National Republican., 1884-09-13


pantaloon probably originated among tho
Chinese, for from the dawn of history, on
state occasions officials and drossy per-
sons will wear sort of pantaloon, fitting
as tightly as possible to the leg, and each
leg being entirely separate from its fell
low. These trousers are Of silk or satin,
and the legs are held. in place by being
fastened to waistband or belt round the
body. On the approach of cold weather
the Chinese increase the number of their
garments, until sometimes they are like
animated bales Of cotton, their arms be-
ing forced into nearly horizontal posi-
tion; nor do they take off their masses Of
clothing until tho return of spring"
The Chinese articles Of food have been
SO often described as to need no further
attention. As rule, they nro as careful
about their diet as most nations having
no more civilization. and only the poor
employ tho revolving articles that are
sometimes attributed to them.
"They sit round table at their meals,
though workmeu out of doors may often
be seon STOPPING on the ground round
their hugo bowl of rice. In the house
this occupies the middle of the table, and
n small bowl is placed at each seat, with
two round sticks ten inches long, tho
chop sticks or eating sticks These are
made of wood, bamboo. ivory, or silver,
arc both held in one hand, and supply
the place of knife and fork. Each man
fills his bowl with rice by ladle, and
then, holding IL to his mouth, shovels in
tho rico with his chop sticks till you
wonder what has become of it, so quickly
has it disappeared. He then takes
with his two sticks bit of meat,
fish, or vegetable, it having been
cut into mouthfuls in the kitchen. If
one of your companions wishes to pay you
q particular compliment he dips his ladle,
which has Just been in his own mouth,
into the stew or gravy and helps you to
il, pouring IL over the rice in your bowl,
or he will take up with his chopsticks a
delicate morsel and deposit on your rice.
/ he thinks your chopsticks nro not suf-
ficiently clean or nice he wipes his own
by drawing them through his hands, after
having carefully sucked them clean, and
then passes them over to you. At n feast
there arc often forty or fifty courses, the
repast always beginning with sweetmeats
and delcacics, and ending with plain
boiled rice Butter and cheese are made
for foreigners. the former being called
cow milk grease, latter cow milk cake"
Tho Chinese written language is the
nearest approach there is to the Egyptian
hierorlyphic, and so close is tho resem-
blance US to lead many scholars to suspect
that tho two have n common origin.
THE Chinese written language con-
sists of about 4iO00 different characters,
each being q complete word and having
its own name and Specification. There IL
no alphabet. There are, however, 2l4
radicals, some one of which forms part
of every other character in the language.
| know not how any clearer conception
4 III ,,,An s,t, nj.
phabet increased to "A, 900 characters, each
having not only its own sound, but con-
veying distict idea. Suppose, then, that
A means house, b means fire, @ means
table, aud so on through the list, and the
difficulty of learning Chinese is better
seen. Less than 5000 characters are en-
| ployed in tho -Four Books of Confucius,
and knowledge of about 10000 will
enable one to read any ordinary Chinese
book. No Chinese scholar knows all the
characters in his own language. The most
learned will sometimes meet with char
acter OF which he knows no more than
you do but he sees which one of the radi-
calls enters into its composition, and thus,
from the dictionary, ascertains Its mean
ing.
"At Canton an abominable jargon has
sprung up from the efforts of some of the
| natives 10 ltdEu Jul lunRuhkc. ~ 40
'pijin English 'pijin' being the nearest
the word business 1t is almost as hard
to learn as the Chinese / noticed one
day that all the junks had two eyes
painted on tho bow, and asking the rea-
son was told: 'S'pose have catche eye,
how fashion can sec, wanchee walkee
waterp My servant came to tell me his
father had died and he wanted TO attend
the funeral, and proffered his request in
these words: My one piece ole fader
have makee catchee die; my wanchee &C
do dat coffin pijin alice right Chinese
are fond of having articles in pairs. See
ing one wearing two watches, one in each
breast pocket, with the chains dangling
asked why he wore more than one
'Spose one piece catche sickee, no car
talkee, dat udder piece can talkee.
The Chinese arc as peculiar in theil
ideas of eclipses and earthquakes as il
everything else, and though eclipses arc
calculated aud announced, only the bare
fact is mentioned, without any explana
tion of the cause.
"The universal theory of an eclipse
, throughout the empire is that wild SUI
is trying to devour tho homo or domestic
sun. Some say that huge dragon i!
trying to eat the sun or moon. From the
highest to the lowest the act is regarded
, as devouring, and in every proclamation
and book an eclipse is always mentioned
as sun eating or moon eating Hence
during the continuance of an eclipse
there is kept up an inccssant din o
gongs, drums, horns, and the like, ant
firing of cannon, matchlocks. and crackers
, at the temples and public offices to frightel
, away the devourer. Shrines are also PLACED
? in the open air in front of the temples
? public Offices of the magistrates, and be
, fore the doors of private dwellings, hav
| ing candles and incense burning Oh them
r while at the temples the idols are brough
5 out and seated with their faces to the sun
D At the government offices the mandarin
Q come out. kneel down, bow their fore
/ heads to the earth nine times. worshipinj
t tho eater aad praying him not to devou
e the sun. We had smoked glasses, and a
. the Office of one of tho highest dignitarie
, piece was carried to him, through whicl
0 he saw that the eating had commence,
!, even before it began to grow dark, an
o his exGellency Immediately came out an
{ performed his prOstrations, while his can
# non were discharged, and his various in
o struments Of noise sent forth their horri
IS Bile disCord.
v "As to earthquakes, they think that Il
i the bowels OF the earth there is an enoI
o nous fish. on whose head the goddess o
e mercy, kwanyin, is always sitting, an
70 that SO long US the priests in any part {
# the empire are beating on o kind c
It wooden drum, said to DO shaped like tn
II head of the fish, so long he romans pei
It fectly quiet; but if an interval occurs i
n which, throughout the whole country
2, some one is not tapping on one of thes
O drums, in that moment the fish has q
is itching sensation, and instantly begins I
10 wrggle, which produces the earthquake
l. and the quivering of the earth continue
It till the priests begin to beat their drum
,r again. This is supposed to act on the ifs
r. as soothing ointment to an itching SUI
lr face, and such another drumming as the
It begins is not often heard"