NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10419, 17 April 1897, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

WHAT were the dreams of one age, looked upon as absurd, ridiouloua, end fantastic, become, often enough, the accomplished facts of another, the world wheels along in Its Course, ahd change is fcho first law of its nature. lb was Victor Hugo who glancing baok on the past, and noting the great revolutions which had taken place, and which had been formerly accounted u impossible end chimerical, uttered the following magnifieeub prophecy which we cbn6dently believe will be realised Iα some future age:-" A day will also come when war will appear as absurd, and be as impossible, between Paris and Loedon, between Sfc Petersburg and Berlin, between Vienna and Turin, as it would be now between Boston and Philadelphia. A d»y will come when France, Russia, Italy England, Germany, will all, without losing their distinctive qualities and glorious individuality, be blended into a superior unity, and constitute a European fraternity, jest as Normandy, Brittany, Burgundy, Lorraine, Alsace, have been blended into France. A day will come when bullets and bomb-shells will be replaced by votes, by the suffrage, by the venerable arbitration of a great Sovereign Senate, which will be to Europe What the Parliament is to' England, what the Diet is to Germany, what the Legislative Assembly is to France. A day will Coma when these two immense groups, the United States of America and the United States of Europe, shall be seen placed in presence of each other, extending the hand of feUowubip wrou tbo ocou, eicbuglitf

their produce, their industry, their arts, their genius, clearing the earth, peopling the desarts, improving creation under the eye of the Creator, and uniting, for the good of all, tho power of God and .the fraternity ot men."

It must be admitted that there does not) appear to be much likelihood at the present time of the fulfilment of the great Frenchman's vision of the future. Europe is just now an armed camp, and at any moment the skies may redden with the flumes of war, The military statistics of the European nations supply food for reflection. In case of a general war, the principal belligerent nations of Europe, excluding Turkey, could hurl 14,991,000 men into the contest. The standing army alone of tho greater European nation* consists of 3,274,009 men. Russia leads the list; her " peace footing" or standing army consists of 858,000 men. These soldiers Are drawn from a population of 124,000,000. The enormous strength of this army may be shown by comparing ib with the army of Rome during the palmy days of the empire. The permanent military force of Rome on sea and land was only 450,000. France comes next to Russia, the strength of the army being 600,000 men. This nrmy is drawn from and charged upon a population of 38,500,000. The Chauvinistic spirit of the French people has been somewhat modified by the increased permanent military force of Germany, which now numbers 595,000 ineo, drawn from a population of 19,000,000. Austria with Hungary comes next, the army numbering 326,000 men, the population of the monarchy beinj{4l,oo0 1 000. Fifth on the list comes Italy, whose armies number 247,000 men, drawn from a population of 30,000,000. England, notwithstanding her naval superiority, comes only sixth on the list, the population being 30,000,000 and the sbandiug army 247,000. Spain has an army of 115,000 men, drawn from a population of 17,500,000. With the size of the country the size of the army gradually decreases until the pitiful handfula of men are reached who form the armies of Andorra, San Marino, aud Monaco. Switzerland is an exception, as the constitution of this tight little republicforbidsthe maintenance of a standing army. When the " war footing " 19 considered, Germany leads with 4,000,000 men. Russia, which has the largest standing army, takes a second place as regards tho war force, as she can only muster 2,530,000 men. Prance, with 2,500,000 men, is nob far behind. If the size of the war fooling of France and Germany be compared with the population it will be seen that France, taking population for population, ie a little ahead of Germany in preparing her whole available material for war. The war strength of Austria-Hungary is 1,753,000 men; that of Italy, 1,650,000 mon; while Spain comes next with 1,083,000 men, and Great Britain follows with only 713,000. Switzerland, in case of necessity, can furnish 485,000 trained mon.

The Greek peasantry are essentially super stitious. One of the most ghastly of their superstitions is that of the Vrykolokas, or Vampire. It is customary to visit the grave of » deceased relation ad the expiration of three years after burial, and ascertain if the body Is decomposed. If this process has been performed to their satisfaction, the bonus are collected and, after a further religious service, placed in a mortuary. Bub should this not be the case, the dead man is supposed to be possessed, and, in punishment of his known or unknown crime, walks the earth at night as a Vrykoloka. Many nf tho looal euperstitions take the form of offerings to the spirits of the earth, air, or water. When a vine is planted a glass of wine is thrown in "for good luck." Wine spilt on the ground or the tablo is aUo considered a good omen. Oil, on the contrary, denotes the appionch of evil. A child, sbunned by a fall, was picked up by an English lady,, who brought him to consciousness by sprinkling water on his face. His mother came to claim him shortly afterwards, and, after assuring herself that no bones were broken, poured a pail of water on the spot where he had fallen, and added a handful of sugar " to satisfy the demon." Thunder is believed to be produced by the demons of the upper regions, and belle were rung during a storm to drive them away. Saturday is considered an unlucky day on which to begin work of any kind, and equally unlucky to finish work upon. No money must be paid on Monday, "or Saturday will find your purse empty." To admire a child causes the greatest consternation to its mother, and the caps of infants are often decorated with coins or other bright objects to distract tho attention of any evil eye they may chance to meet from the child. An expression of approval or admiration, even of the most trivial thing, is met with the entreaty " Don'b give ib the evil eye!" and two fingers are immediately pointed at the object or person in question, acoompanied by the word garlic. Indeed, garlic is considered a sovereign antidote againab this malign power. A lady, watching the flight of a stork to his nest in a cypress tree in the little town of Bournabab, near Smyrna, was suddenly aseailed with a torrent of abuse from two Greeks who were passing on donkey-back, and who imagined themselves to be the objects of her attention. They anathematised " her grey eyes, that would csuse them evil," with a fluency of vituperation of which a low-class Greek alone is capable.