751 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Wave-motiou 

 Weaving 



land long after the earth wave has arrived 

 and spent itself. However irreconcilable it 

 may be to our common notions of solid 

 bodies, to imagine them capable of trans- 

 mitting, with such extreme velocity, motions 

 analogous to tidal waves, it seems neverthe- 

 less certain that such undulations are pro- 

 duced, and it is supposed that when the 

 shock passes a given point each particle of 

 the solid earth describes an ellipse in space. 

 The facility with which all the particles 

 of a solid mass can be made to vibrate may 

 be illustrated, says Gay-Lussac, by many 

 familiar examples. If we apply the ear to 

 one end of a long wooden beam, and listen 

 attentively when the other end is struck by 

 a pin's head, we hear the shock distinctly, 

 which shows that every fiber throughout the 

 whole length has been made to vibrate. The 

 rattling of carriages on the pavement shakes 

 the largest edifices; and in the quarries 

 underneath some quarters in Paris it is 

 found that the movement is communicated 

 through a considerable thickness of rock. 

 LYELL Principles of Geology, bk. ii, ch. 29, p. 

 498. (A., 1854.) 



3718. WEALTH OF CELESTIAL 

 BEAUTY The Stars Repeat the Lesson of 

 the Lilies (Matt, vi, 28-29 J. I conceive 

 that few thoughts can be more striking and 

 instructive than those suggested by this in- 

 finite wealth of beauty and variety [among 

 the double stars and the star-clusters of the 

 sky]. We see throughout the whole uni- 

 verse the same splendor on a large scale 

 which is bestowed on a small scale upon 

 the flowers of the field, which " toil not, 

 neither do they spin, yet Solomon in all his 

 glory was not arrayed like one of these." 

 PROCTOR Expanse of Heaven, p. 237. (L. G. 

 & Co., 1897.) 



3719. WEAPON AND TOOL Knife 

 or Dagger. Among implements used by man, 

 the same forms may sometimes be employed 

 for destruction and at other times for in- 

 dustrial purposes. When used for destruc- 

 tion they are weapons, but when their func- 

 tion is industrial they are tools. The same 

 object, when used as a weapon, becomes a 

 dagger, but if it be employed as an edged 

 tool it is a knife. As in the case of all other 

 weapons or tools, the edged tool works by 

 pressure, by friction, or by a blow. One 

 used by means of a blow is an ax if the edge 

 is in a line with the handle, and an adz if 

 it lies across the handle; an edged tool work- 

 ing by friction is a scraper, but one working 

 by pressure is a knife. MASON The Man's 

 Knife among the North American Indians 

 (Report of the U. 8. National Museum for 

 1897, p. 727). 



37 2O. WEAPONS IMPROVISED 



Armadillo Saws Snake with Its Shell. A 

 friend of mine, a careful observer, who was 

 engaged in cattle-breeding amongst the stony 

 sierras near Cape Corrientes, described to me 

 an encounter he witnessed between an arma- 



dillo and a poisonous snake. While seated 

 on the hillside one day he observed a snake, 

 about twenty inches in length, lying coiled 

 up on a stone five or six yards beneath 

 him. By and by, a hairy armadillo ap- 

 peared trotting directly towards it. Ap- 

 parently the snake perceived and feared its 

 approach, for it quickly uncoiled itself and 

 began gliding away. Instantly the armadillo 

 rushed on to it, and squatting close down, 

 began swaying its body backward and for- 

 ward with a regular sawing motion, thus 

 lacerating its victim with the sharp, deep- 

 cut edges of its bony covering. The snake 

 struggled to free itself, biting savagely at 

 its aggressor, for its head and neck were 

 disengaged. Its bites made no impression, 

 and very soon it dropped its head, and when 

 its enemy drew off it was dead and very 

 much mangled. HUDSON Naturalist in La 

 Plata, ch. 4, p. 72. (C. & H., 1895.) 



3721. WEAPONS, POISONED, IN 



ANCIENT TIMES Reprobation of the Cus- 

 tom in Homer Its Prevalence in Middle 

 Ages Also among Modern Savages. The 

 daubing on of venom to make them [offen- 

 sive weapons] more deadly is found among 

 low tribes far over the world. Thus the 

 bushman mixes serpent's poison with the 

 euphorbia juice, and the South-American 

 native poison-maker, prepared by a long fast 

 for the mysterious act, concocts the para- 

 lyzing urari, or curare, in the secret depths 

 of the forest, where no woman's eye may 

 fall on the fearful process. Poisoned arrows 

 were known to the ancient world, as witness 

 the lines which tell of Odysseus going to 

 Ephyra for the man-slaying drug to smear 

 his bronze-tipped arrows ; but Ilos would not 

 give it, for he feared the ever-living gods. 

 Thus it seems that in early ages the moral 

 sense of the higher nations had already con- 

 demned the poisoned weapons of the savage 

 with something of the horror Europeans now 

 feel in examining the Italian brave's dag- 

 gers of the Middle Ages, with their poison- 

 grooves imitated from the serpent's tooth. 

 TYLOR Anthropology, ch. 9, p. 221. (A., 

 1899.) 



3722. WEAVING INVENTED BY 

 PRIMITIVE WOMEN Styles Transported 

 over the World. There is no work of wom- 

 an's fingers that furnishes a better oppor- 

 tunity for the study of techno-geography, 

 or the relationship existing between an in- 

 dustry and the region where it may have 

 been developed, than the textile art. Sup- 

 pose a certain kind of raw material to 

 abound in any area or country: you may 

 be sure that savage women searched it 

 out and developed it in their crude way. 

 Furthermore, the peculiar qualities and 

 idiosyncrasies of each substance suggest 

 and demand a certain treatment. Wom- 

 en of the lowest grades of culture have 

 not been slow in discovering this ; so that 

 between them and the natural product there 

 has been a kind of understanding or co- 



