Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/884

862 the brunettes predominate in Austria, and in Switzerland with greater disparity. The predominance of fair complexions in Germany is greatest in the north, and grows less and less in going to the south. This appears to show the incorrectness of the theory of the French anthropologists that we must seek the real Germans in South Germany, and that North Germans are a dark race, a mixture of Finns and Slavs. The deep-brown color of the south and middle Germans, as well as of the Swiss, is traced by Herr Virchow to the Romans, Rhætians, and Illyrians, and especially to the remnants of the Celtic or pre-Celtic inhabitants, which have now become mixed with the Germans.

Contraction of Plant-Tissnes by Cold.—Mr. Thomas Meehan has reported some observations which contradict the prevalent idea that the sap in vegetable tissues expands in freezing, and is capable of bursting the organs. Of a number of vigorous trees measured at temperatures of 40° and at 10° above zero, none showed any sign of expansion, but one, a large maple, appeared to have contracted a half-inch. In hardy succulents, including several plants of the cactus family, live-forevers, and stone-crops, a marked contraction was observed; and opuntias showed no traces of congelation at 10, and were as easily cut with a penknife as at a normal temperature. Plants which contract so much as to shrivel in the cold expand again after a few days of temperature above the freezing-point. Expansion under freezing, however, was evident in dead wood soaked with water; and the bursting of trees, which has been noticed, may result from the freezing of liquid in the less vital parts of their trunks. Assuming, from the facts brought forward, that the liquid in plants which are known to endure frost without injury does not congeal, a question arises as to what power they owe their successful resistance. It is probably a vital power, for the sap of plants, after it is drawn from the tree, congeals easily.

Celtic Superstitions.—Many primitive superstitions of great interest to the anthropologist still linger among the Celtic populations of the British Islands. "The Celt," says a writer who has made much study of his character, "has turned everything to supernatural uses; and every object of Nature, even the unreasoning dream of sleep, is a mirror which flashes back death upon him." Yet these people have nearly lost the fear of death, and it is a common salutation to wish one a decorous and peaceful departure. The ancient Gaels and Cymri believed in intercourse with fairies, whom they called by any other name than their own; hence, the designation of "the men of peace," "the hunters in green," "the good people," etc. Their aversion to naming these beings was greater on Friday than at any other time, for on that day their powers were greatly increased. To wear their favorite color, green, was an unpardonable insult. Rites of a complex nature were gone through to protect the unbaptized infant and its mother from their clutches. Stories were often current of persons who had been detained by fairies for many years. The urisks were a sort of intermediary race between spirits and mortals; if kindly treated, they might render service to the family to which they had joined themselves. Witches were consulted and believed in in Wales so lately as 1826. The Cymri also had their giant, the good Foulkes Ty Du, who was always helping them; but, when evil was about to overtake them, the Tybiath, or presentiment, foreboded it. The Highlanders put great faith in messages from the unseen; and a hundred little incidents, which others would let pass unheeded, are for them fraught with the most solemn meaning. The cock which crows at midnight conveys the intelligence of a death in the neighborhood. Itching of the nose or ringing in the ears bears the same message. If the Highlander's cattle die, the evil-eye has gazed upon them. The boat that drifts empty out to sea has been pushed from its moorings by the fairies.

A Chinese View of Epilepsy.—In China, it is said, when a man is seized with an epileptic fit, those about him rush away for a few blades of grass, which they put into his mouth. They believe that during an attack of this kind the spirit leaves the body, and, there being a vacancy within, it is immediately occupied by the spirit of an animal,