SIX WEEKS IN A TOWER. 83 



acknowledge it 1 and they then said, " Oh ! we heard 

 people saying so, and thought we might discover the 

 truth by hearing you upon the subject." Another 

 legend was that the blood of the coolies was drained 

 off in order to be worked up with the opium. A still 

 more curiously elaborate story, rife among them, was 

 that the unfortunate emigrant was dipped into the sea 

 by the heels until he was covered by the hiche de mer, 

 or sea-slug, which is so much prized as an article of 

 Chinese chow-chow. When a Chinaman does invent 

 a story, I will back him against any other person for 

 giving it verisimilitude by loading it with minute and 

 truthful details. In this respect he is a very Defoe, 

 and at the bottom of his story there will always be 

 found some minute fact on which the whole super- 

 structure is raised. These emigration tales were 

 probably circulated at the instigation of some of the 

 country gentry, who were opposed to the departure of 

 coolies, because that had a tendency to raise the price 

 of labour. Unlike the other Chinese peasantry, who 

 usually have their own little landed properties, we 

 found that the Hakka peasants were very much in the 

 hands of the wealthy lairds. At Kum-tow-lek the 

 neighbouring villagers were, to all intents and pur- 

 poses, tenants of Wong a ShuL He paid their 

 ground-rent to Government, and undertook that pro- 

 tection and justice were afforded to them while they 

 cultivated the land. With the exception of one-tenth, 

 which they retained for their own use, the whole of 



