SOME CHINESE CUSTOMS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2647, 29 June 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

SOME CHINESE CUSTOMS.

Mr Henry Notman has, says the writer of " Echoes" in the Home News, recorded many strange things since he started on his trot round the Globe. His experiences in China, however, arc perhaps the most startling. Tho following is from a recent letter descriptive of Peking and its inhabitants : —"This is certainly a most extraordinary people, and next to nothing of them is known at Home. Here, for instance, are a few stories that I have picked up. A foreign resident of Peking who speaks Chinese well was riding along tho other day and came to an excited crowd. Drawing near ho discovered a circle of people quietly watching a man desperately attempting to commit suicide by dashing his head against a wall. He

dismounted, restrained the man, ha ran gued tho bystanders, and learned thai

this was a coolic who claimed that his payment for a certain porter's job was short by ten cash—less than a penny— and as tho employer refused to pay more, ho was proceeding to tako revenge by killing himself on the spot, knowing that by so doing ho would get tho other man into considerable trouble. On another occasion a man threw himself into tho canal, but was dragged out. So ho simply sat down on the edge and starved himself to death, to be revonged against somebody who had cheated hitn. Again, one day a man was found murdered on a bridge neat 1 tho British Legation. The law of China prescribes that a murdered body must not be removed till

the murderer is caught. Therefore it was covered with a mat and left. Days passed and a month, and still the rotting body lay there, till at last tho Minister" who had to pass it every day, vigorously protested, and it was taken off tho bridge and placed a little further away. A Chinese newspaper is responsible for this story, which, indeed, has nothing 1 incredible ahont it. One day a sow belonging to a Mr 'jVng happening to knock down and slightly injure tho front door of a Mrs Wang, the latter at once proceeded to claim damages, which were refused. Whereupon a fiereo altercation ensued, which terminated in Mrs Waug'a threatening to tako her own life. Mrs Feng,

upon hearing of this direful threat, resolved at once to take time by the forelock and ste il a march on her ouemy by taking her own life, and thus turn the tables upon her. She accordingly threw herself into tho canal. And a friend with whom I rode a good deal in Peking told uio the other day, hearing screams of laughter from his stable, he went to investigate. There lie discovered that his and ' boy' had caught a big- rat, nailed its front paws to a board, soaked it in kerosene, set fire to it, and were enjoying tho spectacle. But this is not so bad as one of the tricks of the professional kidnapper who will catch a child in tho street, carry it off to another town, blind it, and then sell it for a professional beggar.