To the Editor of the "Norra-Curva Dairy News."
Sm,—Again I am misquoted! Do let us have accuracy in all matters pertaining to scientific investigation. Zadoc, he who. talks about entering the lists against me in the interests of accuracy, says 1 admit "having eanployed ate, brass, 'Sons of China he lived 'SSetore the lan Han' loosely' to designate the lo I did not say that. Let me sce if I can quote myself accurately used the phrase 'Sons of Han' for want of a better loosely to designate the Northern Chinese—the descendants the people who made up the kingdoms of the earlier dynasties, of which the great and glorious Han dynasty seems to have been the culmination." (N.B. The italics were not in the original).
Now, Sir, to use a cockney phrase, "T ask you?" What am I to say to a man who sets out to correct me and the accuracy of my statements, who tells us a lob about Hakkas; Elaine-Babylonians, An. cient' Egyptians, who displays great learning by scattering three-quarters of a column your valuable paper with Chinese characters, and yet does not take the trouble, like our friend P.J.B. of the salamanders, to make sure of what I really did say before attacking me? If he is so loose in his statements as to what I said, can we set store by any of the other statements he makes? I think we must have reached the silly season.
I am afraid Zadoc, the learned, is quibbling. He is trying to trip me up on my use, or misuse, of a word or phrase. Can he supply me with a better one to designate the Northern Chinese. If he can, J showd be much obliged, Zadoc implies that my. loose use of the phrase Sons of Han" tends to confuse and mislead, and also that it is unscientific. May I ask Zadoc if it is scientific to call a salamander: a reptile? I have always understood that a sala mander belonged to the amphibians, or batrachians, but I am always open to correction from those who know.
Now, is it accepted that the great Han dynasty was one of a series of dynasties that existed in the early history of China? Was it not the greatest, and do not the Northern Chinese look back to it as their Golden Age. If so, is it not legitimate to use the phrase "Sons of Han" to "designate the Northern Chinese—the descendants of the people... etc., etc. I leave it to you, Sir, and the readers of the "North-China Daily News."
Does Zadoc seriously mean to suggest that the original inhabitants of China came from Egypt? It so, that 1s very interesting:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.