248 Dr. Milxe's Account of a Secret Association in CImia. 



In fact, there appears scarcely to be a limit to the mutations of these 

 numbers ; for, like the changes of the jm kxna (Chinese table of diagrams), 

 they may contain an infinitude of senses and modifications, with which, 

 however, the initiated alone are familiar. 



Explanation of Characters within the second octangular lines, 



^i, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50. These characters, as they stand, seem to make 

 no intelligible sense, and from the circumstance of their being written with 

 two kinds of ink, black and red, renders it highly probable that tiiey are 

 constructed for the purpose of local concealment ; they are perhaps the 

 names, real or assumed, of the officers of the brotherhood ; tliat half of the 

 characters in red ink, wliich seems printed, may be permanent, and have 

 some general reference to tlie designs of the society, and to the other cha- 

 racters on the seal ; while the yellois part (on the original blue silk seal), 

 which is evidently written with a pencil, may, joined to the printed half, 

 constitute the names or epithets of the officers in some particular place. In 

 another place, where persons of diflPerent designations are chosen to be 

 officers, the yellow part would be different. This conjecture is confirmed 

 by the opinion of several learned Chinese, who have seen and examined the 

 seal. 



51, 52, 53, 54. These characters have, no doubt, a reference to the ulti- 

 mate view of the brotherhood, viz. universal extension and dominion. 51 is 

 an inverted form of 53 ; and 53 is an abbreviated form of * wan, a myriad. 

 52 (in the quinquangular lines) signifies " Heaven," and 54, " Earth." And 

 the position of 54 and 53, both looking towards the straight line on which 

 the words " Heaven " and " Earth " are written, may mystically signify the 

 bringing of myriads of nations under the society^s influence. 



Explanation of Characters within the square lines. 



55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60. Chung efoo, wo chiih tung, i. e. " Let the faithful 

 and righteous tmite so as to form a whole" (i. e. an universal empire). This 

 seems the plain sense of the words, according to this arrangement of them ; 



» See Plate II, No. 2. 



