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THE MAORIS.
Garb and Customes of the New
Zeland Aborigines.
Primitive Abodes, Military
Equipments, Etc.
A Maori salutation consists in the rub¬
bing or pressing of noses, which is the
etiquette of welcome in that island. The
Maori whare, of native house, usually
consists of one large room, destitute of
furni^ire except mats, although Euro¬
peans sometimes make a gift of a table
or chair, which is prized'as a luxury. The
ornamentation, where there is any, is that
of idols, sometimes carved in the wood
of the house itself, and staring hideous¬
ly at the people or at each other in a
way to give the impression of a set of
occupants besides the human ones. The
houses are usually little more than huts
or hovels, made of rushes, or
perhaps of stalks of the toi, bound
tightly with fibres, and roofed with
grasses. This roof, carried out in
front of the hut, gives a sheltered en¬
trance. The door is low, often with a
small window at the side. The fire is
on the floor, and cooking, sleeping and
the plaint of infants go on together; but
the more luxurious houses have a separ¬
ate cooking hut. The mats are import¬
ant features, since much sleeping is done
by the Maoris, who are indolent by na¬
ture. The men, usually scout, are tat
tdoed all over, but the women only in
the lower part of the face. The Maori
lady is usually attired in true native
fashion, but in the towns some have ac¬
quired the improvements of their Euro¬
pean sisters, with kid gloves end boots
and gowns that trail. Those who go to
church are especially startling in their
union of native and imported
rigs. The Maoris are, on the whole, a
race with many fine qualities, bright,
affectionate, good-humored, grateful,
generous, hospitable beyond the con¬
ception of white races, brave, often al¬
most insensible to pain, but with no in¬
dustry or persistency. Of course with their
proverbial honesty they yet have some
thieves, and with their usual gentleness
they have the insolent and menacing.
These need to be met with perfect cour¬
age and imperturbability, for they con¬
sider anger a sign of a weak character.
They are not an ill-looking race beneath
their tattoo, the women usually having
fine eyes and a profusion of tangled
black hair.
The Maoris navigate their canoes by
paddling instead of rowing. They use
a paddie with a long diamond-shaped
blade. The banks of the rivers are often
girt with acacias and willows, and
canoes abound on them. One part of
the military equipment of a Maori war¬
rior which formerly struck strangers was
the war trumpet, fully six feet long, and
so skilfully constructed as to be beard
for miles.
In the Maori mythology the gods are
children of Rangi and Papa (Heaven and
Earth), who created all things. Of
course there are malignant gods who
must be appeased. Tlie great religious
power is tapu, or that of making things
sacred by the touch of the chief; and as
records of what has thus been made sa¬
cred are not kept, the consequence! are
sometimes serious for unintentional vio¬
lators of it. Miss Butler, the author of
a volume on the Maoris, says that when
the story of the Prodigal Son was told
to some Maori girl;3 the part which
touched them most was that when the
poor lad had spent all his money
no man gave unto him. “Sev¬
eral of the girls cried, and there
were deep sighs and notes of disap¬
probation,” truly characteristic of the
hospitable Maori nature. The Maoris
are quick, says the author, in repartee
and illustration, and an old woman crit¬
icising the length of a sermon said:
“My calabash is full. "Why give me
any more water? It can only run over.”
Yet, with all their affection and frank¬
ness, the Maori children seemed to Miss
Butler to have no idea of obedience.
The babies are carried slung on the
backs of the mothers in shawls, like the
pappooses of our-Indians. The women
have their ears pierced for wearing or¬
naments, of which the shark’s tooth is a
favorite; but some, with an inventive¬
ness not found among their civilized
sisters, have been known to utilize the
hole in the ear by sticking into it a to¬
bacco pipe, so as to have it ready for
use.— Harper's Weekly.
Twenty-five per cent, of those who
rob and steal are detected.
The Luscious Banana.
Ordinarily in this country bananas are
eaten raw, but in the tropical countries,
while the natives eat them in like
fashion, a more delicate, and, it is said,
a more healthful mode of eatiag them is
in vogue. The soft, ripe fruit, beaten
to a cream, with a sufficiency of Amon¬
tillado sherry, forms a very delightful
appetizer and is the favorite way of eat¬
ing the banana in certain parts of the
West Indies and on the Africau coast.
Taken in moderation on first rising in
the morning bananas are said to be pre¬
servative of health, and in this respect
are in marked contrast with other tropi¬
cal fruits which are detrimental, rather
than otherwise, to continued good
health. An intoxicating drink is made
from the banana, and on account of its
astringent properties is of considerable
medicinal value. In Africa, and proba¬
bly in other places also, the banana, and
the kindred tree, the plantain, are in a
very large measure the sole dependence
for the food supply of the natives.
The banana, when ripe, contains 74
per cent, water; of the twenty-six re¬
maining parts twenty are sugar and two
glutten,- or flesh-forming substance. It
is not in itself a perfect food, but re
• iT. the addition of , mtro- .,
quires some more
genous material, as lean meat.
The pulp of the banana, but more
often of the plantain, isoftimes squeezed
through a sieve and formed into loaves,
which, when ripe, will keep a very long
time. In the dried state it has a resem¬
blance to bread, both in taste and com¬
position, but the ripened pulp is saccha¬
rine, and not farinaceous.
The fruit, however, of the banana, is
the least valuable part of the tree. The
fiber, which in some countries is permit¬
ted to go to waste, is of value. Through¬
out Central America and the continent
of Africa it is used, with only the prep¬
aration of drying, for sewing thread and
fishing nets. The threads are of silky
fineness, and it was thought that as an
article of commerce it would pay to im¬
port it in large quantities. A firm in
Bradford, England, having got posses¬
sion of some of the fiber, wove a quanti¬
ty of handkerchiefs from it that for del¬
icacy of finish and strength were unex¬
celled. With a silky sheen and remark¬
ably fine web, such articles -would have
obtained a ready market, but it was
found that the mode of obtaining the fiber
by the natives was too slow, and until
;ome machine avas invented to strip the
fiber quickly the small quantity would
be of practically no use.
At Panama the rarest and most delic¬
ious of the banana species has its home.
Small and ruddy in color, it is known
vulgarly as the thumb banana, and on
account of its delicate flavor is much
prized even there. It does not bear
transportation well, although it may
often be found in the markets of Chica¬
go and New York. Crossing the Isth¬
mus by the line that connects Panama
with Aspinwali, the natives at the vil¬
lages along the route make a habit of
coming to the train decked in primitive
fashion, with garlands of flowers around
their necks and flowers in their hair, and
disposing of fruit. Here the thumb
banana may be eaten in its perfection.—
Alta Californian.
Market Value of Some Reptiles.
A St. Louis dealer in curiosities says
that such things as tarantulas, centi¬
pedes, and Gila monsters have a market
value and are quoted regularly by curi¬
osity dealers. People collect everything,
and there is always a demand for these
reptiles. A good specimen of the taran¬
tula or ceniipede, alive or mounted,
brings $1. Live specimens are sent in
boxes only by express, as they are not
allowed to go by mail. What is more
surprising is the sale that exists for Gila
monsters. Zoological gardens want
them, of course, but there are private
parties who also order them. Fine
specimens bring from $5 to $10. They
come from Arizona, where the Indians
collect them for the dealers. This is the
most repulsive-looking reptile to be
found in any part of the world.
Cheering a Precocious Invalid.
“Charles Egbert Craddock’s” early
invalidism compelled her to lead a quiet
indoor life. ‘ ‘I couldn't engage in the
sports of the other children,” says the
distinguished novelist, “and sometimes
I was so disappointed and ^uneasy that
my mother used to find it nec.s ary’to
comfort me. One of her favorite meth¬
ods was to say, ‘Never mind, my dear,
if you can’t do as the others do, you can
do one thing which they can’t do; you
spell Popocatapetl, and they can’t.’ ”
can
BUENOS AYRES.
A South American City of Great
Wealth:
Odd Regulations Necessitated
by its Narrow Streets.
A returned traveler from the Argen¬
tine Republic talks in this wise with a
reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
“About 150 miles up the Rio de la Pla¬
ta is Buenos Ayres, a handsome city of
about 500,000 inhabitants. We have
an idea here that away down in South
America it is almost uncivilized, but we
are very much mistaken. The people there
dress better than they do here and
in about the same fashions, the city has
the best street car service in the world,
and there are banks there with $20,000,
000 to $30,000,000 of capital, The
city is laid out in regular blocks, the
streets running north, south, east and
west, and whenever a street car gets to a
corner the conductor blows on a trumpet
made from a cow’s horn. At first it is
very funny to hear these horns tooting
in all directions. The streets are to
narrow—only 30 feet „ wide—that ,, , the ,,
w
conductor of a car cannot see an ap¬
proaching car on a cross street until he
gets almost to the corner; so they keep
up their signals on the horns.
“There is plenty of money in Buenos
Ayres, and ju-t now the country is
booming. Capitalists are buying large
tracts of land from the government, and
selling ranches to emigrants who come
to raise cattle. A great many English
capitalists are in business there, and
there is a great deal of wealth in the
city. I had to have my money changed
to Argentine paper money, and I found
that there were hundreds of these money
changing banks in the city, The Ar
gentine notes are discounted from 40 to
50 per cent, in favor of American gold,
and from 25 to 35 per cent, in favor of
American greenbacks. If you are a
stranger and they know it they will
fleece you for the money changers arc a
set of robbers.
t t It is said that more cattle are raised
in the Argentine Republic than in the
whole United States. It is their great¬
est enterprise. The country is like our
western prairies, admirably adapted to
grazing and blessed with one of the best
climates in the w r orld. Their horses,
too, are magnificent animals, and in
Buenos Ayres they have race tracks
where the prizes are enormous and the
gambli g very brisk.
“They haven’t any timber, though,
and have to buy all their carts, agricul¬
tural implements, etc., from European
firms. Why, there isn’t a manufactory
in the city. There are great opportuni¬
ties for American enterprise in this coun¬
try. Still, there are drawbacks. On
account of the narrow streets -wagons
cannot be used, and all the hauling is
done in huge carts drawn by tandem
teams with the cart tongue strapped to
a saddle on the wheel horse’s back. You
can imagine how busy people are in
Buenos Ayres when carriages and carts
are not allowed to drive up a street and
return the same way. The law compels
them to go around in a circuit to re¬
turn and so avoid the passing of
vehicles on the streets. It is
done to avoid blockage of the streets.
Then, too, the docks on the river are
not large enough. The English capital¬
ists have got their warehouses on the
only available ground near the docks,
and as the government does not allow
goods to remain on the quays after landing
they have a monopoly. The consequence
is that merchants have to have their
goods taken to the beach in small boats
from the ship, while those carts are
driven into the water alongside and
loaded up. It is amusing to go along
the shore and see these carts with just
the horses’ heads above water. It is
slow work unloading a ship that way.
Where -we would do it in one day it
takes thirty days in Buenos Ayre3.
“About 1300 miles from Buenos
Ayres there is an abundance of the best
timber, but no one has yet had the en¬
terprise to utilize it. I have been think¬
ing of starting a mill near there, but
have not yet decided. It takes a great
deal of money to go into a manufactur¬
ing business there.
‘ ‘Although the distance in a direct
line from New York to Buenos Ayres is
about 5000 miles, our log showed we
had sailed 7200 miles on our return trip,
which lasted fifty-eight days.”
A Plymouth (Conn.) dwelling still oc¬
cupied was erected in 1677.
The Cattle of Holland.
The Netherlands, including Friesland,
Groninger, Zeeland, Gelderland, Overys
sel and Flanders have, from remote an¬
tiquity, been celebrated for fine milking
breeds of cattle. The now celebrated
IIolstein-Friesian cattle have, under this
name—probably a misnomer—attained
wide celebrity in the United States,from
the immense messes of milk which they
give. The Flanders cow was selected
by Guenon as the representative of the
best milking qualities in a cow.
There are variations in color of the
several varieties of the Netherland cat¬
tle, from nearly black to nearly white,
and white -belted, The Holland cow
and the Friesian—now called the IIol
stien-Friesian in the United States—are
probably the best representatives of the
improved varieties of a race of cattle
that in the days of Cmsar, were required
to pay tribute to the Roman Empire,
partly in kind, and probably for the
reason of their superiority—in those long
past days—in milk and flesh.
It will not be necessary to enter into a
discussion of the merits of the several
sub-divisions of the race, It is enough
to say that in the early days of the de¬
velopment of the Durham in England—
now called Shorthorn—it was probably
due to a cross of the Netherlands cattle
that the Shorthorns today show such
wonderful heredity in the occasional
production of great milkers, as well as
deep-milking families of Shorthorns
where this heredity has been carefully
preserved.— Pro.irie Farmer.
Eat Before Yon Brink.
“A large proportion of intemperance
in the use of stimulants,” philosophized
a physician, “may belaid to the light
breakfasts eaten by most people. Break¬
fast is the most important meal of the
day, and sufficient importance is not at¬
tached to it in the majority of house¬
holds. After the long fast enforced be¬
tween supper or late dinner and seven or
eight m the morning, a person in good
health should feel hungry; and it is at
this hour of the day that the heartiest
meal may be eaten with the least proba¬
bility of bad results. The man who
starts out in the morning after having
eaten a hearty breakfast will seldom,
unless suffering from chronic indiges¬
tion, experience any of the discomforts
which might follow a similar meal at
any other time of day. The chances are
he will also enjoy a happy frame of
mind all day; whatever be bis custom,
he will find himself with an excellent
appetite. Eating creates appetite. The
very opposite resulrs will follow the
other course in this matter,
arid the man who has not
had a good bieakfast will not en¬
joy a good dinner. I have treated a
good many cases of habitual drunken¬
ness, and in a great many of them have
found that the evil practice of tippling
was begun to satisfy a gnawmg, faint
sensation in the stomach in the morn¬
ing, which was nothing more or less
than disguised hunger.”— Buffalo Ex
press.
Commercial Value of Walnut Trees.
The black walnut usually commences
to bear nuts at about 10 years of age.
The nuts have some commercial value in
them. They make food for hogs, and
are very valuable for fuel. They can be
gathered in great quantities in •’ the fall,
and thrown in open sheds, or piled on
an open platform made of boards, hull
and all; after they get dry they make a
fuel equal or superior to our ordinary
soft coal, and will make a good substi
tute for coal in places where it cannot
be obtained. The stumps, logs and
crotches have now,and will in the future
have a great value for cabinet-making
and veneering purposes. The tops make
excellent cord-wood.
Every black walnut tree, grown with
plenty of room to develop, can, in 50
years,at the present price of the lumber,
be made worth at least $50; in 100
years, $100; in 200 years, $200; in 400
years, $400. The nuts for fuel and
other purposes will pay good inte:est on
the land they occupy .—Prairie Farmer.
Land Worth $8,000,000 an Acre.
The highest price over paid for a piece
of Chicago real estate was that given by
Mr. H. II. Kohbaat for the northwest
corner of Dearborn and Madison streets.
The dimensions of the property are 20
by 40 feet, and the price paid was $150,
000, which is equivalent to $7500 per
front foot, $187.50 per square foot,
$1.30 per square inch, or about $8,000,
000 acre. The comer is considered one
of the finest in the city. — Chicago Jour*
nal.
Good-By.
When we have said good-by to some dear
friend,
Or watched receding loved ones from the
shore—
Then turned away, since we could do no
more
To make their happiness complete, we send
Hosts of good wishes after, as wo wend
Our homeward way; beg Heaven to out¬
pour
Its blessings on the ones that we adore,
And God his gracious favor to extend, f
There are so many foes! Land, sea and
sky
Have now unheard-of dangers! But this
cry
Disturbs the heart in t ilenco. We defend
Anxieties from curious eyes, pretend
To be indifferent, teem cold and shy,
When with our trembling lips we say
“Good-by I”
HUMOROUS.
Speaking of wagers, what was it Al¬
phabet.
The lady who never marries should be
named Ida Kline.
The ideal beau is not always a wom¬
an’s beau-ideal.
This Union ought to bo able to bear
42 states with fortitute.
Tho sheriff is no longer a cute chap—
an execute chap, we mean.
A Chinaman’s head may be called a
comet because it has a Celestial tail
There aro 3000 telegraph operators in
Loudon and they are all living on
“tick.”
Another good cure for insomnia is to
have the nurse sleep up in the attic with
the baby.
A lady refers to the time she spends in
front of her looking-glass as “moments
of reflection.”
What horse did Lady Macbeth ride be¬
fore she bade a fond adieu to her wicked
husband? The nightmare.
“And how did Bifkins become in¬
sane?” “By absorption. lie slept for
three nights beneath a crazy quilt.”
De Smith—It seems almost impossible
to impress anything on Poeyboy’s mind.
Travis—I don’t see why. It is soft
enough.
Dyspeptic traveller (surveying tho
menu card): Oh, that I had the wings
of a dove! Waiter (promptly): Pigeon
pot-pie for one.
A traveling man who found cause for
complaint at a European hotel remarked
that the bill of faro should be cullod the
bill of unfairness.
“Let’s sec,” said the judge to Hie
thief, “the ring is eighteen carats fine;
the penalty is eighteen dollars fine, and
you can set this down as final.”
A kiss is said to be something which
“comes by male but never by post.”
This is an error; we have often known
kisses to come by the gatepost.
“I married for love, ” said one. “I
married for money, I admit,” said
another. “What did you mnrry for,
aunty?” “I married forever.”
Cholly (jocularly)—“Take that pen¬
cil out of your mouth.” Billy—“Say,
mister, who owns this mouth?” Cholly
—“A syndicate, probably, judging
from its size.” v •
Miseries of trade (Druggist awakened
at 2 a. m.)—What do you wish? Voice
(at the door)—If you’ll Jet me look in
your directory to see how to address this
letter I’ll buy the postage stamp of you.
Brightly—What would you do, doc¬
tor, if you had a bad cold? Doctor
(crushingiy)—I'd consult a reputable
physician, sir! Brightly (calmly)—I
don’t suppose you could tell me where I
could find one, doctor, could you?
If fun you’d be at, go, joke with a cat
And play the old game with its paw;
But joker, beware! If you value your life,
Don’t j ke with your mother-in-law.
Two Views of Innkeepers.
Shenstone’s lines, says Joel Benton in
the New York World, will forever stand
out as the most notable ascription to the
old-time tavern. They have often been
found fault with, we are told, as being
a disparagement to ordinary hospitality
and of human nature, but they appeal
by their pathos to one side of our com¬
mon experience. Shenstone says:
Who’er has travelled life’s dull round,
Where’er his stages may have been,
Mav sigh to think he still has found
The warmest welcome at an inn.
It is almost cruel to parody so touoh
ing a eulogy, but it is said a wag who
once saw these lines appropriately dis
pi aye d at a hotel wrote beneath them the
following stanza:
Whoe'er has travelled much about
Must very often sigh to think
That every host will turn, you out
. Unless you've plenty of the chink.