be traced back probably further even than those of the Egyptians, must have much to tell us. And it is to these that Captain Conder has found the key.

A SUFFOLK WITCH STORY.-The following story, which is sent to us with names, dates, facsimile copies of letters, etc., is interesting as showing how thoroughly witchcraft is believed in, and how confidently it is practised still, in some parts of nineteenth-century England. About thirty years ago a scandal arose in the household of a farmer living not far from Ipswich. This scandal created bad blood between the farmer, his wife, and his coachman; the farmer and the coachman accusing each other of being the father of a certain child. By-and-by the farmer died; but before his death he handed over £100 to a confidant, to purchase revenge by means of witchcraft upon the ex-coachman, who in the mean time had married, and had commenced business in Ipswich as a jobbing gardener and greengrocer. Some years after a "wise woman was found: we shall call her Mrs. D. Her instructions were to "lay a spite" (spirit?) on the ex-coachman; but there appears to have been a difficulty in get ting at him direct. He could only be got at, it seems, through his wife. To her came Mrs. Done day, ostensibly to purchase a quart of beans. The real object was to bewitch the woman, and she effected her purpose by making her swallow (by means of a kiss) a mysterious something which produced the most marvellous and most doleful results. The unfortunate wife was already suffering from some malady in the knee, for which she had been treated as an out-patient at the Ipswich hospital. She was now afflicted with a strange sickness, which compelled her to enter the hospital as an in-patient. But all the doctors in Ipswich failed to cure her; and at her own request she was taken home, as everybody supposed, to die. This was in March 1877. However, she did not die; but she became worse, sinking into a state of complete prostration. A living death had settled upon her. For five years she lived upon sugar, tea, and milk. She could not speak, and could only express "Yes" and "No" by signs. Her mind was dazed," according to her own account, by the influence of malignant spirits. Occasionally she was seized with sickness, and one of the most remarkable of her symptoms was bleeding from the inner corner of the right eye. The local papers de

described her as "the fasting woman," while the general public, when her case had attracted attention, came to the conclusion that she was shamming. Several doctors came to see her, and were much perplexed. The woman herself believed (this is a common superstition) that some live creature was doing all the mischief. Among her many visitors in the later days of her trouble was Mrs. D—, who, hoping that by this time some estrangement might have arisen between her and her husband, dropped hints that she might recover by transferring her malady to him, promising her at the same time the £100 left by the farmer. But the sufferer and her husband were still on the most affectionate terms, and the offers were indignantly refused. So matters went on down to last August, when a letter, signed by Mrs. D, was received by the husband's brother. The essential part of this letter we give verbatim et literatim "The time is geaten near for the poear dear to be released frome the great eveal spite [spirit] that shee have bean suffren from this last 10 year and i have sent thes few lins to have you be so kind as to see hear husband and geat him to break it to hear the best he can for the shock will com great to hear poer weak frame i hope you will be so kind and see your brother for shee have bean suffren for his bad deads... if the lord do spear hear thear is 100 pounds left for hear and it will not be long if shee is speared but that will never reward hear poear dear for the spit shee have had laid on her ondisserven The caus of me righten to you is becouse ithout that i could not do it beater only by doing so for if i sent the nuse to him the leater might have caused death to the poear dear for the famly might have read the leater to hear if you should see hear ask hear if shee remambe a woman coming in to ask hear for sume beans witch laid at the winder for sale and that was the time this great spite was laid on hear and i never go to my bead but what i think of the weards she sead wene i asked hear and it was if shee wold like to live or dye and these was the weards, i am hear and i am willing to sirve my hevenle father for he is my gide i pray and i am willing to bear it for his sake, and i beleav shee is a trow good wom poear dear. . . i shall send you or your brother afeu moer lines a day befor the witch leave hear and then i hope everything will be dune for hear to restoear hear to geat hear beater but never well. . .” Another letter followed on August 16, explaining that the "spite" was really to have been laid on

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the husband, and continuing-"If the Lord spear hear to giet over next Saturday and Sunday shee will be geaten beater but tell your brother that it will hapen at midnight and shaken will last about 10 minits and then after that shee will be very sick and tell him to mak a holl in the earth and close it down and then do the same to hear piler [pillow] shee have laid hear dear head on . . . then do all he can for the poer dear for hear suffer have been great. ." Then followed strict injunctions that the " poer dear" was not to be told of what would happen on the Saturday night, as it might be the death of her, with further reference to the £100; and a "few stamps were enclosed from "wicked Mrs. D." So the writer called herself-apparently laboring under deep remorse; for she added, “i do feall the weards often ring in my eas, and tell hear that i hope i shall meat hear in heven." More minute instructions as to what to do when the predicted sickness came on were received by the husband himself on the Saturday morning (August 21). The "nuse" was still to be withheld from the sufferer, who was to be kept perfectly quiet; and the letter ended by saying "Thear will be about 14 or 15 ours longer and it will be over i pray pray give hear sumthing as sone as you can if abeal to take it . . . From Mrs. D-- the wicked woman." The "wicked woman's " predictions were almost exactly fulfilled. At a quarter to eleven that night the sufferer, who had not been told a word as to the symptoms she might expect, was seized with violent shakings, which lasted ten minutes and were followed by sickness. It is believed that the sickness freed her from the mysterious something which she had swallowed ten years before. The husband at once buried it, with the pillow on which the woman had been lying; and from that moment she began to get better. Her speech and strength returned; but for the next month or two she suffered greatly from the "persecution of evil spirits, in whose power she still was" (this is her own statement). Thereupon her husband resolved to do a little bit of enchantment on his own account. He obtained from a man who professed to have been bewitched some extraordinary specifics for casting out devils. The details are too revolting to be stated: that any sane person should have practised the methods described is almost incredible. Not even the witches' caldron in Macbeth contained such "hell broth" as this man and his wife brewed for the purpose of exorcising the evil

spirit. However, the process went on, the bedstead, the walls, and the doors of the room resounding with knockings and rattlings and rappings. These noises were even heard by neighbors, several of whom have signed a written attestation of the fact. By degrees the spirits took their departure. They were not easily evicted; for the exorcising process was carried on down to November 9, after which date the sounds ceased and the bewitched woman was restored to health, except that her legs remained paralyzed. Mrs. Dis described as a very fat, full-faced woman, respectably dressed." From her last letter, dated September 8, it seems that she is now engaged in getting the £100 out of the hands of someone in whose care it was placed. This person will not give it up (so writes Mrs. D-- to the husband), "becaus the suffer will not give hear consent to have you laid." However, Mrs. D intends to pay the holder of the money a vissit, and it shall not be a wealcome won; for, she says, "i will not give it up till i now sumthing is dune for the poer ondissirven suffer." Thus there is a deadlock. The "ondissirven suffer" will not permit her husband (the original intended victim) to be "laid," and the money will not be given up until she does. Unless, therefore, Mrs. D-can "lay" the obstinate stake-holder nothing can be done. In Devonshire and other superstitious parts of the country no belief is more common than that “witches" have the power of introducing into the stomach of their victims a living reptile, such as a newt, which can be got rid of only by the aid of the most powerful exorcisms.- St. James Gazette.

ON THE EFFECTS OF EXPLOSIVES. —At a recent meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Professor Tait made some interesting and suggestive remarks on the effects of explosives-a subject having some connection with lightning flashes. The singular fact had been stated in the newspapers that an explosion of dynamite in the underground railway in London produced the excessively curious effect that several persons within a certain range had the drum of one ear ruptured, while no effect was produced on the drum of the other ear. If he had not been thinking for years about the effect of lightning flashes upon the air, he must have set down this to newspaper reporting. The difference between the effect of a sudden explosion in the immediate neighborhood of the centre at which the explosion took place, and the effects of the same at

a moderate distance, might be perfectly different from one another; and when examination was made of the matter from the physical point of view it was found that the difference depended on this: that as long as the projectile matter-whether it was the air itself around the explosive, or the materials of the explosive which were driving it from the centre of explosion-were going at a velocity greater than sound, the effect of their motion was precisely the same sort of thing as is observable in the case of a falling star. It compressed and immensely heated the air immediately in front. So long as it exceeded the velocity of sound there could be no vibrations propagated beyond the limit to which the explosion had extended, and the gases only came, as it were, into contact with a dead stone wall of stationary air outside. The result was that the air was compressed and became self-luminous by the instantaneous compression. So it was with lightning. Up to the point at which the velocity became that of sound there would be an exceedingly intense impulsive pressure, and there was great danger of very considerable damage. The question of how much force was required to rupture the drum of the ear was a question for physiologists. Being asked by Dr. Wallace how it was that, for explosive purposes, gunpowder required to be inserted into the material to be exploded, while dynamite was placed on the top, Professor Tait replied that dynamite exploded with great rapidity, and the consequence was that the gases expanded with exceeding rapidity, whereas gunpowder was burned comparatively slowly, and produced the effects of increased pressure with graduated speed. If the velocity was much greater than that of sound there was percussion, otherwise there was nothing but the propagation of vibration. It was the difference between a wave and a breaker. -Engineering.

PROFESSOR TYNDALL ON IRISH ORANGEMEN.-Professor Tyndall writes: Sir George Trevelyan, I am told, abuses the Irish Orange men.

His knowledge of them, I fear, is on a par with that of Mr. John Morley, who, if my memory deceives me not, once sneered at them as cowards. I can assure Mr. Morley that he is not in a position-that it does not belong to his delicate organization-to appreciate or understand the rough and resolute courage of the Orangemen in Ireland. He freely uses brave words. But should occasion arise, these condemned Orangemen will give him a lesson in brave deeds. As regards the

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quality of courage, I know no body of men to be compared with them. The day may not be distant when the needs of England will make their alliance a matter of vital moment; and it is, to say the least of it, bad generalship to flout a force which may be sorely needed by and by. Alas, that I should be doomed to write thus! I thought some years ago that the hatchet of religious strife had been buried for. ever. On Mr. Gladstone rests the guilt of having it disinterred. But since he, by his unholy alliance with Archbishop Croke and company, stoops to court the aid of a priesthood, borné and bigoted beyond most priesthood—a hierarchy which is becoming more and more a leading power in the Separatist movementthen, like old Leatherstocking on the burning prairie, we must fight fire with fire.' as I should deplore the necessity of doing so, sooner than hand over the Loyalists of Ireland to the tender mercies of the priests and Nationalists I would shoulder my rifle among the Orangemen. The fear of them and the dread of them have certainly acted as a powerful restraint upon rebellion in Ireland. Sir George Trevelyan was a nursling two years old when, as a youth on the Ordnance Survey, I was studying Irish politics in the pleasant town of Youghal, of which we have recently heard so much. I remember, on summer evenings, a crack-brained orator of extraordinary volubility holding forth in the street where I lived on the glories and the wrongs of Ireland. In his peroration he usually summed up the forces arrayed against him, and the item of greatest consequence here was, not the Munster Protestants or the English sodjers,' though they also were to be taken into account, but the three hundred thousand armed Orangemen of the North. The thought of this Northern force was ever present to the agitator, paralyzing him then, as it assuredly will paralyze him now. A well-known Irish aphorism refers to the process of 'whistling jigs to a milestone.' I would recommend Mr. John Morley to betake himself to this occupation, as less wearing and more useful than the attempt to fit the yoke of the disloyal South upon the necks of loyal Ulstermen. The thing can never be."

three thousand years ago, have lately been found in a subterranean gallery not far from Thebes, in which, together with the royal mummies they adorned, they had remained undisturbed during half the whole period of historic time! Strange to say they partially retained their fragrance, and even their color had not entirely disappeared. But, although these Egyptian flower-wreaths were closely related to those which may now be seen by hundreds and by thousands in Continental cemeteries, they must have been an expensive luxury in a country described by the prophet Zechariah as a region "where there is no rain" (Zech. 14: 18). Professor Owen-in a most interesting lecture that once upon a time he gave at Stafford House-proved to the satisfaction of his audience that one of the most puissant Pharaohs that ever sat upon an Egyptian throne was much devoted to natural history, maintaining a park for wild animals, and a botanic garden for exotic plants; but these, after all, were royal luxuries, such as no subject could command, and which few even of his imperial successors were able to keep up. Doubt less, as a rule, there were few flowers to be had in those days-either for the living or the dead-in the valley of the Nile, consequently the discovery of flower-wreaths in the sepulchres of Derelbahar-whether placed there for ornament or for sentiment-took artists and scientists entirely by surprise. But it is time some account were given to our readers of the circumstances under which this wonderful "find" was made, and this we think will best be done by translating portions of an important article by Professor G. Schweinfürth which originally appeared in the Gartenlaube (v. xxxii., 38), and in which we read that "No more important discovery of Egyptian mummies was ever made than that achieved by Emil Brugsch on July 6th, 1881, when entire generations of great Egyptian Kings were found near the temple of Der-el-bahari at Thebes. Among the forty royal mummies deposited in this place were those of Amosis, Thutmosis, Amenophis, and Sesostris, each with his name upon his breast. A king belonging to the 22d dynasty (about 900 years B.C.), in order to secure the mummies of his illustrious ancestors from desecration, had them moved with all due solemnity into this cave of Derelbahar." Here they found a sanctuary which remained inviolate until certain Arabs of the district stumbled upon it by what appeared to them the merest accident, though doubtless in this they were but fulfilling an

important purpose in the determinate counsel of God, the time having come when it seemed good to Him that some intricate questions in Egyptian archæology should be cleared up. The Arabs, with the instinct of their race, no sooner found themselves among the mummies of departed kings than they at once commenced plundering, and hurriedly offered some of the smaller antiquities for sale. But these, while they served to attract the attention of connoisseurs, at the same time aroused their suspicions; nor was it long before the real culprits had been detected and confessed their guilt. The dispersion of this unique collection was thus timely prevented and its integrity maintained intact.-English Churchman.

ANTIQUITY OF TELEGRAPHY.-A correspondent of the French journal Cosmos states that in a curious old work printed at Paris in 1622 there occurs a remarkable passage, of which the following is a translation: "We may also tell you this great and wonderful secret, which a certain German has shown to King Henry, and who, by his industry and dexterity, is able to speak and to converse with those who are far away, and this by means of the magnet. He first rubs together two needle magnets, and then places them each separately upon two clock dials, around which are engraven the twenty-four letters of the alphabet. If, then, they wish to speak together, or to make each other understand what they would desire, they move one needle around until it has pointed to the letters which are necessary to make the words and sentences that they would say, and as they turn one needle so also the distant needle turns, making always the same movement. The king seeing this wonderful secret forbade him to divulge it, fearing that thus would be opened very dangerous communications between the armies of his enemies and their besieged towns." The title page of the work in which the above passage is said to occur (on the 247th page) is as follows: "L'incredulité et mescréance du sortilège plainement convaincue Par P. de l'Ancre, conseiller du Roy en son conseil d'Estat à Paris. Chez Nicolas Bvon, rue Sainct-Jacques, à l'enseigne Sainct-Claude et de l'Homme Sauuage, MDCXXII." The notion that two magnetic needles by being rubbed together would afterward move in sympathy finds a place in more than one book of marvels of the seventeenth century, but the above date is, we believe, the earliest to which it has yet been traced.—Elec

trician.

KNOWING the great interest I take in his province, Emin Pasha has been in the habit of sending me extracts from his diaries in the form of letters. The full account of all that has happened during the four years of his involuntary silence has not yet come to hand, but in the letters, which I here translate, I think that there is enough information to give a fair idea of the Pasha himself and of the difficulties with which he has till now so successfully contended. We can, as we read, picture him looking with eager eyes for the help which has not even yet arrived; or, on his tedious marches, keeping a keen look-out for fresh facts wherewith further to enrich the sciences to which he has added so much that is new and valuable. these letters we see his inmost nature, the love he has for the people among NEW SERIES.-VOL. XLVI., No. 3

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whom his lot has been cast, how, although at times down-hearted, he is never driven to despair, but remains firm in his trust in an overruling Providence. A sad history is disclosed in these pages: a people raised to a higher level of freedom and civilization, only to be depressed again; a fertile country freed from the inhuman slave trade, only to be surrendered to it once more; a province which might be most prosperous, a source of great wealth to its possessors, ruthlessly abandoned to anarchy; but we see also the grand figure of a man facing the dangers of a most perilous position aided only by a faithful band of native followers, and successful more by force of personal character than by force of arms.

Very few words from me are needed to recall such part of the history of the

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