The original is by Nicolas Lenau.
FOOTNOTES:
[126] Compare Gutzlaff's "History of the Chinese Empire," published by K. Neumann; Stuttgart and Tübingen, 1847.
[127] The copper cash is the sole currency in use, and consists of a mixture of copper, iron, and tin. Its value, reckoned by the string of 100, is variable, and is calculated according to the proportional traffic in foreign merchandise. On the average, from 1250-1300 cash are about equal to $1.00 American, or 4s. 2d. English.
[128] In Shanghai the medium of exchange in common use is not as at Hong-kong reckoned in dollars, but in taels, an imaginary currency of the value of about $1.33, so that 100 taels = $133 1⁄3, or about £27 15s. Most accounts are rendered in taels, whence they are reduced into Mexican dollars, the only foreign silver that is current. When European merchants first came in contact with the children of the Flowery Land, the latter used to pay a sort of premium for American dollars, while for those bearing the effigies of Charles III. (known as the Karolus dollar), quite a special price was paid. Gradually, however, the value sank till, as already mentioned, 75 taels = $100. What has so often been reported of a special Shanghai dollar coinage is quite erroneous. There are neither gold nor silver coins struck in China, but solely of copper, and in some provinces of iron. The term Shanghai dollar is equivalent to tael, which, as already remarked, is, like the guinea in England, unknown to commerce. 1 tael=5s. 7d. English, but in trade it is taken as 6s. It occasionally rises as high as 6s. 6d., when the proportion between the dollar and the tael is as 100 to 72.
[129] An English translation of one of these reports will be found in the 1845 number of Morrison's admirably edited, but now rather rarely met with, monthly periodical, "The Chinese Repository."
[130] We occasionally saw the Queen of Heaven (Kwan-Yin) represented with a child in her arms, and have in our possession a piece of carved work representing such a group, which we purchased in a shop at Shanghai. This elegant figure seems to be a favourite deity with the Chinese, as it frequently adorns their little domestic altars, and is especially reverenced by the women who are desirous of the honours of maternity. The striking similarity between this exhibition and that of the Holy Virgin, as we see her represented in Catholic Churches, with the infant Jesus in her arms, must involuntarily suggest the idea that there has been an infusion of Catholicism intermingled here with the rites of Buddha. If the resemblance between the two is not accidental, it may readily be assumed that the same thing has occurred here as in the case of certain Christian legends, which the traveller encounters among various races, on whom the beams of Christian civilization have never been shed.
[131] The price of each meal is as follows:—
| 1 bowl of rice, | 12 | cash | (1⁄2 d.) |
| 1 bowl of vegetables, | " | " | (1⁄2 d.) |
| 1 cup of tea, | 6 | " | (1⁄4 d.) |
| Breakfast, consisting usually of rice, vegetables, and tea, | 30 | " | (1 1⁄4 d.) |
| Bed, fire, and attendance, | 20 | " | (7⁄8 d.) |
[132] This sacrificial paper, coloured and written upon, is usually called "Joss" or "Sycee"-paper in Canton-English, because the prayers addressed to the Divinity are usually for riches and silver ingots (Sycee), which the suppliants hope to obtain by entreaty.