cuneiform writing in 

 Akkad was probable, because of their use of 



quipos or knotted cords in keeping records. 

 These quipos, the author said, and not mere 

 tradition, were the base of Chinese archaic 

 annals, and from them the earliest form of 

 Chinese written characters was evolved. 

 Anterior to these quipos, judging from 

 certain neighboring tribes, notched sticks 

 were employed. As to the tribes which the 

 Chinese found existing when they reached 

 their future home, the philosopher of 

 Universal Love, Motzu, enunciated views 

 on the evolution of the state and family 

 which are in accord with those of modern 

 anthropologists. Men at first were in the 

 lowest state of savagery ; there was no 

 golden age, as depicted by sages and politi- 

 cal philosophers, until men felt a necessity 

 of a I'emedy for the anarchy that prevailed. 

 Some of the practices of self-deformation 

 were remarkably curious — as, for instance, 

 those of drinking through the nostrils, ex- 

 tracting front teeth and substituting dogs' 

 teeth, head-flattening, etc. ; the most striking 

 was the attempt to raise a polydactylous race, 

 by destroying all children who came mto 

 the world with the usual number of fingers 

 and toes. The author described a number 

 of instances of rule by Amazons, and ob- 

 served that it is mostly among the aboriginal 

 inhabitants that the chieftaincy of women 

 obtains to this day. There is seldom an age 

 of which one tribe or another does not 

 afford examples ; the more primitive the 

 condition of these tribes the slighter is 

 sexual differentiation as regards public gov- 

 ernmental affairs. The fables and myths in 

 Greece respecting Indo-Scythian Amazons 

 arose chiefly from rumors respecting tribes 

 of this kind. 



The Tonrouks. — The Yourouks of Asia 

 Minor, according to a paper by Mr. 11. Theo- 

 dore Bent in the British Association, are a 

 fair race of nomads of Tartar origin, from 

 the north of Persia. They wander on regu- 

 lar lines of pasturage, live in goat's-hair 

 tents, occasionally showing a tendency to 

 sedentary life, and build miserable hovels 

 out of the ruins of the cities. The Yourouk 

 has very little religion, and refuses to adopt 

 the measures desired by the Turkish Gov- 

 ernment. The people have sacred trees hung 

 with rags, say prayers over their dead, and 

 practice circumcision, but do not carry out 



