170 Short Papers and Notes. 
Wibistling Speech. 
At the last meeting of the Berlin Anthropological Society, 
Lieutenant Quedenfeldt, a German officer, who has lived in Gomero 
Island, one of the Canary group, described a whistling language 
which is used by the inhabitants. The language does not con- 
sist of any arbitrary series of sounds. It is described as ordinary 
speech translated into articulate whistling, each syllable having its 
own appropriate tone. The Gomero uses both fingers and lips 
when whistling, and Lieut. Quedenfeldt asserts that he can carry on 
a conversation with a neighbour a mile off, who perfectly under- 
stands all he is saying. ‘The practice is confined to Gomero 
Island, and is quite unknown to the other islands in the Archipel- 
ago. ‘The adoption of the whistling language is said to be due to 
the peculiar geographical construction of Gomero island. It is 
traversed by numerous gullies and deep ravines, running out in all 
directions from the central plateau. As they are not bridged they 
can only be crossed with great difficulty; hence a man living 
within a stone’s throw of another in a straight line, has often to go 
many miles when he wishes to see or speak to his neighbour. 
This, it is conjectured, led to the adoption of whistling as a useful 
means of communication, which has gradually assumed the propor- 
tions of a true substitute for speech. St. James’s Gazette. 
A Warning, 
The Vicar of Midgham, Reading, writes :—‘‘ On Friday last a 
man in my employment, who was grass-trimming in my garden with 
a hook, took shelter under an elm tree during a heavy shower of 
rain, and I myself was taking shelter in a greenhouse close by. I 
can testify that there was not at the time or near the time any 
lightning or thunder seen or heard. When under the tree the man 
was employing his time in sharpening his hook, and whilst in the 
act of so doing, or at the moment he had finished, he heard, as he 
describes it, a hissing noise, and in an instant he was knocked 
against the tree, the sleeve of his shirt (his coat was off) was slit 
from top to bottom; his arm, the hand of which held the hook, 
was rendered powerless ; the hook itself was completely doubled 
up, and there was a hole in the brim of his felt hat about the size 
of a florin. He has since recovered the use of his arm. I write 
this letter in the hope that you may think fit to insert it for the 
purpose of warning workmen against holding their metal tools in 
their hands when taking shelter whilst thunderstorms are prevailing, 
even if there should be nothing to indicate that there is one in 
close proximity to themselves. It may also have the effect of 
eliciting the opinion of some man of science as to whether the 
fact that the man was sharpening the hook with a whetstone would 
at all account for the discharge of electric fluid.” —Dazly Telegraph. 
