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CHINESE EMIGRATION. 809
Canton, but in Goa, on the west coast of India. Thus the word, joss, applied to the
statues of Buddha, to the gods and saints, is a corruption of the Portuguese Dios.
Chinese emigration is yearly acquiring increased importance, although still far
inferior to the movement going on towards the northern regions of the empire.
The Chinese already settled beyond the Great Wall in Mongolia, Manchuria, and
Outer Kansu are estimated at no less than 13,000,000, whereas there are probably
not more than 3,000,000 altogether in foreign countries. It will thus be seen that
the part played by Chinese emigration in the general movement of the human race
Fig. 148. SIGNAL TOWEBS.
has' been greatly exaggerated. At least, the anticipation of formidable struggles
between the rival Mongoloid and white peoples is somewhat premature.
The distinctive feature of Chinese migration lies in the fact that it consists
almost exclusively of male adults. Hitherto no women have been seen in America
or Australia beyond the few that have been specially contracted for. None of
them have crossed the seas voluntarily, and their number is of no account in the
general movement, except in such places as Singapore and Penang, which, from
the ethnical point of view, may be regarded as Chinese territory. Hence the
increase of infanticide in many of the seaboard villages, where the girls
are often
sacrificed 1>\- their parents, in despair of finding them suitable husbands. Being
neither free nor entitled to hold property, the Chinese woman cannot leave the
paternal home without express permission, and even in the interior this permission