Chapter 6

An Indian sword-player declared at a great public festival, that he could cleave, vertically, a small lime laid on a man's palm without injury to the member; and the general (Sir Charles Napier) extended his right hand for the trial. The sword-player, awed by his rank, was reluctant, and cut the fruit horizontally. Being urged to fulfil his boast, he examined the palm, said it was not one to be experimented on with safety, and refused to proceed. The general then extended his left hand, which was admitted to be suitable in form; yet the Indian still declined the trial; and when pressed, twice waved his thin, keen-edged blade, as if to strike, and twice withheld the blow, declaring he was uncertain of success. Finally, he was forced to make trial, and the lime fell open, cleanly divided: the edge of the sword had just marked its passage over the skin without drawing a drop of blood!--_Sir Charles Napier's Administration in Scinde_.

WIRE USED IN EMBROIDERY.

In the manufacture of embroidery fine threads of silver gilt are used. To produce these, a bar of silver, weighing 180 ounces, is gilt with an ounce of gold; this bar is then wire-drawn until it is reduced to a thread so fine that 3400 feet of it weigh less than an ounce. It is then flattened by being submitted to a severe pressure between rollers, in which process its length is increased to 4000 feet. Each foot of the flattened wire weighs, therefore, the 4000th part of an ounce. But as in the processes of wire-drawing and rolling the proportion of the two metals is maintained, the gold which covers the surface of the fine thread thus produced consists only of the 180th part of its whole weight. Therefore the gold which covers one foot is only the 720,000th part of an ounce, and consequently the gold which covers an inch will be the 8,640,000th part of an ounce. If this inch be again divided into 100 equal parts, each part will be distinctly visible without the aid of a microscope, and yet the gold which covers such visible part will be only the 864,000,000th part of an ounce. But we need not stop even here. This portion of the wire may be viewed through a microscope which magnifies 500 times; and by these means, therefore, its 500th part will become visible.--_Lardner's Handbook_.

CHEAP LIVING.

In the interior of Bulgaria and Upper Moesia, the low price of provision and cattle of every description is almost fabulous compared with the prices of Western Europe. A fat sheep or lamb usually costs from 1s. 6d. to 2s.; an ox, 40s.; cows, 30s.; and a horse, in the best possible travelling condition, from L.4 to L.5 sterling; wool, hides, tallow, wax, and honey, are equally low. In the towns and hans by the road-side everything is sold by weight: you can get a pound of meat for a halfpenny, a pound of bread for the same, and wine, which is also sold by weight, costs about the same money. In Servia, pigs everywhere form the staple commodity of the country. I have seen some that, would weigh from 150 lbs. to 200 lbs. or more offered for sale at 300 Turkish piastres the dozen; in the neighbourhood of the Danube they fetch a little more. The expense of keeping these animals in a country abounding with forests being so trifling, and the prospect of gain to the proprietor so certain, we cannot wonder that no landowner is without them, and that they constitute the richest class in the principality. In fact, pig-jobbers are here men of the highest rank: the prince, his ministers, civil and military governors, are all engaged in this lucrative traffic.--_Spencer's Travels._

MOUNTAINS IN SNOW.

Cold--oh, deathly cold--and silent, lie the white hills 'neath the sky, Like a soul whom fate has covered with thy snows, Adversity! Not a sough of wind comes moaning; the same outline, high and bare, As in pleasant days of summer, rises in the murky air.

Very quiet--very silent--whether shines the mocking sun Through the wintry blue, or lowering drift the feathery snow-clouds dun: Always quiet, always silent, be it night or be it day, With that pale shroud coldly lying where the heather-blossoms lay.

Can they be the very mountains that we looked at, you and I? One long wavy line of purple painted on the sunset sky; With the new moon's edge just touching that dark rim, like dancer's foot, Or young Dian's, on the hill-side for Endymion waiting mute.

O how golden was that even!--O how balm the summer air! How the bridegroom sky bent loving o'er its earth so virgin fair! How the earth looked up to heaven like a bride with joy oppressed, In her thankfulness half-weeping that she was thus overblest!

Ghostly mountains! 'Silence--silence!' now is aye your soundless voice, Lifted in an awful patience o'er the world's uproarious noise; O'er its jarrings and its greetings--o'er its loving and its hate-- Silence! Bare thy brows all dumbly to the snows of heaven, and--wait!'

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