FACTS AND FANCIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 562, 26 April 1913, Page 7

FACTS AND FANCIES.

The First Meerschaum Pipe. In 1723 there lived in Pesth, the Hungarian capital, a cobbler and wood carver named Karlo Kowatee, whose talents and humour brought him into acquaintanceship with Count Andrassy, with whom he became a great favourite. One day he showed Kowatee a piece of meerschaum, which had been presented to him as a curiosity on account of its softness and light specific gravity. It struck the shoemaker that, being porous, it would be well adapted for pipes, as it would absorb the nicotine. The experiment was tried, and Karlo cut a pipe for the Count and one for himself. He noticed that the wax from his hands gave the pipe a beautiful polish, and also that it smoked more sweetly. The natural scarcity of this new clay and the great cost of importation in those days of limited facilities for transportation rendered its use exclusively confined to the richest noblemen of Europe up to 1830, when it became a more general article of trade. The first meerschaum pipe made by Karlo Kowatee has been preserved, and is now in the museum at Pesth.

Seals' Instinct of Self-Effacement. Little. seals are snow-white at first —the better to hide on the white ice on which they are born. Only their eyes and the tips of their noses are black, and at the first alarm they close their eyes and lie very still, so that it is almost impossible to see them. Even when you stand over them, they look like rough lumps of snow ice. If they have time they even hide the black tips of their noses in their white fur coats; and if you appear suddenly they simply close their eves, and the black nose tip looks like a stray pebble or a tiny bit of bark left by the uneasy winds that sweep over the ice floes. As they grow larger and begin to fish for themselves, they gradually turn dark and sleek like their mothers.

Legend of the Phoenix. According to ancient writers, the phoenix was a bird of great beauty about the size of an eagle. Only one of the birds could live at a time, but its eixstence covered a period of 500, or 600 years. When its life drew to a close the bird built for itself a funeral pyre of wood nnd aromatic spices, with its wings fanned the pyre into a flame, and therein consumed itself., From its ashes a worm was produced, out of which another phoenix was formal, having all the vigour of youth. The first care of the new phoenix was to solemnise its parent's obsequies. For that purpose it made a ball of niyrrh, frankincense, and other fragrant things. At Heliopolis, a city in Lower Egypt, there was a magnificent temple dedicated to the sun. To this temple the phoenix, would carry the fragrant ball and burn it on the altar of the sun as a sacrifice. The priests then examined the register and found that exactly 500 years, or exactly 600 years, had elapsed since the same ceremony had taken place.

The Growth of Coral. The best coral is found at a depth of about 40ft. under the water. It grows very slowly. In the Red Sea there are coral reefs which do not appear to have increased in size during 200 years. Other kinds of coral grow as much as 3m. in one year. The older it gets the harder it gets, owing to the deposit of carbonate of calcium in its pores; this gives it a shiny, crystalline appearance. The corals on the outer margin of a reef or island grow much more vigorously than those in the inner part. The coral found in the Mediterranean is very valuable, particularly the rose-coloured varity, as it is the rarest. Animals that Weep. Travellers through the Syrian desert have seen horses weep from thirst. A mule has been seen to cry from the pain of an injured foot, and camels, it is said, sheds tears in streams. A cow sold by its mistress, who had tended it from calfhood, wept pitifully. A young soko ape used to cry with vexation if Livingstone didn't take it in his arms. Wounded apes have died crying, and apes have wept over the young ones slain by hunters. A chimpanzee trained to carry waterjugs, broke one and cried, which proved sorrow, though it wouldn't mend the jug. Rats, discovering their young drowned, have been moved to tears of grief- A giraffe, which a huntsman's rifle had injured, began to cry when approached. Progress of Cremation. Cremation is making steady progress in Europe, in some countries faster than in others. Germany has twenty crematoria. Over 23,000 bodies have been cremated there *lll one year, as compared with 8,121 in England and Scotland. In Switzerland," where there are five crematoria, the number of cremations is proportionately several times as many as in Great Britain. Over 94, coo bodies have b?cn cremated in Paris during the last twenlv vears. The Roman Catholic Church strongly opposes this disposition < !' dead bodies. it also a strong latent leeiing 'gainst it in some FrflMMii