THE CHINESE: THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 681 



which it is known in its family, the name by which it is known to 

 others being only given to it at the completion of its fourth year, when 

 its education is supposed to commence. 



We have all heard the Chinese charged with infanticide. We be- 

 lieve that crime to be less prevalent with them than it is with us. If 

 children are ever exposed, as has been seen on a way-side altar near 

 Honam, we believe that bitter want and a hope that charity would 

 provide for the child better than the mother could have been the mov- 

 ing causes. As a general rule, self-interest acts as the strongest bar to 

 this vice. That the life of the male children should be preserved is most 

 important, as the Chinese law will compel the sons to maintain their 

 parents, and, in the event of all the sons dying, no one would be able 

 to offer that worship at the tomb of the father and mother on which 

 their happiness in another state is supposed to depend. With the girls 

 preservation is almost as important, and they are a marketable com- 

 modity, either as wives or as servants. Indeed, it is no very rare thing 

 to see a basketful of babies sent down from Canton to Hong-Kong for 

 sale at prices ranging from two to five dollars. These are all girls ; 

 and the purchase of one or more of them is generally the first invest- 

 ment that a Chinese Aspasia makes of her earnings, a speculation sure 

 ultimately to pay a very large interest on the money sunk. 



In denying the existence of infanticide it is necessary to make one 

 exception. This is among the Tan-kia, or boat-population. These 

 are a race of people of different descent and different religion from the 

 Chinese, governed by their own magistrates, and so looked down upon 

 by the other classes that no child of a boat-woman can compete in the 

 literary examinations, or, whatever his ability may be, become an as- 

 pirant for office. This class is excessively superstitious, and we have 

 heard it stated by missionaries that, when a child belonging to peo- 

 ple of this class suffers from any lingering malady, and recovery be- 

 comes hopeless, they will put it to death with circumstances of great 

 cruelty, believing it to be not their child but a changeling, and fancy- 

 ing that a demon has taken the place of their offspring for the purpose 

 of entailing on them expense and trouble for which they could never 

 get any return. 



The next article we come to is marriage : hedged in with formali- 

 ties in all countries, but in none more so than in China. As we have 

 just been speaking of the Tan-kia people, let us take Dr. Yvan's ac- 

 count of one of their marriages, and have done with them : 



"In harvest-time," savs the doctor, "anv man of their class who wishes to 

 marry goes into the next field and gathers a little sheaf of rice, which he fastens 

 to one of his oars. Then, when he is in presence of the Tan-kia girl of his choice, 

 he puts his oar into the water, and goes several times round the boat belonging 

 to the object of his affections. The next day, if the latter accept his homage, 

 she, in her turn, fastops a bunch of flowers to her oar, and comes rowing about 

 near her betrothed." 



