enable persons to move freely about without further defence against the sun; and for a walk across country the inevitable umbrella would of course be called into play no longer, however, the characteristic model of antiquity, with clumsy handle and coarse oil-cloth top, but some cheap importation in European style, the convenience of which in point of portability has long since been recognized by the Chinese. In such a city as Canton two open umbrellas would more than fill the narrow roadway, and the risk of constant collision would be great; consequently, umbrellas are only to be seen on wet days, when the ordinary crowd is at a minimum. Even in Peking, where some of the streets are as wide as Regent Street, the convenience of the fan recommends it as a sunshade in preference to the more unwieldy umbrella. their masters and slowly but steadily ply | on business or pleasure bent. The comthe large feather fan, originally made from mon coolie has his wide, mushroom-shaped the feathers of a pheasant's tail, because hat, and the official rides in a sedan chair the emperor Kao Tsung of the Yin* with his red umbrella carried like the dynasty on one occasion connected some wooden fan in procession before him; but fortunate event with the auspicious crow- the middle-class Chinaman, who may be ing of a pheasant.† Burden-carrying unwilling to throw away money in chair coolies of the lowest stratum of Chinese hire, trusts to his fan alone. As a matter society fan themselves as they hurry along of fact, from the narrowness of the streets the streets, weighed down by their back- in most Chinese cities, and the matting breaking loads. Little boys are engaged with which these streets are in many cases to fan the workmen whose business is car-roofed over, sufficient shade is afforded to ried on in the hot shops of a crowded Chinese city. The very soldiers in the ranks fan themselves on parade; and among the insignia carried in the procession of every mandarin above a certain rank there is to be found a huge wooden fan more resembling a banner than anything else. And this brings us to a rather curious phase of Chinese etiquette. A Chinaman on horseback or in a sedan chair, meeting an equal of his acquaintance on foot, must forthwith dismount, be it only to make a passing bow. It is a serious breach of politeness to remain sitting while the person to whom you are addressing yourself stands. And, similarly, two friends meeting in chairs, should, strictly speaking, both dismount to salute. But to avoid the obvious inconvenience of perpetually stopping and dismounting, in perhaps a crowded thoroughfare, at the appearance of every friend, it has been arranged that the Occupant, say of the chair, may hold his fan up so as to screen his face from view, and the two pass without further ceremony, as if, in fact, they had never met. And such is the use to which, apart from their emblematical signification, the abovementioned wooden fans would be put should the almost impossible contingency arise of two mandarins of equal rank meeting face to face in the street. The servants of each would hasten to interpose these great fans between the passing chairs of their respective masters, who, by the aid of this pleasant fiction, would be held not to have become aware of each other's presence. A subordinate would turn up a side street and yield the road to his superior officer. Formerly there was a certain kind of fan specially used as a screen to "separate the sun, screen off the wind, and obstruct the dust," just as well-to-do Chinamen now use the ordinary fan to save their halfshaven heads from the scorching summer rays while they stroll along or hurry by More commonly known as Wu Ting, 1324-1265 B.C. + This story is told by Ts'ui Pao, in his Ku-chin-chu, or "Antiquarian Researches." The fan plays no inconsiderable rôle in Chinese decorative art. Besides being the vehicle of both poetry and painting, it is itself often introduced into designs of all kinds. Mullioned windows are not unusually made in the shape of the top part of a folding fan spread out, that is, the paper or silk part without the ribs; and the full outline is often used to contain pictures or verses painted or inscribed upon walls, as if an open fan had simply been nailed over the spot. History indeed has recorded the case of one painter, Wang Yuan-chün, who so excelled in this particular line that people, like the birds pecking at the grapes of Apelles, would often try to take down and examine more closely some of these beautiful specimens of wall painting, which appeared to be really fans hung up by a thread or attached to a nail. It has been mentioned above that, with the more refined of the Chinese, fans, including both the "screen" and the "folding" varieties, are almost invariably painted on one side and left blank on the other for the insertion of some appropriate verses, which may be either original or borrowed; from which it will be seen that fans occupy to some extent in China the position of albums To give any idea of the quaint as a translation, aims only at literal fidelity to the original, it is clear that the particular kind of fan here alluded to must be the round screen fan, which Chinese poets never tire of comparing with the full moon, and which, when not in use, is often laid with us. designs in figure and landscape painting, the marvellous birds, beasts, and insects -especially butterflies which are to be found on the more highly finished Chinese screens, is next to impossible without reproducing the originals; but a few words" in the bosom," between the folds of the on the versification just alluded to, and on the fan language in general, may not be uninteresting to some. There is, however, in the long list of fan-painting celebrities the name of one single artist, the nature of whose works is expressed by a term with which they have ever been associated in history. That term is "10,000 li," or a distance of over three thousand English miles. The painter in question was named Wang Fei; and the extent of a landscape he was able to produce on the surface of a mere ordinary fan was said to be limited only by the hyperbolical range of 10,000 li. * flowing outer robe. As to inscriptions upon fans, they vary with every variety of human thought and feeling. The more usual kind treats in stilted language, pregnant with classical quotation and obscure historical allusion, of some one of the everchanging aspects of nature. Others again are didactic; and some are literally tours de force, occasionally of a not very high order. The most celebrated of the latter class has been acknowledged by universal consent to be a couplet consisting of only eight characters, written at the eight cor ners of an octagon fan belonging to the emperor Chien Wên, of the Liang dyThe fan is metaphorically known in the nasty, and said to have been the compoChinese language as the "phoenix tail "sition of the monarch himself. The peculor the "jay's wing," terms which point to iarity of this couplet is that the reader may what were possibly the archetypes of all begin at any one of the eight characters, fans, namely, the wings and tails of birds, and by reading round the way of the sun from which has been developed the mod- find a couplet of perfect sense and perern feather fan. The folding fan, by the fectly rhymed. Yet of all inscriptions on way, is said by one authority not to be a or about fans in China, few are to be comChinese invention at all, but to have been pared in point of pathos and poetic vigor introduced into China by the Coreans, who with a certain stanza penned many centu sent a quantity of them to the emperor ries ago by a favorite of the emperor Yung Lê of the Ming dynasty, amongst the Ch'êng Ti, of the Han dynasty. The other articles offered as a tribute by the lady in question, whose name was Pan, had vassal State. The emperor is further been for some time the confidante of his stated to have been so pleased with the Majesty, and the queen of the imperial novelty that orders were issued for their seraglio, and appears to have believed imitation by Chinese workmen. A fan is that something more than an ordinary atalso alluded to in figurative language as a tachment of the hour existed between her"strike the butterfly," or a "chase the self and the Son of Heaven. Gradually, flies," as a "like the moon," or a "call however, she began to find that her influthe wind," and as a "screen the face," a ence was on the wane, and at length, unname which should be taken in conjunc- able to bear any longer her mortification tion with the point of etiquette previously and grief, she forwarded to the emperor a mentioned. It is called a "change the circular screen fan, on one side of which season," from its power of cooling the per- were inscribed the following lines: son fanned. This power has been enlarged upon in an ode to a fan, written by a poet named Poh Chü-I,† of which the following are specimen lines: With thee, hot suns shall strike in vain the By thy aid gentle gales perennial blow; Cease, and the round moon in my bosom lies. From the last line of this effusion, which, The Chien-ch'o-lei-shu, an encyclopædia published in 1632. t Flourished A.D. 772-846. O fair white silk, fresh from the weaver's loom, At home, abroad, a close companion thou; All thought of by-gone days, by-gone, like them. Reigned A.D. 550-551. Since the date of this poem, a deserted | in Cetywayo? But a new element of conwife has constantly been spoken of as an fusion is added by official adoption of the "autumn fan." HERBERT A. GILES. From The Natal Colonist. Norwegian missionaries' spelling Ekowe to stand for Itshowi. Strictly speaking, the Norwegians employed not the letter k, but a modification of it not found in ordinary founts of type; one consequence of attempting to follow them being that people, even military men, may be heard, speaking of Ekowe, pronouncing k as in A GOOD deal has been written on the king. But an inconvenience of this want name of the hill or mountain made mem- of uniformity in spelling, worse even than orable as the scene of one of the most difference in prounciation, is that people tragical events in the history of the British at a distance may be led from the dissimiarmy. In the first accounts of the slaugh- larity of names to suppose that different ter it appeared as Isandala, which would places are spoken of. And when we find naturally, in accordance with the genius of "Isandula" and "Sandhlwana " both set the language, Zulu words being accented down, in a map the seat of war recently on the penultimate, be accented Isandàla. published in the colony, as if distinct But when the connection with "hand" places, it is not to be wondered at if peowas suggested, it became evident that Isandala was merely an attempt to represent the guttural before the 7, as in Umhloti, Umhlali, which some represent by Umthoti, Umthlali, while others cut the Gordian knot by boldly saying and writing Ulmsloti, Umslali. The true pronunciation is a guttural or aspirate very similar to the Welsh double 7, as in Llangollen, but in our ordinary English notation no nearer indication of the sound can be made than that which is now generally adopted. A propos of Zulu names, we may recur to the subject of the importance of adopting a uniform spelling. English or other distant readers are often entirely misled as to the proper sound of the name. This, in many cases, it is impossible correctly to represent by means of our alphabet, though if what is known as the Italian system of vowels is adopted there can be no great difficulty. But the adoption by the missionaries of the letters c, q, and x, to represent clicks, and of the letter to represent a rough guttural, has introduced an immense amount of confusion. The arbitrary use of these letters in senses different from their usual or proper one is bad enough in books written for natives. Thus r, as we have said, is used for a rough guttural in the Zulu and Kosa; but the Basuto have a truer in their language, and in the Basuto alphabet, therefore, that letter has quite a different value. Then ty, used to represent the sound of ch, in church, may have physiologically something to say for itself (as we find the tendency in English of nature and rapture to become nacher and rapcher, and the analogous soldier has actually become soldjer), but what English reader could ever guess it was to have that sound ple at a distance fall into similar errors. A few examples of these differences may be both amusing and serve to point the moral we wish to draw. Who would suppose that Kreli and Sarili (to instance but two out of many ways of spelling the name) were one and the same person? or Tpai and Ncapai? Sihayo, Sirayo, or Assegai, the last probably a Dutch corruption of the chief's name, has frequently appeared in the papers lately as Sirajo and Usirajo, probably following some German authority who would naturally represent the sound of our y by j. But one consequence of such spelling is that we hear people talk of Sir Roger! If less amusing, another spelling we met with a day or two since is even more absurd Assugunri! Itshowi we prefer to Itshowe, because the final must be sounded, though either gives the sound approximately well; but then we have Ikoe and Tyoe, which no one could suppose to mean the same place. Unkungunghlovu, the old Zulu capital, after which Maritzburg is named, we have seen spelled in half a score of different ways, of which forms as different as Unkunglove and Megoonloof may both be found in Chase's Natal papers. These various spellings are bewildering enough in our colonial papers, where each journal probably tries, often with very indifferent success, to employ but one mode of spelling for the same name, however it may differ from that employed by its neighbors; but when the names get into English papers they are absolutely hopeless. In State documents, however, such as papers presented to Parliament by command of her Majesty, something like system and uniformity might be looked for, yet it is precisely there that confusion becomes worse confounded and chaos is come again. | appears as Livart; Swazi figures someIt is no uncommon thing to find the same times as Zwazies; even Sir T. Shepstone's name, even English names, spelled two or native name, Somtseu, appears as Somtthree different ways on the same page, and sen; and Ketshwayo occasionally appears these ways so diverse as, unless to the spelled in this way, which certainly gives initiated, to be absolutely unrecognizable. a fair approximation to the true pronunciaThus Umbelini we find in one place tion, but much more frequently it figures spelled Mbilim; Swart, the secretary in as Cetywayo, which, to an English reader, the Transvaal under the Boer government, is utterly misleading. He stablished the earth and this sky. Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice? 2. He who gives life, he who gives strength; whose command all the bright gods revere; whose shadow is immortality; whose shadow is death; who is the god to whom we shall offer our sacrifice? 3. He who through his power is the one king of the breathing and awaking world. He who governs all, man and beast. Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice? 66 4. He whose power these snowy moun tains, whose power the sea proclaims, with the distant river. He whose these regions are as it were his two arms. Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice? THE ELECTRIC Light For Surgical Op- | is. ERATIONS. -A large company of medical gentlemen assembled on the afternoon of the 13th inst., in the theatre of the Royal United Service Institution, to hear a lecture upon and to witness the trial of an experiment for facilitating surgical operations and examinations in dull weather or after dark by means of the Jablochkoff electric light, by Dr. Balmanno Squire. The lamps which the lecturer proposed should be used were two in number, and were respectively a hand-lamp and a bracketlamp the former for delicate operations and the latter for more general use. In explain ing the construction of the hand lantern, Dr. Squire showed it to be extremely portable, and, being accommodated with a long handle, the person holding it was thus enabled to keep himself out of the way of the operator; while, as there was no machinery or any apparatus of any kind underneath it, it was possible to bring the light very close to the person of the subject undergoing the operation. The light would burn for two hours. The only drawback to the immediate use of the electric light in surgical or dental operations was its expense, as even a one horse-power machine, with its concomitant apparatus, would cost £100. After dwelling upon the advantages of such a light for navy and army hospital use, Dr. Squire concluded his lecture amid applause. Mr. F. Weiss made the hand, and Mr. Mayer the fixed lamp: and Mr. J. A. Berly, engineer to the Société Général d'Electricité de Paris, was in attendance to superintend their working, as, also that of the two ordinary electric street lamps with which the theatre was illuminated. A HYMN FROM THE RIG-VEDA.—"I. In the beginning there arose the source of golden light. He was the one born Lord of all that '5. He through whom the sky is bright and the earth firm. He through whom the heaven was stablished, nay, the highest heaven. He who measured out the light in the air. Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice? "6. He to whom heaven and earth, standing firm by his will, look up, trembling inwardly. He over whom the rising sun shines forth. Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice? "7. Wherever the mighty water-clouds went, where they placed the seed and lit the fire, thence arose he who is the sole life of the bright gods. Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice? "8. He who by his might looked even over the water-clouds, the clouds which gave strength and lit the sacrifice. He who alone is God above all gods. Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice? "9. May He not destroy us. He the creator of the earth, or he the righteous who created the heaven. He who also created the bright and mighty waters. Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice?" Translated by Professor Max Müller For EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage. 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