with the power of communicating with my fellow-creatures by means of speech. Let those who hold a different opinion read the following which I get, second-hand, from The Boston Beacon : "I have read with interest your articles on the instinct of cattle (writes Mr. Andrew J. Ogilvie, from Tamala, Shark Bay, Western Australia, to the Spectator). That cattle and horses can communicate intelligence to each other, and are endowed with a certain amount of reasoning faculty, the following facts are pretty conclusive proofs. I once purchased a station on which a large number of cattle and horses had gone wild. To get the cattle in I fenced the permanent water (a distance of twenty miles), leaving traps at intervals. At first this answered all right; but soon the cattle became exceedingly cautious about entering the traps; waiting outside for two or three nights before going in, and, if they could smell a man or his tracks, not going in at all. At last they adopted a plan which beat me. A mob would come to the trap-gate, and one would go in and drink and come out; and then another would do the same, and so on till all had watered. They had evidently arrived at the conclusion that I would not catch one and frighten all the others away. To get in the wild horses, six hundred of which were running on a large plain (about twenty thousand acres), I erected a stockyard with a gradually widening lane, in a hollow where it could not easily be seen, and, by stationing horsemen at intervals on the plain, galloped the wild horses in. My first hunt (which lasted for some days) was successful, the wild horses heading towards the mouth of the lane without much difficulty; but of course some escaped by charging back at the stockyard gate and in other ways. My second hunt, about a month later, was a failure; every mob of horses on the plain seemed to know where the yard was, and would not head that way. This seems to show that the horses that escaped from the first hunt told all the others where the stockyard was.' A. LEE SCOTT. [We should be very glad to hear from as many correspondents as possible on the above interesting subject. ED. AM. N. AND Q.] M'Gregor-Chiefly red, checkered with green and white; badge, pine. M'Intosh Chiefly red, checked with M'Intosh-Chiefly green, black and white; badge, boxwood. M'Kay-Chiefly a bluish purple, with black and red cheeks; badge, bulrush. M'Kenzie-Nearly equal portions of green and purple, checked with black, white and red; badge, deer grass. M'Kinnon-Chiefly red, checked with green, black and white; badge, St. John's wort. M'Lachlan-Chiefly yellow, with checks of brown; badge, mountain ash. M'Lean or Gillean--Chiefly green, checked with black and white; badge, blackberry heath. M'Leod-Chiefly yellow, checked with black and red; badge, red worthleberries. M'Nab Chiefly red, checked with crimson, green and black; badge, rose blackberries. M'Neil Chiefly green, with purple, black, white and red; badge, seaware. M'Pherson-Equal portions of black and white, with small lines of red and yellow; badge, variegated boxwood. checked with M'Rae-Badge, fir-club moss. Macduff-Chiefly red, green, black and purple. Macarthur-Chiefly green, checked with black and yellow. Macintyre Chiefly green, checked with purple, red and white. Macqueen--Nearly equal portions of red and black, with yellow. Munro Chiefly red, checked with black and white; badge, eagles' feathers. Menzies Equal portions of red and white; badge, ash, Murray-Chiefly green, checked with black, purple and red; badge, the juniper. Montgomery-Chiefly light green, checked with purple. Maxwell-Chiefly red, with green and black. Ogilvy Chiefly green, beautifully checked with purple, black, yellow and red; badge, hawthorne. Oliphant Equal portions of green and purple, with black and white; badge, the great maple. Robertson-Chiefly red, checked with purple and green; badge, fern. Rose-Chiefly red, with small cheques of purple, green and white; badge, briar rose. Ross-Chiefly red, checked with green and purple; badge, bear berries. Ranald-Chiefly green, checked with black, purple, red and white. Ruthven-Chiefly red, with purple and Roman nose; placidly sharp fat face, puckered eyeward (as if all gravitating towards the eyes); voice of thin treble, peculiarly musical-gives you the notion of a frank, social kind of creature, whose cunning must lie deeper than words, and who with whatever polissonnerie may be in him has absolutely no malignity towards any one, and is not the least troubled with self-seekings. He speaks in a good-humored treble croak, which hustles itself on in continuous copiousness, and but for his remarkably fine voice would be indistinct, which it is not, even to a stranger. "Oh! bah! eh b'en lui disais-j-" etc.-in a monotonous, low, gurgling key, with occasional sharp, yelping warbles (very musical all, and inviting to cordiality and laissez-aller), it is so that he speaks, and with such a copiousness as even Macaulay cannot rival. "Oh, bah, eh b'en!" I have not heard such a mild, broad river of discourse; rising anywhere, tending anywhither. His little figure sits motionless in its chair; the hazel eyes looking with face puckered around them placidly animated; and the lips presided over by the little hooknose, going, going! But he is willing to stop, too, if you address him, and can give you clear and dainty response about anything you ask. Raining While the Sun is Shining.-Here in America we say of this very common occurrence, that the "Devil is beating his wife", and in England the phrase is varied by the added circumstance that he is "beating his wife with a shoulder of mutton"; and another expression runs that he is "whipping his wife with a codfish tail." I notice in Amelie Rives' "According to St. John", that the French say "Le Diable marie sa fille." All these things are curious, and I suppose there are many more in other languages. E. P. On the Score (Vol. viii, p. 152, etc.)—I have sent quite a number of examples of this expression to the A. N. AND Q., from time to time, and I have found quite a number which I have not sent. But I may say that in every case I have thus far seen, it clearly implies a going or running into debt; and not once, (if I can judge of its meaning), does it signify a giving of credit. N. S. S. The Sacred or Vigil Name Among the Nez Perces (cf. How Names Grow, Vol. viii, pp. 143, etc., etc). said, "You see I have killed this animal. I am all-powerful among birds, and other animals fear me and know my name. Like me, The Nez Percés obtain their names in seve- you shall be powerful, and subdue your eneral ways aside from nicknames. A child is mies as I have this animal, and like me you named by his parents from a stock of family shall have wisdom and renown. My name names held in reserve for that purpose. It is Eagle who knows all Languages, and that may be his father's name which he obtains name shall be yours." This name was also by inheritance, or that of some deceased Reubens', which he obtained in the usual relative. An adult, also, may take a new way by inheritance, since he was unsuccessname by publicly announcing his desire to ful in his vigil. do so in council, and by presenting to the tribe a horse, a blanket, or some other valuable thing, to be sold at auction, or by making a present to the chief, and then proclaiming his new name. But the sacred or vigil name, as it may be called, is of a different order and is obtained in a different way. When a child is ten or twelve years old, his parents send him out alone into the mountains to fast and watch for something to appear to him in a dream and give him a name. His success is regarded as an omen, and affects his future character to some extent. If he has a vision, and in the vision a name is given him, he will excel in bravery, wisdom, or skill in hunting, and the like. If not, he will probably remain a mere nobody. Not to every child [boy or girl] is it given to receive this afflatus. Only those seriousminded ones, who keep their thoughts steadfastly on the object of their mission, will succeed. The boy who is frivolous, who allows his attention to be distracted by common objects on his way to the place of vigil, or who while there succumbs to homesickness, or gives himself up to thoughts about hunting in the woods he has passed, or fishing in the streams he has crossed, will probably fail in his undertaking. Reubens said that his own vigil was a failure because he was home-sick, and could not help thinking of his mother. On reaching the mountain top, the watcher makes a pile of stones three or four feet high as a monument, and sits down by it to await the revelation. After some time-it may be three or four days-he "falls asleep," and then, if fortunate is visited by the image of the thing which is to bestow upon him his name and the wisdom and power belonging to it. The name of Reubens' father, a former chief, was "Eagle who knows all Languages." In his dream, a great eagle, holding in his talons some animal he had killed, came to him and Upon his return, the child is never questioned by his parents about the success or failure of his pilgrimage, probably because the subject is regarded as sacred. But years after, when the boy has become a man, and has done something to distinguish himself, he discloses his name in council, and may refer to the particular monument he erected on the mountain. In this way can be explained such names as "Hoofs around the Neck," or "Eyes around the Neck," where a wolf or a bird of prey has appeared to the watcher with those trophies of the hunt, and has given him a name conveying the idea of power or prowess as exhibited in that way. There are many of the little monuments referred to on the mountains in Idaho. (R. L. Packard, in Journal of Am. FolkLore). "Celestial Empire;" "Flowery Kingdom." (See Chinese Figures of Speech. Vol. vi, p. 211, etc).-"The term now frequently heard in western countries-the Celestial empireis derived from Tien Chau-i, e., Heavenly Dynasty,' meaning the kingdom which the dynasty appointed by heaven rules over; but the term Celestials,' for the people of that kingdom, is entirely of foreign manufacture, and their language could with difficulty be made to express such a patronymic. The phrase Li Min, or Black Haired Race,' is a common appellation; the expressions Hwa Yen, the Flowery Language,' and Chung Hwa Kwoh, the Middle Flowery Kingdom,' are also frequently used for the written language of the country, because the Chinese consider themselves to be among the most polished and civilized of all nationswhich is the sense of hwa (translated 'flowery') in these phrases. 6 (Dr. Williams's The Middle Kingdom). The First Knitting Machines. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth first mention is made of hand knitting. William See, in 1589, invented the first knitting machine, called a knitting frame, or stocking frame. He was refused a patent in England and went to France and established a factory at Rouen. This machine was introduced into the United States shortly after the Revolutionary war, was modified and improved by a Yankee and a factory was established at Cohoes, N. Y., in 1832. (Housekeeper.) A Unique Dramatic Scrap-book.-The late W. J. Florence left among his belongings a unique scrap-book which will probably be some day the prize of some dramatic collector, says the New York Collector. It was made up by him out of years of haunting of booksellers' stalls and literary junk-shops in America and Europe, and is filled with engraved portraits, pictures, autographs and original drawings, old playbills, letters and other personal curios. Its most interesting feature is a very complete record of Sheridan's "Rivals," beginning with a portrait of Sheridan himself, and including pictures of actors and actresses who have played in the famous comedy, aquarelles of the Jefferson-Florence Company and a complete set of playbills from the first representation of "The Rivals" down to the Jefferson Company's opening night at the Star Theatre, October 14, 1889. In it are pictures of the original Sir Anthony Absolute, Shuter; of Quick, the original Ácres; Lee, the first Sir Lucius; Miss Barsanti, the original Lydia Languish; Mrs. Green, the original Mrs. Malaprop; and Mrs. Bulkely, the original Julia. Pictures of all the celebrated men who have played Fighting Bob are found here: Suett, Bannister, Liston, Harley, Thorne, John Reeve, Spiller, Sloman, Browne, Andrews, Burton, Dawson, Walcot, Harry Beckett, John Clarke, J. B. Buckstone and Joe Jefferson. There is a long gallery of famous O'Triggers-Moody, Jones, Thompson, Tyrone, Power, Burke, Walton, Brougham and Florence himself, and the complete text of "The Rivals," illustrated by aquarelles and black and white sketches, interspersed with views of Bath and photographs of the various members of the Jefferson-Florence Company. As a history of the play in question the collection is as complete as it is unique. A Canadian Furrier's Ad. in 1859.— If you ask us who is Swartzen, Of the ship-canals and steamships,- Wouldst present your gentle partner Of opossum, Russian squirrel; (Sans or with the coat external); Go to Swartzen's, gents' fur-worker, (To be Continued.) Duration of Life of Various Animals.—(See DURATION OF LIFE AMONG BIRDS, ante p. 140)-Elephants, 100 years and upward; rhinoceros, 20; camel, 100; lion, 25 to 70; tigers, leopards, jaguars and hyenas (in confinement), about 25; beaver, 50; deer, 20; wolf, 20; fox, 14 to 16; llamas, 15; chamois, 25; monkeys and baboons, 16 to 18; hare, 8; squirrel, 7; rabbit, 7; swine, 25; stag, under 50; horse, 30; ass, 30; sheep, under 10; cow, 20; ox, 30; swans, parrots, and ravens, 200; eagle, 100; geese, 80; hens and pigeons, 10 to 16; hawks, 30 to 40; crane, 24; blackbird, 10 to 12; peacock, 20; pelican, 40 to 50; thrush, 8 to 10; wren, 2 to 3; nightingale, 15; blackcap, 15; linnet, 14 to 23; goldfinch, 20 to 24; redbreast, 10 to 12; skylark, 10 to 30; titlark, 5 to 6; chaffinch, 20 to 24; starling, 10 to 12; carp, 70 to 150; pike, 30 to 40; salmon, 16; codfish, 14 to 17; eel, 10; crocodile, 100; tortoise, 100 to 200; whale, estimated, 1,000; queen bees live 4 years; drones, 4 months; worker bees, 6 months. (Insect Life). Books Published in England in 1891.-The and as the raven commonly impersonates his sum of new books proper, in all departments sable majesty, it is ranked in the same catefor 1891, is just fifteen over that of the pre-gory of evil birds. Sometimes, however, its ceding year. 1890 1891 New Books New New New 555 153 520 107 615 88 587 107 443 95 881 323 40 39 87 54 Art, Sciences and Illustrated Works... Year Books and Serials in Volumes, Poetry and the Drama.. 22 19 85 31 6s 85 6 294 97 328 114 74 146 55 318 143 50 120 55 171 191 511 100 4414 57351 131 123 589 142 4429 5706 appearance forebodes a death. With the One comes for sorrow, two for mirth, Crows, like crickets, come for good or evil luck, but the "curse of the crows" is a malediction to be avoided. If good luck abides in the homestead where they build their rookery they should not be molested. Sparrows, stares and plovers are on friendly terms with the fairies. The lark and the swallow are birds of good omen, but the latter should not rest on the house-top. The sedge warblers possess the souls of 4414 1321 4429 1277 unbaptized babes, and sing their sorrow at the midnight hour; while the linnet, yellowhammer, and finch sing their plaintive and tender songs to remind us that they are souls of departed friends not yet relieved from purgatorial pains. The bittern is their herald at night. (Irish Times.) Publishers' Circular. Bird Superstitions in Ireland.-Most of our Irish birds have some strange legend or superstition connected with them. The robin is called "God's bird," because it plucked a thorn from the cruel crown pressed upon the head of our Saviour, and in doing so wounded its own breast. It forsakes a "cursed" graveyard. The wren is chased every St. Stephen's Day on account of it betraying the Saviour by chattering in a clump of furze where he was hiding. It is called the "king of all birds," because it concealed itself beneath the wing of the eagle when that lordly bird claimed supremacy by soaring highest. "Here I am,' said the wren, mounting above the eagle's head when the latter could go no higher. The blackbird and thrush are "wandering souls," whose sins must be expiated on earth, hence they are forced to endure the rigors of winter. Rooks, jackdaws, bats, hawks and owls are animated by lost souls. The wag-tail is called the "devil's birds," for no other reason, I suppose, than that it cleverly evades the missiles thrown at it. A dead wag-tail is a rara avis. The stone-chat is continually chatting with the Evil One, so it is held in bad repute, Value of Autographs (Vol. vii, p. 216, etc.) A copy of Poe's poem "The Bells," (in his own hand-writing) was sold last week in Boston at the auction of the Rev. Dr. Raffles. for $230. Three other poems of his brought from $30 to $105, and a gold locket, containing on one side the hair of Poe and on the other the hair of his wife, was knocked down for $55. Rare autographs of the signers of the Declaration of Independence fetched the highest prices. The signature of Gwinnett was the most sought after, and brought $475. Next came those of Arthur Middleton, $426; Thomas Lynch, $375; Richard Stockton, $260; Lyman Hall, $250; John Morton, $200; Roger Sherman, $145; Thomas. Stone, $140; William Hooper, $110; John Witherspoon, $105; George Wither, $90; Samuel Adams, $80. A Revolutionary orderly book of Major General Lincoln sold for $325. A letter of George Washington fetched $186. BOOKWORM. New York City. |