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Everyland Sept 1916

Page 1

AMONTHLY MAGAZINE FOR BOYS


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The Editor Says: Published Monthly EVEBYLAND,.166 I'tfth Avenuo, New York Cltv Yeanly subscriptton' $1'00 Ten certd a coDy Aaa ntty cents for foreiSin DoEtsgo' twonf,Y-flYo cetrts for Camila

October Evpnvraxn has some

fine surprises ! It will contain many interesting compositions and pictures from school boys

and girls

\[ountains.

in the Blue Ridge

E SuseD

[.

S.

1lf endenhall'

Eilltor

lllyer8, Buslneaa M&ntger ADVISORY'BOABD

Talcott w,iuiamB Mrs. Charles F. Chaso Mrs. ['ronk Mason North Mrs. Luey lM. Peobo'ly Difendorfer nalph E. .w', Dttith Grier Long Ehnes Morris

C ON T EN Vor.

VII.

No.

ro

Srrrrrtenn, Igro PAGE

B6cnr eNn rrrE STRANGEa, A. Hyatt Vemill zgt

A

Tnue Frsn Sronv, Part One,

Katkarine Stanley Hall z$

. Mn. Cr,ocr< tN rrlB

Herr,

Edna Billings 299

PvrnvraNo N.trunr Cwu, A. Hyatt Verrill 3a

PnrsoNens Eas:r

LaNn

.

3o2

or Jonnex, Franccs Healey

3o7

How Wn Tnavrl rN Evrnv

RenteMsnexcrs loR MrssroNARrES, J. Gertrude Hutton 3tr SolrB lN:rrnrsrrNc Derps

. 3r4

I

Certp Frnr

Kolak Ki.m.

Grnr,s

Tur Frxoruc Our

Crue

316

Aunt Helen 3t7

This is

t1-re

cover

or the It will

orinted in colors. The issue

hre

wili contain pictures and stories on "Going to SundaY School

in

Evsnvr-AND."

tr Evsnvraxn has just received an interesting letter from Old Umtali in South Africa. Find

it on your map. It saYs that lheir school boys have a considerable number of stories and illustrations which theY have prepared to send to Evrnvr,q.No. Will it not be solendid to have letters and

oictures from the other side of ihe world sent directly to us ! It wili be fine to have friends

in

Rhodesia.

tr

is indebted in this issue, for certain illustrations used in "How We Trave1," to the Episcopal Board of EvrnvreNn

Missions, the

CoDyright, 1916, by tl. tV. }licks. AII rights reserved' Enteretl under the act of March 3, 18?9, as secondclass matter, December 13, 1913' at the Post offico at New York, New York. ManuscriDts, which wiu be paiil for if acceptable, must be sent to EVDRYLAND, 156 Fifth Avenue' New York City, with address anil sufficient postage for return.

f

November EvpnvreNo.

of

PresbYterian

Missions, and the Interborough Rapid Transit' We are also indebted to the American BaPtist Foreign Missionary Society for the attract' ive frontispiece which we PreBoards

sent.

\\,'e extend our thanks.

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ts


Vol. VII

SEPTEMBER,

No.

1916

THE HUT WHERE THE WHITE MAN

LIVED

THE

10

STRANGER

;"wm

Bdche and the

Stranger By A. Hyatt Verrill

EVERAL

years

had passed since B6che the Carib

boy had flown his leaf kites, sailed his palm boats, and caught his. first fish. He had grown and

This is the last of the Biche stories-f or Biche has grozan

game, and wonderfully proud he had felt when he brought it home. And then one day a

stranger came to the Caribs' village. He was a white man, and, alht[arch, rgr5. though B6che had seen many white men, they had learned much. No longer was he afraid to go fishing with were not like the newcomer. A11 those his Jather, but every day sailed far out he had seen before were British officials to sea in the canoe. In fact, for a boY or planters, men whose duties or interhe was noted as a fisherman, and his ests brought them to the out-of-the-way father promised that soon they would village, and who thought it a great nuigo into the forest and cut down a sance, and fumed and fretted and swore gomrnier tree to make a canoe for at the simple ways and food of the In= B6che's own. B6che loved the woods dians, and thought them scarcely better and often he borrowed his father's old than animals, and who hurried away just muzzle-loading gun and wandered as soon as their business was over. But through the forest in search . of pa{' this man was not an Englishman and he rots, iarni,ers (wild pigeons), and agoutis \^ras neither a magistrate, who wearily (a small brown animal like a large fined the people in the little court, nor a guinea-pig). B6che never tried to kill planter seeking for land, nor an excise inything. Once he had succeeded in ofrficer looking for smugglers. B6che's killing a great purple ci,ceroo (a giant father said he was an American, but parrot), the wildest and shyest of this meant nothing to the Carib boy,

uf.

The earlier stories in this

series appeared in January and,


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BECHE AND THE.STRANGER

for he had never heard of such a country as America. The stranger did not act like the other white men, either. He seemed to like the Indians and ate the food they offered and lived

in the hut given him, and made no complaint. In the evenings he would

trtrtrtr8tr8X BAtrtr

ture, and B6che, very shy and nervous, tried to draw a picture o[ the white rnan, and when it was done his new friend roared with laughter to see how funny he looked in the Indian boy's eves, and B6che tried to explain that he didn't really look like that and that the triangular body and long crooked legs and sl<inny arms and round eyes and three-cornered head and huge ears

talk with the Carib men and would listen to their fairy tales and legends and ask many questions of the old men and women,.some of whom still rere not at all like the white man's. spoke the language of their ancestors. but just "made themselves" that way Bdche often saw the man take a queer on the paper. package of white sheets from his pocket and make marks upon these with a pointed stick, and this interested the Carib boy greatly. He wondered if it were some sort of witchcraft or magic, and then one day the white man saw the Carib boy watching and tried to "1usr explain what he was doing. He told 'MeoE B6che he was writing, and then he ttrrlrspn'ns' THAT WAY pointed to one of the marked sheets ON TIIE and repeated a story B6che's uncle pApnn" had told several days before; but B6che couldn't understand that the man E-as making notes or reading what he had written, for he had never heard of such things before. Then the man laughed and with his pointed stick made a ferv lines and B6che was almost frightened, he was so surprised, But these were not half as interestfor there oa the paper was the little ing as some of the things the stranger village, rrith the canoes drawn upon had and did. He had guns,-wonderthe beach, the waving palms, and the ful shining guns, not at all like those high mountain berond. B6che looked of the Caribs, and, instead.of pouring at the picture a moment and then ran powder and shot into them, all the out and stared about to see if the stranger had to do was to open the palms and mountains and canoes were gun and slip in a little bright box; and still there, for he thought it must be in a chest the white man had ever so "obi" and that the stranger had many queer and interesting things. really made all the things about go on There were little knives and scissors the paper. Then he surprised B6che and tools and a funny glass that would still more by drasing a picture of make fire when held in the sun, and B6che himself and oi his old father more fish-hooks than B6che had ever ancl mother, and the Indian bot stood seen in all his life. There were cans spellbound while the shite min cov- of powder and bags of shot and papers ered sheets of paper rrith birds. and of pins and dozens of needlei and trees and fishes. To B6che these n-ere spools of thread and many other obvery wonderful, and, rhen the man jects B6che had never seen or heard of, gave the pictures to him and toid him and the Carib boy thought the stranhe might have them, the lide Carib ger must be very rich indeed to have all felt very rich and proud- Thea the these things. When he saw B6che s-hite man handed the boy the paper looking longingly at the fish-hooks and 3nci pencil and told him to rnake a pi.-_- the powder and shot, he gave the boy a


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BECHE AND

TIIE STRANGER BtsEEtrEXEIEtrEOEO

fuli dozen of the hooks and a whole bag of shot and enough powder to last for months, and B6che was so glad and grateful and thought the stranger such a wonderful man that he vowed blood-

and handed the Carib boy a big, round, shining two-shilling piece. B6che could scarcely believe his eyes.

He never had had anything but a copper penny before, and here were two shillings I Presently the white man asked the boy what he would do with his money.- B6che thought a

friendship from that moment and followed his new friend about like a dog. And the stranger did such mysterioris and wonderful things. He could kill the parrots from the tallest trees, and could shoot the rctrni,ers as they flew overhead, and this was so marvelous to the Carib boy that he almost worshiped the stranger and looked upon him in awe as a superior sort of being. But after he had shot the bi.rds he didn't pick off the feathers and then cook their bodies. Instead he used his bright little scissors and knives and took the skins off, feathers and all, and

long time. There were so many wonderful things he wanted, and so much could be bought with all this

wealth, he was sure, that he could scarcely make up his mind. Then at last he decided and told his friend he would buy a shiny gun like the white man's. How the stranger did laugh at this, but soon he stopped and told the Carib boy that a gun would cost many times his two shillings.

Then B6che decided he'd bry a filled them with cotton and placed wonderful "fire-glass," but this he them in little paper wrappers in a found could not be had for two chest, for this white man was a nat- shillings. Then he decided he'd like uralist, and had gone to the Carib vil- some of the white sheets and a sharp lage to collect the rare birds and other stick to make pictures. At this the creatures in the woods. But of course white man laughed again, and told B6che had never heard of a naturalist, B6che he need not spend his money and he couldn't understand why any for such things, and, opening his chest, one should want birds except for food. he drew out two of the packages of Then he saw the stranger catching paper and two pencils and gave them bugs and beetles and butterflies, and to him. Then, not knowing anything he wondered still more. He knew that else in the world to do, B6che ran to some bugs were good to eat i many a his mother and gave her the two-shil-

ling piece. This was only the first of many shillings that B6che was to have, for he brought bugs and insects and birds to his friend, and one day, when he brnught a lovely bird which none of the Indians had seen save once or twice, the stranger gave B6che the 'r,,r,ondcrful fire-glass. Now a still more

time he had eaten the roasted grubs from the palm trees which are called groo-groo-worms, but he had never known any one to eat beetles or butterflies. But the white man put all these away in papers or bottles, and. al-

though B6che was puzzled, he realized that the stranger wished all these live creatures for some reason of his own, and so, as he wished to please his new friend, he too began to gather all the insects his sharp eyes saw, and these he lrought carefully to his C\-\I â&#x201A;Ź8.) friend.

'Ihe white

seemed

greatly

man

pleased

and he patted B6che on

the shoulder and thanked him, and then he reached in his pocket

6ff -\./

Pâ&#x201A;ŹC{-tt

fl., \\

.#NJ\ AArmeq BecdE

"HE covErEn sHEETs oF pApER wrrrr FUNNY Prctunrs" 253


EEEEBEEEBBE

BECHE AND THE STRANGER

wonderful thing happened, for the

white man drew pictures on the paper and made strange marks under them. There was a picture of a fish and under it the funny marks like this "P-E-C-H-E"; and under the picture of a dog, these marks-"C-H-I-E-N". Then the white man made the same marks without the pictures and asked B6che what they meant, and without hesitating the Carib boy looked at "P-E-C-H-E" and said "Peche," and at "C-H-I-E-N" and'said "Chien," for B6che was learning to spell and read, vvithout knowing it. Soon the boy was able to make the same marks himself, and he covered sheets of paper with funny pictures marked "C!ien" and "Peche" and other r,r'ords he had learned to print. But the stranger soon began to have troubles he had not foreseen. B6che spoke and understood nothing but his native Creole patois, and, while this language does very well when one is speiking, it's quite a different matter when ont wants to write it, and B6che's teacher discoyered that names of various objects were about all he could teach the boy in this funny tongue. But the teaching did not cease on that account; and what do you suppose the stranger did to overcome the difficultv? Whv. he began teaching B6che n"'gtist, t Oi course it was slow work, but it wasn't so hard or slow as you might think. In fact it was quite easy at first and B6che soon learned the English names for many things. Under- the word "Peche" the white man wrote

EEEEEEsEsEEBEI

never guess what they did use them for. It was to paste upon the walls of their huts for wall paper ! Some of the houses were quite covered with the pages, and one day B6che discovered that the marks on these were exactly like the marks he had learned to make. He was greatly excited, and went over the papers inch by inch, and when at last he found the words "Dog" and "Horse"'and "House" and "Fish" and other words he knew, he danced and pranced about in perfect joy at his discovery.

The white man told him he was very bright, and gave him a shilling for his discovery; and for days B6che

sat before the paper on the walls, copy-

ing the words; and then, taking them to his friend, he would ask what they meant.

One day he noticed the white man making marks on paper which were very difierent from those he knew, and l,e asked his friend what the new marks meant. The other told him they were figures, and that by them he could tell how many birds he had shot, how rnuch money he had paid the Caribs, how many days he had been in the village, and many other things. B6che couldn't possibly understand this, for how could little black marks tell things that even his father must count up on fingers and toes over and over again? Then the stranger had a happy thought and sent B6che for a number of small sticks. Then he seated himself on the floor by B6che's side, and taking one stick he laid it on the "F-I-S-H," and under "Chien,,, floor and held up one finger, and made "D-O-G," and so on with all the other a mark on the paper like this-r. Then pictures; and B6che was wonderfully he took two sticks and placed these on proud to think he really knew Englisir the floor in this position and - this held up two fingers, and- made and strutted about saying "Dios." "Fish." t'Bird," "House'," ind oth-er mark-2. 'Ihen he bent one stick and placed two others beside it like this, words continually. : _(, and, holding up three fingers, B6che knew there were such things as books, for often his father and tlie made the figure 3 on paper. In the same way he made 4, S, 6, 7,8, and g other men and women would bring old out of sticks, using the number oi newspapers and magazines and cata- pieces the figure represented in each. logs home when they went to the dis- It was very interesting to B6che, realtant town. But they didn't bring them ly a sort of game; and, with the figures to read, or to look at, and you would on the paper as a guide, the boy ipent


EOtrXtrEXEBEgEI

EgEB BECHE AND THE STRANGER tstsBEEBEEtsEB

t!r" whole dry making the

queer

with the sticks until he learned that each figure stood for a number. In a few days he had learned to add, for. the stranger showed him that by taking the two sticks used in making the figure z, and the one stick used foi r,. and placing them together, lgure he could make the figure 3. -When B6che grasped the idea and realized that by drawing the figure 3 ofl paper rt was ;ust the same as adding the three sticks together, he fairly shoutecl with delight. The stranger had now been at B6che's village for several weeks, and even the little naked children who ran away from him at first would clamber about his knees and would sit on his lap and try to tell him stories in their funny baby patois. The men liked him because he could hunt and tramo and sail as well as themselv"r, or "rr"i-, better. The women liked him because he was so kind to the children and also because he showed them how to do many. things more easily and better than before. And the Children likecl him because he frolicked and olaved with them and taught them games and made them toys. At last came the time when the stranger told the fndians he must leave them. This made the Caribs very sad and B6che was saddest of them all. Before he left, he gave the shapes

Caribs many

presents, and the old chief almost forgot his sorrow at losing his guest in the joy at the gun and other useful things the

white man gave Perhaps you think that B6che continued to him.

\

study and went to school and learned

to read books and became a great

r\r

man among the Caribs. Of course,

that's the way all good stories should end, and I wish I could say that he did, but I'm sorry to admit that

nothing of the sort happened. There was no school near, where B6che could

go; he had no one to teach him, and he soon found that it was very tiresome, copying the letters and figureS from the wall-paper without knowing what they meant; but he never forgot

what the stranger had taught him ancl he . always hoped tht some day his white-man friend would return. All this happened many years age, and when at last the stranger did go back to B6che's island home he found wonderful changes had taken place. There was a sihool it the vi[lage; white men had plantations and estates all about; many of the Caribs lived in board houses; and B6che had grown into a big, strong man, with a house and garden of his own, and with a wife and a whole flock of little B6ches and their brown sisters. But big B6che knew his old friend just as soon as he saw him, and wonderfully hrppy he was to meet him again after so many years. After the excitement of the first greeting: was over, B6che hunted about in his basket trunk and away down in the bottom found a little pac(age. It was very carefully tied up in dry plantain leaves and rawhide, and what do you suppose was inside ? The very first picture B6che had ever made, funny, ugly, misshapen picture -Jhe of the white man himself !


ffiMffiW Everyland Nature Club By A. Hyatt Verrill Carc of Everyland, 156 Fifth Avenuc, New York City

SOME VERY STRANGE PLANTS

#r;#'f;1y, ffi ?L'Jl,l rI i"'# what would you do for a

drink? Why, you'd find a spring or a brook, you say. Of course, if there was a spring or brook near, you might, but suppose there was not a drop of clear, cool water to be found ! In the north you might go thirsty for a very long time, but if you were in the tropics, or at least in some parts of the tropics, you could get a nice, refreshing drink of water from some of the plants growing all about you. This may seem verystrange,but there are many strange things in nature and some of the strangest are plants. In nearly all tropical forests the trees are covered with hanging vines known as lianas. These are very useful things,

although they .are a great nuisance when traveling through the forests, for they are of all sizes, from tiny threads to huge ropes, and they are tangled and knotted and twisted together like a perfect network. They are very strong, and the people where they are found use them for ropes and lines and call them "bush ropes." One kind is used to make rattan, and if you examine the ends of a

of rattan you will see a number of tiny holes. These are really the

piece

ends of little tubes which extend the whole length of the vine and through which the sap flows. If a living liana is cut in two, a stream of sap will flow out of these holes and then it will soon thicken and form a scab across the end of the vine, just as your blood will form a scab when your finger is cut. Some of the lianas have sap which is bitter, but others have sap which is as clear and fresh as the finest spring water. It is from this that the traveler in the tropical woods can obtain a drink when thirsty, for all he has to do is to cut off a piece of one of these vines and drink the sap. But in many places there are still other plants at vi,hich the traveler may find cool, clear water. One of these vegetable fountains is so useful that it is called the Traveler's Palm; and by cutting off one of the long leaves close to the trunk a good drink may always be found stored ready for the thirsty traveler. Still another plant where a drink may always be obtained is known as the "wild pine," as it looks a.great deal like a real pineapple plant. But instead of growing on the ground the

ANSWERS TO JULY PUZZLES ptzzleis the Spoonbird of South 4merica, Africa,.Asia, Southern in The bird the July Europe, and the trobics ienerally. The animal is the Gila Monster, found in southwestern and northern Mexico. United - ifr" States orrly -e-be. of the EvnavraNo Nature Club who sent correct answers to both Hamlett. was "- Louis Taliaferro Th;;irA;;s named correctly by: Ward Bayles, Lydia Brown, Adelaide P. Dutcher, Elizabeth Kirkwood. 300


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E

EVERYLAND'S NATURE CLUB tr

\,1,i1d pine grows high up on the branches of forest trees and on the 'vines which cling to them. At the base of each leaf of the wild pine there is a cup-shaped hollow which always 'contains fresh, cool water. Quite often moscluitoes breed in this water and so, in many parts of the tropics, man has been obliged to destroy all the wild pines in the vicinity to do away with the troublesome and dangerous insects. The wild pine is an"air plant" or parasite, for it grows in the air without requiring earth like most plants, and in the tropics there are a great many kinds of these funny air plants. There arc orchids with beautiful and strange

AIR PLANTS

1. WILD PINE 2. LIANAS 3. LIZARD TREE 4. AIR CABBAGE 5. ORCIIIDS

shaped flowers, wild pines, and many other parasites, and they are ali wonderful an<l interesting, but of them all there are none more strange than the Lizard Tree and the Air Cabbage. The Lizard Tree, when growing, looks like

tr]

tr tr tr E E B

EIEIEX

a huge green lizard crawling up the trees, but I think "Centipede Tree" would be a more appropriate name. The stem is thick and jointed, like bamboo, with slender white roots and smooth green leaves growing from each joint. Every little while one of these joints breaks off and falls down, and wherever the.joints land they take root and commence to grow until three

oi' four feet long, when their joints break off and start still other plants. Ilut oftentimes the pieces fall to the earth, r,vhere the joints cannot break away and take root, and when this happens the funny plant continues to grorv until it reaches a tree, when it climbs up until its joints can break away and tumble dou,n. This is a very strange way for a plant to increase, but the Air Cabbage has a habit just as funny, although very different. This plant looks like a giant cabbage and deep down in the center of its leaves is a little cup filled with seeds. The roots are very slender, and when the big plant is fully grown it becomes topheavy and the first hard wind or heavy shower tips it over and thus allows the seeds to tumble out and fall to the ground, or to the lower branches of the trees. A11 the {unny plants of the tropics are not air plants and lianas, however. Sometimes when walking through the woods in the tropics, you may stub your toes agafnst some hard object, and, looking down, you see a rusty cannon-ba1l lying half hidden among the leaves. Of course, it's very surprising to find cannon-balls in such a place, but it really isn't a cannon-ball at all, but the fruit oI a tree, and when you look about and see the tree you 'w,i11 be more surprised than rf rt were Conclwded.

WHO KNOWS ? 'The correct names, together wttil those'vrho send the right answers,

will be published in

301

November.

on fage z3o)


'8trtr8trEBtrtr (Continued,

E

E\IERYLAND'S NATURE CLUB

trEtsEEEtrEEtrE

from page 3or)

a real cannon-ball. The tree is known as the Cannon Ball Tree and the fun-

ny fruits are borne on short

stems

sprouting directly from the the bark of the trunk. The flowers are very odd and pretty but they are ill-smelling like the fruit. 'Ihe tree has very few -leaves and these all fall off at the season when the fruits ripen, and so you ,can imagine rvhat a funny sight this tree presents lvith its bare branches and the great rusty-brown balls hanging to the trunk. Still another strange tree is the Sand-Box Tree. The seeds of this tree are large, round, and nearly flat, and are held within a pretty scalloped shell about'three or four inches in diarneter. l'hese seed pods are real vegetable firecrackers, for u,hen they are ripe they e:rplode r,r'ith a loud noise and 'scatter or shoot the seeds far and wide. During the season when the sand-box 'seeds ripen a constant popping may be heard from the trees and the seeds fly about like rain or hail. The natives of the countries where the sand-box trees ,are fonnd have a very pretty and ,ouaint idea about the popping seeds, Ior thev believe that whenever a seedpod explodes it announces a lizard's l,edding has taken place. Tt is strange enough to think of cannon-balls and firecrackers gror,ving on 'trees and of drinking water from vines and palms, but how would you like to be able to get the cloth and lace for 'your garments from trees? That is what many of the South American natives do, for where they live there is :a tree calied the Lace-Rark Tree. This .tree has a wonderful inner bark which may easily be unrolled and appears like broad sheets of creamy-white lace. f'his is known as Seda Virgin or Virgin Lace, by the Spanish Ameri,cans, and is used by them for draperies, aurtains, shawls, mantillas, and garments. Jt is so tough and strong that it even is made into ropes. cablei, and harness, and it is so common and so

easily gathered that it is 'fi/ashed,

seldom

but when soiled is cast aside

for a new supply.

820

"\t'ttrN You sEE THE TREE You BE \{ORE SURPRISED THAN A REAL CarNOlr-gerr"

IF IT

wrLL WERE

These are but a few of the strange and useful trees and plants in the tropical forests and the native woodsman can find anything he requires for food,

drink, shelter, fuel, weapons, and clothing. Even thread and needles are there, for if the Indian tears his scanty clothing he does not have to go to his home to have it repaired. Cutting a leaf from an Agave plant he pounds tl,e fleshy pulp between two stones untill only

the sharp spine at the leaf-tip and the tough fibres are left, when lo and behold, he possesses a serviceable needle and a bundle of tough threads

Seady

for

use

!

And this is not the onlv use to which the Agave may be put. To the native Indian it is as useful as the reindeer to the Laplander. From the juice he obtains drink; from the roots a coarse, but healthy flour, and from the leaffibers he weaves mats and clothing which he sews together with a needle and thread also rnade from the same plant.


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Everyland Sept 1916 by Doug Frizzle - Issuu