Page:Through China with a camera.pdf/310

 some wonderful cosmetic, and that our bodies were black. I bared my arm to refute this calumny, and its white skin was touched by many a rough finger, and awoke universal admiration. Not knowing exactly what our barbarous views of decency might be, we were kindly recommended by an unwashed, but polished member of the community not to gratify vulgar curi- osity by stripping entirely, as we had already completely satisfied the more intelligent members of the crowd.

The reader can easily gather from such incidents as these what depraved notions some of the Chinese must entertain about ourselves and our customs. They always seem to feel that we have a great deal to learn ; the merest coolie, if he be a kindly- disposed person, will readily place his knowledge at our ser- vice and put us in the way of picking up something of Chinese civilisation. I have in my possession one of the valua- ble works upon which this popular belief is fed. It is a sort of ethnological treatise, written down to the limited comprehen- sion of facts and to the inordinate craving for fable which characterise the lower classes among this highly superstitious nation. The author gravely describes races of men, who, like ourselves, live on the outer edges of the world, that is outside the benign influence of Chinese rule. Some are very hairy men clothed with leaves; others hop about on^one leg; while others again are adorned with the claws of birds. There is one very singular tribe indeed. These have only a single huge eye in the forehead, while the women carry a multitude of breasts. There are men too with big holes through their bodies above the region of the hearty so that they may be spitted like herrings, or carried about on poles; and lastly there is one community more gifted still, for they can fly through the air with wings.

It was at this place that our writer Chang, who said he was