"JACK," AND "JOHN CHINAMAN." 127 



one is dead. It is a present from me to my aged father, with which he will be much 

 pleased. I esteem my father greatly, and it will be at his service when he dies." How 

 one of the common names for a foreigner, especially an Englishman, is "I say/' which 

 derived its use simply from the Chinese hearing our sailors and soldiers frequently ejaculate 

 the words when conversing, as for example, " I say, Bill, there's a queer-looking pigtail ! " 

 The Chinese took it for a generic name, and would use it among themselves in the most 

 curious way, as for example, " A red-coated / say sent me to buy a fowl ; " or " Did you 

 see a tall / say here a while ago ? " The application is, however, not more curious 

 than the title of " John " bestowed on the Chinaman by most foreigners as a generic 

 distinction. Less flattering epithets used to be freely bestowed on us, especially in the 

 interior, such as " foreign devil," ' ' red-haired devil/' &c. The phrase Hungmaou, " red- 

 haired," is applied to foreigners of all classes, and arose when the Dutch first opened up 

 trade with China. A Chinese work, alluding to their arrival, says, "Their raiment was 

 red, and their hair too. They had bluish eyes, deeply sunken in their head, and our 

 people were quite frightened by their strange aspect." 



Jack will have to tell how many strange anomalies met his gaze. For example, in 

 launching their junks and vessels, they are sent into the water sideways. The horseman 

 mounts on the right side. The scholar, reciting his lesson, turns his back on his master. 

 And if Jack, or, at all events one of his superior officers, goes to a party, he should not 

 wear light pumps, but as thick solid shoes as he can get; white lead is used for 

 blacking. On visits of ceremony, you should keep your hat on; and when you advance 

 to your host, you should close your fists and shake hands with yourself. Dinners commence 

 with sweets and fruits, and end with fish and soup. White is the funereal colour. You 

 may see adults gravely flying kites, while the youngsters look on; shuttlecocks are 

 battledored by the heel. Books begin at the end; the paging is at the bottom, and 

 in reading, you proceed from right to left. The surname precedes the Christian name. 

 The fond mother holds her babe to her nose to smell it as she would a rose instead 

 of kissing it. 



What yarns he will have to tell of pigtails ! How the Chinese sailor lashes it 

 round his cap at sea; how the crusty pedagogue, with no other rod of correction, will, 

 on the spur of the moment, lash the refractory scholar with it; and how, for fun, a wag 

 will tie two or three of his companions' tails together, and start them off in different 

 directions ! But he will also know from his own or others' experiences that the foreigner 

 must not attempt practical jokes upon John Chinaman's tail. " Noli me tangere" says 

 Dr. Milne, " is the order of the tail, as well as of the thistle." 



Now that most of the restrictions surrounding foreigners in Japan have been 

 removed, and that enlightened people the Englishmen of the Pacific in enterprise and 

 progress have taken their proper place among the nations of the earth, visits to Japan 

 are commonly made by even ordinary tourists making the cfrcuit of the globe, and we 

 shall have to touch there again in another " voyage round the world " shortly to follow. 

 The English sailors of the Royal Navy often have an opportunity of visiting the charming 

 islands which constitute Japan. Its English name is a corruption of Tih-punquo 

 Chinese for " Kingdom of the Source of the Sun." Marco Polo was the first to bring 



