P OP ULAR MIS CELL ANY 



141 



wonderful properties. Distilled spirits came 

 into use in London in 1450, and had to be 

 prohibited in 1494. Michael Savonarola 

 produced a treatise on making the water-of- 

 life in the fifteenth century, which became a 

 standard authority on the subject, and was 

 followed by the work of Mattliioli de Sien- 

 na. These books gave the start to brandy- 

 making in Italy, whence the trade extended 

 to France. About 1520 the Irish usque- 

 baugh began to acquire reputation in Eng. 

 land. Before 1601, "brand-wine" had be- 

 gun to be distilled in the Low Countries 

 from apples, pears, and malt ; and in that 

 year an ordinance was passed at Toumay 

 forbidding the sale of the liquor except by 

 apothecaries, partly " because of the dear- 

 ncss of corn, and partly because of the 

 drunkenness which this cheap brand-wine 

 caused, to the great prejudice not alone of 

 homes and lives, but to the extreme danger 

 of the souls of its drinkers, many of whom 

 had died without confession." The art of 

 extracting alcohol from other substances, 

 was gradually discovered, and liquors of va- 

 rious names came into use. The trade grew 

 great, and the present century has seen a 

 new development of it in the general appli- 

 cation of the art of " doctoring " liquors, 

 or adulterating. 



Are there Catastrophes ?— Read Mr. J. H. 

 Kerry-Xicbols's account of one only of the 

 many things that took place in N"ew Zealand 

 on a June day only about a year ago : " The 

 most remarkable feature in the same line of 

 volcanic action was the extraordinary con- 

 vulsion which had changed the whole con- 

 formation of the country around Rotoma- 

 hana, and had transformed the hot, green 

 lake with its marvelous terraces into a roar- 

 ing crater, from which rose a column of 

 steam nearly a mile and a quarter in diam- 

 eter, that ascended in the form of a cumu- 

 lus cloud to a height of thirteen thousand 

 feet, and nearly a mile in width. Thus in 

 the brief space of four hours this delight- 

 ful fairy-land was transformed into a con- 

 dition suggestive of a scene in Dante's ' In- 

 ferno.' The spot where the white terrace 

 formerly stood had been occupied by a cra- 

 ter, forming a kind of horseshoe bay, and 

 from this a column of steam rose and min- 

 gled with the general mass. The site of 



the Pink Terrace, once on the western shore 

 of the lake, now stood a quarter of a mile 

 from the margin of the present crater, in 

 the midst of a mass of boiling mud black 

 and brown in color, with seething pools of 

 steaming water or liquid mud, which was 

 sometimes cast up into fumaroles, ejecting 

 steam and vomiting forth stones and mud, 

 with a noise like the roar of innumerable 

 steam-engines." 



Persian Astrologers. — The monajem, or 

 astrologer, is a power in Persia. He is rec- 

 ognized as a man of science, a member of a 

 learned profession. The chief astrologer is a 

 high court oflScial, from whose ruling there 

 is no appeal, for his decisions are based 

 upon knowledge that is communicated di- 

 rectly from the stars. Thus, if he decrees 

 that the Asylum of the Universe must not 

 start on a hunting expedition on Thursdav, 

 but that half an hour after midnight on Sat- 

 urday will be the fortunate hour, he is able 

 to give irrefragable reasons for his conclu- 

 sions by showing that Saturn is in the as- 

 cendant in the one case, while on Saturday 

 night, at the precise time mentioned, there 

 will be a happy conjunction of Venus. If 

 another astrologer is consulted, he will give 

 the same story. Every hour in the day, and 

 every day in the year, is thus worked out as 

 fortunate, indifferent, or unlucky in the as- 

 trologer's Books of Fate. Besides these cal- 

 endars, they have as their stock in trade a 

 plumb-line, a level, a celestial sphere, and 

 an astrolabe. The astrolabes are in the 

 form of a gigantic watch, and are often 

 beautifully made. Every large town con- 

 tains at least two astrologers, and they are 

 very far from being poor. A Persian may 

 find an astrologer very useful, especially if 

 he be iin officer, and desire to evade some 

 responsibility. Thus, suppose a provincial 

 governor is ordered to the capital, and that 

 he docs not want to go, what more power- 

 ful reason for delay in starting than to re- 

 ply that he is waiting for a fortunate hour, 

 and what easier than to induce the astrolo- 

 ger to fail to find one ? In the mean time, 

 the officer has time to administer the neces- 

 sary bribes at court, and the storm blows 

 over. IsdkJiara, tossing up, or the drawing 

 of the lot, is done with a rosary. A bead 

 is grasped at hap-hazard, "Good," "Bad," 



