Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1899-09-15
SOME QUEER TOWNS.
ONE is BUILT ON THE OCEAN
ANOTHER ON THE ICE,

'~0ssssU Wv Ute ISEs
Migratory Fishing Villages on Lake Huron-ln
Athos There is Not Female to be Found
The Mountain of the Monks-A Curious
Law.
Household Words.
The marine village OF Tupuselei, in
New Guinea, would stand lot of con.
test 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 po-
sition is to protect the inhabitants
against sudden attacks 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
without name ON one of the arms of
Lake Huron. This consists of some
500 wooden huts. During the sum-
mer these little dwellings are hidden
away in a 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 coat
ing OF ice, the owners Of the huts ar
rive, 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,
carrying on their operations until the
spring releases the lake from its icy
bonds, when this extraordinary town
is once more broken up, the shanties
60 back to their resting place, and the
fishermen scatter over the country
This place even boasts OF curing fac
tory and church, not to mention sew
eral saloons-all on the ice.
Athos, town situated on promon-
tory on the coast of Macedonia, we'll
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 hill-sides or the valleys. In
these establishments dwell q numer-
Gus body OF ascetics, kind and hospit-
able to wanderers, but full of supersti-
ton, and believing in the doctrine of
separation to a 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 bazaars, flourishing
trades and all the hustle and energy of
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 birds are
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 be-
lieved in by the inhabitants. 1t ap-
pears that in one of the chief monas-
teries on the promontory there is a
miraculous icon, which is picture or
image sacred to members OF the Rus.
so-Greek Church. This particular
picture is q representation of the Vir-
gin, and the legend says that one day
as the Empress Pulcheria, who had
literally endowed the church, as we'll
as beautitied and restored it, was en-
gagged in her devotions, the Virgin
spoke, asking 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 q wo-
man should never again tread the
floor. The Empress, probably sur
prised at the seeming ingratitude of
the speech, as we'll as awe-struck, left
the place, which no female has since
entered. How the prohibition thus
arbitrarily established came to COM
prehend 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.
A Great Moral Lesson.
Puck.