Page:Illustrations of China and Its People vol. II.pdf/15

 infests the Pepohoan dwellings. These rats are cleverly caught in a simple and ingenious bamboo-trap, which was to me the most attractive article the houses of this simple people had to show. It is, indeed, a most effective instrument, and as a plump rat is esteemed a choice delicacy, it must have been the reward promised by successful captures, that awoke a spark of genius in the mind of its inventor. Pity to think that he rested on his laurels ever after, a contented rat-catching, rat-eating Pepohoan! Many of the articles in use among the aborigines, such as matchlocks, spear-heads, gunpowder, and cloth, are of Chinese manufacture. The natives have no regular trades. To till the soil, and to prepare its produce for the Chinese market, are the only occupations which they know.