Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1893 — CURIOUS AFRICAN WEIGHTS. [ARTICLE]

CURIOUS AFRICAN WEIGHTS.

llow Gold Is Weighed In the Dart Continent. Money used by natives in Occidental Soudan consists of small univalve white shells called cauries, derived from the Maldives and Lacjuedives islands, and also from Zanzibar. For several centuries past, ships have brought to the mouth of the Niger or to the Guinea coast, as far as Liberia, entire cargoes of these shells, the value of which runs from 12 cents to 40 cents per thousand, acoording to the part of Africa. Cauries are only used in oountries where gold is scarce. In the whole area between Kong, Bondouka and the sea, cauries are not used; natives settle their purchases with gold dust or nuggets. To weigh the gold they use as currency, they employ small copper scales. Weights are extremely varied in shapes and sizes. Most of them are in brass. The weights exhibiting human figures, animals, tools, ludicrous scenes, etc., as reproduced here aie modeled with wax and cast in brags through the cire perdue process. Africans may have learned this process from Europeans who visited their country; but their art exhibits a uaivo character thoroughly sui generis. These black artists have evidently reproduced what they saw or imagined, and they have douc it in a style of their own; their works are peculiarly humorous and fanciful. Each native, who has a pair of scales, has also special weights whioh he alone understands how to use. He knows, for instance, that a giraffe weighs one or two mitkais of gold; that such a Weight in the shape of a bird represents i or J mitkal of gold, etc. There are no uniform sets of weights; consequently each native is obliged to have his own series. When the purchaser has weighed the gold he must give for certain merchandise, the vendor weighs it in his turn to see whether it is correct. The unity of weight in the whole Soudan, is the barifiri, which corresponds to eighteen grammes. Eac i barifiri is worth fourteen mitkais. Admitting the value of gold iu Europe to be three francs per gramme, we find that a barifiri is equal to fifty-four francs’ worth of gold, and a mitkal thirteen francs, fifty centimes. Each mitkal is divided into twenty-seven banans (the banan is a bombov seed); each banan is worth fifty centimes. A mitkal of gold uay also he weighed with fifty-four grains of vegetal coral; these tiny grains, red like 'coral with a black spot, are the fruit of a kind of convolvulus. There are special weights to weigh one-half mitkal, one-third or two-thirds mitkal. The smallest weight is called pouassaba; it is formed of one and a half grains of rice not decorticated. Gold powder is carried in quills stopped up with a wooden cork wrapped in a piece of linen.—[The Jewelers’ Circular.

The Wonders of Whitewash. A missionary stationed at one of the South Sea Islands determined to give his residence a coat of whitewash. To obtain this in the absence of lime, coral was reduced to powder by burning. The natives watched the process of burning with interest, believing that the coral was being cooked for them to eat. Next morning they beheld the missionary’s cottage glittering in the rising sun white as snow. They danced, they sang, they screamed with joy. The whole island was in confusion. Whitewash became the rage. Happy was the coquette who could enhance her charms by a daub of the white brush. Contentions arose. One party urged their superior rank; another obtained possession of the brush and valiantly held it against all comers; a third tried to upset the tub to obtain some of the precious cosmetic. To quiet the hubbub more whitewash was made, and in a week not a hut, a domestic untensil, a war club, or a garmentjbut was as white as snow; not an inhabitant but had his skin painted with grotesque figures; Dot a pig that was not whitened; and mothers might be seen in every direction capering joyously and yelling with delight at the superior beauty of their whitewashed babiea-

The “Hair Ball.” The ball which is frequently found in the stomachs of ruminating animals is called by writers on veterinary subjects a “hair ball." It is occasioned by the hairs getting into the cow’s stomach, either by licking herself or other animals (her calf, etc.). These hairs form around some nucleus of food or other matter and grow by deposit of matter aiound them after they are once formed. The balls are composed of hair, earthy matter and food; sometimes they are partly composed of some calcareous substance. They are classed by some writers among the “calculi” similar to those found in human beings. These “concretions,” as they are sometimes called, are found in many parts of the human body. In lower animals their composition is very variable, some consisting of the same ingredients as are found in those of men. No use can be assigned to their formation, and they nre surely more harmful than useful.— [Courier-Journal. What Thirst Is. Thirst b simply a sensation by which a lack of fluids in the system is made known, and in a state of health it is a generally faithful indication of the wants of the body. Natural thirst is first indicated by a peculiar dryness of the mouth and sauces, caused b; a failure of the pharyngeal membrane to secrete a due amount of liquids, but if fluids were to be introduced i directly into the stomach through a tube, and not by way of the sauces—as has been done in unusual cases—the immediate absorption thereof instantly allays the sense of thirst, from which it has been supposed that the sensation of thirst is in the nerves of the stomach, and that the throat sensation is a kind of reflex action.—[Chicago Herald.