Evening star., 1935-06-11

FRAGMENTS of the story" says DR..
Coomaraswamy. will be recognized
in the dogmatic life of every mes
siah-in the miracles, for example.
attributed to Cuehullain, Buddha and
Moses. Other fragments survive in
fairy tales, and even in nursery
rhymes-as in the story, for example,
of the human hero who crosses water
or climbs a tree and thus returns
to the magical other world, where he
rescues or carries of the imprisoned
daughter Of a giant or magician, and
in the stories of mermaids or Undines
who fail in love with a mortal, acquire
a soul and feet in place of their scaly
tails"
Twenty expeditions were conducted
under the auspices Of the Smithsonian
Institution during the past year.
The most adventurous was that Of
the Rev David C. Graham in the
high mountain regions OF the Szech-
wan Province of China, where he
made extensive natural history col
lections, including such rare animals
as the golden-haired monkey, the giant
panda, the blue sheep, the horse
tailed deer and the Chinese red wolf
In order to get into the mountains at
all Mr.. Graham and his native as
Sistants had to run q gantlet of fire
in the formless civil war that was
going on n the district. In the
mountains the country was so rough
that at times it was necessary to
crawl forward on hands and knees in
order to make any progress at all. At
an elevation Of 1890 feet the party
subs1sted largely on wild vegetables,
fruits and birds.
DR.. Hugh M. Smith, a Smithsonian
associate and former fisheries adviser
to the Siamese government, pene-
trated the wild country at the head
of the Pask River, the land Of the
mysterious "Savages of the Yellow
Leaf" They are thus known to the
Siamese because Of their crude shell
tiers of leafy bo1ghs, which are aban-
doned as soon as the leaves turn
yellow. These people have seldom
been SEEN Sometimes, however, they
barter with the surrounding Laos,
depositing honey, skins and other
jungle produce at certain spots in
the forest and receiving salt, tobacco
and iron in return. DR.. Smith col
lected rare birds and several new
species of fishes.
g. w. Bishop, assistant curator of
the Freer Gallery of Art, tells in the
recent explorations. report of the in
stitution of careful archaeological
reconnaissance in China over an
area approximately 500 miles in
length by nearly 200 in breadth. One
habitation site dating from the late
Stone Age in this part Of the world
was excavated.
American death rate in 1884, accord
ing to a report just issued by the
Public Health Service. It was 10.9
per thousand, as contrasted with los
the year before. However small the
increase, it was widespread. A higher
death rate was reported by % out of
the % Stases upon which the NOR
tality tables are based. :
Part OF the increase, according to
the Public Health Service report, was
due undoubtedly to the high NOR
tality of whooping cough and measles,
especially when they became compli-
Gated by pneumonia. Diseases Of the
heart continued an upward trend,
with a considerably greater death rate
increase than during the five pre-
ceding years. There was also the
highest cancer death rate, 10S per
100000.
Tuberculosis, despite the unfavor-
able economic conditions, continued
to decline. There were as per cent
fewer deaths from this cause than In
the preceding year.