two men, Yen Chih-feng and Pi Chao-chen, made an arrangement to bring a piece of waste land under cultivation and thereafter rent and till it in common, When the first division of profits ought to have taken place Pi demanded his share, but Yen, alleging that he had no ready money, refused to comply with his request. Pi repeatedly made application for what was bib due bit was alvaye afterwards Yen went the length of expelling Pi from the jointly rented piece of land. The latter appears to have patiently endured this treatment and removed to Wuch'ang where he hired himself out as a day labourer, In the fifth moon finding no work he went back to Yen's house an begged to be allowed to live there tem-Fim notice-thas they would only give him orarily. Yen and his wife, however, gave
shelter for one night, and that he must leave again next day. During the night when others were asleep Pi lay reflecting on the hhareh way Yen bad formerly treated and was now treating him and his heart being filled with rage he conceived the idea of taking his revenge. He according rose and steal-thinly entered the sleeping apartment of the Yen family, which consisted of Yen, his wife, one sanand two daughters, with a hoe, intending to kill them all as they lay asleep. In the darkness, however, he could only strike at random on the kany where he knew they were lying, and so only succeeded in mortally wounding Yen and his son, Yen's wife and the two daughters made their escape by the window and roused the neighbours, who int mediately seized Pi, had him bound and handed over to the _to the provisions of the code formal trial been sentenced to be at once beheaded, his left cheek to be branded with the characters signifying "notorious criminal" and his head to be exposed in a cage. Properly speaking one sequestrated tad banded to the family of half of his property ought also to be
the victim; but as Pi was in a. state of abject poverty this was impossible.—Let the Board of Punishments consider and report without delay.
22nd June.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.