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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



melt and volatilize into the gas holder. The 

 resultant gas when introduced into the vacu- 

 um tube showed a very complex spectrum, 

 totally different from that of argon, while 

 resembling it in general character. Its den- 

 sity was found to be 19. 8*7. Inasmuch as it 

 differs in a very marked degree from argon 

 in its spectrum and in its behavior at low 

 temperatures, it must be regarded as a dis- 

 tinct elementary substance. It would appear 



to hold the position toward argon that nickel 

 does to cobalt, having approximately the same 

 atomic weight, yet different properties. It is 

 monatomic. In a sealed package deposited 

 with the French Academy of Sciences, May 11, 

 1898, and opened when Professor Ramsay's 

 communication on krypton was read, MM. 

 Moissan and Deslandres announced the dis- 

 covery of a new gas in the atmosphere resem- 

 bling nitrogen but different from krypton. 



MINOE PAEAGRAPHS. 



The best existing illustration in this nine- 

 teenth century of the stone age and what it 

 was like, Mr. W. S. Lach-Szyrina said, in a 

 paper read in the British Archaeological As- 

 sociation, is to be found in Australia. The 

 Tasmanians, now extinct, were considered 

 the best representatives of the men of the 

 early stone age, and the still existing Aus- 

 tralian races — making allowance for differ- 

 ent climatic forces — furnish some of the best 

 representatives of mankind of the later stone 

 age. Some information respecting the difiS- 

 cult subject of the habits of thought of the 

 people of the stone epoch may be gleaned 

 from a comparison of the folk and legendary 

 lore of Australia and that of the countries of 

 southern Europe. In Australian folklore a 

 great confusion is apparent between human 

 beings and animals ; and in the folklore of 

 Cornwall the remains of a very primitive folk- 

 belief in the transmigration of men and 

 women into animals, and vice versa., have lin- 

 gered almost to our own day. Similarities 

 may be traced between the folklore of Aus- 

 tralia as it appears in Mrs. Langloh Parker's 

 Australian Legendary Tales and that of 

 Britain as regards the belief in spirits and 

 the influence of the stars ; and curious re- 

 semblances occur between our nursery tales 

 and the legends of Australia. 



The great number of Norse words in the 

 dialect of the Shetland Islands — ten thousand 

 — is accounted for by Dr. Jakob Jacobsen 

 by the fact that the islands were colonized 

 in the ninth century from different districts 

 of Norway, where numerous dialects pre- 

 vailed. Consequently, every district, parish, 

 and island has a number of Norse words pe- 

 culiar to itself. Synonyms, moreover, are very 

 abundant in popular speech. A few nurs- 

 ery rhymes, riddles, and proverbs in Norse 



are still preserved, though in very corrupt 

 shape. A curious system of taboo, remind- 

 ing us of similar customs in some of the 

 South Sea islands, and coming down from 

 pagan times, prevails in these islands and 

 farther south, by which, at the deep-sea 

 fishing, everything has to be called by some 

 mystic name. The minister and church are 

 on no account to be mentioned by their 

 right names at sea. They represented in the 

 pagan days " the new conquering faith which 

 aimed at doing away with the old gods, and 

 consequently at diminishing the sea god's 

 dominion of the sea. Being thus offensive 

 to the sea god and the sea spirits, the church 

 had to be called de Benlhoose^^'' or the prayer 

 house, and the minister de upstander or de 

 bcniman, or prayer man. Other names were 

 also given him, as de predikanter, or preacher, 

 and de loaded' (from an old word meaning to 

 utter sounds or speak in a peculiar tone), and 

 in one island de hoideen. The little island 

 of Fetlar, not seventeen square miles in area, 

 has about two thousand place names 



A DERIVATION is fouud by Mr. Guy Le 

 Strange for the word tabbi/ as applied to the 

 cat, which is indeed strange enough. The 

 name comes originally, it appears, from 

 Attab, a great-grandson of Ommayyeh, of 

 the family of caliphs, whom Mohammed ap- 

 pointed, A. D. 630, governor of Mecca. When 

 afterward Bagdad was built and made the 

 capital, certain lands in the city were as- 

 signed to the descendants of Attab and be- 

 came the Attabiyeh quarter. This quarter 

 became famous for its silk looms, and the 

 goods called AttabI, woven in variegated 

 colors of mixed silk and cotton, were ex- 

 ported to all parts of the Moslem world, and 

 were imitated in other places, as in Almeria, 

 Spain, where eight hundred looms were kept 



