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National Aeronautics and Space Administration Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center Houston, Texas 77058 AC 713 483-5111

Rh Kari Fluegel RELEASE NO. 90-041

Since before Neil Armstrong made his leap for mankind, NASA technology has been spinning back to the American people, returning to the private sector its investment in space.

More than 32,000 products using space technology have found their way into American homes, hospitals, factories and schools. A popular brand of sunglasses uses technology from space helmet visor advances and fabric building materials like that covering the Pontiac Silverdome has spunoff of space suit advances. Even a brand of jogging shoes evolved from knowledge gleaned while designing the moon boots Armstrong used for his famous leap.

NASA's commitment to technology transfer dates back to 1958 when Congress mandated through the Space Act that the country's space agency have "the widest practical and appropriate dissemination of information on new technology."

That dissemination of information is continuing as NASA starts a new decade of exploration. Electrocardiograph sensor technology now is being used in exercise systems. Microminiaturized fluid control systems have been adapted for an implantable insulin delivery system freeing diabetics from daily injections. And intelligent training systems used to prepare NASA flight controllers are being adapted to teach high school students physics and prison inmates how to read. Each year 900 new technology spinoffs from all areas of life are reported to NASA's Technology Utilization Office.

"This technology already exists," said Dean Glenn, Technology Utilization Officer at the Johnson Space Center. "The taxpayers have paid for the development of these technologies. These types of transfers not only help a variety of people, they allow the United States to be competitive in the international marketplace."

A video regarding technology utilization (CMP 117617) is available from the Johnson Space Center Public Affairs Office at (713) 483-5111.

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 Fairy-knowe, and, leaving all other things to the charge of Lady Emily's servant, his first care, was dedicated to the flowers which he had taken wider his special protection, and which he propped, dag, and watered, prosing all the while upon their respective merits to poor Jenny, who stood by him trembling, and almost crying with anxiety, fear, and impatience.

Fate seemed determined to win a match against Jenny this unfortunate morning. So soon as the ladies entered the house, they observed that the door of the little parlour, the very apartment out of which she was desirous of excluding them on account of its contiguity to the room in which Morton slept, was not only unlocked, but absolutely ajar. Miss Bellenden was too much engaged with her own immediate subjects of reflection to take much notice of the circumstance, but, commanding the servant to open the window-shutters, walked into the room along with her friend.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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Rh Her aunt, being the only unattached member of the family, was coming to keep house for her father when she left him. The reference was not a happy one, and Mr. Lucas commenced a series of half articulate sighs, which was only stopped by the arrival of the post.

"Oh, what a parcel!" cried Ethel. "For me! What can it be! Greek stamps. This is most exciting!"

It proved to be some asphodel bulbs, sent by Mrs. Forman from Athens for planting in the conservatory.

"Doesn't it bring it all back! You remember the asphodels, father. And all wrapped up in Greek newspapers. I wonder if I can read them still. I used to be able to, you know."

She rattled on, hoping to conceal the laughter of the children next door—a favourite source of querulousness at breakfast time.

"Listen to me! 'A rural disaster.' Oh, I've hit on something sad. But never mind. 'Last Tuesday at Plataniste, in the province of messenia, a shocking tragedy occurred. A large tree'—aren't I getting on well?—'blew down in the night and'—wait a minute—oh, dear! 'crushed to death the five occupants of the little Khan there, who had apparently been sitting


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 "He is not yet come," she said. "What can your brother possibly mean?—Why express so anxious a wish that we should meet him here? And why not come to Castle-Dinnan, as he proposed? I own, my dear Emily, that, even engaged as we are to each other, and with the sanction of your presence, I do not feel that I have done quite right in indulging him."

"Evandale was never capricious," answered his sister; "I am sure he will satisfy us with his reasons, and if he does not, I will help you to scold him."

"What I chiefly fear," said Edith, "is his having engaged in some of the plots of this fluctuating and unhappy time. I know his heart is with that dreadful Claverhouse and his army, and I believe he would have joined them ere now but for my, uncle's death, which gave him so much additional trouble on our account. How singular that one so rational and so deeply sensible of the errors of the exiled family, should be ready to risk all for their restoration!"


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 "What can I say?" answered Lady Emily; "it is a point of honour with Evandale. Our family have always been loyal—he served long in the Guards—the Viscount of Dundee was his commander and his friend for years—he is looked on with an evil eye by many of his own relations, who set down his inactivity to the score of want of spirit. You must be aware, my dear Edith, how often family connections, and early predilections, influence our actions more than abstract arguments. But I trust Evandale will continue quiet, though, to tell you truth, I believe you are the only one who can keep him so."

"And how is it in my power?" said Miss Bellenden.

"You can furnish him with the scriptural apology for not going forth with the host,—'he has married a wife, and therefore cannot come.'"

"I have promised," said Edith, in a faint voice; "but I trust I shall not be urged on the score of time."


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Rh in the balcony. The bodies of Maria Rhomaides, the aged proprietress, and of her daughter, aged forty-six, were easily recognizable, whereas that of her grandson'—oh, the rest is really too horrid; I wish I had never tried it, and what's more I feel to have heard the name Plataniste before. We didn't stop there, did we, in the spring?"

"We had lunch," said Mr. Lucas, with a faint expression of trouble on his vacant face. "Perhaps it was where the dragoman bought the pig."

"Of course," said Ethel in a nervous voice. "Where the dragoman bought the little pig. How terrible!"

"Very terrible!" said her father, whose attention was wandering to the noisy children next door. Ethel suddenly started to her feet with genuine interest.

"Good gracious!" she exclaimed. "This is an old paper. It happened not lately but in April—the night of Tuesday the eighteenth—and we—we must have been there in the afternoon."

"So we were," said Mr. Lucas. She put her hand to her heart, scarcely able to speak.

"Father, dear father, I must say it: you


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 "Nay," said Lady Emily, "I will leave Evandale (and here he comes) to plead his own cause."

"Stay, stay, for God's sake," said Edith, endeavouring to detain her.

"Not I, not I," said the young lady, making her escape; "the third person makes a silly figure on such occasions. When you want me for breakfast, I will be found in the willow-walk by the river."

As she tripped out of the room, Lord Evandale entered—"Good-morrow, brother, and goodbye till breakfast-time," said the lively young lady; "I trust you will give Miss Bellenden some good reasons for disturbing her rest so early in the morning."

And so saying, she left them together without waiting a reply.

"And now, my Lord," said Edith, "may I desire to know the meaning of your singular request to meet you here at so early an hour?"

She was about to add, that she hardly felt herself excuseable in having complied


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 with it, but, upon looking at the person whom she addressed, she was struck dumb by the singular and agitated expression of his countenance, and interrupted herself to exclaim—"For God's sake, what is the matter?"

"His Majesty's faithful subjects have gained a great and most decisive victory near Blair of Athole; but, alas! my gallant friend, Lord Dundee"

"Has fallen?" said Edith, anticipating the rest of his tidings.

"True—most true—he has fallen in the arms of victory, and not a man remains of talents and influence sufficient to fill up his loss in King James's service. This, Edith, is no time for temporizing with our duty. I have given directions to raise my followers, and I must take leave of you this evening."

"Do not think of it, my Lord," answerad Edith; "your life is essential to your friends; do not throw it away in an adven-


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Page:JSC News Release Log 1990.pdf/86

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center Houston, Texas 77058 AC 713 483-5111

Rh Barbara Schwartz Release No. 90-042

Astronaut McCulley to Retire from the Navy and Leave NASA

Astronaut Michael J. McCulley (Captain, USN) is retiring from the Navy and leaving NASA in early October after the STS-41 Ulysses launch.

McCulley has accepted the position of Vice President and Deputy Director, KSC — Launch Site, with Lockheed Space Operations Company. "I am not changing teams with this move, only my position on the team," McCulley said. McCulley will be heavily involved in the day-to-day processing of Space Shuttle vehicles in his new position.

McCulley was the pilot on mission STS-34 during which the crew successfully deployed the Galileo spacecraft for its journey to explore Jupiter. Selected by NASA in May 1984, McCulley has served as the Astronaut Office weather coordinator, the flight crew representative to the Shuttle Program Requirements Control Board, Technical Assistant to the Director of Flight Crew Operations, and currently, as lead of the Astronaut Support Team at the Kennedy Space Center.

Regarding McCulley's decision to retire, Director of Flight Crew Operations Donald R. Puddy said, "Mike has always been a top-notch performer in every way. Both as a pilot and as a technical expert, he has made significant contributions to the Shuttle Program and to my office. We will miss him here at JSC, put his experience and expertise will be extremely valuable in his new position."

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Gentiana.]

4. G. chathamica, Cheesem. n. sp.—Annual, 6–12 in. high; main stem stout or slender, erect, with or without several shorter and weaker branches springing from the base and usually decumbent below. Radical leaves variable in size, ½–1¼ in. long, narrowed into short petioles or almost sessile, ovate-spathulate or oblong-spathulate to broadly oblong, obtuse, rather thin; cauline 1 or 2 pairs, ovate or oblong, sessile with a broad often almost cordate base. Flowers small, ⅓–½ in. long, white, sometimes vemed with pink, arranged in several 3–12-flowered umbels terminating the stem and its branches, each umbel with an involucre of 3–5 whorled bracts; pedicels usually longer than the bracts. Calyx about three-quarters the length of the corolla, divided about threequarters way down; lobes linear-oblong, obtuse. Corolla narrowcampanulate, divided two-thirds way down; lobes oblong or oblong-obovate. rounded at the tip. Ovary linear-oblong, sessile.—G. pleurogynoides var. umbellata. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvii. (1895) 335.

5. G. corymbifera, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvii. (1895) 336.—Usually perennial, but often dying after flowering. Root stout, long and tapering. Stems simple or rarely branched from the base, stout, erect, terete, 6–20 in. high. Radical leaves numerous, rosulate, 1–4 in. long, ¼–¾ in. broad, narrow oblong-spathulate or lanceolate-spathulate, obtuse or acute, narrowed into a short or long petiole, blade often channelled above, 1–3-nerved, coria-


text: JSC News Release Log 1990/90-002

title: JSC News Release Log 1990/90-002


text: JSC News Release Log 1990/90-003

title: JSC News Release Log 1990/90-003


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This image was copied from commons:commons. The original description was:

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text: JSC News Release Log 1990/90-004

title: JSC News Release Log 1990/90-004


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Paradise swung open as Satan, cheated of his prey, sank yelling into the Pit. But alas! there is no such word: nothing but a pagan Epicureanism even in the jaws of death.}}


text: JSC News Release Log 1990/90-005

title: JSC News Release Log 1990/90-005


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text: Index:משנה תורה דפוס ווארשא-ווילנא כרך ראשון 1.pdf


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User talk:HelpmeJESUSCHRIST

Unfortunately, this user name is not acceptable per Wikimedia policy. Please, choose a different name. --Jan Kameníček (talk) 20:15, 17 November 2023 (UTC)

title: User talk:HelpmeJESUSCHRIST


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Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/490

450 ceous, rather thick and fleshy when fresh. Cauline leaves one or two pairs, seldom more, ¾–2 in. long, linear-lanceolate or linearoblong, sessile. Flowers large, ½–¾ in. diam., white, in large compact terminal umbels or cymes 2–6 in. diam. or more; pedicels slender. Calyx short, often less than one-half the length of the corolla, campanulate, divided from ⅓ to ½ way down, rarely more; lobes lanceolate-deltoid, acute or acuminate. Corolla divided about two-thirds way down; lobes broadly oblong, rounded at the tip. Ovary stipitate.—G. saxosa var. y, ''Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 191. G. pleurogynoides var. rigida. ''Kirk. in Trans. N.Z. Inst.'' xxvii. (1895) 335.

6. G. Townsoni, Cheesem. n. sp.—Perennial; root slender, woody, often branched at the top. Flowering stems usually single, rarely 2 or 3 from the root or branched from the base, erect, slender, wiry, 6–20 in. high. Leaves almost black when dry; radical very numerous, crowded at the base of the stem, spreading or ascending, small for the size of the plant, ½–1½ in. long, ⅙–⅓ in, broad, ovate-lanceolate or trowel-shaped to linear-lanceolate, narrowed into a rather slender petiole, coriaceous or almost fleshy, subacute or obtuse. Cauline leaves in 2–5 remote pairs, ascending, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, sessile, subacute. Flowers white, large, ¾ in. diam. or more, in 5–12-flowered terminal cymes or umbels; pedicels slender; bracts usually whorled. Calyx about half the length of the corolla, cut about three-quarters way down; lobes lanceolate, acute. Corolla deeply divided; lobes broadly oblong, rounded at the tip.—G. saxosa var. pleurogynoides, Hook, f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 178, in part. G. pleurogynoides, ''Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 190, in part (not of Griseb.)''.

Nelson—Bidwill (n. 67 in Herb. Kew, fide N. E. Brown); coast ranges near Westport, Mount Frederic, Mount Rochfort, Mount Buckland, &c., Townson! Sounds of the south-west coast of Otago, Lyall (fide N. E. Brown). 1000–4000 ft. January–March.

A very beautiful plant, easily recognised by the tall slender strict stems, small uniform crowded leaves, which are almost black when dry, remote ascending cauline leaves, and rather dense umbels of large flowers. I have seen no specimens but Mr. Townson's, from which the above description is drawn up;


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User talk:2601:8C0:A01:7F80:C594:CED1:435E:F21B

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Catholic Encyclopedia
Thanks very much for your contribution to Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Diocese of Brooklyn, but it had to be removed, because the added text is not present in the original version of the encyclopedia, see Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2.djvu/883. --Jan Kameníček (talk) 20:27, 17 November 2023 (UTC)


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Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/491

Gentiana.] but Mr. Brown informs me that specimens collected by Bidwill and Lyall are in the Kew Herbarium, and that together with another form with long leaves it makes up the principal part of the G. pleurogynoides of the Handbook (but not of Grisebach). This long-leaved plant Mr. Brown is inclined to unite with G. Townsoni, but for the present I have placed it in my G. patula.

7. G. montana, Forst. Prodr. n. 133.—Perennial; rootstock stout and woody, often branched at the top. Flowering stems one or several, simple, terete, very tall and stout, 10–24 in. high. Radical leaves usually very numerous, densely crowded, spreading, ¾–1½ in. long, ⅓–¾ in. broad, broadly obovate-spathulate, rounded at the tip or subacute, gradually narrowed into a broad flat petiole, 3–5-nerved, coriaceous, rather thick and fleshy when fresh. Cauline leaves in 2–6 opposite pairs, sessile, broadly ovate or oblong, 3–5-nerved or in large specimens 7-nerved, acute or subacute, often cordate at the base. Flowers very large, white, often ¾–1 in. diam., in broad many-flowered umbels or cymes 2–4 in. across; pedicels long, slender; bracts broad, usually whorled. Calyx from one-half to nearly two-thirds the length of the corolla, cut three-quarters way down; lobes lanceolate, acute. Corolla deeply divided; lobes broadly oblong or obovate, rounded at the tip.—''A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 203; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 399 (but not of Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 178, nor of Handb. N.Z. Fl. 190)''.

Var. stolonifera.—Much more slender, 8–16 in. high; stem with long creeping stolons at the base. Radical leaves 1–3 in. long, oblong- or elliptical-spathulate, rather thin; petiole more slender, as long as the blade. Flowers fewer, ½–¾ in. diam., white with purple streaks.

Nelson—Mount Frederic, Mount Rochfort, Mount Buckland, and other peaks on the coast ranges near Westport, abundant, W. Townson! Otago—Dusky Sound, Forster, Anderson, Lyall. 2000–4000 ft. January–March.

At the time of the publication of the Flora and Handbook there was no authentic specimen of G. montana at Kew, and Forster's original diagnosis is so short and scanty that the position of the species was quite conjectural. Hooker applied the name to the slender annual plant with linear-subulate calyx-lobes originally described by him in the "Icones Plantarum" as G. Grisebachii, and for many years this determination was acquiesced in by New Zealand botanists. But a set of Forster's plants now exists at Kew, and another in the British Museum Herbarium. Mr. N. E. Brown, who has critically examined for me the New Zealand Gentians preserved in both collections, informs me that Forster's types of G. montana represent an altogether different plant to G. Grisebachii, but that they agree with specimens collected in Dusky Sound by Anderson during Cook's third voyage, and subsequently in the same locality by Lyall. I am indebted to Mr. Brown for tracings of Forster's two specimens, which appear to be the only ones extant in England, and also of three of Lyall's. Forster's are far from good; but Lyall's correspond so closely with a plant collected on the coast ranges near Westport by Townson that I can hardly doubt their being identical, although the Westport specimens are rather larger and stouter. Both agree in the numerous crowded obovate-spathulate radical leaves, and the short and broad cauline leaves, which are sessile and cordate at the base, and the inflorescence is practically the same. And both agree fairly well with the description given in A. Richard's "Flore de la


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as are the incidental miseries and dangers surrounding death to all the people in the village in which a death occurs, undoubtedly those who suffer most are the widows of a chief or free man.

The uniform custom among both Negroes and Bantus is that those who escape execution on the charge of having witched the husband to death, shall remain in a state of filth and abasement, not even removing vermin from themselves, until after the soul-burial is complete—the soul of the dead man being regarded as hanging about them and liable to be injured. Therefore, also to the end of preventing his soul from getting damaged, they are confined to their huts; this latter restriction is not rigidly enforced, but it is held theoretically to be the correct thing.

They maintain the attitude of grief and abasement, sitting on the ground, eating but little food, and that of a coarse kind. In Calabar their legal rights over property, such as slaves, are meanwhile considerably in abeyance, and they are put to great expense during the time the spirit is awaiting burial. They have to keep watch, two at a time, in the hut, when the body is buried, keeping lights burning, and they have to pay out of their separate estate for the entertainment of all the friends of the deceased who come to pay him


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452 Nouvelle Zélande," which is professedly taken from Forster's manuscripts. Probably the species will be found in suitable localities along the wnole of the western coast, from the Karamea River and Westport to Dusky Sound.

8. G. patula, Cheesem. n. sp.—Usually perennial; root stout or slender. Stems one or several from the root, often decumbent at the base, erect above, simple or branched, 5–20 in. high. Radical leaves usually numerous, 1–3 in long, oblong-spathulate or lanceolate-spathulate, rarely broader and ovate-spathulate, acute or obtuse, coriaceous or slightly membranous. Cauline leaves in 1–5 opposite pairs, oblong or linear-oblong or lanceolate, sessile. Flowers large, ¾–1 in. diam., white, in few- or many-flowered terminal umbels or corymbose cymes. Calyx divided nearly three-quarters way down; lobes linear-oblong, acute or obtuse. Corolla deeply divided; lobes oblong or broadly oblong, rounded at the tip.—G. saxosa var. b, ''Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 191. G. bellidifolia var. patula, Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvii. (1895) 336.

9. G. bellidifolia, ''Hook. f. in Hook. Ic. Plant.'' i. 635.—Perennial; variable in size and habit, the typical form with a stout fusiform root crowned with numerous short densely compacted stems, the flowering ones few or many, 1–6 in. high. Radical leaves numerous, crowded, rosulate, ½–1½ in. long, spathulate or linear-spathulate, obtuse, narrowed into a short petiole, coriaceous or fleshy, nerves usually indistinct. Cauline leaves few, distant, linear-oblong to linear-obovate, obtuse, sessile, often recurved. Flowers large, white, ⅔–¾ in. diam. or even more, terminal, solitary or in 2–6-flowered cymes. Calyx one-half the length of the corolla or shorter; lobes linear-oblong to elliptic-ovate, subacute. Corolla divided three-quarters way down; lobes obovate-oblong, rounded at the tip. Ovary shortly stipitate.—Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvii. (1895) 336. G. saxosa var. a, ''Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 191 (not of Forst.)''.


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 compliment; and if he has been an important man, a big man, the whole district will come, not in a squadron, but just when it suits them, exactly as if they were calling on a live friend. Thus it often happens that even a big woman is bankrupt by the expense. I will not go into the legal bearings of the case here, for they are intricate, and, to a great extent, only interesting to a student of Negro law.

The Bantu women occupy a far inferior position in regard to the rights of property to that held by the Negro women.

The disposal of wives after the death of the husband among the M'pongwe and Igalwa is a subject full of interest; but it is, like most of their law, very complicated. The brothers of the deceased are supposed to take them—the younger brother may not marry the elder brother's widows, but the elder brothers may marry those of the younger brother. Should any of the women object to the arrangement, they may "leave the family."

I own that the ground principle of African law practically is "the simple plan that they should take who have the power, and they should keep who can," and this tells particularly against women and children who have not got living, powerful relations of their own. Unless the children of a man are grown up and sufficiently powerful on their own account, they have little chance of sharing in the distribution of his estate; but in spite of this abuse of power there is among Negroes and Bantus a definite and acknowledged law, to which an appeal can be made by persons of all classes, provided they have the wherewithal to set the machinery of it in motion. The difficulty the children and widows have in sharing in the distribution of the estate of the father and husband arises, I fancy, in the principle of the husband's brothers being the true heir, which has sunk into a fossilised state near the trading stations in the face of the white culture. The reason for this inheritance of goods passing from the man to his brother by the same mother has no doubt for one of its origins the recognition of the fact that the brother by the same mother must be a near relation, whereas, in spite of the strict laws against adultery, the relationship to you of the children born of your wives is not so certain. Nevertheless


text: Clouds without Water

title: Clouds without Water


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Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/493

Gentiana.] 10. G. divisa, Cheesem. n. sp.—Stems slender, erect, excessively branched from the base, often forming hemispherical masses 2–6 in. diam. Radical leaves very numerous, rosulate, 1–3 in. long, oblong- or obovate-spathulate, rounded at the tip, gradually narrowed into broad flat petioles, usually rather thin and membranous, 3–5-nerved. Cauline leaves similar but smaller and on shorter petioles or the uppermost sessile. Flowers very numerous, in dense or lax corymbose cymes, sometimes almost concealing the leaves, about ¾ in. diam., white. Calyx rather more than one-half the length of the corolla, divided three-quarters of the way down or more; lobes linear-oblong, obtuse or subacute. Corolla deeply divided; lobes oblong, rounded at the tip.—G. bellidioides, var. divisa and var. vacillata, Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvii. (1895) 337.

11. G. Spenceri, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvii. (1895) 335.—Annual; stems few or many from the root, slender, erect, 4–10 in. high. Radical leaves numerous, rosulate, 1–2 in. long, broadly ovate- or obovate-spathulate, rounded at the tip, narrowed into a broad petiole as long or longer than the blade, 3- or rarely 5-nerved; cauline few, rather narrower and with shorter petioles. Flowers ⅓–½ in. long, white or white streaked with purple veins, in dense 5–12-flowered umbels, each stem usually with a terminal umbel and 2 lateral ones springing from a pair of leaves half-way down; umbels surrounded by a whorl of 5–7 oblong-spathulate leaves overtopping the flowers and forming a kind of involucre; pedicels short. Calyx cut down almost to the base; lobes linear, acute. Corolla hardly longer than the calyx, divided about ⅔-way down; lobes linear-oblong, obtuse.


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Upon which it may be observed, that $$\lambda\;v + \lambda\;{}_\prime a$$, the sum of the first two logarithms that are employed in determining $$\text{A}$$ from $${}'\!\text{A}$$, also enters the operation whereby $$\text{AB}$$ is determined from $${}'\!(\text{AB})$$. And that $$ \lambda\;v + \lambda\;{}_\prime a + \lambda\;{}_\prime b$$, the sum of the first three logarithms that serve to determine $$\text{AB}$$ from $${}'\!(\text{AB})$$, is also required to determine $$\text{ABC}$$ from $${}'\!(\text{ABC})$$; which observation may be extended in a similar manner to any greater number of joint lives.

154. By these means it is easy to complete a table of the values of annuities on single lives of all ages; beginning with the oldest in the table, and proceeding regularly age by age to the youngest.

Also a table of the values of any number of joint lives, the lives in each succeeding combination, in any one series of operations, (according to the retrograde order of the ages in which they are computed), being one year younger respectively than those in the preceding combination.

And, if a table of single lives be computed first, then of two joint lives, next of three joint lives, and so on; the calculations made for the preceding tables will be of great use for the succeeding.

155. Having shown how to compute tables of the values of annuities on single and joint lives, we shall, in what follows, always suppose those values to be given.

156. Let the value of an annuity on the joint continuance of any number of lives, A, B, C, &c. that is not to be entered upon until the expiration of $$t$$ years be denoted by $${}_{\neg t}\!(\text{ABC }\&{c.})$$

Then, if it were certain that all the lives would survive the term, since the value of the annuity at the expiration of the term would be $${}^t\!(\text{ABC }\&{c.})$$, (145), its present value would be $$v^t \cdot {}^t\!(\text{ABC }\&{c.})$$, (146).

But the measure of the probability that all the lives will survive the term is $${}_t\!(abc\ \&\text{c.})$$, therefore $${}_{\neg t}\!(\text{ABC }\&{c.}) = {}_t\!(abc\ \&\text{c.}) v^t\,.\,{}^t\!\text{ABC }\&{c.})$$.

In the same manner, it appears, that for a single life A, $${}_{\neg t}\!\text{A} = {}_t\!a v^t\,.\,{}^t\!\text{A}$$.

157. Let an annuity for the term of $$t$$ years only, dependent upon the joint continuance of any number of lives, A, B, C, &c. be denoted by $${}_{t\urcorner}\!(\text{ABC }\&\text{c.})$$; and, since this temporary annuity, together with an annuity on the joint continuance of the same lives deferred for the same term, will evidently be of the same value as an annuity to be entered upon immediately, and enjoyed during their whole joint continuance, we have $${}_{t\urcorner}\!(\text{ABC }\&\text{c.}) + {}_{\neg t}\!(\text{ABC }\&{c.}) = \text{ABC }\&\text{c.}$$; whence, $${}_{t\urcorner}\!(\text{ABC }\&\text{c.}) = \text{ABC }\&\text{c.} - {}_{\neg t}\!(\text{ABC }\&{c.})$$.

And for a single life A, $${}_{t\urcorner}\!\text{A} = \text{A} - {}_{\neg t}\!\text{A}$$.

158. To determine the present value of an annuity on the survivor of the two lives A and B, (155), which we designate thus, $$\overline{\text{AB}}$$.

The probability that the survivor of these two lives will outlive the term of $$n$$ years, was shown in No. 141, to be $${}_n\!a + {}_n\!b - {}_n\!(ab)$$; therefore, reasoning as in No. 146, it will be found, that the present value of the $$n$$th year’s rent of this annuity is $$\left [ {}_n\!a + b - {}_n\!(ab) \right ] v^n$$, and the value of all the rents thereof will be $$S\left [ {}_n\!a + b - {}_n\!(ab) \right ] v^n$$ or $$S {}_n\!av^n + S {}_n\!bv^n - S {}_n\!(ab)v^n$$; so that $$\overline{\text{AB}} = \text{A} + \text{B} - \text{AB}$$ (147), agreeably to No. 48.

159. To determine the present value of an annuity on the last survivor of three lives, A, B, and C, (155); which we denote thus, $$\overline{\text{ABC}}$$.

The present value of the $$n$$th year’s rent is $$\left [ {}_n\!a + {}_n\!b + {}_n\!c - {}_n\!(ab) - {}_n\!(ac) - {}_n\!(bc) + {}_n\!(abc) \right ] v^n$$ (142 and 146); whence, it appears, as in the preceding number, that $$\overline{\text{ABC}} = \text{A} + \text{B} + \text{C} - \text{AB} - \text{AC} - \text{BC} + \text{ABC}$$, agreeably to No. 52.

160. To determine the present value of an annuity on the joint existence of the last two survivors out of three lives, A, B, C, (155); which we denote thus, $$\overset{2}{\overline{\text{ABC}}}$$:

The present value of the $$n$$th year's rent is $$\left [{}_n\!(ab) + {}_n\!(ac) + {}_n\!(bc) - 2 {}_n\!(abc) \right ] v^n$$ (143 and 146); whence, reasoning as in the two preceding numbers, we infer, that $$\overset{2}{\overline{\text{ABC}}} = \text{AB} + \text{AC} + \text{BC} - 2\text{ABC}$$, as was demonstrated otherwise in No. 51.

161. Since the solutions of the last three problems were all obtained by showing each year’s rent (as for instance the $$n$$th) of the annuity in question, to be of the same value with the aggregate of the rents for the same year, of all the annuities (taken with their proper signs) on the single and joint lives exhibited in the resulting formula: if any term of years be assigned, it is manifest that the value of such annuity for the term, must be the same as that of the aggregate of the annuities above mentioned, each for the same term.

162. A and B being any two proposed lives now both existing, to determine the present value of an annuity receivable only while A survives B.


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 this is one of the obvious and easy explanations for things it is well to exercise great care before accepting, for you must always remember that the African's mind does not run on identical lines with the European—what may be self-evident to you is not so to him, and vice versa. I have frequently heard African metaphysicians complain that white men make great jumps in their thought-course, and do not follow an idea step by step. You soon become conscious of the careful way a Negro follows his idea. Certain customs of his you can, by the exercise of great patience, trace back in a perfectly smooth line from their source in some natural phenomenon. Others, of course, you cannot, the traces of the intervening steps of the idea having been lost, owing partly to the veneration in which old customs are held, which causes them to regard the fact that their fathers had this fashion as reason enough for their having it, and above all to the total absence of all but oral tradition. But so great a faith have I in the lack of inventive power in the African, that I feel sure all their customs, had we the material that has slipped down into the great swamp of time, could be traced back either, as I have said, to some natural phenomenon, or to the thing being advisable, for reasons of utility.

The uncertainty in the parentage of offspring may seem to be such a utilitarian underlying principle, but, on the other hand, it does not sufficiently explain the varied forms of the law of inheritance, for in some tribes the eldest or most influential son does succeed to his father's wealth; in other places you have the peculiar custom of the chief slave inheriting. I think, from these things, that the underlying idea in inheritance of property is the desire to keep the wealth of "the house," i.e., estate, together, and if it were allowed to pass into the hands of weak people, like women and young children, this would not be done. Another strong argument against the theory that it arises from the doubtful relationship of the son, is that certain ju-ju always go to the son of the chief wife, if he is old enough, at the time of the father's death, even in those tribes where the wealth goes elsewhere.

Certain tribes acknowledge the right of the women and children to share in the dead man's wealth, given that these


text: Clouds without Water/Preface

title: Clouds without Water/Preface


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 are legally married wives, or the children of legally married wives; it is so in Cameroons, for example. An esteemed friend of mine who helps to manage things for the Fatherland down there was trying a palaver the other day with a patience peculiar to him, and that intelligent and elaborate care I should think only a mind trained on the methods of German metaphysicians could impart into that most wearisome of proceedings, wherein every one says the same thing over fourteen different times at least, with a similar voice and gesture, the only variation being in the statements regarding the important points, and the facts of the case, these varying with each individual. This palaver was made by a son claiming to inherit part of his father's property; at last, to the astonishment, and, of course, the horror, of the learned judge, the defendant, the wicked uncle, pleaded through the interpreter, "This man cannot inherit his father's property, because his parents married for love." There is no encouragement to foolishness of this kind in Cameroon, where legal marriage consists in purchase.

In Bonny River and in Opobo the inheritance of "the house" is settled primarily by a vote of the free men of the house; when the chief dies, their choice has to be ratified by the other chiefs of houses; but in Bonny and Opobo the white traders have had immense influence for a long time, so one cannot now find out how far this custom is purely native in idea.

Among the Fans the uncle is, as I have before said, an important person although the father has more rights than among the Igalwa, and here I came across a peculiar custom regarding widows. M. Jacot cited to me a similar case or so, one of which I must remark was in an Ajumba. town. The widows were inside the dead husband's hut, as usual; the Fan huts are stoutly built of sheets of flattened bark, firmly secured together with bark rope, and thatched—they never build them in any other way except when they are in the bush rubber-collecting or elephant-hunting, when they make them of the branches of trees. Well, round the bark hut, with the widows inside, there was erected a hut made of branches, and when this was nearly completed, the Fans com-


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454 12. G. saxosa, ''Forst. in Act. Holm.'' (1777) 183, t. 5.—Perennial. Stems stout, usually much branched, prostrate or decumbent below, ascending or suberect at the tips, 3–6 in. long. Radical leaves numerous, crowded, spreading, ¾–1¾ in. long, spathulate or linear-spathulate, obtuse, narrowed into slender petioles as long or longer than the blade, fleshy, nerveless; cauline similar but smaller and on shorter petioles, close together or distant. Flowers terminal, solitary or in 2–5-flowered cymes at the tips of the branches, large, white, ½–¾ in. long. Calyx small, broad, about ⅓ as long as the corolla, divided nearly ¾-way down; lobes linear or linear-ligulate, obtuse or subacute, recurved at the tips. Corolla often nearly ¾ in. diam., broadly campanulate or subrotate, divided rather more than ½-way down; lobes oblong, obtuse.—Prodr. n. 132; ''A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 202; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 398; Raoul, Choix, 44; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 178, and Handb. N.Z. Fl. 190 (in part); Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvii.'' (1895) 338. G. saxosa var. recurvata, Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvii. (1885) 224. G. Hookeri, ''Armstr. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiii. (1881) 340, in part (not of Grisebach)''.

13. G. cerina, Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. i. 54, t. 36.—Perennial. Stems usually numerous, much branched, stout, prostrate or decumbent at the base, ascending or suberect at the tips, leafy throughout or naked below, 4–14 in. long. Leaves ½–1½ in. long, obovate-spathulate or oblong-spathulate, obtuse, narrowed into a broad flat petiole, thick and coriaceous or fleshy, smooth and shining, 8-nerved; cauline similar but smaller and with shorter petioles. Flowers on slender pedicels or almost sessile, crowded towards the ends of the branches, sometimes corymbose, ⅓–⅔ in. long, white or white streaked with red and purple. Calyx about ⅓ shorter than the corolla or almost equalling it, divided ¾-way down; lobes oblong or oblong-spathulate, obtuse, sometimes slightly recurved at the tip. Corolla broadly rotate-campanulate; lobes oblong, obtuse.—''Handb. N.Z. Fl. 191; Kirk in'' Trans. N.Z. Inst, xxvii. (1895) 338. G. Campbellii, ''Homb. et Jacq. Voy. an Pole Sud'', 22, t. 31c.


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 menced pulling down the inner bark hut, and finally cleared it right out, thatch and all, and the materials of which it had been made were burnt. I was struck with the performance because the Fans, though surrounded by intensely superstitious tribes, are remarkably free from superstition themselves, taking little or no interest in speculative matters, except to get charms to make them invisible to elephants, to keep their feet in the path, to enable them to see things in the forest, and practical things of that sort, and these charms they frequently gave me to assist and guard me in my wanderings.

The M'pongwe and Igalwa have a peculiar funeral custom, but it is not confined in its operation to widows, all the near relatives sharing in it. The mourning relations are seated on the floor of the house, and some friend—Dr. Nassau told me he was called in in this capacity—comes in and "lifts them up," bringing to them a small present, a factor of which is always a piece of soap. This custom is now getting into the survival form in Libreville and Glass. Nowadays the relatives do not thus sit, unwashed and unkempt, keenly requiring the soap. Among the bush Igalwa, I am told, the soap is much wanted.

It is not only the widows that remain, either theoretically or practically unwashed; all the mourners do. The Ibibios seem to me to wear the deepest crape in the form of accumulated dirt, and all the African tribes I have met have peculiar forms of hair cutting—shaving the entire head, not shaving it at all, shaving half of it &c.—when in mourning. The period of the duration of wearing mourning is, I believe, in all West Coast tribes that which elapses between the death and the burial of the soul. I believe a more thorough knowledge would show us that there is among the Bantu also a fixed time for the lingering of the soul on earth after death, but we have not got sufficient evidence on the point yet. The only thing we know is that it is not proper for the widow to re-marry while his soul is still in her vicinity.

Among the Calabar tribes the burial of the spirit liberates


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 the woman. Among the Tschwi she requires special ceremonies on her own account. In Togoland, among the Ewe people, I know the period is between five and six weeks, during which time the widow remains in the hut, armed with a good stout stick, as a precaution against the ghost of her husband, so as to ward off attacks should he be ill-tempered. After these six weeks the widow can come out of the hut, but as his ghost has not permanently gone hence, and is apt to revisit the neighbourhood for the next six months, she has to be taken care of during this period. Then, after certain ceremonies, she is free to marry again. So I conclude the period of mourning, in all tribes, is that period during which the soul remains round its old possessions, whether these tribes have a definite soul-burial or devil-making or not.

The ideas connected with the under-world to which the ghost goes are exceedingly interesting. The Negroes and Bantus are at one on these subjects in one particular only, and that is that no marriages take place there. The Tschwis say that this under-world, Srahmandazi, is just the same as this world in all other particulars, save that it is dimmer, a veritable shadow-land where men have not the joys of life, but only the shadow of the joy. Hence, says the Tschwi proverb, "One day in this world is worth a year in Srahmandazi." The Tschwis, with their usual definiteness in this sort of detail, know all about their Srahmandazi. Its entrance is just east of the middle Volta, and the way down is difficult to follow, and when the sun sets on this world it rises on Srahmandazi. The Bantus are vague on this important and interesting point. The Benga, for example, although holding the absence of marriage there, do not take steps to meet the case as the Tschwis do, and kill a supply of wives to take down with them. This reason for killing wives at a funeral is another instance that, however strange and cruel a custom may be here in West Africa, however much it may at first appear to be the flower of a rootless superstition, you will find on close investigation that it has some root in a religious idea, and a common-sense element. The common-sense element in the killing of wives and slaves among both the Tschwi and the Calabar tribes consists in the fact that it discourages poisoning. A Calabar


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Gentiana.]

14. G. concinna, Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. i. 53, t. 35.—Usually annual. Stems short, slender, much branched from the base, erect or ascending, 1–4 in. high; branches crowded, leafy. Leaves close-set, ⅓–1 in. long, oblong-spathulate or linear-oblong, obtuse, gradually narrowed into a broad flat petiole, spreading or recurved, coriaceous; cauline similar but smaller. Flowers in the axils of the upper leaves, often very numerous, sessile or shortly peduncled, about ⅓ in. long, white streaked with red or purple or altogether red. Calyx ⅓ shorter than the corolla, divided ¾-way down; lobes linear-oblong, obtuse. Corolla rotate-campanulate; lobes obovate-oblong, obtuse.—''Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 190. G. cerina var. concinna. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvii. (1895) 339.

15. G. antarctica, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvii. (1895) 339.—Annual; whole plant very minutely verrucose. Stems stout, erect, simple or branched, densely leafy throughout, 3–10 in. high. Radical leaves numerous, spreading all round, 1–2 in. long; blade oblong or lanceolate, obtuse, 3–5-nerved, membranous when dry, narrowed into a petiole of about equal length; cauline leaves rather smaller, with shorter petioles. Flowers small, about ⅓ in. long, crowded on short axillary leafy branchlets shorter than the subtending leaves, each flower in the axil of a floral leaf exceeding it in length; pedicels short, slender. Calyx equalling the corolla or nearly so, divided almost to the base; lobes linear or ligulate, obtuse. Corolla divided about ⅔-way down; lobes linear-oblong, obtuse or subacute. Ovary minutely verrucose.—G. concinna var. robusta. ''Hook. f. Fl. Antarct.'' i. 53.

Var. imbricata, Kirk, l.c. 340.—Rigid, erect, 1–3 in. high. Leaves smaller, closely imbricating, ovate or ovate-spathulate, not verrucose, coriaceous, margins thickened. Flowers solitary in the axils of the upper leaves; corolla longer than the calyx.

Hooker, Kirk!

Apparently a very distinct species. Mr. Kirk remarks that it is easily recognised by the pale greenish colour, the minutely verrucose surface of all its


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 that robbed men now were robbers, the squires, and farmers, and shepherds, at first did nothing more than grumble gently, or even make a laugh of it, each in the case of others. After awhile they found the matter gone too far for laughter, as violence and deadly outrage stained the hand of robbery, until every woman clutched her child, and every man turned pale at the very name of "Doone." For the sons and grandsons of Sir Ensor grew up in foul liberty, and haughtiness, and hatred, to utter scorn of God and man, and brutality towards dumb animals. There was only one good thing about them, if indeed it were good, to wit, their faith to one another, and truth to their wild eyry. But this only made them feared the more, so certain was the revenge they wreaked upon any who dared to strike a Doone. One night, some ten years ere I was born, when they were sacking a rich man's house not very far from Minehead, a shot was fired at them in the dark, of which they took little notice, and only one of them knew that any harm was done. But when they were well on the homeward road, not having slain either man or woman, or even burned a house down, one of their number fell from his saddle, and died without so much as a groan. The youth had been struck, but would not complain, and perhaps took little heed of the wound, while he was bleeding inwardly. His brothers and cousins laid him softly on a bank of whortle-berries, and just rode back to the lonely hamlet where he had taken his death-wound. No man nor woman was left in the


text: Clouds without Water/The Manuscript

title: Clouds without Water/The Manuscript


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 morning, nor house for any to dwell in, only a child with its reason gone.

This affair made prudent people find more reasons to let them alone than to meddle with them; and now they had so entrenched themselves, and waxed so strong in number, that nothing less than a troop of soldiers could wisely enter their premises; and even so it might turn out ill, as perchance we shall see by and by.

For not to mention the strength of the place, which I shall describe in its proper order when I come to visit it, there was not one among them but was a mighty man, straight and tall, and wide, and fit to lift four-hundredweight. If son or grandson of old Doone, or one of the northern retainers, failed at the age of twenty, while standing on his naked feet, to touch with his forehead the lintel of Sir Ensor's door, and to fill the door-frame with his shoulders from sidepost even to sidepost, he was led away to the narrow pass which made their valley so desperate, and thrust from the crown with ignominy, to get his own living honestly. Now, the measure of that doorway is, or rather was, I ought to say, six feet and one inch lengthwise, and two feet all but two inches taken crossways in the clear. Yet I not only have heard but know, being so closely mixed with them, that no descendant of old Sir Ensor, neither relative of his (except, indeed, the Counsellor, who was kept by them for his wisdom), and no more than two of their following ever failed of that test, and relapsed to the difficult ways of honesty.


text: Clouds without Water/A Quean of the Quality


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 chief elaborately explained to me that the rigorous putting down of killing at funerals that was being carried on by the Government not only landed a man in the next world as a wretched pauper, but added an additional chance to his going there prematurely, for his wives and slaves, no longer restrained by the prospect of being killed at his death and sent off with him would, on very slight aggravation, put "bush in his chop." It is sad to think of this thorn being added to the rose-leaves of a West Coast chief's life, as there are 99 per cent. of thorns in it already.

I came across a similar case on the Gold Coast, when a chief complained to me of the way the Government were preserving vermin, in the shape of witches, in the districts under its surveillance. You were no longer allowed to destroy them as of old, and therefore the vermin were destroying the game;


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456 parts, and the slender excessively branched inflorescence, the flowers being almost hidden amongst the crowded leaves and bracts. It is sometimes reduced to a broad rosette of leaves with a short spike-like cluster of densely crowded flowers.

16. G. antipoda, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvii. (1895) 340.—Perennial; whole plant very minutely verrucose. Stems numerous, stout, decumbent below, erect above, 3–10 in. high. Leaves ¾–1½ in. long, linear-spathulate or lingulate, obtuse, narrowed into a rather long flat petiole; lower crowded, often spreading or recurved; upper more remote, smaller and with shorter petioles, ascending or erect. Flowers small, ¼–⅓ in. long, white or white streaked with red, usually numerous on slender erect axillary braachlets, each flower in the axil of a linear bract, but sometimes the flowers are solitary in the axils of the cauline leaves. Calyx slightly shorter than the corolla, divided almost to the base; lobes linear-lanceolate, acute. Corolla very thin, divided about ⅔ -way down: lobes linear-oblong.

A small creeping herb. Leaves linear, tufted, entire. Peduncles solitary, terminal, 1-flowered. Flowers small, white. Calyx deeply 5-partite; segments linear. Corolla subrotate, deeply 5-lobed; lobes with broad thin margins, induplicate-valvate. Stamens 5; filaments short, broad; anthers oblong. Ovary 1-celled, with 2 parietal placentas; style very short; stigma broadly 2-lamellate. Fruit globose, fleshy or succulent, indehiscent. Seeds numerous; testa crustaceous.

1. L. Gunnii, ''Hook. f. in Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot.'' vi. (1847) 472.—Small, perfectly glabrous. Rhizome 3–9 in. long, stout, creeping, branched, emitting long thick rootlets. Leaves tufted, ½–1 in. long, narrow-linear or linear-spathulate, obtuse, thick and fleshy, with a broad membranous sheathing base, quite entire. Peduncles stout, much shorter than the leaves. Flowers small, ⅙ in. diam. Calyx almost equalling the corolla; segments linear, fleshy, acute. Corolla divided ⅔-way down; lobes ovate, 3-nerved, margins undulate. Stamens inserted just below the sinus of the


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 for, said he, the witches here live almost entirely on the blood they suck from children at night. They used, in old days, to do this furtively, and do so now where native custom is unchecked; but in districts where the Government says that witchcraft is utter nonsense, and killing its proficients utter murder which will be dealt with accordingly, the witch flourishes exceedingly, and blackmails the fathers and mothers of families, threatening that if they are not bought off they will have their child's blood; and if they are not paid, the child dies away gradually—poison again, most likely.

I often think it must be the common-sense element in fetish customs that enables them to survive, in the strange way they do, in the minds of Africans who have been long under European influence and education. In witching, for example, every intelligent native knows there is a lot of poison in the affair, but the explanation he gives you will not usually display this knowledge, and it was not until I found the wide diffusion of the idea of the advisability of administering an emetic to the bewitched person, that I began to suspect my black friends of sound judgment.

The good ju-juist will tell you all things act by means of their life, which means their power, their spirit. Dr. Nassau tells me the efficacy of drugs is held to depend on their benevolent spirits, which, on being put into the body, drive away the malevolent disease-causing spirits—a leucocytes-versus pathogenic-bacteria sort of influence, I suppose. On this same idea also depends the custom of the appeal to ordeal, the working of which is supposed to be spiritual. Nevertheless, the intelligent native, believing all the time in this factor, squares the common-sense factor by bribing the witch-doctor who makes the ordeal drink.

The feeling regarding the importance of funeral observances is quite Greek in its intensity. Given a duly educated African, I am sure that he would grasp the true inwardness of the Antigone far and away better than any European now living can. A pathetic story which bears on this feeling was told me some time ago by Miss Slessor when she was stationed at Creek Town. An old blind slave woman was found in the bush, and brought into the mission. She was in a


text: Manual of the New Zealand Flora/Gentianeæ


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XVI]

With them rode Siegfried also, in honourable mind.

They carried food, too, with them, and that in divers kind.

Hard by a cool spring was he foredoom’d to lose his life.

And this was by the counsel of Brunhild, Gunther’s wife.

First went the bold thane thither where he Kriemhilda found,

Already on pack-horses his hunting-gear was bound,

And that of his companions: to cross the Rhine they meant,

Kriemhilda ne’er before had such reason to lament.

And then his own belovéd he on the mouth did kiss:

“God grant that I may find thee, my wife, safe, after this;

And that thine eyes may see me! With good friends, till I come

Beguile the time of waiting, I may not bide at home.”

Now thought she of the secret she had to Hagen told:—

She did not dare to own it,— nor longer could withhold

The noble queen lamenting that she had e’er been born!

For thus with grief unmeasured did Siegfried’s fair wife mourn.

She spake unto the warrior: “Ah, let your hunting be!

Last night I had an ill dream: two wild boars I did see

That chased you o’er the moorland: the flowers grew red as blood.

If I do weep thus sorely, ’tis that I bode no good.

“I have a sore misgiving that there may be some plot:

Whether some grudge be owed us for service rendered not,

Which may be bringing on us dire hate and enmity?

Go not, dear lord, I beg thee in truth and honesty.”


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 deplorable state, utterly neglected and starving, her feet torn by thorns and full of jiggers, and so on. Every care was taken of her and she soon revived and began to crawl about, but her whole mind was set on one thing with a passion that had made her alike indifferent to her past sufferings and to her present advantages. What she wanted was a bit, only a little bit, of white cloth. Now, I may remark, white cloth is anathema to the Missions, for it is used for ju-ju offerings, and a rule has to be made against its being given to the unconverted, or the missionary becomes an accessory before the fact to pagan practices, so white cloth the old woman was told she could not have, she had been given plenty of garments for her own use and that was enough. The old woman, however, kept on pleading and saying the spirit of her dead mistress kept coming to her asking and crying for white cloth, and white cloth she must get for her, and so at last, finding it was not to be got at the Mission station, she stole away one day, unobserved, and wandered off into the bush, from which she never again reappeared, doubtless falling a victim to the many leopards that haunted hereabouts.

To provide a proper burial for the dead relation is the great duty of a negro's life, its only rival in his mind is the desire to have a burial of his own. But, in a good negro, this passion will go under before the other, and he will risk his very life to do it. He may know, surely and well, that killing slaves and women at a dead brother's grave means hanging for him when their Big Consul knows of it, but in the Delta he will do it. On the Coast, Leeward and Windward, he will spend every penny he possesses and, on top, if need be, go and pawn himself, his wives, or his children into slavery to give a deceased relation a proper funeral.

This killing at funerals I used to think would be more easily done away with in the Delta than among the Tschwi tribes, but a little more knowledge of the Delta's idea about the future life showed me I was wrong.

Among the Tschwi the slaves and women killed are to form for the dead a retinue, and riches wherewith to start life in Srahmandazi, where there are markets and towns and all things as on this earth, and so the Tschwi would have little


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Page:November Joe.pdf/26

 "You mean that the detectives can get after the guilty person while his trail is fresh?"

"Yes, but in the woods it is far otherwise. There Nature is the criminal's best ally. She seems to league herself with him in many ways. Often she delays the discovery of his ill-doing; she covers his deeds with her leaves and her snow; his track she washes away with her rain, and more than all she provides him with a vast area of refuge, over which she sends the appointed hours of darkness, during which he can travel fast and far. Life in the wilderness is beautiful and sweet, if you will, but it has its sombre places, and they are often difficult indeed to unveil."

"All things considered, it is surprising that so many woods crimes are brought home to their perpetrators."

"There you are forgetting one very important point. As you know, my profession, that of medicine, touches, at one point, very closely upon the boundaries of criminal law, and this subject of woods crimes has always possessed a singular fascination for me. I have been present at many trials and the most dangerous wit-

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text:
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005/Division A/Title IV

Office of the Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services

 * For necessary salaries and expenses of the Office of the Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services to administer the laws enacted by the Congress for the Food and Nutrition Service, $595,000.

Child Nutrition Programs (Including Transfer of Funds)

 * For necessary expenses to carry out the National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.) except section 21, and the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1771 et seq.), except sections 17 and 21; $11,782,000,000, to remain available through September 30, 2006, of which $6,629,038,000 is hereby appropriated and $5,152,962,000 shall be derived by transfer from funds available under section 32 of the Act of August 24, 1935 (7 U.S.C. 612c):

 * Provided, That none of the funds made available under this heading shall be used for studies and evaluations;

 * Provided further, That up to $5,235,000 shall be available for independent verification of school food service claims.

Special Supplemental Nutrition Program For Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)

 * For necessary expenses to carry out the special supplemental nutrition program as authorized by section 17 of the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1786), $5,277,250,000, to remain available through September 30, 2006, of which $125,000,000 shall be placed in reserve, to remain available until expended, to be allocated as the Secretary deems necessary, notwithstanding section 17(i) of such Act, to support participation should cost or participation exceed budget estimates:

 * Provided, That of the total amount available, the Secretary shall obligate not less than $15,000,000 for a breastfeeding support initiative in addition to the activities specified in section 17(h)(3)(A);

 * Provided further, That notwithstanding section 17(h)(10)(A) of such Act, $14,000,000 shall be available for the purposes specified in section 17(h)(10)(B);

 * Provided further, That none of the funds made available under this heading shall be used for studies and evaluations;

 * Provided further, That none of the funds in this Act shall be available to pay administrative expenses of WIC clinics except those that have an announced policy of prohibiting smoking within the space used to carry out the program;

 * Provided further, That none of the funds provided in this account shall be available for the purchase of infant formula except in accordance with the cost containment and competitive bidding requirements specified in section 17 of such Act;

 * Provided further, That none of the funds provided shall be available for activities that are not fully reimbursed by other Federal Government departments or agencies unless authorized by section 17 of such Act.

Food Stamp Program

 * For necessary expenses to carry out the Food Stamp Act (7 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.), $35,154,554,000, of which $3,000,000,000 to remain available through September 30, 2006, shall be placed in reserve for use only in such amounts and at such times as may become necessary to carry out program operations:

 * Provided, That none of the funds made available under this heading shall be used for studies and evaluations;

 * Provided further, That of the funds made available under this heading and not already appropriated to the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR) established under section 4(b) of the Food Stamp Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 2013(b)), not to exceed $4,000,000 shall be used to purchase bison meat for the FDPIR from Native American bison producers as well as from producer-owner cooperatives of bison ranchers;

 * Provided further, That funds provided herein shall be expended in accordance with section 16 of the Food Stamp Act;

 * Provided further, That this appropriation shall be subject to any work registration or workfare requirements as may be required by law;

 * Provided further, That funds made available for Employment and Training under this heading shall remain available until expended, as authorized by section 16(h)(1) of the Food Stamp Act;

 * Provided further, That notwithstanding section 5(d) of the Food Stamp Act of 1977, any additional payment received under chapter 5 of title 37, United States Code, by a member of the United States Armed Forces deployed to a designated combat zone shall be excluded from household income for the duration of the member's deployment if the additional pay is the result of deployment to or while serving in a combat zone, and it was not received immediately prior to serving in the combat zone.

Commodity Assistance Program

 * For necessary expenses to carry out disaster assistance and the commodity supplemental food program as authorized by section 4(a) of the Agriculture and Consumer Protection Act of 1973 (7 U.S.C. 612c note); the Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983; and special assistance (in a form determined by the Secretary of Agriculture) for the nuclear affected islands, as authorized by section 103(f)(2) of the Compact of Free Association Amendments Act of 2003 (Public Law 108-188); and the Farmers' Market Nutrition Program, as authorized by section 17(m) of the Child Nutrition Act of 1966, $178,797,000, to remain available through September 30, 2006:

 * Provided, That none of these funds shall be available to reimburse the Commodity Credit Corporation for commodities donated to the program;

 * Provided further, That notwithstanding any other provision of law, effective with funds made available in fiscal year 2005 to support the Senior Farmers' Market Nutrition Program, as authorized by section 4402 of Public Law 107-171, such funds shall remain available through September 30, 2006.

Nutrition Programs Administration

 * For necessary administrative expenses of the domestic nutrition assistance programs funded under this Act, $139,937,000, of which $5,000,000 shall be available only for simplifying procedures, reducing overhead costs, tightening regulations, improving food stamp benefit delivery, and assisting in the prevention, identification, and prosecution of fraud and other violations of law.


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 nesses that I have ever seen have been men of the November Joe type, that is, practically illiterate woodsmen. Their evidence has a quality of terrible simplicity; they give minute but unanswerable details; they hold up the candle to truth with a vengeance, and this, I think, is partly due to the fact that their minds are unclouded by any atmosphere of make-believe; they have never read any sensational novels; all their experiences are at first-hand; they bring forward naked facts with sledge-hammer results."

I had listened to Sir Andrew with interest, for I knew that his precise and accurate mind was not easily influenced to the expression of a definite opinion.

"For some years," he continued, "I have studied this subject, and there is nothing that I would personally like to do better than to have the opportunity of watching November Joe at work. Where a town-bred man would see nothing but a series of blurred footsteps in the morning dew, an ordinary dweller in the woods could learn something from them, but November Joe can often reconstruct the man who made

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text:
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005/Division A/Title V

Salaries and Expenses (Including Transfers of Funds)

 * For necessary expenses of the Foreign Agricultural Service, including carrying out title VI of the Agricultural Act of 1954 (7 U.S.C. 1761-1768), market development activities abroad, and for enabling the Secretary to coordinate and integrate activities of the Department in connection with foreign agricultural work, including not to exceed $158,000 for representation allowances and for expenses pursuant to section 8 of the Act approved August 3, 1956 (7 U.S.C. 1766), $137,822,000:

 * Provided, That the Service may utilize advances of funds, or reimburse this appropriation for expenditures made on behalf of Federal agencies, public and private organizations and institutions under agreements executed pursuant to the agricultural food production assistance programs (7 U.S.C. 1737) and the foreign assistance programs of the United States Agency for International Development.

Public Law 480 Title I Program Account (Including Transfers of Funds)

 * For the cost, as defined in section 502 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, of agreements under the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954, and the Food for Progress Act of 1985, including the cost of modifying credit arrangements under said Acts, $94,198,000, to remain available until expended:

 * Provided, That the Secretary of Agriculture may implement a commodity monetization program under existing provisions of the Food for Progress Act of 1985 to provide no less than $5,000,000 in local-currency funding support for rural electrification development overseas.

 * In addition, for administrative expenses to carry out the credit program of title I, Public Law 83-480, and the Food for Progress Act of 1985, to the extent funds appropriated for Public Law 83-480 are utilized, $4,034,000, of which $1,097,000 may be transferred to and merged with the appropriation for "Foreign Agricultural Service, Salaries and Expenses", and of which $2,937,000 may be transferred to and merged with the appropriation for "Farm Service Agency, Salaries and Expenses".

Public Law 480 Title I Ocean Freight Differential Grants (Including Transfers of Funds)

 * For ocean freight differential costs for the shipment of agricultural commodities under title I of the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954 and under the Food for Progress Act of 1985, $22,723,000, to remain available until expended:

 * Provided, That funds made available for the cost of agreements under title I of the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954 and for title I ocean freight differential may be used interchangeably between the two accounts with prior notice to the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress.

Public Law 480 Title II Grants

 * For expenses during the current fiscal year, not otherwise recoverably, and unrecovered prior years' costs, including interest thereon, under the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954, for commodities supplied in connection with dispositions abroad under title II of said Act, $1,182,501,000, to remain available until expended.

Commodity Credit Corporation Export Loans Program Account (Including Transfers of Funds)

 * For administrative expenses to carry out the Commodity Credit Corporation's export guarantee program, GSM 102 and GSM 103, $4,423,000; to cover common overhead expenses as permitted by section 11 of the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act and in conformity with the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990, of which $3,421,000 may be transferred to and merged with the appropriation for "Foreign Agricultural Service, Salaries and Expenses", and of which $1,002,000 may be transferred to and merged with the appropriation for "Farm Service Agency, Salaries and Expenses".

McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program Grants

 * For necessary expenses to carry out the provisions of section 3107 of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (7 U.S.C. 1736o-1), $87,500,000, to remain available until expended:

 * Provided, That the Commodity Credit Corporation is authorized to provide the services, facilities, and authorities for the purpose of implementing such section, subject to reimbursement from amounts provided herein.


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158

“My love, in but a few days again I shall be here.

Nor know I of these people one who ill-will doth bear;

To me at all times friendly are all thy kith and kin:

Nor by these warriors elsewise entreated have I been.”

“Nay, nay, my dear lord Siegfried, I bode thy fate too well:

Last night my evil dreaming told how upon thee fell

Two mountains in the valley; I saw thee never more.

If thou wilt thus forsake me, ’twill wound me to the core.”

His wife so good and loving he in his arms did press,

And cherish’d her fair body with kisses numberless;

Then took his last leave of her, and tore himself away;

Alas, no more she saw him alive after that day!

Now rode they forth and came to a deep and shady wood,

For sake of sport, and many a warrior bold and good

Did follow after Gunther and with his sportsmen roam.

But Giselher and Gernot, they two remained at home.

And many horses, laden with stores of bread and wine

Provided for the huntsmen, went forward o’er the Rhine;

Both fish and flesh they carry, and many another cate

Such as a king so wealthy might duly have to eat.

They ordered their encampment, these hunters proud, hard by

The greenwood’s skirts, where mostly the quarry’s runs did lie

Which they to hunt were minded; ’twas on an eyot broad,

And thither too came Siegfried: as straight the king had word.


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Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/379

] rent in the Moluccas, especially the small silvered coin which they call koupan pera, and which is brought over by the Dutch from Europe.

The time of high water in this bay at full and change days, is about one o'clock in the afternoon, the tide rising six feet perpendicular height.

Our anchoring station was 5° 27′ 8″ S. lat. 120° 27′ long.

On the 9th in the afternoon we weighed anchor, and steering under full sails to get out of the strait of Bouton, we soon reached the open sea.

On the 11th we passed the strait of Salayer. A great number of canoes and natives were seen upon the beach, others were sailing towards Celebes.

We cast anchor several times along the coast of Madura, and on the afternoon of the 19th, in a bottom of reddish mud, at the depth of five fathoms, not far distant from the north-west point of the island, and at the entrance of the channel that leads to Sourabaya, one of the principal establishments of the Dutch in the island of Java. As we intended to come to anchor there, a pinnace had been dispatched, about nine o'clock in the morning, to the village of Grissé, by the Esperance, to demand a pilot who could conduct us through the channel.


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318 Five days elapsed without our receiving any news of our pinnace. We were apprehensive that she had fallen in with pirates; and, on the 23d, another was sent out, upon the supposition that the former had not arrived at the place of her destination; for we could not have imagined that she had been detained by the Dutch, who were well acquainted with the purpose of our expedition: but on the 25th, we received a letter from the officer who had the command of the pinnace, acquainting us that he was detained prisoner by the Dutch, who were then at war with France. Soon, however, a message was brought us from the Council of Sourabaya, informing us that in pursuance of the instructions which they had just received from Batavia, they were willing to afford us every assistance in their power; and on the 26th two pilots were sent us. We were obliged to cast anchor several times before we could get into the roads of Sourabaya, where we cast anchor on the 28th, about 1,000 toises northward of the river that runs through the town; the flag of the fort bearing S. 2° E. and the village of Grissé W. 30′ N.

The dysentery had already carried off six of our crew since our departure from Bouton.

31st. We soon obtained permission to reside in the town of Sourabaya, where I procured a lodg-


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Page:George Bernard Shaw (IA cu31924013547645).pdf/59

is now partly possible to justify the Shavian method of putting the explanations before the events. I can now give a fact or two with a partial certainty at least that the reader will give to the affairs of Bernard Shaw something of the same kind of significance which they have for Bernard Shaw himself. Thus, if I had simply said that Shaw was born in Dublin the average reader might exclaim, "Ah yes—a wild Irishman, gay, emotional and untrustworthy." The wrong note would be struck at the start. I have attempted to give some idea of what being born in Ireland meant to the man who was really born there. Now therefore for the first time I may be permitted to confess that Bernard Shaw was, like other men, born. He was born in Dublin on the 26th of July, 1856.

Just as his birth can only be appreciated through some vision of Ireland, so his family can only be appreciated by some realisation of the Puritan. He was the youngest son of one George Carr Shaw, who had been a civil servant and was afterwards a somewhat unsuccessful


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   business man. If I had merely said that his family was Protestant (which in Ireland means Puritan) it might have been passed over as a quite colourless detail. But if the reader will keep in mind what has been said about the degeneration of Calvinism into a few clumsy vetoes, he will see in its full and frightful significance such a sentence as this which comes from Shaw himself: "My father was in theory a vehement teetotaler, but in practice often a furtive drinker." The two things of course rest upon exactly the same philosophy; the philosophy of the taboo. There is a mystical substance, and it can give monstrous pleasures or call down monstrous punishments. The dipsomaniac and the abstainer are not only both mistaken, but they both make the same mistake. They both regard wine as a drug and not as a drink. But if I had mentioned that fragment of family information without any ethical preface, people would have begun at once to talk nonsense about artistic heredity and Celtic weakness, and would have gained the general impression that Bernard Shaw was an Irish wastrel and the child of Irish wastrels. Whereas it is the whole point of the matter that Bernard Shaw comes of a Puritan middle-class family of the most solid respectability;


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 been in the jaws of Behemoth. Then back to my moorings at the foot of the Common, off with the rowing-dress, dash under the green translucent wave, return to the garb of civilization, walk through my Garden, take a look at my elms on the Common, and, reaching my habitat, in consideration of my advanced period of life, indulge in the Elysian abandonment of a huge recumbent chair.

When I have established a pair of well-pronounced feathering-calluses on my thumbs, when I am in training so that I can do my fifteen miles at a stretch without coming to grief in any way, when I can perform my mile in eight minutes or a little less, then I feel as if I had old Time's head in chancery, and could give it to him at my leisure.

I do not deny the attraction of walking. I have bored this ancient city through and through in my daily travels, until I know it as an old inhabitant of a Cheshire knows his cheese. Why, it was I who, in the course of these rambles, discovered that remarkable avenue called Myrtle Street, stretching in one long line from east of the Reservoir to a precipitous and rudely paved cliff which looks down on the grim abode of Science, and beyond it to the far hills; a promenade so delicious in its repose, so cheerfully varied with glimpses down the northern slope into busy Cambridge Street with its iron river of the horse-railroad, and wheeled barges gliding back and forward over it,—so delightfully closing at


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 its western extremity in sunny courts and passages where I know peace, and beauty, and virtue, and serene old age must be perpetual tenants,—so alluring to all who desire to take their daily stroll, in the words of Dr. Watts,—

that nothing but a sense of duty would have prompted me to reveal the secret of its existence. I concede, therefore, that walking is an immeasurably fine invention, of which old age ought constantly to avail itself.

Saddle-leather is in some respects even preferable to sole-leather. The principal objection to it is of a financial character. But you may be sure that Bacon and Sydenham did not recommend it for nothing. One's hepar, or, in vulgar language, liver,—a ponderous organ, weighing some three or four pounds,—goes up and down like the dasher of a churn in the midst of the other vital arrangements, at every step of a trotting horse. The brains also are shaken up like coppers in a money-box. Riding is good, for those that are born with a silver-mounted bridle in their hand, and can ride as much and as often as they like, without thinking all the time they hear that steady grinding sound as the horse's jaws triturate with calm lateral movement the bank-bills and promises to pay upon which it is notorious that the profligate animal in question feeds day and night.


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User talk:Cnyirahabihirwe123

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Page:The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, a Book for an Idle Holiday - Jerome (1886).djvu/51

 Wrong to be ambitious, forsooth! The men wrong, who, with bent back and sweating brow, cut the smooth road over which Humanity marches forward from generation to generation! Men wrong, for using the talents that their Master has entrusted to them—for toiling while others play!

Of course, they are seeking their reward. Man is not given that god-like unselfishness that thinks only of others' good. But in working for themselves they are working for us all. We are so bound together that no man can labour for himself alone. Each blow he strikes in his own behalf helps to mould the Universe. The stream, in struggling onward, turns the mill-wheel; the coral insect, fashioning its tiny cell, joins continents to one another; and the ambitious man, building a pedestal for himself, leaves a monument to posterity. Alexander and Cæsar fought for their own ends, but, in doing so, they put a belt of civilisation half round the earth. Stephenson, to win a fortune, invented the steam-engine; and Shakespeare wrote his plays in order to keep a comfortable home for Mrs Shakespeare and the little Shakespeares.

Contented, unambitious people are all very well in their way. They form a neat, useful background for great portraits to be painted against; and they make a respectable, if not particularly intelligent, audience for the active spirits of the age to play before. I have not a word to say against contented people so long as


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Page:Travels in West Africa, Congo Français, Corisco and Cameroons (IA travelsinwestafr00kingrich).pdf/536

 difficulty in replacing human beings at funerals with gold-dust, cloth, and other forms of riches, and this is already done in districts under white influence. But in the Delta there is no under-world to live in, the souls shortly after reaching the under-world being forwarded back to this, in new babies, and the wealth that is sent down with a man serves as an indication as to what class of baby the soul is to be repacked and sent up in. As wealth in the Delta consists of women and slaves I do not believe the under-world gods of the Niger would understand the status of a chief who arrived before them, let us say, with ten puncheons of palm oil, and four hundred yards of crimson figured velvet; they would say, "Oh! very good as far as it goes, but where is your real estate? The chances are you are only a trade slave boy and have stolen these things"; and in consequence of this, killing at funerals will be a custom exceedingly difficult to stamp out in these regions. Try and imagine yourself how abhorrent it must be to send down a dear and honoured relative to the danger of his being returned to this world shortly as a slave. There is no doubt a certain idea among the Negroes that some souls may get a rise in status on their next incarnation. You often hear a woman saying she will be a man next time, a slave he will be a freeman, and so on, but how or why some souls obtain promotion I have not yet sufficient evidence to show. I think a little more investigation will place this important point in my possession. I once said. to a Calabar man, "But surely it would be easy for a man's friends to cheat; they could send down a chief's outfit with a man, though he was only a small man here?"

"No," said he, "the other souls would tell on him, and then he would get sent up as a dog or some beast as a punishment."

My first conception of the prevalence of the incarnation idea was also gained from a Delta negro. I said, "Why in the world do you throw away in the bush the bodies of your dead slaves? Where I have been they tie a string to the leg of a dead slave and when they bury him bring the string to the top and fix it to a peg, with the owner's name on, and then when the owner dies he has that slave again down below."


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 they keep quiet. But do not, for goodness' sake, let them go strutting about, as they are so fond of doing, crying out that they are the true models for the whole species. Why, they are the deadheads, the drones in the great hive, the street crowds that lounge about, gaping at those who are working.

And let them not imagine either—as they are also fond of doing—that they are very wise and philosophical, and that it is a very artful thing to be contented. It may be true that "a contented mind is happy anywhere," but so is a Jerusalem pony, and the consequence is that both are put anywhere and are treated anyhow. "Oh, you need not bother about him," is what is said; "he is very contented as he is, and it would be a pity to disturb him." And so your contented party is passed over, and the discontented man gets his place.

If you are foolish enough to be contented, don't show it, but grumble with the rest; and if you can do with a little, ask for a great deal. Because if you don't, you won't get any. In this world, it is necessary to adopt the principle pursued by the plaintiff in an action for damages, and to demand ten times more than you are ready to accept. If you can feel satisfied with a hundred, begin by insisting on a thousand; if you start by suggesting a hundred, you will only get ten.

It was by not following this simple plan that poor


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 "They be fool men," said he, and he went on to explain that the ghost of that slave would be almost immediately back on earth again growing up ready to work for some one else, and would not wait for its last owner's soul down below, and out of the luxuriant jungle of information that followed I gathered that no man's soul dallies below long, and also that a soul returning to a family, a thing ensured by certain ju-jus, was identified. The new babies as they arrive in the family are shown a selection of small articles belonging to deceased members whose souls are still absent; the thing the child catches hold of identifies him. "Why he's Uncle John, see! he knows his own pipe;" or "That's cousin Emma, see! she knows her market calabash," and so on.

I remember discoursing with a very charming French official on the difficulty of eradicating fetish customs.

"Why not take the native in the rear, Mademoiselle," said he, "and convert the native gods?"

I explained that his ingenious plan was not feasible, because you cannot convert gods. Even educating gods is hopeless work. All races of men, through countless ages, have been attempting to make their peculiar deities understand how they are wanted to work, and what they are wanted to do, and the result is anything but encouraging.

As I have dwelt on the repellent view of Negro funeral custom, I must in justice to them cite their better view. There is a custom that I missed much on going south of Calabar, for it is a pretty one. Outside the villages in the Calabar districts, by the sides most frequented roads, you will see erections of boughs. I do not think these are intended for huts, but for beds, for they are very like the Calabar type of bed, only made in wood instead of clay. Over them a roof of mats is put, to furnish a protection against rain.

These shelters—graves or fetish huts they are wrongly called by Europeans are made by driving four longish stout poles into the ground while at the height of about three feet or so four more poles are tied so as to make a skeleton platform which is filled in with withies and made flat. Another set of five poles is tied above, and to these the roof is affixed. On


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made Précy about sundown. The plain is rich with tufts of poplar. In a wide, luminous curve, the Oise lay under the hill side. A faint mist began to rise and confound the different distances together. There was not a sound audible but that of the sheep-bells in some meadows by the river, and the creaking of a cart down the long road that descends the hill. The villas in their gardens, the shops along the street, all seemed to have been deserted the day before; and I felt inclined to walk discreetly as one feels in a silent forest. All of a sudden, we came round a corner, and there, in a little green round the church, was a bevy of girls in Parisian costumes playing croquet. Their laughter and


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 the platform, is placed the bedding belonging to the deceased, the undercloth, counterpane, &c., and at the head are laid the pillows, bolster-shaped and stuffed with cotton-tree fluff, or shredded palm-leaves, and covered with some gaily-coloured cotton cloth. In every case I have seen—and they amount to hundreds, for you cannot take an hour's walk even from Duke Town without coming upon a dozen or so of these erections—the pillows are placed so that the person lying on the bed would look towards the village.

On the roof and on the bed, and underneath it on the ground, are placed the household utensils that belonged to the deceased; the calabashes, the basins, the spoons cut out of wood, and the boughten iron ones, as we should say in Devon, and on the stakes are hung the other little possessions; there is one I know of made for the ghost of a poor girl who died, on to the stakes of which are hung the dolls and the little pin-cushions, &c., given her by a kind missionary.

Food is set out at these places and spirit poured over them from time to time, and sometimes, though not often, pieces of new cloth are laid on them. Most of the things are deliberately damaged before they are put on the home for the spirit; I do not think this is to prevent them from being stolen, because all are not damaged sufficiently to make them useless. There was a beautifully made spoon with a burnt-in pattern on one of these places when I left Calabar to go South, and on my return, some six months after, it was still there. On another there was a very handsome pair of market calabashes, also much decorated, that were only just chipped and in better repair than many in use in Calabar markets, and I make no doubt the spoon and they are still lying rotting among the débris of the pillows, &c. These places are only attended to during the time the spirit is awaiting burial, as they are regarded merely as a resting-place for it while it is awaiting this ceremony. The body is not buried near them, I may remark.

In spite, however, of the care that is taken to bury spirits, a considerable percentage from various causes—poverty of the relations, the deceased being a stranger in the land, accidental death in some unknown part of the forest or the surf—remain unburied, and hang about to the common danger of the village


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 the hollow sound of ball and mallet, made a cheery stir in the neighbourhood; and the look of these slim figures, all corseted and ribboned, produced an answerable disturbance in our hearts. We were within sniff of Paris, it seemed. And here were females of our own species playing croquet, just as if Précy had been a place in real life, instead of a stage in the fairy land of travel. For, to be frank, the peasant woman is scarcely to be counted as a woman at all, and after having passed by such a succession of people in petticoats digging and hoeing and making dinner, this company of coquettes under arms made quite a surprising feature in the landscape, and convinced us at once of being fallible males.

The inn at Précy is the worst inn in France. Not even in Scotland have I found worse fare. It was kept by a brother and sister, neither of whom was out of their teens. The sister, so to


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 they may choose to haunt. Many devices are resorted to, to purify the villages from these spirits. One which was in use in Creek Town, Calabar, to within a few years ago, and which I am informed is still customary in some interior villages, was very ingenious, and believed to work well by those who employed it.

In the houses were set up Nbakim—large, grotesque images carved of wood and hung about with cloth strips and gew-gaws. Every November in Creek Town (I was told by some authorities it was every second November) there was a sort of festival held. Offerings of food and spirits were placed before these images; a band of people accompanied by the rest of the population used to make a thorough round of the town, up and down each street and round every house, dancing, singing, screaming and tom-toming, in fact making all the noise they knew how to—and a Calabar Effik is very gifted in the power of making noise. After this had been done for what was regarded as a sufficient time, the images were taken out of the houses, the crowd still making a terrific row and were then thrown into the river, and the town was regarded as being cleared of spirits.

The rationale of the affair is this. The wandering spirits are attracted by the images, and take shelter among their rags, like earwigs or something of that kind. The charivari is to drive any of the spirits who might be away from their shelters back into them. The shouting of the mob is to keep the spirits from venturing out again while they are being carried to the river. The throwing of the images, rags and all, into the river, is to destroy the spirits or at least send them elsewhere. They did not go and pour boiling water on their earwig-traps, as wicked white men do, but they meant the same thing, and when this was over they made and set up new images for fresh spirits who might come into the town, and these were kept and tended as before, until the next N'dok ceremony came round.

It is owing to the spiritual view which the African takes of existence at large that ceremonial observances form the greater part of even his common-law procedure.

There is, both among the Negro and Bantu, a recognised


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 speak, prepared a meal for us; and the brother, who had been tippling, came in and brought with him a tipsy butcher, to entertain us as we ate. We found pieces of loo-warm pork among the salad, and pieces of unknown yielding substance in the ragoût. The butcher entertained us with pictures of Parisian life, with which he professed himself well acquainted; the brother sitting the while on the edge of the billiard table, toppling precariously, and sucking the stump of a cigar. In the midst of these diversions, bang went a drum past the house, and a hoarse voice began issuing a proclamation. It was a man with marionettes announcing a performance for that evening.

He had set up his caravan and lighted his candles on another part of the girls' croquet green, under one of those open sheds which are so common in France to shelter markets; and he and his wife, by the time we strolled up