, 1886-12-14
1ALes FROM sAyAegs, LANDS.


iiaNtitfb AhNo ophhH
Travellers have told many strange
tales about new countries they have Wis.,
tied. A great many wonderful yarns have
been sprung by sailors and traders, who
are often too ignorant to tell the truth
about what they see. even if they can
resist the temptation to tell a good story
at the expense of accuracy. Here is a
striking instance of the differences that
may occur in the counts given by an
ignorant and an intelligent man of the
same thing:
Capt. Lancaster, many years ago, told
of a wonderful plant he found on the
sea sands of an island in the East Indies.
He said he found the shore covered
with small twigs growing up like young
trees. When he tried to pull them up
he was astonished to find that they
shrank down to the ground, and even
sank out of sight unless he held ON very
hard. In the course of time Darwin ex-
amined the wonderful products of ma
ture which Capt. Lancaster had discov-
cred. He found that the supposed plant
did not belong to the vegetable king
dom, but was a species of the animals
known as zo%ophytees or seapens. A
low water" he wrote, Hundreds of ZOO
phytees might be seen ejecting like stub
bic. When touched or pulled they sud
denly drew themselves in with force. so
as to nearly or quite disappear.
Besides the travellers who willfully or
ignorantly distort facts there are not n
few who could journey around the world
without being able to tell much worth
hearing of their travels. A while ago a
man who had travelled a good deal in the
western Pacific was asked to describe the
Solomon islands. All he could say was
that the water there was very blue; that
the bathing was excellent, and that he
saw many lovely sites for villa resi-
dences. 1t was learned that he had long
been n real estate agent in Melbourne.
Mr.. Romilly says that a few years ago
a traveller who was addressing an audi
ence in England, including many scienti-
fic men, solemnly assured them that the
natives of New Britain mended broken
legs by inserting n piece of tortoise shell
into the bone. The shell was neatly fit
ted into a groove that was cut in the
bone, and the ends of the broken bone
in this manner were kept together. His
hearers never thought of questioning his
veracity when he surprised them further
by asserting that the science of dentistry
was far advanced in New Britain. He
said the natives made beautiful
teeth of mother of pearl, which they
attached to the jaw by fine threads OF
sinnet. Later visitors to New Britain
have failed to find any evidence of these
accomplishments.
One of the funniest stories that ever
gained wide circulation was that about
the bone eating trees of the Louisade arch
ipelago. The story ran that during the
night the branches of these trees bent to
the ground, and that the leaves, like
those of the fiy-catching plants, closed
about all bits of bone or flesh hat they
happened to touch. Before morning al
traces of the bones and meat had disap-
peared, the trees having completely as
simulated them. The natives worshiped
them as deities, and placed offerings oil
bones and flesh near them to appeast
their appetites. This story was doubt
less derived from the fact that many OF
the Pacific islanders place thousands OF
bones in the crotches of trees, and in tn,
progress of growth many of these be
come imbedded in the wood, like The
horseshoe which has long been on ex
hibition in a Nassau street window.
The imaginative element is Target,
developed in most savages, and they arr
always happy to entertain their whit
visitors with wonderful stories, some o.
which are afterward repeated in civil
lied lands as solemn facts. There ART
many sailors who believe to this day
that there is a tribe in central New Gui
nea which is adorned with tails. Som'
of the natives of the southeast coast are
willing to swear by all their gods tina
they have seen men from the interior
of whose anatomy tails are a natura
and highly ornamental feature. Thu
sailors think they ought to know. Jacl
Tar has also circulated that other inter
esting yarn frow New Guinea to the eff
feet that some of the natives bore hole
through their left hands to fire arrow
through hem.-Atlanta Constitution.