January 7, 1897] 
NATURE 225 
over toanother a paper noticing all pre-requisites concerning the 
affair ; and by names of the parents of the intended couple asks 
a man to pray and divine; and if the presage tells that the 
union is a lucky one, clothes and ornaments are made for the 
deceased pair. Now the match-maker goes to the burying- 
ground of the bridegroom and, offering wine and fruits, requests 
the pair to marry. There two seats are prepared on adjoining 
positions, either of which having behind it a small banner more 
than a foot long. Before the ceremony is consecrated by 
libation, the two banners remain hanging perpendicularly and 
still; but when the libation is sprinkled and the deceased couple 
are requested to marry, the banners commence to gradually 
approach till they touch one another, which shows that they are 
both glad of the wedlock. However, when one of them dislikes 
another, it would happen that the banner representing the 
unwilling party does not move to approach the other banner. In 
case the couple should die too young to understand the matter, 
a dead man is appointed as a tutor to the male defunct, and 
some effigies are made to serve as the instructress and maids to 
the female defunct.!_ The dead tutor thus nominated is informed 
of his appointment by a paper offered to him, on which are 
inscribed his name and age. After the consummation of the 
marriage the new consorts appear in dreams to their respective 
parents-in-law. Should this custom be discarded, the unhappy 
defuncts might do mischief to their negligent relatives. . . . On 
every occasion of these nuptials both families give some presents 
to the match-maker (‘ Kwei-mei’), whose sole business is annually 
to inspect the newly-deceased couples around his village, and to 
arrange their weddings to earn his livelihood.” 
‘Lhis passage is very interesting, for, besides giving usa faith- 
ful account of the particulars, which nowadays we fail to find 
elsewhere, it bears testimony to the Tartar, and not Chinese, 
origin of this practice. The author, Kang Yu-chi, describes him- 
self to have visited his old home in Northern China shortly after 
its subjugation by the Kin Tartars in 1126 A.D.; so there is no 
doubt that among many institutional novelties then introduced 
to China by the northern invaders, Marriage of the Dead was so 
striking that the author did not hesitate to describe it for the 
first time. 
According to a Persian writer, after whom Pétis de Lacroix 
writes, this custom was adopted by Jenghiz Kan as a means to 
preserve amity amongst his subjects, it forming the subject of 
Article XIX. of his Yasa promulgated in 1205 A.D. The same 
writer adds :—** This custom is still in use amongst the Tartars 
at this day, but superstition has added more circumstances to 
it: they throw the contract of marriage into the fire after 
having drawn some figures on it to represent the persons pre- 
tended to be so marry’d, and some forms of beasts ; and are 
persuaded that all this is carried by the smoke to their children, 
who thereupon marry in the other world” (Pétis de Lacroix, 
““Wistory of Genghizcan the Great,” trans. P. Aubin, London, 
1722, p. 86). As the Chinese author does not speak of the 
burning of papers in this connection, whereas the Persian writer 
speaks definitely of its having been added later, it seems that 
the marriage of the dead had been originally a Tartar custom, 
with which the well-known Chinese paper-burning was amalga- 
mated subsequently between the reigns of Genghiz and his 
grandson Kublai—under the latter Marco witnessed the customs 
already mingled, still, perhaps, mainly prevailing amongst the 
Tartar descendants. KumaGusu MINAKATA. 
The Heating of Anodes in X-Ray Tubes. 
In reply to Mr, Walter Chamberlain’s inquiry (p, 198), it must 
be borne in mind that spark length is not ey se a criterion of the 
energy delivered to a vacuum tube. The length of spark is more 
or less proportionate to the maximum E.M.F. of the discharge, 
while the energy of a discharge depends upon the nature of the 
curves of both E.M.F, and current, and may bear but a small 
relation to the maximum E.M.F. Large coils which have 
secondary wire of considerable section and comparatively large 
electrostatic capacity, give a much greater electric quantity and, 
consequently, much more energy for each discharge, even when 
worked so as to give only short sparks, than do smaller coils 
the secondary wire of which is of smaller section and capacity. 
Réntgen-ray tubes should be excited during exhaustion with a 
1 The last clause in original text is doubtful inreading. Perhaps it will be 
more correct to render it; ‘‘ And the family of the intended bride provides 
her with various sorts of utensils and apparel needful to her nurse and 
maid-servants in the other world.” 
NO. 1419, VOL. 55 | 
coil of the same dimensions as the one that they are ultimately 
destined to be worked with. This is a point which does not 
seem to receive suffcient attention from commercial tube 
manufacturers. A. A. C. SWINTON, 
66 Victoria Street, London, S.W., January I. 
Sesamoid Bones, 
JupGinc from a small collection of X-ray photographs made 
during the year, the female hand seems better provided with 
sesamoid bones than the male. 
In my prints, in the female hand a sesamoid is most often 
found in the metacarpo-phalangeal joint of the little finger, less 
frequently in the index : in one case there are two in the inter- 
phalangeal joint of the thumb ; in this hand, including the two 
always found in the metacarpo-phalangeal joint of the thumb, 
there are no less than six sesamoids. In male hands the bones 
seem to be more evenly divided between the index and fifth 
fingers. In most cases the sesamoids are larger in the female 
hand. F. J. Retp. 
December 26, 1896. 
Discharge of Electricity by Phosphorus. 
THE discharging power for electricity of slowly oxidising 
phosphorus appears to have been known for much longer than 
Messrs. Elster and Geitel (see p. 155) seem to be aware of. 
In the 1855 edition of the ‘* Encyclopedia Britannica,” vol. 
Vili. p. 622, an apparatus is described for collecting atmospheric 
electricity, first used by Matteucci, in which a piece of phos- 
phorus projecting from a glass tube is connected to an electro- 
meter by a long wire, and exposed to the air whose electrical 
state is to be investigated. It is said to have been found very 
useful for this purpose. J. R. ASHWORTH. 
Rochdale, December 26, 1896. 
Shooting-stars observed on January 2. 
THIs morning, between six and seven o'clock, there has been 
a very unusual number of shooting-stars. The radiant point 
was somewhere near Corona. I saw, on the whole, two or 
three dozen. The brightest was not much inferior to Jupiter. 
Sheffield, January 2. H. C. Sorsy, 
THE GEODETIC SURVEY OF SOUTH 
AFRICA. 
pee Report on the Geodetic Survey of South Africa, 
presented to both Houses of the Cape Parliament, 
and printed in Blue-book form, is interesting and im- 
portant. It is a record of geodetic work well planned 
and ably carried out, and it has a permanent value, not 
only from a scientific point of view, but as an accurate 
basis upon which all future surveys of the country may 
be confidently founded. 
Soon after his appointment as H.M.’s Astronomer at 
the Cape in 1879, Dr. Gill recommended that a geodetic 
survey should be commenced, and formulated a scheme 
“for a gridiron system of chains of principal triangulation 
extending over the Cape Colony, the Orange Free State, 
Natal, and the Transvaal.” His regommendations were 
cordially supported by Sir Bartle Frere and Sir George 
Colley, then respectively Governors of the Cape Colony 
and Natal; but it was not until June 1883 that the work 
was fairly commenced, by the measurement of a base- 
line in Natal. On the completion of this operation, severe 
pressure was applied by the Government of Natal to 
accelerate the work at the expense of accuracy ; and on 
two subsequent occasions the question of suspending the 
survey was seriously considered. It was no easy task to 
convince Governors and Ministers that true economy 
lay in “basing all future surveys upon a principal 
triangulation of such accuracy, that its results might be 
1 ‘Report on the Geodetic Survey of South Africa.” Executed by Lieut.- 
Colonel Morris, R.E., C.M.G., under the direction of David Gill, H.M.s 
Astronomer at the Cape. Parliamentary Paper. Pp. xii+2o1. (Cape 
Town: Richards, 1896.) 
