PROVINCIAL AND GENERAL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume IV, Issue 220, 18 April 1872, Page 8

PROVINCIAL AND GENERAL.

A married couple, who gained their livelihood by farming in Japan, within the jurisdiction of Kosuge Ken, plotted together to extort money from another man, who was induced to commit adultery with the wife. The facts j having come to the ears of the authorities, the money was taken away from the husband, who had profited by his wife's shame, and tools were boiigbt with it, which were given to the adulterous couple, who were then sentenced to hard labor on the model farm of Kogane-ga-hara.

The Davenport Brothers have experienced a defeat while performing at Ithaca, N.T. In the dark seances, the Davenports purported to be bound hand and foot within their cabinets ; and when the guitar was floating in the air, playing musically around, some of the students from Cornell College University suddenly exploded several pyrotechnic balls containing phosphorus, which made a bright light. The " spirits " were then found to be the Davenports themselves, who had been dodging about the stage playing the guitars. The players left by the earliest train.

It is announced that we are shortly to be put in possession of facts with reference to the Coolie trade, which will excite the horror of civilisation. In China the traffic appears to be winked at by the officials. They find their gain iv it ; besides, human life is of very little value in the Flowery Land. There is too much of it there, and any expedient, no matter how cruel or inhuman, that is calculated to reduce its volume, is likely to be welcomed Heartily. China could spare people enough to make a first-class nation, in point of numbers. In such a condition of things civilisation will have to step in, and with carronadeand cutlass declare that this infamous business shall come to an end. It is amazing sometimes to witness the pertinacity with which evil practices reproduce themselves. The oldfashioned slaver with his living cargo, packed like herrings between decks, re-appears in the captain of the coolie ship. The pretence, of course, is that the Coolie has been regularly hired at better wages than he can get at home, for a term of years, but the difference between the trade and that horrible one which has just been suppressed by the mailed hand of Christendom, is only in the name. — " Alta California."

A very extraordinary and astonishing incident was lately reported to have occurred a few miles from Beypore, the particulars of which are as follows : "A native female, of very attractive appearance, of the carpenter caste, while sweeping the yards of her house, heard a hissing holbc behind her. As she turned to Bee what it was, she found to her terror a large cobra advancing towards her. Before she had time to call anyone to her assistance, or even to go from the place, the serpent darted at her like lightning, find wound round one of her legs, and in the twinkle of an eye darted higher and higher, till it brought its open hood in contact with her face, there moving it to and fro like a screen. It this pitiable and frightful position she had to remain for nearly two days without being able to lie or sleep. None but females could approach her to feed her with milk and plantains, when the cobra turned its head to one sideand gave her ample time to nourish herself; but on any man stepping into the compound, the cobra would hiss fearfully and tighten its hold round her body in such a manner as to make her feel breathless. Many were the conjurors who came to relieve her from this frightful condition, but none succeeded in removing the huge serpent from her person till latterly a Nair was brought from the interior, who after performing certain charms and spells, succeeded in disentangling the poor woman from her venomous assailant. The snake quietly crept back into the bush from whence it came, and the woman is now doing well. The above wonderful occurrence is now a subject of general talk among the natives of the place. Mr Sayler, of Vermont, has brought a suit against Mr Page, his neighbour, for giving his family the small-pox. The "Louisville Courier- Journal" is of opinion that Page might make a good thing of it by bringing asuitagaint Sayler's family for taking the smallpox from him without his permission.