216 



CHINA. 



hor*cba-k, at viiiti, marriage eeremnnie, 8cc. attended 

 by their female servants, mounted in like manner. Their 

 prince* dress in the Tartar style, and generally make 

 use of ilk stuffs. The Lo-los have a language of their 

 own, and their mode of writing resembles that of the 

 Bonzes of Peru, who hare acquired the favour of the 

 most powerful families in the western part of Yun nan, 

 and introduced among them the religious worship of 



.try. 



Muo.'ie. 3. The MIAO-T.-E, or Mountainerrt, is a name given 

 to several tribe-, who differ in some respects from each 

 other ; but who, like the Lo los, are governed by their 

 own princes, who have a royal household, officers, and 

 militia, of their otvn appointment. They arc a half ci- 

 vilized people, dispersed through the mountainous dis- 

 tricts of the western provinces, and often make preda- 

 tory incursions upon the level country. They are arm- 

 ed with bows and half pikes, and are very dexterous 

 horsemen. Their horses are remarkable for the agility 

 with which they climb the steepest mountains, and are 

 highly valued in China. Those who are candidates for 

 any office of command among them, are required to 

 prove their horsemanship, by riding at full speed down 

 the steepest places, and by clearing at one leap ditches 

 of considerable width, in which fires are kindled. The 

 Chinese consider these people as sufficiently subdued, if 

 they can confine them within their mountainous districts; 

 and for this purpose, they have erected around them nu- 

 merous castles and fortresses strongly garrisoned. Those, 

 who inhabit the province of Koei-tcheoo, are rather more 

 civilized than the other tribes, dwell in houses built of 

 brick, form themselves into villages, cultivate the soil, 

 manufacture carpets and coarse muslin, and float con- 

 siderable quantities of timber down their rivers, which 

 they exchange with the Chinese for oxen, cows, buffa- 

 loes. Their ordinary dress is a pair of trowsers, and 

 a kind of jacket which laps over the breast. They wear 

 a strong and weighty breast plate of hide, covered with 

 lamina: of steel or copper. Those who inhabit the 

 southern part of the province of Hoo-koan, are equally 

 independent as the rest of their nation, but profess to 

 acknowledge the authority of the mandarins. They are 

 remarkably hardy and active, and run bare-footed over 

 the roughest grounds and steepest rocks. Their young 

 women wear a singular kind of head-dress, consisting of 

 a small board, about a foot in length and five or six inches 

 in breadth, over which they spread their hair, and fix it 

 to the wood with wax. This wax is melted at the fire, 

 and the hair combed, cleaned, and arranged anew, three 

 or four times a year. Those, who reside in the more cen- 

 tral parts of this province, are in a great measure sub- 

 ject to the Chinese, whose manners they have entirely 

 adopted, and from whom they are distinguished only by 

 a peculiar covering of the head. The whole Miao-tse 

 race are regarded by the Chinese with the utmost con- 

 tempt, and are represented by them as a barbarous set of 

 banditti ; but the missionaries always speak of them as 

 an active, laborious, civil, and honest people. On their 

 part, they have an equal detestation of the Chinese, 

 whom they consider as severe and oppressive masters, 

 who would be unable to subdue them if they were united, 

 but who contriveto keep them shut out frum communica- 

 tion with one another. These tribes, after having preser- 

 ved their independence almost 2000 years, were at length 

 reduced to a etate of subjection by the defeat of their 

 twi most fornvdable states on the frontiers of Se-tchuen, 

 and Koei tchcoo. Having committed some devastations 

 upon the territories in their neighbourhood, about the 

 jear 1752, the Emperor Kirn-long, resolved to accom- 



plish their subjugation, and, after a tedious war of 25 Tcpagra- 

 years, they were finally reduced in 1771!, by the skill l )h y- 

 and perseverance of the Chinese general, Akouce. The "" "V^" 

 Miao-tse defended themselves with determined valour, 

 and even their women are said to have fought with the 

 most obstinate fury, of which the following instance has 

 been recorded. A party of Chinese soldiers, during the 

 space of two months, had employed, in vain, every me- 

 thod of force and stratagem to gain possession of a small 

 fort on the summit of a high rock. One morning, about 

 day-break, their guard was alarmed by the sound of 

 footsteps, as of a person treading with great caution ; 

 upon approaching silently the place from which the 

 noise proceeded, they perceived something indistinctly 

 in motion ; and some of the most active, having scrambled 

 up the n>ck, by the assistance of cramp iront- on their 

 feet, discovered a woman drawing water. Having sei- 

 zed and questioned her, particularly with regard to the 

 strength of the garrison, which had made such resistance, 

 " I," she replied, " I alone ; but being in want of wa- 

 ter I came hither, not expecting to meet with yon." 

 She then pointed out to them a secret path, by which 

 they reached the fort, of which she had been the sole de- 

 fender, sometimes by firing her musket, and at other 

 times by rolling down fragments of the rock, upon those 

 whom she observed attempting to ascend. 



4-. The JEWS, of whom a numerous colony, accord- Jew*, 

 ing to their own account, and to the recorda of the Chi- 

 nese, entered China about the period of Alexander's ex- 

 pedition to India ; and are supposed to have been a part 

 of the followers of his army. They reside chiefly in 

 the provinces where bilk is manufactured, especially in 

 the city of Hang-tchoo-foo ; and it is conjectured to 

 have been chiefly owing to their i-kill in preparing that 

 article, perhaps to their having originally introduced the 

 use of it into the country, that they have recommended 

 themselves so much to the notice of the government, a< 

 to have obtained a variety of privileges, and to be allow- 

 ed even to intermarry with the natives. In one of their 

 synagogues the missionaries found a copy of the Penta- 

 teuch, and some other fragment-, of the sacred writings ; 

 but except their rabbis, they have now no knowledge of 

 the Hebrew language; and had never heard of any other 

 Jesus than the son of Sirach. Many of them are said 

 to have forsaken their own religion, at least in appear- 

 ance, a, id to have arrived at high offices in the Chinese 

 government. 



The knowledge of the origin, history, and condition HISTOI* 

 of this extensive and extraordinary empire is still ex- 

 tremely imperfect and uncertain. It was only at a late 

 period that the nations of Europe became acquainted 

 even with the existence of the country ; and even then, 

 the peculiar nature of tin- language, and the careful ex- 

 clusion of Toreigners by the government, prevented, and 

 still in a great measure prevent, thai degree of inttr- 

 courae with the people, which is necessary to procure 

 correct information of their manners, and free access to 

 their historical records. 



With respect to their origin, it has been conjectured, Origin. 

 from the coincidence between several of their tenets and 

 the mythology of the ancient Egyptians, that they arc 

 descended from an Egyptian colony ; but, on the other 

 hand, it is asserted, that there is n-> n semblance between 

 the Chinese and the Egyptian features, and no appear- 

 ance of the former having become, in later times, a mix- 

 ed race. It is conceived, that the vestiges of Greek 

 and Egyptian superstitions, still lound in China, mny be 

 ascribed to the wanderings of those exiled Greeks and 



