FOREST AND STREAM. 
263 



















RHYMING PROPHECIES. 
njurious to ood as is supposed; indeed, it may be asked, 
ey 
8 if at all so? e rather inclined to the opinion that it is 
not, and wethink facts are much in our favor, for hounds, 
pointers, and indeed all sporting dogs are notoriously given 
to eat animal substances in the highest state of decomposi- 
tion with an appetite and avidity that show it is a natural 
propensity. Indeed how can it be otherwise? for in a wild 
state a dog may be supposed to have hunted down some 
large animal, as a sheep, goat, etc. Having satiated his 
appetite on it, if he be of a moderate size only, he buries 
the remainder to hide it from others, and has recourse to 
what is left when his wants require it. Fresh and whole- 
some flesh, well boiled and mixed in proper proportions 
early harvast. 
sluices. 
content with nothing under forty days: 

14 was a proverb in Scotland that if the deer rose dry and 
lay down to dry on Bullion’s Day, there would be an 
Considering the soldier-saint was the chosen 
patron of publicans and dispensers of good liquor, it seems 
odd that a shower falling upon St Martin’s Day should be 
supposed to indicate a twenty days’ opening of heaven’s 
Martin, however, when he went in for wet, was 
more moderate than his uncanonised brother Swithum, 
commonly called St Swithin; he, as every one knows, is 


























































































Cor. Land and Water. 
Che FHlagazines. 
INDIAN SNAKE CHARMERS. 
a ee 


URING our stay at the Sangor bungalow, we had a 
visit from two Sapwallahs, or serpent charmers, who at 
the same time were ready to sell any kind of reptile. They 
offered us a rather rare snake, the goulabi, or rose, whose 
skin is dotted over with coral marks, and a nondescript 
snake whose head and tail looked so much alike that it was 
difficult to distinguish the difference. Finding they had 
no cobra capellos in their collection, I remarked the fact to 
them, to which they replied, ‘‘What would be the use of 
our bothering ourselves with them, when we can find them 
just as soon as they are wanted? Would you like to have 
one? The court yard of your bungalow ought to furnish 
all the cobras you want, and at short notice.” My curiosi- 
ty was excited, and I challenged them to find me a cobra 
with the ease or even in the short time they professed to be 
able to accomplish it. No sooner had I said this than 
one of the sapwallahs stripped off almost all his clothes save 
his shirt, and taking his toumril (the suake charmer’s flute) 
requested me to follow him. Back of the bungalow there 
was a piece of ground filled with briers and stones. Tak- 
ing his instrument he commenced producing a series of the 
most piercing sounds, interspersed with occasional soft 
notes, with his body bent towards the ground prying into 
each tuft of grass, into every thicket. Almost in a moment 
by a single glance he indicated to me where I should look, 
and there I saw sure enough a snake just issuing from un- 
der a stone. As quick as lightning the snake charmer let 
his flute fall and seizing the snake with wonderful dexter- 
ity, tossed it into the air, and the instant it lit on the ground 
he had it fast by the tail.- After examining it for amoment 
I found it was an inoffensive snake, a kind of viper. The 
snake chartaer then commenced his work over again, going 
through the same musical performances. In less than a 
second the flute was dropped, a second snake was thrown 
up into tbe air, it fell, was caught again, and with the most 
wonderful coolness the sapwallah showed me dangling from 
his hand, the tail held fast between his fingers, a fearful 
cobra fully three feet long. The hideous reptile twisted 
and squirmed, but with another most clever motion, the 
snake charmer held the reptile now behind the head, and 
forcing open the mouth, showed me the terrible fangs, from 
~whence distilled the venom which was sudden death. I am 
absolutely positive that there could have been no trick 
about handling this snake, although I was well aware that 
in ordinary cases snake charmers play with snakes that have 
had their fangs pulled out. Presently the Hindoo took a 
small pair of pincers and drew out the teeth of the cobra. 
Whether through an accident or to show his indifference 
to snake poison, the snake had bitten him, slightly it is 
true, though the blood was flowing from one of his fingers, 
Apparently not a bit’ disturbed he sucked the wound and 
applied to it a bit of black porous stone which he assured 
me was a perfect antidote for all snake bites. I bought the 
piece of stone from him. On analysing it I found it was 
nothing more than a bit of calcined bone of a remarkably 
fine grain. After the cobra hunt, the sapwailahs com- 
menced showing us all their various tricks. One tour de 
force performed by them had a striking resemblance to the 
famous miracle of Moses before Pharaoh. The juggler, 
keeping on nothing but his shirt took a harmless snake, put 
it before our eyes in a basket which he covered up. He 
lifted the basket up into the air, chanted several certain ca- 
balistic words, while his comrade accompanied him on the 
tamborine. All of asudden he took a pliant rod, swung it 
twice or thrice around his head, then threw it at my 
feet, where it writhed in the form of a true snake. [ 
watched him'as closely as I could, making him repeat the 
trick twice, yet it was impossible for me to discover when 
or how he substituted the snake for the stick. The trick 
was so cleverly performed that credulous people would 
have readily believed that the transformation was a positive 
one. 
I fancy the way it was done was as follows: The snake 
charmer of course does not place the snake in the basket, 
but allows the snake, who is trained to it, to coil around 
his arm, which is covered by the sleeve of his shirt. Now 
the skilllies in the substitution of the snake for the stick. 
With a singie movement the juggler I suppose tosses the 
stick behind him to his mate, while at the same time he 
threws out the serpent concealed in his arm. I do not 
think this calls for any more skill than the cleverness dis- 
played by the sapwallah, when as quick as lightning he 
caught before my eyes a cobra, tossed it up in the air, and 
seized it as it fell by the tail. It must be remembered that 
a cobra’s head protruding from his bole does not offer a 
place to catch hold of any larger than an inch and a half or 
so square. I must state that the charmers who exhibited 
before me were of the highest rank, and were venerated by 
the native inhabitants. The two rupees I gave them amply 
atisfied them for a curious series of performances which 
asted fully two hours.—[Translated for Forest AND 
TREAM from Louis Rousselet’s Trayels, Tour de Monde. | 
—————~<te - 
—We have seen a stick of wood weighing scarcely four 
ces fall from a boy’s arms, and striking on his toes ren- 
er him incapable of further action for hours afterward, 
hile the same boy has slipped with a pair of skates, and 
triking on his head with sufficient force to split that article 
pen, has not only reached his feet unaided, but has given 
e boy who laughed at him one of the most astonishing 
whalings he ever received,—Danbury News. 



with other food, is absolutely indispensable to foxhounds, 
and if investigated, the tainted meat supplied to them 
would, in the majority of cases, be found to be the cause 
of their sometimes going so suddenly out of condition.— 


Saint Swithin’s Day, gin ye do rain, 
For forty days it will remain; 
Saint Swithin’s Day, an’ ye be far, 
For forty days ‘twill rain nae mar. 
and receive the eaves-dropping from the abbey roof. 
to be a warning against removing Swithin’s remains, and 
therefore contented themselves with erecting a chapel over 
his grave. As poor robin sings: 
Whether this were so or no, 
Is more than you or I do know, 
Better it is to rise betime, 
And to make hay while sun doth shine, 
Than to believe in tales and lies 
Which idle monks and friars devise. 
Mr. Earle, however, has shown that while it is true that 
St Swithin did leave directions that he should be buried in 
a vile place, under the eaves-dropping, on the north side of 
Winchester church, there was no supernatural protest 
on his part against his relics being removed to the magnifi 
cent shrine prepared for them in Ethelworld’s cathedral. 
On the contrary, the weather was most propitious for the 
ceremony. Whoever was at the pains of inventing the 
story of the forty days’ tempest, misapplied his imaginative 
faculties altogether, since the phenomenon popularly asso- 
ciated with St Swithin is as apocryphal as the story con- 
cocted to account forit. From observations made at Green- 
wich in the twenty years ending with 1861, it appears that 
during that term forty days’ rain was never known to fol- 
low St Swithin’s Day; while, oddly enough, the wettest 
weather came when the saint failed to ‘christen the apples.’ 
In only six instances—in 1841, 1845, 1851, 1858, 1854, and 
1856—did it rain at all upon the fateful day; and the forty 
days following showed respectively twenty-three, twenty- 
six, thirteen, eighteen, sixteen, and fourteen rainy ones. 
On the other hand, there were twelve wet days out of the 
forty after the dry St Swithin of 1842, twenty-two after 
that of 1848, twenty-nine after that of 1860, and no less than 
thirty-one after that of 1848. Not that any evidence is 
likely to shake the faith of believers in the ancient notion. 
Convinced against their will, they will hold their old opin- 
ion still, like Hone’s lady friend, who, finding her favorite 
saint’s day fine, prophesied a long term of beautiful 
weather; but when a few drops of rain fell towards evening, 
veered round, and, was positive six weeks of wet impended. 
Her first prophecy turned out to be correct; but the obsti- 
nate dame would not have it so, declaring stoutly that if 
no rain had fallen in the daytime, there certainly must 
have been some at night. There are rainy saints beside 
Swithin; in Belgium they pin their faith to St Godeliéve: 
in France, to Saints Gervais and Protais, and St Médard.— 
Chambers’ Journal. 
KEEP THE LEGS AND FEET WARM. 
Pao ete 
URING the damp and cold season, the legs should be 
encased in very thick knit woolen drawers, the feet 
in thick woolen stockings, (which must be changed every 
day,) and the shoe soles must be as broad as the feet when 
fully spread, so that the blood shell have free passage. If 
the feet are squeezed in the least, the circulation is checked, 
and coldness is inevitable. This free circulation cannot be 
secured by a loose upper with a narrow sole. If when the 
foot stands naked on a sheet of paper it measures three and 
a half inches, the sole must measure three and a half. 
I will suppose you have done all this faithfully, and yet 
your feet and legs are cold. Now add more woolen, or if 
you are to travel much in the cars, or in a sleigh, procure a 
pair of chamois-skin or wash-leather drawers, which I have 
found to be most satisfactory. 
I have known a number of ladies afflicted with hot and 
aching head, and other evidence of congestion about the 
upper parts, who were completely relieved by a pair of 
chamois-skin drawers and broad-soled shoes. Three ladies 
in every four suffer from some congestion in the upper part 
of the body. It is felt in a fulness of the head, in sore 
throat, in palpitation of the heart, torpid liver, and in many 
other ways. It is well known that a hot foot-bath will re- 
lieve for the time being any and all of these difficulties. 
This bath draws the Blood into the legs and feet, relieving 
the congestion above. What the hot-hath does for an hour, 
the broad soled shoes with thick woolen stockings, and a 
pair of flannel drawers, with a pair of wash-leather drawers 
added, will do permanently; of course I am speaking of 
cold weather. o one hesitates to multiply the clothing 
about the trunk. Why hesitate to increase the clothing 
about the legs? As a preventive of many common affec- 
tions about the chest, throat and head, including nasal 
eatarrh, [ know nothing so effective as the dress of the 
lower extremities which I am advocating. 
The bath is a good thing, exercise is a good thing, fric- 
tion is a good thing, but, after all, our main dependence in 
this climate must ever be, during the cold season, warm 
clothing. Already we overdo this about our trunks, but 
not one person injten wears clothing enough about the legs 
and feet.—Dio Lewis in To-Day. 
oo 
—The Newburyport Herald explains that ‘‘a tinker’s 
dam” is not profanity, but simply an “‘enclosure made of 
bread around the hole to be mended, that the melted solder 
may be retained till it cools off around the bread, After 
being subjected to this process the bread is burned and 
spoiled, and is a fitting type of utter worthlessness.” 
Why this should be, has been explained in this wise: 
When the good Saxon Bishop of Winchester departed this 
life some thousand years ago, he was, in accordance with 
his expressed wish, buried in the churchyard, so that his 
humble grave might be trodden by the feet of passers-by, 
Thus 
he was permitted to rest undisturbed for a hundred years; 
then the clergy of the diocese took it into their heads to 
have the saint taken up, and deposited inside the cathedral; 
but when they set about the work, the rain came down 
with such violence that they were compelled to desist, and 
finding the deluge continued for forty days, interpreted it 




























Tur KasyLes iy ALGnriA.—The Kabyles know very 
little of medicine. If one of them falls ill, he takes the 
juice of some plant; if he is wounded he makes a paste of 
sulphur, resin, and olive oil, and applies it to his wound; 
these and a leather pouch, containing verses from the 
Koran or certain cabalistie signs, which they wear round 
their necks, are the only remedies that they ever think of 
using. Their chief nourishment consists of a kind of hard 
cake baked upon a clay plate, milk, honey, and figs soaked 
in oil. Their luxuries are roast meat and cowscoussou. This 
favourite dish is made in an earthenware utensil standing 
upon legs, which is similar to our ordinary coffee pot in 
principle and form, although much larger in diameter. A 
quantity of olive oil, fat, vegetables, and pieces of meat or 
fowls seasoned with herbs aud spices, are placed in the lower 
half of the pot, while the couscoussow which consists of 
grains of corn steeped in water, then crushed with a stone, 
and finally exposed to the sun to dry, is put into the upper 
division, which is perforated with small holes at the bot- 
tom. The utensil is then placed over a slow fire, and the 
steam which rises from the various ingredients in the lower 
half of the pot gradually impregnates the couscoussov. 
When the latter is sufliciently cooked it is turned into a 
wooden bowl and the meat placed on the top.+Gentleman’s 
Magazine. 


atuswers To Correspondents. 
eee 
[We shall endeavor in this department to impart and hope to receive 
such information as may be of service to amateur and professional sports- 
men. We will cheerfully answer all reasonable questions that fall within 
the scope of this paper, designating localities for good hunting, fish 
ing, and trapping, and giving advice and instructions as to outfits, im 
plements, routes, distances, seasons, expenses, remedies, traits, species 
governing rules, etc. All branches of the sportsman’s craft will receive 
attention. Anonymous communications not noticed.| 
—_——_—+- 
D.—See Agassiz’s Journal in Brazil; Ticknor & Field. It is fully ex- 
plained. 
Rosrnpaum, New Jersey.—Quails can be obtained by addressing C. J” 
Fox, Galatea, Saline county, Dlinois. 
E. T. H., Lynn, Mass.—For full information of Umbagog and Range. 
ly lakes, in Maine, see Forest AND STREAM, Sept. 18th, page 21. 
W.S. H., Brooklyn, L. I.—‘‘Is there any shooting at Barnegat? Yes, 
wild fowl; butitis very cold; on the main, fair quail shooting; near Tom’s 
river, good cock shooting. 
Cornskin, Memphis.—‘“‘Is there a man in the United States, Daley by 
name, who makes breeeh loaders?” Yes, Messrs. Sceoverling & Daley, - 
No. 84 Chambers street, New York. 
CLENDENNING.—We can recommend no better book to you than ‘*Proc 
tor’s Half Hours with the Telescope.’ As your glass is athree inch 
achromatic, it would just suit. 
RACINE COLLEGE, Wisconsin.—‘‘When will the Forrest AND STREAM 
publish the reviews of the cricket clubs in the country?’ Ans. Weare 
now preparing the material, and have it almost ready for the press. 
RieLeman, Lexington, Ky.—‘‘What is the largest number of grains of 
powder which can be shot from a rifle without unpleasant recoil?” Ans. 
About ninety grains, which is about ahalf more than the regulation 
charge. 
GrizzLy.—‘‘What is the mountain fever?’ Ans, A severe cold pecu- 
liar to the Rocky mountains, caused by exposure and over exertion, Its 
symptoms are flushes, fever, cold in the head, headaches and general de- 
bility. It reduces a cast-irom mountain man to a weak and helpless in- 
fant in afew days. Itin no respect resembles the fever and ague, or — 
the fever prevalent to the Southern States. 
Cocoon, Baltimore, Md.—Some time ago we replied to a correspondent. 
in regard to the oak feeding silk worm, since which we have come across 
Dr. Wallace’s Prize Essay on the oak feeding silk worm, Dambyxjama 
mai. The worm will well feed on the English and Turkey oak and all 
other kinds. It is advisable to plant some seedling oaks to feed with 
when they are first hatched. 
CuHEVAL, Germantown, Pa.—In regard to your question about a naked 
horse, or one without hair, Brehm, a strong authority, says that travelers 
aflirm that troops of hairless horses are found in a half wild state in Af- 
ghanistan. Occasionally some have found their way into India, and thence 
to Europe. A race of hairless horses is said to have once existed in the 
Crimea, and that occasionally foals show the old hairless origin. A hatr- 
less horse, a kind of Jusus nature animal, was exhibited some years ago 
at the Crystal Palace. 
Star Fisu, Philadelphia.—The Physallia have certainly the power of 
stinging, those found in the waters surrounding the West Indies especi- 
ally. Duteste says the effect on his arm when he touched one was as if he 
had plunged it in boiling water. Mr. Bennet, an English naturalist, af- 
firms the fact, and states from experience that the effects of the poison 
of the Physallia are quite serious. West India negroes believe that 
when the “‘galleys,” as they are called, are dead and dried that the poison 
is as efficacious as ever; but this is nonsense. We should be pleased to 
have your experience. 
Coor, Fordham, N. Y.—‘*What are the expenses for a sportsman per 
diem on the several islands in the Chesapeake, and near the capes of Vir- 
ginia, mentioned by you?’ Ans. On Cobbs’ and Chincoteague, $5 a day, 
for wild fowl, and $2,50 for snipe. On Mockhorn, Hog and Fisherman’s, 
$3 aday. We have already given the route. On the Susquehanna by 
contract, at Nott’s Island, N. C., $3 a day, a good place; at Good Ground, 
L. I., $8, for a party of three, including live geese stools. At Raynor's, 
West Hampton, L. I., $3 a day. None of these prices include board, 
but merely gunner, stools and boats. 
Frep Marner, Honeoye Falls.—Your question 1s partly answered 
elsewhere. White rabbits, white mice, and white ferets are albinos, but 
they breed true, like the pure strains. We suppose that human albinos 
would breed true, but know of no authentic cases. Melanism is a freak 
of nature exactly the reverse, where the exceptions are black instead of 
white. For instance, we have seen a black red squirrel and a white one 
from the same nest. These were in possesion of George A Boardman, 
of Calais, Maine, a naturalist of some repute. Melanism does not occur 
as often as Albinoism, and is rarely seen in birds, few instances having 
been noted. ° 
LrrrLe.—Albinoism is common with all species of mammals and birds. 
particularly the latter. In 1872 there was a full grown albino bull buffalo 
killed on the plains of Western Kansas. Muskrats, mink, otters, foxes 
wolves, rats, nfice, squirrels, and other animals, are often found 1n a state 
of albinoism. Albinos are more common with some species of animals 
than with others, especially in the red squirrel and common house mouse 
and rat. Animals are never seen in a half state of albinoism as birds 
often are. Blue jays have been seen with head and crest nearly white, 
the other parts of the body having its natural coloring. A cedar bird, 
with a white tail, the yellow markings on the tail feathers being per- 
ceivable, and quail, robins, swallows, prairie hens, grouse, marsh hawks, 
and sparrows, particularly the Passer domesticus, with their entire plum- 
age mottled with white. Two years ago a milk white red-tailed hawk 
(Buteo borealis) was killed on the meadows near Jersey City. Our corres- 
pondent, J, H. Batty, the naturalist, says there is acrow with white 
wings which is often seen feeding in the meadows near Coney Island. 
He has often tried to shoot it, but thus far in vain. Albino birds are 
often hatebed from white eggs. The trne cause of albinoism I am unable 
| to state. 
