The Forrest City times., 1899-07-07
SOME SINGULAR TOWNS.
Houses Built on yiSss and OthePs Moved About o- the Ice
 in Winter.

The marine village of Tupuselei. in
 New Guinea, would take lot of beating
 on the score of singularity. Here the
 houses are all supported on piles, and
 stand right out in the ocean, some con- | siderable distance from the shore. The
 object of this strange position is to pro-
 tect the inhabitants against sudden att
 Jacks of the dreaded head-hunters, who
 are always on the lookout 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 with ! out name on one of the arms of Lake | Huron. This consists of some 500 wood-
 en huts. During the summer these lit-
 tie dwellings are hidden away in a clear | ing on shore, and the town contains not
 single inhabitant. But on the arrival
 of winter. when the lake is frozen over with 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 hole cut through the ice. Through these holes the residents fish, carving
 on their operations until the spring re- leases the lake from its icy bonds, when | this extraordinary town is once more broken up, the shanties go back to their | resting place, and the fishermen scatter | over the country. This place even | boasts curing factory and church, | not to mention several saloons-all on | the ice.
 Athos, town situated on promon- | tory on the coast of Macedonia, we'll de- serves the title of the most curious town
 in the universe. The peninsula is known as "The Mountain of the Monks" from | the fact that a score or so of monas- teries are dotted about the rough hill- | sides or the valleys. In these estab- lishments dwell a numerous body of as- | cetics, kind and hospitable to wander | CTS, but full of superstition, and believ- | ing in the doctrine of separation to a
 wonderful degree.
 The actual town. as distinct from it's
 monastic environs, is called Caryes, and | supplies the simple wants of the monks. | Here are to be found streets of shops, | crowded bazars, fiourishing trades and | all the hustle and energy of a modern | town. But one thing soon strikes the | visitor as strange. There is not fe- male to be seen anywhere, for the | gentler sex is vigorously banished from | the place. Even the small Turkish gar- rison, from the commandant 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 | brought to table; the fowl one has for | dinner is sure to be cockerel. For this unparalleled state of affairs, there is only a legend to account. Although to our practical minds flimsy to degree, | it is implicitly believed in by the inhab- | itants. Ii appears that in one of the | chief monasteries on the promontory | there is a miraculous icon, which is a | picture or image sacred to members of | the Russo-Greek church. This particu-
 lar picture is a representation of the
 Virgin, and the legend says that one | day as Empress Pulcheria, who had lib- | orally endowed the church, as well as | beautified and restored it, was engaged | in her devotions the Virgin spoke, ask ing what she, a woman, was doing in the
 church. The pious lady, no doubt amazed, did not reply, whereupon the voice commanded her to leave, saying | that the feet of a woman should never
 again tread the floor. The empress, | probably surprised at the seeming in- | gratitude 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 to surpass.-Household Words.