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A NATURALIST ON THE "CHALLENGER. 



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neutralize poisons poured into them. The forms of these cups 

 have been largely copied by the Chinese, in ivory-white porcelain. 



Ehinoceros horn is still used in Chinese medicine, and is to 

 be seen hanging up, together with Antelopes' and other horns, 

 in every druggist's shop in Canton. 



Chinese medical prescriptions are excessively long, contain- 

 ing a vast number of ingredients, most of them inactive. It is 

 only lately that English prescriptions have been shortened, and 

 they still sometimes contain a good deal which is superfluous. A 

 certain air of mystery is still preserved about them. Herbalists 

 still practise upon the uneducated in London, in a style in some 

 respects not very different from that of the Chinese physician. 



A large variety of most amusing mythical animals are 

 figured in Chinese works on natural history. Many of them 

 are familiar and classical, such as the Cyclops : and the Pigmies, 

 who are described as going about arm-in-arm for mutual protec- 

 tion, for fear the birds should mistake them for worms and 

 eat them. The story is evidently identical with that of Homer, 

 where the Pigmies are described fighting with the Cranes, on 

 the shores of Oceanos. In Japanese pictures of the Pigmies, 

 the "little men" (sho jin) are represented as walking arm-in- 

 arm on the sea-shore, with the cranes hovering over them ready 

 for the attack. The measured height of the Pigmies is usually 

 given in classical accounts, just as in the Chinese. 



"The Small Men's Country is to the eastward of Tai Tong. The inhabitants are nine 



inches high." 



I give a, facsimile of a figure of the Pigmies, and translation 

 f the Chinese explanation of it, taken from the " Shan Hoi King," 

 or Mountain and Ocean Kecord ; a very ancient work, parts of 

 which were kindly translated for me by Mr. C. V. Creagh. The 



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