The variety of uses to which the compound word 'chow-chow' is put is almost endless, and in some cases have a directly opposite meaning. For instance, a 'No. 1 chow-chow' thing signifies 'utterly worthless' but when applied to a breakfast or dinner it means 'unexceptionally good.' A 'chow-chow' cargo is an assorted cargo; a general shop is a 'chow-chow' shop; provisions of all kinds are classed under the general head of 'chow-chow;' and, as may have been remarked in the list of the Factories, one was called the 'Chow-chow' from its being inhabited by divers Parsees, Moormen, or other natives of India.
Although by the Chinese all foreigners were called 'Fan Kwaes,' or 'Foreign Devils,' still a distinction of the drollest and most characteristic kind was made between them. The English became 'Red-haired devils;' the Parsees, from the custom of shaving their heads, were 'White-head devils;' Moormen were simply 'molo devils.' The Dutch became 'Ho-lan,' the French 'Fat-lan-sy,' and the Americans 'Flowery-flag devils.' The Swedes were 'Suy' and the Danes 'Yellow-flag devils.' The Portuguese have never ceased to be 'Se-yang kwae,' thus retaining the name first applied to them on their arrival from the 'Western Ocean' (which the words signify), while their descendants, natives of Macao, are 'Omun kwae,' or 'Macao devils' from the Chinese name of the town.
In the Canton book-shops near the Factories was sold a small pamphlet, called 'Devils' Talk.' On the cover was a drawing of a foreigner in the dress of the middle of the last century--three-cornered hat, coat with wide skirts, breeches, and long stockings, shoes with buckles, lace sleeves, and in his hand a cane. I have now one of these pamphlets before me. It commences thus, 'Yun,' and under it is its 'barbarian' definition, expressed in another Chinese word whose _sound_ is 'man.' After many examples of this kind come words of two syllables--thus, 'kum-yat' with their foreign meaning expressed by two other Chinese characters pronounced 'to-teay' to-day--and so on to sentences, for which the construction of the language is peculiarly adapted. This pamphlet, costing a penny or two, was continually in the hands of servants, coolies, and shopkeepers. The author was a Chinaman, whose ingenuity should immortalise him. I have often wondered who the man was who first reduced the 'outlandish tongue' to a current language. Red candles should be burnt on altars erected to his memory, and oblations of tea poured out before his image, placed among the wooden gods which in temples surround the shrine of a deified man of letters.