CHINA. 



429 



book is in the preface referred by one commentator to even so 

 early a date as 2205 B.C. 



Many of the figures and descriptions in this book are 

 curiously like those which occur in European Natural-History 

 Works of about 250 years ago. 



Of/' --"<. 



HEN 1EUNG KINGDOM. 



"The inhabitants of this country have long lips, hairy and dark bodies. They laugh if 

 they see a man laughing, and when they laugh their lips turn over and conceal 

 their eyes." 



Some of the strange men figured are evidently monkeys. As 

 for example the men of the Hen Yeung Kingdom, figured and 

 described in the Shan Hoi King. The Chinese figure is given 

 in facsimile. It seems to represent an Ape of the genus Ehino- 

 pithecus, and might well be Rhinopithecus Boxellance, lately 

 discovered by the Abbe David in Eastern Thibet, and figured 

 by A. Milne-Edwards. The prominent nose in this species 

 turned up at the tip just as shown in the Chinese wood-cut. 

 The wide but unscientific distinction, commonly drawn between 

 men and the higher monkeys, is an error of high civilization and 



