The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1883-08-03

~ SNOW us u couple OF Clean out utterly
bare little rooms, and undertook TO get
us something to eat. We felt humbly
obliged. The stranger in Spain. at
most inns and elsewhere, is treated as
if the most acceptable thing he could
do would be to take himself speedily
out of the country. Our apartments
were furnished with Spartan simplicity;
the guest is allowed wash-bowl, but
no pitcher, and the water given him in
the bowl is supposed to be quite enough
for his needs but the bed, though the
mattress is made of uncomfortable Jumps
of wool, is scrupulously clean. Our re-
past was all that we could expect. The
person who is fond of tasteless beans
will find Spain paradise. In this land
of olives, those served on the table are
bitter and disagreeable, and the oil in
which everything is cooked, is uniform
" rancid. But it should be confessed
that the oil is better than the butter.
when the latter luxury is attainable.
Something seems to be the matter with
the cows. [ do not wonder that the
Spaniards are at table q temperate and
abstemious race. 1t is no merit to be
abstemious, with such food and cook
ing.
The wine at ARGOS, however, was
sort of Manzanilla, that made us regard
any food with favor. 1t was medic
inal draught, with very strong flavor
of chamomile; very useful sort, l. be-
lieve, in the manipulation of the market
sherry, and exceedingly wholesome. So
long as man can drink this wine he
will not die. l should recommend the
total abstinence society to introduce it
into our country. Charles Dudley War.
Cuckoo Legends.
1t is common belief that the cuckoo
is transformed girl. calling her broth
er. Servia the cuckooo, b,tkdvitzd, was
a girl who lamented her brothers death
!. so long that she was turned into cuck-
90. This in itself is not very circunl.
stantial, but Albania supplies a more
complete story. There were once two
brothers and a sister. The latter &C
cidentally killed one of them, by get
ting up suddenly from her needlework,
and piercing him to the heart with her
scissors. She and the surviving brother
'mourned so much that they were turned
into birds; he cries out to the lost broth
er by night gjion, gjion, and she by day,
ku, bu, ku, bu, which means: "Where
are youp"
The cuckoo, says the Bohemian le-
gend, once had crown on her head,
till at wedding among the birds, at
which the hoopoe was bridegroom, she
nd haS al 10 70,
back. He is always crying out Rluks,
the other replies jdu, .jdu, II come, !
come" but comes not.
The Bohemians also take the cuckoo
for an enchanted miller or baker. The
latter is the more interesting story, as
being either of post-C Christian origin or
else pagan memory transferred, as so
often happened, into a Christian dress.
Christ, passing one day bakers shop,
sent one of his disciples in to ask for
some new bread. The baker refused to
give it, but his wife and six daughters,
who were more compassionate, deliv-
cred some secretly to the disciple. In
reward they were placed among the
stars, rs the Pleiades; but the baker was
turned into cuckoo, and it confirms
this story, that his cry is heard as long
as those seven stars are visible in the sky.
In Poland long ago it was capital
crime to kill u cuckoo. The apparent
reason was that Zywiec, who in old Sla-
vonic mythology was the ruler of the
universe, used to change himself Gas
Zeus once did and Indra, too) into a
cuckoo, in order to announce to mortals
the number of years they had to live;
belief so real that multitudes used to
flock every May to Zywiec's temple on
the mountain that was called after his
name, to pray fer long life and prosper
Gus health. To this day it is common
article of folklore belief that so many
years yet remain to man of life as he
hears the cuckoo's voice for the first
time in the Spring. And n monkish
historian has handed down, for the edi-
fcation of posterity, the story of that
worldly-minded brother who, tired of
the monotony of convent life, resolved
to ask of the cuckoo the number of years
yet allotted him to live. The bird hay
ing said twenty-five, the monk resolved
to devote himself for season to the
pleasures of this world and yet have time
before him to prepare for the next; but,
alas! the bird was q heatheniSh and
therefore false oracle to listen to, and
death surprised the recreant monk in the
twentieth year, still absorbed in tenn
poral enjoyments and vanities.
hill Mddnzine.
a Plea for the Use of the Viscous Juice OF
Trees.
Gum chewing in itself is not so bad.
Some of the most pleasant reminiscen.
ces of my own life are connected with
chewing gum. Have you ever hunted
or fished in the Adirondacksp Well,
what cah compare with the fragrant
lump of spruce gum which you pick
with your own fingers from the broken
bark through which it has exuded and
where it has dried, until it is as hard as
rosin and almost Us clear as amber Do
you remember the men, yes, and WON
en- too. whom YOU have met in those