Chinamen. 155 



these wretched heathens will, if his dearest friend tumble into 

 the water by accident, stretch out a hand to save him ; for 

 he firmly believes that such a rescued one would infallibly do 

 his saviour a mortal injury on some future occasion. The 

 parents who rear up families in boats, partly get over this 

 difficulty by having their wee bairns secured round the waist 

 to the sampan by a cord, which they regard as a perfectly 

 legitimate article to be manipulated at pleasure. Conse- 

 quently, if a child happens to be attached to the end of a 

 rope which is being hauled in out of the water, no breach of 

 etiquette will have been committed. Although they are well 

 aware that in case of accident, not one of their own people 

 will attempt to save them, these quaint folk delight to shoot 

 their crafts across the bows of any passing steamer, so that they 

 may escape being run down and swamped by the closest pos- 

 sible shave; not, strange to say, with the understandable object 

 of recovering damages for nervous shock ; but because they 

 think it lucky. They played this game on Chiarini without, 

 however, consulting him in the slightest, when attempting to 

 land a couple of performing elephants at Amoy for this well- 

 known circus proprietor. The elephants being uneasy, as 

 they might well be, when handed over to the tender mercies 

 of the Chinese, were chained down to a barge which was to 

 have taken them on shore from a ship that had brought them 

 into the harbour. Just at that time, an outward-bound 

 steamer, which was leaving her moorings, gave the Chinamen 

 a chance which they could not resist, with the result that the 

 barge got run down and the elephants were drowned. 



China gives us many proofs of the strong love which Eng- 

 lishmen have for racing. The island of Hong Kong is so 

 hilly that the only place where one can ride, except on the 

 hard roads, is the Happy Valley, which is a level piece of 

 somewhat marshy ground, surrounded, except on the side 

 facing the sea, by high and wooded hills. Around it runs the 

 racecourse, which is about seven furlongs in length. This 

 galloping track consists of good turf and has a slight rise and 



