To the Editor of the "Monru-Chw Dany News'
Sin—Once more I beg leave to ay something, as I feel inclined to dispute the recently-claimed Portuguese cradle or origin of the expression. To start with, Portuguese is a shoot-off Spanish, since what time I cannot say. I have referred to no books; there may be some Spanish work touching on the latter subject as well as on the expression "mas que" or Maskee. Both Spaniards and Portuguese came to the East three hundred odd yea ago. Did not Messrs. Magellan and Vasco de Gama shake somewhere in the East? I may be quite wrong about this, as I am not well dates. Senor Magellan sailed from Spain, crossed the Atlantic, discovered and sailed th the Straits of Magellan, the Pacific, but unfortunately got no further than the Philippine Islands. where he was beset by savages when landing at Cebu, and killed, Senor Vasco de Gama came after rounding the Cape, and returned later to Portugal. 1a Spanish the word "mas" means more, the word "que" means either what, Or than. Thus the two together li followed by other(s) mean more than, However, when standing alone, and expressed interrogatively io a Spanish born or scholar, they would signify: "and what then?" or:
"what about it?" or: "what can be done about it?" or inclined to mean "let her ride v. P.
Shanghai, July 21
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.