Savannah weekly echo., 1883-12-02
SELECT sITTINGs.

Certain women in Burmah have bearls
like the Skye terrier.
Brotherhoods for building bridges
existed in France in the twelfth cen
tury.
Savon, the French word for soap, Is
ascribed to Savona, the place at whichit
was first manufactured.
The raw skins of cattle were usually
suspended on stakes, and used instead Of
kettles to boil meat in Great Britain.
The car of Russia wields sceptre
over thirty-eight different nationalities
each speaking language Of its own.
The idea that silks and ribbons are
boiled in oil has no foundation in fact,
and probably originated In some shop
keepers mind as device whereby to
sell his goods.
A German physician who has exam
ined the ears of 6,905 school children
says that in the majority of cases il
which children appear to be inattentivs
they are simply deaf.
The King of Dahomey, on state ocl
casions, puts finely clad official under !
gorgeous umbrella and directs him ts
take his royal compliments to his friend
the ocean This done, the official j,
tossed to the sharks.
1t was an ancient Irish belief that hui
man hair should never be burnt, only
buried, because at the resurrection the
former owner of the hair will come to
seek it; and that it ought not to be
- u. =
find it and carry it off, causing the. own
er's head to ache all the time the bird
was busy working the hair into the nest. y
A thousand years ago glass was formed
into ewers by some Asiatic people; iron
could be hammered into the most beau
tiful and thinest of bowls, and the Per-
slams made metal peacocks with spread
ing tails; wood carving was as well un-
derstood in Japan 1, 200 years since as at
almost any later period; sculptures in
marble were as perfect then as now; and
the manufacture of porcelain in China
was as thoroughly understood and as
successfully practiced then as recently.
The Dutch taxes in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries are exceedingly
onerous. Bread was taxed when the
corn came from the mill, and again when
the loaves came from the oven. There
were taxes on butter, fish and fruit, while
the duties levied on meat, salt, beer,
wine and spirits was as high as 100 per
cent. Rents paid tax of twenty five
per cent. in fact, there was scarcely
anything that escaped taxation except
that which depleted the country of its
capitalize speculations of its merchants
in the public funds of other nations.
BY many individuals in many coun-
tries an oath is regarded very lightly
To them it is just as easy to swear as to
sneeze, and in many instances easier. In
the Eastern nations. among the Moham-
medans, an extraordinary sanctity is at
tached to solemn asseveration, and the
belief in punishment hereafter to per-
jurer is carried to degree of fanaticism.
When Hindoo or a Burmese swears, he
duplicates not himself alone, but all his
kindred to the seventh degree, all his
personal acquaintances, and all his pos
terity. When he, through lapse Of
memory, perjures himself, ali these are
condemned to ten kinds of punishment
and five attacks of enemies" Should
the perjury be of more serious form,
the ''earth will open and swallow than
all up Should he knowingly make a
false oath, all his friends and acquaint-
ances will be precipitated into eighty
great hells and one hundred and twenty
small ones