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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 28, 1984)
, Tuesday August 28, 1984/The Battalion/Page 5B Explorers think Mt. Ararat was ark’s final stop United Press International ANKARA, Turkey — U.S. ex plorers, including former astronaut James Irwin, have found a boat shaped formation on Mount Ararat they believe is the site of the legend ary Wreck of Noah’s Ark, the group’s leader said Saturday. Marvin Steffins, president of In ternational Expeditions, told report ers his group located the site Thurs day 5,200 feet up the southern slopes of Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey. “We cannot say that this is Noah’s Ark, but we believe we have found the site of it,” Steffins said. His expedition found a boat shaped impression with mea surements fitting the biblical de scription of the Ark in the sixth chapter of the book of Genesis, he said. “But 1 must stress that we don’t claim to have found the Ark of Noah itself, although the measurements are similiar to those in the Bible,” he said. Steffins said the boat-shaped for mation was about 450 feet long and 80 feet wide — similar to the mea surements mentioned in the Bible. Steffins’ expedition was one of three U.S. groups of explorers that scaled the 16,946-foot mountain this year in search of the Ark that according to the Bible came to rest on the mountains of Ararat after the great flood. Irwin and his “High Flight So ciety” expedition, and a group of ex plorers from the U.S. Institute for Creative Research were continuing their work on the northern slopes of the mountain, Steffins said. He said Irwin, who walked on the moon 17 years ago, was present at the discovery. Last year, Irwin’s expedition scaled the peak of Mount Ararat but was forced to cut short its work after the astronaut fell off a cliff and in jured his leg. “We searched this time on the southern side of the mountain al though the general belief was that it was on the north,” Steffins said. He said his expedition went to work on the basis of evidence provided by Ron Wyatt, a U.S. explorer who scaled Mount Ararat in 1977. Steffins posed for photographers holding two plastic bags filled with day that he said were samples from the site he had found. “These will be analyzed in the (United) States and preliminary re sults will be given to Turkey for per mission to do archealogcial work in the area next year,” he said. Steffins said they had asked the local military authorities to seal off the area around Mount Ararat to farmers and tourists “to prevent any damage to the site.” Another language discovered in Brazil United Press International SAG PAULO, Brazil — An an- bropologist said Sunday she has dis-' overed what may be a new language poken by Caribbean-origin blacks /ho arrived in Brazil during a 1930s ■old rush and settled in the Amazon angle. Anthropologist Julieta de An- Irade said a language called Lanc- »atua by its speakers is used by !5,000 blacks in towns and gold min- ng camps over a 1,200 mile stretch ){the Brazilian Amazon. “Lanc-Patua speakers are descen- lents of blacks who came from the }uyanas and the French Caribbean luring a 1930s Amazon gold rush,” laid De Andrade in an interview. She said their French-sounding aatois was gradually transformed Trough contact with Portuguese- ipeaking Brazilians “into something Tat sounds like a brand new lan guage.” The pronunciation, spelling and much of the vocabulary of Lanc-Pa tua show Portuguese influence. But the language also contains words, such as “job” and “drive,” contrib uted by gold prospectors from En glish-speaking Guyana. “While French in origin, Lanc-Pa tua has its own accent, syntax and vocabulary,” said De Andrade, vice president of the Sao Paulo Folklore Museum. “Experts may argue whether it is truly a language or not, but none can deny it is distinctive.” She said there are no newspapers or books in Lanc-Patua, but that its speakers communicate by letter and travel frequently among widely scat tered communities. During five years of study for a doctoral thesis, de Andrade said she found “the Lanc-Patua people very friendly but a little eccentric.” Suspicious of outsiders and often guided by superstitions of voodoo origin, “they rarely give their correct names, instead inventing colorful but false ones.” Family members never attend a loved-one’s wake, which is organized by friends. Instead, they play domi noes for eight days straight while friends keep candles lit in a separate room. De Andrade discovered Lanc-Pa tua while visiting the Amazon Delta city of Macapa in 1979. She listened as two women chatted on a street corner in a tongue she had never heard before. She found 500 Lanc-Patua speak ers in Macapa and spent months studying their language, publishing her doctoral thesis “Lanc-Patua and Brazil’s Amazon Culture” as a book this week. “Every country’s informal culture offers remarkable things, but most people never bother to notice them,” she said. Common cures can banish garden pests United Press International MORGANTOWN — Bugs, slugs and herbivores can be a pain in the petunia to home gardeners. To protect their plants, many turn to chemicals and put up fences. A West Virginia University pro fessor of agricultural education has a cheaper and more down-to-earth al ternative. Layle D. Lawrence has compiled a list of about forty organic remedies used by old-time farmers and gar deners. “A lot of them have no cost at all,” Lawrence said. “They are mostly i common items around the home and farm. If you chew tobacco you already have some of the materials on hand.” For example, the professor said, garlic plants repel Japanese beetles, I and marigolds fight off Mexican ; bean beetles and nematodes. Pota- | toes also are effective against the Mexican bean beetle, Lawrence said. “Nematodes can be a problem in j potatoes, strawberries and any type [ of root crop,” he said. Green beans tend to repel the Col- | orado potato beetle, while pepper mint helps fight flies, which are more of a nuisance to people than plants, he said. Pests that can’t be re- ! pelled by plants often can be wiped out with other organic materials sprinkled or sprayed on a garden, the professor said. For example: — Wood ashes get rid of squash I borers, cucumber beetles and potato bugs. — A mixture of water, flour and buttermilk will wipe out spider mites. The formula: 25 gallons of water and 5 pounds of flour to one quart of buttermilk. A mixture of 50 parts water and to one part molasses “plugs the res piratory system of just about any in sect,” Lawrence said. He recommends diluting garlic and tobacco juices with water to make all-purpose plant sprays to fight insects. To make garlic spray, he said, blend garlic cloves and water in a blender, then strain out the solids. For the tobacco spray, soak to bacco in water, then dilute the mix ture until it’s about half as brown as the original. “The nicotine, I guess, is the lethal ingredient,” Lawrence said. “I’m sure these (remedies) are not as effective as some chemicals. But, on the other hand, these won’t get in the human system and cause prob lems.” To fight slugs, Lawrence recom mends saucers of beer — buried at soil level so slugs can just belly up to the trough for a brew. To ward off deer, rabbits and other herbivores, he said, sprinkle your garden with blood meal, meat scraps or human hair. “As long as the material has the odor, it tends to spook them away,” he said. For more information about non chemical solutions to garden pests, Lawrence suggests contacting your nearest county extension agent. 3 DAYS ONLY TEXAS A&M KAEPA’S Men’s and Women’s - All Leather ONLY *39.99 (reg. 47.99) While supplies Athletic Shoes NO RAINCHECKS SALE RUNS AUG. 28 th 30 th Nobody knows the thlete’s foot like Athlete’s Iho*. Foot. Ph. #409-764-1000 Located in Post Oak Mall near Dillard’s. Open 10 am to 9 pm daily Locally owned and operated vrsA fisrir D on’t settle for substitutes when there’s Jazzercise. 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