Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1899-10-10
] SOME STRANGE TOWNS
QUEER PLACES WHERE Hu-
 VANITY coNGREGATEs. 5


 One Built on the ocean. Another on re.
 and Another Is won,anless- On "th,
 Mountain Of the nIonlks,--Even to the
 Ani4el'.
 The marine village of TupuseIei, in New Guinea, would take lot of beat ing on the score. of singulafity. Here the houses are all supported on piles and stand right out in the ocean, some considerable distance from the shore. Ihe object of this strange position is so nrotect the. inhabitants against sud z. Jacks of the dreaded head-hunt- who are. always on the lookout for etims. Other villages in this happy
 nd are perched up in all but inac- efssiPle trees, for the same weighty reason.
 Another curious place Is town without name on one pf the arms of Lake Huron. This corbists of some 500 wooden huts During the summer these little dwellings are hidden away il a ol6aring- on shore, and the town contains not 8 single inhabitant. But en 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 onto 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, carrying on tneir operations until the sDriDg releases. .tha fake from its icy bonds, when this ex. tfaordinary town ts once mare broken hp. the shanttes go bacNto their rest {ngfpiace and tla 6HhefmQH scatter over the country. This place eFeB boasts a curing factory and a chuteh. not to mention SC sera1 salo09is- -allson athe ice.
 Athes, town situated on & Dronaon- 2 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 q score. or SO of monasteries are dotted about sfhe rough hiIlsides or the valleys. In these establishments dwell a numerous body of ascetics, kind and hospitable to wanderers, but full1of superstition, and believing in the dodtrine of separation 10 wonderful degree.
 The actual2town, as distinct from Sits monastie enVirons. is called Carges, 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 a 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 $ ever brought to table; the fowl one has for dinner is sure to be a cockereL For this unparalleled state of affairs there is only a,legend to account! AL though to our practical minds flimsy to a degree, it is Implicitly believed in by the inhabitants.} It appears that in one of the chief monasteries on the prom ontory there is miraculous icon, which is a picture or image sacred to members of the Russo Greek church. This particular picture is a representa- | tion of the Virgin and the legend says that one day as the Empress Puleheria, I who had liberally endowed the church, as well as beautifed and restored 1t, was engaged in her deYotions, the Virf gin spoke, asking what she, woman, was doing in the church The pious lady no doubt amazed did not reply, wnereupon the voice commanded her to leave, saying that the feet of al woman should never again tread the floor. The empress, probably surprised at the seeming ingratitude :, of the speech, as well as awe-strucks left the place. which no female has since en tered. How the prohibition thus arI established came to cbmpre- bend the length and breadth of the is not very clear. As R residence for bashfuI bachelors we should imagine Athos would be hard to