A NOTICE OF THE SANON DISTRICT
125
and so drowned in all manner of wickedness, as to have lost their human nature. If I proceeded further into the interior, he told me, I should find the people more friendly, and more willing to listen to my errand.
The mandarins in the Sanon district have very little power. The people pay the taxes, but do not allow the mandarins to interfere with their own local government. Law-suits, differences, and offences are very seldom brought before the mandarins. The mandarin from whom I learnt the preceding facts had not, as far as I know, during a period of several years, more than one case brought before him for decision; in this instance he was both plaintiff and judge, — the criminal being a youth who was caught stealing fruit in his garden. Anxious to give the people an impression of his severity, he had the prisoner scourged, and continued the punishment till he was obliged to desist for fear that the prisoner might die. This excessive severity was caused by his vexation at not being able to get a groan, or a cry, or a prayer for pardon, from the culprit, as a proof of his power. This solitary act of justice of the mandarin was much laughed at by the people.
The disputes between villages and clans are settled by the gentry. If they cannot come to an agreement, all connection is broken off, and without any declaration of hostilities, the disputants commence a predatory war on each other; in these quarrels, many a bloody battle is fought, hundreds of men perish, and whole villages are destroyed. Men of neutral villages or clans are generally well distinguished, and their rights respected; but it often happens, when a league of several powerful villages or clans are in arms against their enemies, they are not so particular, and will attack and plunder any man who falls in their way, except he belongs to a clan whose strength they fear. If, for instance, the clan Tang is at war with the clan Man, any person of a different surname may safely pass through the theatre of war.
Missionaries also are considered neutrals; even if they dwell in the country of one of the belligerents, they may safely pass through the villages of the hostile clan, provided only they take care that the coolies with them are also neutrals.
The following is an example of these feuds: There are two villages respectively named Sha-tsing, and Pak-tau-king which carried on a war for five years; with each of