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can readily be understood, each step in the calculation calls new combinations of balls into play, and has the effect of obliterating the previous step; so that, if a mistake has been made, the whole process has to be gone over again.

It is amusing to see the utter helplessness the Chinese often display in trying to add two simple numbers together without an abacus.

When, at daylight, the shutters are taken down from the shop-fronts in Canton, the shopman ensures, as he thinks, good luck for the day by shaking the balls of the abacus to and fro; at first slowly, but gradually increasing in speed until finally a continuous sharp clicking sound is produced.

ABATEMENT.-Nearly every Chinese tradesman, or merchant, states the price of his goods with a view to an abatement being made. The only exceptions amongst purely native shops are Tea, Cake, and Druggists' shops. At such places there is no need for haggling over prices. Exception must also be made in favour of the shops dealing almost exclusively with Europeans, where many are beginning to conform to foreign customs and have a fixed price.

A Chinese will take as much as he can get, but as a general rule it is quite safe to suppose that he is asking a quarter or a third more than he expects to receive; consequently offer him half of what he asks, then, while he gradually falls in his price, as gradually rise in the offer made to him until neutral ground is reached, when split the difference and he will probably be glad to take what you give him. But this must all be done with a perfect nonchalance; no eagerness to obtain the object must be shown; no words of praise must fall from your lips; any little defects in it must be pointed out: It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way then he boasteth.'

When in doubt as to the value of anything, a very good plan is to go about beating down the price in several different shops. A pretty shrewd guess may then be made as to what is a fair price for the article; for when a shopman sees a customer

on the point of leaving his shop, he will come down to nearly, if not quite, as low a figure as he is prepared to accept.

A Chinaman dearly loves a bargain, and he finds a positive pleasure in chaffering over the price, which the foreigner (to whom time is money) can scarcely appreciate. Looked at from a Western standpoint, it is simply appalling to think of the hours, days, weeks, months, and years, which must be wasted in the aggregate in China over the carrying out of this Eastern trait of character.

There is an amusing skit, translated by Giles in his "Historic China and other Sketches,' which is an admirable parody on the language of the market and the shop, and holds up this custom of the Chinese to ridicule. It is styled The Country of Gentlemen,' and represents an ideal state of society where the tables are turned--the buyer cracking up the goods he is purchasing, and offering and insisting on the seller taking a higher price than is demanded for them, while the latter depreciates his wares, asking far too little for them, the two haggling over the price at great length, as in the every-day world in China, the only difference being that buyer and seller have changed places.

ABORIGINAL TRIBES.-The present race of Chinese is supposed to have come into the country some four thousand years ago. They were not the first occupiers, however, and it has only been very gradually that they have succeeded in driving out the Aborigines. They are still slowly doing this in some parts of the Empire, as for instance in Formosa : but large tracts of country in the south and south-west of the eighteen provinces are still possessed by the former inhabitants, who hold their own against the Chinese, and are reported in some parts to even have thousands of Chinese as slaves in their inaccessible fastnesses, thus retaliating on the Chinese, who, some centuries since, exposed them to the same treatment.

The provinces in which these representatives of former races are found, are Kwei-chau, Sz-chuen, Yun-nan, Kwangtung, and Kwang-si, and the Islands of Formosa and Hai-nan.

In Sz-chuen a considerable portion of the west and southwest of the province is sparsely inhabited by some forty or fifty native tribes, of which little is known: some are very warlike, and constant depredations are committed by them. They have their own chiefs, languages, customs, and manners. The late Mr. Colborne Baber, of the Consular Service, obtained a specimen of the written language of the Lolos-one of these tribes. It is a most peculiar sort of caligraphy, and presents no point of resemblance to the Chinese language or any other that one is familiar with.

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In Kwei-chau province they appear to be scattered all over the province; and the same in Yun-nan, where about two-thirds of the inhabitants consist of various tribes of Lo-lo, Li-su, Mu-su, Man-tzu, and Miao-tzu.' In Kwang-tung they are located in the north-west of the province, and in Kwang-si, in the north-east.

The eastern half of the large island of Formosa is occupied by numerous tribes of more or less savage natives, whose country is almost inaccessible, and who are continually making sorties on the settled Chinese from their mountain recesses, where they are secure from molestation. The object of many of these raids is head-hunting. They speak different, but allied, languages, tattoo their bodies, and are called Che-whan (ie. wild fán). Besides these, there are the ancient inhabitants of the western half, who where driven from the rich coast lands by the Chinese about two hundred years ago, and are now scattered through the length of the island, generally settled on the hilly land at the foot of the mountain ranges. Some even, annoyed by the attacks of the wild tribes mentioned above, as well as by the oppression of the Chinese, have settled in the eastern part of the island. These civilised Aborigines are called Pepo-whan, those who still speak their native language are called Sek-whan (ie. civilised fán), while the others speak Chinese. The Pepowhan are a large and well-formed race.' With the exception of the women, they now dress nearly like the Chinese, and their dialects have been dropped for Chinese. Their language is similar to that of the savage inhabitants, and would

appear to be connected with the aboriginal languages of the Philippines' and the Malay. As amongst so many primitive races, drink is doing its deadly work in their midst, one tribe having completely disappeared owing in a great measure to it.

In the Island of Hai-nan, the aboriginal Le tribes have maintained their independence against the Chinese for nearly two thousand years, having, like the Formosan savage tribes, been driven from the coast into the mountains in the interior. They are divided into civilised and uncivilised Les, and are physically strong and well developed. They have the art of writing, which is described by the Chinese as like the wriggling of worms.' There is so great a difference in some of the languages spoken by the different tribes, that the natives converse with each other in Chinese. The women are tattooed and wear skirts. There are also some of the Miao-tsz amongst them; these Miao-tsz being found largely in other parts of China.

To show the number and extent of these remnants of a former race and civilisation in China, it may be pointed out that in the provinces of Hu-nan, Kwei-chau, Kwang-si, Yunnan, and Sz-chuen, the aboriginal tribes-Miau-tsz and others occupy an area of country equal to that of France, and are some millions in number, representing numerous tribes, as many as one hundred and eighty being mentioned, though perhaps not so many are in existence now. They are supposed to have come through Burmah into China. As is the case with most of these aboriginal inhabitants of China, the dress of the women is more distinctive than that of the men.

In the Lin-chau prefecture of the Kwang-tung province and the south of the Hu-nan province are to be found the Iu tribes, who were brought in the twelfth century from the Kwang-si province, and settled on the mountains. Their hair is worn long: they are short in stature; and have scanty beards. They, as well as other aboriginal tribes, wear cloths bound round their legs from the knee to the ankle. No foreigner is allowed by the Chinese to penetrate into their haunts, which are now restricted in extent to what they were

originally, for the more civilised Chinese have confined them within recent times to the high and inaccessible mountains. They have no written language, and their speech is quite distinct from the Chinese. Their number is perhaps 50,000.

It has been suggested that the Japanese are descendants of the Man or Miau tribes, who crossed over from the south of China to their future island home. At the time of their emigration they were the only inhabitants of the south of China.

So little is known about many of these communities of primitive man scattered here and there throughout China, their mountain homes are so inaccessible, the accounts of their curious customs, simplicity, origin, and peculiarly written languages-when they have such,--the harsh and cruel treatment they have received from the Chinese, their patriotic stand for hearth and home against these invaders: such, and many other reasons, all combine to make these people objects of interest to the man of science, the traveller, the philanthropist, and the missionary.

Books recommended.- Travels and Researches in Western China,' by E. Colborne Baber, Chapters 4 and 5. Ling Nam,' by B. C. Heury, chapters 9, 20-25, contain interesting notices of them. Missionary Success in the Island of Formosa,' by W. Campbell. F.R.G.S., deals with the history of them under the Dutch occupation of Formosa. Several articles have also appeared in the China Review,' and Essays in the Records of the Missionary Conference held at Shanghai, 1890.' In a paper in the Chinese Repository,' re-published in the Chinese and Japanese Repository' for October, 1883, a number of tribes and customs are noticed. A very interesting work is extant in manuscript in Chinese, profusely illustrated with coloured pictures showing the costumes, &c.

ACUPUNCTURE.-Acupuncture is one of the nine branches of practice recognised in medical science among the Chinese, and of most ancient origin, having been carried over from China to Japan before the dawn of history.' Scarification and Acupuncture are the peculiar forte of these two nations. The latter is extensively treated of in the medical works of the Chinese, and is 'a very common remedy' in this country. Many directions are given as to the manner of its use, and the user is cautioned against wounding the arteries, for which purpose he should know the position of the blood

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