and silver are not prized, and do not serve as a medium of exchange in the market. Marriage is determined upon in the following manner: the suitor builds himself a hut before the door of the house where the one longed for dwells, and waters and cleans the ground every evening. When a year has passed by, if the maiden is not inclined to marry him he departs; should she be willing it is completed. In earlier times these people lived not according to the laws of Buddha, but it happened that in the second year—named ‘Great Light’ of Song (A. D. 458)—five beggar-monks from the kingdom of Kipin went to this land, extended over it the religion of Buddha, and with it his early writings and images. They instructed the people in the principles of monastic life, and so changed their manners.”[204] Dr. Neumann does not claim that the Chinese Fusang tree is identical with the Maguay plant, but that the resemblance between it and the great numbers of the latter found in Mexico suggested a name for the country to the discoverer. The uncertainty as to the distance, arising out of our inability to determine what was considered the length of a Chinese _li_ in the fifth century, is of course an obstacle to the satisfactory solution of the question. The amusing and preposterous statement as to the size of the horns of oxen is no argument against the general truth of the narrative, since we have no data from which to determine the capacity of the measure, the name of which is here translated bushel, since the widest possible difference exists between the ancient and modern Chinese tables of measurement. The references to horses and oxen are perplexing, and give the narrative the air either of imposture or mistake, since both were brought to America first by the Spaniards.[205] The argument by the opponents of this theory that Fusang was Japan stands on a very slender foundation, since at a very early period, centuries before our era, Japan afforded naval stations for Chinese ships.[206] Klaproth, and later Dr. E. Bretschneider, designated the island of Tarakai, known as Saghalien on our maps, as the Fusang of Hoei-Schin.[207] M. D’Eichthal and Professor Neumann have both made able arguments in defence of the authenticity and reasonableness of this claim, but there are too many uncertainties about it to admit of its unqualified acceptance. We are more disposed to give credence to the theory that the Chinese discovered America at a very early day, than to attach much importance to the particular account of that discovery by Hoei-Shin. The theory is a good one, with an abundance of geographical and ethnological testimony in its favor.[208]