POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



569 



for water applied to ordinary uses, can not 

 be relied upon for the perfect sanitation 

 of water intended for drinking. This con- 

 clusion is confirmed by the recent experi- 

 ence of some towns in Massachusetts. Con- 

 tinued outbreaks of typhoid fever in Lowell 

 and Lawrence were ascribed by the State 

 Board of Health in 1890-'91 to the admis- 

 sion of typhoid-fever excreta into the river 

 from towns higher up the stream, where it 

 was known to have existed. Newburyport 

 has for the past ten years, or since the in- 

 troduction of a public water supply, been 

 comparatively exempt from typhoid fever; 

 but recently, in consequence of a scarcity of 

 water, the water company began pumping a 

 part of its supply from the river and distrib- 

 uting it to the inhabitants in the face of ex- 

 pert warning against doing so. In January, 

 1893, the cases of typhoid fever, following 

 closely after a similar prevalence in Lowell, 

 suddenly rose from an average of less than 

 one a month to thirty-four in January, with 

 five deaths. 



East African Superstitions. — Mrs. French- 

 Sheldon, who traveled in Africa from Teita 

 to Kilimegalia and secured a propinquity to 

 the natives under natural conditions rarely 

 enjoyed by white travelers, became ac- 

 quainted with some very curious supersti- 

 tions among them. The people of Taveta 

 have an idea that the preservation of the 

 skull preserves the spirit of the dead, and 

 that the congregation of the skulls of a fam- 

 ily or tribe guarantees a future reunion. They 

 avoid letting any stranger know of the death 

 of one of their tribe. If a familiar face is 

 missed, and an inquiry is made, some one 

 promptly says, "He has gone on a journey.'' 

 They have a horror of having their pictures 

 or photographs taken. They wear certain 

 beads and bits of wood or iron as charms to 

 ward off evil, and as dama for various com- 

 plaints. They are loath to part with these 

 beads, beans, or bones. They will lend them 

 to one another when suffering, but always re- 

 claim them when their friend has been cured. 

 The fires in the village were never allowed to 

 go out ; a special family fire might go out, but 

 this could be resupplied or reignited by get- 

 ting a blazing fagot from some friend's fire. 

 But in the history of the tribe they had al- 

 ways preserved the fire, as doubtless did their 



prehistoric ancestors. When the Wasombo 

 learned that Mrs. French-Sheldon intended 

 to descend to Devil's "Water, as Lake Chala 

 was called by them, they speedily retreated 

 to their villages, with a feeling of horror 

 that the white woman would dare to venture 

 into the very mouth of the devil. She there- 

 fore made her visit free from annoyance. It 

 is believed that the Masai had a village 

 where the crater lake now swells and gur- 

 gles, and that during a volcanic eruption of 

 Kilimanjaro the people and their herds and 

 poultry were blown into mid-air, and that 

 their spirits still hang in space, without 

 home above or below, and that the moaning 

 and soughing of the wind through the trees 

 and the strange rustling and mysterious 

 noises caused by the reverberation of the 

 rocky cliffs surrounding the lake proceed 

 from the spirits of these poor people, their 

 cattle and poultry. Although fish are abun- 

 dant in this lake, the natives could not be 

 induced to taste them. The same people be- 

 lieve that their ancestors inhabit the bodies 

 of the Colobus monkeys, and will not under 

 any circumstances knowingly kill or permit 

 to be killed one of those animals ; and on 

 approaching the forest where the monkeys 

 abide in great numbers, they preserve an odd 

 silence, with furtive glances, and pick their 

 steps with a precaution and almost hesita- 

 tion that indicate an honest belief in their 

 superstition. 



Prehistoric Jeweled Teeth. — Among the 

 interesting objects brought from Copan last 

 year by Messrs. Saville and Owens, of the 

 Peabody Museum of American Archaeology 

 and Ethnology, are several incisor teeth, 

 each of which contains a small piece of 

 green stone, presumably jadeite, set in a 

 cavity drilled on the front surface of the 

 teeth. The museum had before received 

 from Yucatan human teeth filled in a pecul- 

 iar manner, and now it has teeth from Copan 

 filled in the same way. This is of particular 

 interest in adding one more to the several 

 facts pointing to Asiatic arts and customs as 

 the origin of those of the early peoples of 

 Central America. A most striking resem- 

 blance to Asiatic art is noticed in several of 

 the heads carved in stone ; one in particular, 

 if seen in any collection and not labeled as 

 to its origin, would probably pass almost un- 



