n, is that of a branch of stalactite.

The Chinese report marvels of the jin-seng, and no doubt it is, for
Chinese organization, a tonic of very great effect for old and weak
persons; but its nature is too heating, the Chinese physicians admit, for
the European temperament, already, in their opinion, too hot. The price
is enormous, and doubtless its dearness contributes, with a people like
the Chinese, to raise its celebrity so high. The rich and the Mandarins
probably use it only because it is above the reach of other people, and
out of pure ostentation.

The jin-seng, grown in Corea, and there called Kao-li-seng, is of very
inferior quality to that of Mantchouria.

The second special treasure of Eastern Tartary is the fur of the sable,
which, obtained by the hunters with immense labour and danger, is of such
excessive price that only the princes and great dignitaries of the empire
can purchase it. The grass called Oula, the third specialty of
Mantchouria, is, on the contrary, of the commonest occurrence; its
peculiar property is, that if put into your shoes, it communicates to the
feet a soothing warmth, even in the depth of winter.

As we have said above, the Mantchou Tartars have almost wholly abdicated
their own manners, and adopted instead those of the Chinese; yet, amid
this transformation of their primitive characters, they have still
retained their old passion for hunting, for horse exercise, and for
archery. At all periods of their history, they have attached an
astonishing importance to these various exercises; any one may convince
himself of this by merely running his eye over a Mantchou dictionary.
Every thing, every incident, every attribute relating to these exercises,
has its special expression, so as to need no circumlocution to convey it.
There are different names, not only for the different colours of the
horse, for example, for its age and qualities, but for all its movements;
and it is just the same with reference to hunting and archery.

The Mantchous are excellent archers, and among them the tribe Solon are
particularly eminent in this respect. At all the military stations,
trials of skill with the bow take place on certain periodical occasions,
in presence of the Mandarins and of the assembled people. Three straw
men, of the size of life, are placed in a straight line, at from twenty
to thirty paces distance from one another; the archer is on a line with
them, about fifteen feet off fro