Traveller.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue 2070, 20 May 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

Traveller.

Irish Girls and Bees.— Near ciogheen we overtake two country lasses jogging along on a home-made cart behind a rusty nag. As we approach wc see that they arc enveloped in a perfect storm of horse (lies, and. since insects arc as rare in Ireland as rocks are plenty, wc marvel greatly, “ They are bees 1” exclaims the lively professor of modern languages from Columbia College, who is visiting the home of ancestors many generations remote. And so they are ; placidly and with a joyful laugh for the joyful tourists the peasant girls continue their journey, with bees on all sides of them. Now one seems about to settle on the russet coils of hair of this girl, and there are two walking about the big cloth cloak of that. As we pass, the mystery resolves itself. They are not witches, nor, like Melusine in (he fairy tale, do they end in mermaid extremities; but under the board which serves them for a seat are two beehives which these stalwart virgins—beemothers without amiraclo—are takingto the fair at Ciogheen. While we bait in that little place they come up ; the hives are uncerimoniously unhitched from under the seat, so that buyers can examine them; a number of purchasers and idlers gather about, and one, who means business or has a sweet tooth, calmly raises a hive, takes a dab of honey out with his forefinger, and tastes of the store. I remember that Giraldus Barry said that there were no bees in Ireland and thereby aroused unquenchable fury in patriotic Irish breasts for centuries, until a learned Irishman crammed that and many more innocent lies down his throat in the fiercest, most indignant Latin prose. It there were none in the twelfth century, the present age has repaired the omission, and also taught the angry bee passions not to rise. Opinions were divided whether or not the insects were of a stinglcss variety, or, if equipped with stings, whether the smell of peat, which is inseparable from Irish peasants, had the effeSt of discouraging the use ot their natural weapons, even when jolted for hours in a springless cart. One thing was agreed upon, that the soothering Mikes of Ciogheen would not bother those girls with any rustic attention while they were able to let loose upon too familiar admirers their bees of war.

Keeping up Appearances-— An English visitor to Persia travelled post through that country with a native servant whose duties included the preparing ot his master’s meals at every halting place. The public houses of tho country furnish shelter only, with not so much as a chair or table. Even a brick floor is a luxury. How the servant magnified his office under such circumstances is told in a ludicrous way. We camped down there on a divan of brick, and Ali kindled a fire. It was a foal place indeed. But Ali was never to be daunted ; his little fire was soon burning at my feet, the water boiling, the canteen opened and ready ; and then in his swaggering way. out he comes with,— “ Now, znr, what yon like take ? What you like take you have I ’ But his words were mere bombast ; it was only an Eastern man’s opening. However, sometimes 1 steadily replied,— ‘* Like roast, beef, Ali got ?” ‘■Ah, roast beef no got this day 1” he would say. ’■ Well, like mutton, Ali got I” “ Ali, mutton no got this day I” *• Take chicken, Ali got “ Alt, chicken no got this day I" and so it would end, “ Got eggs." Tins was his usual cry. and nothing that I ever said would break liim of it. but with a sober look each time lie would begin,— ‘‘ Now, zur, what, you like take as before, as though lie had really every delicacy of Persia at command. in this instance, however, it was not even " Got eggs"’

At Jonkoping, Sweden, is (lie oldest and largest niatcli factory iu the world. One hundred years ago it was established, and there are. now to lie seen specimens o£ the matches used at the beginning of the present century, consisting of big fagots of wood furnished with a handle and a tip to dip in a 'oath of sulphur. The wood from which the present, kind of matches is made is taken from the adjacent forests, which are divided into fifty sections. Every year one section is cut and then replanted with young trees. The trees are hewn into planks in the forest and cut into slivers in the factory. Tire boxes are made of the ontside of the trees. The factories are on the hanks of lakes which are connected with one another by wide canals. Millions of matches are turned out each day. Some idea of where they all go to may be obtained from the statement that there are at least two hundred and eighty million of matches burned each day in the United Stales, or an average of five matches for each person.

Florida Mosquitoes —We have to give it up. The toughest mosquito yarns come from down the river. It is told of one ot the crew of the steamer Kockledge’’ that after they got into the inlet, when night came he went to sleep in a stateroom, the window to which was protected by a screen. He had scarcely fallen asleep when he was awakened by a sense of suffocation—tho mosquitoes had thronged the screen and stuck their heads into the meshes till they had excluded every partic'o of air. Ho frantically kicked out t!ic screen, and now he does not know whether l.e would rather die of suffocation or mosquito biles. Another veracious statement from below is (hat a young man went to w->rk for tho first time on his homestead, providing himself with a good sandlly netting liar. The first night he pitched tent, hung his net, and went to bed. For three days and nights he did not stir. Tho mosquitoes had so thickly covered his not on the outside that it was so perfectly dark inside—he did not know when daylight came.

A Petrified Forest-— Visitors to the p-nilied forest near Coriz.o, on the Little Colorado, begin to see signs of petrefaolion liotirs before reaching the wonder. The road at a distance of ten miles from Corizo, enters an immense basin, the slope being nearlv a semicircle, and this enclosed by high banks of shale and while clay. The petrified stumps, limbs, and infant, whole trees, lie about on all sides : tie- action of the waters for hundreds of yea's has gradually washed away the high hills roam),i-iont.and (he trees that once covered the high table-lands now lie in the vail -y beneath; immense trunks, same of which will measure over live feet in diameter, ate broken and scattered over a surface of three hundred acres.

The Mexican s Love of Color -ivrhaps the most salient feature of a Mexican crowd is cdor. There is almost a blassc of color. The people dross in bright, aye, in glaring colors. The hats of the men and tlie lu-ad-eear of the women are picturesque in a surpassing degree, and mingling with all this v.v.-dlh of color in the attire of the people are II u.wrs of richest and most gorgeous hues. Al: th" people carry (lowers. The most perfect in shap- s and health, the most pleasing in variety and tints, these (lowers are cultivated literally in every available spot in the vicinity of the quaint nnd romantic capital, and are sold for a song. I have bought a peek of rose buds, the most exquisitely lovely I have ever seen, for live pence.