Entombed Alice, and other Songs and Ballads. From the Chinese.
By George Carter Stmt. (William 11. Allen and Co.)—It was a mistake to put such a very ghastly performance as "Entombed Alive" in the first of this collection, though it gives a curious picture of Chinese manners, not as they were in some barbarous past, but as they are now. " 116ng Ch5ng's Journey" is another tragical story, but more worthy to occupy the place of honour. MAng Chkg, for all her oddly sounding name, may well be compared to Lucretia. Most of the stories, however, are of the humourous kind, none being more curious than "The Flight of Hsion-nng to Tehol." This describes the flight of the Emperor, during the last Chinese war, into Ira/UM and is extremely plain-spoken in its satire, so much so that it was put on the Chinese Index Expurgatorius. Here are a few stanzas of it : — "Some wore their long coats, and some wore their short, Of this shape and fashion, of that kind end sort ; This wore a swell robe, that a short bunter's suit, But every ore wore,—a good thick coat of dirt. When the weather grew cold, there were somewhere about Three thousand fur-coats (dog end fox skin) served out, Or they ought to have been ; we were nicely sucked in, They wore sheep, made front myriads of Pieces of skin."
We do not wonder at the Chinese bureaucracy being offended at the foUowiug, about the Emperor :— " He didn't apparently feel half inclined To return—for he never could make up his mind, 'Twat; 'yes at one moment, the next it WAS One day it was 'stay here,' the next it was '
Previous page
