Page:Ling-Nam; or, Interior views of southern China, including explorations in the hitherto untraversed island of Hainan (IA cu31924023225307).pdf/88

 84 Ling-Nam.

the country and the warmer waters to the south, in the Gulf of Tonquin and elsewhere, which would help to account for the presence of crocodiles, and that the con- vulsion which raised this land above the level of the sea broke up that connection, and caused the disappearance of the crocodiles. This would also account, in a measure, for the special adaptation of this district to the cultivation of the palm, a warm subterrancan current producing that condition and temperature of soil necessary to their per- fect growth. The land may still retain these conditions, though the warm currents have ceased and the amphi- bians disappeayed.

Among the rice fields and palm gardens of this southern district are many large villages, from one of which several thousand men have gone to America. Several hundreds of them, known as “the Jews,” Chinese-chin, live in Brooklyn. Evidences of superstition and the use of eharms are abundant in these towns. An epidemic had broken out a few months previous to my visit to this place, and I saw boards placed at the entrance of each village with uncouth figures painted on them, ‘These figures were called “the divine commanders, who control evil.” The setting up of these boards was done with elaborate ceremonies, and they were supposed to have the effect of warding off disease, and of preventing the evil spirits which cause disease from injuring the inhabitants, '

Beyond San-ui we enter a broad stream from which the Chinese come who emigrate to America and Australia, The low, marshy banks, destitute of footpaths, with mnd, into which the bamboo poles sink eight or ten feet, make navigation difficult, except when fair winds favonr.