Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/881

Rh the mountain goat and is woven into excellent blankets, which are highly colored and ornamented. The process of boiling water with hot stones in baskets or wooden bowls was formerly common. The dances of the Tahl-tan are tame affairs compared with those of the coast tribes, but their musical capabilities are considerable. Kinship, so far as marriage or inheritance of property goes, is with the mother exclusively, and the father is not considered a relative by blood. Mr. Callbreath tells of an instance where a rich Indian would not go out or even contribute to send others out to search for his aged and blind father who was lost and starving in the mountains. Not counting his father as a relative, he said, "Let bis people go and search for him." Yet this man was a more than average good Indian. A man's female children are as much his property as his gun, and he sells them to whom he pleases. If the husband pays for his wife in full and she dies, even ten years afterward, the father is bound to supply a wife, if he have any more eligible daughters, without additional payment. Their laws are based on the principle that any crime may be condoned by a money payment. Their religious belief was simply what their medicine -men might lay down for them from time to time, and the idea of a Supreme Being was very obscure if not altogether wanting. They have no fear of death except from dread of the pain of dying. There is a belief propagated by their medicine-men that the otter gets inside their women and sometimes causes death by a lingering illness, in other cases allowing the woman to live on till she dies from some other cause.

An African Tribe of Promise.—The Benge are a very intelligent and pleasant tribe which Lieutenant R. Kund's exploring party found occupying an "immense clearing" in the midst of the Congo wilderness. Their village, surrounded by large manioc-fields, consisted of a street about fifty yards wide extending farther than the eye could reach. The huts of the villagers squarely faced the street on either side, and behind them were well-kept plantations of bananas, backed by oil palms, with the giant trees of the forest looming in the rear of all. The race is of a very fine type, with a brownish-red complexion some degrees removed from black, fine, manly features with an intellectual cast, and cleanly and orderly in habits. They are good hunters, and practice woodcarving and other arts with a skill that would do credit to Europeans. They have attained in all respects a higher standard of civilization than is to be found among the other tribes of West Africa. They exhibited none of the stupid superstition in the presence of the travelers which had appeared in other places, and showed no signs of cannibalism or fetichism or coarse idolatry.

Effect of a Cobra's Bite.—The taxidermist of the Victoria Museum was bitten in the hand by a cobra, from which the poisonbag had been extracted, while feeding it. Supposing the bite to be harmless, he took no notice of it till pain and nausea began. Then all the usual antidotes were tried without effect. The man lost the power of speech, became paralyzed in his muscular system, and ceased to breathe. Artificial respiration was applied for eight hours, after which he began to breathe again and gradually regained consciousness. After two days he was able to tell his friends that he had been fully aware of all that was going on during the efforts to restore him, but had not been able to move a muscle or to make his feelings known. He could see and hear and feel, but not move or twitch. He was afterward attacked by high fever and inflammation of the lungs, from which he died on the Sunday following the Wednesday on which he was bitten.

Dust essential to Fogs.—Nearly ten years ago John Aitken, of Edinburgh, proved experimentally that the presence of dust was essential to the formation of fog and cloud. He connected two receivers, one containing common air, the other air freed from dust by passing through cotton-wool, with a boiler. When steam was admitted into the first receiver, a fog formed within it; but when allowed to enter the one containing filtered air, not the slightest cloudiness was produced. Particles of water-vapor do not combine with each other to form a cloud particle, but must have a free surface on which to condense. The particles of dust serve as nuclei on which the vapor condenses,