Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 30.djvu/445

Rh Book-Worms and their Food.—The book-worm—that is, the larva that eats books and binding—is named, according to Mr. Sydney Klein, Tenebrio mollitor, and is a coleopter. It is attracted by the gluten in the paste used in binding the books; and Mr. Klein says that a dark flour—the "whole-wheat" flour—coming from America, and rich in gluten, is used largely for making paste and in the manufacture of cardboard. Hence the tenebrio is likely to find rich pastures in the books of to-day if he is admitted to them, and they are not "medicated." Light is thrown on this subject of medication by the observation of Mr. Russell Gubbins that the tenebrios have an apparent choice of colors. His tenebrios "had a decided preference for dark-colored paper," while "light-yellow paper, almost without exception, escaped." One of the papers that escaped was a light green—an arsenical paper. The light-yellow paper was probably colored with chrome-yellow, chromate of lead. So it appears that the insects may be fought by exercising Judgment in coloring the papers which are to receive the paste.

Curious Central African Peoples.—The Rev.T.J.Comber, a Baptist missionary, has given to the Royal Geographical Society an account of his voyage, in company with the Rev.George Grenfell and in the missionary steamer Peace, up the Congo to the Bangala, and up the Bochini to the junction of the Kwango. The width of the river, from Stanley Pool to the Bochini, varies from twelve hundred yards to two miles. It is swift and strong, and navigation has to be performed carefully, on account of up-cropping feldspathic rocks An interesting feature of the first days' sails was the little clusters of huts on the sand-banks in twos, fours, and sixes, inhabited by Ba-Buma people, who sold beer and caught fish. The people are ruled by a queen, Nga Nkabe, whose husband, or "prince consort," Nchielo, "knows his place, and sits quietly by, smoking his pipe meekly and philosophically, while his wife rules." She is tall, brawny, and dignified, and about fifty years old, but "did not seem to think it beneath her to take her paddle, and, entering into a little canoe with another woman, to go herself to cut us a bunch of plantains." Her great desire was to possess a double-barreled gun, and she was evidently pleased with a present of cloths, a big bell, a soldier's great-coat, and some brass. The Ba-Buma were the best specimens of the African encountered on the journey. The women wear brass collars weighing from twenty-five to thirty pounds. The most primitive people seen by the travelers were the Ikelemba, about the great Ruki River, who go about with bow and arrow, or spears and shield, or a murderous sacrificial knife, wearing hats made of monkey-skins, of which the head of the animal comes to the front of their heads, while the tail hangs down behind. They are cruel, ingeniously cruel, and indulge among other amusements in chasing their human victims across the country as our hunters would chase a fox. Another exercise of their braves is inflicting "death by the knife," in which the head of the victim is so adjusted that, when it is cut off by a blow of a sickle-sbaped knife, it is tossed by the spring of a sapling high into the air. In strange contrast with these revolting practices was "a pretty little performance by children, lasting several hours, and consisting, first, of clever dancing, and then of a little bit of operatic acting, after the style of a Greek play, the chorus part of which was very prettily rendered by little girls of eight to twelve years old. A strange-looking bier was carried in on the shoulders of four men. On the top of it was somebody or something covered over with red baize cloth. Sitting up at one end was a little girl looking sad and mournful. This bier (a native bamboo bed) was placed on the ground and surrounded by the 'chorus'—six little girls. A plaintive song was chanted by a woman who came to the side of the bier, which was chorused by the little girls. It was really pretty and effective; the idea of a drama in Central Africa surprised us altogether. We could understand but little of the words sung, but caught the frequent repetition at the end of the chorus of 'Ka-wa-ka' ('He is not dead'). After a time the spells of incantation were considered to have worked, and there was a noticeable heaving and shuddering in the covered mass at the girl's feet. The red cloth was drawn aside, and a girl was discovered, her chest heaving quickly and her