ADVENTURES IN AN AFRICAN WILDERNESS. DR. KRAPF, in his "Travels," lately published by Messrs. Trübner, relates, among other occurrences in his eighteen years' residence in Eastern Africa, a journey on which he set out to Ukambani, where a station was to be planted on the first link of a chain to be carried far into the heart of Africa. The route lay across "the great wilderness," traversed now and then by ivory caravans. Remotely in the desert, they reached the village of a chief, named Kivoi, who accompanied them on an expedition to the river Dana. Dr. Krapf left most of his property at Yata, and went on, when the train came upon a pirate ambuscade, and numbers were mercilessly slaughtered. The missionary escaped; he was alone: "How was I, without a guide, without food, and without a knowledge of the water-stations, to make a return-journey of thirty-five or thirty-six leagues to Kivoi's village?" He cared nothing for the lion or the rhinoceros. Hunger and thirst made him almost envy their familiarity with the secrets of the wilderness : 66 Coming to a sand-pit with a somewhat moistish surface, like a hart panting for the water-brooks, Í anticipated the existence of the precious fluid, and dug in the sand for it, but only to meet with disappointment; so I put some of the moist sand into my mouth, but this only increased my thirst.' The monkeys came to his relief: "I heard the chatterings of monkeys, a most joyful sound, for I knew that there must be water wherever monkeys appear in a lowlying place. I followed the course of the bed, and soon came to a pit dug by monkeys in the sand, in which I found the priceless water. I thanked God for this great gift, and having quenched my thirst, I first filled my powder-horn, tying up the powder in my handkerchief, and then my telescopecase, and the barrels of my gun. To still the pangs of hunger I took a handful of powder and ate with it some young shoots of a tree, which grew near the water." The river might be his guide: "I knew that the Dana was near at hand, and seeing Two of the friendly Wakamba people now at some distance very lofty trees, I con- fell in with him; but they, too, were destijectured that the bed of the river was there. tute and fugitive. Upon arriving at a vilI saw, too, the mountain, past the foot of lage, he learned that a plot was being which, as Kivoi told me yesterday, the hatched for his murder: "Designing to river flows, and so I determined to press escape this very night, before I lay down in forward to the river, towards which I was the evening, I put some food and a calabash not now impelled by geographical curiosity, with water all ready for my flight. After but by extreme thirst. As the country midnight, about two in the morning, I rose through which I was wending my way was from my hard couch, and, not without a without either trees or brushwood, I was beating of the heart, opened the door of the afraid of being seen by the robbers; yet the hut. It consisted of heavy billets of wood, river had to be reached at any cost. After the Wakamba having no regular doors, but a short march I came to a trodden pathway piling up logs above each other in the aperwhich I followed, and soon saw the surface ture of the habitation. Kitetu and his of the river gleaming through the trees and family did not hear the noise necessarily bushes on its banks with a pleasure which made by the displacement of this primitive no pen can describe, and which none but door, and after I had made an opening in it those who have been similarly placed can sufficient to creep out, I gained the exterior realise. The path led me over the high of the hut and hung the cowhide, on which bank down to the water's edge; 'Praise I had been sleeping, over the aperture, lest and thanks be to God,' I exclaimed, now the cold wind, blowing into the hut, should I can slake my thirst and have water in awaken its inmates before the usual hour, plenty for the return journey!' The water and fortunately there were no dogs in the was cool and pleasant; for the banks were inclosure. After leaving Kitetu's hut behird steep and lofty; and when I reached the me, I had to pass another in which a woman river there was a pool, which led me to was nursing her child before a fire; but she think that the river had an ebb and flow. did not notice me. I came then to two After my thirst was satisfied, for want of thorn-edges, over which I jumped with water-bottles, I filled the leather case of my difficulty. Meanwhile the moon was disaptelescope as well as the barrels of my gun, pearing behind the mountains of Kikuyu, as which was now useless to me; and II now bent my steps in a south-westerly stopped up the mouths of the gun-barrels with grass, and with bits of cloth cut off my trousers." direction towards a village which I had noticed the day before; as for several days previously I had been inquiring after the route preparatory to my flight to Yata. When I had reached the village in question, I saw a fire in an inclosure, and heard the people talking and the dogs barking, upon which I struck immediately aside into the fields, and ran on as fast as I could along the grassy plain. When day dawned sought concealment upon the slope of a hill, which was covered with grass and bushes, and though my hiding-place was not far from a village, for I could hear the Wakamba talking, I lay the whole day hidden in the grass.' Such were the struggles and privations of this humble-hearted, yet heroic missionary. After his escape from the hostile village, he ran a narrow risk of being mistaken for a wild hog, and shot; then the paths diverged so tortuously that he could scarcely keep advancing at all; next he had to follow the trail of elephants, the path-finders and path-makers of the wilds; lastly, he was egregiously robbed, and so ended the Ukambani adventure. COURT COSTUME IN THE FOUR TEENTH CENTURY. "Sir," said the squire, "I cannot meddle me of such things-it is not my craft nor science." 66 Sir," said the knight, "I cannot trowe (believe) that ye say, for ye be counterfeit in your array, and like unto a minstrel; for I have known here before all your ancestors and the knights and squires of your line, which were all worthy men, but I saw never none of them that were counterfeit, nor that clothed him in such array." And then the young squire answered the knight and said: "Sir, by as much as it misliketh you, it shall be amended." And clepid a parsevaunt (called a herald) and gave him the cote-hardie. He went away, put on another gown, and presently reappeared, to the great applause of all the company. The ladies dressed no less handsomely at the banquet than at the tournament. The hair was plaited and set with gems, or confined in a golden caul-sometimes a golden garland enriching the forehead. A robe of velvet or of the finest cloth sewn with pearls, trimmed with ermine, or other expensive furs, and displaying the bust, was ornamented down the front with gold buttons THE Company that assembled at Shene to set with precious stones-to enumerate or do honour to their sovereign made a very count their number, the poet declares, would gay appearance. The most costly fabrics be quite a labour; the sleeves fell from the formed the material of each article of dress, shoulders to the heels, and the trains swept which was profusely enriched with gems of round the wearer in a most stately fashion; gold and silver thread. Among the prin- rings, brooches, embroidered gloves, and cipal features of male costume were the shoes, completed the costume. Or, as is hood, with pendant streamers, a close-stated in a romance of the fourteenth cenfitting cote-hardie, a short tunic, with tight sleeves, buttoned in front, and having tippets falling from the elbow, and a costly girdle with gipciere (purse) and analace (small dagger) attached, pointed shoes, and embroidered garters. The leggings, and sometimes each half of the tunic, were of different colours, in gentlemen who affected to be "the glass of fashion." Such extravagances, however, were not generally encouraged, as appears by an anecdote related in a contemporary romance. At a banquet came in a young squire before them that sat at dinner, and salved (greeted) the company, and he was clad in a cotehardie upon the guise of Almayne (in the German fashion), and in this wise he came further before the lords and the ladies, and made them goodly reverence." We are further informed, that one of the principal knights present "called this young squire with his voice before all the States, and said unto him and axed him where was his fiddle or ribible, or such an instrument as belongeth to a minstrel." tury : She came in a violet, And overt for pride. "To tell her buttons was toore, Gleamed her side. "Her hair was hyghted on hold, That dearly were by-dight. NOTES AND QUERIES FOR NATURALISTS, NOTES. THE BLACK COCK, OR BLACK GROUSE (Tetrao Tetrix). THE grouse of our own country furnish us with some splendid birds, and amongst these stands one at the head of its genus throughout the world, the capercailzie, or cock of the woods. Attempts have been made to put its American congener, the cock of the plains, in competition with it. The latter, though undoubtedly a splendid bird, will not stand a comparison with our own species, which, whether we consider it in regard to size, contour, or plumage, is immeasurably its superior. The capercailzie was, not half a century since, a native of extensive pine forests of Scotland; but the same indiscriminate slaughter which swept from our ornithological records the bustard, the crane, and other noble birds, caused the extirpation of this magnificent creature Attempts have, however, been made, within the last few years, to re-establish the bird in Scotland, and a large number have been imported from Norway for this purpose. Of the success of the experiment there can be no doubt, and in a few years we hope to see the extensive forests of Scotland again inhabited by flocks of t his magnificent bird. Next to the capercailzie stands the bird at the head of our article, the black grouse, or as it is more commonly designated, the black cock. In its habits, it is intermediate between the capercailzie on the one hand, which is a strictly arborescent bird, and the ptarmigan on the other, which delights in the most barren and elevated spots. Its favourite resorts are the low birch woods, and those districts where heaths and shrubs are intermingled with each other. In our country black grouse are found abundantly in Cumberland, Wales, and Scotland, and a few still remain in the New Forest, and other districts of Hampshire, where, from the care taken to preserve them by His Royal Highness Prince Albert, they are likely to increase. Throughout the northern parts of Europe and Siberia, they are found in far greater numbers, as the population is there proportionally scanty, and they are there less hunted. No scene can be more animated than that presented by a party engaged in grouse shooting; and when we remember the excitement which must animate every one who pursues this fine bird, through tracks of country the most romantic that can be conceived, and the keen breezes, bearing health and appetite to the sportsman, we are not at all surprised at the golden harvests which our Gaelic countrymen are reaping on their barren hill-sides, by the rents they receive from our more aristocratic sportsmen. The black cock, partly from its comparative rarity, and partly because of the demand for it as a table luxury of no mean worth, generally realizes a high price in our markets. These birds, like most of the grouse, are monogamous, and one male secures several females for his seraglio. The contests for the females by the male birds are exceedingly obstinate, and during these battles of love, they are often so regardless of danger as to be knocked down with a stick. Amongst the various schemes resorted to in other countries for capturing them, the following, recorded by one of the editors of Linnæus, is, perhaps, the most remarkable. He says: "The people of Siberia have a singular method for catching these birds during the winter. They lay a number of poles horizontally on forked sticks in the open birch forests, and set small bundles of corn on them. At a small distance they plant tall baskets shaped like an inverted cone, and place at the mouth of these a little wheel that turns freely on its axis. The black grouse are attracted by the corn, alight on the poles, and after a hasty repast, fly to the baskets, perch upon the rim of the wheel, which, giving way, precipitates them into the trap." In our country we are not aware of any mode of capturing them but with the gun; their haunts and habits being such as to defy the snares of the poacher, unless, indeed, they are captured by that whimsical expedient which the Scotch poachers are said to resort to in the case of the common grouse. This consists in scattering around their haunts large quantities of wheat or barley which has been steeped in strong "small still" whiskey. Of this the birds freely partake, and having got "gloriously drunk," fall an easy prey to the ingenious rascal who plotted their destruction. So at least runs the newspaper paragraph. 86 One hundred and twenty of these fish were caught off Guernsey in one week. They weighed 1,800 lbs., and averaged 15 lbs a piece. Turbot has been selling at 5d. per lb. in Guernsey, and whitings, weighing 5 lb. and 6 lb. each, have been selling in that island for 6d. each. A DISH OF PARA MONKEY. Not unfrequently the fruit of our hunting excursions was a monkey, and we considered this most acceptable, as it furnished our table with a meal, delicious, although not laid down in the cookery books. These animals are eaten throughout the province, and are in esteem beyond any wild game.-Edwards's Voyage up the River Amazon. ANSWERS TO QUERIES. ANTS AND APHIDES (p. 27).—I believe it is quite true that aphides are kept by some species of ants in their hills, and treated as a sort of milch cows; the fact is recorded by several distinguished naturalists.-BLANCHE A. On the subject of "Ants and their Cows," we find the following paragraph à propos to the query of RUSTICUS:-"The cunning ants keep cows in their stables. Almost every anthill, belonging to one variety, has a beetle in it, who lives, rears a family, and dies among them, a welcome and honoured companion. When the ants meet him, they stroke and caress him with their antennæ; in return he offers them a sweet liquid that oozes out under his wings, and of which the little topers are passionately fond. So great is their attachment to the odd confectioner, that they seize him in times of danger, and carry him off to a place of safety; the conquerors of an invaded nation spare the sweet beetle, and, what is perhaps more surprising, his maggot and his chrysalis, though themselves utterly useless, are as safe among their wise hosts as if they also possessed the luscious honey. Other ants, again, keep countless aphides, that sit on the tender green leaves of juicy plants, as on green meadows, and suck away so lustily that their delicate little bodies swell like the udders of cows on rich spring pasture. At that season the ants have to feed their young with more delicate food than their own; they stroke and caress their tiny milch cows, gather the nutritious liquid that pours forth under their sagacious treatment, and carry it, drop by drop, to their nurseries." AGE OF GEESE (p. 27).-That the goose is a long-lived bird all naturalists agree in stating, but we do not recollect an instance being placed on record of its attainment of the age of a century. The following is an account of one of these birds which is, or was, not far short of this age. The Leicester Mercury says: "Mr. Everett, farmer, of Kirby Lodge, near Rockingham, has a goose which he vouches to be at least ninety-three years old. It has been on his farm full fifty years, and passed the former part of its life on a farm adjoin ing. It is a large, fine fowl, with a head and neck as white as snow, and has lately hatched a brood of goslings from its own eggs. Mr. E. has a book stating its age and history, which he can authenticate. If we were to pluck a quill from this antiquated goose and write its biography, it might not be an uninteresting record. The echoes of the Scotch Rebellion had scarcely ceased when it first peeped from beneath its shell into the wide world, and possibly its immediate ancestor smoked at the festive board at the coronation of the third George. It cackled at the Gordon Riots, and hissed when Wilkes was made a state prisoner. It was hatching with the first French Revolution, and screamed when Napoleon le Grand threatened to invade our shores, and also when Castlereagh was made Prime Minister. Like many other bipeds, it has brooded over scores of addled eggs, and grown no wiser from experience; but though year after year has flown by, they leave the 'giddy goose' still.” FASCINATION OF THE SNAKE (p. 27).-That the power of fascination has been exercised by large serpents over human beings is, I believe, an undoubted fact, several instances being recorded of persons who have experienced the mesmeric in fluence of a serpent's eyes.-BLANCHE A. A good description of the power above alluded to, which some, if not all, venomous serpents undoubtedly possess, is afforded by the following startling story, taken from an American paper called the Commercial Advertizer : "Last fall, a woman residing in the vicinity of Worcester was picking blackberries in a field near her house, having with her her only child, a bright eyed little fellow of less than a year old. The babe sat upon the ground, amusing himself with grasping at clumps of yellow weed that grew within reach, and eating berries brought him from time to time by his mother. The latter, at length, intent upon gathering the fine fruit, passed round a rock, which hid her child from view. She was about to return to him, when, hearing him laughing and crowing in great glee, and thinking he must be safe as he was so happy, she remained a little longer where she was. Suddenly the little voice ceased; and, after another moment's delay the young mother stepped upon the rock and looked over, expecting to see her babe asleep, and instead of which he was sitting perfectly motionless, his lips parted, and his wide open eyes fixed with a singular expression upon some object, which at first she was unable to discern. Who can judge of her horror when, on closer scrutiny, she perceived, some four or five feet from her infant, a rattlesnake, with its glittering eyes fastened upon his, and nearing him by an almost imperceptible motion. The sight of her darling's peril so nearly paralyzed her that, for an instant, she half believed the dreadful fascination had extended to herself; but the certainty that unless she was the instrument of salvation to her child he was inevitably lost, in some degree restored her powers. She glanced wildly round for something that might be used as a weapon, but nothing appeared; and already the venomous reptile had passed over half the space which divided him from his victim. Another moment and all would be lost! What could be done? In her hand she held a broad tin pan; and springing from the rock, quick as thought, she covered the snake with it, and stood upon it to prevent its escape. The charm was broken: the child moved, swayed to one side, and began to sob. At the same time the mother recovered her voice and screamed for aid, retaining her position until it arrived, when the cause of her terrible fright was despatched." It may not be out of place here to relate another anecdote having reference to the power of fascination possessed by the snake, although in this instance it was not exercised on a human being: applied his stick lustily, killed the intruder instantly, and the spell-bound pheasant got immediate relief; she then flew several times round the head of her benefactor, uttering some gentle but unintelligible language." THE VENOM OF SERPENTS (p. 27).-Dr. J. Gilman arrives at the following conclusions: 1. That the venom of all serpents acts as a poison in a similar manner. 2. That the venom of some varieties is far more active than that of others. 3. That a variety of the coluber, known as the: "cotton mouth," is the most venomous serpent in Arkansas. 4. That the venom of serpents de-, stroys all forms of organized life, vegetable as well as animal. 5. That alcohol, if brought into contact with the venom, is, to a certain extent, an antidote. 6. That serpents do possess the power of fascinating small animals. 7. That the blood of small animals destroyed by the venom of serpents bears a close resemblance to that of animals destroyed by lightning or hydrocyanic acid; it loses its power of coagulation, and cannot be kept long from putrefaction. HORSE versus WOLF OR BEAR (p. 27).-I believe a bear is a much more formidable adversary for a horse than either a lion or tiger, as he is not so easily daunted in the attack, and is in a great measure defended from the horse's heels by his thick shaggy skin. On the other hand, a single wolf would have but little chance opposed to a vigorous horse. In South America, where immense herds of horses run wild, the wolves never venture to assail any horses but those who are separated from the rest. If a herd of wild horses espy a wolf near their haunts, the stallions rush furiously upon him, and soon despatch the unlucky intruder with their hoofs and teeth.BLANCHE ALSINGTON. THE BEAR AND THE HORSE.-Another alleged proof of the bear's sagacity is, that when he has seized a horse, and the terrified prey in his agony drags his foe after him, the bear, in order to stop the headlong speed of the affrighted horse, retains his hold of one paw, while with the other he firmly grasps the first tree they pass-when, owing to the enormous strength of his enemy, the poor horse is at once brought up, and at his mercy. It sometimes happens, however, that if the bush or tree grasped is only slightly imbedded in the soil, it is torn up by the roots-when, for a second or two, at least, the horse, the bear, and the tree may be seen careering together through the forest. Though in general horses, when attacked by the bear, make no resistance, but trust to their heels for safety, some are found who will stand gallantly on the defensive, and not unfreCorriequently beat off the assailant. This was the case "A short time since, a person of the name of Corrie had his attention attracted by the melancholy cries of a pheasant, perched upon a tree in one of the preserves belonging to Mr. Grierson, of Tinwald, Dumfries-shire. Prompted by curiosity, he went over the dyke into the plantation, when he beheld a large adder leaning against a tree at full stretch, gazing intensely on the bewildered bird. |