224 EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



world, tut hold out no prospect for higli station, as in China. At most, the fortunate candidate 

 gets, beside a good fill of honor, a rice pension or a schoolmastership. The Samuns are also 

 delegated, hy turns, to teach in the country schools. By all these means the knowledge of the 

 Chinese character is pretty widely diffused among the peojile, the women, only, being entirely 

 without any literary culture." 



As to what is taught, all the books, as well as learning, in Lew Chew come from China, 

 whither, yearly, some of the native youths of the higher class are sent for education. The 

 Chinese character is in general use in Lew Chew ; but the inhabitants have also (says Dr. 

 Bettelheim) a running hand of their own, which, he thinks, is the real ancient Chinese hiero- 

 glyphic, "awfully crippled." In some manuscripts which he saw in this writing, every Lew 

 Chew character had opposite to it the modern legible Chinese sign ; and many Lew Chewans do 

 not understand the character at all. They are, however, verj' proud of it, and say it is a 

 "language" of their own ; though^ as far as could be ascertained, the signs used do not at all 

 express the sounds of the spoken Lew Chew language, which is, undoubtedly, a dialect of 

 Japanese. Neither is this writing, as has been said, identical with the Japanese Mrakana. 

 Most of the books seen in Lew Chew were in the ordinary Chinese character. The Japanese 

 character, however, is ixnderstood ; for writings were seen, made by Lew Chewans, in the 

 Katalmna. With such apparatus for learning it may well be supposed that the attainments of 

 the masses, except in those matters which are communicated orally, must be limited. The Lew 

 Chewans have no literature of their own, nor has any author, so far as we know, ever ajipeared 

 among them. The Confucian classics of China are the text books, and these, says the Bishop 

 of Victoria, "consist more in an apparently mechanical repetition of sounds than in any mental 

 recreation from the sentiments contained in those literary monuments of a venerable antiquity." 



The reader will probably be somewhat interested to know something of the religious opinions 

 of these distant islanders, and of the circumstances under which Dr. Bettelheim became a 

 resident among them. As to the first, it maybe said, in general terms, that the religion of the 

 natives seems to he a mixture of Confucianism and Buddliism. But it is best to let them on 

 this head speak for themselves. When the Bishop of Victoria was at the island, in 1850, the 

 captain of H. B. M. steamer, the Reynard, received two communications from the native 

 authorities, written in Chinese, in the latter of which they thiis speak: "Now, as to the 

 religion of the Lord of Heaven," [tliis is the phrase by which they designate Christianity,] "we 

 have, from ancient times, attended to the doctrines of Confucius, and found therein principles 

 wherewith to cultivate personal morality, and to regulate our families, each according to our 

 circumstances and condition in life. We endeavor, also, to carry out the government of the 

 country according to the rules and maxims which have been handed down to us by the sages, 

 and are calculated to secure lasting peace and tranquility. Besides, our gentry, as well as the 

 common people, are without natural capacity ; and, although they have attended exclusively to 

 Confucianism, they have as yet been unable to arrive at jierfection in it. If they should now, 

 also, have to study, in addition, the religion of the Lord of Heaven, such an attempt would 

 surpass our ability, and the heart does not incline to it." 



On the compound of Confucianism and Buddhism many superstitions have been grafted. 

 Filial reverence here, as in Cliina, is the chief of virtues, and, theoretically, at least, underlies as 

 a basis the system of government, which is professedly patriarchal. This, as the Bishop of 

 Victoria has well remarked, is the great source of slavery, and opens a wide door for the 



