There being no low lands nor rice-fields upon Double Island, mosquitoes--which are the greatest of all plagues in the south of China--are not numerous. It is only necessary, however, to live in Canton or Macao for a short time, in order fully to appreciate the blessing of being freed from the venomous assaults of this insect. While living upon the water at Whampoa we were seldom troubled with them, but when at Canton, if we chanced to have our beds shielded by defective mosquito-curtains, the night was fearfully woful, and the noise of their shrill trumpets, together with their stinging attacks, not only dispelled sleep, but destroyed all comfort and repose. The species of this insect met there is _sui generis_, and being striped on the back something like a tiger, has been by some very appropriately called the “tiger mosquito.” The drapery of my sleeping-room at Macao was so infested with these hatefully irritating creatures that the moment I disturbed any part of it they swarmed forth in great numbers. Indeed, even during the day, we frequently suffered such depredations from these bloodthirsty tormentors, that, with the mercury ranging as high as eighty or ninety degrees, it was exceedingly difficult to sit quietly or patiently at any employment. We therefore, on reaching Double Island, felicitated ourselves upon being freed from this, the most intolerably keen annoyance that we met with while living in the East. Even the frightful centipede is not so much to be dreaded, for he always seeks the darkness, and instinctively shuns the presence of man. The name of this island--which was conferred upon it by Europeans--is derived from its shape, which appears double when seen from the east or west. It has also three very significant Chinese names: viz., _Fung-shan_, _Fang-ke-shan_, and _Ma-seu_, or _Ma-soo_. We are indebted to a member of the English Consulate at Swatow--who understands the Chinese language--for the following interesting explanation of these names. “_Fung-shan_,” he writes, “may be translated Phœnix Island,--it being understood that the imaginary supernatural bird of the Chinese, which we call the ‘Phœnix,’ does not correspond with the Phœnix of western legends. The island gets this name from its shape;--the light-house promontory on the east representing the head of the bird, and the main part of the island stretching north and south, the outspread wings. The Chinese, with their geomantic notions, attaching a real importance to this, believe that the light-house erected on the head of the Phœnix has brought bad fortune to the port, in the shape of typhoons[32] and divers other calamities. The word _shan_, in _Fung-shan_, may be translated island. Its proper meaning, however, is hill, or mountain, although it often occurs in the names of hilly islands.