About six weeks og" news was received here from Ch'anysha, capital of Hunan province, to the effect that there was much distress in various portions of that province, owing to the failure of the crops caused by the long drought of Test autumn and winter. As may, perhaps, be rome: dered, th above was duly chronicled in these "Notes" at the time, since when ther inf-rimation concerning the famine been meagre, although it wes subse: quently reported that the provincial awhorities of Chisngsha were occupied n "affording relief to the sufferers," A revived yest day from Pao-in, one of the prefectures of ths province badly allected by the famine, contains the following additional news which would seem that the famine there must be very serious, while the officials of Hunan could not have done very much for the famine sufferers to permit such a condition of things. Quoting from the dispatch in question:—This prefecture of Paoch'ing-fu, with its five districts, or hsien, and Yangchoufu prefecture, with its eight hsien, may be truthfully said to be bare of alnest every urain of rice and wheat and pod of bean, "Officials and philanthroyieal xentry and. merchants returning to this ity (Paoch'ngfu) from distributing relief n the country towns and villages, heartrending pictures of the state of allidts, ing that the sutlerers with their yuunt visages and skeleton frames loo' more like the inhabitants of of Hades than of this world. Suey was the starving condition of many villagers that in some casus the rusties situsly plundered the relief cue aden with tice ete., ong be re they had e one with ple of mies of he tos it was date Tet to dis the grin iimporced from on fvhbe provinces, AM the bids si dales that hyfore were caver with numberless trees of thick foliage now Joked bare and having been completely stripped of bark and leat by the tammy sullerers en as food. Every blade of grass been consume and death tating in the face of many of the inhabitants of the ayes, situated on the boundary tine ing the two preivi fectures" of Pasch*ingfu and Yungchoufu. Caitle, sheep, pigs, fowls, even days ud cats and rats had already long ago been devoured by these who possessed such, when lit unlooked-for relief was suddenly presented, sv they claim, by the bounty of Kuan Yin, the Goddess f Mery and Hearer of Prayers." A Mager had a dream, one night, when the last. blade of gras and" the last piece of tres-bark im sight had been exten. fle declared that Kuan Yin called to him and told his to take up a spade and go toa hill, vse os the ran. dividing the above named two prefectures, and there dig as hard as he could into the ground by a certain lage boulder, "for there he would find the divine flour' provided by the gods, in order that the country may not be depopulated of the good people' that were left behind, the wicked havi now een taken away for their sins ani unbelief." The dreamer followed implicitly the directions of Kann Yin, with the result that he dug up x certain kind of white, floury earth which could be kneaded and made into bread and other edibles, usually made of wheat flour in prot werois times. The joyful news was once sent to the man's fellow villagers, who found the heaven-sent food to" be inexhaustible, so that in a short time not only did the people "f that particular village get all they needed, with a plentiful
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.