his friends in safety, and informed them of the tragical death of his comrade. 13. The remains of Snow were subsequently interred by a party that went to New-Gloucester; and a mound of stones, loosely flung together, still marks the spot where sleeps the valiant hunter, whose name is perpetuated by identifying it with the name of the Falls. Note. Androscoggin river, in the state of Maine, rises. in the north part of York county, on the borders of NewHampshire. It unites with the Kennebec about 20 miles from the ocean.-Umbagog is a large Lake, in Grafton county, New Hampshire, on the confines of Maine. SKETCH OF THE INHABITANTS OF CHINA. SECT. 1. Persons and Character. 1. THE Chinese, in their complexion and general appearance, exhibit proofs of their Mongol origin. They bear a very strong resemblance to the Tartars, except they are more slender, less active, and less able to endure hardship. They have a square flat face, small nose but broad at the root, large ears, and small oblique eyes. Their colour is a pale yellow, like the root of rhubarb or a faded leaf; but in the southern parts darker than in the northern. 2. They have a long tuft of black hair, plaited into a tail, reaching from the crown of the head to the waist, and sometimes to the calf of the leg, the rest of the scalp being closely shaven. They pluck out their beard with tweezers, leaving only a few straggling hairs. The higher classes pride themselves on being fat, which is supposed to indicate at once abundance of food and exemption from labour. 3. The general character of the Chinese is represented as a strange compound of pride and meanness, of affected gravity and real frivolity, of refined civility and gross indelicacy, of great apparent simplicity and openness in conversation, attended with a degree of art and cunning of which an European has no conception. From the throne to the meanest subject, there is an entire disregard to truth. 4. Dishonesty in traffic is represented as universal, and their skill in the art of cheating unparalleled. They are described as the most timid people in the world, entirely devoid of personal courage and presence of mind in cases of danger, and capable of being terrified almost into convulsions by the drawing of a sword, or the presenting of a pistol; yet suicide, by both sexes, is said to occur more frequently among them than among any other people. 5. They are described also as extremely vindictive, and remarkably deficient in common humanity and fellow feeling. If a Chinese drop from a boat into the sea, he is suffered to sink without the smallest effort being made to save him. They are distinguished for their national vanity, and in all their transactions with foreigners, their self-importance is conspicuous. They regard all nations as absolute barbarians in comparison with themselves. But when compared to the nations of Europe, "they can only be said," in the language of Mr. Barrow, "to be great in trifles, whilst they are really trifling in every thing that is great. 6. Their whole external conduct is under the regulation of law; and their general character in regard to morals, compared with their minute observance of duty by penal laws, affords abundant proof of the utter insufficiency of human laws, without the aid of religious principle, to produce real virtue among human beings. 7. But on the other hand, their natural disposition is mild, cheerful, contented, and obliging; their exterior deportment is uncommonly decent, and their manners extremely prepossessing. Public intoxication is very rare among them. They are also distinguished for their steady and unremitting industry; unexampled perseverance in all their pursuits; and unbounded veneration for parents and ancestors. SECT. 2. Women. 8. A proof of the low state of civilization in China is the extremely degraded condition of the female sex. Women seldom quit their apartment, which is situated in the most retired part of the house, and there they live secluded from all society but that of their domestics. It is accounted a species of moral offence for a woman to be seen in the public streets; and when they occasionally visit a relative or friend, they must be conveyed in a close chair, or in a covered wheelbarrow. 9. Women, whose husbands are of high rank, are always confined; those of the second class are a sort of upper servants, deprived of liberty; while those of the lower are permitted, indeed, to go abroad with greater freedom, but it is only that they may labour like slaves. If they become mothers, their burden is the greater, since while at work, they carry their child upon the back. 10. They even perform the office of beasts of burden, and are sometimes seen dragging the plough or harrow, which their unfeeling husband holds with one hand, while he casts the seed into the ground with the other. Even in a state of domestic improvement they possess no privileges or indulgencies; and are not permitted to sit at the same table, or in the same apartment with their husbands. 11. The education of females is intended to give them a taste for solitude, and accustom them to habits of modesty and taciturnity. If their parents are rich, they are instructed in all sorts of needle-work, and to play upon different instruments of music. Few of them are beautiful: the handsomest are generally bought for the court and the principal mandarins; women in China, among the highest classes, being considered and treated as articles of trade. 12. The most singular circumstance respecting the Chinese women is the unnatural diminution of the feet, which is effected by compression from the earliest infancy, and which is considered as the chief ornament of a Chinese beauty. The great toe is left free and preserves its natural size; but the foot is so confined with bandages, that it grows little from infancy, and is so generally diminutive in size, as to enter a shoe of four inches long and an inch and a half broad. Females experience much inconvenience from this practice, and walk with a timid and tottering step, unless they support themselves by the wall. SECT. 3. Manners. 13. A Chinese of rank is a mere slave of fashion. There is a rule for every thing he does; whether he sits or walks, whether he speaks or remains silent, whether he receives company at home, or walks abroad. If an oversight be committed in any of these particulars, a due num ber of strokes with the bamboo immediately reminds him of his duty. When two officers of equal rank meet, they fold their hands and salute each other, so long as they remain in sight. 14. When one officer visits another, he sends before him a sheet of red paper, expressing his name and quality, by which the latter is enabled to measure accurately the degree of ceremony with which he is to receive him. Presents are also given, and the visit is carried on with the utmost regularity and solemnity; and any indulgence of ease or mirth, would be considered as the highest breach of deco rum. 15. The strictest gravity is essential to the maintenance of a respectable place in Chinese society. To speak but seldom, and only on great occasions, is considered highly becoming; while that gaiety and hilarity which enliven European society, would be viewed with utter contempt. Dancing they have no idea of. There are no fairs or meetings for the lower ranks; no balls, routs, or concerts, for the higher. 16. They cannot conceive how any one should find delight in the exercises of wrestling, boxing, or fencing; or in active games, such as cricket, golf, or tennis. Their chief amusements are their feasts, which are conducted in the same cold and ceremonious manner as all their other intercourse. Persons of all ranks prostrate themselves in the presence of the Emperor. 17. When any one presents a request to a mandarin of high rank, he bends the knee, inclines his head three times towards the ground, and, in this posture, communicates his wishes. In speaking to persons of rank it is a part of polite behaviour, to place the hand before the mouth, and to incline the body in a respectful manner. The Chinese rise at a very early hour, and the streets, in their cities, are completely crowded at day break. They retire to take their evening meal at five or six o'clock, and go to rest with the setting of the sun. SECT. 4. Marriages. 18. The women are invariably sold in marriage, and are not permitted to exercise any choice of their own. The bargain is made through the agency of some friend, who acts as match maker; but the bridegroom is not allowed to see his intended wife till she arrives in procession at his gate, shut up in a close chair, of which he receives the key; and, should it happen upon his opening the door of the vehicle, that he is not pleased with his bargain, he is at liberty to return her to her friends, upon condition of forfeiting the purchase money. 19. But the woman has no remedy or option, and must pass to the highest purchaser, or to the person whom her parents may prefer. Marriage union, therefore, founded on mutual affection, is hardly known in China; but every one hastens to procure a wife because such is the law and custom of his country. 20. The marriage ceremony is sufficiently simple and consists in little else than the procession of the bride to the gate of the bridegroom, and his reception of her into his house. He conducts his spouse to the presence of his parents, before whom they both prostrate themselves. An expensive entertainment is then given, the male attendants remaining in one apartment, and the female in another. SECT. 5. Funerals. 21. The funeral rites are attended with the greatest expense, and the most showy articles to be found for sale in the larger cities are coffins for the dead. They are sometimes made of the more precious kinds of wood, very richly ornamented, and cost from three hundred to six hundred dollars, while those for persons of ordinary wealth are seldom procured for less than fifteen or twenty dollars. 22. It is a common practice for individuals to purchase their coffins during their lives; and a son frequently presents one to his father, which is always the more highly valued, and shown with greater complacency to every visiter, in proportion to its magnificence. On the decease of the father the body is put into the coffin in full dress, the vacant places filled with lime and cotton; and the coffin, being closed up, remains some time in the house, and the children go daily to weep over it. 23. On the day of the funeral, the procession is opened by musicians, who are followed by several persons, carrying figures of various animals, the insignia of the rank of |