From that time until 1895--the close of the Sino-Japanese War--when Formosa passed into the hands of the Japanese, the Chinese were lords of the island. Of this period of Chinese dominance--over two hundred years--I learned little from the Chinese-Formosan on the boat. He passed on to the recounting of the sufferings of his own people--the Chinese on the island--under Japanese rule, and the injustice to which they had been subjected for twenty years. Of this he was still speaking when the little steamer, rounding the rocky islet, the last of the Lu-chu group, which lies--or rather, rears upward--as a sort of natural fortification in front of the chief harbour of the island, puffed noisily into Keelung bay. My Chinese friend, on bidding me good-bye, said he hoped that while I was in Formosa I would come to his home and meet his wives--one of whom, especially, was very intelligent and spoke a little English. “Bradyaga”[23] though I am, and accustomed to meeting all sorts and conditions of--wives of men, I must, I think, for a moment have looked startled. It was the man’s English accent and his English point of view regarding many matters that made his casual reference to his plural household seem incongruous. He must have noticed this (indeed it was his remark that revealed my own _naïveté_ to myself; I thought I had my features under better control), for he smiled and said: “I know in Europe and in America it is different; certain things are done _sub rosa_--and denied. It is a question which is better. But come to my home and see for yourself how our system works.” Later I met the wives of my Chinese-Formosan friend. There were three of them--the intelligent one, the pretty one, and the eldest and most honoured one, who was the mother of the eldest son and heir. At least the last was called the “Great Wife” and the “Honourable One” by the others; but there was no trace of shame or of dishonour in the position of any of the women. All seemed very proud, very happy, and curiously affectionate toward each other and--greater test of a woman’s affection--even toward each others’ children. Nor do I think that they were “showing off” for my benefit; it was said by all who knew them that this was their habitual attitude. Other lands, other manners--and morals, perhaps. As I went away from that interview with the several Mrs.----, I startled my ricksha-man--who thought I was giving him some incomprehensible order--by humming, to the tune of a chant I had learned from an aboriginal tribe in the mountains (for this was after I had been in Formosa for several months), some words written, I think, by Kipling: “There are nine-and-sixty ways of constructing tribal lays, And every single one of them is right.”