Round the Sanctums.

Otago Witness, Issue 1559, 24 September 1881, Page 27

Round the Sanctums.

The Novel of To-day.

Nowhere in Europe, we are assured, are gardens so numerous, or the love of floriculture so extensively developed. One very ourious art they seem to have brought to great perfeotlon. Their gardens often being EudL and their taste leading them to take pride In the possession of trees of the bigger Hes, they have gradually developed the a?t of dwarfing them without in any way ■aoriflolng their general shape and proportion. Father and son and grandson will grow an oak for fifty years or more, and take means Sf preventing ft ever attaining .more than 8 Kb or two- feet in height, though still presenting all the characteristics of the fullSown trie in trunk, branch, and foliage. Among their 'family treasures to fee handed down from one generation to another may often be found a well-arranged garden, established In some antique specimen of Japanese pottery in the shape of a oapaolouß bowl Within this receptaole will be walks and trees and flower-beds, with a great variety of floral favourites, all dwarfed to the proper proportions. One further development of this odd manipulation of natural objects is the patient training .of the minified trees and shrubs into the forms of birds and beasts, or any other object that may strike the fancy, or may be suggested by the accidental shape of the plant, a refinement of gardening whloh In barbarism very nearly approaches our fashion of clipping shrubs into plum puddings, or perpetually snipping trees that might become beautiful iato olobo imitations of German toys.

Time Consumed in Striking Lucifer Matches. Five hundred and fifty- five thousand hours of eaoh successive day (observes the London Daily Telegraph) are spent by the Inhabitants of Europe in striking luoifer matohes upon the box and otherwise. There Is a Milesian smaok about this surprising statement, which, however, is altogether deceptive; for the calculation it sets forth has W published by our Parisian oontemporary, the Figaro, and is based upon the following ourfous statistics ; Europe, continental and Inaular, consumes two milliards of matches dally. Assuming tnat eaoh several aot of ignition occupies the brief period of one second— and we have reason to believe that it is rarely performed in a Bhorter time-it will be obvious to every ready reokoner that the above mentioned amazing number of hours must be diurnally devoted to the production of artifioal lght by friction, in one quarter of the globe alone. There is ample food for much quaint speculation in the seemingly anomalous fact that Huropeans dispose of nearly 64 years per diem in scraping tiny stloka, tipped with oome inflammable composition, upon ■vmpathetlo substances of varlouß desoriptfons. 'Flat lux' should surely be the device of an age so profusely addicted to •striking* Hght.» It is also interesttag to learn that 400,000 cubic yards of timber and 420,0001bs weight of phosphorous are In annual request for the manufacture of the 730,000 millions of matches used up by Europe In th« course of every year.

HBW MOAT THBOW* VTOS THE SUBJECT. The Wwleyan missionary at Dahomey, the Rer. John Milum, gave » most slokanlng aooount of the dreadfnl practice of the Dahomlan King, Gelele, which fully confirms the Satemente published previously concerning iht king's sacrifices. Every year Gelele makes eltenslve sacrifices in honour of the Semory of his father, the rletims being prisoners of war. The Dtaaoolani make Ivu on the neighbouring tribes, and manage to capture a large number of prisoners. The custom last year lasted through several days, there being a slaughter every day and night.i Mr Mllum was several times summoned to th« palace, and, though he saw no sacrifices, the evidences of them were unmlstakeable. On December 31st, after several days had been occupied with the revolting oeremonles of the • oustom,' Mr Mllum wrote:-- f • The yearly oustom made by King Gelele lor his father Gezo Is not yet finished, a number of important matters Interfering and calling for the presence of the king to settle. It appears that forty human victims are referred to complete the oeremony— twenty men and twenty women. Eighty persons are to be presented for sacrifice, but under the anise of mercy, one-half will be liberated. Contrary to statements made by previous travellers, these human victims are all prisoners of war and have committed no crime, but have simply been unfortunate enough to be captured whilst defending their homes agalnßt the Invading foe. The people, knowing my opinion upon the subject; are reluctant to famish me with full information of all the sacrifices that take place ; but I am strongly impressed that they are offered every day, for every morn, ing I hear the king's orierorylng the great namesoftheklngandbeatlnghlßbell,andgolng through the whole oeremony that I described In connection with the poor woman sacrificed in the market-place, and soon after I heard the Itattoo of the drumß and firing of mußkets, whioh announces that the cruel deed is done. Moreover, the birds never cease to oongregate in the region of the ravine where the bodies are thrown, close to the wretched hut in which I am lodged, and whenever the wind blows in this direction I obtain a most giokenlng smell of putrefying flesh, and I have but to go outside the walla of the compound to see the gorged vultures and turkeybuzzards sitting in grim silence in the trees near the dreadful place or on the wing circling over it. « «. i * •The victims this year, as well as the laßfc, are from Mikkam, a large town to the east of Dahomey, whioh was Invaded and destroyed by the Dabomiana last year, and from whloh it is stated by some intelligent natives there were brought a little over seventeen thousand captives and seven thousand two hundred heads. I give theße numbers as I have received them. lam not in a position to verify them. I only know that it was a very populous town, and that all the women and children were within the walls when it was attaoked by the Dahomian army. ThU year the DahomlaDS sought m vain for a place to capture, the inhabitants fleeing from every town upon their approach, whloh aooounti for the faot that the poor Mlkkftnt people have become the viotlms this, j«wr to? wwlfioe. I have no jtitoto to (wifttteßfil; trot I should like the

English public to look at the following facts :— King Gelele began to reiga about the year 1853 j he, therefore, has been reigning about twenty-seven years. During that time he has offered, upon a very moderate average, two hundred human sacrifices yearly. It therefore follows that he has murdered since his reign, in cold blood, at least five thousand four hundred prisoners of war. If to this be added the thousands of heads brought home from war, I think the present King of Dahomey may be regarded the greatest murderer living; and what seems suoh an extraordinary thing Is that these sacrifices take place within sixty miles, and the towns tnat are desolated by this oruel people are mostly within one hundred miles of the ooatt. It appears to me that this is an evil nearly if not quite equal to the Slave-trade, and calls loudly to the civilized Powers • for suppression. The Dahomian army is now olamouring to the king to be allowed to go to Abeokuta for their next war. If they go, they may not actually capture the town ; but they will kidnap unwary travellers, stop all agricultural opera, tlons, destroy all farms, and spread desolation on every hand. This is what occurs during the first three or four months of every year, the harvest months for the farmer.

1 1 have but to refer to my detention and the inconveniences caused me to prove that the king disregards the terms of the treaty made with him in May 1877. I believe it would be one of the greatest aots of mercy to thousands of poor, down-trodden people if the British Government were to annex the whole ooast-line between Quetta and Lagos to the Gold Coast Colony.

The novel has become, like the dally newspaper, a record of the most recent facts in human history. Whatever may be the latest mode In theology, philosophy, or art f one will be very sure to fird it reproduced in fiction. The novel, indeed, like the newspaper, almost anticipates facts, and .eagerly gives us solutions of social and spiritual problems before the new philosophy or' new religion has entirely satisfied itself with formula or creed. .So susceptible Is the novelist to the very breath of the. time. What is whispered in the salon is proclaimed on jthe house-top, and human Boclety la artistically rearranged, often with singular power , and beauty, before men and women have quite readjusted themselves to the, new conditions of life. Would you know the latest results of modern philosophy as applied to the conduct of life, look for them not in lecture, essay, sermon, or treatise, but in the novel. The novelist makes haste to set down what people are talking about before the people who 'talk have reached the end of their conversation.

Japanese Gardening.

Judging from a paper read at the last maeting of the St. Petersburg Society of Gardening, the Japanese must be allowed to have distanced us altogether in at least on© brunch of education. Enthusiasts in garden* ing would fain live to see the day .when every householder will know how. to cultivate it. The univtraal spread of such knowledge seems to be almost as hopeless as the possession of plots for its exercise in our large towns. But the Japanese, M. Grigorieff tells us, are all taught gardening in their schools, and all have their little plqts of ground. They are instructed in practical horticulture aud in the artistic arrangement of bouquets, and all classes, from the palaoa to the cottage, manifest a passionate lov« o{ sugh taftnißtog jtnd, he.ajthf.ul oOfinpaftiQßo ( V

Into one of those extemporaneous effusions had filled more critical judges than the Joneses with delight and astonishment. Ten o'clock struck, and, on Mr Terry being announced, ,his triumphant friend wound up the performance with the explanatory stanza : —

I am very much pleased with your fare, Your cellar's as prime as your cook ; My friend's Mr Terry, the player, And I'm Mr Theodore Hook,

The Duke and tiio Hoodlum.