Chap. XVI. 
CHINESE BEGGARS. 
255 
others who are covered with filthy cutaneous diseases ; 
the second are those who endeavour to make themselves 
pitiable objects by artificial means ; the third and largest 
class consists of persons who are weak-minded or insane. 
The community of beggars is found scattered over the 
empire in large numbers : it has its own regulations or 
laws, and there is really a " king of the beggars.'' The 
beggars in China are a privileged class, and, as they beg 
from door to door, seem to demand charity as their right 
more than as a favour. They are a great nuisance to 
the shopkeepers in large towns, who cannot get rid of 
them without giving them alms.. Although a shop- 
keeper or householder is thus compelled to give a little 
to each, yet the sums given are often exceedingly small. 
The coin of the country is well adapted to this state of 
things. A hundred Chinese copper " cash " are worth 
only about fourpence of our money, and a beggar rarely 
receives more than one cash. Often he gets even less 
than this, and in the following curious manner : — In 
every string of a hundred cash there are a number of 
small inferior ones : these are either given to beggars, 
or the beggar lays down one of them for the shopkeeper, 
who gives in return one of the usual size, so that in this 
case the beggar receives about the value of half a cash, 
or the fiftieth part of a penny ! I believe, in many cases, 
it is not unusual for the inhabitants of a city to com- 
pound with the heads of this strange community. When 
this is done, a slip of paper is pasted on the doorposts of 
the person who has made this arrangement, and no 
beggar troubles him during the space of time for which 
he has paid. 
