MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2572, 1 July 1903, Page 68

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— The Turkish -woman is marriageable at the age of nine years, and by Turkish law, at that age, if married, she is competent to manage her property and dispose of one-third of her fortune. The law allows her to abandon 3ier husband's house for cause, and -will protect her in so doing, fihe -cannot be «ompelle<i to labour for the support of her husband. — A -curious barometer is said to be used! by the remnant -of tbe Araucanian Tace ■which inhabits the southernmost province of Chili. It consists of tbe <caet-off shell of a crab. The dead shell is white in fair, <iry weather, but tbe approach of a moist atmosphere is indicated by the appearance of >small frecl spots. Ac *be moisture in the air increases -the eb.e3l becames entirely red, miA remains so throughout the rainy season. — A strange sight -was witnessed in a funeral ■procession in South London. The remains of an <jld lißcmbeth dng-faneier were being conveyed along Kenaimgtcm road to Tooting Tor interment. Behind the cortege came six doge— three retrievers and three bull-terriere — craped with blade, while over their baoks were coats inscribed: "In memory of my poor master, who ha? gone." — More than £200,000 worth of apples are grown each year in one orchard on the Ozark plateau, im the "United Stat-es. That is the large =t single a.pple crop in the world. The orchard contam« 138,000 tre?fl and comprises 2300 acres. The -care of tfhe 138,000 -trees 'occupies tbe -entire time of a Jarge corps of skilled horticulturists. Each variety of auple is watched by a and his Btaff: — Another illustration or the enormous distances to which fine dust may be carried in the atmosphere was given recently in the .State of Georgia. On iihe evening of March 17 fhe *fcr«st3 of the City of Athens were covered with a shower orrolcanic dust. It prosed to be a yellow deposit of almost pure Bulpbur, and an believed to have been ejected 'by some volcano in Central America. The .shower had extended over a considerable area of the State. Tie tones of insects, as well as the songfl of birds, lave been reduced to musical notation. The gnat, -we are told, bums in the note A; the eteath-wateb calls im B flat, «nd <£h» owd hoots in the same note ; the bee buzzes in E, and the house-fly in ,F; the bumble bee i» an octave lower, and iihe .Dookobafer in D below Hie line. At the Palais Bourbon, Paris, has just been found'a. -wting apparaiteue, invented by M. Sadi Oaraot 20 years ago. Votes pro and octo were to be made by placing metal ' cbeoks an lurns, the mouths of which were shaped as only to admit the proper voting •disc. At the .end of the operation each urn was put on a balance, the heaviest weight carrying the day. — It w a noteworthy fact in the history and development of American .railways that 4ne first line which established direct communication hy rail with the Pacific Coast, with all its great consequences to the world, should have been the outcome of the private enterprise of soino half-dozen comparatively obscure merchants in Hie city of Sacramorsto, California. —'In the Dutch East Indies lives a species of crab ■wllieh is accustomed to' climb ananl*rovu« and palm truss for the purpose, it is bfOieved. of feeding upon the fruit. A a»M»i<k«t nvei'g that ha hns seen these crabs .climb +o lihe to,p of .treet= fully 60ft in height. Although he oould not see plainly what tiicy -wore about. Im* belieyee. from the beliaviour of -eaptite fpteimens, that they op^tvd young coroanuts .and devoured thoir oatents. It L= doubtful if they can break <he shell of r. ripe cocoamut. — Quaker gun"- — that is, the trunks of fafvps mole to Jook like cannon — have often bc&n uscxl to deceive the enamy, but in the. Chinese civil wars, some years ago, flctuil cannon made of wood were used. Us?y wetl' mud* 1 ' from the trunks of hardwood trees. -shaped, bored by meaiiF of redhot jii'~-e-5 from poiiu? *ugar mills, dried jn hoi-air draught*, and bound with strong oxbiucs. They made fairly serviceable artillery, me pi^r-e lx^uig fired more than a liunrlred tim-ec bsforc showing signs of weaknosS.

— Scientific -gardening is taught in the nations! ficbcqla of Sweden and in the seminaries ior t.ho education of national school icic'i^rn. Ther^ is -a. school garden in nearly «vrjy rural sohool district, im the 'kingdom. Th* .garden is j/a^pcl near the schoolhou6e, B.nd tliio children r«-<eive practical instruction in thn cultivation of plants, berries, flower*, herbs, and fruits, the- management of Itotbeds. greenhouses, and «o forth. The parish?.* ere required to furnish the necesBTjr ground for -the gardens. aßd trees and shrubs arc* ?nwually given to the children to I>p planted at thfir homos. — _A company of plaasworfcers hare discovered that crd'nary plate-glass will make a more durable monument than the hardest marble or granite, for glass is piactically indcstruwible. "Wind, ram, hoat, or cold will eventually pruir.bls. the hardest rock, and en& can seldom rf^ad rive inscription on a gravestone 50 y";irs okl. but a glass monument (remark* Ca-=+-ell'F Saturday Journal) jrill look almoM an, fresh after the lapse of centuries as ou the day of its erection, and the iv=or>iprion can be made ineffaceable. The thick p]abe-prla o i used to glaze the portholes of hbsameis will losist the stormiest BOa. and is practically unbreakable.

—J± is not fMipraUy known that in many parts of the world clay is eaten on bread as a «üb=titute for butter. Tins is termed "stone butter," and is u«ed in Germany. In the northern parte of Sweden earth is often bak<»d in bread, and is sold in the publics markets on the Italian peninsula, as well as on the island of Sardinia- in Persia, Nubia, and other tropical countries. This practice probably lii<? its origin in the knowledge that all eartliF have some sort of flavour, and lake- the placp of salt, a necessary ingredient in ever}' kind of food. — A m<-Vionn investigation in the Philippine LJands has brought to light the surprising fact that the Filipinos have witliin their v€<ine the b'ood of all human races. The darker substratum lias bo«n supplied by the Negrito, Papuan, and African negro. A copper tint and fighting- b'ood have been furnished by Malay and Polynesian. A lighter hue and certain arts hav<> come from the Japanese. Chinese, and Cumbodian. Hamitp. Somite, and Aryan have stamped th-eii image upon the islanders. Even an ancient stream of Caucasian is traced by ethnologists; and. stranger atill, perhaps, £he discovery has bepn made that a rivulet of American Indian blood found ite 'way. to flic cosmopolitan veins of the Filipino through the channels of two centuries of uninterrupted commerce between Mexico and Peru and the archipelago. So composite a race is hardly known in the world Xsewhere.