112 
ram’s head, bears an inscription stating that it was 
presented to Samas, the sun-god, by a king of Hana. 
From the character of the writing, Mr. Pinches places 
the date of the relic at about 850 B.C., and draws 
from the fact that it was presented by a foreign king 
the conclusion that the shrine of the sun-god at Sip- 
par must have attained to great renown. 
Another most interesting object of about the date 
685 B.C. is a lion’s head carved in white limestone, 
perhaps originally forming a part of some piece of 
furniture. ‘‘The mouth, which was opened threat- 
eningly, showed the well-formed teeth. Above the 
upper lip were, on each side, five curved, sunken 
grooves, which were formerly inlaid with some 
material, probably to enable the long feelers or 
whiskers to be inserted. Wavy grooves for inlaying 
were also to be seen above the nose. The eyes were 
inlaid, and the holes for the insertion of the long 
hairs forming the eyebrows still remained. In the 
middle of the forehead there had originally been in- 
serted the little winged figure emblematic of the god 
Assur.”? The accompanying inscription contains the 
names of the Assyrian kings Sennacherib and Esar- 
haddon. 
Among other objects mentioned were statues of 
the sun-god and his attendant deities, all clothed in 
long robes. The reader pointed out that the speci- 
mens of art found by M. Sarzec at Tel-lo are finer 
than those found by Rassam at Sippar; the former 
coming from the more polished Akkadian, the latter 
from the more powerful but less refined Semite. 
— The domestication of the ostrichin South Africa 
is of only some fifteen years standing, all previous | 
product of plumes being due to hunting. At first 
there was much opposition to the proposal; and it 
was fancied that the plumes of domesticated birds 
would prove of inferior quality, which has not turned 
out to be the case. In 1865 there were only eighty, 
but in 1883 there are more than a hundred thousand 
tame ostriches. They have even been introduced 
into California. In 1880 forty millions of capital 
was engaged in the business, and a hundred and 
sixty-three thousand pounds of feathers were ex- 
ported from the Cape, worth nearly $4,200,000. The 
birds are kept in enclosures, which, in a natural state, 
must be twenty or thirty acres in extent per pair. 
When the area is diminished, they must be supplied 
with food. They begin to breed at the age of four 
years, but produce plumes after their first year. The 
plumes are cut or pulled out. In the latter case inju- 
ries sometimes result, both to birds and manipulators 5 
so that the former process is preferred, although after 
six weeks it is necessary to remove the withered re- 
mains of the shaft. The feathers are classed according 
to their character; as, wing feathers (white), female 
feathers (white), tail feathers, fancy feathers (black 
and white), black feathers (long, medium, and short), 
and lastly gray feathers. Formerly the Cape plumes 
took only the sixth rank after those from Aleppo, 
Barbary, Senegal, Egypt, and Mogador, valued in the 
above-mentioned order. 
plumes are ranked as high as any. The largest ex- 
SCIENCE. 
Now, however, the Cape - 
portation is from Port Elizabeth. England is the 
great market, followed by France. New York is 
lately taking an important place in the trade. ‘The 
value of the feathers has diminished one-third under 
the increase of production, but the cost of the birds 
has also diminished. A pair of breeders has been 
sold within two years for twelve hundred dollars; 
but at present a pair can be had for two hundred to 
two hundred and fifty dollars. Under good condi- 
tions, a bird produces fifty dollars’ worth of plumes © 
per annum, to which must be added the value of the 
eggs and chicks. 
— The Catholic missionaries who have recently es- 
tablished themselves among the Massanzé on the west 
of Lake Tanganyika are meeting with a good deal of 
success. The men of the district, great travellers, 
speak mostly a jargon of several languages. Their 
own tongue is only heard in purity from the women, 
by whose aid a grammar and vocabulary have been 
prepared. An excitement was recently caused by one 
of the whites cobbling a shoe over an iron last. The 
natives took this for an actual white man’s foot which 
had been cut off; and one of the missionaries was 
obliged to take off his foot-gear to satisfy them that 
white men had toes. The Uambembé, reputed can- 
nibals of the adjacent mountains, who have never 
suffered any whites to enter their territory before, 
have welcomed the missionaries, and offered them 
sites for residence in the villages of the three princi- 
pal chiefs. This mission-station will be re-enforced 
very shortly. 
— The Stirling Castle, constructed at Glasgow: es- 
pecially for the China trade, during the past season 
has brought from Woosung to London a cargo of tea 
in thirty-one days. This is four days shorter than 
the best previous record. ‘The vessel is supplied with 
engines of eighty-five hundred horse power, and main- 
tained a perfectly regular speed of eighteen knots 
throughout the journey. 
—JIn view of the constantly increasing number of 
meteorological stations in Russia, Rikacheff, vice- 
director of the Central physical observatory, has un- 
dertaken a careful verification of the instruments, 
methods, and conditions at the different stations. 
— A. Roberjot, of the French navy, gives, in the 
Bulletin of the French society of geography, the 
results of a voyage in 1879 among the New Hebrides, 
and accompanies them by a small chart and several 
woodcuts in the text. The naval vessel Second 
sailed from Noumea, New Caledonia, and touched 
at various islands, beginning at the south-east with 
Annatom, and ending with Espiritu Santo to the 
north-west. Numerous interesting facts in regard to 
the present condition of the natives, some short lists 
of words and details in regard to the character of the 
several islands, are given, and form a useful contribu- 
tion to our knowledge of a people who are rapidly 
changing under the influences of missionaries, civili- 
zation, and the so-called ‘ labor-trade,’ which appears 
to be a kind of slavery into which the chiefs sell their 
unresisting people. 
[Von. IIL, No. 51. 
| 
