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GENERAL NOTES. 
Species of Mastax (a peculiar genus of Locusts) occur not uncommonly at Lo-fou and 
How-lik, also on Hongkong island; chiefly black, but brilliantly coloured with patches of metallic 
green. These seem to be confined to well-wooded and hilly districts, but a soberly-tinted brown 
species occurs at Macao. 
Very primitive mills for husking rice were in use at all the monasteries, though they are 
not often seen in the villages near the coast ports. Worked like the common native hand-mill, 
but made chiefly of basket-work, the rubbing-faces were formed of an upper and lower circular pan 
of wicker-work filled with mud or loam, in both of which were embedded strips of hard-wood, 
after the pattern of the grooves in the stones of a flour-mill, projecting very slightly above the clay 
surface. The latter was merely sundried to harden it and secure the wooden teeth. 
