The Hawaiian star., 1902-02-28
DAILY AND suNlwEENLy


.... N... .a., Is among 800" 'I
InD my extraordinary anomalies n
pur courts. and among them We ocr-
tainly have anomalies from the cases
60 Doe tried to the Judges who try
them Yesterday reference was made
In these columns with regard To % case
which required mo- less than five inter-
prefers Today one can comment up-
ON the strange fact of Chinese bring
ing into court "a case against another
Chinese who he claims has ubelcd him
in "a paper published n the Chinese
language This is certainly a curious
legal question and ought TO develop am
immense amount of learning both
among the Judge lawyer and jury.
I'm China there is no law of libel But
az the editor of the Peklng Gazette
makes any slip the Empress Dowager
like the Queen of Hearts in alice i'm
Wonderland" promptly says "On with
mis- head" which is as promptly done.
Exactly how many Pedng editors have
lost their heads the writer is not sure,
not having his Chihese library at hand,
hut it is between half and three
quarters Of the lot. The position is not
sought after However one Of the as
pirants for editorial h6nors thought it
would be safer to write in Hawaii than
in Pekug, and he threw a little more
dash into his writing than he could
have done on the Imperial Gazette, but
retribution has come in the shape of
a barbarian libel suit.
The actual words of the alleged libel
run as follows;
At the present time mems minds
are not as they were in ancient times
But as a snake '-'-7 TO devOur an ele-
phant it cannot compare with Poon
Kwai Leung"
OF course to the Chinese mind, stored
with the great Chi4ese classics there
may be a hidden and desperate mean
ing in the idea Of a snake trying to
devOur an elephant. To thoroughly
understand the inwardness Of this
phrase, the Judge and jury and law
yers should be duty locked up, and
given a compendium of the Chinese
classics. During the study, alas the
snake might be unduly enlarged, and
he might, during the night watches
assume such dimensions as to be able
to swallow an elephant especially If
the color of the latter were pink But
to reach this high circle of the Mir
vana, the only brand to be used, while
studying, should be sham shu. The
ordinary Barbarian brands only pro-
duce snakes of a moderate size, and
generally in the boots of the student
With such prospects before them il
would have been a thousand piues if
the trial should have been arrested
'rab initio" as the leader of the bar
would say and the community of Homo
lulu, nay perhaps the whole world would
lose the elucidation of the green snake
and the pink elephant Moreover what
valuable folk lore comparisons might
be made. Is the Chinese legend above
alluded to a variant of the frog and the
bull, or Of the COW that jumped ovel
the moon and if not, perchance it i.
one of the Sun Myths that Max Muller
has missed. Can che-fa, the verdan
serpent, or as some render it, Use
faw, be the Ranus of the Latins, the
Brekekox Of Aristophanes or the plair
frog of our own vernacular. There /!
a magnificent field in this case, and the
city will hang breathless while the
jury of college professors makes its
award and let's it know whether the
words cover a dynamite plot, an oppro.
-bious insult, or a nursery legend.