♦ KNOWLEDGE 



bamboo commimicating with the outer air. On the 

 following morning he was alive. On the second and 

 third mornings no answer was returned, and, on the 

 grave being npi'iied, 1k' «;is fnmid (,i l.r d.M.l." Dr. 

 Chevera justlv ussurlitr,, ilii^ n-irk wiili iIm' i-.liM-iims 



practice of tlic S;llii;|i|li ( self s:icrilircl, mi'l :mI'Is l li:il "if 



the devotee, Ini,,- I M ;iim1 siekly l.i e;.riT .-n his 



usual avocuimi-, i, : i, ri..r;ited, well and gocd— he goes 

 to heaven in :i pirr<(il\ orthodox manner. If, on the 

 contrary, the ImhiIiui-i ulie acts successfully, he comes 

 forth to be \vui-.-,hij>pea ami fed for the rest of his life," 

 and the alternative may be worth the risk at our would- 

 be saint's age, and in a country in which the struggle 

 for existence is so keen. Austerities of all kinds, and 



the 1 



t by 



in the East, and the 

 s and the Anthony's 



of _ 



that, however disp 

 occurrences, we ought not to discard them altogether. 

 The evidence adduced above seems to be very strong, if 

 it is not, indeed, ahsnlutely conclusive as to the fact 

 itself, but then we slioiild vi'inember tlmf the European 

 spectators ff the iireiiir.iiei' xM'ic oiiU sti-.infjers in a 

 .strange land ; tlmt tliey c-iild imi i.-ssiiilv guard against 

 .collusion in the eiise, and that tliev were "(.j.liged to rely 

 exclusively on native testimony and native supervision 

 in connection with it. Runjeet Sing, though a very 

 shrewd and observant man, could neitlier read nor write : 

 he believed whatever his Guroo chose to tell him, and 

 both h« and his courtiers had an interest in elevating and 

 extolling the pretensions of their new creed. This being 

 so, we may, while not absolutely rejecting such stories 

 as fictions, believe that the mo.st was made of .them, as 

 well as of the occasion itself, and there would, after all, 

 be but little ti.ssue-waste in such a posture or in such a 

 vault as are here contemplated. 



As a matter of fact, many animals and many mtu 

 do voluntarily reside, for months together, in subter- 

 ranean recesses of this kind ; but then the former are 

 asleep, while the latter partake of food, <tc., and in 

 neither case is there such an entire suspension of the 

 animal functions as is assumed in the ])erson of our 

 faquier. It is also curious that these exhibitions have 

 diminished in proportion with the extension of European 

 law and European civilisation in the East, and it is 

 understood that they cannot now be "got up" at all 

 without the usual accessories of a speaking-tube, creature 

 comforts, &c. "We are constrained by these and other 

 facts to declare that, though the atmosphere of the East 

 is socially and physically more favourable for the per- 

 formance of feats of this kind than is our own, yet that 

 the laws of Nature are the same in both, and that while 

 they remain so such acts of endurance as are here 

 described must either be regarded as miraculous, or be 

 relegated, like spiritualism and other "isms " of that ilk, 

 to the regions of illusion 



It 13 said that there are in Brooklyn 5,508 telegraph poles, 3,85uJ 

 miles of overhead wires, and 621 miles of cables. 



Foe the depth of despair in regard to the photographing of 

 children commend us to the operator who, in the recesses of his 

 datk room, after the twentieth attempt to secure the features of an 

 unruly youngster, thus delivered himself :—" Joshua commanded 

 the sun and moon to stand still, and he was obeyed ; but I'm hanged 

 if he'd liave succeeded mth this young imp ! " — Plwtograitldc Netrt. 



FIRST STAR LESSONS. 



By Richard A. Proctor. 



1'^HE constellations included in the twenty-four maps 

 of this series are numbered throughout as follows 

 (the names being omitted on the maps, to clear these as 

 fai as possible from all that might render the star- 

 grouping less distinct) : — 



1. CVsa Minor, the Uitle Bear 



(a, the Pole Star). 



2. Draco, 



m) 



("■ 



3. Cepheus, King Cepheus. 



4. Cassiopeia, the Lady in the 



Chair. 



5. Perseus, the Champion (/3, 



Algol, famous variable). 



6. Auriga, the Charioteer (a, 



Capella) 



7. Ursa Major, the Greater 



Bear (a, /3, the Pointers). 



8. Canes Venatici, the Bunting 



Dogs (n. Cor Caroli). 



9. Cc 



Bere' 



■s Hai 



the Nor- 



10. Bootes, the herds 



Arcturus). 



11. Coronu Borec 



them Crou}n. 



12. Serpens, the Serpent. 



13. Hercules, the Kneeler. 



14. Lyra, the Lyre (a, Vega). 



15. Cygnus, the Swati (a, 



Arided; /3, Albires). 



16. Pegasus, the Winged Horse. 



17. Andromed^i, the Chained 



18. Triangula, the Triangles. 



19. Aries, the Ram. 



20. Taurus, the Bull (a, Aide- 



baran; i), Alcyone, chiel 

 Pleiad). 



21. Gemini, the Twins (a, 



Castor ; /3, Pollux). 



22. Cancer, the Crab (the 



clneter is the Beehive). 



23. Leo, the Lion (a, Regulus). 



24. Virgo, the Virgin {a, Spica). 



25. Libra, the Scales. 



26. Ophiuchu^, the Serpent 



Holder. 



27. Aquila.the Eagle (a,Altair). 



28. Delphinus, the Dolphin. 



29. Aquarius,tbe Water Carrier. 



30. Pisces, the Fishes. 



31. Cetus, the Sea Monster (o, 



Mira, remarkable va- 

 riable). 



32. Eridanus, the Rii'er. 



33. Orion, the Giant Hunter 



(a, Betelgeux; /3, Rigel). 



34. Canis Minor, the Lesser Dog 



(a, Procyon). 



35. Hydra, the Sea Serpent (o, 



Alphard). 



36. Crater, the Cup (a, Alkes). 



37. Cori'us, the Crow. 



38. Scorpio, the Scorpion (a, 



Antares). 



39. Sagittarius, the Archer. 



40. Capricornus, the Sea Goat. 



41. Piscis Attstralis, the Sou- 



thern Fish (a, Fomal- 

 haut). 



42. Lepus, the ffare. 



43. Columba, the Dove. 



44. Canis Major, the Greater 



Dog (a, Sirius). 



45. Argo, the Ship. 



THOUGHT AND LANGUAGE. 



By Ada S. Ballin. 



TJSTE have seen that the faculty of imitation is one of 

 V* the most marked features of humanity in its 

 lowest phases, that it is characteristic alike of the savage, 

 the idiot, the subject of brain-disease, and the infant. 

 Hence, from what we know of the laws of embryology, 

 and the phenomena of reversion to ancestral types, the 

 inference that the earliest men were great imitators seems 

 to be a sound one. 



In the light of my previous remarks on gesture lan- 

 guage, it is evident that this characteristic must have 

 played an important part in the development of the pri- 

 meval system or systems of communication between man 

 and man. An involuntary gesture or sound made by A 

 may convey to B a mental grasp of A's situation, and lead 

 B to come to the assistance of A or to render him some 

 service. This being so, when A again finds himself in 

 the .same situation, he will voluntarily repeat the same 

 gesture or sound for the purpose of attracting B's atten- 

 tion, and in so doing he has added a stone to the founda- 

 tion of language. Here be it well understood that 

 language, even in its simplest form, implies the com- 

 munion of at least two minds — as it were, a giver and 

 a receiver. No solitary being could, or would, form a 

 language, because it would be of no service to him. 



