Note 48 — BOOK FIRST.

There are, as is stated in my preface, some vulgar or provincial characters in this history; here (p. 1.) occurs a character not to be found in Kanghe, composed out of the fifty-sixth radical and the group Leaou or Lew (7061, 7203). My whole library being locked up in the Custom-house, I am not able to consult a dictionary of the Canton dialect, therefore the meaning of these characters can only be guessed at by etymology. The etymology of the characters gives sometimes a better meaning than any dictionary, and sometimes it may entirely mislead us; there is no reliance on etymology. Usage is the only master of the Chinese, as of all other languages.