62 



AUTHOR'S SANITY DOUBTED. 



Chap. IV. 



medicine, and would have to be broken up at any 

 rate." What with joking and reasoning with 

 them, I got out of the business pretty well. As in 

 all cases I found the women most clamorous and 

 most difficult to deal with, but by showing some 

 liberality in my donations of cash to the old women 

 and very young children I gradually rose in their 

 estimation, and at last, it being nearly dark, we 

 parted the best of friends. I have been placed in 

 circumstances somewhat similar on various occa- 

 sions since, but I have hitherto managed to come 

 safely out of the scrape. Sometimes amongst all 

 this chaff there were grains of wheat, and not the 

 least striking was a beautiful species of Oarabus 

 (C. coelestis), which was brought to me at this 

 time, and for which I gave the lucky finder the 

 large sum of thirty cash, with which he scampered 

 off home, delighted with his good luck. Paying 

 away sums like this for insects seemed to confirm 

 the natives in the views they had originally formed 

 respecting my character. The Chinese, however, 

 are as a people eminently practical in all their 

 views, and it mattered not to them whether I was 

 sane or not so long as they got the cash. They 

 now set to collecting in all directions, and brought 

 me many fine things. On returning home to my 

 boat in the evenings I was called to from every 

 hill-side, " Ma jung ! ma jung ! " (buy insects ! 

 buy insects !) and then the little fellows were seen 

 bounding down towards the road on which I was 

 walking. This distribution of cash amongst the 



