559 
addition to these eoaie hundreds of natives from the 
Spanish and Dutch iorrifcories are settled in various 
places under the Company's protection. 
SIGNIFICANCE OF [GEMS AND COLOUR. 
The following remarks by Mr. William Cooper, in an 
American contemporary, will be read with interest. 
Certainly no portion of external nature is disregarded 
by science, but neither is anything which it contaius 
outride the domain of poetry. And as poetry is more 
ancient than science, as well as in all ages the most 
kindly of its foster parents, the very commonest thing3 
were often enobled by it loug before they became 
objects of particular study, as, for instance, precious 
metals and gem*. Language, per se, is the flowering 
forth in speech of the intellect and the emotions, while 
poetry with her ready wand of metaphor touches the 
most ordinary of objects and converts them into the 
most sublime. In nothing is this more exemplified 
than in the goldsmith's craft and precious stones. 
The poetical employment of the precious metals is as 
old, at all events, as literature itself. It has been 
stated that the allusions, in the Old Testament to gold 
number fuily 250. The majority, no doubt, are of 
purely literal intent, as when we read of the golden 
crowns worn by monarehs. Goodness, purity, unflinch- 
ing faithfulness of heart, with comurrent gladness and 
peace are in all cases intended by gold, when thus em- 
ployed as a metaphor. A drop of molten gold is one of 
the most ravishing objects the eve can rest upon. 
Qualities and properties possessed by gold are in no 
other metal, and indicate a truly noble, representative 
character. Shakespeare introduces the word in many 
a f amiliur line, as " golden sleep" and the " golden 
cadence of poesy." &e. 
Silver signifies, in ancient lore, that which we com- 
monly designate as a clear and quick-sight-jd intellect 
a shining and elegant mind, purity and truth, i. e., " A 
word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in baskets of 
silver." Love has been likened to 
The silvery link, the silken cord 
Which heart to heart, and mind to mind, 
In body and in soul can find. 
But to gems, or precious stones, the poet's art ha9 
similarly supplied many a beautiful image, alike in se- 
cular as well as sacred literature. The diamond, the 
ruby, the sapphire, the emerald, the jacinth, the topaz, 
the "turquoise, represent in their several ways, all dif- 
ferent, though harmonious, emotions and qualities of the 
human heart. So do the admired stones we call spars 
and crystals, marble and alabaster, amethyst, opal and 
agate, jasper, jet and lapis lazuli ; with not far off 
those other lovely gifts of nature, outcomes now of 
plant and animal life — amber and ivory, coral and 
pearls. What beauty can equal the ravishing elo- 
quence of the beauty of a chaste pearl 1 The mere 
word " pearl," conveys the idea of all that's lovely, 
refined and holy. 
Colour is one of the grandest factors of the lan- 
guage of nature. Excepting in the tender pictures 
where the gray hairs of old age fiod a fitting place, 
we have nothing in the way of colour that is neutral 
or diluted, from the ancients, down to the present 
time. 
lied is representative of dignity and inexpressible 
worth, chastity and lofty propriety of conduct. Thus : 
" Who shall fiud a virtuous womau ? for her price is 
far above rubies." 
Blue is identified with the early royal robes and the 
priesthood, representing coustuucy, loyalty, patriotism 
and fidelity. 
Green is the colour of spring, hence it was that in 
tho olden time the emerald was reputed to be a cer- 
tain cure for the bite of venomous snakes ; thus it 
is today that an emerald ring is considered the most 
appropriate gift to tho betrothed. 
Yellow and white are the colours respectively of gold 
and silvor. White comprehends also the quality of 
inuoconcf, a meaning qui to consistent withjthat which 
links silver to iutelloctual worth. 
Combine red with blue ; mingle, as it woro the 
ruby and tho sapphire, uud wo thou have purplo. 
the colour representing, in all age°, that which is 
consummately grand and illustrious — nature's united 
masculine and famioine. 
What dignity resides in black, though custom as. 
soeiate's this colour with ideas of bereavement and 
sorrow. While looking at it from the inferior or 
negative side, it is no doubt quite natural to do so. 
Black is soon discovered to hove its more cheerful meta- 
phor as well as dismal one. All the finest and richest 
shades of black are suffused more or less with 
lustrous purple, as shown so beautifully in the glorious 
plumage of the raven or rook ; or again, when in 
combination with white it shows up in contrast with 
that colour's brilliancy and purity, so that jet is not 
merely a badge or adjunct of mourning, but is as cheer- 
ful in its significance as even the emerald itself. 
All of these points go to prove what a delightful 
study that of precious stones is, and how we raise 
our trade and ennoble our own minds by cultivating a 
full appreciation in others of nature's rare and beauti- 
ful gems. — Home pa/pen 
* 
RAT PEST AMONG COCONUTS IN THE 
LACCABTVES. 
The depredations committed by the swarms of rats 
among the coconut plantations in the Lacadives being 
the cause of great loss of revenue, the islanders 
appealed to the Collector of Malabar to supply them 
with arsenic to destroy the vermin. But as an im- 
mense quantity of the poison would be wanted, and 
greit and unceasing vigilance required to prevent the 
remedy being a cause of danger to the community, 
the proposal has not met with approval. Mr. Winter- 
botham suggests the introduction of the large cirbie 
crow which would prove an effectual rat catcher ; but 
the Government has asked Mr. Winterbotham to first 
of all consult Dr. Bidie, Mr. Thurston, and other 
naturalists on the most effective way of destroying the 
rats ; and it has also suggested the use of dry powdered 
plaster of Paris sprinkled on boiled rice. This when 
consumed induces intense thirst, on quenching which 
the plaster hardens and kills the animals within a short 
period. The islanders get up periodical rat hunts, in 
spite of which the animals increase at a prodigious 
rate, — Madras Mail, Jan. 17th, 
Raw Cotton is, as everyone knows, one of the 
most important staples of the Indian export trade, 
and cotton manufacture one of the most important 
of Indian industries : but these facts have perhaps 
never before received such strong emphasis or 
adequate illustration as in a manual of cotton 
statistics which has just been published by a Bombay 
merchant. Who " A. F. B." is we can only surmise ; 
but he must be a man of infinite patience and 
assuidity : there is scarcely a detail missing 
concerning the cotton trade or industry, the pro- 
duction of the fibre, the number of the mills, or the 
peculiarities of consumption, on which statistics are 
available. Perhaps the point of most general 
interest is the testimony which the figures of con- 
sumption bear to the extraordinary development of 
cotton manufacture in the country. We know this 
from the enormous increase in exports of twist, 
especially to the East ; but it is brought home even 
more forcibly when we find that, whereas in 1886-87 
the consumption of raw cotton in Indian Mills 
was only 60,000 bales, last year it was close on 
889,000 bales, an increase in two and twenty years 
of 1,381 per cent. This may not be the most striking 
instance of rapid industrial development on record, 
but considering the political and economic conditions 
of the country in which it took place, it is certainly 
the most remarkable. — Pioneer, Jan. 11th. 
[We should think so ; and further it seema 
probable that the time is at hand when India 
will cease to export raw cotton, all she oau 
produce beinfj used in her own mills.— Ew. J 
