(3 of 3)
Copians, Slicksters, Buccaneers, Spanish Dukes, Irish Dukes, Sabers, Royalistics, Imperial Lords, Fangwoods, Cobras, Mysterious Five, Mutineers, Bachelors, Turks, Olsen Gang, Egan's Rats, Frenchmen, Over Dukes, Walkie Talkies, Socialistics, Comets, Redskins, Bowery Bums, Shamrocks, Commanches, Clashers, Bucks, Aggies, Forty Thieves, Rapiers, Red Devils, Lisbons, Champs, Trojans, Coriettes, Tiny Tims, Dragons, Jackson Knights, Vladecks, Bowery Boys, Braves, Garfield Boys, Navy Street Boys, Sand Street Boys, Red Hook Boys, Jolly Stompers, Redskin Roamers, Coney Island Boys, Beavers, Bishops, South Brooklyn Boys, Avon Dukes, Chancellors, Penguins, Robins, Nits . . .
This is a partial list of some of the kid gangs which Superintendent of Schools Jansen meant when he spoke of them in the past tense as if they no longer existed . . . Let
Mr. Jansen put them in his opium pipe . . . and remember that we will hear a lot more from them in the future.
HAL ELLSON
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Peeping Poros
Sir:
In your article on African Negro sculpture [TIME, May 10] you refer to the "wholly abstract mask [see cut, left] used in the circumcision ceremony of the secret Poro Society of the Ivory Coast Dan Tribe."
Nonsense—it obviously symbolizes the human hands held over the face of a boy during the act of circumcision, a ritualistic act among some aboriginal tribes.
VANCE A. HOLCOMBE Wallace, Neb.
¶ To ensure the secresy of such ceremonies, the Poro had another mask, the Gblo ze ge (see cut, right) The man wearing the Gblo ze ge mask had the task of killing any boy caught spying into the mysteries. Such a peeping Poro was first made insensible with poison in his nose and eyes, then seated on a smokeless fire. After he was properly roasted, he was consumed by all the zos (the local big shots) of the countryside called together for the occasion.—ED.
Word Test
Sir:
After puzzling for days, I am still baffled. Why is the answer to the third group of words in the N.A.S.P. test [TIME, May 10] "adjacent"?
[Pick out the item which violates a positive rule or characteristic of the other five: adjacent, conform, deprive, liken, oblivious, prior.)
The word that doesn't fit in that grouping is "liken," an Anglo-Saxon derivative. All the others . . . are formed from Latin roots . . .
LAURA B. ALEXANDER Cape Elizabeth, Me.
Sir:
. . . "Deprive" would be possible, proceeding on this hypothesis: conform to, liken to, prior to, oblivious to, but deprive of ... The reason for selecting "adjacent" completely eludes me. A misprint, a bad question, or are we "oblivious" to something quite obvious?
GORDON JOHNSON
Chicago, Ill.
¶N.A.S.P. erred. The correct answer is "deprive," because it takes the prepositions "of" or "from," while the other words in the group take "to" or "with."—ED.