the great wall whi

hich are the Hoang ho or Yellow, the Yang-tse or
Spreading Son of the Sea," and the Se-kiang.
The country is divided into nineteen provinces named
Liangsi, Chehkiang, Fukien with Formosa, Hupeh,
ichili, Shantung, Shansi, Honan, Kiangsu, Nganhwei,

unan, Shensi, Kansu, Szechuen, Kwangtung, Kwangsi,
weichow, Yunnan, and Hansu.

A telegram from China last month stated that "The hinese Government has created a nineteenth province, nder the name of Hansu. The capital is Urumtzi. he province is composed of the districts bordering on

ussian Turkestan."

We have no records as to the origin of the Chinese ace, save the tradition that a band of wanderers from e vicinity of the Caspian Sea, settled among the forests E Shanse, about the year 2850 B. C.

and on an average 25 feet hi From this time to the pres quently changed.

About the commencemen system of competitive exan founded for those who wer continued to the present, and is still the reward of scholars Buddhism was introduced missionaries and was genera

The custom of binding the in order to have tiny-footed ninth century.

Genghis Khan invaded Ch it, establishing the Mongol the height of its glory. empire from the Indus to his grandson, Kublai Khan,

The present dynasty is th and commenced in 1644.

T

pire from the north with a la conquered the whole count head-dress was the long que compelled the Chinese to ad

in 1871, and succeeded to th The present sovereign, su

There exists no law of he

throne, but it is left to ea successor from among the younger generation than his The Emperor is considered

Confucius begins the history of China with the reign f Yao, 2356 B. C. The Shang dynasty continued from 66 to 1154 B. C., during which there were twenty-empire, and can alone, with ght rulers. The Chow dynasty continued from 1122 255 B. C., during which China was governed by the udal system.

The three most noted teachers of the Chinese lived aring the reign of the Chow dynasty. They were ao Tsze, Kung Fu Teze, and Meng Ko. The two latr are known to us under the names of Confucius and encius.

Lao Tsze lived from 604 to 515 B. C. He was the -ntemporary of Daniel, and his doctrines resemble the eories of the Brahmins. They are comprised under e name of Taoism, and degenerated into the superitious worship of charms, and observance of idolatrous

ces.

Confucius was born 551 B. C. He gathered and exunded the teachings of the ancients, and taught esecially the relations of men to each other. His teach

os resulted in the fostering of filial piety and the

tives and ministers, perfor monies. There is no priesth ian or State religion.

The administration of the

above the central administration, is the Board of Public | the past, we find an ul Censors, which consists of from 40 to 50 members.

The State religion of China has no outward ceremonial, except a few symbolical rites observed at New Year. The bulk of the people are Buddhists. There are probably thirty millions of Mohammedans. Roman Catholicism is estimated to have one million of adherents.

Characteristics of the Ghinese.

Rev. B. C. Henry, Presbyterian missionary at Canton, China, in his new book on "The Cross and the Dragon," notes the following characteristics of the Chinese:

"If there ever were a people justifiable in a worshipful regard for the past, the Chinese are that people. For two thousand five hundred years their historical records are unbroken; and if we can trust their sacred books, for two thousand years previous to that period their national life had continued, running back to the misty dawn of the race. They were a people before Abraham was called; their early history is contemporaneous with

classes, the officials and g treasures of the past, are reforms of every kind. tremest degree, and woul with other nations had th so; and to day most of th shut their doors, exclude their shell again for the r

conomy is a vital, every-day question with the vast
multitude. Their wants are few and simple, but the
uestion of supplying them is often a most anxious one.
"he wages of a working man vary from three to six
ollars a month; his necessary food costs him about one
ollar and a half; and as nearly all have families or rel-
tives dependent upon them, the struggle to make both
nds meet and find enough for all involves the strictest
rugality of living. Rice is the chief article of diet, to
hich is added pork, salt
sh, or vegetables, in quan-
ties such as they can afford.
m some districts sweet pota-
Des are largely used, but

ey are considered poor man's food, and a man is onsidered far down in the cale of poverty who can fford nothing better than weet potatoes. Their clothng, all made after one genral pattern, is usually of Crong coarse cloth that -ears well.

"In the country men and 'omen unite in the cultiation of the fields; and the xposure they undergo in he marshy rice lands, which ust be spaded or ploughed the chilly days of early ring, often produces severe

from all classes; and instance from the lowest walks of life the land. Their life is somet patriarchal system. They liv lines are very distinctly draw "Each family has an orga ancestral hall, where the tabl are placed. A reunion is 1 about Easter, which is the

NATIVES OF MONGOLIA.

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tacks of rheumatism. It is painful to see them, women family increase, a disting pecially, knee-deep in mud and water, spading the some become poor, others eavy soil of the paddy-fields, while in a wretched little control of affairs falls int at drawn up by the slimy bank are two or three little perous. A portion of th lf-clothed children and a small supply of the coarsest mers and till the ancestral e od, with the rudest implements for cooking. The ness; but it is the desire of orking people usually have three meals a day, but clan, however poor, to educ ten they will work from early dawn until night though he may not take a d ith only a bowl of cold rice-gruel at noon to sustain may at least become a teach the house. Whole villag where not one in a hundr gently.

em.

"The shop people and students have but two regular eals a day, taking breakfast about ten o'clock and pper between five and six. The men all sit around a mmon table with one large dish or tub of rice in the ntre, from which their bowls are replenished, and dishes meat and vegetables around it, from which they help emselves promiscuously with their chopsticks. For

host when guests are present to take a morsel from

"Chinese family life is n tic comfort or improve the redeeming feature is the re this is carried to such an ab to such a degree, that all of

The an

and it not unfrequently happens that the youthful cou- | never appear; they may b ple never see each other's faces until the day on which but remain invisible. W their marriage is consumated. If by any chance they friends to dine with him, had been previously

acquainted, the rules

of propriety would require that after the betrothal they should strictly abstain from the sight of one another; and if this can be accomplished in no other way, one or the oth

er is sent away on a
visit to friends or
to school, until the
time for marriage
comes. I have known
young girls in the
Boarding School
whose friends have
sent for them osten-
sibly to make a short
visit to their homes,
but who on their
arrival found to
their consternation
that they were to
be married, this being the first hint they had received of
so important a matter.

CHINESE SHOEMAKER.

"There are exceptions, however, to this rule. When, for instance, the mother of the betrothed girl is a widow, her prospective son-in-law may have access to her house, and assist her in her affairs, rendering her the service of a son before marriage. After marriage the wife becomes an inmate of the husband's family, subject to his mother, o whom she becomes almost a slave in the service required, and if her mother-in-law be exacting her life is anything but a happy or an easy one. On first repair. ing to her husband's house she unites with him in worshipping the tablets of his ancestors. This seems to seal her as a member of his family, and in the event of his death she is not free to return to her own family, but remains under the control of his parents, or, if they be dead, of his uncles or elder brothers. The men have practically no mothers-in-law, marriage not bringing them into very close relations to their brides' families. Persons of the same surname are not permitted to marry,

fully prevalent, but is confined almost exclusively to men, the cases being exceedingly rare where women

found addicted to the habit.

The Chinese are inveterate gamblers. When gamg was invented I have never been able to discover, am disposed to think it must have sprung spontanly from the soil of that land where it has certainly carried to a greater excess than in any other. It niversal, and is carried on in infinitely varied forms. children gamble as they go with their copper cash buy sweetmeats, and will throw the dice to see ther they will pay three cash for a couple of sugar ks or a handful of peanuts, or get them for one. At y country fair the gambling booths are crowded m morning till night, while whole streets in the cities given up to such uses.

Gambling is forbidden by law, but is connived at the officials for a pecuniary consideration, and is a tful source of revenue to the gentry in many

ces.

1

it to this dirty, unsightly she
dust-covered images of Kwan-
choice representatives of the
rag and bobtail of a heathen t
fanation of the term. As a m
China these places are not oft
The word commonly used bot
sionaries is Joss-house. Its der
guese Dios, which again is fro
Dios is corrupted by the Chin
grel abomination, 'pigeon-Er
apply the same term to our Ch
To 1
own idolatrous customs.
an idol, or to go to church as 1
to 'go do Joss.'

"But who and what are t who are meandering along They are what, when you see don, you call 'sandwich-men.' wares purchasable at this clot stead of carrying advertiseme

With all their boasted morality, the Chinese are y low in the scale of morals. It is not to our pur-up and down the street, a la e to descant upon their immoral practices further n to say that of them, in common with other pagan ions, the picture drawn in the first chapter of Romans rue in every detail. They have little regard for the th; falsehood is not only considered justifiable, but n many cases commended.

The conversation of the poorer classes especially is ething too vile and horrible to think of. It seems fectly inconceivable that people, however degraded, ld bring their lips to repeat such language as falls essantly from their tongues.

Taking the people as a whole, their fundamental lities of industry, stability, and readiness to submit authority contain the promise of cheering results in future, when enlightened ideas and the power of the spel shall transform them into active, aggressive ristian men. In their semi-civilized state they are no bt more difficult to impress than people who are nd without civilization, without education, or witha fixed government; but those very qualities which sent a temporary obstacle to the wide acceptance Christianity will in the future prove most powerful iliaries and secure its complete and permanent estabment."

Rev. E. J. Dukes of England, formerly a missionary China, gives the following description of scenes he witnessed in China:

tween two slices of wood, th backs the very goods which y to inspect and to buy. Do no man's mind feels any qualms garments have been for weeks the unwashed. He is trouble reflections. But he could no gain, on the plea that they ha These sheep skins are very h the country people. If you w tural audience in the south of also to townspeople, the suf saints of old, it would ne they wandered about in sh You would err as much as did who first preached of Greenlanders.

Those Arti pleased with the prospect the missionaries were natura the result of their own preach nese mind, the wandering abo skins does not at all imply afflicted, tormented.' They v persecuted to that degree.

"Some very curious sights roads. The Chinaman is a l in his ways of thinking and a ances, if he can by any means