or millet to be exported in aid of the famine-stricken people. In consequence, our missionaries, who expended daily over 1,000 Taels, found their work of distribution encompassed by obstacles which, in spite of their most commendable endeavours, they have been unable to surmount.

But now the famine has reached its most fatal climax; there has been no rain for weeks, and the country inland is completely parched. Hard as our missionaries toil, while endeavouring to tide over this season and alleviate the acute sufferings of the needy, yet the hand of Death passes ever before them through the land, carrying away, with disease and hunger, thousands of weary souls who have prayed for succour in vain, and who now fall back before the eyes of our broad-hearted Christian labourers, who are compelled to bitterly acknowledge their inability to cope with the stupendous difficulties, and give the needed relief. This is owing to the nefarious practices of the Chinese officials, the inadequate amount of grain placed at their disposal, and the increasing demand from fugitives-men, women, and children, who eagerly crowd forward to be rescued from the grave.

Distracting accounts of almost incredible privation daily reach us through these refugees, forcibly revealing to us the awful ravages of this famine. It is reported and credited, especially by the Chinese, that numbers of poor wretches, reduced to the last painful extremities of starvation, and being both morally and physically unable to any longer withstand the biting pangs of hunger, have resorted to cannibalism; and others, whose children have been spared, now sell them for a mere trifle into brothels, where they will linger for a few years in iniquity and bondage, to find an early, unhonoured grave.

Some grotesque Chinese prints, vividly descriptive of the awful sufferings occasioned by the famine, were printed and widely circulated in the Shantung Province. (See Plates).

The resources for transportation inland are very limited, and a great portion of the relief mission is reluctantly entrusted to petty mandarins. Consequently much valuable time and money are irrevocably lost before the needed succour arrives at its destination. The China merchants' steamer, "Kwangchi," a small light-draft

vessel, has lately made several trips up with rice and millet to Li-tsin-ho, a place situated about 140 miles to the westward of Chefoo, where a small shallow river, supposed to be the delta of the Saou-hwang-ho, or Old Yellow River, discharges itself into the Gulf of Pechili.

The grain is discharged at Li-tsin-ho, and carried up the shallow parts of the river to Ti-mun-kwan, a town about forty miles farther to the south-west, whence it is forwarded to the officials of the outlying villages, who use their own discretion in its distribution, and are supposed to invariably "squeeze as much as possible for themselves. A tax is levied in this province on the property of native landowners, according to the size-not product— of the ground; and the Sub-Prefect of the district is, as a rule, answerable for the money. However, many petty officials, whose duty it is to collect this money, received orders from the Imperial Treasurer not to enforce the tax during these hard times, but they have still continued to do so. For that reason, Sheng, Taotai here and Prefect of Tung-chow-foo, Lai-chow-foo and Teng-chowfoo, left yesterday afternoon in the Chinese transport "Taean” for the latter place, where he intends to very thoroughly investigate the matter. He has full authority from Pekin to summarily discharge any of those officials whose conduct he considers unsatisfactory. This may be the means of doing much good for the helpless people, and may also indirectly aid our hard-working missionaries.

XII. ANIMAL AND REPTILE MYTHS.

IN the Chinese classics, and in all their ancient books, we find the fox mentioned as an animal of solitary habits, of a cunning and crafty disposition, and possessing extraordinary supernatural powers. Their philosophers ascribe to him a very long life, from eight hundred to a thousand years; this remarkable longevity being attained through living in holes, ruins, caves, and other places shut out from the rays of the sun. They say that at the age of fifty the fox can take the form of a woman, and at one hundred that of a young and lovely girl. Kao-sai, or “Our Lady," is now the dignified title given to the male fox-elf who can thus transform itself. So bewitching can it appear, that all men are fascinated and fall victims to its ravishing charms; hence the foolish custom, practised by poor deluded Chinese prostitutes, of worshipping the fox-god Kao-sai, and praying him to favour them in the eyes of men. At the advanced age of 1,000 years the Chinese believe that Reynard is actually admitted into heaven and becomes a celestial fox.

Chinese writers describe these animals as resembling small dogs, with pointed nose and long tail-there being different coloured species-yellow, black, spotted and white, the latter variety being considered very rare. According to history these white foxes, or "silver foxes" as they are called, whose fur is very beautiful and costly, used to be regarded as animals of good omen, especially in the time of the Emperor Yu (B.c. 2150), and their skins were much prized even in the Chow dynasty (B.c. 1000). The approach of a black fox has generally been said to augur prosperity, but