The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-06-24
STRANGE TOWNS OF THE WORLD.
One Built on the Ocean, Another on Ice
and Another Is Womanless.

and Another Is Womaniess
From the Household Words.
The marine village of Tupuselei, in
New Guinea, would take a lot of beat
ing on the score of sing ularity. Here
the houses are all supported on piles
and stand right out in the ocean, some
considerable distance from the shore.
The object of this strange position
is to protect the inhabitants against
sudden attacks of the dreaded head
hunters, who are always on the look
out for victims. Other villages in this
happy land are perched up in all but
inaccessible trees, for the same
weighty reason.
Another curious place is town
without a name on one of the arms
of Lake Huron. This consists of some
500 wooden huts. During the summer
these little dwellings are hidden away
in a clearing on shore and the town
contains not a single inllabitant. But
on the arrival of winter, when the lake
is frozen over with a thick coating of
ice, the owners of the huts arrive, and
proceed to move. their houses out on
to the surface of the lake. The floor
of the huts is taken up and a hole cut
through the ice. Through these holes
the residents fish, carrying on their
operations until the spring releases
the lake from it's icy bonds, when this
extraordinary town is once more bro
resting place and the fishermen scat
ter over the country. This place even
boasts a curing factory and a church,
not to mention several SaloonS-all on
the ice.
Athos, town situated on a promon-
tory on the coast of Macedonia, well
deserves the title of the most curious
town in the universe. The peninsula
is known as THE Mountain of the
Monks" from the fact that score or
so of monasterieS are dotted about the
rough hillsi6es or the valleys. In these
establishments dwell a numerous body
of ascetics kind and hospitable to
wanderers, but full of superstition, and
believing in the doctrine of separation
to wonderful degree.
The actual town, as distinct from its
monastic environs, Is called Caryes,
and supplies the simple wants of the
monks. Here are to be found streets
of shops, crowded bazars, fourishing
trades and all the hustle and energy
of modern town. But one thing soon
strikes the visitor as strange There
is not female to be seen anywhere,
: for the gentler sex is vigorously BAN
ished from the place. Even the small
Turkish garrison, from the command
ant down to the privates, consists of
bachelors.
This extraordinary law is carried out
even among the domestic animals Only
the wild birds evade it, and then only
when free, for no female bird is ever
3 brought to table: the fowl one has for
dinner is sure to be a cockerel. For
i this unparalleled state of affairs there
is only a legend to account. Although
to our practical minds flimsy to a de-
gree, it is implicitly believed in by the
inhabitants. 1t appears that in one
of the chief monasteries on the prom
ontory there is a miraculous icon,
which is a picture or image sacred to
members of the Russo-Greek church.
This particular picture is represen-
tation of the Virgin and the legend
says that one day as the Empress
Pulcheria, who had literally endowed
the church, as well as beautified and
restored it, was engaged in her de-
votions, the Virgin spGke, asking what
she, a woman. was doing in the church
The pious lady, no doubt amazed did
not reply, whereupon the voice COM
manded her to leave, saying that the
feet of a woman should never again
tread the floor. The empress, probably
surprised at the seeming ingratitude
of the speech, as well as awe-struck,
left the place, which no female has
since entered. How the prohibition
thus arbitrarily established came to
comprehend the length and breadth of
the promontory is not very clear. As
a residence for bashful bachelors we
should imagine Athos would be hard
10 SurDaSS