238
NOTES AND QUERIES
I wish to express my thanks to Dr. Robert F. Inger (Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago) for kindly confirming my identifications of specimens of both R. paraspinosa and R. spinosa from Hong Kong, and to Dr. Frank F. Reitinger and Mr. Jerry K. S. Lee for their generous gift of all of the above-mentioned specimens from Tai Mo Shan.
REFERENCE
Dubois, A.
1975 Un nouveau sous-genre (Paa) et trois nouvelles espèces du genre Rana. Remarques sur la phylogénie des Ranidés (Amphibiens, Anoures) Bull. Mus. natn. Hist. nat., Paris, 3rd series, No. 324, Zoology 231, pp. 1093-1115.
Hong Kong, 20 September 1978
J. D. ROMER
A VILLAGE WAR (Postscript)
A very similar incident is reported by E. J. Dukes in his late 19th century work Everyday Life in China, pp. 106-107:
"Several years ago, in a village near Amoy, rival idols were being carried in procession. The paths converged to a point a little way out of the village. The persons forming the procession caught sight of one another, and ran towards the junction of the paths, to see which could get the precedence. They came into collision, indulged in a little fighting, and began a quarrel which lasted fourteen months. Thirty-two villages became involved. A tax was levied upon them by the elders of the villages for the purchase of firearms and ammunition. Sentries were placed at the top of square towers, to shoot at any of the hostile party that might venture into the fields. The seeds could not be sown. The standing crops could not be reaped. Two small cannon were bought in Amoy, and with these they amused themselves occasionally in battering a wall or a roof. Great damage was done. The whole neighbourhood was reduced to distress. Where were the mandarins? Calmly waiting till some one was killed. When that event occurred, and was multiplied by twenty-two, the district mandarin became indignant, sent three thousand troops to take possession, levied black-mail on all the villages involved, and retreated with the spoil.”
238
!
NOTES AND QUERIES
I wish to express my thanks to Dr. Robert F. Inger (Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago) for kindly confirming my identifications of specimens of both R. paraspinosa and R. spinosa from Hong Kong, and to Dr. Frank F. Reitinger and Mr. Jerry K. S. Lee for their generous gift of all of the above-mentioned speci- mens from Tai Mo Shan.
REFERENCE
Dubois, A.
1975 Un nouveau sous-genre (Paa) et trois nouvelles espèces du genre Rana. Remarques sur la phylogénie des Ranidés (Amphibiens, Anoures) Bull. Mus. natn. Hist. nat., Paris, 3rd series, No. 324, Zoology 231, pp. 1093-1115.
Hong Kong, 20 September 1978
J. D. ROMER
A VILLAGE WAR (Postscript)
A very similar incident is reported by E. J. Dukes in his late 19th century work Everyday Life in China, pp. 106-107:
"Several years ago, in a village near Amoy, rival idols were being carried in procession. The paths converged to a point a little way out of the village. The persons forming the procession caught sight of one another, and ran towards the junction of the paths, to see which could get the precedence. They came into collision, indulged in a little fighting, and began a quarrel which lasted fourteen months, Thirty-two villages became involved. A tax was levied upon them by the elders of the villages for the purchase of firearms and ammunition. Sentries were placed at the top of square towers, to shoot at any of the hostile party that might venture into the fields. The seeds could not be sown. The standing crops could not be reaped. Two small cannon were bought in Amoy, and with these they amused themselves occasionally in battering a wall or a roof. Great damage was done. The whole neighbourhood was reduced to distress. Where were the mandarins? Calmly waiting till some one was killed. When that event occurred, and was multiplied by twenty-two, the district mandarin became indignant, sent three thousand troops to take possession, levied black-mail on all the villages involved, and retreated with the spoil.”
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