FACTS AND FANCIES.

Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 23 June 1915, Page 7

FACTS AND FANCIES.

Big Bells of the Far East

Bells were made in India and China before Europe and ' used in their temples. They were mostly struck by hand with wooden mallets. The great bell of Pekin weighs fifty-three tons. The largest bell in the world, in use, is in Burmah, and is hung on a thick wooden beam among the rich groves of Mandalay at Mnsgoon Pagoda. It is nearly twice as heavy as its comrade of Pekin, and hangs low.

The Ring ef Cyges.

Plato has a story of a man named Gyges who once discovered a ring which, when turned in a certain direction, gave the wearer complete invisibility. What did Gyges do ? At first he meant well, but soon he became guilty of every crime in the calendar.

Plato pertinently asks: "What should we do if we possessed the ring of Gyges!" And everyone knows in his conscience that such a trial would be too hard for him.

A Wonderful Clock.

One of the most curious clocks in the world is said to be that which tells the time to the inhabitants of a little American baclcwoods town. The machinery, which is nothing but a face, hands, and a lever, is connected with a geyser or hot spring, which shoots out an immense column of water every thirty-eight seconds. This spoutingnever varies to the tenth of a second. Every time the water spouts up and strikes the lever it moves the hands forward thirty-eight seconds.

A Very Brittle Snake.

The peculiarity of the American glass-snake is that its joints are so loosely connected that if you strike it with a stick if breaks into half a dozen or more pieces. The old snperstitition was that the pieces would reunite if let alone. There is, of course, no truth about this part of the story; though, like many other creatures of the lower order, this snake is believed to have the power of reproducing a portion of its tail should a part be broken off. But when thoroughly broken up by a hard blow the joint snake, as they call it in the country, is quite dead, and the ease with which it is killed accounts for its rapid extinction.

Blessing of the Waters.

The Epiphany is held in greater reverence by the Russians than Christmas itself, and it is on this day that the most impressive festival of the Blessing of the Waters takes place. When the ice of the Neva begins to break, which it does with mathematical precision, the bishop is ready to perform the ancient ceremony of the blessing of the new waters. Crowds of people come reverently to witness it; a great procession moves solemnly across the snow waving banners. A.wide space is left in the trail for all uncanny creatures, such as Vodiamy (water sprites), Rousalkas (water nymphs with silver skin and long green hair), Liashiec (goat-footed woodland sprites). In the summer they live happily amongst the trees and flowers, but in the winter all demons, sprites, and fairies are driven out towards the haunts of men. Conquered by human chanting, and the waving of sacred banners, they are forced to take their place in the space left for them in the procession. The peasants circle round a cross made of blocks of ice, and the sprites are doomed. They have to leap into a hole cut out for them, and the icy waters swallow them up. Smallest Books in the World. One of the interesting exhibit in the Congressional Library at Washington is a collection of about 200 miniature books, the largest of which is less than •2in. square. These books are all reproductions on a miniature scale made possible either by the photo-engraving process or by photographic reproduction. The smallest book in the collection is a copy of the "Rubaiyat" of Omar Khayyam rendered into English verse by Edward PitzGerald, and having pages that measure about 3-Bin. on each side. This tiny book is a photographic reproduction containing fortyeight pages, and is hound in a fabrio resembling that used for window shades. To read the book it is necessary to use a strong magnifying glass. The smallest printed book in the collection is a volume of the letters of Galileo, the astronomer. This book has a paper binding, and measures fin. by £in. The reduction was made by the photo-en-

graving process,

By far the most interesting feature of the collection is a midget library of eleven books, among which are the New Testament, the Koran, an English dictionary, the first edition of Burns's poems, a French-English dictionary, and a German-English dictionary. All of these volumes are bound in red morocco with gold lettering, and several of the bindings are tooled. The smallest of the eleven books is the New Testament, which measures fin. by a little more than *in. along the sides, and is £in. thick. Two of the volumes of this midget library, the copy of Burns's poems, and the English dictionary are encased in watch charms, in the front of each of which is a small but powerful magnifying glass necessary for reading the tiny book. In the collection are also an illuminated copy of the Koran in Arabic, less than l-3in. thick, a red and gold copy of the "Divine Comedy," having for its frontispiece a picture of Dante; a copy of Goethe's "Die Leiden dcs Jungen Werthers" (The Sorrows of Werther), lsin. square and about fin. thick, and other standard works of history, poetry, science, and fiction.