Traveller.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue 2047, 25 March 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

Traveller.

Executions in Canton

Crime docs not go unpunished in this purl of China. The professional guide of the city indeed, shows the execution ground of Canton with an honest pride, 1 1 is not a pleasant place to look at on a wet morning, and to a criminal must have a very depressing appearance. Vet, with the exception of three or four wooden crosses leaning up against the wall, there was not a thing to indicate that the scene had ever been one of wholesale, butchery. Still here it was that, in IH-V5, nearly fifty thousand so-called rebels were beheaded. A short lane, seventy-live feet long by twenty live feet wide, narrower at one end than the other, was nearly filled with earthenware pots put out to dry. Very muddy and sloppy, there was no place marked off for executions, and I stepped down to the little hut at the end of a lane to make the acquaintance of the executioner, who, I learned, lived there, before I found out that the beheading was performed wherever there was a vacant space. The functionary was not at homo, and his wife was showing me the heavy two-handled broad bladed knife with which he operated, offering to sell it for ten shillings, when a little crowd appeared in the lane, and a man bound at the arms was led to an open space among the pots. My idea that an execution was about to take place was now confirmed bv the owner of the hut coming for his knife. The culprit was evidently also informed of the nature of the ceremony about to take place, for he looked very melancholy, though I afterwards learned that some opium had been given him. As the executioner came up. a couple of policemen pushed the victim down upon his knees in the mud, and bound his legs to his arms as ho knelt; then, pulling back the collar of his shirt, forced his head forward, while the executioner, with much care, selected an earthenware pot in which to catch the prisoner's skull.

These preliminaries having been settled, the executioner stood over the prisoner, and with two cuts completely severed the neck—one, indeed had put, the criminal beyond all pain. The head, which had fallen into the pot, was covered up. and tin; bleeding trunk was picked up by the relatives of the convict, the crowd separated, and aftersomofinancial transactions between the otlicer who superintended the execution and the executioner the latter walked off to the hut, for all was over, the whole affair not having occupied ten minutes. I was told that just then executions took place at about the rate of one a day. Generally they took the form of beheadings, occasionally people wore submitted to the slow death upon the crosses against the wall, when, of course, the spectacle was more barbarous, t woman was executed the next day for killing her husband, and received eight wounds from the knife of the headsman before she was finally put out of her agony; but I could not, find that tier's was a' frequent case, nor did I meet any one in China who had seen more cruelty practiced than (hat. The '‘cutting into a thousand pieces”nowigenerally resolves itself into some such mode of dispatch.

Chinese Costumes-— Tiie principal feature of a Chinaman’s costume is tin: fact that nothing ever lits but his stockings. His clothing consists, really, of three or four shirts, each opening in front and having live buttons, a sacred number. These buttons are never in a straight row, but in a sort of semi-circle half around the body, The outer garments have sleeves a foot longer than the arm, a fact which affords abundant opportunities for theft.

A Chinaman's jackets are ins thermometer, lie will say, 11 To day is three jackets cold, and if it increases at tins rate, to-morrow will be four or five jackets cold.” Their shoes are well known, and their caps are of three or four different forms. One they call the “ water-melon cap,” of the shape of half a water-melon, having no frontpiece, but, instead, a knob on the top by which it is handled. The second is like a round top felt hat with the sides turned up, and others are of various shapes. The color of the knob on the top of the hat is the sign of rank among mandarins. The lowest wear a gilt knob, then a white stone, a clear crystal, a pale blue stone, a deep blue, a pale red and a deep red in order of rank. Yellow may only be worn by the emperor's family, but as a mark of respect to ago, men over sixty years, by special edicts are allowed to wear yellow, this always entitling them to great consideration among all classes. The .dude pantaloon probably originated among the Chinese. Krora the dawn of history, on state occasions, officials and dressy persons will wear a sort of pantaloon, fitting as lightly as possible to the leg, and each leg being entirely separate from its fellow. These trousers arc of silk or satin, and the legs are held in place by being fastened to a waistband or belt around the body. On the approach of cold weather the Chinese increase the number of their garments, until sometimes they are like animated bales of cotton, their arms being forced into a nearly horizontal position ; nor do they take off their masses of clothing until the return of spring.

The system of sound telegraphy used by the people on the border of the Gulf of Guinea, West Africa, is of interest as a primitive solution of the problem of communication through short distances. The instrument is made as follows ; Take a log of bard wood, about two feet long and about a foot in diameter, Plane oil one side longitudinally to a surface four or live inches wide. In the centre of this surface mark off an elongated and somewhat distorted Greek cross. The lunger arms are placed longitudinally, and occupy about one-third of the plane surface. The natives dig out the wood within the outlines of the cross, and from these gradually hollow out the whole log. The sides, beginning at the centre, are trimmed off laterally towards the ends, which are rounded off. The instrument is now ready. It will bo perceived that by the methods above described we have a hollow drum with four tongues in the centre, each of a different thickness, so as to produce a different sound when struck. Two pieces of bamboo, the size of a man's wrist and about two feet long, arc selected and stripped of the hard outside, which leaves the soft, pithy portion for use. The bamboo is of a peculiar kind, free from knots, and solid throughout. With these sticks, used iu a proper manner on the four tongues of the drum, a combination of sounds is produced, which, iu connection with the time as used in music, forms a perfect telegraphic language, readily understood by the initiated, the air being the transmitter. With this simple instrument the natives of the Gulf of Guinea readily communicate with each other for a distance of a mile at least on land, and a much longer distance by water. Messages can be scut long distances in a short time by parties at different points passing them along from one to the other. Canoes coming down a river from the bush markets signal people in the town, and give and receive general news, at a distance of tallv three miles.