POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



427 



wood. It has often been related that labor- 

 ers have been enabled to perform extraordi- 

 nary feats through the agency of the black 

 devil, which they inserted in some part of 

 their implements of labor ; but the few who 

 were so daring as to have recourse to such 

 means were regarded as dabblers in the black 

 art, and were looked upon as reckless, as 

 " utterly left to themselves," and almost be- 

 yond the pale of salvation. This insect is 

 still considered extremely dangerous; it is 

 thought to be a kind of scorpion ; but very 

 few, indeed, are now disposed to lift it to the 

 dignity of preternatural influence. 



Growth of Willow Trees. — Garden and 

 Forest has received a photograph of a wil- 

 low tree standing in Waterbury Centre, Vt., 

 the trunk of which measures twenty-four 

 and a half feet in circumference, and whose 

 symmetrical top shades an eighth of an acre 

 of ground. A person who knows the early 

 history of the willow testifies that in 1840 it 

 was a tree about six inches in diameter, 

 which had grown from a walking-stick driven 

 into the ground a few years before by some 

 children. In that year it was cut down deep 

 into the ground in the hope of killing it, but 

 it started a new growth, and has reached its 

 present dimensions in fifty years. The rapid 

 growth of the willow in favorable localities 

 is well known, and Dr. Hoskins (from whom 

 the photograph was received) writes of another 

 near his home, which sprang from a cane car- 

 ried by a returning soldier in 1866, and thrust 

 into the soil in his dooryard. It is now more 

 than four feet in diameter, with an immense 

 top, and bids fair, at an equal age, to reach 

 the dimensions of the one spoken of. 



The Jagir Duseens of North Borneo. — 



The Governor of British North Borneo, vis- 

 iting the island of Banguey, found there a 

 tribe of Duseens, differing in language, re- 

 ligion, and customs from other tribes bear- 

 ing that name. Among one of these people, 

 called Jagir, spirits are believed in, and also 

 the power of a priestess to keep them in or- 

 der ; " for she is acquainted with their ways, 

 and knows the future as well as the past." 

 She nominates and trains her successors, but 

 they must wear black robes and carry wooden 

 knives. The priestess thanks the chief spirit, 

 on behalf of the tribe, at the harvest festi- 



val when the paddy crop has been successful ; 

 but the people never appeal to the spirits or 

 practice any religious ceremony in connection 

 with births, deaths, sickness, or marriages. 

 Marriages are performed, without public gath- 

 ering or feast, in the forest in the presence 

 of the two families. The rite consists in trans- 

 ferring a drop of blood from a small incision 

 made with a wooden knife in the calf of the 

 man's leg to a similar cut in the woman's leg. 

 After marriage the man takes the bride to 

 her home, where he resides in future as a 

 member of the family. These people have 

 long hair, secured with a wooden pin at the 

 back of the head, and cut short on the fore- 

 head. Their only covering consists of a 

 scanty fragment of bark. They use for fire- 

 making both flints and a pointed friction- 

 stick, which differs slightly from the one 

 generally used in the archipelago. The 

 tribesmen are honest, trustworthy, and in- 

 dustrious. 



A Chinese Naval College. — The Imperial 

 Naval College at Nankin, China, according 

 to Dr. Fryer's report, was opened about two 

 years ago for the purpose of educating young 

 men of talent for official positions in the 

 southern fleet of the Chinese navy, the 

 northern fleet having been already provided 

 for. It has now eighty students between 

 seventeen and twenty-five years of age, about 

 equally divided between the branches of 

 navigation and engineering. Two English 

 teachers are engaged, with several Chinese 

 teachers who have been graduated from the 

 Tientsin Naval College and are employed as 

 instructors in drilling, rifle practice, tor- 

 pedo work, and other branches. The second 

 classes of both the navigation and the en- 

 gineering branches are also taught by quali- 

 fied natives. The Chinese studies are di- 

 rected by literary graduates, who teach the 

 classics and other subjects of the usual 

 course. With the good beginning it has 

 had, and ample room for expansion, there 

 can be little doubt, says the report, that the 

 college, under its present administration, will 

 eventually grow into a permanent institution 

 that will bear comparison with some of those 

 of foreign countries. The Chinese mind 

 seems to be able to undergo a severe amount 

 of study and discipline that is simply aston- 

 ishing. Handicapped by having to keep up 



