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HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE, N. Y.

[Illustration]

Of these two objects the first is not a hand, and the second is not a
windmill. What are they?

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ANOTHER SQUARE PUZZLE.

The puzzle is to draw two squares in the positions shown by the diagram,
without lifting the pencil from the paper, or crossing one line with
another.

Let our little readers exercise their ingenuity over this apparently
simple problem.

HOW TO MAKE A CUCUIUS.

BY FRANK BELLEW.

You would like to be able to mate a cucuius, would you not? We will tell
you. But perhaps you would like to know what, in the name of Memnon, a
cucuius is? Well, we will tell you that too.

A cucuius, or cucuij, is a kind of beetle, about three inches long,
which emits a very brilliant light from two large protuberances in its
head, which look like its eyes. It is called the lantern-fly in English,
and lives in South America. The light it gives is so bright that you can
read a book by it. The natives employ them in place of candles to
illuminate their rooms while performing their domestic work. We have
seen one exhibited in a room where eight gas-burners were in full blaze,
and yet its two great demoniac-looking eyes (or what appeared to be
eyes) shone more brightly than the most brilliant of precious
stones--with an intensity, it will be no exaggeration to say, equal to
the electric light. The effect was perfectly startling, and rather
appalling.

To give light, however, is not the only good quality this wonderful
insect possesses: it is a deadly enemy to gnats, by which the natives of
the Spanish West Indies are greatly annoyed. When they wish to rid
themselves of these pests they procure two or three of the cucuiuii, and
let them loose in the room, when they soon make short work of the enemy.
The method of catching the cucuius adopted by the natives is to repair
to some open piece of land with a flaming fire-brand, which they wave
vigorously backward and forward, calling out all the time, "Cucuie,
cucuie, cucuie." This attracts the insects to them, when they are easily
captured with a small net. What a blessing these cucuiuii would be to us
be-bitten inhabitants of the United States if Mr. Cucuius would only
treat our mosquitoes with the vigor that he does the gnats of the
tropics!

In South America they are used as ornaments for the hair and dresses of
the ladies; and on