The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-12-29 00:00:00

SATURDAY, DEC. 29, 1883

JOTTINGS FOR THE CURIOUS.

CASTE AMONG THE HINDOOS.—A European finds no
difficulty in receiving the visits of Hindoo gentlemen,
or in entertainim them, so far as their customs will
show; but any attempt on the part of Hindoos to
entertain Englishmen in return is accompanied by an
expense and inconvenience of which the visitors have
little conception. This is not the fault of educated
Hinrloo gentlemen, but of old caste prejudices pre-
valent among Hindoo ladies. An Englishman may
talk freely with a Ilindoo host in the outer verandah
or in the common sitting•room ; but should he venture
to take a glass of water the glass would be broken by
smne anxious mother the moment his back was turned,
lest one of the children should title the glass and become
thereby a polluted being.
STRANGE CURRENCY.—The inhabitants of the Solo-
mon Islands have a curious system of decimal cur.
rency. A cocoanut seems to b 3 the unit, but the
circulating medium consists of strings of white and red
shell beads, dogs' teeth and porpoise teeth. One
string of white money is equivalent to ten cocoanuts,
or one flat stick of tobacco. Ten strings of white
money make one string of red money, or one dog's
tooth; ten dog's teeth make one isa or fifty porpoise
teeth; and ten isas are equivalent to one "good
quality wife." So that a wife in good society is worth
ten thousand cocoanuts.

HE INTRODUCTION or Hops.—The date of the in.
troduction of the hop into this country is doubtful.
Its name is undoubtedly derived from the Anglo-
Saxon hoppan—" to climb ; " but a distich given in
Baker's Obronycle—" Turkey, carps, hoppes, pickard,
and beer Came into England all in one year"—
originated the notion that the plant was not known in
this kingdom till the reign of Henry VIII. It was,
however, probably the culture of the plant which was
then introduced from tha Low Countries, for in the
year 1423, a century earlier, the hop was petitioned
against as a "wicked weed," a limited supply of
foreign hops having been imported and used in the
preparation of beer. Native cultivation was esta.
blished by the commencement of the seventeenth cen•
tury, and encountered much opposition.
GERMAN ETIQUETTE —Etiquette in Germany forbids
the carrying of parcel, no matter how small, by a
gentleman. Under immense pressure of necessity a
lady may take home in her own hands a small pur-
chase, or carry a book or roll of music to the house of
a friend, though she takes also in doing so a terrible
social risk. And, when a dressmaker comes to try on
a little walking jacket, a small boy must needs walk
behind bearing the garment on his arm, An officer
cannot, in any circumstances, carry anything when in
uniform.

THE PEACOCK,—In olden times the peacock was a
favourite with the lord and ladies of high degree. It
was customary to send the roast bird to the tables in
its natural envelope. It was considered in the days of
chivalry not simply as an exquiaite delicacy, but as a
dish of peculiar solemnity. When it was brought to
the table, decorated with its plumage, its comb gilded,
and a sponge in its bill wet with spirits of wine and
lighted, it was the signal for the gallant knights
present to make vows to accomplish some deed of
chivalry "before the peacock and the ladies."
THE OLDEST BANK-NOTES. —The oldest bank-notes
are the "flying money," or "convenient money," first
issued in China, 2697 B c Originally these notes were
issued by the treasury, but experience dictated a
change to the system of banks under government
inspection and control. The early Chinese " green.
backs" were in all essentials similar to modern bank-
notes, bearing the name of the bank, the date of issue,
the number of the note, the signature of the official
issuing it, indications of its value in figures, in words,
and in the pictorial representation of coins or heaps of
coins equal in amount to its face value, and a notice of
the pains and penalties for counterfeiting. Over and
above all was a laconic exhortation to industry ani
thrift—" Produce all you can; spend with economy."
The notes were printed in blue ink on paper made
from the fibre of the mulberry-tree. One issued in
1399 B.C. is preserved in the Asiatic Museum at St.
Petersburg.
PRAISE TO BIIDDHAs—SmaII bells, which sound
when they are exposed to the wind, are commonly
suspended from the roofs or project i ins of the Buddhist
temples in Burmah, Nepaul, China, and other Asiatic
countries. These belle are provided with clappers
which terminate in a thin plate shaped somewhat like
the ace of hearts. A moderate current of air is suffi-
cient to cause the bells to ring. Sometimes a large
number of these bells are attached to the roof of a
temple, and, as they are of different sizes and dimen-
sions, different tones are produced. A pagoda in the
vicinity of Shanghai, in China, has sixty-four bells of
this description; and the famous Porcelain Tower at
Nanking has—or had formerly—an iron spire, from
the summit of which are suspended eight chains, each
having nine bells attached to it ; and there is, besides,
a bell hanging at each angle of the lower roofs, making
in all one hundred and forty•four bells. When the
wind rises and the tinkling of the bells is heard, the
priests say that it is the tribute of praise to Buddha
from inanimate nature.

- -
WHERE AGATES COME FROM—Southern Brazil,
and especially the province of Rio Grande do Sul,
with the neighbouring Uruguay, is the prinoipal
source of those stones which are sold under the name
of opal, chalcedony, and agate. The trap rocks that
penetrate the province in many directions, especially
in the strip of high ground that branches off from
Taguary, not far from the provincial capital Porte
Allegre, furnish considerable quantities of the finest
agates, and in the greatest variety. These semi-
precious stones, which atterwards develop great
beauty, look very unattractive at first embedded in
their dark•coloured clay.
AREAL LIVE HERMIT. —ln the time of George 111. the
Honourable Charles Hamilton laid out at Cobham the
famous grounds celebrated by Gray and Horace Wal-
pole. Among other pretty things which he erected on
his grounds was a hermitage; and he took it into his
head that he would like to have a real live hermit to
inhabit it. He accordingly advertised for a hermit,
and offered seven hundred pounds a year to any one
who would lead a true hermit's life' sleeping on a mat,
never suffering scissors to touch his head, beard, or
his nails, and never speaking a syllable to the servant
who brought his food. In a very short time a man was
found for the place; but after three weeks he had
enough of it, and retired.
ANTIQUITY OF SILK MANUFACTURE.—It is said that
the art of reeling silk was known in China nearly two
thousand years 8.C., it having been discovered by
Siting Chi, wife of Prince Hoangt, third Emperor of
Mae, and that homage is still rendered to her as
"goddess of silk-worms." So well did the Orientals
guard the secret of silk-culture that the nature of the
fibre was unknown in Europe for more than a thou-
sand years after Bilk fabrics had been introduced;
and, as late as the Christian era, some silk fabrics
were worth their weight in gold.
MEANING OF THE WORD "COTTAGE."—To most
persons the word " cottage " carries merely the idea
of a small house, as distinguished from a large one.
But legally, a very clearly-defined meaning attaches
to the expression. In the 4 Edward 1., cap. 1, a cot-
tage is described as a house without land belonging to
it. By the later statute 31 Elizabeth, cap. 7, her
Majesty's lieges were forbidden to build houses unless
they were surrounded by at least four acres of land;
hence, properly speaking, a cottage is any small house
without four acres, or without any land at all.
How BIRDS LEARN TO SING —A wren built her nest
in a Lox on a New Jersey farm. The occupants of
the farm-house saw the mother teach her young to
sing. She sat in front of them and sang her whole
song very distinctly. One of the ycung attempted to
imitate her. After proceeding through a few notes, its
voice broke, and it lost the tune. The mother imme-
diately recommenced where the young one had failed
and went very distinctly through with the remainder.
The young bird made a second attempt, commencing
where it had ceased before, and continuing the song
as long as it was able, and, when the note was again
lost, the mother began anew where it had stopped,
and completed it. Then the young one resumed the
tune and finished it. This done the mother sang over
the whole series of notes a second time with great pre-
cision' and a second of the young attempted to follow
her. The wren pursued the same course with this one
as with the first, and so with the third and fourth.
This was repeated day after day, and several times a
day, until each of the birds became a perfect songster.
How STATURE MAY BE AFFECTED.—The New York
doctors having had the question put to them whether
a man can add a cubit t his stature, opine that there
are ways by which stature can be affected, They Bay
that people who drink limestone water, like the Ken-
tuckians and Tennesseeans, who are famous for being
tall, owe it perhaps to the fact that they absorb so
much lime, which goes to the making of their bones.
So oatmeal builds up the bone and muscle of the Scotch
and makes them tall. There is a belief, however well f)
or ill founded, that the height of a child at the age of 1
two years is just hell the height to which it will attain 1
at maturity.
A WHITE ELEPHANT.—A white elephant is not to
be considered as snow-white—very far from it. All
the white elephants now existing in Siam and Burmah
are of a light mouse-colour, somewhat of the same tint
as the pale freckles to be found on the trunk of ordinary
elephants. This light grey is uniform all over, the
spots on the trunk being white. The depth of the
colour, however, varies greatly ; and there are often
blemishes in the shape of darker patches which would
seem to ruin an otherwise eligible candidate's claim,
An infallible test point which demonstrates the right
of the animal to his title is this : If water is poured
upon a " white " elephant, he turns red, while a
darker one only becomes darker than ever. This is
stated to he the final test always resorted to by the
people of Mandalay.

ETIQUETTE IN THE CHINESE OFFICIAL WORLD.--
Chinese etiquette in the official world strictly demands
retirement from office for the space of three years on
the death of either parent. l'o this there is hardly ever
an exception. The theory is that the grief of the
bereaved son is so inconsolable as to incapacitate him
for his public functions, and, moreover, the sacred
duties of attending to the funeral ceremonies and per-
forming the sacrifices at the grate must necessarily
absorb his time and attention. Whatever his rank or
wealth may be, he must go about clad in a coarse
hempen garment unstitcbed at tbe borders ; he must
sleep for 49 nights on the bare floor with a brick for
his pillow, beside the ceffin ; he must remain unshaved
and uncornbed for one hundred days, and for the whole
period of three years he can have no music or joyous
event of any kind in his house. At such a time public
duty must give way to private; and the official, no
matter what his standing, who should omit to report
the fact of his father's or mother's decease and request
permission to retire would certainly incur grave
censure, and probably be dismissed from office altos
gether,
THE PEACOCK'S FEATHER,—E. Cobham Brewer
writes to Notes and Queries on the question of the urr
luckiness of peacocks' feathers :—" The peacockl
feather is emblem of evil eye, or an ever-watchful
traitor in the house. The F tory is this : Argus was
the viligant mini.ter of Osiris, king of Egypt, When
0 ri 8-,reettd en lediau expedition, he left his
queen Isis regent, and Argus her chief adviser. Argus,
with his one hundred eyes (or rather secret spies),
soon made himself so formidable and powerful
that he seized the Queen Regeet, shut her up in a
strong castle and proclaimed himself King of Egypt.
Mercury was sent against him with a large army, took
him captive, and cut off his head, whereupon, Juno
metamorphosed him into a peacock, and set his 6004
in his tail."