A glossary of reference on subjects connected with the Far East / by Herbert A. Giles.

  • Herbert Giles
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A glossary of reference on subjects connected with the Far East / by Herbert A. Giles. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    accused of depositing living children in these Towers. See Infanticide. BAGrU. The upper portion of the Malay dress. BAIL. Is personal, not pecuniary, in China. That is, if the bailee absconds, the bailor has to take his place. BAKA: —horse deer. A Japanese term of abuse —Fool I BAMBOO: it. The Malay word for a cane. Hence is said to be derived the word bamboozle,’^ the allusion being to a certain treacherous kind of swimming-belt made of bamboo. The bamboo is the common instrument for flogging criminals in China, and consists of a strip of split bamboo planed down smooth. Strictly speaking, there are two kinds, the heavy and the light; the former, however, is now hardly if ever used. Until the reign of K'ang-hsi, all strokes were given across the back; but that Emperor removed the locus operandi lower down, for fear of injuring the liver or the lungs—a curious fact when taken in conjunction with the statement by Dr. Ayres, Colonial Surgeon at Hongkong, that flogging Chinese on the back is apt to bring about congestion of the lungs or other pulmonary complaints. In point of utility to man the bamboo is probably unrivalled. It is employed in the manufacture of almost every conceivable object of household furniture or domestic use, and is frequently spoken of as the friend of China,^^ Its varieties are numerous. The thorny bamboo lift grows to nearly 50 feet in height, with a diameter of from 2 to 3 feet. The speckled bamboo ]^ft is prettily mottled;—it shaded the grave of the famous Shun (see Yao)j and was thus marked by the tears of his two
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