Jan. 17, 1884] 



NATURE 



259 



regular features, and nostrils not so dilated as those of 

 their neighbours. A curious peculiarity is the power of 

 bending the elbow the wrong way, and similarly distort- 

 ing the wrist joint, so that the hand can be bent over till 

 the back of it touches the arm. This, however, does not 

 appear to be the result of any special conformation of the 

 joints, but rather of a long and severe course of training, 

 in which " force is often resorted to in order to distort 

 nature's handiwork" (p. 321). It will be remembered 

 that one of the distinctive features of Krao, the little 

 specimen brought from Bangkok by Mr. Bock, was a re- 

 markable pliancy of the joints, extending even to the 

 toes, which were almost as prehensile as those of the 

 higher apes. 



.Amongst the illustrations is a curious design by a 

 native artist (unfortunately " invested with artistic merit " 

 by the English engraver) representing a scheme of the 

 universe, with Mount Zinnalo, the Meru of the Hindus, 

 as the centre. Above all is the outer darkness, or 

 Buddhist yV/z-^/^zwrt, usually supposed to involve extinction, 

 or at least absorption in the divine essence, but which 

 our author agrees with Mr. Alabaster in identifying 

 rather with the highest heaven, a place of perfect 

 happiness or repose. But however this be it is obvious 

 that the Laotian Buddhism has been otherwise profoundly 

 modified by the older cult, on which it has been en- 

 grafted, and from which it still takes its colouring. This 

 older cult was little more than a universal spirit-wOrship, 

 probably the first distinct stage in the evolution of all 

 religious systems. Hence " the desire to propitiate the 

 good spirits and to exorcise the bad ones is the prevailing 

 influence on the life of a Laosian. With ' phees ' to 

 right of him, to left of him, in front of him, behind him, 

 all round him, his mind is haunted with a perpetual 

 desire to make terms with them, and to insure the 

 assistance of the great Buddha, so that he may preserve 

 both body and soul from the hands of the spirits, and, 

 by making merit either in almsgiving, in feeding the 

 priests, in building temples or prachedees, he may ulti- 

 mately attain supreme happiness" (p. 19S). At Muang- 

 Fang the people are shown a telescope, whereupon they 

 immediately ask, " Can you see the spirits through it ? " 

 And when it is reversed so that everything seems to fade 

 away in the distance, they are hugely delighted at such a 

 wonderful instrument, which has the power of making all 

 things — spirits of course included — near or far off at the 

 will of the owner ! 



Then these spirits, some of which, such as the phee-ka, 

 are very baneful, require to be thwarted by all sorts of 

 counter-charms, conjurings, exorcisms, spirit-dancings, 

 and other devices of the professional medicine-men, and 

 even of "paid mediums." For this institution — some- 

 what of an anachronism in the West — still flourishes in 

 the Far East, where almost every family has its private 

 mediums, who are consulted on all urgent affairs, and 

 who, when required to question the spirits, work them- 

 selves into a state of ecstasy, and utter short, incoherent 

 sentences, regarded as the oracles of the spirit world. 



Amongst the illustrations are a coloured engraving by 

 the author, giving a good idea of the " white elephant " 

 visited by him at Bangkok, and a hfe-size portrait of the 

 enlightened young King of Siam, to whom the work is 

 dedicated. There are also an index and a small sketch- 



map of the route followed, in which the geographual 

 nomenclature is, as usual, at variance with that of the 

 text. Thus we have Kiang-mai, Toune, Me-ounng, 

 Chandaw, for Cheng-mai, Tunn, Me-wang, and Shand;iu 

 respectively. A. H. Keane 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[ The Editor Joes not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, 

 or to correspond with the writers of, rejected tnanuscripts. 

 J\lo notice is taken of anonyvtous comftiunications. 



[The Editor urgently requests corjespotidents to keep their letters 

 as short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great 

 that it is impossible otherwise to insure the appearance even 

 of comi'iunications containing interesting and noz'el facts .'\ 



The Remarkable Sunsets 



Altiioi gh the prevailing mist and fog do not make the 

 summit 1 Ben Ncvi? as a rule a favourable situation for viewing 

 sunsets, yet, when clear and fine, ihe colours of the sky shine out 

 with fa greater clearness and [.mrity than at lower levels. For 

 about a week at the end of last month we had fine weather, and 

 the colours of the sky before sunrise, after sunset, and even 

 during the day, were of the most extraordinary character. 



On December 30 before sunrise the lower sky to eastward, 

 between a cloud-bank and a thin dark band of stratus, was pale 

 green, above tlie stratus it was yellow, passing into red higher 

 up. This arrangement of colour was not observed again ; on 

 other days the sky was red or yellow at the horizon, passing into 

 green and blue higher up At sunset on tlie 30th the colours 

 were of the most gorgeous description — dark smoky red below, 

 passing into blue and violet without any intermediate shade of 

 green. 



Similar colours have no doubt been seen as well at lower levels 

 at sunrise and sunset, but here we see the sky round the horizon 

 coloured in the most wonderful manner all day long — usually a 

 copper red under the sun, and a peculiar dirty green at the 

 opposite azimuth. But it is impossible to give any idea of the 

 exceeding beauty and weirdness of the tints at sunrise and sun- 

 set — the whole sky near the sun gleaming with constantly 

 changing m.asses of colour, indescribable tints of red and green 

 mingled in wild confusion. 



On December 31 the thin edge of the crescent moon (three 

 days old) vvas bright green, but I have not observed any unusual 

 colour in the sun itself R. T. Omond 



Ben Nevis Observatory, January 9 



I BEG your acceptance of the two inclosed clippings from the 

 Saturday Press of this city, together with an advance sheet from 

 Thrum's Hawaiian Annual for 1884, which contain nearly all 

 that has been put into print here about the wonderful "after- 

 glow " which has excited such attention in =0 many parts of 

 the globe. In the first communication of September 19, 1 

 recorded the important date of September 5, when the first and 

 most brilliant display was observed, being moved thereto by the 

 arrival of the news of the Java eruption, whose proximity in 

 time seemed to lend especial importance to the phenomenon. 

 In the second notice is recorded an observation of like pheno- 

 mena in lat. 24° 06' N.,long. 140° 29' W., Iioo miles east-north- 

 east of us, from the log of the bark Hope, Penhallow, master, on 

 September 18. 



In my article in the Hawaiian Annual, the record is brought 

 down to November 25, during which month the glow continued, 

 somewhat diminished. Since then it has again increased in a 

 marked degree. I have also been enabled to definitely connect 

 ourselves with Melanesia and Micronesia. Brig Hazard, 

 Tierney, master, arrived from those parts on December 5. 

 Capt. Tierney is reliable and intelligent. He reports to me 

 that on September i, when off the south-west coast of New 

 Ireland, about kit. 5° S., long. 152° E., he first observed the 

 "glare," as he termed it ; and again on September 3 off New 

 Hanover, two degrees further west. It was identical in cha- 

 racter with what he has seen since arriving in Honolulu. It 

 would seem to have been rather less brilliant than was first 

 observed here .September 5, as described in the inclosed clipping. 

 During his voyage from New Hanover, sighting Ascension, 

 calling at tlie Marshall Islands, and thence to Honolulu, 



