MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2561, 15 April 1903, Page 58

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— The reading of romance is forbidden by the Koran ; hence popular tales are never put in writing among the Mohammedans, but are passed from one etory-teller to another. — In Germamy new houses are being supplied with floors made of compressed paper. They are soft to step on, and, having no cracks of any kind, harbour no dust. Among birds the ewan lives to be the oldeet, in extreme cases reaching 300 years; and the falcon has been known to live for 162 years. —At every Burmese marriage the couple, in the presence of a number of witnesses, are obliged to eat out of the same bowl. This is the only binding portion of the wedding ceremony. — The latest enumeration of the animals known to science includes no fewer than 386,000 recognised species. The real number is believed to be very much larger. It has been estimated that of insects alone the earth harbours 2,000,000 different species. — The county gaol a_t Clifton, Arizona, comprises four large rooms hewn from the solid quartz rock of the > hillside. - The ontrance is through a vestibule protected by three steel gates. Tlie wall of quartz enclosing the gaol is fully 15ft.thicfc — In , many, parts of Scotland it used / to be the lustom'to place on' a, man's tombstone the symbols of his trade; thus, a eugar-eane would decorate the grave of a grocer, an axe and a saw, with hammer and naile, would be found on that of a carpenter, an awl and a hammer on a shoemaker's grave, and co cm. }{— Character reading from the tongue is a recent fad in Paris, and' many people are studying tongue-marks. It is asserted that a big tc ague indicates frankness ; a short tongue, dissimulation ; a long, broad tongue, garrulity and generosity; a narrow toaigue, concentration and talent ; a short, bread tongue, untruth. — All return railway tickets in Prussia are good for at least 45 days. —Ac a curiosity of the recent German census it k recorded that the returns showed that the village of Reutenbourg contained 444 inhabitant:, 222 being of the male and 222 of the female ccx. — The Japanese are more skilled in forestry than any other nation in the world. — Jin many European galleries the pictures are dusted by means of air syringes. — According to the monks of the hospice of St. Bernard, their famous dogs save on an average 20 lives per year on the mountain. — One-sixth of the landowners in Great

Britain are women. — Artificial limbs are usually made from the willow, on account of its lightness. — More than 80 per cent, of the ships of the world are built in the British' Isles. — A statistician declares that there are fewer freemasons to be found among lawyers than in any other profession. — An* elephant has only eight teeth altogether. At 14 years of age it loses ite first set of teeth and a new set grows. — Exposure to sunlight is one oi the bes*- disinfectant? for clothing known. The Jighfc passing through, glass will not act in the 'same manner. — The "ink plant" grows in New Grenada. Its juice can be used for writing without any preparation. At first the writing is red, but in a few hours it becomes black. — The, successful woman of business is not unknown in the Erst. In Rangoon there has died a Burmese lady millionaire, Mali Hla Byaw, who was the sole proprietor and manager of some large rice works, and was, moreover, the broker of a big European firm. This Burmese millionairess was very charitable, and contributed largely to Buddhiet temples and monasteries. — The Rev. S. Swarm, vicar of St. Aidan's, Carlisle, has hit upon ■, novel way of making the acquaintance of his parishioners.. The Rev. gentleman notifies in his parish magazine that he has been busy harpening 540 pencils, which will be placed with writing paper in the pews of the church, in order that the .worshippers may leave behind them their names and addresses, which will constitute a visiting list for the vicar. — Some of the ordinary expressions of the Chinese, according to a recent lecturer, are very pointed and sarcastic. A blustering, harmless fellow they call a "paper tiger." Overdoing a thing they call a "hunchback making a bow." A spendthrift they M3mpare to a "rocket." which goes off at once. Those who expend their charity on remote objects, but neglect their family, are -aid to "hang a lantern on a vole, which is seen afar, but given no light below." — Every spring and autumn large numbers of birds are killed by the Washington monument. Tfie city of Washington seems to be directly in the route taken by many of the migratory birds in the flight between the north and the south, and twice a vcar thousands of feathered songsters meet their death by flying against the tall marble shaft in the night. Most of the birds killed are yellow and black throated warblers .and miall thrushes. —At a meeting of the Incorporated Phonographic Society the other day it was stated that to write- stenographically at the rate of 150 word* a minute involves hearing on an average 750 distinct ounds — consonants and vowels — in tlie course of every minute, and managing to represent or indicate 12i of them every 3econd. Writing at 200 word* per minute means hearing about 1000 sounds in 60 second*, and representing * indicating rather more than 16 of them in jveiy '.ingle second. — The Stockholm Museum possesses an interesting collection of eyes taken from human beings at different ages, which are cut across in suoh a way as tt exhibit plainly the internal \nd the external ey«. It is ea.sy tc observe that the eye of a young child is is transparent aa water; that of the youth a little leei ~<o ; 'n the man of SO the eye begins to be slightly opaque, in the man of 50 or 60 it is decidedly opaque, and in the man of 70 or 80 it is dull and lustreless. JThie gradual developmen f of opacity is due to the increase of fibrous tissue and deposit of waste matter in the eye. — The ordinary length of the hair on the head ranges "between 20in and about a yard and a-quarter — the latter being considered unusuajfar long. When, however, hair is kept closelyinaved it becomes persistent, and at the same time growa in strength and bulk. It har been calculated '.hat the hair of the beard grows it the rate of oneeighth of an inch in a week. This will give a length of 6|in in the course of a year. For n man 80 years of age no lees than 32ft of beard must have fallem b&fore the edge of .the razor.

— - # Frog's ekim, though one of the thinnest, mak*es also one of. the toughest leathers tanned.

—In the production of the human voice 44 muscles are exercised.

— Marriages by proxy are contracted to this day in Holland, and are mostly practised by Dutchmen who, having gone abroad, prefer to marry the girls they left, behind them in this :onvenient manner rather thca go to the expense and probable inconvenience of returning to Holland for the purpose of the ordinary marriage olemni.sation.

— More deaths from snake bites occur in India indoors than in the fields or jungle.

— The Shah has in his palace at Teheran a 12in globe upon which the parts of the "world are set out in jewels of various colours — England with rubies, India with diamonds, the sea with emeralds, and so on.

— A Dublin workman has produced & novelty in the shape of a kettle, cup, saucer, and spoon made out of a farthing. He hammered the bronze coin till he had obtained a very thin sheet of metal, from which he fashioned a complete and workable kettle, with a swjng handle, removable lid, etc., together with a cup, saucer, and spoon. He can boil water io the miniature utensil and pour it through the spout. Tho weight 1 of the kettle; cup, saucer, and epoon is 40 grains. The weigh of a farthing is 48 grains.' — There left the Leeds Forge Company's sidings at Armley the other clay the longest train of high capacity bogie mineral waggons that has ever travelled in the United Kingdom. It consisted of 25 waggons, each with a capacity of 40 tons of coal, amd weighing only 16 tons. The train has been constructed foi the North-Eastern Railway Company. When fully loaded it will carry 1000 tons of coal, the tare weight, or nonpaying load, being only 400 tons. The total length of the train wa* cnly 975 ft, exclusive of engine and brake van. — The timber-fellers of Sweden, Norway, Russia, and several other countries, as well se those of Canada, have a way of felling forest giants which beats anything that can be done with an axe in the handse of the most experienced woodman. It is one of the most simple operations imaginable, and consists cf binding a series of compressed cakes of guncotton round the tree-trunk with a small copper wire. To this wire a battery of sufficient strength is attached, and at tho proper moment a current of electricity is turned on, which explodes the guncotton. The force of such an explosionhas the effect of felling the tree instantly, the severed portions of the trunk being almost as smoothly divided as though the work had been done by a saw. — Coney Island, New York, is a place of wondrou6 -surprises, "The House of Too Much Trouble" being o^ne of the festive resort's most unique productions. A few miles from the beach one a large, round build'mg, across the front of which are the mystic words, "House of Too Much Trouble." When you have got into the "House" your trouble begins. Doors are on all sides, and you can open one after another, only to find yourself -wandering in a labrynfch of passages and alley-ways. -It usually takes half an hour — sometimes two hours — to extricate yourself from the maze of passages into which your curiosity bas led you. —Dr Carl Lumboltz had some- interesting things to tell his audience at a recent meeting of the Royal Geogiaphical Society, but nothing was more curious than his account of the love-making mong tho natives of North- West Mexico. There, he says, the courting is all done by the lady. The young people meet at the feasts, and there the damsel, who has fixed upon a member of the opposite sex whom ehe wishes to become her husband, tries to attract his attention by dancing before him, persistently keeping her back turned towards him. Eventually she may sit down near him and pull hi 9 blanket and sing to him in a gentle, low voice. When she desires to bring matters to a focus she begins to throw pebbles at the chosen one. If be throws them back at her they are betrothed.