556 



NA TURE 



[October 13, 1923 



Research Items. 



< .( n 1 1 < I . \ 1 . Ill tlie 



\ir, \. W , ( ..i.liii.ill <le- 



1 III 1 ■.! I'll Ml III (• lll.l klll^ 



\ !l,- ( ,..1.! < ., , K 'I he 

 ' .irried 

 ithcrn 



!• 11; I M 

 Sfi>i-i-i' ' 

 sent" 



ill ttr 



UihI. I 



,lli(Mll ! ■': ' . 



Iiai;-., or mure rart-lv m lii<- iiMur iinnnlui- \s;i\- in 

 till" linHowed-Ollt Sfctl> ()| the Lin ii:ilin. ( inlv (HK- 

 CM 'I'll lu'c is recorded wlinr ihr lin- i-- ni;iiii- 



tai -ii- iir less perrnaneiitl\', i)iii-,i'[c ihr ( Inrf's 



compouiul : tliere i'^ n'> spci i,il ntr iili,-,ir\ im| in 

 lighting it, but no one in;i\- t.ik<- lire tmm it. Ilii.' 

 fuel nsnl is drit-d cow-dun},', ,m;'I in ihc r.inis tin- lire 

 isnllowfd to ,l;o out. Sacrifn <■ i .m- nude toil, ^oine 

 of the blooii ;nid bones of tiir \ntinis being iilaced 

 in a pot l.iid on the top ot tiic lire. Only the 

 chirf and one otiicT man, not iiimt ilicfl, arc allowed 

 to cat tlic Ih'sh of tiic sacrilicc. 



J HE OCCUKRENXE OF •UWl LlZAKD IN MAORI CARV- 

 INGS. — In the Neiv Zealand Journal of Science and 

 Technology, March, 1923, Mr. Elsdon Best of the 

 Dominion Museum notes that one of the remarkable 

 features of Maori carved work is its lack of natural 

 forms, particularly of the local flora. Some animals 

 are delineated, but none so faithfidly resembling the 

 original as the lizard. -Iln' txpc i<n(i\\n as Manaia 

 seems to have been confused with tiic li/ard, possibly 

 because this is one meaning of the wonl, but the 

 Manaia form is really the old Indian motif of Vishnu 

 flanked by two Garudas, the powers of Good and 

 Evil. Mr. Best thinks it probable that the introduc- 

 tion of the H/.ard or crocodile into carved designs 

 originateil in the western Pacific, possibly in Indonesia. 

 He gives numerous examples of superstitions con- 

 nected with lizards, one being that the Maori is 

 said to believe that the spirits of his ancestors revisit 

 the earth in the form of lizards. This may to some 

 extent account for its introduction into Maori art. 



Hawaiian Legends. — A collection of Hawaiian 

 legends by William Hyde Rice forms Bulletin No. 3 

 of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum at Honolulu. 

 The narrator is the son of missionaries who arrived 

 in Hawaii in 1840, and he has been familiar with the 

 Hawaiian language since his earliest childhood. He 

 has been a member of the House of Representatives, 

 and a Senator, and M^as Governor of Kauai under 

 Queen Liliuokalani until after the revolution of 1898. 

 The legends are fairy tales pure and simple with no 

 underlying mythological meaning. They were told 

 by the bards or story-tellers, either itinerant or 

 attached to the courts of the chiefs, where alone the 

 stories were to be heard. Some had historical 

 foundations now forgotten, others were efforts of the 

 imagination. Some of these legends Mr. Rice 

 remembers having heard as a boy, and places 

 mentioned in the stories were pointed out to him. 

 Among the legends are those of Pele the fire-goddess, 

 the Rainbow Princess, and Ulukaa the rolling island. 

 Another tells of the Menehune, mythical dwarfs only 

 two or three feet high, who were tremendously strong 

 but ugly of face. They were credited with all sorts 

 of magical powers and perfect skill, but would only 

 work one night on any construction. If not com- 

 pleted it was left undone. Other stories are those 

 of Kawelo the hero of Kauai, of Paakaa and his son 

 Ku-a-paakaa, of Kana the strong, of the beautiful 

 Kaili-lau-o-kekoa and of Makuakaumana, the man 

 who was swallowed by a big fish, and several others. 

 A glossary of Hawaiian terms with notes is given as 

 an appendix, and a portrait of Mr. Rice forms a 

 frontispiece. The work is a valuable addition to 

 the lighter legendary lore of Hawaii, 



NO. 2815, VOL. I 12] 



ICxamp 



1,, .1 



Ceramics and Mini 



of the thoroughness u.>.. „...... ,..j„.,nse 



bring the most mo<lern developments of re> 

 bear upon economic problems, and at the sa 

 welcome economic problems as enlarging 



knowledge, are to be found in \'ol. i. No 



thir.! 



mineralogist*) will iearu uiu< 

 undertaken for the ceramic indu--: 

 risii' re obtained in the cour.sc of tlic li, 



lion rded as matters of fundamental i 



Shin i[)lc, in liis work on ti; 



obsei • Uauhnil*- loses its n 



water lu-tween 400 and Ooo" ' 

 change takes place between ^y 

 that between 1200° and 1300"' ( . a lurvner 

 change occurs from the recombination of fr 

 anrl aluminium sili '■*■ *'at became dissociaiio .: 

 lower temperatn: gradual corro.sion a; 1 



ultiuiate fusion of .,,.,:./ grains in a magma form', 

 from lead glass and ( la\- piiK crised together : . 

 anionic many otli<r in^i i n, t r <• matters, illustrai' 1 

 b\ mil roscopic Sc^ , and I'l, II), l\i;i.: 



kats(j Scto (p. 2i'i . :i!)er ai new a.na!. ■ - 



of felspars, iiiostK- from chis->ical localiti' 

 S. Kozu and M. Sii/uki ip. i^\]. follow: 

 Cdoi/raiix, ha\c studied the intluciii ' ■.■•!,. inn- 



on the ontii- axial anylf ot -amdi ■ iwi.iiitv 



and '. ((imposition of the .spcciiueus are, v.i- 



tinni. ,..ud. The con^-idrraWle increase in tht- 



optic axial angle recorded for high temperatures by 

 Des Cloizeaux is found to be due to an abrupt change 

 at about 900° C. X-ravs lia\ e 1)een utilised, and the 

 Laue diagrams obtained show that this change is not 

 accompanied by alteration of the spacedattice. 



Physiological Cl.\ssificatiox of Oats. — 

 Investigations relative to the yielding and other 

 properties of oat varieties under dilTercnt conditions 

 of soil and climate an.' d:>cvil' 'ones in 



Bull. C. Xo. 3, of tlie Wi'i-h V\ Station. 



Trials were carried out with ,1 ..unui and spring 

 sown varieties from 1920-2, aspci t^ of their economic 

 and aijricnltnral V)ehaviour bemi^ considered. The 

 dilfiMcnt \arieti(S are compared with one another in 

 detail, witli special re<:ard to such points as the 

 relation l)etwecii the yield of straw and various other 

 factors, for example, the tin.: " to reach maturity, 

 the date of emergence of t! average height of 



the plants and the yield of -rn- 1 ;ie tillering capacity 

 of the same varieties in diiterent years was also con- 

 sidered. The information gained from the experi- 

 ments indicates the possibilh\- eNcntnallv of classify- 

 ing varieties of oats on a physi ' • ' 1^- - in such 

 a way as to afford practical guid .rmer in 



the selection of his seed corn. 



Effects of Radium Kadiaiujns on Tissues. — 

 The July issue of the quarterly journal Radium 

 contains'a number of papers dealing with the effects 

 of the radiations from radium upon the tissues. These 

 papers have for the most part been published in 

 American Medical Journals and indicate the extent 

 to w Inch radium is used in many conditions other than 

 malignant di- \ paper by Bailey and Bagg 



deals with tli< ! irradiation on foetal develop- 



ment in the lowii animals. On the basis of this 

 work, thev consider that if radiation is appUed in 

 late pregnancv, though it may not produce gross 

 abnormalities at birth, it may hinder the growth and 

 development of the child in later life. MacXeal and 

 Willis describe a case of squamous-cell carcinoma 



