415 



CHAPTER XVII. 

 CHIXA. NEW GUINEA. 



Hong Kong. Pigeon English. Chinese Method of writing compared 

 with European Methods. Development of Chinese and Japanese 

 Books from Eolls. Plants colonizing a Pagoda. Sights of Canton. 

 Chinese and English Examinations, and their subjects compared. 

 The Honam Monastery. Chinese Floral Decorations. A Chinese 

 Dinner. Dragons' Bones and Teeth. Origin of Mythical Animals. 

 Chinese Account of the Dragon. The last Dragon seen in England. 

 Use of Unicorn's Horn as Medicine in Europe. Chinese and English 

 Medicine compared. Chinese Accounts of the Pigmies and of 

 Monkeys. English Mythical Animals. The Sea Serpent. Owls 

 living with Ground Squirrel in China. Off the Talaur Islands. 

 Driftwood off the Ambernoh Paver, New Guinea. Animals In- 

 habiting it. Humboldt Bay. Signal Fires of the Natives. Barter- 

 ing at Night. Numbers of Canoes. Belative Prices of Native Pro- 

 perty. Attempts at Thieving. Modes of Expression. Mode of 

 Threatening Death by Signs. Armed Boat Robbed. Villages of 

 Pile-Dwellings. 



Hong Kong, November 11th, 1814, to January 6th, 1875. — The 



ship was no sooner anchored at Hong Kong, than miserable- 

 looking Chinese came off in small boats, and began dredging 

 round it for refuse of all kinds, carefully washing an old cabbage 

 stalk or beef bone, and preserving it for food. Such boats, 

 usually worked by a single old man, were at work about the 

 ship during nearly the entire time of our stay in the port, a 

 constant evidence of the desperate nature of the struggle for 

 existence amongst the inhabitants of the country. 



We soon began to learn * Pigeon English." It is not by any 

 means an easy language to learn, that is to really learn it. A 

 newcomer often mauls his speech in a childish fashion, putting 

 " ey " at the end of every word, and believes he is a master of 

 the language. But such is not the case, Pigeon English, is a 

 very definite language, as more than one book written on the 



