GENERAL ITEMS.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 683, 30 January 1883, Page 2

GENERAL ITEMS.

Superstition.—According to the Me.i sager d' Athenes, a superstition is still cuirent in some parts of Greece that the dead occasionally leave their graves at midnight and return to their homes, where they create all kinds of mischief. On the Island of Andro's theYambfar Was circulated lately that several persons recently .buried had been seen in the/streets. To prevent a recurrence of this event several peasants went to the graveyard on the following night, opened the graves of those persons, cut off the ..heads of the corpses, and mutilated them in a horrible manner. Wool Gathering.—The following tough one is published in a Blenheim paper :— As an instance of the wonderful wool-pro-ducing capabilities of this province, we may mention that a staffed sheep was exhibited at a (show lately on which the wool js Htill growing. The animal was shorn jubt prior to its being killed about forty years ago, and was afterwards stuffed by its owner, Mr Gibson, since which time the wool has been steadily growing until now, when the fleece is quite hoavy enough for the shears. Wool-growers will do well to ascertain the peculiar breed of this sheep, with a view ot developing the species, for if wool can be grown in this way on shelves under cover, flock owners can be independent of both droughts and runs. 'Some time ago a little American town- j ship decided to hold a mammoth negro camp meeting, advertising that " more amusement would be furnished than at any camp meeting ever held in Georgia." This naturally brought up thousands of negroes in anticipation of unlimited fun fun and whisky. Themeetitig became excited, a quarrel arose, and a negro was shot dead by a white. A dramatic incident followed. A' near relation of the, dead man—a drunken negress—fell across the dead body, and exposed his to the crowd, "as Mark Anthony the body of C&sar." Plunging her hand into the wound, she rose erect, with the blood dripping from her fingers, and cried tor vengeance. A general fight commenced, and a white was shot. After some shooting, order was restored, and a number of people were arrested, five of whom were sentenced to death. A curious defence was made on their behalf. To sell had whisky is criminal. . The whisky in this case was bad. Therefore, the men who sold the whisky were the murderers. They ought to suffer. One witness, indeed, declared that " lie didn't blame any one for committing murder after he drank it." In opite of this, however, tour men and one woman were hanged together—■ for the first time in the.history of Georgia

It is stated tint recent analyses of the water from the Holy Well at Mecca, which is so eagerly drunk by pilgrims, shows this water to be sewage, about ten times stronger than average London sewage. Pigeon races are so popular in Belgium that in the province of Liege alone 31,250 carrier pigeons were sent by rail in March, 362,250 in April, 302,500 in May, 269,500 in June, and 96,000 during the first three week? of July, making a total of more than a million for leas than five months. More than a thousand railway vans were required to carry them to their destination.