157 



kind. These missionaries attempted to teach them, 

 amongst other matters, the true theory of the 

 moon's motions, and at the first of the gatherings 

 the subject was discussed by them. The presiding 

 Sachem shook his head and his spear. The priests 

 first attacked the new doctrine, and with fury; their 

 temples were ornamented with symbols of the old 

 creed, and their religious chants and rites were word- 

 ed and arranged in accordance with it. The medi- 

 cine men, however, being divided among themselves 

 (as medicine men are apt to be in all countries), 

 some of them sided with the missionaries — many 

 from spite to the priests, but a few, I could see, from 

 conviction — and putting my trust in the latter, 1 

 never doubted what the upshot would be. 



Upwards of six years elapsed before I again was 

 present at a similar gathering of their tribe ; and 1 

 then found the presiding Sachem treating the mis- 

 sionaries' theory of the moon's motions as an accept- 

 ed fact, and the people applauding the new creed. 



Do you ask what tribes these were, and where 

 their annual gatherings took place and when ? I 

 will tell you. The first was in 1860, when the Deri- 

 vative doctrine of species was first brought before 

 the bar of a scientific assembly, and that the British 

 Association at Oxford ; and I need not tell those 

 who heard our presiding Sachem's address last Wed- 

 nesday evening that the last was at Nottingham. — 

 J. D. Hooker, in Gard. Chron. 



Oriental Mysteries. — These are sold in envel- 

 opes or packets at Is. per packet, each of which 

 contains 25 "mysteries." In the state in which 

 they are purchased, they are of no apparent shape 

 or make. Some appear like peices of a common 

 lucifer-match ; other like little dirty, irregular chips 

 of a soft wood ; and others, if I may so express my- 

 self, like nothing at all. In this state they appear 

 quite useless, and certainly are not worth Is., but 

 immediately upon dropping one of them into a cup 

 or saucer of hot water, it changes into a star, a fish, 

 a flower, or some other tangible form. The change 

 is instantaneously effected by coming in contact 

 with the water, and the worthless looking splinter 

 of dried wood expands to many times its original 

 size, and what is more, the specimens, when so en- 

 larged, are, many of them highly colored, represent- 

 ing, more or less accurately, not only the form but 

 the color of the objects for which they are intended. 

 As might be supposed, the quickness of the expan- 

 sion, and the power of increasing to so many times 

 the orginal bulk, has caused many inquiries to be 

 made as to what the material could be of which 

 these "mysteries" are made, and whether that 



material, whatever it may be, is treated chemically. 

 I was fortunate enough to have put into my hands 

 a "mystery" of large size, containing more solid 

 material than those sold in the London shops, and 

 on close examination I was enabled to determine 

 the nature of the substance, which is a simple veg- 

 etable tissue without any preparation whatever. 



The plant yielding it is a common one in the East, 

 and is known as the Shola (^schynomene aspera), 

 belonging to the Leguminosae or Pea family. It is 

 a marsh plant, and grows in abundance in the lakes 

 and jheels of Bengal, as well as in other parts of 

 India. If the objects are veritably of Japanese 

 manufacture, it would seem that the stems of the 

 Shola must have been obtained in the first place 

 from the East Indies, as the plant is not known to 

 grow either in China or Japan. 



It seldom attains a greater height than 8 or 10 

 feet, and the diameter of its stems is not more than 

 2J inches. The wood is remarkably soft and light- 

 so light indeed as to appear nothing more than a 

 mass of cellular tissue, and might readily be mis- 

 taken for pith ; but upon microscopic examination, 

 the annular rings and medullary rays are distinctly 

 visible, though exceedingly fine. It is the large 

 amount of cellular tissue present which causes so 

 great a degree of expansion to take place. When 

 dry, and submitted to pressure, the cell walls col- 

 lapse, and are pressed against each other, but upon 

 coming in contact with heat and moisture when 

 placed in hot water, the cells immediately absorb 

 the moisture, and regain their natural bulk ; the 

 effect of the moisture also expands the vascular 

 tissue or woody fibre, and in that way causes the 

 instantaneous opening of the chip-like objects. The 

 material is in common use amongst the natives of 

 the East Indies for the manufacture of various arti- 

 cles, both of dress and domestic use ; its extreme 

 lightness recommends it for many purDOses, such as 

 fishing floats, swimming jackets, bottle cases, but 

 more especially for hats, as it is a bad conductor of 

 heat, and the hats can be made of almost any thick- 

 ness, and still be exceedingly light. For modelling 

 it is a favorite material with the natives, who turn 

 out some really beautiful articles with it. There is 

 a very fine model of a temple made of the Shola in 

 the East India Museum, and another in the Kew 

 Museum. 



The stems are usually cut about the months of 

 April and May, and are commonly sold in the ba- 

 zaars at Calcutta. From the foregoing description 

 it will be seen how simple in structure these start- 

 ling "mysteries" are, andkow easily and cheap they 

 may be made. From ry thin slice of the wood 



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