Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/736

718 from a water-cask hauled over the spot four times a day—on one of the roadways. Systematic watering; of one of the collieries in the Rhondda Valley has not only made it safer and cleaner, but also cooler and more pleasant to live in. The influence of watering the floor seems also to extend to the timbers and walls of the mine, which cease to give annoyance from the dust lying upon them, without being directly watered. When simple tanks on wheels are difficult or expensive to manipulate in the mines, they may be replaced by a system of pipes bringing water from the surface, or from a reservoir at a convenient height in the shaft, and distributing it at different points in the workings, in the form of a fine spray.

The Botocudos.—The Botocudos of Brazil are famed as one of the most savage tribes on the American continent. Mr. W. J. Steains, who met a number of them during his exploration of the Rio Dôce, describes them as hardly prepossessing in appearance, five feet four inches in average height, having broad chests—which accounts for the facility with which they can bend their bows—small rather than delicate feet and hands, lean but muscular legs and arms, and features bearing "a wonderful resemblance to the Chinese," with skins of all shades of color. The custom of wearing large lip and ear ornaments of wood is fast dying out. "A regular process has to be gone through before a Botocudo can boast of wearing a lip ornament, say three inches in diameter, and what is more, it is a life-long process. When the Indian is about three or four years old its parents pierce a small hole in the center of its under lip and also in the lobes of its ears. Into this hole a small plug of wood is inserted about the size round of a pencil. In the course of a few weeks a larger piece of wood is made to take the place of the first insertion, and so on until the lip (having been thus stretched gradually) is capable of receiving a botoque (plug) of the dimensions mentioned above, viz., three inches in diameter. It generally happens that in course of time the lip, which stretches round the botoque just like an elastic band, splits. This action on the part of the lip, however, does not prevent the further wearing of the botoque. The Indian simply tics the two ends of his broken lip together by means of a small piece of imbira, or stringy bark, and thus mends the breakage in a way that is decidedly more useful than ornamental." The Botocudos live upon the nuts of two or three varieties of palm-trees, which, as they are hard, are chewed for old people and children by the women; and they usually live to a good old age. The men spend their days in hunting, fishing, and seeing to their bows and arrows, while the women look after the children, gather nuts and fruits, and do the hard work. Clothing is entirely unknown among them. Plurality of wives is allowed but not usually indulged in. The people have no form of government except that of a chief who has no real authority. They believe in a Great Spirit who has made the world, but offer no prayers or sacrifices. They think he is angry and are much frightened when there is a thunder-storm, and throw fire-brands into the air to appease his wrath. When a man dies, his ghost wanders about upon the earth, in pursuit of what he may catch, but benefiting those who have done him kindness while he was on the earth. They have a hazy idea of the evil one, and believe that he resides in the body of a certain screeching night-bird.

Life in the Islands of Greece.—According to Mr. J. Theodore Bent, who has visited them, the shepherds and their families of the Greek island of Karpathos "for the greater part of the year dwell in caves high up in the mountains and die in them like their goats, with this difference only, that their friends do not allow their bones to bleach in the sun, though they inter them without any religious ceremony; they wail over them a great deal, and wait for the religious part of the business until a priest chances to pass that way. For the three months of winter they reside in the village, which is composed of small homesteads or mandras, probably like that in which the herd of Ulysses dwelt in Ithaca. Each house is a low cabin, to enter which you have to stoop, and consists of one room only, where cattle and people live together. It is built of large stones without cement, and through the cracks the north wind whistles horribly. Across the roof is a beam the top of which serves as the cupboard. There is a place for fire, but no