[332] Fondness for children is specially a trait of Chinese character; and a single baby would do far more to ensure the safety of a foreign traveller in China than all the usual paraphernalia of pocket-pistols and revolvers.
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[333] Literally, “a million of taels,” the word used being the Buddhist term chao.
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[334] Here again we have 100 chün, one chün being equal to about 40 lbs. Chinese weights, measures, distances, numbers, &c., are often very loosely employed; and it is probable that not more than 100 catties, say 133 lbs., is here meant.
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[335] That is, until the change of the monsoon from S.W. to N.E.
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[336] See No. XLI., [note 237].
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[337] Used for pounding rice.
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[338] A fancy name for the Tung-t‘ing lake. See No. XXXVIII., [note 226].
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[339] The commentator declares himself unable to trace this allusion.
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[340] These are bound in between several sharp-pointed stakes and serve their purpose very well in the inland waters of China.
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[341] This deity is believed to be constantly on the look-out for wicked people, aided by the Goddess of Lightning, who flashes a mirror on to whomsoever the God wishes to strike. “The thief eats thunderbolts,” means that he will bring down vengeance from Heaven on himself. Tylor’s Primitive Culture, Vol. I., p. 88.
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