Cuar. XII.] SURPRISE ON SEEING A FOREIGNER. 229 
great when I came down unexpectedly upon their 
little villages. The reader will easily credit this, 
if he will only picture to himself the surprise and 
astonishment with which a Chinese would be re- 
garded were he to appear suddenly in some secluded 
village in the highlands of Scotland or Wales, where 
no such phenomenon had ever been seen before. 
I remember, on one occasion, that having toiled up 
to the top of one of the beautiful hills on the island 
of Kintang, I observed on the other side of the 
hill, a few yards below me, a Chinese youth engaged 
in cutting the long grass and bushes for fire-wood. 
As he was employed he did not observe me, and 
I approached the place where he was at work, and 
standing upon a rock a few feet above him, made 
some noise to attract his attention. He looked up, 
and never shall I forget the look he gave me. Had 
I been a being from another world he could not 
have been more astonished; indeed, I suppose he . 
thought that I had fallen from the clouds, or come 
out from the bowels of the hills. For a second or 
two he stood in silent amazement, seemingly com- 
pletely paralysed, and then throwing his grass-knife 
away, fled down the hill over rocks and stones with 
a rapidity hardly credible, nor did he ever look 
behind, until he had crossed the narrow valley, and 
reached the village on the opposite side. The news 
was soon communicated to the villagers, who rushed 
out of their houses and assembled in great numbers 
in front of their buildings. I walked slowly and 
quietly down towards them, and soon removed all 
Q 3 
