h bones are
disjointed;--in short, the tortured wretch would soon expire without any
farther process; yet, in that state, he is beaten by bamboos till at the
last gasp, and is then abandoned to the people, who devour the body.

There are women in China who refuse to marry, and prefer to live a
dissolute life of perpetual debauchery. A woman who has made this election,
presents herself in full audience before the commanding officer of a city,
declares her aversion to marriage, and desires to be enrolled among the
public women. Her name is then inserted in the register, with the name of
her family, the place of her abode, the number and description of her
jewels, and the particulars of her dress. She has then a string put round
her neck, to which is appended a copper ring, marked with the king's
signet, and she receives a writing, certifying that she is received into
the list of prostitutes, and by which she is entitled to a pension from the
public treasury of so many _falus_ yearly, and in which the punishment of
death is denounced against any man who should take her to wife. Every year,
regulations are published respecting these women, and such as have grown
old in the service are struck off the list. In the evening, these women
walk abroad in dresses of different colours, unveiled, and prostitute
themselves to all strangers who love debauchery; but the Chinese themselves
send for them to their houses, whence they do not depart till next morning.

The Chinese coin no money, except the small pieces of copper like those we
_falus_, nor will they allow gold and silver to be coined into specie, like
our dinars and drams; for they allege that a thief may carry off ten
thousand pieces of gold from the house of an Arab, and almost as many of
silver, without being much burthened, and so ruin the man who suffers the
loss; but in the house of a Chinese, he can only carry off ten thousand
_falus_ at the most, which do not make above ten meticals or gold dinars in
value. These pieces of copper are alloyed with some other metal, and are
about the size of a dram, or the piece of silver called _bagli_, having a
large hole in the middle to string them by. A thousand of them are worth a
metical or gold dinar; and they string them by thousands, with a knot
distinguishing the hundreds. All their payments, whether for land,
furniture, merchandize, or any thing else, are made in this money, of which
there are some pieces at Siraff, inscribed