Tae Crescent 1s Norta West Cama.
By G. Findlay Andrew, 0. B. E.
Published by China Inland Mission, pp. 113.
In a letter from Peking dated December 23, Mr. Rodney Gilbert reports to the North China Daily News" the increase of opium in the unfortunate province of Kansu, owing to the influence of Tuchun In Hung-tao. But he makes a marked exception of those districts which are governed by Mohamm: edan generals, who will have nothing to do with Lu Hung-tao's opium-growing policy because of his indiscreet remarks about the about these people, their origin, and history, their char-, acteristic and customs that Mr. Findlay Andrew's book is written. They are woven of Arab, Turkish and Mongol strands, which still keep their distinction in speech though there is a mixed vocabulary for the commonest phrases of enquiry. There has been a good deal of exaggeration as to their numbers, but Mr. Andrew puts the Hui-Hui (Hwei-wei) of Kansu at about three millions, practically a third of the province. They originated, according to legend, in an Arabian embassy to China during the lifetime of Mahomet. Apparently the suite turned back before they were half way home and so they got their name of "Returners." They have a great military reputation, which they proved good gainst the White Wolf brigands in 1914. And it is sustained by the bias of their religious fanaticism. Opium, wine and pork are forbidden, and there is much sectarial strife.
The Hui-Hui_ excel the Chinese in business as in war and there is no Jove lost between them. As the latter say, "To eat a Hui-hui's food may do But his words must not be listened to.'"
His favourite food, by the way, is chicken, but he abhors pig, though both live on the unclean waste of the homestead.
Bitter fighting and brutal reprisalls have occurred twice during the last 60 years, and such is the Moslem temper that a Hui-Hui rising seems certain in the near future. It is a difficult field for the Christian missionary.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.