Miscellaneous.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 661, 10 February 1909, Page 7

Miscellaneous.

Plates of compressed paper are used for serving food in some of the cheap restaurants in Germany.

When a chameleon is blindfolded it loses all power of changing its colour, and its entire body remains of a uniform tint.

In China wealthy people buy theii cofrins long before they need them, and exhibit them as ornamental pieces of furniture.

Rice paper, with which cigarettes are made, has nothing to do with rice, but is made from the inner lining of the bark of the breadfruit tree.

Foolscap paper is so called because paper of that size was, under the Protectorate of Cromwell, and for some time subsequently marked with a jester's cap and bells.

A caterpillar, so scientists say, cannot see. more than two-fifths of an inch ahead, and the hairs on its body are of as much use as its eyes in letting it know what is going on around it.

One of the most durable woods is sycamore. A statue made from it, now in the museum of Gizeh, at Cairo, is known to be nearly 6000 years old. Notwithstanding this great age, it is asserted that the wood itself is entirely sound and natural in appearance.

Ladies of high degree in China use the daintiest thimbles imaginable, some of them being carved from enormous pearls, ornamented with bands of fine gold, on which all manner of quaint and fantastic desitrns are engraved. A mother-of-pearl case is always made to keep the thimble in, and with it the Chinese lady has a pair of delicate scissors of finest steel enclosed in a sheath of mother-of-pearl, with a needle-case to match.

CURIOUS COINS. ; Numismatists have interesting objects of search in two coins that belong to the transition period between the French Republic and the Second Empire. One of these is an extremely rare coin that was struck off just at the moment of the assumption of the reins of empire by, Napoleon 111. Only the die for the obverse, or head of a new imperial coin had been completed, and by some accident, or possibly by mischievous design, a coin was struck off that bore the head of "Napoleon 111. Emperor," on one side, and "French Republic" on the other. This contradictory coin is of interest to others than numismatists; for it symbolises in a striking way the sudden changes in French politics. With the other coin a singular story is connected. While Louis Napoleon was President, just before he made himself Emperor, a decree was issued ordering a five-franc piece to be coined beating his image. The dies were made, and one coin was struck off as a sample and stent to the President for approval. But some time passed before he examined it. When at last he gave it his attention he was annoyed to find that he had been represented .on the coin with a lovelock, or hooked lock of hair on the temple, which he actually did wear at that period, but which he thoueht unsuitable to so dignified and permanent a representation of himself as an effigy on a coin.

The Prince President sent for the director of the mint, and ordered him to remove the lovelock. Then he found that his silence with regard to the piece had been taken for approval, and that the stamping- of the coins had begun. The work was stopped and the image deprived of its undignified lock; but the twenty-three coins that had already been struck off were not destroyed, and are now regarded as of great value.

A CHINESE BETROTHAL. In the majority of Chinese betrothals neither the bride nor the bridegroom is consulted, do not even see each other till after the marriage ceremony has been performed, and have never i even met once, not even at the signing of the nuptial contract. According to Chinese law, there* must be an official matchmaker. Once the nuptial contract is signed the bridal pair are considered definitely engaged to each other, the law itself being powerless to free them unless on statutory grounds. The ceremony of betrothal is never concluded without resorting to what is known as "the comparison of the Eight Characters." These consist of eight letters which, in groups of two, designate in certain combinations the year, the month, the day, and the hour of the birth of each contracting party. Compatibilities and incompatibilities of temper in either of the pair are said to be denoted by the figures and each of the marrying couple will have no excuse thereafter for pleading any but statutory grounds in the event of their seeking divorce. When the parents or guardians have decided as to the fate of the still unconscious pair, these being in entire ignorance of the nuptial contract, the mother of each of the betrothed couple announces to her child thac a marriage has been arranged. Straightway the man begins to chant a marriage song, which he has been labouring on since his college days in purposeful view of the inevitable event of marriage, for bachelors are held in "great contempt among the Chinese. When the young lady hears of her impending marriage from her mother lips she forthwith calls upon her servant to take her to the bath, where., in a kind of ecstacy and trembling, she performs her ablutions. Between the time of the engagement and the marriagea month or two nv>> elapse. The bride remains invisible to all except her mother. On the day of marriage the bridegroom in his,own particular palanquin goes to the girl'? house and claims his wife The "irl falls upon her knees, and her husband tears the veil she is wearing from her face, singing again the marriage song prepared during his college days.