Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/881

Rh Then the bees in ay predict a storm when the instruments indicate fair weather, and the bees will prove the truer prophets. Prof. Eramerig cites eight or nine incidents that have occurred under his own observation within three years, where the bees and the weatherglasses failed to agree as to what the day's weather should be, and the bees carried their point.

Capacity of Native Siberians.—N. Jadrinzen, who has recently published a book about Siberia, expresses in it favorable opinions respecting the capacity of the natives of that land to receive civilization and of their promise of talent. The Samoyeds, according to School-Inspector Abramov, are a quite capable people, and their children show themselves proficient in mathematics. The remarkable natural talents and wonderful vital energy of the Tunguses are set forth by MiddendorfF. The Yakuts have been distinguished from the olden time for their cleverness, and take readily to civilization. The Kirghis have furnished a considerable number of able men, and are distinguished for their strong wit and rich fancy. The Altaians are not less gifted in religious intuitions and mental faculties; and missionaries have given accounts of very intelligent persons among them. The Tilents and black Tartars show decided inclinations toward civilization and a settled life. The Sarts and Tartars are sharper traders than even the Russians. M. Jadrinzen hopes that the newly established University of Tomsk, as its activity and sphere of usefulness extend, will awaken these people out of the torpor and hopelessness into which they have fallen, to a new life of enterprise and advancing knowledge.

Running Amok.—One of the most curious and unaccountable manifestations of human aberrations is in the Malay custom of running "amok." It breaks out, apparently, under the impulse of a momentary passion, but appears to depend, in the Malay's mind, upon a kind of belief that the act is the proper thing to do. In other words it is a convention. An instance of the frenzy recently occurred at Singapore. A Malay hadji, a "personal conductor" of pilgrimages, received a message from Mecca announcing the death of his daughter. He instantly decided, to appearance, that it was not worth while under the circumstances for any one to live longer, and, drawing his creese, stabbed the owner of the house. A boy who was present ran away and bolted the door outside. The frenzied Malay escaped by the roof, went into another house, stabbed two women, returned to the street, killed a Chinaman, attacked some other persons, and was finally knocked down with a pole by a native policeman, after having wounded six persons and killed three in a very few minutes. lie soon calmed down, and, when asked why he had acted thus, answered that he did not know. Mr. Frederick Boyle, in one of his books on savage life, describes his emotions when he saw amok coming upon a Malay servant who was in the woods with him, and the frantic passion stealing over his eyes, apparently without any occasion whatever.

The Matrix of the Diamond.—The rock—a porphyritic peridotite—in which the diamonds of South Africa are contained, has been microscopically examined by H. Carvill Lewis, and found to be one of the most basic rocks known, having a composition of equal parts of olivine and sei'pentine impregnated by calcite. In this structure and in some other points it presents some analogies with meteorites. It constitutes a new rock-type, for which the name Kimberlite is proposed. It probably occurs in several places in Europe, and is known in Elliott County, Ky., and at Syracuse, N. Y., in the United States, at both of which places it is eruptive and post-carboniferous, and similar in structure and composition to the Kimberly rock. In most other diamond localities, where the gems are found in diluvial gravels and conglomerates of secondary origin, the original matrix is hard to discover; but in Borneo, diamonds and platinum occur only in those rivers which drain a serpentine district, and in Timor Laut they also lie in serpentine districts. In New South Wales, serpentine occurs near each locality where there are diamonds, and the same is the case in the Urals. Diamonds have been found in the Carolinas, where peridotite occurs in great beds and serpentine is abundant. All the facts thus far collected indicate serpentine, in the form of a decomposed eruptive peridotite, as the original matrix of the diamond.