From West to East

MISS EDWARDS’S attractive book¹ contains the substance of a course of lectures recently delivered in this country, and now recast, with additions, notes, and references. It is in great part a compilation from the voluminous literature of the subject, but a compilation made by one who has seen much of what she describes, and who has a hearty intellectual sympathy with the work of discovery. The graphic chapter on the explorer in Egypt, with which the work opens, puts clearly before us the kind and the extent of the work to be done, the difficulties to be overcome, and the splendid rewards to be expected. The mounds which lie scattered over the delta of the Nile resemble gigantic anthills, and may be counted by hundreds. The greater number of these still await the spade of the explorer. The typical mound rests upon what was once the sand of the Mediterranean, and a vertical shaft might cut through the relics of a hundred and sixty-eight generations of men, with a semi-barbarian settlement at the bottom and a Christian town at the top,’’ stratum upon stratum of human habitations from about 4700 B. C. to 600 A. D.

The work of the Egypt Exploration Fund receives the notice which it so fully merits. In fact, perhaps the most interesting part of that work is the account of the recent discoveries of the French and English. Thus, tablets with cuneiform characters occur in large numbers at Tell el Amarna, in upper Egypt. In 1887, at Tell el Yahûdieh. in lower Egypt, M. Naville discovered an ancient Jewish cemetery. Some three years ago Mr. Petrie obtained a complete copy of the second book of the Iliad written in beautiful Greek uncial characters, and we may look forward to the discovery of the history of Egypt by Manetho, the poems of Sappho, the comedies of Menander, and the mimes of Sophron which Plato loved. One of the mimes of Ilerodas has been found and translated into English. Not least in importance are the masons’ deposits under the corners of buildings observed by Mr. Petrie, and since detected under almost every building examined with proper care. These consist of models of tools and materials, and others commemorative of the ceremonies performed in laying foundations. They will be of great importance in determining the age of buildings.

The discovery of Pithom in 1883 was followed by excavations at Tanis. by that of the Greek city of Naukratis in 1885, and of Daphnæ in 1886. Daphnæ is the Defenneh of the Arabs and the Tahpanhes of the Old Testament. Tunis is the Zoan of the Jews, and the PaTum of Sukkut is the Pithom of Succoth. The excavations made at Tanis recently are those which have most interested scholars. The dwelling of a certain Bekakhia contained a remarkable portrait statuette of himself, while in a neighboring house was found a zodiac painted in gold and colors on a sheet of thin glass, and supposed to be the only known example of ancient glass-painting. In this house there were also seven wastepaper baskets full of letters, deeds, memoranda, and other writings, some on parchment and some on papyrus, both in Greek and in Egyptian. The discovery of a work on the constitution of Athens, attributed to Aristotle, is doubtless familiar to all. It has been edited and published in full. Details of the recent discoveries as to early Greek colonies in Egypt will be new to most readers. Two of these were first recognized by Mr. Petrie, one being three thousand and the other fifteen hundred years before our era. But of still greater interest is the apparently highly probable identification of a people known to the Egyptians as “ Tursha ' with the Etruscans, who appear originally to have occupied a portion of Lydia. The identification is not absolutely complete, but the evidence in its favor is strong.

The chapter on portrait painting in ancient Egypt is interesting. From the multiplicity of details we select a few which are, we think, but little known outside of the circle of professed Egyptologists. Portraits of a very remarkable character have been found, and Mr. Petrie has given us photographs of four typical heads, the Syrian, the Libyan, the negro, and the Sardinian. But there are also photographs of portraits taken from mummy cases, painted upon flat panels, and marking the first appearance of the art of true painting in Egypt. These are thirteen in number, Greek, Roman, and Egyptian, and are extremely characteristic.

The chapter on portrait sculpture contains much that is comparatively new. Perhaps, in view of the yet unsolved mystery of the Hyksos people, the colossal head of a Hyksos king sculptured in black granite is most interesting, from its ethnological character.

Miss Edwards’s work is, as we have stated, principally a compilation, and, except for her account of the recent discoveries of the Egypt Exploration Fund, contains little that is strictly new to those versed in the subject. But it is well written and exceedingly well illustrated, and readers who take it up with little or no knowledge of the subjects of which it treats will find it most acceptable. Chapters on Egyptian literature, religion, language, and modes of writing follow those which we have specially noticed.

Mr. Martin Brimmer, in a volume of exceptionally fine mechanical form,² gives a résumé of what is best worth knowing about Egypt, — drawn from sources accessible to all, it is true, but presented with scholarly grace, and with a certain delicacy of feeling which lends to the work a peculiar charm. There is here no flavor of the guidebook or museum catalogue, but our author leads us, with grave courtesy, through the no longer tangled mazes of what is dear to all scholars, the history, religion, and art of ancient Egypt. In a work like this the old Egyptian lives again. “ We know what were the teachings, what the ritual, what the fundamental ideas, of the religion of Egypt. We know the story of its monumental art and the three purposes to which that art was limited : to adorn the worship of the gods, to glorify the living, to express reverence for the dead.”

Mr. Brimmer begins by describing clearly the peculiar character of the country, for there is an intellectual as well as a geographical topography, and to a certain degree the latter determines the former. The Egyptian was shut in as by a wall. The desert, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean formed his geographical, and to a great extent limited his mental horizon. Egypt is one great plain, watered by one great river. At the earliest period of its history the nation was homogeneous and spoke a single language. It was essentially peace-loving, and, though sometimes engaged in war, appears never to have recognized the truth of the Greek Saying πóλϵμος πατὴρ πάντων. Of all nations of antiquity, the Egyptian alone had no traceable beginning. There was in Egypt no stone age, and no succession of bronze and iron. The author is disposed to admit the theory that the Egyptians came from Asia, and that their racial affinities were with the Semites. But, so far as we know, the ethnologist has not yet fully traced the analogies and the differences between the physical characters of the Egyptians and those of other races. The extraordinary breadth of chest and shoulders which we find in all Egyptian statues and portraits and in mummies characterizes no other nation. The Egyptian face is not Semitic, and verbal coincidences carry no great weight when not supported by other and independent evidence.

In his essay on the religion of ancient Egypt Mr. Brimmer gives with great clearness the results of the most recent discoveries. For these we must refer the reader to the work itself. The essay contains a number of translated inscriptions, many of which are singularly beautiful. The analogies between the ancient religion and Christianity in certain points are very striking. The essay on the art of ancient Egypt gives us perhaps little that is wholly new, but is an acceptable and attractive statement of origin, progress, and decay. Mr. Brimmer’s work has a real value for the large class of cultivated readers who have no time for profound and detailed study, but who wish to have at least that acquaintance with the subject which every well-educated person must desire, and who enjoy good taste, delicate feeling, and good English.

Mr. Fullerton’s sketch of Cairo and Cairene life ³ is a trifle, scarcely more than a long magazine paper, but it is worth the necessary half hour’s reading, for it gives a vivid picture of a city which is fast losing its Oriental character and becoming European. The work has a few words upon ancient Egypt. The picture is well painted, with a pleasant lightness of touch, though we see everywhere the marks of the brush on the canvas, the writer’s style suggesting a somewhat deliberate attempt at fine writing. The smallness of the book saves the reader from the weariness which would come over him if he were forced to make a longer journey with the author.

Only a few years have elapsed since an English traveler, the Rev. Henry Lansdell, visited Siberia, studied the Russian system of penal servitude, and, returning home, wrote a work in which Siberian mines and prisons were described as all that could be desired, from the point of view of humanity and justice. Mr. Kennan, who went over substantially the same ground, presents us with two elaborate volumes ⁴ of what is virtually a report, and draws for us pictures of cruelty and savage neglect which have few parallels in history, and none in modern times. He states expressly in his preface that a very small proportion of his report — probably less than one fifth — rests upon the statements of exiles or prisoners, while perhaps more than half of his information in regard to Siberian prisoners and the working of the exile system has been taken directly from official sources. As we propose to deal, chiefly with this report, we shall pass over the part of the work which relates to the author’s journeyings and his description of the country visited, and only remark that his work is extremely well written and beautifully illustrated. In fact, simply as a book of travels it is of great interest.

Passing over, then, the details of his journey, we find Mr. Kennan and his friend and companion, Mr. Frost, at Tiumen, a town of 19,000 inhabitants, 1700 miles east of St. Petersburg, near the junction of the Túra and Toból rivers. All persons condemned to banishment, colonization, or penal servitude are sent first to the Tiumen prison. There are kept the records of the exile system. From these it appears that between the years 1825 and 1887 inclusive 772,979 exiles were sent to Siberia. These may be arranged in four classes : —

1. Hard-labor convicts.

2. Penal colonists.

3. Persons simply banished.

4. Women and children who go voluntarily with exiled relatives.

Exiles of the third class comprise : —

a. Vagrants, persons without passports who refuse to disclose their identity.

b. Persons banished by the sentence of a court.

c. Persons banished by the village communes to which they belong.

d. Persons banished by order of the Minister of the Interior.

It appears from the statistics given that the largest single class is composed of women and children, who go to Siberia voluntarily with husbands or fathers, and that of all who go to Siberia as criminals less than half have had a trial by a court, the rest having been exiled by a simple order from the Minister of the Interior. The political exiles are distributed among all classes, and there is no way of distinguishing political criminals from common felons. The number of political offenders is much smaller than is commonly supposed, approximately, at least, one per cent of the total number of exiles. This estimate is, however, only for the six years between 1879 and 1885, and does not include about one hundred thousand Polish insurgents and some thousands of political conspirators.

At Tiumen all exiles go into the forwarding prison, and lie there about two weeks. They are then sent in convict barges to the city of Tomsk. Mr. Kennan’s description of the prison at Tiumen reminds one of the holds of the slavers in the days of the African trade, and we shall refer the reader to the original for the sickening details. The hospital, so called, was in a horrible condition. The warden said that about three hundred patients died every year, and that there was an epidemic of typhus almost every fall. “ What can you expect,” said he, “when buildings hardly adequate to the accommodation of eight hundred persons are made to hold eighteen hundred?” The death-rate in the hospital was 23.1 per cent, but in the prison from 23.7 to 44.1, while in seven years out of eleven it was thirty per cent.

At Tiumen Mr. Kennan witnessed the departure of a marching exile party, nearly all persons banished by Russian communes. The impression which we get in this case is one of great harshness, but not necessarily of cruelty. Criminals destined for points in eastern Siberia are transported from Tiumen to Tomsk in convict barges towed by the passenger steamers. The voyage occupies from seven to ten days, and between 1880 and 1884, 52,717 convicts and exiles were transported in this way. Without going into detail, we may say that here, also, there appeared to be no signs of cruelty, so far, at least, as external conditions were concerned.

Our travelers first met political exiles at Semipalátinsk, where they obtained introductions to a number of very interesting persons. Mr. Kennan relates his conversations with many of these. He found them to be “bright, intelligent, well - informed men and women, with warm affections, quick sympathies, generous impulses, and high standards of honor and duty.” There were no signs of ill treatment. They had books, and seemed tolerably contented. At Urbinsk other political exiles were met with, chiefly professional men and students. At Ust-Kámenogórsk most of the exiles were of noble birth, or belonged to the privileged classes.

The chapter on exile by administrative process is one of the most instructive in the work. Mr. Kennan defines such exile to be “the banishment of an obnoxious person from one part of the empire to another without the observance of any of the legal formalities that in most civilized countries precede the deprivation of rights and the restriction of personal liberty.” A great number of cases are given to illustrate the definition. Mr. Kennan justly says : —

“ The grotesque injustice, the heedless cruelty, and the preposterous ‘ mistakes ’ and ‘misunderstandings ’ that mark the history of administrative exile . . . are due to the complete absence in the Russian form of government of checks upon the executive power, and the almost equally complete absence of official responsibility for unjust or illegal action. . . . Theoretically, the Minister of the Interior, aided by a council composed of three of his own subordinates and two officers from the Minister of Justice, reviews and reëxamines the cases of all political offenders who are dealt with by administrative process ; but practically he does nothing of the kind, and it is impossible that he should do anything of the kind, for the very simple reason that he has not the time.”

The description of the Tomsk forwarding prison is a fit pendant to that of the prison at Tiumen. This prison was designed to hold fourteen hundred prisoners. When Mr. Kennan saw it, it contained more than three thousand, and the convict barges, as they arrived every week, increased the number by from five to eight hundred, while only four hundred a week could be forwarded. The account of the balagins, or prison sheds, is too shocking for repetition here. The acting governor of the province stated that the condition of affairs at Tomsk had been reported to St. Petersburg every year, but that nothing had been done, and that he had sent four urgent telegrams during the summer of Mr. Kennan’s visit.

The chapter on the life of political exiles contains details of personal history, causes of exile, etc., which are of great use in enabling us to form a judgment of the workings of the exile system. The life of exiles on the road is also the subject of study under the heading Deportation by Étape, or exile station house. Marching parties of convicts, three or four hundred strong, leave Tomsk for Irkútzk every week during the year, marching from station house to station house. The condition of these is, perhaps, best described by Mr. Anuchin, the governor-general of eastern Siberia:

“ During my journey to Irkútzk I inspected a great number of penal institutions, including city prisons, forwarding prisons, and étapes, and I regret to have to say that most of them are in a lamentable condition. The étapes are particularly bad. With very few exceptions, they are tumble-down buildings in bad sanitary condition ; cold in winter, saturated with miasm, and offering very little security against escapes.”

Very curious is the account given of the " Artel,” a secret criminal organization. Mr. Kennan sums up his conclusions as to the transport system by saying, “ The result of my investigations was a deliberate conviction that the suffering involved in the present method of transporting criminals to Siberia is not paralleled by anything of the kind that now exists outside of the Russian Empire.”

The prisons at Irkútzk do not require special notice. Mr, Kennan found them, in his own language, “ a little better, that is less bad, than those of Tiumen and Tomsk.” The chapter on police surveillance gives a clear idea of the hardships to which political exiles are subjected by rules which prohibit them from engaging in any sort of work, no matter how well qualified they may be ; the government allowing those who have no pecuniary resources three dollars per month. The kinds of torture which a brutal official can practice are, of course, numerous, and Mr. Kennan gives the world a few facts with regard to the lives of political offenders, which are impressive enough, but for which we must refer the reader to his work. The picture is one representing the effect of entrusting with absolute power ignorant, brutal, and irresponsible officials. The results are precisely those with which history has from the earliest times made us acquainted.

The mines at Kars and Nertschinsk were also visited. Of these, as penal settlements, we need only say that the latter, at least, was in rather better condition than the prisons we have already described. The chapter on the character of political exiles is of much importance as well as interest. Mr. Kennan asserts that there is no anti-government party in Russia ; no party that deliberately chooses violence and bloodshed as the best means of attaining its ends, and no party that preaches or practices a philosophy of mere negation and destruction, — we use his own words. The term “ nihilist ” is unjust and misleading. There are, of course, fanatics and political cranks. There are men and women who have been driven mad by the infamous brutality of the Russian régime. But Mr. Kennan offers his own testimony to the fact that, morally, the Russian revolutionists whom he met would compare favorably with any body of men and women of equal numerical strength whom he could collect from the circle of his own acquaintance.

It is a relief to turn from Mr. Kennan’s account of the prisons at Tinmen, Tomsk, and Irkútzk to that which he gives of the new convict prison at Vérkni Údinsk, — one of the best, he says, which he has ever seen in any country ; to that of the Alexandrófsky convict prison, near Irkútzk ; and to that of the prisons in Krasnóyarsk. He is far from indiscriminately condemning the Russian officials in Siberia, many of whom appear in his pages very favorably. There are lights as well as shadows in the picture which he draws, and we believe that, on the whole, his picture is a truthful one. The appendix contains a great deal of very interesting matter connected with the text of the work.

Mrs. Bishop’s work ⁵ consists of a series of letters “ written in haste at the conclusion of fatiguing marches.” Mrs. Bishop was robbed of the carefully written notes which were to have served for correction, and so apologizes for defects which the average reader is not likely to detect. The ground over which she passed has been visited by travelers innumerable, and we cannot honestly say that she adds much to our knowledge. It is chiefly as a personal narrative that the work interests us. The plucky Englishwoman had excellent opportunities for seeing the country and the people. She went through every species of hardship and discomfort, and more than once ran the risk of her life. She gives her experiences in great and often unnecessary detail, but that is the fault of all travelers. The part of the work which relates to the Bakhtiari tribes is interesting, as those savages have seldom been visited. The account of the Kurds and their lives of plunder and murder corresponds with that of travelers in general, and makes one hope that Russia will soon absorb the whole of Armenia, and so of necessity assume the duty of protecting its inhabitants. From the earliest times the Kurds — the Karduchi of Xenophon — have occupied the same district, and their record comes very near to that of the Apaches of New Mexico. Mrs. Bishop speaks with high praise of the American and English missionaries. Of these, the medical brethren are respected and beloved by all races, and conciliate all by the example of their noble, unselfish, and devoted lives. For Christianity makes no progress among Mohammedans, but the hakim brings with him the irresistible religion of doing good. Among the Armenians and Syrians the missionaries are more successful, and their colleges and schools are worthy of all praise. Mrs. Bishop’s work is pleasant reading for those not already familiar with the districts which she traversed. All must admire her courage and self-reliance.

In a portly volume ⁶ Bishop Hurst attempts nothing less than a general description of India and Ceylon as they are to-day. His work is essentially a series of essays upon well-selected special subjects, and contains a great amount of information in an attractive form. Enough of historical matter is introduced, and we have an excellent book for ordinary reference, covering a very wide range of subjects, with sufficient detail for most readers, and, to say the least, pleasantly written. Such a work is of necessity, to a great extent, a compilation, but the author has been personally over most of the ground, and seen much that he has described. In reviewing Bishop Hurst’s book, we are first of all met by the difficulty of making a judicious selection from so great a mass of matter. Yet as India has been described in very many works, we may, perhaps, do most justice to the book before us by calling attention to the changes in religion, manners, and customs now actually going on under the influence of British rule. The account of the Parsis of Bombay is much fuller than in ordinary books of travel. For intelligence, public spirit, and charity, they stand easily the first among Oriental races. Our author cites the denial of the educated Parsis that they worship fire, the truth being that they regard it simply as a manifestation of Deity. He admits that thus far Christianity has made almost no progress among the Parsis. With them, as with other Eastern races, the doctrine of the Trinity appears to be the great obstacle to the acceptance of the Christian faith. Not the least interesting chapter is that on the Theosophy of Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott. The founders of the new faith arrived in India in 1879, and began their work in Bombay. They ran a short career of successful fraud and imposture, and then departed for England. The Society for Psychical Research took up the matter, and sent an expert to India to investigate the “ phenomena.” With the report of this expert the whole imposture collapsed. Bishop Hurst attributes its success in India to the hostility of the natives toward Christianity. The account of the Indian languages is a good popular compend, and the struggles of the natives with English are illustrated by many ludicrous examples. Readers of the famous New Guide of the Conversation in Portuguese and English will rejoice to hear that a similar feast awaits them in the Memoir of Onoocool Chunder Mookerjee by his admiring nephew, Mohindranauth Mookerjee. The description of this excellent person is worth quoting, as is also a touching notice of the impression produced by his untimely death : —

“ When a boy he was filamentous, but gradually in the course of time he became plump as a partridge, and so much so that he weighed himself two maunds, and three and half seers, on Monday the 10th of April, 1871, and many able doctors said that he will very soon be caught by palsy; but to put him on guard it was required that he should take some physical exercise —which he used to do since that time. He was neither a Brobdignagian nor a Lilliputian, but a man of mediocre size, fair complexion, well-shaped nose, hazel eyes, and ears well proportioned to the face, which was of a little round cut with a wide front and rubiform lips. He had moulded arms and legs, and the palms of his hands and feet were very small and thick with their proportionate fingers. His head was large ; it had very thin hairs on it; and he had a moustache not close set and a little brownish on the top of his upper lip. . . . What becomes of this spiritual is a pons asinorum.

“ When the Hon’ble Onoocool Chunder Mookerjee left this earth all wept for him and whole Bengal was in lachrymation, and more I shall say that even the learned judges of the High Court heaved sighs and closed it on its Appellate and Original Sides.”

The account of the recent departures from Brahmanism is full and interesting. Four distinct associations have appeared, all theistic in their character, and each with its literature, apostles, churches, and zealous adherents. All seem to have arisen from a general discontent with the debased forms of the old religion, and mark in a very striking manner the intellectual awakening of the Hindu race. The liquor and opium trades are treated at length. In this country, probably very few persons are aware of the extent to which the use of opium and ardent spirits prevails in India with the encouragement of the British government.

We have touched very briefly upon a few of the numerous topics of Bishop Hurst’s work. The author claims our respect in many ways. He is temperate in his language, and, though a Protestant, he speaks respectfully of the Roman Church and its work, and can see good even in the heathen. The book has real and solid merit, and is eminently readable, though there is a certain flavor of the Tract Society in the style. As a very laborious and faithful compilation it must have value, no other work on India with which we are acquainted covering so much ground.

Is it disrespectful to speak of a lady as a globe-trotter ? If not, we must apply the term to Miss Cumming, who has seen far more of the world than most men, and has published more books of travel than we have space to enumerate. The present work ⁷ is pleasantly written, or perhaps we ought to say compiled. It is full of what may be called popular natural history, — descriptions of plants and animals which are in no sense scientific, but which gratify the laudable curiosity which many persons feel about such matters, and make agreeable light reading for those who would travel if they could. Ceylon appears to be a very paradise of flowers, and Miss Cumming describes the various species of palms, the flowering trees and shrubs, the kinds of wood used for furniture, and useful plants of all kinds. The accounts of animals are still more detailed, and not a few fads of real value to the professed naturalist may be found. Miss Cumming makes the curious but by no means novel statement that the bodies of monkeys which die are never found, so that both in India and in Ceylon there is a saying to the effect that the man who sees a dead monkey, a nest of the Padda bird, or a straight, palm-tree will never die. Elephants also contrive in some way to dispose of their dead, and, with the exception of a few which have died from bullet wounds, their remains are never found in the jungle. Readers of Darwin will remember his use of such observations. Less generally known is the fact that elephants take pleasure in climbing mountains which would seem to he inaccessible to them. Witness the testimony of Skinner and Hofmeister that they climb almost to the summit of Adam’s Peak. Miss Cumming devotes a great deal of space to the different religions which prevail upon the island, and especially to Buddhism, in which she finds nothing to admire. In fact, we must admit that the Buddhism of the lower classes is not much above fetichism. The account of the Christian missions is very full of details, doubtless substantially true ; but in all such matters one feels that the whole story is not told, and that there is necessarily another side to the picture. At the present day, out of a total population of 3,000,000, 1,800,000 are Buddhists professedly, 630,000 are Hindus, 220,000 are Mohammedans, and, according to the latest census, 285,000 are Christians. Yet the great mass of the people still believe in and practice the propitiation of evil spirits. The besetting sin of the Singhalese is their inordinate love of litigation, to which we must add their proneness to prefer false accusations and to bear false testimony. One of the chief sources of crime is the monopoly of the liquor traffic held by the government, which has consequently a direct interest in encouraging habits of drunkenness by licenses for the sale of intoxicants. Miss Cumming’s book, if perhaps a little heavy, contains a great deal of information about a most interesting island, and, with some sifting and selection, is certainly attractive. The numerous reproductions of photographs are interesting ; some are really charming. A good map accompanies the work.

Mr. Rockhill, who writes The Land of the Lamas,⁸ is an American, who, during four years’ sojourn at Pekin as secretary of our legation, acquired a knowledge of the Chinese and Tibetan languages. He is, we believe, the only American who has ever visited Tibet, and, as he himself states, parts of the country which he traversed had been visited only by Prjevalsky and the Pundit Kishen Sing, a British emissary, whose interesting journey is well known to readers of geographical periodicals. Mr. Rockhill dressed and lived like a Chinese, and was incumbered by none of the usual impedimenta of travelers. He decided to enter Tibet from the north, as Fathers Huc and Gabet had done in 1845, and, leaving Pekin with one servant, started upon his journey through northern China to Tibet. His route map is, unfortunately, executed upon much too small a scale, being apparently a reduction of a larger map. The names are in extremely fine print, and the whole route is, consequently, very difficult to follow. The sketch map of the Chinese Empire is better, but not good. A cart journey of 1350 miles from Pekin brought our author to Lanchou, a city of from 70,000 to 80,000 inhabitants, chiefly Mohammedans, and the chief town of the province of Kan-su. The Mohammedans here are far from conversant with the tenets of their faith, having but slight acquaintance with Arabic, and quoting the Koran in Chinese. The total number of Mohammedans in western China, according to the best authorities, is now about 30,000,000. They have several times risen against the Chinese, and it is easy to see that sooner or later they will undertake to propagate their faith by the sword. Mr. Rockhill, like other travelers, notices the fact that the Salar Mohammedans differ physically from the Chinese, having aquiline noses, long oval faces, and large eyes, indicating a strain of Turkish blood. Further on. at Hsi-ning, our traveler dressed himself in a Mongol gown and fur cap, and with a cleanshaved head and face reached Lusar. Here the mixture of races, Chinese, Mongols, Tibetans, and tribes of mixed Turkish descent, was remarkable. The author gives a detailed account of the manners and customs of the Tibetans at this place and its neighborhood, for which we must, however, refer the reader to his work. The route then led to Lake Koko-nor, the azure lake. This lake is some 230 miles in circumference, and about 10,900 feet above sea level. The water is salty, and apparently not very deep. In this district boots are the unit of value, and goods are paid for in boots. Mr. Rockhill warmly defends the accuracy and integrity of Father Huc, who has been severely attacked. Huc appears to have written his work from memory some years after the events he describes. Our author says that this work cannot be too highly praised, and that if it had been properly edited and accompanied by notes Prjevalsky’s accusation would never have been accepted.

Leaving the Koko-nor, Mr. Rockhill went through the province of Ts’aidam. The Mongols here are devoted Buddhists, and are continually mumbling prayers, twirling prayer-wheels, or doing both. The number of Lamas in Tibet is simply astounding. In a distance of 600 miles the author found forty Lamaseries, in the smallest of which there were 100 monks, while in five there were from 2000 to 4000. The Lamas are everywhere de facto the masters of the country. Nearly all the wealth acquired by trading, donations, money-lending, and bequests is in their hands. Their landed property is frequently enormous ; their serfs and bondsmen swarm.” Our traveler compares the Lamas to the Templars. Every Lama is well armed and well mounted, and always ready to resist the local chiefs or the Chinese, or to attack a rival Lamasery. The account of Tibet is very full. Mr. Rockhill thinks that the total population will not exceed 3,800,000, of which about 2,000,000 inhabit the kingdom of Lhasa. The author arrived safely at Shanghae, descending the Yangtsu-Chiang. His courage and pluck command our hearty admiration, and his book is a really valuable contribution both to geography and ethnology. A number of very interesting supplementary notes and tables conclude the work.

Mr. Norman has given us a work ⁹ which is at once instructive and agreeable. In the author’s own language, his essays constitute an attempt to place before the reader an account of some of the chief aspects and institutions of Japanese life as it really is to-day. He had uncommon facilities for his work. Every opportunity for the study of the various departments of government was offered him. A Japanese gentleman from the civil service was placed at his disposal as translator and interpreter, and he spent months of special investigation at the capital. The first essay, At Home in Japan, gives a lively and amusing description of a Japanese house, and of the mode of life in it. The summary of the dinner is eminently suggestive : “ Delicate in form and substance, characterized by infinite kindliness and merriment, subject to strict and immemorial rules, a Japanese dinner is typical of the Japanese people. Most foreigners are delighted with it as a novel experience, and hasten to supplement it with a beefsteak or a dish of poached eggs.” The geisha, or girl musicians who appear at such entertainments, made a great impression upon our traveler, and he devotes a number of photographs and much pleasant description to them and their attractive ways. The account of Japanese journalism is both amusing and suggestive. We find nearly all the “ institutions ” with which we are familiar, the interviewer, the reporter, the newspaper boy, perfectly well defined. We have personal sketches of various editors, remarks on the difficulties of using both the Chinese ideographic and the Japanese syllabic modes of writing, and a broad view of the whole subject of the Japanese press. Then follows a chapter on Japanese justice, which seems to be indeed justice tempered with mercy. The details of the modes of punishment are curious, and one may well ponder the forms of systematic labor to which convicts are subjected. We have next the subject of education. “ It is intended,” said an official address to the people of Japan, issued in 1872 by special order of the Emperor, “ that henceforth education shall be so diffused that there may not be a village with an ignorant family, nor a family with an ignorant member.” This ideal has been sought under great difficulties. Mr. Norman sums up the result in a few words: “ Education is compulsory and secular. It is not gratuitous. It consists of five parts, kindergartens, elementary schools, middle schools, special schools, and universities.” Our limits will permit us only to refer to Mr. Norman’s very interesting chapter. It will be sufficient to quote the words “ I found that in five years’ time there will hardly be a position involving high practical scientific knowledge filled by a foreigner in Japan. The architects, the naval architects, the engineers, the chemical and agricultural experts, the physicians and surgeons, the assayers and masters of the mint, will all be graduates of Japanese universities.”

The fact that Japan has become a military power of no small magnitude has hitherto, perhaps, excited little attention. Yet Mr. Norman states that the dockyard at Yokosuka is not behind Woolwich and Portsmouth in much except size. The Armstrong cruisers are among the finest vessels of their class afloat. The war department has at least 40,000 men under arms, and could put 100,000 well-armed men in the field. The men are solidly built and “ stocky,” and the army is a true European force, whose march and company drill are first-rate.

Very well written chapters on the arts and crafts of Japan follow, but the ground has been gone over so often that we may well refer the reader to the book itself. Two chapters full of painful suggestions conclude the work. One relates to the necessity for the abolition of the treaties with foreign nations by which Japan is ranked with send - barbarous states, of the opening of Japan to the enterprise of the world’s capitalists, and of her admission to the modern comity of nations. The other discusses the future of Japan. The various political questions and points in political history in these final chapters are carefully and thoughtfully considered. As critics, it is our duty to find at least some fault with Mr. Norman’s work, but, with the best intentions, we have found nothing at which to cavil.

Mr. Norman saw Japan with the eyes of a cultivated man, full of taste and feeling. Sir Edwin Arnold saw Japan with the eyes of a poet. There is perhaps not much that is new in his work,¹⁰ but the " mode of putting it ” is at least very charming. Except for certain delicious periods of the year, one cannot honestly praise the climate of Japan ; but it has all the while “divine caprices, and when the sunshine does unexpectedly come during the moist and chilly months, the light is very splendid and of a peculiar silvery tone, while the summer days are golden. While on the whole a healthy climate and excellent for children, it must not be too greatly extolled. Autumn and spring are the best seasons. From November to March the cold is extremely bitter, and the winds are often savagely bleak. We pass over the pleasant descriptions of home construction, upon which many travelers have dwelt at length, as well as the account of Japanese religion, and come at once to the delightful and instructive chapter on the Japanese treatment of flowers from the æsthetic point of view. The Japanese have systematized their love of flowers, including all beautiful and ornamental leaves, stems, branches, and even stumps and roots, the blossom being rather a detail than the central point. The seven princely flowers are the chrysanthemum, narcissus, maple, cherry, peony, rhodea, and wistaria. The iris is also princely, but must not be employed at weddings because of its purple color. The arrangement of flowers is raised to a branch of art. The vessels which are to hold flowers are also subjects of study. Probably a Japanese would commit hara-kiri, if presented with one of the hideous colored glass vases into which the barbarous American delights to put flowers. The details which Sir Edwin gives of flower arrangement as a fine art are also well worth studying. In all that concerns flowers we have still much to learn from our Asiatic brethren. The florist’s stiff bouquet must go, the sooner the better, and something at least approaching to artistic feeling govern the adjustment of even a bunch of mignonette.

Sir Edwin never tires of extolling the charming manners of the Japanese, even of the poorest, their exquisite personal cleanliness, and the sweet courtesy with which they acknowledge the smallest obligation. His admiration of the Japanese women has been so much quoted that we may assume that it is familiar to our readers. He embodies it in a charming poem called the Musmee. Yet one great fault of tile Japanese character is the contempt with which women are regarded by men. The position of a woman is little if at all better than that of a slave, and she may be divorced at her husband’s pleasure. We have touched very lightly upon Sir Edwin Arnold’s charming work, and have sometimes used his own language to do him the more justice. The book contains no politics, no philosophical musings or views, but is what most readers will cordially welcome, a delightful picture of something worthy to be painted.