[81] In the Chinese text is _King king_ (the character is composed out of radical _fire_ and _ear_), on which is to be found an interesting critical observation in Kang he, s. v. b. viii. p. 119r. In no other oriental language has there been so much done by the natives for the foreign student as by the Chinese.
[82] The most common denomination for Portugal is now Se yang kw[)o], or more correctly _Siao se yang kw[)o]_. "The small realm in the western ocean; Europe is called _Ta se yang_." (See Preface.) I thought it here more proper to translate _E_ by _foreigner_, than by _barbarian_. In a Chinese history of Macao, we find various particulars regarding the Portuguese. The description of the Portuguese clergy and the Roman Catholic religion is the most interesting part of this curious publication. It consists of two parts, or volumes.
[83] It would be interesting to read the Portuguese version of these skirmishes. A history of these skirmishes was printed at Lisbon, but I could not procure this publication. The reader may compare the statements of Richard Glasspoole in the Appendix.
[84] The Chinese are very much accustomed to consult the P[)u]h, or sort. There exists various ways, according to the ideas of the Chinese, of asking the divinity whether any undertaking shall prove either fortunate or not. The translator has seen different modes of casting lots in the temples of the suburbs of Canton. The reader may find an interesting description of casting lots in the "Histoire du grand Royaume de la Chine;" à Rouen 1614-8, p. 30. There is much useful information to be found in this work; but it would be curious to learn in what Armenian works ("escritures des Armeniens") it is stated, that "St. Thomas came through China in his voyage to the East-Indies" (l. c. p. 25)!
[85] _Woo_ (11753) _how_; _Woo_ is the time between eleven and one o'clock of the day. The Chinese divide the day into twelve _she shin_, or great hours; the European twenty-four hours of the day are called _seaou she shin_, little hours. We learn by a passage of Herodotus (Euterpe 109), that the Greeks in his time also divided the day into twelve parts; Herodotus also adds that the Greeks received this division of time from the Babylonians.--See Visdelou in the Supplement to the "Bibliothèque Orientale," by Herbelot, under the word _Fenek_.