MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 244, 1 December 1847, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

Education at Sierra Leone. — Education as may be easily credited, advances but slowly, yet not disheartingly. Many of the natives can read and write, particularly the junior branches of families. Those who locate in the colony advanced in life, or re-captured slaves, cannot be expected toaccomphish much. The first great difficulty required is thai of overcoming the English language, in the pronunciation of which even those who are initiated early seldom attain a proficiency ; and in places apart from the colony the Mahomedans are invariably the instructors, who, generally ignorant themselves, cannot be expected to impart any great amount of knowledge. However, they are " wondrous wise" amongst their kind, and are superstltiously respected, being readers and expounders of the Koran. Their mode of teaching is as follows : At night or dusk, the boys light a large fire in the centre of the town, around which they all sit, each with a wooden board, on which are written scraps from the Koran, which they repeat aloud. It is no great burden for " one small head to carry all" that even the professors know, yet, little as it may be, it is thought too much to encumber the ladies with, as women are never allowed to be participators in literary pursuits, being reserved for (as literature stands) the more useful study of domestic economy, at which they physically drudge ; whilst the men 101 l in their hammocks, or hold palavers (conversations), " all sound and fury signifying nothing," or wash and pray in the mosques aloud many times in the day. The pens are slit reeds, and the ink is made from the leaves of a wild berry. Joseph Ady has extended the sphere of his benevolence, and now frequently informs natives in foreign countries of " something to their advantage." Sir Peter Laurie has mentioned one case at the Mansion-house this week. A Dutchman of Alkmaar has written a letter to the Alderman respecting a sum of money — " value £1000 and upwards" — which Sir Joseph Ady has offered to obtain for him, " on receipt of twenty shillings;" referring the foreigner to the Alderman, the " Deputy Lord Mayor of London," as one who would vouch for Joseph's good character. The poor Dutchman writes to Sir Peter to assist him in getting the money ; exhibiting in his letter the utmost confidence in the good faith of " Sir Joseph Ady," though he can't understand how he has himself become entitled to the amount.

Elihu Burritt, the Learned Blacksmith. — Elihu was born in Connecticut in 1811, of bumble but respectable parents ; attended the district school for some months yearly, until the age of sixteen, when, his father dying, he was apprenticed to a blacksmith, at which trade he worked until he was twenty-three ; and after trying, for a year or two, teaching and other professions, which did not suit his health, he returned to his anvil, at which he still labours when at home, devoting all his leisure to literary pursuits. 'By dint of hard labour, he has become a proficient in the most difficult languages of Asia, and in many of those languages of Europe which are now nearly disused and obsolete ; among them are Gaelic, Welsh, Celtic, Saxon, Gothic, Icelandic, Russian, Sclavonic, Armenian, Chaldaic, Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic, Sanscrit, and Tamul! It was stated, in a public meeting in 1831, by Governor Everett, that Mr. Burritt by that time, by his unaided industry alone, had made himself acquainted with fitty languages. Mr. Burritt shows no disposition to relax from his labours. He usually devotes eight hours to labour, eight hours to study, and eight hours to physical indulgence and repose ; and, by pursuing this course, he enjoys the advantages — vainly coveted by many literary men — those connected with " a sound mind in a healthy body." Nor does he confine his labours to the mere acquisition of literary wealth : he also diffuses it with a liberal hand. He has written many valuable articles for periodicals of high standing; he has delivered many lectures which have been replete with interest and valuable information ; and has been repeatedly listened to by large and highly respectable audiences in New York, Philadelphia, and other places, with edification and delight.' Mr. Burritt is now only thirty-five years of age — Chambers' Edinburgh Journal. Till within the last twelve or fifteen years, the only source of the beautiful pigment — ultramarine — was the rare mineral, lapis lazuli : now it is manufactured artificially to a very considerable extent on the continent. Formerly, the price of the finest ultramarine was as high as five guineas an ounce : now the same quantity cau be purchased for a few shillings. , In the Duchy of- Luxembourg a well is being sunk, the depth of which surpasses all others of the kind. Its present depth is 2336 feet — nearly 984 feet more than that of La Grenelle, near Paris. It is said that this immense work has been undertaken for working a large stratum of rock-salt.

Some experiments have of late been made with a submarine boat, constructed after the plan of Dr. Payerne, and called by him bateau cloche (bell-ship). It is made of iron, and to be seen near the Pont Royal at Paris, where it is now moored. On its last experimental trip, eleven persons were on board, and the craft passed (invisibly to the public) through the space between the Pont Royal and La Concorde. None of the passengers, it is said, felt the least inconvenience during the subraaiine trip. It appears from the researches of Professor Miquel, that the ".manna" which fell in theprovince of Van, in Asia Minor, in 1845, consisted of fragments of Lichen esculent us. These must have been torn from their woods by a storm, and carried through the air to the places where they fell.

Picture os a Marquesas — Kory-Kory, though the most devoted and best natured ser-ving-man in the world, was, alas ! a hideous object to look upon. He was some twentyfive years of age, and about six feet in height, robust, and well made, but of the most extraordinary aspect. His head was carefully shaven, with the exception of two circular spots, about the size of a dollar, near the top of the cranium, where the hair, permitted to grow of an amazing length, was twisted up in two prominent knots, that gave him the appearance of being decorated with a pair of horns. His beard, plucked out by the roots from every other part of his face, was suffered to drop ia hairy pendants, two of which garnished his upper lip, and an equal number hung from extremity of his chin. Kory-Kory, with a view of improving the handiwork of nature, and perhaps prompted by a desire to add to the engaging expression of his countenance, had seen fit to embellish his face with three broad longitudinal strips of tattooing, which, like those country roads that go straight forward in defiance of all obstacles, crossed his nasal organ, descended into the hollow of his eyes, and even skirted the borders of his mouth. Each completely spanned his physiognomy ; one extending in a line with his eyes, another crossing the face in the vicinity of the nose, and the third sweeping along his lips from ear to ear. His countenance, thus triply hooped, as it were, with tattooing, always reminded me of those unhappy wretches who m I hava sometimes observed gazing out sentimentally from behind the grated bars of a prison window ; whilst the entire body of my savage valet, covered all over with representations of birds and fishes, and a variety of most unaccountable looking creatures, suggested to me the idea of a pictorial museum of natural history, or an illustrated" Goldsmith's Animated Nature." — Melville's Residence in the Marquesas.

Locusts. — Of the multitudes of the incomplete insect or lava of the locust, which at this time infestei this part of Africa, no adequate idea can possibly be conceived without having been an eye-witness. For the distance of ten miles on each side of the Sea-cow river, and eighty or ninety miles in length, an area of sixteen or eighteen hundred square miles, the whole surface of the ground, as far as we could see, might' literally be said to be, or to have been, covered with them. They had completely destroyed every green herb, and every blade of grass ; and had not the insulated reeds of the river afforded subsistence for our cattle, our journey must here have ended for want of tood. To the southward, where these swarms had already been, the traces of their route appeared as if the surface had been swept by a broom, or as if a harrow had been drawn over it. Jn coming to the first troop, the waggons as usual, drove right through them, when they rose up on ea6h side like a cloud, and the horses crossed the group at a gallop ; those that escaped being crushed immediately squatted down again. They swarmed in thousands into our tents to devour the crumbs of bread that fell on the ground. The present year was the third of their continuance in this part of the colony. Their last departure, with its result, is described as rather singular, and it was confirmed by the inhabitants of the lower part of the colony. All the full-fledgediesects were driven by a tempestuous north-west wind into the sea, and afterwards thrown back on the heach, where they formed a bank three or four feet high, between the mouths of the Bosjesmans river and the Beeka, a distance of neatly fifty miles ; and our present company assured me that when this mass became putrid, the stench was sensibly felt in several parts of Sneuwberg. — Autobiography of Sir John Barrow.