[11] Why the Japanese should restrict the term “foreigner” (seiyō-jin, or ijin-san, or ketto-jin, the last meaning literally “hairy barbarian”) to men and women of the white race, I do not know. A member of any other Asiatic race—liked or loathed—is not called a “foreigner.”
[12] Mt. Morrison—called by the Japanese Niitaka-Yama—is the highest mountain in the Japanese Empire, exceeding by nearly a thousand feet the world-famous Mt. Fuji, in Japan proper.
[13] That is, “as the crow flies.” In actually traversing the island, however, from northern to southern extremity, it is necessary, by the shortest route, to travel at least 350 miles.
[14] It is said that at this time the Formosans valued iron so highly that when throwing a spear tipped with this metal, they always pulled it back, by means of a raw-hide line, about 100 feet long, one end of which was held in the hand, the other attached to the spear-haft.
[15] Probably the harbour of Anping.
[16] The recent change of view-point on the part of the Japanese regarding Koksinga throws an interesting side-light on the psychology of that race. Previous to 1895 the name of Koksinga was in Japan held up to universal execration. He had been a “villainous Chinese pirate; one who had behaved in Taiwan with the usual cruelty of his race” (i.e. the Chinese). Since 1895 when the Japanese came into control of Formosa, and, in turn, dispossessed the Chinese, it has been discovered “in old Japanese records” that Koksinga had a Japanese mother. Therefore he was Japanese—and a hero. Temples have recently been erected in honour of this “Japanese hero” by the Japanese, in several places in Formosa. To one who knows how strictly patrilineal the Japanese are—how little relationship through the line of the mother is usually considered—“c’est à rire”!
[17] The name Formosa, as applied to the island, seems to have first become generally known in Europe through the book, Historical and Geographical Description of Formosa, by the so-called impostor, Psalmanazar, published in London in 1704. How much credence can be given to the statements of Psalmanazar remains still an open question.
[18] The Japanese, of even the more educated classes—teachers and others—will say in all seriousness that their ancestors “came from heaven.” The ancestors of all other races they consider to have been earth-born. On this assumption they base their conception of the superiority of the Japanese race to all other races. There is a mountain in the southern part of Japan, near Kagoshima, to which the Japanese point as the actual spot on which their first ancestors alighted when they descended from heaven.
[19] Aus Brockhaus, Konversationslexikon: “Dido oder Elissa, die sagenhafte Gründerin von Karthago, war eine Tochter des tyrischen Königs Mutto und die Gemahlin von dessen Bruder Sicharbas (bei Virgil Sichäus) einem Priester des Melkart. Ihr Bruder tötete ihren Gemahl, worauf Dido mit dessen Schätzen, begleitet von vielen Tyriern, entfloh, um einen neuen Wohnsitz zu suchen. Sie landete in Afrika, unweit der schon bestehenden phönizischen Pflanzstadt Ityke (Utika) und baute auf dem den Eingeborenen abgekauften Boden eine Burg Byrsa (das Fell). Die Bedeutung dieses Wortes wurde durch die Sage so erklärt: Dido habe so viel Land gekauft, wie mit einer Rindshaut belegt werden könne, dann aber listig die Haut in dünne Streifen geschnitten und damit einen weiten Raum umgrenzt. An die Burg schloss sich hierauf die Stadt Karthago an. Hier ward Dido nach ihrem Tode, den sie sich selbst auf dem Scheiterhaufen gab, um dem Begehren des Nachbarkönigs Hiarbas (Jarbas) nach ihrer Hand zu entgehen, göttlich verehrt, wie denn ihre mythische Gestalt offenbar derjenigen der grossen weiblichen Gottheit der Semiten entspricht, welche auch den Namen Dido führte. Virgil lässt, wie es schon Nävius getan, den Äneas zur Dido kommen und giebt dessen Untreue als die Ursache ihres Todes an.”
Aus Weber, Weltgeschichte: “Die Sage von der Ochsenhaut bei Gründung der Stadt (Karthago) ist bezeichnend für den Charakter der Phönizier, deren List und Verschlagenheit schon im Altertum berühmt war.”