[322] This is the celebrated form of death, reserved for parricide and similar awful crimes, about which so much has been written. Strictly speaking, the malefactor should be literally chopped to pieces in order to prolong his agonies; but the sentence is now rarely, if ever, carried out in its extreme sense. A few gashes are made upon the wretched victim’s body, and he is soon put out of his misery by decapitation. As a matter of fact, this death is not enumerated among the Five Punishments authorized by the Penal Code of the present dynasty. See No. LV., [note 306].
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[323] Alluding to a well-known Buddhist miracle in which a bikshu was to be thrown into a cauldron of boiling water in a fiery pit, when suddenly a lotus-flower came forth, the fire was extinguished, and the water became cold.
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[324] The Chinese term—here translated “Cannibals”—is a meaningless imitation by two Chinese characters of the Sanscrit yakcha, or certain demons who feed upon human flesh.
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[325] Hué, the capital of Cochin-China.
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[326] The island of Hainan, inhabited as it was in earlier times by a race of savages, is the most likely source of the following marvellous adventures.
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[327] To which sounds the languages of the west have been more than once likened by the Chinese. It is only fair, however, to the lettered classes to state that they have a similar contempt for their own local dialects; regarding Mandarin as the only form of speech worthy to be employed by men.
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[328] The occasional analogies to the story of the Cyclops must be evident to all readers.
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[329] The animal here mentioned is the plain brown deer, or Rusa Swinhoii, of Formosa, in which island I should prefer to believe, but for the great distance from Hué, that the scenes here narrated took place.
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[330] About one sixth of an acre. On old title-deeds of landed property in China may still be seen measurements calculated according to the amount of grain that could be sown thereon.
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[331] The king here uses the words “ku-t‘u-tzŭ,” which are probably intended by the author to be an imitation of a term in the savage tongue.
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