robbers of his district ; and one wishing to recover his property from the thieves must make a Hberal offer to the Ma-qui, at least one half the value of the articles lost; failing this, it is probable that he will never hear of his goods again. But trans- actions of this kind are generally effected through the Ma-qui, who simply acts as a broker, and takes his heavy percentage from both sides. Should the thieves refuse to yield up the property at the price he offers, they run the risk of being imprisoned and tortured. I photographed a thief who had just escaped from gaol; he had been an unprofitable burglar, a bad constituent of the Ma-qui, and was accordingly triced up by the thumbs until the cords had worn the flesh away, and left nothing but the bare bones exposed. It was told of this detective, who might more appropriately be called the chief of the thieves, that he, one day, fell in with an old thief whom he had known and profited by in former times, but who was now respectably clad and striving to lead an honest life. He at once had the man conveyed to prison, and there, in order to impress upon him the danger to which he exposed himself in falling into honest ways, suspended him by the thumbs, stripped off his clothes, and discharged him with one arm put out of joint. When a thief is not in the profession and cannot be discovered, the Ma-qui is liable to be whipped. He then whips his subordinates, and they in turn whip the thieves. Should this plan fail, it is reported that the police have been whipped and that the stolen property cannot be found.
A word about leprosy and the leper villages of the Chinese. This disease — not an uncommon one in China — may be seen in a variety of its loathsome forms in the public streets of almost every city. This disease, however, is not held to be infectious by many Asiatics, as well as by a number of European
