Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/734

714 copper, and cobalt. Sometimes a piece of paste was treated by the gem-engraver just as if it were a natural stone, and sculptured by the aid of the same tools; but inore generally the glass was melted and pressed into a mold. Such a mold had been taken from an engraved gem by a pellet of clay which was afterward hardened by fire. Paste gems arc often beautiful in color and design, though the material lacks something of the optical properties which distinguish many of the true natural stones. The tools and processes employed in ancient times in engraving gems were virtually the same as those in use to day—drills, wire saws, and files, re-enforced with emery, and gravers of diamond, sapphire, or rock-crystal.

Courtship in Torres Strait.—The people living on the islands of Torres Strait are divided by Prof. Arthur C. Haddon into the eastern and western tribes, and customs differ considerably among them. While the usual course in marriage is followed by the eastern tribe, in the western tribe the girls propose—or did, till "civilization" overtook them—marriage to the men. "It might be some time before a man had an offer; but should he be a fine dancer, with goodly calves, and dance with sprightliness and energy at the festive dances, he would not lack admirers. Should there still be a reticence on the part of his female acquaintances, the young man might win the heart of a girl by robbing a man of his head. Our adventurous youth could join in some foray; it mattered not to him what was the equity of the quarrel, or whether there was any enmity at all between his people and the attacked. So long as he killed some one—man, woman, or child—and brought the head back, it was not of much consequence to him whose head it was. . . . The girl's heart being won by prowess, dancing skill, or fine appearance, she would plait a strong armlet, tiapururu; this she intrusted to a mutual friend, preferably the chosen one's sister. On the first suitable opportunity the sister said to her brother, 'Brother, I have some good news for you. A woman likes you.' On hearing her name, and after some conversation, if he was willing to go on with the affair, he told his sister to ask the girl to keep some appointment with him in the bush. When the message was delivered, the enamored damsel informed her parent that she was going into the woods to get some wood or food, or made some such excuse. In due course the couple met, sat down and talked, the proposal being made with perfect decorum. The following conversation is given in the actual words used by my informant, Maine, the chief of Tud. Opening the conversation, the man said, 'You like me proper?' 'Yes,' she replied, 'I like you proper with my heart inside. Eye along my heart see you—you my man.' Unwilling to give himself away rashly, he asked, 'How you like me?' 'I like your fine legs, you got fine body—your skin good—I like you altogether,' replied the girl. After matters had proceeded satisfactorily, the girl, anxious to clinch the matter, asked when they were to be married. The man said, 'To-morrow, if you like.' They both went home and told their respective relatives. Then the girl's people fought the man's folk, 'for girl more big' (i. e., of more consequence) 'than boy'; but the fighting was not of a serious character, it being part of the programme of a marriage. 'Swapping' sisters in matrimony was a convenient way of saving expense in the way of wedding gifts, for one girl operated as a set-off to the other."

ValneValue [sic] of Photography.—The name of impressionists has been given to a school of painters who, abandoning all consideration of the arrangements and mechanism of previous workers, have consulted only their im. pressions of natural scenes, and have painted to those impressions. "With one point of sight and one subject of supreme interest they have aimed to seize above all the action and first impression of that subject." The naturalistic school trust rather to a study of Nature, and make its truthful representation and perfect expression the criterion of their art. Mr. George Davison sees no reason why photography should not be used to express our impressions of natural scenes as well as any other black-and-white method. Worked under the same conditions as the eye, or under conditions as nearly approximate as possible, nothing, he says, gives so truthful a record in drawing as photography, and nothing, when the proper means are used and the requisite knowledge is possessed by the