168 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 252. 



write the sign ia the air with the finger, and so 

 talk. I have been into a house in the country near 

 Shang-hae, and asked for fire for my cheroot : I 

 spoke Mandarin, the peasant spoke Shang-hae 

 dialect. I described in the air with my finger the 

 sign. " No," was understood. A master is also ab- 

 solutely necessary to learn the pronunciation of the 

 tones : there are 629 distinct sounds in Chinese, 

 which, not being sufficient to express all ideas, 

 the Chinese have intonated them to increase their 

 variety and distinctness. There are four tones 

 applicable to each sound, named ping, the even ; 

 shang, the acute ; k'tieu, the grave ; and juh, the 

 abrupt : thus, ping, a ; shang, a ; Kheu, a ; juh, a. 

 Premare and Morrison have given lists of the 

 tones, which, if attentively perused with a teacher, 

 will best initiate the student into this mystery. 

 We may learn to translate without a master : pur- 

 chase MedUurst's English, and Chinese Dictionary, 

 price 11 dollars (4«. 4J. the dollar); and Notices 

 on Chinese Grammar, by Philo- Sinensis, published 

 at Bataviii. Learn the radicals, 114 in number; 

 then how to form the remaining 43,000 signs; 

 9000 will be sufficient, by adding one of six 

 marks, or strokes, to these radicals, and thus be 

 able to use the dictionary. Read the New Testa- 

 ment or GutzlafF's Bible ; afterwards, the four 

 books of Confucius. It is a vulgar error to sup- 

 pose the difficulty of acquiring the Chinese lan- 

 guage to be so very much greater than other 

 languages. Whilst I was in China, two daughters 

 of M. Le Grenier, the French Plenipotentiary, 

 ages eleven and thirteen, learnt to speak Chinese 

 from their Chinese maid-servant in twelve months. 

 Malays, Negroes, &c., all learn it. One of the 

 difficulties consists in the compounding two or 

 more signs to convey a single idea. Let the stu- 

 dent beware of learning a Chinese patois, only 

 understood in one province, from any of those 

 Chinese who are in the shops in England, pro- 

 bably men from Singapore, Batavia, or Malacca. 

 A residence of three years and a half in China, 

 authorises me to form the above conclusions. Any 

 gentleman wishing for farther information, may 

 call at my house, 10. Byrom Street, Manchester. 

 Thomas Bellot, Surgeon, R.N. 



EECBNT CURIOSITIES OF LITEBATUBS. 



(Vol. ix., p. 475.) 



Mr. Thackeray's work, The Newcomes^ im- 

 proves in eccentricity as the tale progresses. In 

 addition to the instances already noticed, I send 

 the following : 



At p. 43., we meet the following expression : 

 " Some of the pleasant evenings I have ever spent, 

 have been," &c. Query, " pleasantest ? " 



At p. 60., in a speech by Barnes Newconie : " I 

 recollect his saying, one doosed hot night, as it 



seemed to us ; I recklect his saying," &c. Why, 

 in two consecutive lines, spell the word differ- 

 ently ? Surely we had enough of mis-spelling in 

 The Yellow-plush Correspondence. 



At p. 65. we see children disfigured (in the 

 year 1833) by the skimping bonnets which were, 

 happily, unknown until 1853. 



At p. 71., round hats appear with narrow brims, 

 which were not introduced until 1851 ; at p. 91., 

 we read of a bow (bay ?) window ; and at p. 103., 

 of a spine (spinal ?) disease. At p. 32., the old 

 lady is described as "having been engaged in 

 reading and writing in her library until a late 

 hour, and having dismissed her servants who 

 (whom ?) she never would allow to sit up for her." 



At p. 116. we find "Countesses with O such 

 large eyes ; " for which I venture to substitute, 

 "Oh! such large eyes." "Large eyes" are not 

 vocatives, surely. Mr. Dickens has fallen into a 

 similar error in Bleak House. 



At p. 117. we meet, " Abellino, the Bravo of 

 Venice." Rugantino was the name of that hero 

 in Mr. Thackeray's youthful days. 



At p. 123. Colonel Newcome says, "I know 

 who (whom ? again) I would back." 



At p. 127. Mr. Bayham " made an abrupt tack 

 larboard." Query, " to larboard ? " 



At p. 277. " JacKs little exploits are known in 

 the Insolvent Court, where he made his appear- 

 ance as ' Charles Belsize, commonly called the 

 Honorable Charles Belsize;'" at p. 278. passim, 

 he is called "Jack;" ditto at pp. 279, 280. At 

 p. 285. he is called "Jack," and "Charles" by 

 Lord Kew ; at p. 286. that nobleman addresses 

 him as " Charles," and at p. 287. he is spoken of 

 as " Jack," — under which prenom he figures until 

 the end of the Number for June, 1854. 



An old epithet frequently to be found in Vanity 

 Fair has unhappily been resuscitated for the de- 

 lectation of the readers of the first four numbers 

 of The Newcomes. Within a space of one hundred 

 and twenty-eight pages, we find the term " honest" 

 introduced as follows: "pp.5 (twice), 6. 8. 15. 

 17. 40. 53. 55, 56. 59. 70. 87. 96 (" the honest 

 rogue! knew good wine"), 101. 113, 114. 124. 

 127, and 128. the last page of number four. This 

 epithet is sparingly introduced in subsequent 

 numbers of the work. Surely no author has a 

 right to treat his readers with such carelessness as 

 I have instanced ; however, it is something to 

 escape the parentheses and imprecations which 

 disfigured his novel of Esmond. 



By way of a finish, you will find, at p. 316. of 

 the July number, that Captain Belsize's Christian 

 names are given as " Jack," " Charles," and 

 "William:" the last, however, with design, in 

 order to the blunder of a garrulous Doctor at a 

 popular watering-place. 



In the tale of " Quintin Bagshaw," by Dudley 

 Costello, in the New Monthly Magazine for July, 



