Cuar. V.] “A NEW LANGUAGE. 73 
great difficulty in analysing. And, what is most 
amusing, they fancy all the time that this is capital 
English. 
The way in which the Chinese classed the 
foreigners on the island was somewhat droll. There 
were three degrees of rank which they generally 
bestowed upon them, — Mandarins, or, as they pro- 
nounced it, Mandalees, Sien-sangs, and A-says. In 
the first class they included all persons of rank hold- 
ing government situations, as well as the officers of 
the army and navy; the higher being styled “ Bulla 
Bulla Mandalees,” and the lower ‘ Chotta Chotta 
Mandalees,” corruptions of Hindostan words, signi- 
fying very large and very small. The merchants 
were honoured with the title of ‘“ Sten-sang,” and 
the common soldiers, sailors, and the rest of the 
lower orders, were all classed under the head of 
A-says. The word Mandarin is not Chinese, but 
has always been used by the Portuguese at Macao, 
as well as by the English, to denote a Chinese go- 
vernment officer; Sien-sang is a Chinese term, and 
signifies master or teacher, being generally used by 
the people as a title of respect, in the same way as 
we commonly use our word Sir; but A-say is quite 
a new appellation. ‘I say,” or “Ay say,” is a 
very common expression amongst our soldiers and 
sailors; and when the northern towns were taken 
by us during the war, the Chinese continually heard 
our men shouting it out to each other, and naturally 
concluded that this was the name of the class to 
which the lower orders belonged. It was quite 
