MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2671, 24 May 1905, Page 59

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— Strange as it may appear, it is a- fact that no bird possesses the power to fly backwards. — Java is said to be the region o£ the globe where it thunders often-est, having thunderstorms 97 days in the year. After it are Sumatra, with 86 days ; Hindostan, with 56; Borneo, with 54; the Gold Coast, with 52; and Rio do Janeiro, with 51. Tn Europe, Italy occupies the first place with 38 days of. thunder, while France and irbuthern Russia have 16 days. Great Britain and Switzerland have each seven days, and Norway has four. Thunder is rare at Cairo, being heard only three days in the year, and extremely rare in Northern Turkestan and the Polar regions. —On a recent -evening a North London publican backed his turkey to walk a goose 100 yards. There was great excitement, hundreds of reople witnessing the start. After one false' start the goose got well away, leaving the turbev at the post, and, following his master in" good style, won easily amidst great applause. Before and ■ after the race the gooae, with a box on his back, collected money for a local hospital. — Paris still maintains her reputation as the paradise of the epicure. One day m January a wealthy Hungarian ordered strawberries at a fashionable restaurant. He and a friend ate four baskets, which each held about 15 fine berries. The Lill was £20. A few days later tie bill for wines at another smart Parisian restaurant for a party of a dozen diners came to £240. The dates of these precious drinkables varied between 1805 and 1834-. — If all the tobacco smoked in the British Empire in the course of a year were rolled into a rope an inch in diameter it^would form a roll which, following the line of tiio Equator, would go 30 .times round the earth. The same quantity of tobacco, moulded into bricks, would serve to build a pyramid equal in size to the third largest in Egypt. Or, taking it another way, if the tobacco were powdered into siuiSc it "would supply a sufficient •quantity to bury a good-sized town as completely as Herculaneurn and Pompeii were buried. — A Hindu lady in Amritsar has just seen her fifth generation — the son of "her great-grandson. She has undergone a ceremony called Svarga Sopanarohanam (rising to heaven by means of a ladder). After a two hours' service of thanksgiving a hetrp of rice was put before her, on which was placed a small ladder of gold. The newborn child -was then brought in and placed - in the lap of the lady, who then put "her right foot on the first rung of the ladder, and there were cheers all around, and flowers were showered on he.r. —In Japan horses are backed Jnto- their stalls, and" the door is closed at the head. . To the door is fixed a grain and hay rack, , and to it the animal is secured. When needed, the door is srmmg back and the horse led forth. No one gets kicked, no refuse matter is visible to the visitor, and it seems to be a sensible way to construct a place for a horse — There is a Spanish proverb that "on Tuesday one should never travel or marry." and this superstition is so ingrained that even in Madrid there are never any weddings or Tuesday, and trains are almost empty. 1 — A dinnei- costing £2400 was given at j the St. Regis Hotel, New York, by Mr I .and Mrs John Hanan in celebration *f the opening of their new house. The dinner was a copy of a banquet given in Paris during the seventeenth century by the Duke of Alva, then Spanish Ambassador 4o France, in honour of the birth of the Prince of Asturias. Forty guests assembled, and dined off dishes *of solid <gold and goldplate. The ladies' souvenirs were Email gold docks, while the men were presented with gold flower-holders for the buttonhole. — A lady residing near London has ■& hearthrug which is probably unique. It is composed entirely of the skins of her cte- < ceased feline pets. As her cats died shs ! bad the Si&in of each tanned and added ta the rug, which is host complete, and contains the *kms of 14 dead "pussies." Th» rug is «ntiTely of <me colour — black — as fh& lady in question has always made * point of keeping cats of tha* colour. On the reverse side of each .skin there is an anscripfcion recording the name of its dead owaffl| and the period during which he |or ahe^ was the Jady'^s property. Thus one iascrin-; tion runs: "Fairy, 1892-9-, and aiiother, "Beauty, 1900-4." — Undulating land is betlei for ihm growth of crops than •» lerel .surface. ■ — The largest mass of ice in the "wciid" is probably the one which' fills up nearly. thjt whole of the interior of CJreeTitaiKf. It is now believed to form a. -block «£out 600,000 square miles in area, averaging a. mile and a-half in tldekness. According to these statistics this lump of ie» is ktfger i» volume than the whole body of -water in the. Mediterranean ; and there is enough of it to cover the whole 01 the United! Kingdom with a layer seven miles tJrfek. —In a list of some. 21 <jentonariaa a! ? 5 jand 41 centenarian women who are «*£s living or who died during the F*#t- Si months, the greatest ages meniaos** *»» those of an Irishwoman and an Xr4*km»a£ ■wibo died at the reputed age of 11* y*3JG An inmate of the Blackburn Workhofa**, John Bolton, died last February in his !<*« ye»r, and Mrs Berkley, of ILeeds, was stm ii-rmg in October at the reputed ago of 108. It is interesting to note that for-BFv«ry two men who attain the age of 100 th«» are three women. — A sandbag as a warmer is said to be greatly superior to a. hot water bottle, which many people prize so highly. Get' some clean, fine sand; dry it thoroughly; make a bag about Bin square of flannel, fill it with the dry sand, sew the opening carefull}- together, and cover the bag with ootton or linen cloth. This will prevent tha sand from sifting out, and also enabl© anyone to heat the bag quickly by placing ifc in an oven or on top of a stove. The santJ bolds "die Heat for a long time. — It is a somewhat remarkable fact that Englishmen- are engaged as tea-testers ia nearly every, part of the world. Russia ia probably the greatest 4ea-drirking country,, and nearly all- the best tea goes there. The Russian tea firms employ English tasters, and it seems to be generally accepted thai: ' they are more reliable than, those of any j other nationality. Tea- tasting is an "art" that requires great abstemiousness. In 1 tasting tea, a taster does not swallow tha liquid, but merely keeps it in~the moutb for a few seconds.