282 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



by experiment that these insects also were 

 infected, and assisted in the spread of the 

 disease. He forwarded cultures of his bacil- 

 lus to the Pasteur Institute at Paris. Ex- 

 periments made on rabbits and guinea pigs 

 proved that the dead bacilli, if injected in 

 sufficient number, are deadly ; smaller quan- 

 tities, however, act as a vaccine, and protect 

 the subject against stronger inoculation. 

 Experiments with larger animals, such as 

 horses, were equally successful. " That the 

 most remarkable therapeutic value attaches 

 to anti plague serum, as now elaborated at 

 the Pasteur Institute in Paris, is shown by 

 the success which has recently followed its 

 application in undoubted cases of plague at 

 Amoy, by Yersin, now director of a Pasteur 

 Institute at Wha-Trang in Annam. 



Marriage of the Dead. Among the many 

 curious practices that Marco Polo came 

 across in his travels in the far East, the Tar- 

 tar custom of marrying the dead deserves 

 notice. He says : " If any man have a 

 daughter who dies before marriage, and an- 

 other man have had a son also die before mar- 

 riage, the parents of the two arrange a grand 

 wedding between the dead lad and lass, and 

 marry them they do, making a regular con- 

 tract ! And when the contract papers are 

 made out they put them in the fire, in order 

 that the parties in the other world may know 

 the fact, and so look on each other as man 

 and wife. And the parents thenceforward 

 consider themselves sib to each other just as 

 if their children had lived and married. 

 Whatever may be agreed on between the 

 parties as dowry, those who have to pay it 

 cause to be painted on pieces of paper, and 

 then put these in the fire, saying that in that 

 way the dead person will get all the real 

 articles in the other world." This custom is 

 also noted by other writers, even as late as 

 the beginning of the eighteenth century. It 

 is said to have been adopted by Jenghis 

 Khan, for political reasons, and is named in 

 his Yasa, published in 1205 A. D. 



The Three " Rs of Prehistoric Man. 



M. Ed. Piette has published an interesting 

 discovery in L 1 Anlhropologie, (vol. vii, 1896, 

 p. 385). He found in a cave at Mas-d'Azil, 

 in the department of Ariege, a quantity of 

 pebbles, rounded, oblong, and flattened, such 



as are taken from river beds. They were 

 variously painted with peroxide of iron ; 

 some had their whole surface colored, and 

 others again showed a border around the 

 margin, or were dotted and striped in dif- 

 ferent designs. Crosses, serpentine patterns, 

 and even trees could be traced out. M. 

 Piette thinks that according to these devices 

 the pebbles stand for numerals, symbols, pic- 

 tographic signs, and alphabetic characters. 

 He gives loose rein to his fancy in interpret- 

 ing them, especially the last named. He 

 reaches the startling conclusion that some 

 are probably syllabic signs, used for inscrip- 

 tions or in building up words. Twenty-five 

 colored plates accompany the memoir, and 

 give food for speculation on these cabalistic 

 memorials of a bygone era. 



Animals on the March. Among the 

 animals that take long journeys in great 

 numbers are the springbok, the American 

 bison, the musk ox, and, in smaller bodies, 

 wild horses and the antelopes of the steppes. 

 Journeying mostly over the plains, they near- 

 ly always move in a wide front, & way of 

 marching that gives an equal chance to all in 

 browsing. Some species of birds also migrate 

 on foot. The guinea fowls always go in sin- 

 gle file, a favorite mode of travel in Central 

 Africa, where paths have to be cut through 

 the dense scrub or impassable forests. The 

 European wild geese are the champion walk- 

 ers among birds. Belying the stigma at- 

 tached to their name, they show much fore- 

 thought in their pedestrian expeditions, 

 which are undertaken either to accompany 

 their young, or during the molting season. 

 Unhasting, yet unresting, they march ahead 

 in column, often ten geese abreast, careful 

 not to jostle their neighbors, with head 

 erect in the air. From time to time the 

 leaders give the signal to halt and feed, and 

 then to " fall in " again and continue on the 

 road. Abroad, before the days of railways, 

 dealers in poultry, making use of this march- 

 ing power, often saved expense by letting the 

 geese transport themselves. Droves num- 

 bering nine thousand have walked over the 

 road from Suffolk to London. At Antwerp 

 not long ago large flocks were seen marching 

 up the plank to a steamer bound for Har- 

 wich, and then gravely descending to the 

 lower deck to range themselves in an inclos- 



