The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1899-07-28
QUEER TOWNS.

SOME QUEER TOWNS.
ONE is BUILT ON THE OCEAN,
ANOTHER ON THE ICE.
Migratory Fishing Villages on Lake
Huron-In Athos There Is Not a Fe-
male to Be Found-Mountain of the
Monks A Curious Law.
The marine village of Tupuselei, in
New Guinea, would take lot Of beat
Ing on the score Of singularity. 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 sud-
den attacks of theAdreaded head-hunt
els, 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 a 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 clearing on shore, and the town
contains not a single inhabitant. But
on the arrival of winter, when the lake
is frozen over with thick coating of
ttn .,f+ !,
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 ex-
tlaordinary town is once more broken
UP. the shanties go back to their rest
4 ing place, and the fishermen scatter
! over the country. This place even
boasts a curing factory and church,
not to mention several saloons-all on
| the ice.
Athos, a town situated on 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 a score or
SO OF monasteries are dotted about the
fougn hill sides or the valleys. In
! these establishments dwell numerous
body of ascetics, kind and hospitable
to wanderers, but full of superstition,
and believing in the doctrine of separ-
alton to wonderful degree
| The actual town, as distinct from it's
monastic enyirons, is called Caryes,
and supplies the Simple wants of the
monks. Here are to be found streets
or shops crowded bazaars, fiourishing
trades and all the hustle and energy
OF a modern town. But one thing soon
strikes the visitor as strange. There
is not female to be seen anywhere,
Tor the gentler sex is vigorously ban.
lshed from the place. Even the small
Turkish garrison, from the commando
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 birds is
ever brought to table; the fowl one
mas Tor dinner is sure to be cockerel.
For this unparalleled state of affairs.
there is only a legend to account. AL
though to our practical minds flimsy
to degree, it is implicitly believed in
oy the inhabitants. 1t appears that in
one OF the chief monasteries on the
promonotory there is a miraculous
icon, which is picture or image sa-
cred to members of the Russo-G Greek
church. This particular picture is a
representation of the Virgin, and the
legend says that one day as the EN-
press Pulcheria, who had literally en-
doWed the church, as we'll as beauti-
ned and restored it. was engaged in
her deyotions. 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. saw
ing that the feet of a woman should
never again tread the floor. The En-
press, probably surprised at the seem
ing ingratitude of the speech, as well
as aWe-shuck, left the place, which no
female has since entered. How the
prohibition thus arbitrarily establish
ed 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 urpass.-Household
Words.