RANDOM READINGS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 437, 27 December 1918, Page 4

RANDOM READINGS.

THE PRICE OF A HAND. As far back as the seventh cento?, when the laws of the Barbarians fixed fines for personal Injuries, the following was the tariff:—Loss of thumb, 46 shillings; second finger (with which the bow was drawn), 36 shillings; third finger, 16 shillings; fourth finger, 6 shillings; little finger, 15 shillings. The price of the whole hand was a hundred shillings. ••NEKKI," A JAPANESE GAME. Though the Japanese hare no great national game, they hare many enjoyable sports and pastimes, most of which—*ucn, for instance, as wrestling and fencing—tend to develop the muscles and make the boys physcially strong. One of their games that afford execellent exercise is known by the name of "nekki." Tie nekkl are hard sticks about a foot long and sharpened at one end—a kind of mlnature stake. Each player has two of these. One he digs in the field in which the game is played, and then, all standing some distance away, each player throws his oiher nekki as a dart with the object of dislodging one of the standing sticks which he then claims as his property. The game requires a good deal of skill to succeed, but it is a capital training both for sight and aim. A FAMOUS SPANISH PALACE. One of the culminating points of Mohammedan architecture was attained in Spain in the Alhambra palace of Granada, the last building of importance erected by the Moors before their expulsion from Spain in 1492. History, poetry, and painting have combined to familiarise us with its beauties, and to impress its form upon our minds. The struggles between the Paynim and Christian knights produced much of the romance and poetry of the Middle Ages, and in modern times writers, painters, and architects have dwelt with special delifht upon the still existing remains of Saracenic art. Washington Irving has made the Alhambra the goal of many literary and artistic pilgrimages, and who has not read with a thrill of emotion the story of the brilliant deeds of the handful of Oriental adventurers who in the eighth century subjugated Spain and almost saved Europe from the savagery and ignorance of the Dark Ages! The contemplation of the high state of civilisation in art, science, literature, commerce, and general culture, and the toleration in religion, reached by the Mussulmans in Spain during the eight centuries of their rule, compels the impatient student to admit that the progress of the rest of Europe would have been greatly ac--celerated if the tide had not turned against the Moors at Tours. The Alhambra has been greatly, damaged by earthquakes and military operations, but worse than all has! been the deliberate destruction of the mosque and other important portions of the original building, and the addition of new apartments in an incongruous style. Within comparatively recent times, however, it has been considerably restored with taste and skill, and it is kept in excellent condition. The remains of the original building consist chiefly of two'large oblong courts, the Court of the Lions, built by Abu Abdallah in 1325. andi which is believed by some to be the scene of the massacre of the Abencerrages, and the Court of Alberca, of earlier date, and of many smaller chambers and several largo halls, all magnificently decorated with brilliantly colored, intrieateandgraceful patterns, The outer walls are plain and simple, a. striking and evidently an intentional constrast to the splendour "and rich-* ness of the interior. Tl.e decorations are all moulded in an extremely hard stucco with an extraordinary variety of geometric designs. As Ferguson says, there is in the exuberance of stucco on.ament no offence to good taste, for work in plaster ought to be richly decorated, otherwis it is an un-. successful attempt to imitate the sim> plicity and power that belongs to more durable and solid materials. It was never elaborated with more artistic feeling than in the Alhambra. Much of the charm of 'he Alhambra comes from its unrivaled situation. After the traveller has passed toilsomely through the arid and shadeless plains of Andalusia or Castile, the broad avenue through the elms and covering the hillside leading to (ho plateau on which the palace stands are most grateful to all the senses. The views from the windows overlooking the ravine of the river Darro, or from the Vela watehtower, are. famous for their beauty; towards the south, beyond theluxuritnt foliage of the Sierra Nevada rise mantled In eternal snows. The surrender of the Alambra to Ferdinand and Isabella in January 1429, by Abu Abdallah (Boabdil), marks th- close of the empire of the Mussulmans in Spain. The story of the heroic defonce of Granada is one of tiie most pathetic in history, and ni Padul the place is still shown where the vanquished Moorish king took his last look at the city before leaving Spain forever. It Is called "The ! ;i st Sigh of the Moor." On April IT of the same year the Spanish .-'• eloign* signed the commission vhi' ii r-;;t.trd Columbus on his first voM".- 1 i'i discovery. The specie-room on ocean steamships is usually 16ft. long, 10ft. wide, and Bft. high. It is formed of steel plates a quarter of an inch thick, with a steel door, which has a burglarproof combination lock. Granite is quarried in Bangalore, In Southern India, by burning a wood fire about 7ft. long over the surface of the flat rocks, and keeping this continually moving forward. To such perfection has this method been brought, that in less than a day about 7<W square feel may be split up, burning w«nd -i the «mal' rate ot lib. to 30lbs. ol m. -e liiiarried.