son makes no disclosure within the time limited, the
person guilty of this concealment is bambooed to death, and the value
discovered is divided among the creditors; but the debtor or bankrupt must
never more concern himself with trade.

Upon a stone ten cubits high, erected in the public squares of all the
cities, the names of all sorts of medicines, with the exact prices of each,
are engraven; and when the poor stand in need of relief from physic, they
receive, at the treasury, the price that each medicine is rated at. In
China there is no tax upon land, but every male subject pays a rateable
capitation in proportion to his wealth and possessions. When a male child
is born, his name is immediately entered in a public register, and when he
has attained his eighteenth year he begins to pay the poll-tax; but when
once a man has reached his eightieth year, he not only ceases to
contribute, but even receives a pension from the treasury, as a provision
for old age, and in acknowledgment of what he paid during his youth. There
are schools, maintained at the public charge, in every town, where the
children of the poor are taught to read and write. The women wear nothing
on their heads besides their hair, but the men are covered. In China there
is a certain town called _Tayu_, having a castle, advantageously situated
on a hill, and all the fortresses in the kingdom are called by the same
name. The Chinese are generally handsome, of comely stature, and of fair
complexions, and by no means addicted to excess in wine. Their hair is
blacker than that of any other nation in the world, and the Chinese women
wear it curled.

In the Indies, when one man accuses another of a capital crime, it is usual
to ask the accused if he is willing to undergo the trial by fire, and if he
consents, the ceremony is conducted in the following manner: A piece of
iron is heated red hot, and the accused is desired to stretch out his hand,
on which they put seven leaves of a certain tree, and above these the red
hot iron is placed. In this condition he walks backwards and forwards for
some time, and then throws off the iron. Immediately after this his hand is
covered with a leathern bag, which is sealed with the prince's signet; and
if at the end of three days he appears and declares that he has suffered no
hurt, they order him to take out his hand, and if no sign of fire is
visible, he is declared innocent of the crime laid to his charge, and the
accuse