Semi=weekly graphic., 1899-11-11


 The marine village of Tupuselei ;n New Guinea, would take a sgl ef 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 the dreaded head hunt CTS, who are always on the lookout for victims. Other villages In this happy land are perched up in all but inac. eessible trees, for the same weighty reason.
 Another curious place is a town without name on one of the arms of Lake Huron. This consists of some 800 wooden huts During the summer these little dwellings are hidden away in clearing on shore, and the town contains not single inhabitant 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 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 their operations until the spring releases the lake from it's icy bonds, when this ex. traordinary town is once more broken up, the shanties go back to their rest 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, town situated on a promon- tory 0p 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 O. so of monasteries are dotted about the rough hillsides or the valleys. In these establishments dwell a numerous body of asceties, kind and hospitable to wanderers, but full of superstition. and believing in the doctrine of separation to a 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 of shops, crowded bazars, aourishing trades and ali the hustle and energy of modern town. But one thing soon strikes the visitor as strange. There {r nf lo ha boT 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 legend to account. AL though to our practical minds 1imsy to 8 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- ton of the Virgin and the legend says that one day as the Empress Puleheria who had literally endowed the church, as we'll as beautified and restored 1t, wac an pa ped in her dey0ti0nS the Vlr- gin spoke, asking what she, 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 woman should never again tread the floor. The empress, probably surprised at the seeming ingratitude of the speech, as we'll as awe-struck, left the place. which no female has since en- tered. How the prohibition thus ar bitrarily established came to compre- bend the length and breadth of the promontory is not very clear. AS residence for bashful bachelors we should imagine Athos would be hard ts surpass.
 Ohfcers Don't Like It.
 Officers of the regular army are greatly disturbed over clause in the army bill. It provides that mo officer