foot, weather-beaten, and dirty, returning from the gold diggings, but by their quiet demeanour and sad countenances they had evidently not been very fortunate. In contrast with these poor folk, they observed a mounted lama gaily dressed, on his way to a neighbouring shrine.

Proceeding on their way to Mukden, or Shing king the Flourishing Capital,' the ancient seat of the Manchu government, built about A.D. 1630. They next had to cross the Shi san shan or 'the thirteen hills,' rugged peaks of volcanic origin. On the north they observed the lofty piles of the mountain range called I-wu-lui- shan, (also called Kwang ming shan, from a considerable town close by,) on which much of historical and archeological interest centres. These mountains are looked upon by Chinese geographers as a distinct range, independent of any other mountain system, and are of a peculiar geological formation, presenting a marked contrast to that of the other mountains of Manchuria.

The land is well cultivated and the inhabitants prosperous; willows and poplars abound, especially in the avenues on the highway to Mukden. This city is better built and paved than Peking; its streets are broader; its trade is considerable, being the focus to which the trade routes from Newchwang, Corea, Girin, Eastern Mongolia, etc., converge. Furs, ginseng, and nephritic stone-ware (a kind of jade) are the chief articles of trade. Coal is obtained from the Po si hu mountain, on the S.E. of the city. A splendid Lama temple exists on the western side of the city, and the tombs of the Manchu emperors of China also lie near. These tombs the emperors held it to be a sacred duty to visit once at least in their lifetime. After Kia king's time the custom has been omitted, hence the decayed state of the roads which lead to Mukden and Hing king.

Palladius mentions some curious customs, such as the burning of tickets on crossing rivers and passes when conveying the corpses of Chinese back to their native country. The legends about Kwan ti the deified prince of warriors, are also rife in Manchuria, but these must have been introduced by the Chinese.

The course of the travellers lay along the right bank of the Girin Ula (or Sungari) called by the Chinese the Ta chuen or Great River,' and after crossing this and the Nonni near their confluence, they pursued their journey along the left bank of the latter river until they arrived at Tsitsihar, which is an important town, and is used by the Chinese as a penal settlement for the worst kind of criminals. The Muhammadans are strong here; they are divided into east and west branches, and these hold no intercourse with each other.

The

Tung-hwui or Easterns, are of notoriously 東囘

bad character, who have emigrated from China, the

Sihwui 西囘 or Westerns, are exiles, and are

well conducted. With this mixture of races and dispositions the government has an onerous task.

After following the Nonni to Merguen the travellers left that city, and crossing the Hing an 興安

mountains, made their way to Russian territory vid Aikhun on the Amur. We shall be able to give a complete itinerary of the route in our next.

We cannot give more particulars of this interesting journey, but it will be fully reported in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society. We can only express a hope that the Council of that society will encourage such efforts as those of Mr. Morgan to make us acquainted with the interesting country of Manchuria, which has been the cradle of some of the conquering races of Asia, and whence the great Gengis Khan drew large numbers of his irresistible forces.

Review.

Anthologie Japonaise. Par M. Leon de Rosny, Professeur. Paris: Maissoneuve et Cie. M. de Rosny's Anthologie Japonaise is a selection of specimens of Japanese poetry with translations and notes. It has been very prettily got up, and the typography of the Japanese section in particular is equal, if not superior, to the best specimens of native Japanese printing. M. de Rosny's translations are concise and at the same time elegant, and those Europeans who care little for the Japanese language, but are anxious to form some notion of the character of Japanese poetry will find the means of doing so in the Anthologie Japonaise. The attention of such readers is directed to the capital essay on Japanese poetry which forms the introduction.

It is to be feared that students of Japanese will derive less benefit from M. de Rosny's labours. His translations, although giving the general sense with tolerable faithfulness, are far from attaining to that degree of accuracy which the student requires. The notes, too, not only omit all reference to the numerous real difficulties which the Japanese text presents, but display much ignorance of the principles of the language whenever this ground is touched upon.

Here is an example of one of M. de Rosny's translations:

Idete inaba, nushi-naki yado to narinu to mo Nokiba no mume yo haru wo wasuruna!

Bien que mon palais, depuis mon depart, soit inhabité par son maitre, n'oubliez pas, fleurs de prunier, d'épanouir au printemps au bord de sa toiture.

The literal translation is:

Although, when I am gone, my dwelling will be

come masterless, do thou,

O plum-tree by the eaves, forget not the spring!' It will be seen that M. de Rosny has translated inaba and narinu to mo, which are futures, as if they were past tenses, while yado, which means simply dwelling,' he has rendered 'palace.' No notice is taken of the curious form wasuru-na, which is one of the rare cases where the na of the negative imperative is added to the conclusive, instead of to the attributive form. But indeed the few grammatical remarks which are ventured upon are rarely correct

Thus at page 71 karenu is said to be put for karenuru; M. de Rosny surely knows that it is quite a different part of the verb. Again at page 67 we are told that omohoyete is a poetical form of the negative gerund of the verb omowazu; omohoyede is the correct spelling, and it is the negative gerund of a different verb.

M. de Rosny's error as to the hototogisu is more excusable, as many Japanese make the same mistake, and confound it with the cuckoo. The name hototogiau is like cuckoo,' formed in imitation of the bird's cry, which consists of five or six harsh notes beginning high and running rapidly down the scale.

An objectionable feature of the Anthologie Japonaise is the space which is devoted in it to a prose piece composed in honour of the first Europeans who had the privilege of being admitted into what M. de Rosny styles 66 ce domaine réservé de la galanterie Japonaise, but which he calls elsewhere, in a language which lends itself less readily to euphemis tic periphrasis, "celeberrimum urbis Yedo lupanar.' This production has no merit of any kind. It is as dull as it is disgusting, and why it should have the honour of fourteen pages of beautiful paper and type, it is hard to comprehend. M. de Rosny seems to fancy that it is poetry, but it has no claim to be considered anything but the veriest prose. In his introductory remarks to this piece, M. de Rosny says, speaking of the Oiran of the Yedo yoshiwara, "il serait inexact de les comparer aux prostituées de nos pays Européens; et il n'est pas rare d'en rencontrer qui joignent à une education des plus soignées à des talents de toutes sortes un caractère de les faire plaindre et estimer." M. de Rosny is not the first or only writer who has attempted to cast a sort of poetical halo about prostitution as practised in the Far East. It is true that in some respects it will compare favourably with European forms of the same institution, but in others, as for instance the sale of children by their parents for this purpose, the reverse is the case, and on the whole, prostitution in Japan as in Europe is only another name for misery, di-grace, and moral degradation. The Japanese themselves, although less sensitive on this point than Europeans, are substantially of the same opinion, as their proverbs show. If prostitution in Japan was what M. de Rosny and other writers would have us believe, where would be the point of proverbs like the following ?—

Kei sei ni makoto nashi. There is no truth in prostitutes.' Iōrō no makoto to tamago no shikaku ga areba, misoka ni tsuki ga deru. When you find a truthful prostitute, and a four-cornered egg, the new moon will appear a day before her time."

The Oiran (why is this word translated "professeur"?) to whom M. de Rosny more particularly refers, are purchased at the age of seven or eight years, from their parents, who are mostly peasants of Echigo and the neighbouring provinces. They are tolerably well educated, that is to say, they learn to read, write, and play a little on the guitar, and are highly prized by their masters, not only for their accomplishments, but because having been

separated from their parents at a tender age, and educated in the midst of vice, they are mostly des titute of natural affection, and do not scruple to rob their customers for the advantage of the masters or rather owners to whom they belong.

W. G. ASTON.

Correspondence, &c.

I saw in the Phoenix a question regarding Mr. Getty's book on Chinese seals found in Ireland. I met with the book in Shanghai about twenty years ago, and by a little search in the shops of Shanghai soon obtained a collection of the same seals, identical with the figures in Mr. Getty's work, bearing the same inscriptions, and having in some cases the monkey on them, and in other cases the prized handle, as well as some with other figures not in the book. I soon found that these seals had no great antiquity, being about. 200 years old for the most ancient, while others were more modern.

Having occasion to go to Dublin some years ago, I took some of the seals with me, and in conversation with Mr. Edward Clittarn, of the Royal Irish Academy, asked him about the seals, and if he could give any reason why they had been found so often in Ireland, when he gave me the following account. Some years ago a nobleman, I think the late Duke of Northumberland, was anxious to find out the history of these seals, and asked Mr. Clittarn to offer a reward of from one to three or four guineas for every seal that might be brought to him. One or two seals were sent to him, for which he paid the offered price, but he could get no history with them; at last a respectable woman brought one or two seals and offered them for the reward, which was paid her, she then said she thought she could get others, and she was told to do so, and that she should be paid as before. After she had thus received several guineas, Mr. C. said: "Now that you have been well paid, what is the story of these seals ?" Her reply was, that an ancestor of hers, an Irishman, was in the China trade about a century ago, and he was in the habit of bringing home a quantity of China-ware for friends, to whom he said that the shopkeepers from whom he made his purchases gave him many of the seals, to which he had taken a fancy, and that he used constantly to give them away to friends in Ireland, and that they were carried about in all directions, being curious and interesting little things. The woman said that what she had been paid for were the remains of the large quantities formerly brought by her ancestor.

Mr. Clittarn said that this was the true account of the diffusion of the seals through many parts of Ireland. I also was told that the accounts given of the finding of the seals in places of undisturbed sepulture of great antiquity, are simply untrue, and will not bear investigation. Such I believe to be the story of the seals.

W. LOCKHART, M. D.

ON MUHAMMADANISM IN CHINA.

By E. DELMAR MORGAN, Esq., F.R.G.S., etc. We have before us a pamphlet by Professor Vassilieff of St. Petersburg on the Muhammadan movement in China, which is of especial importance at the present time, when the revival of Muhammadanism is attracting considerable attention in the East. Appended to this brochure is a manifesto from the Arabic language, translated and printed in Chinese. This document, Mr. Vassilieff informs us, was sent from Peking by the archimandrite Palladius, the chief of the Russian mission at that capital. It has been translated into Russian by the combined efforts of Messrs. Vassilieff and Kazembeg, two skilled orientalists. The manifesto in its original form was printed on single sheets in large characters, after the manner of the proclamations issued by the Government in China, which are posted on the walls and public buildings. Its preamble sets forth a brief retrospect of the first introduction of Islamism into China.

year

of

In the year of our Lord 632, in the sixth the reign of Ching-kwan of the Tang dynasty, Ibn Hamsa, Muhammad's maternal uncle, entered China at the head of 3,000 devoted followers bearing a copy of the sacred Kurán. His polished manners and great learning won him the esteem of the Emperor Tai-tsúng who welcomed him and his followers, built_them a mosque at his capital of Chang-an (Si-an-fu pƒ) and invited them to re

main and settle in the province of Shen-si. Afterwards, when the adherents of the new faith had multiplied, the same emperor ordered mosques to be built for their use at Nanking and Canton.

Prince Ibn Hamsa then caused disputations to be held on the sacred books, and drew up a code of religious laws, for the better observance of which he created three orders of priesthood, viz., the Imam, Khatiba, and Muezzin. Their duty was to

See "The Mahometan Revival" by Gifford Palgrave in Fraser's magazine, February 1872, and The Indian Musalmans by Dr. W. W. Hunter.

+ Capital of Shensi and the site of flourishing Christian churches in the eighth century. The district of Si-ngan-fu and the adjoining districts are now the seat of a large Musalman population, which in 1861-62 rose in revolt against the Chinese authority. Si-an-fu was the metropolis in the T'ang dynasty, A.D. 618-906. (Yule's Marco Polo, vol. ii., p. 16, note 2.)

The Imam corresponds with the ancient antistes 'he who precedes.' The Musalmáns apply it to the chief of the assembly in the mosques, as well also to the spiritual or temporal head of their religion. Khatiba is a sort of preacher or reader. The Muazzin is the crier or caller to prayer from the mináret.

The

read and expound the scriptures, attend to the due observance of the laws, and punish all transgressors. The manifesto then proceeds to lay down the rules which are to be observed by the faithful:1. At the betrothal and marriage ceremonies. 2. Upon the death of a Musalmán.

3. Gives directions as to the mode of laying out the dead.

4. Regulates the order of the funeral procession. 5. Orders the Kurán to be read, and charitable gifts to be dispensed to widows and orphans upon the death of a Muhammedan.

6. Awards the severest penalty in the event of a Muhammadan girl marrying an unbeliever.. This renegade who has betrayed his country. The guilt is the worst of crimes and is compared to that of a is not expiated by capital punishment, but descends to future generations, and affects all those concerned in making the marriage as well as the principals.

7. Avoid evil and do good; the day of judgment in heaven and the prison on earth are not far apart; the Amail will reward the righteous.

8. Forbids the use of wine and tobacco, the first because it disturbs the natural organism, the second because it injures the respiratory organs.

9. Prohibits prostitution and gambling; the first because a disorderly woman is an object of shame and aversion, the second because it debases morality and ruins a man's life.

10. Forbids lending money on usury, upon the principle that it is wrong to derive benefit for oneself from acts which are injurious to others.

11. Proportions the tax leviable for religious and charitable purposes, exempting the poor, who are exhorted to earn salvation by good words.

12. Encourages the opening of schools for expounding the mysteries of religion.

13. Ordains certain rites and ceremonies which are to be strictly observed at the sacrificial offerings. 14. Reminds the priests of their duty to give up cheerfully their salaries whenever funds are required for the improvement and repair of religious buildings. The document concludes with these words:"These few paragraphs are briefly explained for general information by Lan-hüof the family of Hi a learned man in the heavenly

country (Arabia) 天方”

We will now return to Prof. Vassilieff's brochure to inquire who these Musalmáns are who have startled the Eastern world by their sudden and unexpected appearance and their formidable numbers ? Is their influence in China likely to submerge beneath the tide of fanaticism the ancient civilization of a people who boast their superiority over the "barbarians" of Western Europe? Will it sweep away the traditions and beliefs which have clung so tenaciously to the crumbling ruin, and

confront once more in the world's history, throughout the whole continent, from the Straits of Gibraltar to the Pacific Ocean, the Saracen with the Infidel, the Crescent with the Cross.

These Muhammadans are not of the same race as the Turkis who roam over the great plains of Eastern Turkestan, from Hami to Kashgar and Yarkand, who are dispersed through Kokand, Bokhara, Persia and Turkey.

Restless and warlike by nature, they may conquer China, but never renovate it; like the Mongols and Manchus, they would soon yield to the irresistible power of superior civilization and be absorbed in the great mass of the people. Besides which the history of the Turkis has been one of long subjection to neighbouring powers and of internal dissensions whenever their bonds were relaxed.

Nor are we to fear the "black-tented" Salars of the province of Kan-su on the frontiers of Thibet, whose recent insurrection disturbed the whole of China, and shewed that their fanaticism was only equalled by their desperate valour and contempt for death. The cloud which is gathering over the "Middle Kingdom" has a different source. The Chinese Muhammadans are the real arbiters of the future of China. Whether descended from the pure Arabs, as they themselves assert, or from the Uigurs or Ouigours after whom they have been called by the Chinese Hwei-hwei

is immaterial. To all intents and purposes they are Chinese by language, Chinese in appearance, differing in nothing from their fellow countrymen, and requiring from them nothing more than conversion to the religion which they profess, and which they desire to establish supreme throughout

China.

population is numerous. Further to the east lies the province of Shan-si where we know of only one Muhammadan colony, viz., at Tai-tung

fu 太同府 on the borders of Mongolia. The

latter country, with its tendencies towards LamaBuddhism, would seem to be the least likely abode of Muhammadans, and yet Islamism is extensively spread throughout all the chief towns of Southern Mongolia, where the country is by no means desert, or its population nomads, as we have been taught to believe.

China, deficient in pasture land, is dependent on Muhammadan herdsmen for its supply of meat, and flocks of sheep from Mongolia are driven to the south of Peking.

Palladius in his recent journey found the Musalmans in Manchuria banded together in troops of highway robbers, plundering travellers and caravans of merchandise (chiefly opium) and then retiring to the hilly fastnesses, where they could defy pursuit. In this manner they were the terror of the peaceable inhabitants of the country and the source

of endless trouble to the officials.

Peking numbers 20,000 Muhammadan families, for whose religious needs there are thirteen mosques. and what is still more remarkable the mollahs of the Peking mosques are not from the west of China as we should have inferred, but are educated at Lin-tsin-chow, on the Imperial canal south-east of Peking, a fact which proves beyond all doubt that Islamism has its centre in the north-east of China as well as in the west.

It is impossible to form a correct estimate of the Muhammadans in the southern provinces of China, but their numbers must be very considerable if we may judge from the few facts which have come under our notice. In the south-east the Musalman colonies at Nanking and Canton are probably as large as that at Si-an-fu (Chang-an).

a large trading city on the Hwang-ho, is chiefly populated by Musalmans. They are also met with in large numbers along the whole northern and north-western frontier, both within and without the Great Wall.

Beyond the Great Wall the country to the northwest has often been laid down in maps as a desert, but this is far from correct, for through it lies the great trade route of Central Asia, second to none in importance, bordered by towns, villages and mosques, with a population altogether Muhammadan, according to the testimony of all the travellers who have passed along it. This was the great highway by which for ages the Musalman world in Arabia, Persia, Bokhara, and even Kazan in the days of her independence, communicated with China and the Far East.

In the province of Shen-si

where the

late insurrection first began, the Muhammadan

An unimportant race in Central Asia till after their union with the Tanguts.

The south-west province of China, Yunnan, on the borders of India, but separated from that coun

clude the possibility of the influx of Islamism from that quarter, is perhaps the most remarkable for the numbers and fanaticism of its Muhammadan population. It was in Yunnan that Matchi Yussuf ** lived about the end of the seventeenth century, and his writings acquaint us with the existence of Muhammadanism in his native province for a long time.

There are reported to be Musalman colonies in the provinces of Sze-chuan and Ho-nan, and they are also probably dispersed throughout the central provinces of China.

Suffice it for our purpose to indicate the localities where we are certain of the existence of Islamism, and are not these facts sufficient to shew how extensively that religion is diffused throughout China, how firmly it is established in its outposts, and how imminent the danger of its embracing one day sooner or later the whole world of China?

We propose in our next article following Mr. Vassilieff in his historical sketch of the rise of Muhammadanism in China.

*See his book of 1,700 pages, entitled "The Compass of the Mahometan Faith.

REMARKS ON COMMERCE BY KATO SUKEICHI.

Continued from page 119.

In trading with foreigners there are many things which ought to be attended to. The first thing to be noted is that foreigners are skilful in trade, and know how to artificially glut the market. Say, for example, that the price of silk is 800 rios a picul. First of all they buy some at 1,000 or even 1,500 rios a picul. Our merchants hear of this, and compete with one another in bringing their silk to market. The foreign merchants watch the time when the market is fully supplied, and then, all at once, they purposely abstain from buying altogether. Some of our merchants have brought their goods a long distance, and others have goods purchased with money which has been obtained at ruinous rates. They can neither sell them, nor return to their province without selling them, so they are obliged to let them go at a sacrifice. The foreign merchants wait for this, and buy the goods for almost nothing. The high prices offered at first are nothing but ground bait, then they watch till the fish are gathered together and throw the great net. These schemes of theirs redound to the benefit of their country, and we should not grudge them their success, but what a loss they cause to Japan! Of course, every merchant thinks only of his own losses, but the country in general suffers along with him. In such cases, if we had companies, they could buy up all the goods, and thus prevent them from being sold at a sacrifice. If they then held them back, foreigners would naturally be obliged to come forward by-and-by and offer a proper price. There would be no difficulty in buying up goods, in this way. If there is a company of 1,000 merchants, they have only to subscribe 100 rios each in order to purchase 100,000 rios worth of goods. In Osaka, especially, where so many wealthy merchants are congregated together, there would not be the slightest difficulty in raising 100,000 or even 1,000,000 rios, if this joint-stock-company system were properly established.

The articles for which there is the greatest demand among foreigners are raw silk, silkworms' eggs, and tea; of these three staples the produce of Japan is everywhere considered to excel that of other countries in quality. Foreigners have become accustomed to the use of these articles, and as they would now find it impossible to dispense with them, they will certainly buy, no matter how high the price may be. Farmers should be industrious in their occupation, and produce them in large quantities with a view to the advantage of our country. Next to the three articles above named come cotton, raw and ginned, bêche-de-mer, dried awabi, awabi shells, dried prawns, sharks' fins, cuttle-fish, seaweed, isinglass, mushrooms, rapeseed oil, fish-oil, vegetable wax, bees' wax, manufactures in lacquer, iron, lead, bronze, copper, bamboo and porcelain, embroidery, potatoes, camphor, bukuriyo, cassia, gall nuts, peony bark, sulphur, ginseng, the quality of which produced in Japan is much appreciated. We have also vermicelli, sesame, ginnang, rice-spirits, rice-brandy, soy, hemp, rags, hempen cloth, silk and

paper mixtures, honey, deer-horns, deer-hoofs, coal, charcoal, palm-fibres, tobacco, timber, matting, paper. There are few other articles for which there is a demand. Then there are some articles which it is forbidden to sell to foreigners. These are rice, barley, wheat-flour, and saltpetre; of these, rice, barley, wheat, and flour, may be bought for the use of the crews of foreign ships anchored in Japanese harbours, and of foreigners resident in Japan, in quantities proportioned to their numbers. The export of beans and peas is not prohibited, but as they are articles of popular consumption they ought not to be exported in large quantities, however tempting a price may be offered. Nothing can be more inhuman than to devise means of personal gain, regardless of the general distress. By the Treaties, fire-arms and munitions of war must not be sold to any one but the Government, and merchants ought to have nothing to do with them.

Further, as foreigners have relations with all countries, mercantile contracts are under strict regulation, and there are fines for unpunctuality, so much for a delay of one day, so much for a delay of ten days. In Japan, when a delay takes place in the delivery of goods, or if a dispute arises about their quality, the contract is sometimes broken; but if the party who breaks it shows clearly that his doing so was unavoidable under the circumstances, no fine or penalty is demanded. Many persons, however, who break their contracts, imagining that this easy going style of business will answer with foreigners as well as with Japanese, find themselves disagreeably surprised when a claim is made upon them for a penalty. Great care is necessary in making engagements for the receipt or delivery of goods, the payment or receipt of money, and contracts to build houses. It must be acknowledged that stringent rules of this kind are necessary for a trade which involves transactions with countries in all quarters of the globe. The laws for our internal commerce must also be made more stringent, what is bad being gradually cancelled, and good measures incorporated.

This foreign custom of money penalties is not confined to commerce; most crimes and offences are punishable by fine, and capital punishment is very rare. This is a truly excellent system. Life is dear to every living thing, and to take away human life is indeed a weighty matter. When life has been once taken away it cannot be restored; while a fine, even though it swallow up a man's whole property, will not prevent him from regaining his former position if he repents of his fault and is industrious in his calling. If he reforms his wicked heart, he becomes a good subject and the empire benefits by his industry. To regard human life as weighty matter accords with natural principles of justice, and this system of fines will no doubt gradually be extended.

In Japan there have been already six ports opened to foreign commerce, Kanagawa, Nagasaki, Osaki, Hakodate, Kobe, and Niigata, and Yedo has also been opened to trade, so that we may henceforward expect our commerce to flourish in an increasing degree. Now is the time for all classes,