characterized all his work, to trace the word "tangram" to its source.
At length he wrote as follows:--"One of my sons is a professor in the
Anglo-Chinese college at Tientsin. Through him, his colleagues, and his
students, I was able to make inquiries as to the alleged Tan among
Chinese scholars. Our Chinese professor here (Oxford) also took an
interest in the matter and obtained information from the secretary of
the Chinese Legation in London, who is a very eminent representative of
the Chinese literati."

[Illustration: 5]

"The result has been to show that the man Tan, the god Tan, and the
'Book of Tan' are entirely unknown to Chinese literature, history, or
tradition. By most of the learned men the name, or allegation of the
existence, of these had never been heard of. The puzzle is, of course,
well known. It is called in Chinese _ch'i ch'iao t'u_; literally,
'seven-ingenious-plan' or 'ingenious-puzzle figure of seven pieces.' No
name approaching 'tangram,' or even 'tan,' occurs in Chinese, and the
only suggestions for the latter were the Chinese _t'an_, 'to extend'; or
_t'ang_, Cantonese dialect for 'Chinese.' It was suggested that probably
some American or Englishman who knew a little Chinese or Cantonese,
wanting a name for the puzzle, might concoct one out of one of these
words and the European ending 'gram.' I should say the name 'tangram'
was probably invented by an American some little time before 1864 and
after 1847, but I cannot find it in print before the 1864 edition of
Webster. I have therefore had to deal very shortly with the word in the
dictionary, telling what it is applied to and what conjectures or
guesses have been made at the name, and giving a few quotations, one
from your own article, which has enabled me to make more of the subject
than I could otherwise have done."

[Illustration: 6]

[Illustration: 7]

Several correspondents have informed me that they possess, or had
possessed, specimens of the old Chinese books. An American gentleman
writes to me as follows:--"I have in my possession a book made of tissue
paper, printed in black (with a Chinese inscription on the front page),
containing over three hundred designs, which belongs to the box of
'tangrams,' which I also own. The blocks are seven in number, made of
mother-of-pearl, highly polished and finely engraved on either side.
These are contained in a rosewood box 2+1/8 in. square. My great uncle,
----, was one of the first mission