CUSTIS 



1677 



CUTTLEFISH 



impressed by Ouster's energy and bravery. 

 The first colors captured by the Union army 

 were taken by Captain Custer. By 1863 he had 

 gained the rank of major and later became 

 major-general of volunteers. 



From 1866 to the time of his death he was 

 known as Yellow Hair, a fighter of Indians on 

 the plains of Montana and Dakota. His last 

 battle was fought in June, 1876, when he with 

 his whole command was defeated and massa- 

 cred on the Little Big Horn, by the Sioux under 

 Sitting Bull. The spot has been made a na- 

 tional cemetery, and places in Montana and in 

 the Black Hills of South Dakota, as well as in 

 a number of other states, are named for him. 

 In Longfellow's poem, The Revenge of Rain- 

 in-the-Face, the story of Ouster's last battle is 

 told. He was buried at West Point, where a 

 statue was erected in his honor. 



CUS'TIS, GEORGE WASHINGTON PARKE (1781- 

 1857), the adopted son of George Washington 

 and grandson of Martha Washington, and an 

 author of several plays. It was he who erected 

 the Arlington mansion on the site of the pres- 

 ent Arlington National Cemetery, once the 

 home of Robert E. Lee through the latter's 

 marriage with the daughter of Custis. Custis 

 is best known for his publication of Recollec- 

 tions oj Washington. 



CUSTOMS DUTIES. If you enter the citj 

 of Rome from any other part of Italy in- 

 spectors will examine your baggage and per- 

 haps exact a tax upon certain goods which you 

 are bringing in. There was a time when nearly 

 all cities observed the custom of so taxing 

 their commerce, and that is probably why 

 taxes on imports and exports came to be known 

 as customs duties. Nowadays they are gener- 

 ally levied only on international trade; in the 

 United States, in fact, the Constitution ex- 

 pressly provides that "no state shall . . . lay 

 any imposts or duties on imports or exports." 

 The same Constitution rules that "no tax or 

 duty shall be laid on articles exported," but 

 there are a few nations which do have export 

 duties. Brazil and Haiti, for instance, collect 

 money on all coffee sent abroad. 



Not all countries have the same reason 

 for maintaining customs duties. England, 

 called a free trade country, taxes only such im- 

 ports as liquors, tobacco, tea and sugar, and 

 does it solely to gain revenue. Canada, on the 

 other hand, provides duties on all sorts of man- 

 ufactured goods and farm products, so that Ca- 

 nadian producers will have an advantage over 

 foreign merchants. See TARIFF. 



If customs charges are based on the quantity 

 of imports, the duties are said to be specific; if 

 according to the value of imports, they are de- 

 scribed by the Latin phrase ad valorem, mean- 

 ing according to value. Specific duties are apt 

 to favor producers of cheap goods. Thus, if 

 foreign baking powder is taxed six cents a 

 pound, the grade worth twenty-five cents bears 

 a charge of -nearly one-fourth its price, while 

 that worth fifty cents has a duty of less than 

 one-eighth, and home manufacturers of the 

 cheaper grade will meet less foreign competi- 

 tion. Ad valorem duties, if correctly calcu- 

 lated, avoid this injustice, but because of the 

 tendency of importers to understate values 

 they are difficult to apply. Sometimes imports 

 are charged with a combination of ad valorem 

 and specific rates. 



CUTTLEFISH, kuf'lfish, a shellfish whose 

 internal shell is the broad, spongy, chalky 

 cuttlebone, used by cage birds to sharpen their 

 beaks, also in powdered form by people, to 

 clean their teeth. The cuttlefish is important, 



a 



CUTTLEFISH 



(a) General view; (6) location of mouth; (c) 

 mouth; (d) arms, with suckers; (e) tentacle 

 with suckers on end ; (/) end of tentacle, show- 

 ing suckers ; (g) one of the suckers ; (h) interior 

 shell, called cuttlebone. 



too, for the production of the pigment sepia 

 (which see), an inky substance which it expels 

 when alarmed, so darkening the water and 

 making possible its escape. 



Cuttlefish are found in all seas, usually in 

 deep water but occasionally near shore. They 

 are commonly about nine inches long, but some 

 are as long as seven feet. Their bodies are 

 brown, cross-banded and spotted with purple, 

 showing brilliantly metallic in sunlight, or 

 changing color at will. Eight short arms and 

 two long tentacles, all bearing four rows of 

 horny-rimmed suckers, surround the mouth. 

 The tentacles can be drawn into pockets behind 



