traveller.

Wairarapa Standard, Issue 2067, 13 May 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

traveller.

The Hole of Death —lt is an awful sight to see a man drown, but with foresight and skill no man need drown. Fancy a sea in which there is no swimming and a sea into which you may plunge unaware. A man is loping over the green prairie, looking out from under his broad sombrero at the lazy cattle and the prairie dogs playing in the sun. Suddenly there is a sound like a giant’s throat swallowing a choking gasp of terror. The prairie dogs run into their holes, and a moment later come out cautiously, curious and frightened. The tall rccd-grass is waving whore the horse and rider were just now. The antelope on the crest of the divide yonder look around them watchfully. But there is nothing to fearno man in sight. He was going to town, that tider, with the wages of a hard winter’s work in his pocket, riding his favorite bronchi), dressed in his buckskins that he had fringed in the winter evenings, ready to show the foolish girls how brave he looked in his rude attire. Where is ho now—he and his horse ? In a grave of slimy, shivering mud—alkali paste, blue with a nameless tint of putrid death, has filled his throat—covered his eyes before he could close the lids. What docs this mean—some hideous freak of nature—some work of a devil endowed with a moment’s power ? No : only an alkali •sink ; only a natural well filled with a paste as yielding as water—retentive as hell. Picture to yourself the surface settling back to its normal quietude with an indescribable pulp, a ghoul like smacking of grave lips. A grave that supplies itseif with dead—a grave that buries almost before it kills—an insatiable, bottomless grave set like a trap for the living. The sink hole is not always covered with grass ; sometimes it has a caked and seamed crust of bluish white alkali on the top ot it. But even that is a poor safeguard. for the long green grass round it will hide it from the rider until it is too late to avoid it.

The tenacity of this paste of mud is something incredible. .1 have never seen a man caught in a sink bole, but 1 have seen a man tide to the edge of one, discover it too late to turn his horse, and shaking himself loose in the saddle, vault over the horn pommel when the pony was caught, striking the ground far beyond (ho sink hole. There were were twenty men there, and before the horse had sunk far (here were half a dozen ropes fast to him. Half a dozen strong ponies can pull almost anything, hut they could not draw the horse back from the grave that was closing over him. There is a strange suction about this alkali mud—it holds all it grasps with a horrible pertinacity.

Cuban Courtship.— One pities the Cuban young man who is in love. He cannot see her alone, and cannot come regularly to the house until a fair understanding as to bis intentions is arrived at. And when at last be has attained the felicity of being daily expected, bo must do all courting in the presence of the family,and utter hissweetne’sses across the critical car of his future mother-in-law. Until they have been to church, they two are never left alone. The whole family take sly turns in watching them, Thereas a regular detail made, I think, from the older servants of the house to keep an eye upon them. But there is human nature everywhere, even in Cuba, and the two are often getting off to a window seat or a distant pair of chairs, though with equal certainty, somebody sidles off in that direction and mounts guard. The smitten pair do not walk together in (lie evening. He does not accompany her to the theatre or to mass. They enjoy all t he they can tinder great dilHculty, and with all mankind looking on. The indirect result of all this espionage, of course, nobody in this land of custom lias ever observed. There are a groat many small intrigues and innocent endeavors to circumvent the detectives. There are eloquent glances, signals, fan talk and the sly interchange of notes, Then the iron guarded window, instead of being a protection becomes a great convenience. It is more than the front gate is with us. She knows when he will pass by, and stands inside with a fair hand clasping the bars of her cage, and waits f..r him. They stand there with the iron between them and talk. Kvory day it is so. and if mamma wishes to stop it,’ she must come and stand in the window also. There an; other respects in which the young man has a hard time. Ho must come every day. He must, ami she holds him to the strict letter of the law. He is bound to show, by every means in his power, that he holds all other women in contempt and d •- testation. ,Tfe must not dance'with any other, and had better not be caught holding on to any other window bars, in any other i-treet. He tell all his friends about’it, and she tells all hers, ami the matter isdiligently discussed. If ho should fail to come around every day he has to tell a satisfactory story. I have known her to send her brother after him, He takes his revenge after marriage.

Graffiti-—To this class of ancient inseiiptions much attention has ot late years been piven, and several collections of them have been made. The graffiti, we are told, is a rude stylo of scribbling or scratching with a stylus or other sharp instrument upon the plaster of a wall, on a pillar, or door-post, as opportunity might offer. Their literary value is slight, ami they are to be noted simply as illustrating the character and habits of a’certain class of ancient Homans, or what may be termed the “street life of the classic period.” Many such remains arc found on the substructions of Homan ruins, as in the palace of the Cicsars, aiid the Palatine, and in tho (•olden House of Nero, and in still larger numbers in Pompeii and in the P.oman catacombs, in 18.1 1 a small selection ot Pompeiian graffiti was published by Hr. Wordsworth but t he most eoinjikte and popular collection was prepared by Padre (Jarrucci, a Neapolitan -lesuit. and published in Paris in iw.jii. (•reel: graffiti are occasionally found njion Homan ruins, but, with few cxcojition. this scribbling comes to us in Latin. A few- rare specimens have come to light at Pompeii in the ancient Oscan, Idle scribblings these, such as any loiterer by the way might mark with his knife a touch of rude pleasantry, a grotesque antic or rudely outlined caricature, sometimes illustrating the written banter or taunting jest, and seldom without sharp point in delineation. Well outlined gladiatorial figures, intended as burlesques, have also conic to light. ’ One peculiar specimen of this kind of work, discovered by Padre (iarrncei in IS-lk in a subterranean chamber of the palace of tho Cmsars, possesses astrangcand awful interest as a memorial of the rude early conflicts of paganism with a rising Christian creed. A pagan caricature is this of the Christian worship of our Lord upon the cross; it contains a Creek inscription descriptive of one Alcxamemis as engaged in worshipping Cod. The chamber in which it was foimd is supposed to have been a waiting-room for slaves. Tho graffiti of the catacombs arc. as might bo expected, nearly all sepulchral, and of marked interest, as illustrating oarlv Christain life and doctrines.