526 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Nov. 23, 1888. 



experience. When the writer was at the age of ten, a 

 lady who had lived many years in South Africa, returned 

 to England, bringing with her a large quantity of buchu- 

 leaves. All her clothes were saturated with the scent of 

 this drug, and as she paid a visit to our family we were 

 struck with the smell, though we did not even know the 

 name of the plant. Some thirty years afterwards 

 happening to call upon a medical friend, we recognised 

 this smell in his house, and found that he was experi- 

 menting on the best method of obtaining the virtues of 

 the plant in a concentrated form. 



It will be admitted that to the biologist the sense of 

 smell may be of great service in recognising animal and 

 vegetable species. The chemist, in like manner, uses it 

 in distinguishing volatile bodies, and may often by its 

 aid obtain a valuable hint as to the reactions which are 

 going on. What is wanted is, firstly, a nomenclature for 

 smells, just as we have for colours and for sounds, so that 

 we may put on record and make known the impressions 

 which we receive. 



Secondly, we want means for training this sense. Few 

 persons, perhaps, would be willing to renounce spices, 

 condiments, spirits, hot liquids, tobacco, etc., but it may 

 be useful to know that a draught of cold water, held in 

 the mouth but not swallowed, gives a temporarily 

 increased delicacy to the smell. 



It may also be asked how far we can obtain in our 

 researches the assistance of insects ? Bees have already 

 served to detect the difference between true cane-sugar 

 and its hated rival beet-sugar — a distinction which our 

 scientific instruments have hitherto been unable to 

 show. 



- — «-?^i>^*^ — ■ 



ARTIFICIAL CAVERNS. 



IN various parts of the earth there are found cavities 

 evidently of artificial origin, and as evidently not 

 connected with mining or with any other industrial 

 operations. Such excavations, in the form of under- 

 ground passages, are particularly abundant in Bavaria 

 and Austria, and have for some time attracted the atten- 

 tion of archaeologists. The following account of these 

 so-called " earth-stalls " is chiefly derived from the Beitra- 

 gen zur Anthropologic and Urgeschichte Bayerns, the 

 Mitthcilungen der Anthropol Gesellschaft in Wien, and 

 the Naturf or scher. 



The number of these evidently very ancient cavities 

 is exceedingly great, and is being often increased by 

 fresh discoveries. Many local traditions point with 

 certainty to the existence in various places of under- 

 ground passages which have not yet been brought to 

 light. 



These " earth-stalls," or goblin holes, have been par- 

 ticularly studied during the last nine years by the Rev. 

 Lambert Karner. He has visited and explored nearly 

 200 such caverns in Lower Austria and Moravia, accom- 

 panied in many instances by his friend the artist 

 Spoettl, who sketched the most remarkable features on 

 the spot. 



The "earth-stalls" form complete systems of passages 

 and chambers. Their main feature is the labyrinthine 

 ramification of the passages, which can be traversed only 

 by one person at a time, and that generally in a bent or 

 even creeping attitude. There are perpendicular passages 

 or shafts, with holes into which the feet may be introduced 

 in ascending or descending, some of them being seven 

 yards in height. There are also at regular intervals 



small niches about the size of a fist, in which burning 

 lamps have been placed, as appears from the traces 

 left. The chambers have often an elegant form, and are 

 fitted with seats or benches and large, handsome niches, 

 with pointed or rounded arches. The size of these 

 chambers, hundreds of which have been measured by 

 Karner, is almost always alike — nearly 2 yards in height, 

 and 1 1 to 2 yards in length and breadth. Another cuiious 

 fact is the uniform position of these chambers, and, indeed, 

 of the whole structure, with reference to the points of the 

 compass, as the angles of the chambers are turned to- 

 wards the four cardinal points. Some of them have large 

 niches, symmetrically arranged, with bell-shaped or dome- 

 shaped tops. 



At the summit there is often an air-hole, and a niche 

 for holding a light is generally opposite the end of every 

 passage. In many cases the access to the final chamber 

 is very difficult, and this is excavated with especial 

 elegance, and seems to have been a kind of sanctuary. 



As an example we may take the caverns at Oberndorf. 

 The passage leading to the last chamber from the last 

 but one is only 20 ins. in width and 22 in height. It 

 leads first due south, and then forms an angle and turns 

 to the north-east. The chamber which is ultimately 

 reached is distinguished by its size and shape from all 

 others. It is 4 yards long, rather more than i| in width 

 and height, with an arched top. In each of the sides 

 there are two elegantly formed niches. 



It must further be added that the plan often takes the 

 form of a cross, and that the excavations are connected 

 with wells locally regarded as holy. Both the passages 

 and chambers have been provided with doors. 



What can have been the purpose of these excavations? 

 The oldest documents in which they are mentioned date 

 from the beginning of the 13th century, but they are 

 indisputably much more ancient. After considering the 

 great extent of territory over which they occur — Bavaria, 

 Upper and Lower Austria, along the Bohemian frontier, 

 in Movaria, in Hungary, and Styria — and everywhere 

 with the same characteristic peculiarities, and remember- 

 ing that this region coincides with the great kingdom of 

 the Quadi, Karner comes to the conclusion that the earth- 

 stalls must date back to the time of the Quadi. 



His conjecture is supported by the fact that artificial 

 caverns have been found within the lines of the great 

 Quadian fortress at Still fried. Karner does not believe 

 that these caves served exclusively as dwellings, since 

 no fireplaces have been found in them. It is probable 

 that the excavations were visited only at times, and that 

 for a fixed purpose, probably for worship. Whether 

 rites were here performed in honour of the dead is for 

 the present doubtful, for in the hundreds of chambers 

 which Karner has explored nothing decisive has been 

 found, although he was told of skeletons lying there. In 

 Moravia traditions are current of old men who dwelt in 

 these excavations, and who on being touched crumbled 

 away into ashes. According to a statement quoted by 

 Harkmann, two urns were found in 1886 in an artificial 

 cave in Upper Austria, the first discovery of the kind 

 made in any of these excavations. But no details con- 

 cerning these alleged urns have been made public. 



If the conjecture be well founded that these caves are 

 the work of the Quadi, they must date back to the first 

 centuries of our era, for the very name of the Quadi, a 

 race allied to the Marcomanni, who occupied the regions 

 mentioned from the first to the fourth century, dis- 

 appears from history entirely in the fifth century. 



