63P 



NA TURE 



[October 29, 1891 



-jsandal-wood carvinq;, Channapatna silk and toys, Mysore in- 

 laid ware, gold jewellery from Belur, butterflies, lizards, snakes, 

 &c. A report on this tour will be published after a further visit 

 to the Mysore province, a large area of which remains to be 

 explored. 



The other day, Mr. Flinders Petrie delivered at the Owens 

 College, Manchester, a most interesting address on exploration 

 in Egypt. It had been thought, he said, that the immense 

 mounds of rubbish indicating the sites of towns had been rtiade 

 on purpose, but they resulted from the natural decay of the 

 mud-brick buildings. These heaps of ruined walls and earth 

 and potsherds rose even to eighty feet high in some places ; but 

 other ancient sites were much less imposing, and might even not 

 attract notice on the open desert. The higher the mound the 

 longer the place had been inhabited ; and if the surface was of 

 a late period, the earlier parts, which were most heeded, were 

 under such a depth of rubbish as to be practically inaccessible. 

 Much could be known at first sight ; and prospecting had now 

 become as scientific a matter in antiquities as in geology. 

 Knowing, by a glance at the sherds on the top, what was the 

 latest period of occupation of the site, and knowing the usual 

 rate of accumulation of a mud-brick town — about five feet in a 

 century— we could guess how far back the bottom of ihe mound 

 must be dated. • Other remains had different indications. If in 

 the midst of a great mound there was a wide flat crater, that 

 was probably the temple site, surrounded by houses which had 

 accumulated high on all sides of it. Speaking of the results of 

 ■exploration, Mr. Petrie said that we now realized what the 

 ■course of the arts had been in Egypt. In the earliest days yet 

 known to us — about 4000 B.C. — we found great skill in executing 

 accurate and massive stonework, such skill as had hardly ever 

 been exceeded. We found elaborate tools used, jewelled saws 

 and tubular drills. We saw the pictorial arts as fully developed 

 as they were for thousands of years later. But what led up to 

 ithis we were still feeling for. 



To what uses did primitive men apply the stone hammers 

 which they made in such large numbers ? This question Mr. 

 J. D. McGuire tries to answer in a paper in the, American 

 Anthropologist for October. His theory is that the hammer was 

 probably "the tool upon which races living in the Stone Age 

 ■relied more than upon any other object to fashion stone imple- 

 ments. " It was used, he thinks, not only to peck an axe or celt 

 into shape, but to rub or polish the implement after it had been 

 shaped ; and, to illustrate this, he gives a figure representing 

 a typical hammer of quartzite, from McMinn County, Tennessee, 

 •(he periphery of which is pitted by use, while the flattened sides 

 show that it must have been a rubbing-stone as \v ell. To prove 

 that the work suggested could be done by a stone hammer, he 

 represents an axe of close-grained black porphyry, which he 

 himself pecked out and grooved by means of such an imple- 

 ment. The task occupied him about five hours. As ordinary 

 stone axes are made of softer material, he thinks they were 

 probably produced in a much shorter time. 



Dr. H. von Wlislocki contributes to the current number 

 -of Globus a capital paper on the handicrafts of Hungarian 

 gypsies, whom he has had many opportunities of observing. If 

 we may judge from the illustration*, they have a considerable 

 aptitude for design. In the summer they make bottles out of 

 pumpkins, which they decorate with various drawings. On 

 each bottle the space is divided into four zones, crosses being 

 cut into the uppermost zone, serpents into the second one, 

 circles into the third, and zigzag lines into the fourth. The 

 crosses mean " May you be happy ! " ; the serpents, " May you 

 have no enemies!"; the circles, "May you always have 

 money!"; the zigzag lines, "May you be healthy!" 

 Brandy is kept in the bottles ; and when a guest is received, the 

 NO. II 48, VOL. 44] 



first gypsy who drinks says, " May you be happy ! " ; the second, 

 "May you have no enemies ! "—and so on. Pretty walking- 

 sticks are also among the things made by the Hungarian 

 gypsies. On the top of one of those sketched in the article two 

 female heads are admirably carved. These represent Ana, the 

 Queen of the Keschalyis, or forest fairies, who dwell among 

 the mountains, where they sit— three being always together— 

 on rocks, spreading out their long hair over the valleys, thus 

 giving rise to mists. Queen Ana lives in a black palace, and 

 sometimes wanders over the world in the form of a frog. Frogs, 

 toads, and serpents are her favourite animals. When she 

 meets anyone in her natural form, she exclaims "Ana! 

 which means " Bring ! " Should the person understand the cry 

 and bring a frog, a toad, or a serpent, he is richly rewarded. 

 If he fails to do so, he is either killed with a piece of a rock, or 

 struck by some terrible malady. 



The ZiVw-f of October 22 has an interesting article on "Our 

 Position with regard to Rainfall," compiled from the statistics 

 published by Mr. Symons and the Meteorological Office. The 

 rainfall during the present month has been so heavy that in 

 many places the amount up to the morning of the l8th was in 

 excess of the average for the whole month. In London this 

 excess amounted only to 0-3 inch, while at Valentia Island and 

 at Stornoway it amounted to nearly 2 and 3 inches respectively, 

 and the amount which fell during the next few days has greatly 

 increased the excess. But for the 10 years ending with 18S9 

 the rainfall over the United Kingdom differed only by i per 

 cent, from the average of the last 50 years. The values for the 

 present year, up to the i8th instant (as shown by the last Weekly 

 Weather Report then published), were rather in excess of the 

 average over the southern, midland, and western parts of Eng- 

 land, and the north of Scotland, while in the re maining districts 

 there was still a deficiency. For the whole period since the 

 end of 1889, there was only one district, viz, Scotland (N.), 

 in which the total fall was in excess of the average. In Scotland 

 and the midland and south-western counties of England, the 

 deficiency was still very large. The question is asked — Are we 

 likely to have in the years immediately advancing more or less 

 rain than during the last few years ? While the question can" 

 not be answered with absolute confidence, the grouping of years 

 into decades or other regular periods eliminates most of the 

 non-periodic variations, and shows whether any secular altera- 

 tions are taking place. There is no doubt that since 1887, at all 

 events, the rainfall over England has been much below the 

 average ; and a consideration of all the facts leads to the con- 

 clusion that such a period of scarcity is very likely to be followed 

 by one of abundance, and that the coming few years will pro- 

 bably be more rainy than those recently experienced, although 

 possibly the increase will not occur in the summer months— at 

 a time when it would be most noticed. 



The new number of Petermann' s Mitteiliingen opens with 

 some interesting extracts from the diary of the late Dr. Anton 

 Stecker, written during his journey in Abyssinia and the Galla 

 countries in 1880-83. Stecker died before he had an oppor- 

 tunity of writing a full and systematic account of his travels. 

 In the present extracts he notes not only the physical charac- 

 teristics of the regions to which they relate, but the manners 

 and customs of the natives. A good map makes it easy for the 

 reader to trace his route. 



A Greek gardener lately expressed the opinion that oranges, 

 figs, olives, and grapes grown in Australia are inferior to those 

 grown at Smyrna and Athens. This having been brought to the 

 attention of the Department of Agriculture, New South Wales, 

 letters were addressed to the British Consuls at Naples and Mar- 

 seilles asking for a consignment of the best varieties of grapes, 

 figs, and olives grown in Italy and France. On receipt of these 



