THE CHINESE BOY AND GIRL

BY

ISAAC TAYLOR HEADLAND

OF PEKING UNIVERSITY

Author of Chinese Mother Goose Rhymes

PREFACE

No thorough study of Chinese child life can be made until the wall ofChinese exclusiveness is broken down and the homes of the East arethrown open to the people of the West. Glimpses of that life however, are available, sufficient in number and character to give a fairly goodidea of what it must be. The playground is by no means always hidden, least of all when it is the street. The Chinese nurse brings herChinese rhymes, stories and games into the foreigner's home for theamusement of its little ones. 

Chinese kindergarten methods and appliances have no superior in theiringenuity and their ability to interest, as well as instruct. In thematter of travelling shows and jugglers also, no country is bettersupplied, and these are chiefly for the entertainment of the littleones. 

To the careful observer of these different phases it becomes apparentthat the Chinese child is well supplied with methods of exercise andamusement, also that he has much in common with the children of otherlands. A large collection of toys shows many duplicates of those commonin the West, and from the nursery rhymes of at least two out of theeighteen provinces it appears that the Chinese nursery is rich inMother Goose. As a companion to the "Chinese Mother Goose, " this bookseeks to show that the same sunlight fills the homes of both East andWest. If it also leads their far-away mates to look upon the ChineseBoy and Girl as real little folk, human like themselves, and thus thinkmore kindly of them, its mission will have been accomplished. 

CONTENTS

 THE NURSERY AND ITS RHYMES CHILDREN AND CHILD-LIFE GAMES PLAYED BY BOYS GAMES PLAYED BY GIRLS THE TOYS CHILDREN PLAY WITH BLOCK GAMES--KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN'S SHOWS AND ENTERTAINMENTS JUVENILE JUGGLING STORIES TOLD TO CHILDREN

THE NURSERY AND ITS RHYMES

It is a mistake to suppose that any one nation or people has exclusiveright to Mother Goose. She is an omnipresent old lady. She is Asiaticas well as European or American. Wherever there are mothers, grandmothers, and nurses there are Mother Gooses, --or; shall we say, Mother Geese--for I am at a loss as to how to pluralize this old dame. She is in India, whence I have rhymes from her, of which the followingis a sample:

 Heh, my baby! Ho, my baby! See the wild, ripe plum, And if you'd like to eat a few, I'll buy my baby some. 

She is in Japan. She has taught the children there to put their fingerstogether as we do for "This is the church, this is the steeple, " whenshe says:

 A bamboo road, With a floor-mat siding, Children are quarrelling, And parents chiding, the "children" being represented by the fingers and the "parents" bythe thumbs. She is in China. I have more than 600 rhymes from herChinese collection. Let me tell you how I got them. 

One hot day during my summer vacation, while sitting on the veranda ofa house among the hills, fifteen miles west of Peking, my friend, Mrs. C. H. Fenn, said to me:

"Have you noticed those rhymes, Mr. Headland?"

"What rhymes?" I inquired. 

"The rhymes Mrs. Yin is repeating to Henry. "

"No, I have not noticed them. Ask her to repeat that one again. "

Mrs. Fenn did so, and the old nurse repeated the following rhyme, verymuch in the tone of, "The goblins 'll git you if you don't look out. "

 He climbed up the candlestick, The little mousey brown, To steal and eat tallow, And he couldn't get down. He called for his grandma, But his grandma was in town, So he doubled up into a wheel, And rolled himself down. 

I asked the nurse to repeat it again, more slowly, and I wrote it downtogether with the translation. 

Now, I think it must be admitted that there is more in this rhyme tocommend it to the public than there is in "Jack and Jill. " If when thatremarkable young couple went for the pail of water, Master Jack hadcarried it himself, he would have been entitled to some credit forgallantry, or if in cracking his crown he had fallen so as to preventMiss Jill from "tumbling, " or even in such a way as to break her falland make it easier for her, there would have been some reason for thepopularity of such a record. As it is, there is no way to account forit except the fact that it is simple and rhythmic and children like it. This rhyme, however, in the original, is equal to "Jack and Jill" inrhythm and rhyme, has as good a story, exhibits a more scientifictumble, with a less tragic result, and contains as good a moral as thatfound in "Jack Sprat. "

It is as popular all over North China as "Jack and Jill" is throughoutGreat Britain and America. Ask any Chinese child if he knows the"Little Mouse, " and he reels it off to you as readily as anEnglish-speaking child does "Jack and Jill. " Does he like it? It is apart of his life. Repeat it to him, giving one word incorrectly, and hewill resent it as strenuously as your little boy or girl would if yousaid, Jack and Jill Went DOWN the hill

Suppose you repeat some familiar rhyme to a child differently from theway he learned it and see what the result will be. 

Having obtained this rhyme, I asked Mrs. Yin if she knew any more. Shesmiled and said she knew "lots of them. " I induced her to tell them tome, promising her five hundred cash (about three cents) for every rhymeshe could give me, good, bad, or indifferent, for I wanted to secureall kinds. And I did. Before I was through I had rhymes which rangedfrom the two extremes of the keenest parental affection to those ofunrefined filthiness. The latter class however came not from the nursesbut from the children themselves. 

When I had finished with her I had a dozen or more. I soon learnedthese so that I could repeat them in the original, which gave me anentering wedge to the heart of every man, woman or child I met. 

One day, as I rode through a broom-corn field on the back of a littledonkey, my feet almost dragging on the ground, I was repeating some ofthese rhymes, when the driver running at my side said:

"Ha, you know those children's songs, do you?"

"Yes do you know any?"

"Lots of them, " he answered. 

"Lots of them" is a favorite expression with the Chinese. 

"Tell me some. "

"Did you ever hear this one?"

 "Fire-fly, fire-fly, Come from the hill, Your father and mother Are waiting here still. They've brought you some sugar, Some candy, and meat, For baby to eat. "

I at once dismounted and wrote it down, and promised him five hundredcash apiece for every new one he could give me. In this way, going toand from the city, in conversation with old nurses or servants, personal friends, teachers, parents or children, or foreign childrenwho had been born in China and had learned rhymes from their nurses, Icontinued to gather them during the entire vacation, and when autumncame I had more than fifty of the most common and consequently the bestrhymes known in and about Peking. 

A few months after I returned to the city a circular was sent aroundasking for subscriptions to a volume of Pekinese Folklore, published byBaron Vitali, Interpreter at the Italian legation, which, onexamination, proved to be exactly what I wanted. He had collected abouttwo hundred and fifty rhymes, had made a literal--notmetrical--translation and had issued them in book form withoutexpurgation. 

Others learned of my collection, and rhymes began to come to me fromall parts of the empire. Dr. Arthur H. Smith, the well-known author of"Chinese Characteristics" gave me a collection of more than threehundred made in Shantung, among which were rhymes similar to those wehad found in Peking. Still later I received other versions of thesesame rhymes from my little friend, Miss Chalfant, collected in adifferent part of Shantung from that occupied by Dr. Smith. I then hadno fewer than five versions of

 "This little pig went to market, "

each having some local coloring not found in the other, proving thatthe fingers and toes furnish children with the same entertainment inthe Orient as in the Occident, and that the rhyme is widely knownthroughout China. 

These nursery rhymes have never been printed in the Chinese language, but like our own Mother Goose before the year 1719, if we may creditthe Boston story, they are carried in the minds and hearts of thechildren. Here arose the first difficulty we experienced in collectingrhymes--the matter of getting them complete. Few are able to repeat thewhole of the

 "House that Jack built"

although it has been printed many times and they learned it all intheir youth. The difficulty is multiplied tenfold in China where therhymes have never been printed, and where there have grown up variousversions from one original which the nurse had, no doubt, partlyforgotten, but was compelled to complete for the entertainment of thechild. 

A second difficulty in making such a collection is that of gettingunobjectionable rhymes. While the Chinese classics are among the purestclassical books of the world, there is yet a large proportion of thepeople who sully everything they take into their hands as well as everythought they take into their minds. Thus so many of their rhymes havesuffered. 

Some have an undertone of reviling. Some speak familiarly of subjectswhich we are not accustomed to mention, and others are impure in theextreme. 

A third difficulty in making a collection of Chinese nursery lore isgreater than either the first or the second, --I refer to the difficultyof a metrical rendition of the rhymes. I have no doubt my readers caneasily find flaws in my translations of Chinese Mother Goose Rhymespublished during the past year. It is much easier for me to find theflaws than the remedies. Many of the words used in the original have nowritten character or hieroglyphic to represent them, while many others, though having a written form, are, like our own slang expressions, notfound in the dictionary. 

Now let us turn to a more pleasant feature of this unwritten nurseryliterature. The language is full of good rhymes, and all objectionablefeatures can be cut out without injury to the rhyme, as it was not apart of the original, but added by some more unscrupulous hand. 

Among the nursery rhymes of all countries many refer to insects, birds, animals, persons, actions, trades, food or children. In Chinese rhymeswe have the cricket, cicada, spider, snail, firefly, ladybug andbutterfly and others. Among fowls we have the bat, crow, magpie, cock, hen, duck and goose. Of animals, the dog, cow, horse, mule, donkey, camel, and mouse, are the favorites. There are also rhymes on the snakeand frog, and others without number on places, things andpersons, --men, women and children. 

Those who hold that the Chinese do not love their children have neverconsulted their nursery lore. There is no language in the world, Iventure to believe, which contains children's songs expressive of morekeen and tender affection than some of those sung to children in China. 

When we hear a parent say that his child

 "Is as sweet as sugar and cinnamon too, "

or that

 "Baby is a sweet pill, That fills my soul with joy"

or when we see a father, mother or nurse--for nurses sometimes becomealmost as fond of their little charge as the parentsthemselves, --hugging the child to their bosoms as they say that he isso sweet that "he makes you love him till it kills you, " we begin toappreciate the affection that prompts the utterance. 

Another feature of these rhymes is the same as that found in thenursery songs of all nations, namely, the food element. "Jack Sprat, ""Little Jacky Horner, " "Four and Twenty Black-birds, " "When Good KingArthur Ruled the Land, " and a host of others will indicate what I mean. A little child is a highly developed stomach, and anything which tellsabout something that ministers to the appetite and tends to satisfythat aching void, commends itself to his literary taste, and hence thepopularity of many of our nursery rhymes, the only thought of which isabout something good to eat. Notice the following:

 Look at the white breasted crows overhead. My father shot once and ten crows tumbled dead. When boiled or when fried they taste very good, But skin them, I tell you, there's no better food. 

In imagination I can see the reader raise his eyebrows and mutter, "Dothe Chinese eat crows?" while at the same time he has been singing allhis life about what a "dainty dish" "four and twenty blackbirds" wouldmake for the "king, " without ever raising the question as to whetherblackbirds are good eating or not. 

We note another feature of all nursery rhymes in the additions made bythe various persons through whose hands, --or should we say, throughwhose mouths they pass. 

When an American or English child hears how a certain benevolent damefound no bone in her cupboard to satisfy the cravings of her hungrydog, its feelings of compassion are stirred up to ask: "And then what?Didn't she get any meat? Did the dog die?" and the nurse is compelledto make another verse to satisfy the curiosity of the child and bringboth the dame and the dog out of the dilemma in which they have beenleft. This is what happened in the case of "Old Mother Hubbard" as willreadily be seen by examining the meter of the various verses. Theoriginal "Mother Hubbard" consisted of nothing more than the first sixlines which contain three rhymes. All the other verses have but fourlines and one rhyme. 

We find the same thing in Chinese Mother Goose. Take the following asan example:

 He ate too much, That second brother, And when he had eaten his fill He beat his mother. 

This was the original rhyme. Two verses have been added without rhyme, reason, rhythm, sense or good taste. They are as follows:

 His mother jumped up on the window-sill, But the window had no crack, She then looked into the looking-glass, But the mirror had no back. 

 Then all at once she began to sing, But the song it had no end And then she played the monkey trick And to heaven she did ascend. 

The moral teachings of nursery rhymes are as varied as the morals ofthe people to whom the rhymes belong. The "Little Mouse" already givencontains both a warning and a penalty. The mouse which had climbed upthe candle-stick to steal tallow was unable to get down. This was thepenalty for stealing, and indicates to children that if they visit thecupboard in their mother's absence and take her sweetmeats without herpermission, they may suffer as the mouse did. To leave the mouse thereafter he had repeatedly called for that halo-crowned grandmother, whorefused to come, would have been too much for the child's sympathies, and so the mouse doubles himself up into a wheel, and rolls to thefloor. 

In other rhymes, children are warned against stealing, but the penaltythreatened is rather an indication of the untruthfulness of the parentor nurse than a promise of reform in the child, for they are told that, If you steal a needle Or steal a thread, A pimple will grow Upon your head. 

 If you steal a dog Or steal a cat, A pimple will grow Beneath your hat. 

Boys are warned of the dire consequences if they wear their hats on theside of their heads or go about with ragged coats or slipshod feet. 

 If you wear your hat on the side of your head, You'll have a lazy wife, 'tis said. If a ragged coat or slipshod feet, You'll have a wife who loves to eat. 

Those rhymes which manifest the affection of parents for childrencultivate a like affection in the child. We have in the Chinese MotherGoose a rhyme called the Little Orphan, which is a most pathetic tale. A little boy tells us that, Like a little withered flower, That is dying in the earth, I was left alone at seven By her who gave me birth. 

 With my papa I was happy But I feared he'd take another, But now my papa's married, And I have a little brother. 

 And he eats good food, While I eat poor, And cry for my mother, Whom I'll see no more. 

Such a rhyme cannot but develop the pathetic and sympathetic instinctsof the child, making it more kind and gentle to those in distress. 

A girl in one of the rhymes urged by instinct and desire to chase abutterfly, gives up the idea of catching it, presumably out of afeeling of sympathy for the insect. 

Unfortunately all their rhymes do not have this same high moral tone. They indicate a total lack of respect for the Buddhist priests. This isnot necessarily against the rhyme any more than against the priest, butit is an unfortunate disposition to cultivate in children. There areconstant sallies at the shaved noddle of the priest. They speak of hishead as a gourd, and they class him with the tiger as a beast of prey. 

Some of the rhymes illustrate the disposition of the Chinese tonickname every one, from the highest official in the empire to themeanest beggar on the street. One of the great men of the presentdynasty, a prime minister and intimate friend of the emperor, goes bythe name of Humpbacked Liu. Another may be Cross-eyed Wang, anotherClub-footed Chang, another Bald-headed Li. Any physical deformity ormental peculiarity may give him his nickname. Even foreigners suffer inreputation from this national bad habit. 

A man whose face is covered with pockmarks is ridiculed by children inthe following rhyme, which is only a sample of what might be producedon a score of other subjects:

 Old pockmarked Ma, He climbed up a tree, A dog barked at him, And a man caught his knee, Which scared old Poxey Until he couldn't see. 

A well-known characteristic of the Chinese is to do things opposite tothe way in which we do them. We accuse them of doing things backwards, but it is we who deserve such blame because they antedated us in thedoing of them. We shake each other's hands, they each shake their ownhands. We take off our hats as a mark of respect, they keep theirs on. We wear black for mourning, they wear white. We wear our vests inside, they wear theirs outside. A hundred other things more or less familiarto us all, illustrate this rule. In some of their nursery rhymeseverything is said and done on the "cart before the horse" plan. Thisis illustrated by a rhyme in which when the speaker heard a disturbanceoutside his door he discovered it was because a "dog had been bitten bya man. " Of course, he at once rushed to the rescue. He "took up thedoor and he opened his hand. " He "snatched up the dog and threw him ata brick. " The brick bit his hand and he left the scene "beating on ahorn and blowing on a drum. "

Tongue twisters are as common in Chinese as in English, and are equallyappreciated by the children. From the nature of such rhymes, however, it is impossible to translate them into any other language. 

In one of these children's songs, a cake-seller informs the public instentorian tones that his wares will restore sight to the blind and that

 They cure the deaf and heal the lame, And preserve the teeth of the aged dame. 

They will further cause hair to grow on a bald head and give courage toa henpecked husband. A girl who has been whipped by her mother muttersto herself how she would love and serve a husband if she only had one, even going to the extent of calling that much-despised mother-in-lawher mother, and when overheard by her irate parent and asked what shewas saying, she answers:

 I was saying the beans are boiling nice And it's just about time to add the rice. 

These are rather an indication of good cheer on the part of thechildren than lack of filial affection. A parent must be cruel indeedto make a girl willing to give up her mother for a mother-in-law. 

Another style of verses comes under the head of pure nonsense rhymes. They are wholly without sense and I am not sure they are good nonsense. They are popular, however, with the children, and critics may say whatthey will, but the children are the last court of appeal in case ofnursery rhymes. Let me give one:

 There's a cow on the mountain, the old saying goes, On her legs are four feet, on her feet are eight toes. Her tail is behind on the end of her back, And her head is in front on the end of her neck. 

The Chinese nursery is well provided with rhymes pertaining to certainportions of the body. They have rhymes to repeat when they play withthe five fingers, and others when they pull the toes; rhymes when theytake hold of the knee and expect the child to refrain from laughing, nomatter how much its knee is tickled; rhymes which correspond to all ourface and sense; rhymes where the forehead represents the door and thefive senses various other things, ending, of course, by tickling thechild's neck. 

All of these have called forth rhymes among Chinese children similar to"little pig went to market, " "forehead bender, eye winker, " etc. Theparent, or the nurse, taking hold of the toes of the child, repeats thefollowing rhyme, as much to the amusement of the little Oriental as the"little pig" has always been to our own children:

 This little cow eats grass, This little cow eats hay, This little cow drinks water, This little cow runs away, This little cow does nothing, Except lie down all day. We'll whip her. 

And, with that, she playfully pats the little bare foot. If it is thehand that is played with the fingers are taken hold of one afteranother, as the parent, or nurse, repeats the following rhyme:

 This one's old, This one's young This one has no meat; This one's gone To buy some hay, And this one's on the street. 

There are various forms of this rhyme, depending upon the place whereit is found. The above is the Shantung version. In Peking it is asfollows:

 A great, big brother, And a little brother, too, A big bell tower, And a temple and a show, And little baby wee, wee, Always wants to go. 

The following rhyme explains itself: The nurse knocks on the forehead, then touches the eye, nose, ear, mouth and chin successively, as sherepeats:

 Knock at the door, See a face, Smell an odor, Hear a voice, Eat your dinner, Pull your chin, or Ke chih, ke chih. 

Tickling the child's neck with the last two expressions. 

We have in English a rhyme:

 If you be a gentleman, As I suppose you be, You'll neither laugh nor smile With a tickling of your knee. 

I had tried many months to find if there were any finger, face or bodygames other than those already given. Our own nurse insisted that sheknew of none, but one day I noticed her grabbing my little girl's knee, while she was saying:

 One grab silver, Two grabs gold, Three don't laugh, And you'll grow old. 

There is no literature in China, not even in the sacred books, which isso generally known as their nursery rhymes. These are understood andrepeated by the educated and the illiterate alike; by the children ofprinces and the children of beggars; children in the city and childrenin the country and villages, and they produce like results in the mindsand hearts of all. The little folks laugh over the Cow, look sober overthe Little Orphan, absorb the morals taught by the Mouse, and are sungto sleep by the song of the Little Snail. 

Sometimes however they, like children in other lands, are skeptical asto the reality of the stories told in the songs. Thus I remember oncehearing our old nurse telling a number of stories and singing a numberof songs to the little folk in the nursery. They had accepted one afteranother the legends as they rolled off the old woman's tongue, withoutquestion, but pretty soon she gave them a version of a Wind Song whicharoused their incredulity. She sang:

 Old grandmother Wind has come from the East. She's ridden a donkey--a dear little beast. Old mother-in-law Rain has come back again. She's come from the North on a horse, it is plain. 

 Old grandmother Snow is coming you know, From the West on a crane--just see how they go. And old aunty Lightning has come from the South, On a big yellow dog with a bit in his mouth. 

"There is no grandmother Wind, is there, nurse?"

"No, of course not, people only call her grandmother Wind. "

"Why do they call the other mother-in-law Rain?"

"I suppose, because mothers-in-law are often disagreeable, just likerainy weather. "

"And why do they speak of snow and the crane, and lightning and ayellow dog?"

"I suppose, because a crane is somewhat the color of snow, and a yellowdog swift and the color of lightning. "

CHILDREN AND CHILD-LIFE

Before going to China, I could not but wonder, when I saw a Chinese orJapanese doll, why it was they made such unnatural looking things forbabies to play with. On reaching the Orient the whole matter wasexplained by my first sight of a baby. The doll looks like the child!

Nothing in China is more common than babies. Nothing more helpless. Nothing more troublesome. Nothing more attractive. Nothing moreinteresting. 

A Chinese baby is a round-faced little helpless human animal, whoseeyes look like two black marbles over which the skin had beenstretched, and a slit made on the bias. His nose is a little kopje inthe centre of his face, above a yawning chasm which requires constantfilling to insure the preservation of law and order. On his shaved headare left small tufts of hair in various localities, which give him theappearance of the plain about Peking, on which the traveler sees, hereand there, a small clump of trees around a country village, a home, ora cemetery; the remainder of the country being bare. These tufts areusually on the "soft spot, " in the back of his neck, over his ears, orin a braid or a ring on the side of his head. 

The amount of joy brought to a home by the birth of a child dependsupon several important considerations, chief among which are its sex, the number and sex of those already in the family, and the financialcondition of the home. 

In general the Chinese prefer a preponderance of boys, but in case thefamily are in good circumstances and already have several boys, theyare as anxious for a girl as parents in any other country. 

The reason for this is deeper than the mere fact of sex. It is imbeddedin the social life and customs of the people. A girl remains at homeuntil she is sixteen or seventeen, during which time she is little morethan an expense. She is then taken to her husband's home and her ownfamily have no further control over her life or conduct. She loses heridentity with her own family, and becomes part of that of her husband. This through many years and centuries has generated in the popular minda feeling that it is "bad business raising girls for other people, " andthere are not a few parents who would prefer to bring up the girlbetrothed to their son, rather than bring up their own daughter. 

"Selfishness!" some people exclaim when they read such things about theChinese. Yes, it is selfishness; but life in China is not like ours--astruggle for luxuries--but a struggle, not for bread and rice as manysuppose, but for cornmeal and cabbage, or something else not morepalatable. This is the life to which most Chinese children are born, and parents can scarcely be blamed for preferring boys whose hands mayhelp provide for their mouths, to girls who are only an expense. 

The presumption is that a Chinese child is born with the same generaldisposition as children in other countries. This may perhaps be thecase; but either from the treatment it receives from parents or nurses, or because of the disposition it inherits, its nature soon becomeschanged, and it develops certain characteristics peculiar to theChinese child. It becomes t'ao ch'i. That almost means mischievous; italmost means troublesome--a little tartar--but it means exactly t'aoch'i. 

In this respect almost every Chinese child is a little tyrant. Father, mother, uncles, aunts, and grandparents are all made to do his bidding. In case any of them seems to be recalcitrant, the little dear lies downon his baby back on the dusty ground and kicks and screams until therefractory parent or nurse has repented and succumbed, when he get upand good-naturedly goes on with his play and allows them to go abouttheir business. The child is t'ao ch'i. 

This disposition is general and not confined to any one rank or gradein society, if we may credit the stories that come from the palaceregarding the present young Emperor Kuang Hsu. When a boy he very muchpreferred foreign to Chinese toys, and so the eunuchs stocked thepalace nursery with all the most wonderful toys the ingenuity andmechanical skill of Europe had produced. As he grew older the toysbecame more complicated, being in the form of gramophones, graphophones, telephones, phonographs, electric lights, electric cars, cuckoo clocks, Swiss watches and indeed all the great inventions ofmodern times. The boy was t'ao ch'i, and the eunuchs say that if hewere thwarted in any of his undertakings, or denied anything he verymuch desired, he would dash a Swiss watch, or anything else he mighthave in his hand, to the floor, breaking it into atoms; and as therewas no chance of using the rod there was no way but to spoil the child. 

It is amusing to listen to the women in a Chinese home when a babycomes. If the child is a boy the parents are congratulated on everyhand because of the "great happiness" that has come to their home. Ifit is a girl, and there are more girls than boys in the family, the oldnurse goes about as if she had stolen it from somewhere, and when sheis congratulated, if congratulated she happens to be, she says with asigh and a funereal face, "Only a 'small happiness'--but that isn'tbad. "

When a child is born it is considered one year old, and its years arereckoned not from its birthdays but from its New Year's days. If it hasthe good fortune to be born the day before two days old it is reckonedtwo years old being one year old when born and two years old on itsfirst New Year's day. 

The first great event in a child's life occurs when it is one monthold. It is then given its first public reception. Its head is shavedamid kicking and screaming, its mother is up and around where she canreceive the congratulations of her friends, its grandmother is thehonored guest of the occasion, and the baby is named. 

All the relatives and friends are invited and every one is expected totake dinner with the child, and, which is more important, to bringpresents. If the family is poor, this day puts into the treasury oflife a day of happiness and a goodly amount of filthy lucre. If thefamily is rich the presents are correspondingly rich, for nowhereeither in Orient or Occident can there be found a people more lavishand generous in their gifts than the Chinese. All the family can affordis spent upon the dinner given on this occasion, with the assurancethat they will receive in presents and money more than double theexpense both of the dinner and the birth of the child. If they do not"come" they are expected to "send" or they "lose face. " Among themiddle-class, the presents are of a useful nature, usually in the formof money, clothing or silver ornaments which are always worth theirweight in bullion. 

The name given the child is called its "milk" name until the boy entersschool. Whether boy or girl it may answer a good part of its life tothe place it occupies in the family whether first, second or third. 

If a girl she may be compelled to answer to "Little Slave, " and if aboy to "Baldhead. " But the names usually given indicate the place ortime of birth, the hope of the parent for the child, or exhibit theparent's love of beauty or euphony. 

A friend who was educated in a school situated in Filial Piety Lane andwho afterwards lived near Filial Piety Gate called his first son "TwoFilials. " Another friend had sons whose names were "Have a Man, " "Havea Mountain, " "Have a Garden, " "Have a Fish. " In conversation with thisfriend about the son whose "milk" name was "Have a Man, " I constantlyspoke of the boy by his "school" name, the only name by which I knewhim. The old man was perfectly blank--he knew not of whom I spoke, ashe had not seen his son since he got his school name. Finally, as itbegan to dawn on him that I was talking of his son, he asked:

"Whom are you talking about?"

"Your son. "

"Oh, you mean 'Have a Man. '"

This same man had a little girl called "Apple, " not an ordinary apple, but the most luscious apple known to North China. I have as I write alist of names commonly applied to girls from which I select thefollowing: Beautiful Autumn, Charming Flower, Jade Pure, Lucky Pearl, Precious Harp, Covet Spring; and the parent's way of speaking of hislittle girl, when not wishing to be self-depreciative, is to call herhis "Thousand ounces of gold. "

The names given to boys are quite as humiliating or as elevating asthose given to girls. He may be Number One, Two or Three, Pig, Dog orFlea, or he may be like Wu T'ing Fang a "Fragrant Palace, " or like LiHung Chang, an "Illustrious Bird" or "Learned Treatise. "

During the summer-time in North China the child goes almost if notcompletely naked. Until it is five years old, its wardrobe consistslargely of a chest-protector and a pair of shoes. In the winter-timeits trousers are quilted, with feet attached, its coat made in the sameway, and it is anything but "clean and sweet. " The odor is not unlikethat of an up-stairs back room in a narrow alley at Five Points, inwhich dwell a whole family of emigrants. 

When the Chinese child is ill he does not have the same kind ofhospital accommodations, nursing and medical skill at his command as dowe in the West. His bed is brick, his pillow stuffed with bran orgrass-seed, he has no sheets, his food is coarse and ill-adapted to asick child's stomach. While his nurse may be kind, gentle and lovingshe is not always skillful, and as for the ability of his physician letthe following child's song tell us:

 My wife's little daughter once fell very ill, And we called for a doctor to give her a pill. He wrote a prescription which now we will give her, In which he has ordered a mosquito's liver. And then in addition the heart of a flea, And half pound of fly-wings to make her some tea. 

When the child begins to walk and talk it begins to be interesting. Itsfather has a little push cart made by which it learns to walk, and thenurse goes about the court with it repeating ba ba, ma ma, (notice thatthese words for papa and mama are practically the same in Chinese as inEnglish, the b being substituted for p), and all the various wordswhich mean elder brother, younger brother, elder and younger sisters, uncles, aunts, grandfathers, grandmothers, and cousins and all thevarious relatives which may be found in its family, village or home. 

It is not an easy matter to learn the names of one's relatives inChina, as there is a separate name for each showing whether the personwhom we call uncle is father or mother's elder or younger brother orthe husband of their elder or younger sister. When it comes to learningthe names of all one's cousins it is quite a difficult affair. Suppose, for instance, you were to introduce me to your cousin, and I wanted toknow which one, you might explain that he is the son of your mother'selder brother. In China the word you used for cousin would express theexact idea. The child begins his study of language by learning allthese relationships. 

These are for the most part taught them by the nurse, who is animportant element in the Chinese home and a useful adjunct to thechild. Each little girl in the homes of the better classes has her ownparticular nurse, who teaches her nursery songs in her childhood, isher companion during her youth, goes with her to her husband's home, when she marries presumably to prevent her becoming lonesome, andremains with her through life. In conversation with the granddaughtersof a duke and their old nurse, I discovered that the same games thelittle children play upon the street, they play in the seclusion oftheir green-tiled palace, and the same nursery songs that enticeMorpheus to share the mat shed of the beggar's boy, entice him also toshare the silken couch of the emperor in the palace. 

When a boy is old enough, he grows a queue, which takes the place inthe life of the Chinese boy which his first pair of trousers does inthat of the American or English boy. It is one of the first things helives for; and he should not be despised for wearing his hair in thisfashion, especially when we remember that George Washington andLafayette and their contemporaries wore their hair in a braid downtheir backs. 

Besides the queue has a great variety of uses. It serves him in some ofthe games he plays. When I saw the boys in geometry use their queues tostrike an arc or draw a circle, it reminded me of my college days whenI had forgotten to take a string to class. The laborer spreads ahandkerchief or towel over his head, wraps his queue around it andmakes for himself a hat. The cart driver whips his mule with it; thebeggar uses it to scare away the dogs; the father takes hold of hislittle boy's queue instead of his hand when walking with him on thestreet, or the child follows holding to his father's queue, and theboys use it as reins when they play horse. I saw this amusinglyillustrated on the streets of Peking. Two boys were playing horse. NowI have always noticed that when a boy plays horse, it is not because hehas any desire to be the horse, but the driver. He is willing to behorse for a time, in order that he may be allowed to be driver for astill longer time. A large boy was playing horse with a smaller one, the latter acting as the beast of burden. This continued for some time, when the smaller, either discovering that a horse is larger than a man, or that it is more noble to be a man than a horse, balked, and said:

"Now you be horse. "

The older was not yet inclined to be horse, and tried in vain, bycoaxing, scolding and whipping, to induce him to move, but the horsewas firm. The driver was also firm, and not until the horse in a veryunhorselike manner, gave away to tears, could the man be induced to lethimself down to the level of a horse. From all of which it will be seenthat the disposition of Chinese children is no exception to thatlonging for superiority which prevails in every human heart. 

All kinds of trades, professions, and employments have as greatattraction for Chinese as for American children. A country boy looksforward to the time when he can stand up in the cart and drive theteam. Children seeing a battalion of soldiers at once "organize acompany. " This was amusingly illustrated by a group of children inPeking during the Chinese-Japanese war. Each had a stick or a weed fora gun, except the drummer-boy, who was provided with an emptyfruit-can. They went through various maneuvres, for practice, no doubt, and all seemed to be going on beautifully until one of those in frontshouted, in a voice filled with fear:

"The Japanese are coming, the Japanese are coming. "

This was the signal for a general retreat, and the children, inimitation of the army then in the field, retreated in disorder anddismay in every direction. 

The Chinese boys and girls are little men and women. At an early agethey are familiar with all the rules of behaviour which characterizetheir after life and conduct. Their clothes are cut on the samepattern, out of cloth as those of their parents and grandparents. Thereare no kilts and knee-breeches, pinafores and short skirts, to makethem feel that they are little people. 

But they are little people as really and truly as are the children ofother countries. A gentleman in reviewing my "Chinese Mother GooseRhymes" speaks of some of the illustrations which "present the Chinesechildren playing their sober little games. " Why we should call such agame as "blind man's buff, " "e-ni-me-ni-mi-ni-mo, " "this little pigwent to market" or "pat-a-cake" "sober little games, " unless it isbecause of preconceived notions of the Chinese people I do notunderstand. The children are dignified little people, but they enjoyall the attractions of child-life as much as other children do. 

It is a mistake to suppose that the life of Chinese children is adoleful one. It is understood, of course, that their life is not thesame, nor to be compared with that of children in Europe or America:and it should be remembered further that the pleasures of child-lifeare not measured by the gratification of every childish whim. Many ofthe little street children who spend a large part of their time inefforts to support the family, when allowed to go to a fair or have apublic holiday enjoy themselves more in a single day than the child ofwealth, in a whole month of idleness. 

In addition to his games and rhymes, the fairs which are held regularlyin the great Buddhist temples in different parts of the cities, are tothe Chinese boy what a country fair, a circus or Fourth of July is toan American farmer's boy or girl. He has his cash for candy or fruit, his crackers which he fires off at New Year's time, making day a timeof unrest, and night hideous. Kite-flying is a pleasure which noAmerican boy appreciates as does the Chinese, a pleasure which clingsto him till he is three-score years and ten, for it is not uncommon tofind a child and his grandfather in the balmy days of spring flyingtheir kites together. He has his pet birds which he carries around incages or on a perch unlike any other child we have ever seen. He hashis crickets with which he amuses himself--not "gambles"--and his goldfish which bring him days and years of delight. Indeed the Chinesechild, though in the vast majority of cases very poor, has ampleprovision for a very good time, and if he does not have it, it must behis own fault. 

Statements about the life of the children, however, may be nothing morethan personal impressions, and are usually colored as largely by thewriter's prejudices as by the conditions of the children. Some of usare so constituted as to see the dark side of the picture, others thebright. Let us go with the boys and girls to their games. Let us playwith their toys and be entertained by the shows that entertain them, and see if they are not of the same flesh and blood, heart andsentiment as we. We shall find that the boys and girls live together, work together, study together, play together, have their heads shavedalike and quarrel with each other until they are seven years old, theperiod which brings to an end the life of the Chinese child. From thisperiod it is the boy or the girl. 

GAMES PLAYED BY BOYS

Children's games are always interesting. Chinese games are especiallyso because they are a mine hitherto unexplored. An eminent archdeacononce wrote: "The Chinese are not much given to athletic exercises. " Awell-known doctor of divinity states that, "their sports do not requiremuch physical exertion, nor do they often pair off, or choose sides andcompete, in order to see who are the best players, " while a still moreprominent writer tells us that, "active, manly sports are not popularin the South. " Let us see whether these opinions are true. 

Two years ago a letter from Dr. Luther Gulick, at present connectedwith the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y. , came to us while in Peking, asking that we study into the character of Chinese children's games. Dr. Gulick was preparing a series of lectures on the "Psychology ofPlay. " He desired to secure as much reliable information as possibleregarding the play-life of the children of the East, in order that hemight discover what relation exists between the games of Oriental andthose of Occidental children. By so doing he would learn the effect ofplay on the mental and physical development as well as the character ofchildren, and through them upon the human race as a whole. We werefortunate in having at our disposal a large number of studentsconnected with Peking University, the preparatory, intermediate andprimary schools, together with 150 girls in attendance at the girls'high school. 

We received the letter at four o'clock, at which time the students hadjust been dismissed from school, and were taking their afternoon meal, but at 4:30 we went to the playground, notebook in hand, calledtogether some of our most interesting boys, explained to them ourobject, and asked them to play for us. Some one may say that this wasthe worst possible thing to do, as it would make the childrenself-conscious and hence unnatural--the sequel, however, will show. 

At first that was exactly what happened. The children tittered, andlooked at each other in blank astonishment, then one of them walkedaway and several others gathered about us. We repeated our explanationin order to secure their interest, set their minds to work thinking upgames, and do away with the embarrassment, and it was only a fewminutes before an intelligent expression began to appear in the eyes ofsome of the boys, and one of them, who was always ready for anythingnew, turned to his companion and said:

"You go and find Chi, and bring him here. "

"Who is Chi?" we inquired. 

"He is the boy who knows more games than any of the rest of us, " heexplained. 

Away he ran and soon reappeared with a very unpromising looking boywhom we recognized as a street waif that had been taken into what someone called our "raggedy school" a few years before. He was a glumlooking boy--a boy without a smile. There was a set expression on hisface which might be interpreted as "life is not worth living, " or, which would be an equally legitimate interpretation in the presentinstance, "these games are of no importance. If you want them we canplay any number of them for you, but what will you do with them afteryou get them?"

All the crowd began at once to explain to Chi what we wanted, and helooked more solemn than ever, then we came to his rescue. 

"Chi, " we asked, "what kind of games do boys play?"

Slowly and solemnly Chi wound one leg around the other as he answered:

"Lots of them. "

This is the stereotyped answer that will come from any Chinaman toalmost any question he may be asked about things Chinese. "Forinstance?" we further inquired. 

"Forcing the city gates, " he answered. 

"Play it for me. "

The boys at once appointed captains who chose sides and they formedthemselves into two lines facing each other, those of each line takingfast hold of each other's hands. The boys on one side then sang:

 He stuck a feather in his hat, And hurried to the town And children met him with a horse For the gates were broken down. 

Then one from the other side ran with all his force, throwing himselfupon the hands of the boys who had sung, the object being to "breakthrough, " in which case he took the two whose hands had been parted to"his side, " while if he failed to break through he had to remain ontheir side. The others then sang. One from this group tried to breakthrough their line, and thus they alternated until one side or theother was broken up. 

The boys were panting and red in the face when the game was over, astrong argument against theChinese-are-not-much-given-to-vigorous-exercise theory. 

"Now play something which does not require so much exercise, " werequested. 

Every one looked at Chi, not that the other boys did not know thegames, but simply because this matter-of-fact boy was their naturalleader in this kind of sport. 

"Blind man, " he said quietly. 

At once a handkerchief was tied around the eyes of one of the boys whowas willing to be "blind man, " and a game corresponding almost exactlyto our own "blind man's buff" was played, without the remotestembarrassment, but with as much naturalness as though neither teachernor spectator was near them. 

"Have you any other games which require strength?" we inquired. 

"Man-wheel, " said Chi in his monosyllabic way. 

"Play it, please. "

"Go and call Wei-Yuan, " to one of the smaller boys. 

The boy ran off to find the one indicated, and Chi selected two othermiddle-sized and two small boys. When Wei-Yuan, a larger but verygood-natured, kindly-dispositioned lad, came, the two middle-sized boysstood beside him, one facing north, the other south, and caught eachother's hand over Wei-Yuan's shoulder. The two smaller boys then stoodbeside these two, each of whom clutched hold of the small boys'girdles, who in turn clutched their girdles and Wei-Yuan took theirdisengaged hands. Thus the five boys were firmly bound together. Thewheel then began to turn, the small boys were gradually lifted from theground and swung or whirled around in an almost horizontal position. 

"This game requires more strength, " Chi explained, "than any othersmall boys' game. "

"Have you any games more vigorous than this?"

"Pitching the stone lock, and lifting the stone dumb-bells, but theyare for men. "

"What is that game you were playing a few days ago in which you usedone stick to knock another?"

"One is striking the stick, and another is knocking the stick. "

"Play one of them. "

Chi drew two lines on the ground eight feet apart, on one of which heput a stick. He then threw another stick at it, the object being todrive it over the other line. He who first succeeds in driving it overthe line wins the game. The sticks are ten to fifteen inches long. 

Striking the stick is similar to tip-cat which we have often seenplayed by boys on the streets of New York. The children mark out asquare five or six feet on each side. The striker takes a positioninside, with his feet spread apart as wide as possible, to give him abetter command of the square. One of the others places the block in theposition which he supposes will be most difficult for the striker tohit. The latter is then at liberty to twist around on one foot, placingthe other outside the square, in order if possible to secure a positionfrom which he can strike to advantage. He then throws a stick aboutfifteen inches long at the block to drive it out of the square. If hefails, the one who placed the block takes the stick, and another placesthe block for him. If he succeeds he has the privilege of striking theblock three times as follows: He first strikes it perpendicularly, which causes it to bound up two or three feet, when he hits it as onewould hit a ball, driving it as far as possible. This he repeats threetimes, and if he succeeds in driving it the distance agreed upon, whichmay be 20, 50, 200, 300, 500 or more feet, he wins the game. If not hebrings back the block and tries again, continuing to strike until hefails to drive it out of the square. This game develops ingenuity inplacing the block and skill, in striking, and is one of the mostpopular of all boys' games. 

When they had finished striking the stick one of the smaller childrenwent over to where Chi was standing and whispered in his ear. Theexpression of his face remained as unchangeable as that of a stoneimage, as he called out:

"Select fruit. "

The boys danced about in high glee, selected two captains who chosesides, and they all squatted down in two rows twenty feet apart. Eachboy was given the name of some kind of fruit, such as apples, pears, peaches, quinces or plums, all of which are common about Peking. Thecaptain on one side then blindfolded one of his boys, while one fromthe other group arose and stealthily walked over and touched him, returning to his place among his own group and taking as nearly aspossible the position he had when the other was blindfolded. In casehis companions are uncertain as to whether his position is exactly thesame, they all change their position, in order to prevent the oneblindfolded from guessing who it was who left his place. 

The covering was then removed from his eyes, he went over to the otherside, examined carefully if perchance he might discover, from change ofposition, discomfort in squatting, or a trace of guilt in the face oreyes of any of them, a clue to the guilty party. He "made faces" to tryto cause the guilty one to laugh. He gesticulated, grimaced, dideverything he could think of, but they looked blank and unconcerned, orall laughed together, allowing no telltale look to appear on theirfaces. His pantomimes sometimes brought out the guilty one, but in casethey did not, his last resort was to risk a guess, and so he made hisselection. If he was right he took the boy to his side; if wrong, hestayed on their side. One of their side was then blindfolded, and thewhole was repeated until one group or the other lost all its men. Thegame is popular among girls as well as boys. 

"Do you have any other guessing games?" we asked Chi. 

"Yes, there is point at the moon or the stars, " he answered, "and blindman is also a guessing game. "

By this time the boys had become enthusiastic, and had entirelyforgotten that they were playing for us or indeed for any purpose. Itwas a new experience, this having their games taken in a notebook, andeach was anxious not only that he play well, but that no mistake bemade by any one. The more Chi realized the importance of playing thegames properly the more solemn he became, if indeed it were possible tobe more solemn than was his normal condition. He now changed to a gameof an entirely different character from those already played. Thosedeveloped strength, skill or curiosity; this developed quick reactionin the players. 

"What shall we play?" inquired one of the boys. 

"Queue, " answered Chi. 

Immediately every boy jerked his queue over his shoulder and began toedge away from his companions. But as he walked away from one he drewnear another, and a sudden calling of his name would so surprise himthat in turning his head to see who spoke his short queue would bejerked back over his shoulder and he received a dozen slaps from hiscompanions, all of whom were waiting for just such an opportunity. Thisis the object of the game--to catch a boy with his queue down his back. Some of the boys, more spry than others, would move away to a distance, and then as though all unconsciously, allow their queue to hang downthe back in its natural position, depending upon their fleetness ortheir agility in getting out of the way or bringing the queue around infront. This game is peculiarly interesting and caused much hilarity. Attimes even the solemn face of Chi relaxed into a smile. 

"Honor, " called out Chi, and as in the circus when the ringmastercracks his whip, everything changed. The boys each hooked the firstfinger of his right hand with that of his companion and then pulleduntil their fingers broke apart, when they each uttered the word"Honor. " This must not be spoken before they broke apart, but as soonas possible after, and he who was first heard was entitled to anobeisance on the part of the other. Those who failed the first trialsat down, and those who succeeded paired off and pulled once more, andso on until only one was left, who, as in the spelling-bees of ourboyhood days, became the hero of the hour. 

Chi, however, was not making heroes, or was it that he did not want tohurt the feelings of those who were less agile; at any rate he calledout "Hockey, " and the boys at once snatched up their short sticks andbegan playing at a game that is not unlike our American "shinny, " agame which is so familiar to every American boy as to make descriptionunnecessary--the principal difference between this and the Americangame being that the boys all try to prevent one boy from putting a ballinto what they call the big hole, which, like the others, tended todevelop quickness of action in the boys. 

I was familiar with the fact that there are certain games which tend todevelop the parental or protective instinct in children, while certainothers develop the combative and destructive, as for instance playingwith dolls develops the mother-instinct in girls; tea-parties, the loveof society; and paper dolls teach them how to arrange the furniture intheir houses; while on the other hand, wrestling, boxing, sparring, battles, and all such amusements if constantly engaged in by boys, tendto make them, if properly guided and instructed, brave and patriotic;but if not properly led, cause them to be quarrelsome, domineering, cruel, coarse and rough, and I wondered if the Chinese boys had anysuch games. 

"Chi, " I asked, "do you have any such games as host and guest, or gamesin which the large boys protect the small ones?"

"Host and guest, " said Chi. 

The boys at once arranged themselves promiscuously over the playground, and with a few peanuts, or sour dates which they picked up under thedate trees, with all the ceremony of their race, they invited theothers to dine with them. After playing thus for a moment, Chi calledout:

"Roast dog meat. "

The children gathered in a group, put the palms of their handstogether, squatted in a bunch or ring, and placed their hands togetherin the centre to represent the pot. The boy on the left of theillustration represents Mrs. Wang, the guest of the occasion, while Chihimself stands on the right with his hand on the head of one of theboys. Chi walked around the ring while he sang:

 Roast, roast, roast dog meat, The second pot smells bad, The little pot is sweet, Come, Mrs. Wang, please, And eat dog meat. 

He then invited Mrs. Wang to come and partake of a dinner of dog meatwith him, and the following conversation ensued. 

 I cannot walk. I'll hire a cart for you. I'm afraid of the bumping. I'll hire a sedan chair for you. I'm afraid of the jolting. I'll hire a donkey for you. I'm afraid of falling off. I'll carry you. I have no clothes. I'll borrow some for you. I have no hair ornaments. I'll make some for you. I have no shoes. I'll buy some for you. 

This conversation may be carried on to any length, according to thefertility of the minds of the children, the excuses of Mrs. Wang attimes being very ludicrous. All these, however, being met, the hostcarries her off on his back to partake of the dainties of a dog meatfeast. 

"What were you playing a few days ago when all the boys lay in astraight line?"

"Skin the snake. "

The boys danced for glee. This was one of their favorite games. 

They all stood in line one behind the other. They bent forward, andeach put one hand between his legs and thus grasped the disengaged handof the boy behind him. 

Then they began backing. The one in the rear lay down and they backedover astride of him, each lying down as he backed over the one nextbehind him with the other's head between his legs and his head betweenthe legs of his neighbor, keeping fast hold of hands. They were thuslying in a straight line. 

The last one that lay down then got up, and as he walked astride theline raised each one after him until all were up, when they let gohands, stood straight, and the game was finished. 

"Have you any other games which develop the protective instinct inboys?" we inquired of Chi. 

"The hawk catching the young chicks, " said the matter-of-fact boy, answering my question and directing the boys at the same time. 

The children selected one of their number to represent the hawk andanother the hen, the latter being one of the largest and best naturedof the group, and one to whom the small boys naturally looked forprotection. 

They formed a line with the mother hen in front, each clutching fasthold of the others' clothing, with a large active boy at the end of theline. 

The hawk then came to catch the chicks, but the mother hen spread herwings and moved from side to side keeping between the hawk and thebrood, while at the same time the line swayed from side to side alwaysin the opposite direction from that in which the hawk was going. Everychick caught by the hawk was taken out of the line until they were allgone. 

One of the boys whispered something to Chi. 

"Strike the poles, " exclaimed the latter. 

As soon as they began playing we recognized it as a game we had alreadyseen. 

The boys stood about four feet apart, each having a stick four or fivefeet long which he grasped near the middle. As they repeated thefollowing rhyme in concert they struck alternately the upper and lowerends of the sticks together, occasionally half inverting them and thusstriking the upper ends together in an underhand way. They struck oncefor each accented syllable of the following rhyme, making it a veryrhythmical game. 

 Strike the stick, One you see. I'll strike you and you strike me. Strike the stick, Twice around, Strike it hard for a good, big sound. Strike it thrice, A stick won't hurt. The magpie wears a small white shirt. Strike again. Four for you. A camel, a horse, and a Mongol too. Strike it five-- Five I said, A mushroom grows with dirt on its head. Strike it six Thus you do, Six good horsemen caught Liu Hsiu. Strike it seven For 'tis said A pheasant's coat is green and red. Strike it eight, Strike it right, A gourd on the house-top blossoms white. Strike again, Strike it nine, We'll have some soup, some meat and wine. Strike it ten, Then you stop, A small, white blossom on an onion top. 

Chi did not wait for further suggestion from any one, but called out:

"Throw cash. "

The boys all ran to an adjoining wall, each took a cash from his purseor pocket, and pressing it against the wall, let it drop. The one whosecash rolled farthest away took it up and threw it against the wall insuch a way as to make it bound back as far as possible. 

Each did this in turn. The one whose cash bounded farthest, then tookit up, and with his foot on the place whence he had taken it, hepitched or threw it in turn at each of the others. Those he hit he tookup. When he missed one, all who remained took up their cash and struckthe wall again, going through the same process as before. The one whowins is the one who takes up most cash. 

This seemed to call to mind another pitching game, for Chi said oncemore in his old military way:

"Pitch brickbats. "

The boys drew two lines fifteen feet apart. Each took a piece of brick, and, standing on one line pitched to see who could come nearest to theother. 

The one farthest from the line set up his brick on the line and the onenearest, standing on the opposite line, pitched at it, the object beingto knock it over. 

If he failed he set up his brick and the other pitched at it. 

If he succeeded, he next pitched it near the other, hopped over andkicked his brick against that of his companion, knocking it over. Thenhe carried it successively on his head, on each shoulder, on back andbreast (walking), in the bend of his thigh and the bend of his knee(hopping), and between his legs (shuffling), each time dropping it onthe other brick and knocking it over. 

Finally he marked a square enclosing the brick, eighteen inches eachside, and hopped back and forth over both square and brick ten timeswhich constituted him winner of the game. 

Chi had become so expert in pitching and dropping the brick as to beable to play the game without an error. The shuffling and hopping oftencaused much merriment. 

"What is that game, " we inquired of Chi, "the boys on the street playwith two marbles?"

Without directly answering my question Chi turned to the boys and said:

"Kick the marbles. "

The boys soon produced from somewhere, --Chinese boys can always produceanything from anywhere, --two marbles an inch and a half in diameter. Chi put one on the ground, and with the toe of his shoe upon it, gaveit a shove. Then placing the other, he shoved it in the same way, theobject being to hit the first. 

There are two ways in which one may win. The first boy says to thesecond, kick this marble north (south, east or west) of the other atone kick. If he succeeds he wins, if he fails the other wins. 

If he puts it north as ordered, he may kick again to hit the otherball, in which case he wins again. If he hits the ball and goes north, as ordered, at one kick, he wins double. 

Each boy tries to leave the balls in as difficult a position aspossible for his successor; and here comes in a peculiarity whichleaves this game unique among the games of the world. If the positionin which the balls are left is too difficult for the other to play hemay refuse to kick and the first is compelled to play his own difficultgame--or like Haman--to hang on his own gallows. It recognizes theChinese golden rule of not doing to others what you would not havethem do to you. 

The boys spent a long time playing this game--indeed they seemed toforget they were playing for us, and we were finally compelled to callthem off. 

Chi had turned the marbles over to the others as soon as he had fairlystarted it, and stood in that peculiar fashion of his with one legwound around the other, and when we called to them, he simply said asthough it were the next part of the same game:

"Kick the shoes. "

The boys all took off their shoes--an easy matter for an Oriental--andpiled them in a heap. At a given sign they all kicked the pilescattering the shoes in every direction, and each snatched up, and, forthe time, kept what he got. Those who were very agile got their ownshoes, or a pair which would fit them, while those who were slow onlysecured a single shoe, and that either too large or too small. It wasamusing to see a large-footed boy with a small shoe, and a boy withsmall feet having a shoe or shoes much too large for him. 

The game was a good test of the boys' agility. 

On consulting our watch we found it would soon be time for the boys toenter school, but asked them to play one more game. 

"Cat catching mice, " said Chi. 

The children selected one of their company to represent the cat andanother the mouse. 

The remainder formed a ring with the mouse inside and the cat outside, and while the ring revolved, the following conversation took place:

 "What o'clock is it?" "Just struck nine. "

 "Is the mouse at home?" "He's about to dine. "

All the time the mouse was careful to keep as far as possible from thecat. 

The ring stopped revolving and the cat popped in at this side and themouse out at the other. It is one of the rules of the game that the catmust follow exactly in the footsteps of the mouse. They wound in andout of the ring for some time but at last the mouse was caught and"eaten, " the eating process being the amusing part of the game. It isimpossible to describe it as every "cat" does it differently, and oneof the virtues of a cat is to be a good eater. 

The boys continued to play until the bell rang for the evening session. They referred to many different games which they had received fromEuropeans, but played only those which Chi had learned upon the streetbefore he entered school. This was repeated day after day, until we hadgathered a large collection of their most common, and consequentlytheir best, games, the number of which was an indication of therichness of the play life of Chinese boys. 

Another peculiarly interesting fact was the leadership of Chi. TheChinese boy, like the Chinese man is a genuine democrat and is ready tofollow the one who knows what he is about and is competent to take thelead, with little regard to social position. It is the civil serviceidea of a genuine democracy ingrained in childhood. 

GAMES PLAYED BY GIRLS

After having made the collection of boys' games we undertook to obtainin a similar way, fullest information concerning games played by thegirls. Of course, it was impossible to do it alone, for the appearanceof a man among a crowd of little girls in China is similar to that of ahawk among a flock of small chicks--it results in a tittering andscattering in every direction, or a gathering together in a dock underthe shelter of the school roof or the wings of the teacher. One of theteachers, however, Miss Effie Young, kindly consented to go with us, and a goodly number of the small girls, after a less than usual amountof tittering and whispering, gathered about us to see what was wanted. The smallest among them was the most brave, and Miss Young explainedthat this was a "little street waif" who had been taken into the schoolbecause she had neither home nor friends, with the hope that somethingmight be done to save her from an unhappy fate. 

"Do you know any games?" we asked her. 

She put her hands behind her, hung her head, shuffled in an embarrassedmanner, and answered: "Lots of them. "

"Play some for me. "

This small girl after some delay took control of the party and beganarranging them for a game, which she called "going to town, " similar toone which the boys called "pounding rice. " Two of the girls stood backto back, hooked their arms, and as one bent the other from the ground, and thus alternating, they sang:

 Up you go, down you see, Here's a turnip for you and me; Here's a pitcher, we'll go to town; Oh, what a pity, we've fallen down. 

At which point they both sat down back to back, their arms stilllocked, and asked and answered the following questions:

 What do you see in the heavens bright? I see the moon and the stars at night. What do you see in the earth, pray tell? I see in the earth a deep, deep well. What do you see in the well, my dear? I see a frog and his voice I hear. What is he saying there on the rock? Get up, get up, ke'rh kua, ke'rh kua. 

They then tried to get up, but, with their arms locked, they found itimpossible to do so, and rolled over and got up with great hilarity. 

This seemed to suggest to our little friend another game, which shecalled "turning the mill. " The girls took hold of each other's hands, just as the boys do in "churning butter, " but instead of turning aroundunder their arms they turn half way, put one arm up over their head, bringing their right or left sides together, one facing one directionand one the other; then, standing still, the following dialogue tookplace:

 Where has the big dog gone? Gone to the city. Where has the little dog gone? Run away. 

Then, as they began to turn, they repeated:

 The big dog's gone to the city; The little dog's run away; The egg has fallen and broken, And the oil's leaked out, they say. But you be a roller And hull with power, And I'll be a millstone And grind the flour. 

As soon as this game was finished our little friend arranged thechildren against the wall for another game. Everything was inreadiness. They were about to begin, when one of the larger girlswhispered something in her ear. She stepped back, put her hands behindher, hung her head and thought a moment. 

"Go on, " we said. 

"No, we can't play that; there is too much bad talk in it. " This is oneof the unfortunate features of Chinese children's games and rhymes. There is an immense amount of bad talk in them. 

She at once called out:

"Meat or vegetables. "

Each girl began to scurry around to find a pair of old shoes, which maybe picked up almost anywhere in China, and putting one crosswise of theother, they let them fall. The way they fell indicated what kind ofmeat or vegetables they were. If they both fell upside down they werethe big black tiger. If both fell on the side they were double beans. If one fell right side up and the other on its side they were beans. Ifboth were right side up they were honest officials. (What kind of meator vegetables honest officials are it is difficult to say, but thatnever troubles the Chinese child. ) If one is right side and the otherwrong side up they are dogs' legs. If the toe of one rests on the topof the other, both right side up and at right angles, they form a darkhole or an alley. 

The child whose shoes first form an alley must throw a pebble throughthis alley--that is, under the toe of the shoe--three times, or, failing to do so, one of the number takes up the shoes, and standing ona line, throws them all back over her head. Then she hops to eachsuccessively, kicking it back over the line, each time crossing theline herself, until all are over. In case she fails another tries it inthe same way, and so on, till some one succeeds. This one then takesthe two shoes of the one who got the alley, and, hanging themsuccessively on her toe, kicks them as far as possible. The possessorof the shoes, starting from the line, hops to each, picks it up andhops back over the line with it, which ends the game. It is a vigoroushopping game for little girls. 

The girls were pretty well exhausted when this game was over and weasked them to play something which required less exercise. 

"Water the flowers, " said the small leader. 

Several of them squatted down in a circle, put their hands together inthe centre to represent the flowers. One of their number gathered upthe front of her garment in such a way as to make a bag, and wentaround as if sprinkling water on their heads, at the same timerepeating:

 "I water the flowers, I water the flowers, I water them morning and evening hours, I never wait till the flowers are dry, I water them ere the sun is high. "

She then left a servant in charge of them while she went to dinner. While she was away one of them was stolen. 

Returning she asked: "How is this that one of my flowers is gone?"

"A man came from the south on horseback and stole one before I knew it. I followed him but how could I catch a man on horseback?"

After many rebukes for her carelessness, she again sang:

 "A basin of water, a basin of tea, I water the flowers, they're op'ning you see. "

Again she cautioned the servant about losing any of the flowers whileshe went to take her afternoon meal, but another flower was stolen andthis time by a man from the west. 

When the mistress returned, she again scolded the servant, after whichshe sang:

 "A basin of water, another beside, I water the flowers, they're opening wide. "

This was continued until all the flowers were gone. One had been takenby a carter, another by a donkey-driver, another by a muleteer, anotherby a man on a camel, and finally the last little sprig was eaten by achicken. The servant was soundly berated each time and cautioned to bemore careful, which she always promised but never performed, and wasfinally dismissed in disgrace without either a recommendation, or thewages she had been promised when hired. 

The game furnishes large opportunity for invention on the part of theservant, depending upon the number of those to be stolen. This littlegirl seemed to be at her wit's end when she gave as the excuse for theloss of the last one that it had been eaten by a chicken. 

This game suggested to our little friend another which proved to be thesequel to the one just described, and she called out:

"The flower-seller. "

The girl who had just been dismissed appeared from behind the corner ofthe house with all the stolen "flowers, " each holding to the other'sskirts. At the same time she was calling out:

 "Flowers for sale, Flowers for sale, Come buy my flowers Before they get stale. "

The original owner hereupon appeared and called to her:

"Hey! come here, flower-girl, those flowers look like mine, " and shetook one away. 

The flower-seller did not stop to argue the question but hurried offcrying:

 "Flowers for sale, " etc. 

The original owner again called to her:

"Ho! flower-seller, come here, those flowers are certainly mine, "whereupon she took them all and whipped the flower-seller who ran awaycrying. 

As the little flower-seller ran away crying in her sleeve, she stumbledover an old flower-pot that lay in the school court. This accidentseemed to act as a reminder to our little leader for she called out, "Flower-pot. "

The girls divided themselves into companies of three and stood in theform of a triangle, each with her left hand holding the right hand ofthe other, their hands being crossed in the centre. 

Then by putting the arms of two back of the head of the third she wasbrought into the centre (steps into the well), and by stepping over twoother arms, she goes out on the opposite side, so that whereas she wason the left side of this and the right side of that one, she now standson the right side of this and the left side of that girl. In the sameway the second and third girls go through, and so on as long as theywish to keep up the game, saying or singing the following rhyme:

 You first cross over, and then cross back, And step in the well as you cross the track, And then there is something else you do, Oh, yes, you make a flower-pot too. 

By this time the girls had lost most of their strangeness orembarrassment and continued the flower-pot until we were compelled toremind them that they were playing for us. Everybody let go hands andthe little general called out, "The cow's tail. "

One girl with a small stick in her hand squatted down pretending to bedigging and the others took a position one behind the other similar tothe hawk catching the chicks. They walked up to the girl digging andengaged in the following conversation:

 "What are you digging?" "Digging a hole. " "What is it for?" "My pot for to boil. " "What will you heat?" "Some water and broth. " "How use the water?" "I'll wash some cloth. " "What will you make?" "I'll make a bag. " "And what put in it?" "A knife and a rag. " "What is the knife for?" "To kill your lambs. " "What have they done?" "They've eaten my yams. " "How high were they?" "About so high. " "Oh, that isn't high. " "As high as the sky. "

 "What is your name?" "My name is Grab, what is your name?" "My name is Turn. " "Turn once for me. "

They all walked around in a circle and as they turned they sang:

 "We turn about once, Or twice I declare, And she may grab, But we don't care. "

 "Can't you grab once for us?" "Yes, but what I grab I keep. "

She then ran to "grab" one of the "lambs" but they kept behind thefront girl just as the boys did in the hawk catching the chicks. Afterawhile however, they were all caught. 

Why this game is called "cow's tail" and the girls called "lambs, " wedo not know. We asked the girls why and their answer was, "There is noreason. "

The girls were panting with the running before they were all caught andwe suggested that they rest awhile, but instead the little leadercalled out:

"Let out the doves. "

One of the larger girls took hold of the hands of two of the smaller, one of whom represented a dove and the other a hawk. The hawk stoodbehind her and the dove in front. 

She threw the dove away as she might pitch a bird into the air, and asthe child ran it waved its arms as though they were wings. She threwthe hawk in the same way, and it followed the dove. 

She then clapped her hands as the Chinese do to bring their pet birdsto them, and the dove if not caught, returned to the cage. This is avery pretty game for little children. 

By this time the girls were all rested and our little friend said:

"Seek for gold. "

Three or four of the girls gathered up some pebbles, squatted down in agroup and scattered them as they would a lot of jackstones. Then onedrew her finger between two of the stones and snapped one against theother. If she hit it the two were taken up and put aside. 

She then drew her finger between two more and snapped them. 

If she missed, another girl took up what were left, scattered them, snapped them, took them up, and so on until one or another got the mostof the pebbles and thus won the game. Our little friend was reminded ofanother and she called out:

"The cow's eye. "

Immediately the girls all sat down in a ring and put their feettogether in the centre. Then one of their number repeated the followingrhyme, tapping a foot with each accented syllable. 

 One, two, three, and an old cow's eye, When a cow's eye's blind she'll surely die. A piece of skin and a melon too, If you have money I'll sell to you, But if you're without, I'll put you out. 

The foot on which her finger happened to rest when she said "out" wasexcluded from the ring. Again she repeated the rhyme excluding a footwith each repetition till all but one were out. 

Up to this point all the children were in a nervous quiver waiting tosee which foot would be left, but now the fun began, for they took theshoe off and every one slapped that unfortunate foot. This was donewith good-natured vigor but without intention to hurt. It was amusingto see the children squirm as they neared the end of the game. 

This game finished, the little girl called out:

"Pat your hands and knees. "

The girls sat down in pairs and, after the style of "Bean PorridgeHot, " clapped hands to the following rhyme:

 Pat your hands and knees, On January first, The old lady likes to go a sightseeing most. Pat your hands and knees, On February second, The old lady likes a piece of candy it is reckoned. Pat your hands and knees, On March the third, The old lady likes a Canton pipe I have heard. Pat your hands and knees, On April fourth, The old lady likes bony fish from the north. Pat your hands and knees, The fifth of May, The old lady likes sweet potatoes every day. Pat your hands and knees, The sixth of June, The old lady eats fat pork with a spoon. Pat your hands and knees, The seventh of July, The old lady likes to eat a fat chicken pie. Pat your hands and knees, On August eight, The old lady likes to see the lotus flowers straight. Pat your hands and knees, September nine, The old lady likes to drink good hot wine. Pat your hands and knees, October ten, The old lady, you and I, may meet hope again. 

This we afterwards discovered is very widely known throughout the northof China. 

The foregoing are a few of the games played by the children in Peking. In that one city we have collected more than seventy-five differentgames, and have no reason to believe we have secured even a smallproportion of what are played there. Games played in Central and SouthChina are different, partly because of climatic conditions, partlybecause of the character of the people. There, as here, the games ofchildren are but reproductions of the employments of their parents. They play at farming, carpentry, house-keeping, storekeeping, orwhatever employments their parents happen to be engaged in. Indeed, inaddition to the games common to a larger part of the country, there aremany which are local, and depend upon the employment of the parents orthe people. 

THE TOYS CHILDREN PLAY WITH

One day while sitting at table, with our little girl, nineteen monthsold, on her mother's knee near by, we picked up her rubber doll andbegan to whip it violently. The child first looked frightened, thensevere, then burst into tears and plead with her mother not to "letpapa whip dolly. "

Few people realize how much toys become a part of the life of thechildren who play with them. They are often looked upon as nothing morethan "playthings for children. " This is a very narrow view of theiruses and relationships. There is a philosophy underlying the productionof toys as old as the world and as broad as life, a philosophy which, until recent years, has been little studied and cultivated. 

Playthings are as necessary a constituent of human life as food ormedicine, and contribute in a like manner to the health and developmentof the race. Like the science of cooking and healing, the business oftoy-making has been driven by the stern teacher, necessity, to a rapidself-development for the general good of the little men and women inwhose interests they are made. 

They are the tools with which children ply their trades; theinstruments with which they carry on their professions; the goods whichthey buy and sell in their business, and the paraphernalia with whichthey conduct their toy society. They are more than this. They are theanimals which serve them, the associates who entertain them, thechildren who comfort them and bring joy to the mimic home. 

Toys are nature's first teachers. The child with his little shovels, spades and hoes, learns his first lessons in agriculture; with hishammer and nails, he gets his first lessons in the various trades; andthe bias of the life of many a child of larger growth has come from thetoys with which he played. Into his flower garden the father ofLinnaeus introduced his son during his infancy, and "this little gardenundoubtedly created that taste in the child which afterwards made himthe first botanist and naturalist of his age, if not of his race. "

No experiments in any chemical laboratory will excite more wonder or becarried on with more interest, than those which the boy performs withhis pipe and basin of soapy water. The little girl's mud pies and othersham confectionery furnish her first lessons in the art of preparingfood. Her toy dinners and playhouse teas offer her the firstexperiences in the entertainment of guests. With her dolls, thedomestic relations and affections. 

No science has ever originated and been carried to any degree ofperfection in Asia. There is no reason why this statement should causethe noses of Europeans and Americans to twitch in derision and pride, for there is another fact equally momentous in favor of theAsiatics, --viz. , no religion that originated outside of Asia has everbeen carried to any degree of perfection. 

The above facts will indicate that we need not hope to find thebusiness of toy-making, or the science of child-education in a veryadvanced state in China--the most Asiatic country of Asia. Child's playand toy-making have been organized into a business and a science inEurope, as astronomy, which had been studied so long in Asia, wasdeveloped into a science by the Greeks. And so we find that what istaught in the kindergarten of the West is learned in the streets of theEast; and the toys which are manufactured in great Occidental businessestablishments, are made by poor women in Oriental homes, and the samemistakes are made by the one as by the other. 

The same whistle by which the cock crows, enables the dog to bark, thebaby to cry, the horse to neigh, the sheep to bleat and the cow to low, just as in our own rubber goods. The same end is accomplished in theone case as in the other. The two, three or twenty cash doll does forthe Chinese girl what the two, three or twenty dollar one does for herantipodal sister, --develops the instinct of motherhood, besidesstanding a greater amount of rough handling. Nevertheless it usuallycomes to the same deplorable end, departing this world, bereft of itsarms and legs, without going through the tedious process of a surgicaloperation. 

Chinese toys are less varied, less complicated, less true to theoriginal, and less expensive than those of the West, --more perhaps likethe toys of a century or two ago. Nevertheless they are toys, and inthe hands of boys and girls, the drum goes "rub-a-dub, " the horn"toots, " and the whistle squeaks. The "gingham dog and calico cat, "besides a score of other animals more nearly related to the soil oftheir native place--being made of clay--express themselves in thelanguage of the particular whistle which happens to have been placedwithin them. All this is to the entire satisfaction of "little MissMuffet" and "little boy Blue, " just as they do in other lands. 

When the children grow older they have tops to spin that whistle asgood a whistle, and buzzers to buzz that buzz as good a buzz, and musicballs to roll, and music carts to pull, that emit sounds as much totheir satisfaction, as anything that ministered to the childish tastesof our grandfathers; and these become as much a part of their businessand their life as if they were living, talking beings. Furthermore, their dolls are as much their children as they themselves are theoffspring of their parents. 

Chinese toys embrace only those which involve no intricate scientificprinciples. The music boxes of the West are unknown in China except asthey are imported. The Chinese know nothing about dolls which open andshut their eyes, simple as this principle is, nor of toys which areself-propelling by some mysterious spring secreted within, because, forsooth, they know nothing about making the spring. 

There are some principles, however, which, though they may notunderstand, they are nevertheless able to utilize; such, for instance, as the expansion of air by heat, and the creation of air currents. Thisprinciple is utilized in lanterns. In the top of these is a paper wheelattached to a cross-bar on the ends of which are suspended paper menand women together with animals of all kinds making a very interestingmerry-go-round. These lantern-figures correspond to the sawyers, borers, blacksmiths, washers and others which twenty or more years agowere on top of the stove of every corner grocery or country post-office. 

When we began the study of Chinese toys our first move was to call in aChinese friend whom we thought we could trust, and who could buy toysat a very reasonable rate, and sent him out to purchase specimens ofevery variety of toys he could find in the city of Peking. We orderedhim the first day to buy nothing but rattles, because the rattle is thefirst toy that attracts the attention of the child. 

In the evening Mr. Hsin returned with a good-sized basket full ofrattles. Some were tin in the form of small cylinders, with handles inwhich were small pebbles: others were shaped like pails; and otherslike cooking pots and pans. 

Some of the most attractive were hollow wood balls, baskets, pails andbottles, gorgeously painted, with long handles, necks, or bails. Thepaint was soon transferred from the face of the toy to that of thefirst child that happened to play with it, which child was of course, our own little girl. 

The most common rattles representing various kinds of fowls and animalsknown and unknown are made of clay. Others are in the form of fatlittle priests that make one think of Santa Claus, or little roly-polychildren that look like the little folks who play with them. 

As the child grows larger the favorite rattle is a drum-shaped piece ofbamboo or other wood, with skin--not infrequently fish skin, stretchedover the two ends, and a long handle attached. On the sides are twostout strings with beads on the ends, which, when the rattle is turnedin the hand, strike on the drum heads. These rattles of brass or tin aswell as bamboo, are in imitation of those carried by street hawkers. 

We said to Mr. Hsin, "Foreigners say the Chinese do not have dolls, howis that?"

"They have lots of them, " he answered in the stereotyped way. 

"Then to-morrow buy samples of all the dolls you can find. "

"All?" he asked with some surprise. 

"Yes, all. We want to know just what kind of dolls they have. "

The next evening Mr. Hsin came in with an immense load of dolls. He hadlarge, small, and middle sized rag dolls, on which the nose was sewed, the ears pasted, and the eyes and other features painted. They wererude, but as interesting to children as other more natural and moreexpensive ones, as we discovered by giving one of them to our littlegirl. In not a few instances Western children have become much morefirmly attached to their Chinese cloth dolls than any that can be foundfor them in America or Europe. 

He had a number of others both large and small with paper mache heads, leather bodies, and clay arms and legs. The body was like a bellows inwhich a reed whistle was placed, that enabled the baby to cry in thesame tone as the toy dog barks or the cock crows. They had "real hair"in spots on their head similar to those on the child, and they weredressed in the same kind of clothing as that used on the baby insummer-time, viz. , a chest-protector and a pair of shoes or trousers. 

Mr. Hsin then took out a small package in which was wrapped ahalf-dozen or more "little people, " as they are called, by the Chinese, with paper heads, hands and feet, exquisitely painted, and theirclothing of the finest silk. Attached to the head of each was a silkstring by which the "little people" are hung upon the wall as adecoration. 

"But what are these, Mr. Hsin?" we asked. "These are not dolls. "

"No, " he answered, "these are cloth animals. The children play withthese at the same time they play with dolls. "

He had gone beyond our instructions. He had brought us a largecollection of camels made of cloth the color of the camel's skin, withlittle bunches of hair on the head, neck, hump and the joints of thelegs, similar to those on the camel when it is shedding its coat in thespringtime. He had elephants made of a grayish kind of cloth on whichwere harnesses similar to those supposed to be necessary for thoseanimals. He had bears with bits of hair on neck and tail and a leadingstring in the nose; horses painted with spots of white and red, matchedonly by the most remarkable animals in a circus; monkeys with blackbeads for eyes, and long tails; lions, tigers, and leopards, withlarge, savage, black, glass eyes, with manes or tails suited to each, and properly crooked by a wire extending to the tip. And finally helaid the bogi-boo, a nondescript with a head on each end much like thehead of a lion or tiger. When not used as a plaything, this served thepurpose of a pillow. 

"Do the Chinese have no other kinds of toy animals?" we inquired. 

"Yes, " he answered, "I'll bring them to-morrow. "

The following evening he brought us a collection of clay toys tooextensive to enumerate. There were horses, cows, camels, mules, deer, and a host of others the original of which has never been found exceptin the imagination of the people. He had women riding donkeys followedby drivers, men riding horses and shooting or throwing a spear at afleeing tiger, and women with babies in their arms while grandmotheramused them with rattles, and father lay near by smoking an opium pipe. 

From the bottom of his basket he brought forth a nuber of smallpackages. 

"What are in those?"

"These are clay insects. "

They were among the best clay work we have seen in China. There weretumble-bugs, grasshoppers, large beetles, mantis, praying mantis, toadsand scorpions, together with others never seen outside of China, andsome never seen at all, the legs and feelers all being made of wire. 

In another package he had a dozen dancing dolls. They were made ofclay, were an inch and a half long, dressed with paper, and had smallwires protruding the sixteenth of an inch below the bottom of theskirt. He put them all on a brass tray, the edge of which he struckwith a small stick to make it vibrate, thus causing the dancers to turnround and round in every direction. 

The next package contained a number of clay beggars. Two were fighting, one about to smash his clay pot over the other's head: another had hispot on his head for a lark, a third was eating from his, while otherswere carrying theirs in their hand. One had a sore leg to which hecalled attention with open mouth and pain expressed in every feature. 

From another package he brought out a number of jumping jacks, imitations as it seemed of things Japanese. There were monkey acrobatsmade of clay, wire and skin, fastened to a small slip of bamboo. A dollfastened to a stick, with cymbals in its hands would clash the cymbals, when its queue was pulled. Finally there was a large dragon whichsatisfied its raging appetite by feeding upon two or three little claymen specially prepared for his consumption. 

But, perhaps, among the most interesting of his toys were his claywhistles. Some of these burnt or sun-dried toys were hollow and in theshape of birds, beasts and insects. When blown into, they would emitthe shrillest kind of a whistle. In others a reed whistle had beenplaced similar to those in the dolls, and these usually had a bellowsto blow them. Whether cock or hen, dog or child, they all crowed, barked, cackled, or cried in the self-same tone. 

"What will you get to-morrow?"

"Drums, knives, and tops, " said Mr. Hsin. He was being paid by the dayfor spending our money, and so had his plans well laid. 

The following evening he brought a large collection of toy drums, someof which were in the shape of a barrel, both in their length and inbeing bulged out at the middle. On the ends were painted gay picturesof men and women clad in battle-array or festive garments, making thedrum a work of art as well as an instrument of torture to those who aredisturbed by noises about the house. 

He had large knives covered with bright paint which could easily bewashed off, and tridents, with loose plates or cymbals, which make anoise to frighten the enemy. 

The tops Mr. Hsin had collected were by far the most interesting. Chinese tops are second to none made. They are simple, being made ofbamboo, are spun with a string, and when properly operated emit ashrill whistle. 

The ice top, without a stem, and simply a block of wood in shape of atop, is spun with a string, but is kept going by whipping. 

Another toy which foreigners call a top is entirely different fromanything we see in the West. The Chinese call it a K'ung chung, whilethe top is called t'o lo. It is constructed of two pieces of bamboo, each of which is made like a top, and then joined by a carefully turnedaxle, each end being of equal weight, and looking not unlike the wheelsof a cart. It is then spun by a string, which is wound once around theaxle and attached to two sticks. A good performer is able to spin it ina great variety of ways, tossing it under and over his foot, spinningit with the sticks behind him, and at times throwing it up into the airtwenty or thirty feet and catching it as it comes down. The principleupon which it is operated is the quick jerking of one of the stickswhile the other is allowed to be loose. 

"To-morrow, " said Mr. Hsin, as he ceased spinning the top, "I will getyou some toy carts. "

The Chinese cart has been described as a Saratoga trunk on two wheels. This is, however, only one form--that of the passenger cart. There aremany others, and all of them are used as patterns of toy carts. Theyall have a kind of music-box attachment, operated by the turning of theaxle to which the wheels of the toys, as well as those of some of thereal carts, are fixed. 

The toy carts are made of tin, wood and clay. Some of them are verysimple, having paper covers, while others possess the wholeparaphernalia of the street carts. When the mule of the toy cart isunhitched and unharnessed, he looks like a very respectable mule. Nevertheless, instead of devouring food, he becomes the prey ofinsects. Usually he appears the second season, if he lasts that long, bereft of mane and tail, as well as a large portion of his skin. 

The flat carts have a revolving peg sticking up through the centre, onwhich a small clay image is placed which turns with the stick. Othersare placed on wires on the two sides, to represent the driver and thepassengers. 

These in Peking are the omnibus carts. Running from the east gate ofthe Imperial city to the front gate, and in other parts of the city aswell, there are street carts corresponding to the omnibus or streetcars of the West. These start at intervals of ten minutes, more orless, with eight or ten persons on a cart, the fare being only a fewcash. Toy carts of this kind have six or eight clay images to representthe passengers. 

Mr. Hsin brought out from the bottom of his basket a number of neatlymade little pug dogs, and pressing upon a bellows in their body causedthem to bark, just as the hen cackled a few days before. 

What we have described formed only a small portion of the toys Mr. Hsinbrought. Cheap clay toys of all kinds are hawked about the street by aman who sells them at a fifth or a tenth of a cent apiece. With him isoften found a candy-blower, who with a reed and a bowl of taffy-candyis ready to blow a man, a chicken, a horse and cart, a corn ear, oranything else the child wants, as a glass-blower would blow a bottle ora lamp chimney. The child plays with his prize until he tires of it andthen he eats it. 

BLOCK GAMES--KINDERGARTEN

It was on a bright spring afternoon that a Chinese official and hislittle boy called at our home on Filial Piety Lane, in Peking. 

The dresses of father and child were exactly alike--as though they hadbeen twins, boots of black velvet or satin, blue silk trousers, a longblue silk garment, a waistcoat of blue brocade, and a black satinskullcap--the child was in every respect, even to the dignity of hisbearing, a vest-pocket edition of his father. 

He had a T'ao of books which I recognized as the Fifteen Magic Blocks, one of the most ingenious, if not the most remarkable, books I haveever seen. 

A T'ao is two or any number of volumes of a book wrapped in a singlecover. In this case it was two volumes. In the inside of the coverthere was a depression three inches square in which was kept a piece oflead, wood or pasteboard, divided into fifteen pieces as in thefollowing illustration. 

These blocks are all in pairs except one, which is a rhomboid. They areall exactly proportional, having their sides either half-inch, inch, inch and a half, or two inches in length. 

They are not used as are the blocks in our kindergarten simply to makegeometrical figures, but rather to illustrate such facts of history aswill have a moral influence, or be an intellectual stimulus to thechild. 

He may build houses with them, or make such ancient or modernornaments, or household utensils, as may suit his fancy; but theprimary object of the blocks and the books, is to impress upon thechild's mind, in the most forcible way possible, the leading facts ofhistory, poetry, mythology or morals; while the houses, boats and otherthings are simply side issues. 

The first illustration the child constructed for me, for I desired himto teach me how it was done, was a dragon horse, and when I asked himto explain it, he said that it represented the animal seen by Fu Hsi, the original ancestor of the Chinese people, emerging from the Mengriver, bearing upon its back a map on which were fifty-five spots, representing the male and female principles of nature, and which thesage used to construct what are called the eight diagrams. 

The child tossed the blocks off into a pile and then constructed atortoise which he said was seen by Yu, the Chinese Noah, coming out ofthe Lo river, while he was draining off the floods. On its back was adesign which he used as a pattern for the nine divisions of his empire. 

These two incidents are referred to by Confucius, and are among thefirst learned by every Chinese child. 

I looked through the book and noticed that many of the designs were forthe amusement of the children, as well as to develop their ingenuity. In the two volumes of the T'ao he had only the outlines of the pictureswhich he readily constructed with the blocks. But he had with him alsoa small volume which was a key to the designs having lines indicatinghow each block was placed. This he had purchased for a few cash. Muchof the interest of the book, however, attached to the puzzlingcharacter of the pictures. 

There was one with a verse attached somewhat like the following:

 The old wife drew a chess-board On the cover of a book, While the child transformed a needle Into a fishing-hook. 

Chinese literature is full of examples of men and women who appliedthemselves to their books with untiring diligence. Some tied their hairto the beam of their humble cottage so that when they nodded withsleepiness the jerk would awake them and they might return to theirbooks. 

Others slept upon globular pillows that when they became so restless asto move and cause the pillow to roll from under their head they mightget up and study. 

The child once more took the blocks and illustrated how one who was sopoor as to be unable to furnish himself with candles, confined afire-fly in a gauze lantern using that instead of a lamp. At the sametime he explained that another who was perhaps not able to afford thegauze lantern, studied by the light of a glowworm. 

"K'ang Heng, " said the child, as he put the blocks together in a newform, "had a still better way, as well as more economical. His housewas built of clay, and as the window of his neighbor's house wasimmediately opposite, he chiseled a hole through his wall and thus tookadvantage of his neighbor's light. 

"Sun K'ang's method was very good for winter, " continued the child ashe rearranged the blocks, "but I do not know what he would do insummer. He studied by the light reflected from the snow. 

"Perhaps, " he went on as he changed the form, "he followed the exampleof another who studied by the pale light of the moon. "

"What does that represent?" I asked him pointing to a child with a bowlin his hand who looked as if he might have been going to the grocer's. 

"Oh, that boy is going to buy wine. "

The Chinese have never yet realized what a national evil liquor maybecome. They have little wine shops in the great cities, but they haveno drinking houses corresponding to the saloon, and it is not uncommonto see a child going to the wine shop to fetch a bowl of wine. TheBuddhist priest indulges with the same moderation as the official classor gentry. Indeed most of the drunkenness we read about in Chinesebooks is that of poets and philosophers, and in them it is, if notcommended, at least not condemned. The attitude of literature towardsthem is much like that of Thackeray towards the gentlemen of his day. 

The child constructed the picture of a Buddhist priest, who, with staffin hand, and a mug of wine, was viewing the beautiful mountains in thedistance. He then changed it to one in which an intoxicated man wasleaning on a boy's shoulder, the inscription to which said: "Any one iswilling to assist a drunken man to return home. "

"This, " he went on as he changed his blocks, "is a picture of Li Pei, China's greatest poet. He lived more than a thousand years ago. Thisrepresents the closing scene in his life. He was crossing the river ina boat, and in a drunken effort to get the moon's reflection from thewater, he fell overboard and was drowned. " The child pointed to thesail at the same time, repeating the following:

 The sail being set, He tried to get, The moon from out the main. 

I noticed a large number of boat scenes and induced the child toconstruct some of them for me, which he was quite willing to do, explaining them as he went as readily as our children would explain OldMother Hubbard or the Old Woman who Lived in her Shoe, by seeing theillustrations. 

Constructing one he repeated a verse somewhat like the following:

 Alone the fisherman sat, In his boat by the river's brink, In the chill and cold and snow, To fish, and fish, and think. 

Then he turned over to two on opposite pages, and as he constructedthem he repeated in turn:

 In a stream ten thousand li in length He bathes his feet at night, While on a mount he waves his arms, Ten thousand feet in height. 

The ten thousand li in one couplet corresponds to the ten thousand feetin the other, while the bathing of the feet corresponds to the wavingof the arms. Couplets of this kind are always attractive to the Chinesechild as well as to the scholar, and poems and essays are replete withsuch constructions. 

The child enjoyed making the pictures. I tried to make one, but foundit very difficult. I was not familiar with the blocks. It is differentnow, I have learned how to make them. Then it seemed as if it would beimpossible ever to do so. When I had failed to make the picture Iturned them over to him. In a moment it was done. 

"Who is it?" I asked. 

"Chang Ch'i, the poet, " he answered. "Whenever he went for a walk hetook with him a child who carried a bag in which to put the poems hehappened to write. In this illustration he stands with his head bentforward and his hands behind his back lost in thought, while the ladstands near with the bag. "

We have given in another chapter the story of the great traveller, Chang Ch'ien, and his search for the source of the Yellow River. 

In one of the illustrations the child represented him in his boat in away not very different from that of the artist. 

Another quotation from one of the poets was illustrated as follows:

 Last night a meeting I arranged, Ere I my lamp did light, Nor while I crossed the ferry feared, Or wind or rain or night. 

The child's eyes sparkled as he turned to some of those illustratingchildren at play, and as he constructed one which represents twochildren swinging their arms and running, he repeated:

 See the children at their play, Gathering flowers by the way. 

"They are gathering pussy-willows, " he added. 

In another he represented a child standing before the front gate, wherehe had knocked in vain to gain admission. As he completed it he said, pointing to the apricot over the door:

 Ten times he knocked upon the gate, But nine, they opened not, Above the wall he plainly saw, A ripe, red apricot. 

He continued to represent quotations from the poets and explain them ashe went along. 

There was one which indicated that some one was ascending the steps tothe jade platform on which the dust had settled as it does oneverything in Peking; at the same time the verse told us that

 Step by step we reach the platform, All of jade of purest green, Call a child to come and sweep it, But he cannot sweep it clean. 

"You know, " he went on, "the cottages of many of the poets were nearthe beautiful lakes in central China, in the wild heights of themountains, or upon the banks of some flowing stream. In this one thepavilion of the poet is on the bank of the river, and we are told that, In his cottage sat the poet Thinking, as the moon went by, That the moonlight on the water, Made the water like the sky. "

Changing it somewhat he made a cottage of a different kind. This wasnot made for the picture's sake, but to illustrate a sentence it wasdesigned to impress upon the child's mind. The quotation is somewhat asfollows:

 The ringing of the evening bells, The moon a crescent splendid, The rustling of the swallow's wings Betoken winter ended. 

The child looked up at me significantly as he turned to one whichrepresented a Buddhist priest. I expected something of a joke at thepriest's expense as in the nursery rhymes and games, but there wasnone. That would injure the sale of the book. The inscription told usthat "a Buddhist lantern will reflect light enough to illuminate thewhole universe. "

Turning to the next page we found a priest sitting in front of thetemple in the act of beating his wooden drum, while the poet exclaims:

 O crystal pool and silvery moon, So clear and pure thou art, There's nought to which thou wilt compare Except a Buddha's heart. 

The child next directed our attention to various kinds of flowers, moreespecially the marigold. A man in a boat rows with one hand while hepoints backward to the blossoming marigold, while in another picturethe poet tells us that, Along the eastern wall, We pluck the marigold, While on the south horizon, The mountain we behold. 

"What is that?" I asked as he turned to a picture of an old man ridingon a cow. 

"That is Laotze, the founder of Taoism, crossing the frontier at theHan Ku Pass between Shansi and Shensi, riding upon a cow. Nobody knowswhere he went. "

There were other pictures of Taoist patriarchs keeping sheep. By theirmagic power they turned the sheep into stones when they were tiredwatching them, and again the inscriptions told us, "the stones becamesheep at his call. " Still others represented them in search of theelixir of life, while in others they were riding on a snail. 

The object of thus bringing in incidents from all these Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, and other sources is that by catering to all classesthe book may have wide distribution, and whatever the Confucianist maysay, it must be admitted that the other religions have a strong holdupon the popular mind. 

The last twenty-six illustrations in Vol. I represent various incidentsin the life, history and employments of women. 

The first of these is an ancient empress "weaving at night by herpalace window. "

Another represents a woman in her boat and we are told that, "leavingher oar she leisurely sang a song entitled, 'Plucking the Caltrops. '"

Another represents a woman "wearing a pomegranate-colored dress ridinga pear-blossom colored horse. " A peculiar combination to say the least. 

The fisherman's wife is represented in her boat, "making her toilet atdawn using the water as a mirror. " While we are assured also that thewoman sitting upon her veranda "finds it very difficult to thread herneedle by the pale light of the moon, " which fact, few, I think, wouldquestion. 

In one of the pictures "a beautiful maiden, in the bright moonlight, came beneath the trees. " This is evidently contrary to Chinese ideas ofpropriety, for the Classic for girls tells us that a maiden should notgo out at night except in company with a servant bearing a lantern. Asit was bright moonlight, however, let us hope she was excusable. 

This sauntering about in the court is not uncommon if we believe whatthe books say, for in the next picture we are told that:

 As near the middle summer-house, The maiden sauntered by, Upon the jade pin in her hair There lit a dragon-fly. 

The next illustration represented the wife of the famous poet Ssu-MaHsiang-Ju in her husband's wine shop. 

This poet fell in love with the widowed daughter of a wealthy merchant, the result of which was that the young couple eloped and were married;and as the daughter was disinherited by her irate parent, she wascompelled to wait on customers in her husband's wine shop, which shedid without complaint. In spite of their imprudent conduct, and for thetime, its unhappy results, as soon as the poet had become so famous asto be summoned to court, the stern father relented, and, as it was acase of undoubted affection, which the Chinese readily appreciate theyhave always had the sympathy of the whole Chinese people. 

One of the most popular women in Chinese history is Mu Lan, the AChinese Joan of Arc. Her father, a great general, being too old to takecharge of his troops, and her brothers too young, she dressed herselfin boy's clothing, enrolled herself in the army, mounted her father'strusty steed, and led his soldiers to battle, thus bringing honor toherself and renown upon her family. 

We have already seen how diligent some of the ancient worthies were intheir study. This, however, is not universal, for we are told themother of Liu Kung-cho, in order to stimulate her son to study tookpills made of bear's gall and bitter herbs, to show her sympathy withher boy and lead him to feel that she was willing to endure bitternessas well as he. 

The last of these examples of noble women is that of the wife of LiangHung, a poor philosopher of some two thousand years ago. An effort wasmade to engage him to Meng Kuang, the daughter of a rich family, whoselack of beauty was more than balanced by her remarkable intelligence. The old philosopher feared that family pride might cause domesticinfelicity. The girl on her part steadfastly refused to marry any oneelse, declaring that unless she married Liang Hung, she would not marryat all. This unexpected constancy touched the old man's heart and hemarried her. She dressed in the most common clothing, always preparedhis food with her own hand, and to show her affection and respect neverpresented him with the rice-bowl without raising it to the level of hereyebrows, as in the illustration. 

It may be interesting to see some of the ornaments and utensils thechild made with his blocks. I shall therefore add three, a pair ofscissors, a teapot, and a seal with a turtle handle. 

Such is in general the character of the book the official's little boyhad with him. I afterwards secured several copies for myself andlearned to make all the pictures first shown me by the child, and Idiscovered that it is but one of several forms of what we may callkindergarten work, that it has gone through many editions, and is verywidely distributed. My own set contains 216 illustrations such as Ihave given. 

CHILDREN'S SHOWS AND ENTERTAINMENTS

My little girl came running into my study greatly excited andexclaiming:

"Papa, the monkey show, the monkey show. We want the monkey show, maywe have it?"

Now if you had but one little girl, and she wanted a monkey show tocome into your own court and perform for her and her little friends forhalf an hour, the cost of which was the modest sum of five cents, whatwould you do?

You would do as I did, no doubt, go out with the little girl, call inthe passing showman and allow him to perform, which would serve thetriple purpose of furnishing relaxation and instruction for yourself, entertainment for the children, and business for the showman. 

This however proved to be not the monkey show but Punch and Judy, aspecies of entertainment for children, the exact counterpart of our ownentertainment of that name. It may be of interest to young readers toknow how this show originated, and I doubt not it will be a surprise tosome older ones to know that it dates back to about the year 1000 B. C. 

We are told that while the Emperor Mu of the Chou dynasty was making atour of his empire, a skillful mechanic, Yen Shih by name, was broughtinto his presence and entertained him and the women of his seragliowith a dance performed by automaton figures, which were capable notonly of rhythmical movements of their limbs, but of accompanying theirmovements with songs. 

During and at the close of the performance, the puppets cast suchsignificant glances at the ladies as to anger the monarch, and heordered the execution of the originator of the play. 

The mechanic however ripped open the puppets, and proved to hisastonished majesty that they were only artificial objects, and insteadof being executed he was allowed to repeat his performance. This wasthe origin of the play in China which corresponds to Punch and Judy inEurope and America. 

To the question which naturally arises as to how the play was carriedto the West, I reply, it may not have been carried to Europe at all, but have originated there. From marked similarities in the two playshowever, and more especially in the methods of their production, we maysuppose that the Chinese Punch and Judy was carried to Europe in thefollowing way:

Among the many traders who visited Central Asia while it was under thegovernment of the family of Genghis Khan, were two Venetian brothers, Maffeo and Nicolo Polo, whose wondering disposition and tradinginterests led them as far as the court of the Great Khan, where theyremained in the most intimate relations with Kublai for some time, andwere finally sent back to Italy with a request that one hundredEuropean scholars be sent to China to instruct them in the arts ofEurope. 

This request was never carried out, but the two returned to the Khan'scourt with young Marco, the son of one of them, who remained with theMongol Emperor for seventeen years, during which time he had a betteropportunity of observing their customs than perhaps any other foreignersince his time. His final return to Italy was in 1295, and a year ortwo later, he wrote and revised his book of travels. 

The art of printing in Europe was discovered in 1438, and the firstedition of Marco Polo's travels was printed about 1550-59. Our Punchand Judy was invented by Silvio Fiorillo an Italian dramatist beforethe year 1600. I have found no reference to the play in Marco Polo'sworks, nevertheless, one cannot but think that, if not a written, atleast an oral, communication of the play may have been carried toEurope by him or some other of the Italian traders or travellers. Thetwo plays are very similar, even to the tones of the man who works thepuppets. 

In passing the school court on one occasion I saw the students gatheredin a crowd under the shade of the trees. A small tent was pitched, onthe front of which was a little stage. A manager stood behind thescreen from which position he worked a number of puppets in the form ofmen, women, children, horses and dragons. These were suspended by blackthreads as I afterwards discovered from small sticks or a frameworkwhich the manager manipulated behind the screen. When one finished itspart of the performance, it either walked off the stage, or the stickwas fastened in such a way as to leave it in a position conducive tothe amusement of the crowd. These were puppet shows, and were putthrough entire performances or plays, the manager doing the talking asin Punch and Judy. 

After the performance several of the students passed around the hat, each person present giving one-fifth or one-tenth of a cent. 

As I came from school one afternoon, the children had called in fromthe street a showman with a number of trained mice. He had erected alittle scaffolding just inside the gateway, at one side of which therewas a small rope ladder, and this with the inevitable gong, and thesmall boxes in which the mice were kept constituted his entire outfit. 

In the boxes he had what seemed to be cotton from the milk-weed whichfurnished a nest for the mice. These he took from their little boxesone by one, stroked them tenderly, while he explained what thisparticular mouse would do, put each one on the rope ladder, which theyascended, and performed the tricks expected of them. These were goingthrough a pagoda, drawing water, creeping through a tube, wearing acriminal's collar, turning a tread-mill, or working some other equallysimple trick. 

At times the mice had to be directed by a small stick in the hands ofthe manager, but they were carefully trained, kindly treated, and muchappreciated by the children. 

Although less attractive, there is no other show which impresses itselfso forcibly on the child's mind as the monkey, dog and sheep show. 

The dog was the first to perform. Four hoops were placed on the cornersof a square, ten feet apart. The dog walked around through these hoops, first through each in order, then turning went through each twice, thenthrough one and retracing his steps went through the one last passedthrough. 

The showman drove an iron peg in the ground on which were two blocksrepresenting millstones. To the upper one was a lever by which the dogwith his nose turned the top millstone as if grinding flour. He washitched to a wheelbarrow, the handles of which were held by the monkey, who pushed while the dog pulled. 

The most interesting part of the performance, however, was by themonkey. Various kinds of hats and false faces were kept in a box whichhe opened and secured. He stalked about with a cane in his hand, orcrosswise back of his neck, turned handsprings, went through varioustrapeze performances, such as hanging by his legs, tail, chin, andhands, or was whirled around in the air. 

The leading strap of the monkey was finally tied to the belt of thesheep which was led away to some distance and let go. The monkeybounded upon its back and held fast to the wool, while the sheep ranwith all its speed to the showman, who held a basin of broom-corn seedas a bait. This was repeated as often as the children desired, whichended the show. Time, --half an hour; spectators, --all who desired towitness it; price, --five cents. 

The showmen in China are somewhat like the tramps and beggars in othercountries. When they find a place where there are children who enjoyshows, each tells the other, and they all call around in turn. 

Our next show was an exhibition given by a man with a trained bear. 

The animal had two rings in his nose, to one of which was fastened aleading string or strap, and to the other, while performing, a largechain. A man stood on one end of the chain, and the manager, with along-handled ladle, or with his hand, gave the bear small pieces ofbread or other food after each trick he performed. 

The first trick was walking on his hind feet as if dancing. But moreamusing than this to the children was to see him turn summersaults bothforward and backward. These were repeated several times because theywere easily done, and added to the length of time the show continued. 

Children, however, begin to appreciate at an early age what isdifficult and what easy, and it was not until he took a carrying-polesix feet long, put the middle of it upon his forehead and set itwhirling with his paws, that they began to say:

"That's good, " "That's hard to do, " and other expressions of a likenature. 

They enjoyed seeing him stand on his front feet, or on his head withhis hind feet kicking the air, but they enjoyed still more seeing himput on the wooden collar of a convict and twirl it around his neck. Themanager gave him some bread and then tried to induce him to take itoff, but he whined for more bread and refused to do so. Finally he tookoff the collar, and when they tried to take it from him he put it onagain. When he took it off the next time and offered it to them theyrefused to receive it, but tried to get him to put it on, which hestubbornly refused to do, and finally threw it away. 

His last trick was to sit down upon his haunches, stick up one of hishind feet, and twirl a knife six feet long upon it as he had twirledthe carrying-pole upon his head. The manager said he would wrestle withthe men, but this was a side issue and only done when extra money wasadded to the regular price, which was twelve cents. 

One of the most common showmen seen on the streets of Peking, goesabout with a framework upon his shoulder in the shape of a sled, therunners of which are turned up at both ends. It seemed to me to be lessinteresting than the other shows, but as it is more common, thechildren probably look upon it with more favor, and the children arethe final critics of all things for the little ones. 

The show was given by a man and two boys, one of whom impersonated agirl. Small feet, like the bound feet of a girl, were strapped on likestilts, his own being covered by wide trousers, and he and the boy sangsongs and danced to the music of the drum and cymbals in the hands ofthe showman. 

The second part of the performance was a boat ride on dry land. Thegirl got into the frame, let down around it a piece of cloth which wasfastened to the top, and took hold of the frame in such a way as tocarry it easily. The boy, with a long stick, pushed as if starting theboat, and then pulled as if rowing, and with every pull of the oar, thegirl ran a few steps, making it appear that the boat shot forward. Allthe while the boy sang a boat-song or a love-ditty to his sweetheart. 

Again the scene changed. The head and hind parts of a papier machehorse were fastened to the "tomboy" in such a way as to make it appearthat she was riding; a cloth was let down to hide her feet, and theyran to and fro, one in one direction and the other in the other, shejerking her unmanageable steed, and he singing songs, and all to themusic of the drum and the cymbals. 

It sometimes happens that while the girl rides the horse, the boy goesbeside her in the boat, the rapidity and character of their movementsbeing governed by the music of the manager. 

The best part of the whole performance was that which goes by the nameof the lion show. The girl took off her small feet and girl's clothesand became a boy again. One of the boys stood up in front and put on anapron of woven grass, while the other bent forward and clutched hold ofhis belt. A large papier mache head of a lion was put on the front boy, to which was attached a covering of woven grass large enough to coverthem both, while a long tail of the same material was stuck into aframework fastened to the belt of the hinder boy. 

The manager beat the drum, the lion stalked about the court, keepingstep to the music, turning its large head in every direction andopening and shutting its mouth, much to the amusement of the children. 

There is probably no country in the world that has more travellingshows specially prepared for the entertainment of children than China. Scarcely a day passes that we do not hear the drum or the gong of theshowmen going to and fro, or standing at our court gate waiting to becalled in. 

JUVENILE JUGGLING

"How is that?"

"Very good. "

"Can you do it?" asked the sleight-of-hand performer, as he rolled alittle red ball between his finger and thumb, pitched it up, caught itas it came down, half closed his hand and blew into it, opened his handand the ball had disappeared. 

He picked up another ball, tossed it up, caught it in his mouth, dropped it into his hand, and it mysteriously disappeared. 

The juggler was seated on the ground with a piece of blue cloth spreadout before him, on which were three cups, and five little red wax ballsnearly as large as cranberries. 

He continued to toss the wax balls about until they had alldisappeared. We watched him closely, but could not discover where theyhad gone. He then arose, took a small portion of my coat sleeve betweenhis thumb and finger, began rubbing them together, and by and by, oneof the balls appeared between his digits. He picked at a small boy'sear and got another of the balls. He blew his nose and another droppedupon the cloth. He slapped the top of his head and one dropped out ofhis mouth, and he took the fifth from a boy's hair. 

He then changed his method. He placed the cups' mouths down upon thecloth, and under one of them put the five little balls. When he placedthe cup we watched carefully; there were no balls under it. When heraised it up, behold, there were the five little balls. 

He removed the cups from one place to another, and asked us to guesswhich cup the balls were under, but we were always wrong. 

There was a large company of us, ranging from children of three to oldmen and women of seventy-five, and from Chinese schoolboys to a bishopof the church, but none of us could discover how he did it. 

Later, however, I learned how the trick was performed. As he raised thecup with his thumb and forefinger, he inserted two other fingers under, gathered up all the balls between them and placed them under the cup ashe put it down. While in making the balls disappear, he concealed themeither in his mouth or between his fingers. 

The Chinese have a saying:

 In selecting his balls from north to south, The magician cannot leave his mouth; And in rolling his balls, you understand, He must have them hidden in his hand. 

Of quite a different character are the jugglers with plates and bowls. Not only children, but many of a larger growth delight to watch these. Our only way of learning about them was to call them into our court asthe Chinese call them to theirs, and that is what we did. 

The performer first put a plate on the top of a trident and set itwhirling. In this whirling condition he put the trident on his foreheadwhere he balanced it, the trident whirling with the plate as thoughboring into his skull. 

He next took a bamboo pole six feet long, with a nail in the end onwhich he set the plate whirling. The plate, of course, had a smallindentation to keep it in its place on the nail. He raised the plate inthe air and inserted into the first pole another of equal length, thenanother and still another, which put the plate whirling in the airthirty feet high. 

Thus whirling he balanced it on his hand, on his arm, on his thumb, onhis forehead, and finally in his mouth, after which he tossed the plateup, threw the pole aside and caught it as it came down. The old managerstanding by received the pole, but as he saw the plate tossed up, hefell flat upon the earth, screaming lest the plate be broken. 

This same performer set a bowl whirling on the end of a chop-stick. Then tossing the bowl up he caught it inverted on the chop-stick, andmade it whirl as rapidly as possible. In this condition he tossed it upten, then fifteen, then twenty or more feet into the air catching it onthe chop-stick as it came down. 

He then changed the process. He tossed the bowl a foot high, and struckit with the other chop-stick one, two, three, four or five times beforeit came down, and this he did so rapidly and regularly as to make itsound almost like music. There is a record of one of the ancient poetswho was able to play a tune with his bowl and chop-sticks after havingfinished his meal. He may have done it in this way. 

This trick seemed a very difficult performance. It excited thechildren, and some of the older persons clapped their hands andexclaimed, "Very good, very good. " But when he tossed it only a foothigh and let go the chop-stick, making it change ends, and catching thebowl, they were ready for a general applause. In striking the bowl andthus manipulating his chop-sticks, his hands moved almost as rapidly asthose of an expert pianist. 

"Can you toss the knives?" piped up one of the children who had seen ajuggler perform this difficult feat. 

The man picked up two large knives about a foot long and began tossingthem with one hand. While this was going on a third knife was handedhim and he kept them going with both hands. At times he threw themunder his leg or behind his back, and at other times pitched them uptwenty feet high, whirling them as rapidly as possible and catchingthem by the handles as they came down. 

While doing this he passed one of the knives to the attendant who gavehim a bowl, and he kept the bowl and two knives going. Then he gave theattendant another knife and received a ball, and the knife, the balland the bowl together, the ball and bowl at times moving as though theformer were glued to the bottom of the latter. 

These were not all the tricks he could perform but they were all hewould perform in addition to his bear show for twelve cents--for thiswas the man with the bear--so the children allowed him to go. 

Some weeks later they called in a different bear show. This bear waslarger and a better performer, but his tricks were about the same. 

The juggler in addition to doing all we have already describedperformed also the following tricks. 

He first put one end of an iron rod fifteen inches long in his mouth. On this he placed a small revolving frame three by six inches. He set abowl whirling on the end of a bamboo splint fifteen inches long, theother end of which he rested on one side of the frame, balancing thewhole in his mouth. 

While the bowl continued whirling, he took the frame off the rod, stuckthe bamboo in a hole in the frame an inch from the end, resting theother end of the frame on the rod, brought the bowl over so as toobtain a centre of gravity and thus balanced it. 

He took two small tridents a foot or more in length, put the end of thehandle of one in his mouth, set the bowl whirling on the end of thehandle of the other, rested the middle prong of one on the middle prongof the other and let it whirl with the bowl. Afterwards he set theprong of the whirling trident on the edge of the other and let it whirl. 

He took two long curved boar's teeth which were fastened on the ends oftwo sticks, one a foot long, the other six inches. The one he held inhis mouth, the other having a hole diagonally through the stick, heinserted a chop-stick making an angle of seventy degrees. He set thebowl whirling on the end of the chop-stick, rested one tooth on theother, in the indentation and they whirled like a brace and bit. 

Finally he took a spiral wire having a straight point on each end. Thishe called a dead dragon. He set the bowl whirling on one end, placingthe other on the small frame already referred to. As the spiral wirebegan to turn as though boring, he called it a living dragon. Thesefeats of balancing excited much wonder and merriment on the part of thechildren. 

The juggler then took an iron trident with a handle four and a halffeet long and an inch and a half thick, and, pitching it up into theair, caught it on his right arm as it came down. He allowed it to rolldown his right arm, across his back, and along his left arm, and as heturned his body he kept the trident rolling around crossing his backand breast and giving it a new impetus with each arm. The trident hadon it two cymbal-shaped iron plates which kept up a constant rattling. 

This showman had with him three boy acrobats whose skill he proceededto show. 

"Pitch the balls, " he said. 

The largest of the three boys fastened a cushioned band, on which was aleather cup, around his head, the cup being on his forehead justbetween his eyes. 

He took two wooden balls, two and a half inches in diameter, tossedthem in the air twenty feet high, catching them in the cup as they camedown. The shape of the cup was such as to hold the balls by suctionwhen they fell. He never once missed. This is the most dangerouslooking of all the tricks I have seen jugglers perform. 

"Shooting stars, " said the showman. 

The boy tossed aside his cup and balls and took a string six feet long, on the two ends of which were fastened wooden balls two and a halfinches in diameter. He set the balls whirling in opposite directionsuntil they moved so rapidly as to stretch the string, which he thenheld in the middle with finger and thumb and by a simple motion of thehand kept the balls whirling. 

He was an expert, and changed the swinging of the balls in as manydifferent ways as an expert club-swinger could his clubs. 

"Boy acrobats, " called out the manager, as the manipulator of the"shooting stars" bowed himself out amid the applause of the children. 

The two smaller boys threw off their coats, hitched up theirtrousers--always a part of the performance whether necessary ornot--and began the high kick, high jump, handspring, somersault, wagonwheel, ending with hand-spring, and bending backwards until their headstouched the ground. 

One of them stood on two benches a foot high, put a handkerchief on theground, and bending backwards, picked it up with his teeth. 

The two boys then clasped each other around the waist, as in theillustration, and each threw the other back over his head a dozen timesor more. 

Exit the bear show with the boy acrobats, enter the old woman jugglerwith her husband who beats the gong. 

This was one of the most interesting performances I have ever seen inChina, perhaps because so unexpected. 

The old woman had small, bound feet. She lay flat on her back, stuck upher feet, and her husband put a crock a foot in diameter and a foot anda half deep upon them. She set it rolling on her feet until it whirledlike a cylinder. She tossed it up in such a way as to have it lightbottom side up on her "lillies, "[1] in which position she kept itwhirling. Tossing it once more it came down on the side, and againtossing it she caught it right side up on her small feet, keeping itwhirling all the time. 

My surprise was so great that I gave the old woman ten cents forperforming this single trick. 

The tricks of sleight-of-hand performers are well-nigh without number. Some of them are easily understood, --surprising, however, tochildren--and often interesting to grown people, while others are veryclever and not so easily understood. 

Instead of the hat from which innumerable small packages are taken, theChinese magician had two hollow cylinders, which exactly fit into eachother, that he took out of a box and placed upon a cylindrical chest, and from these two cylinders--each of which he repeatedly showed us asbeing without top or bottom and empty--he took a dinner of a dozencourses. 

He called upon the baker to bring bread, the grocer to bringvegetables, and after each call he took out of the cylinders the thingcalled for. He finally called the wine shop to bring wine, and removingboth cylinders, he exposed to the surprised children a large crock ofwine. 

As he brought out dish after dish, the children looked in open-mouthedwonder, and asked papa, mama or nurse, where he got them all, for theyevidently were not in the cylinders. But papa saw him all the timemanipulating the crock in the cylinder which he did not show, and heknew that all these things were taken from and then returned to thiscrock, while instead of being full of wine, he had only a cup of winein a false lid which exactly fitted the mouth of the crock, and made itseem full. 

When he had put away his crock and cylinders, he produced what seemedto be two empty cups. 

He presented them to us to show that they were empty, then putting themmouth to mouth, and placing them on the ground, he left them a moment, when with a "presto change, " and a wave of the hand, he removed the topcup and revealed to the astonished children and some of the children ofa larger growth, a cup full of water with two or three little fish orfrogs therein. 

On inquiry I was told that he had the under cup covered with a thinfilm of water-colored material, and that as he removed the top cup heremoved also the film which left the fish or frogs exposed to view. 

This same juggler performed many tricks of producing great dishes ofwater from under his garments, the mere enumeration of which, mightprove to be tiresome. 

I was walking along the street one day near the mouth of Filial PietyLane where a large company of men and children were watching a juggler, and from the trick I thought it worth while to invite him in for theamusement of the children. He promised to come about four o clock, which he did. 

He first proceeded to eat a hat full of yellow paper, after which, witha gag and a little puff, he pulled from his mouth a tube of paper ofthe same color five or six yards long. 

This was very skillfully performed and for a long time I was not ableto understand how he did it. But after awhile I discovered that withthe last mouthful of paper he put in a small roll, the centre of whichhe started by puffing, and this he pulled out in a long tube. He did itwith so many groanings and with such pain in the region of the stomach, that attention was directed either to his stomach or the roll, andtaken away from his mouth. 

"I shall eat these needles, " said he, as he held up half a dozenneedles, "and then eat this thread, after which I shall reproduce them. "

He did so. He grated his teeth together causing a sound much like thatof breaking needles. He pretended to swallow them, working his tongueback and forth in his tightly closed mouth, after which he drew forththe thread on which all the needles were strung. 

He had a number of small white bone needles which he stuck into hisnose and pulled out of his eyes, or which he pushed up under his upperlip and took out of his eyes or vice versa. How he performed the abovetrick I was not able to discover. He seemed to put them through thetear duct, but whether he did or not I cannot say. How he got them fromhis mouth to his eyes unless he had punctured a passage beneath theskin, is still to me a mystery. 

His last trick was to swallow a sword fifteen inches long. The swordwas straight with a round point and dull edges. There was no deceptionabout this. He was an old man and his front, upper teeth were badlyworn away by the constant rasping of the not over-smooth sword. Hesimply put it in his mouth, threw back his head and stuck it down histhroat to his stomach. 

[1] Small feet of the Chinese woman. 

STORIES TOLD TO CHILDREN

One hot summer afternoon as I lay in the hammock trying to take a napafter a hard forenoon's work and a hearty lunch, I heard the same oldnurse who had told me my first Chinese Mother Goose Rhymes, telling thefollowing story to the same little boy to whom she had repeated the"Mouse and the Candlestick. "

She told him that the Chinese call the Milky Way the Heavenly River, and that the Spinning Girl referred to in the story is none other thanthe beautiful big star in Lyra which we call Vega, while the Cow-herdis Altair in Aquila. 

THE HEAVENLY RIVER, WITH THE PEOPLE WHO DWELL THEREON. 

Once upon a time there dwelt a beautiful maiden in a quiet littlevillage on the shore of the Heavenly River. 

Her name was Vega, but the people of China have always called her theSpinning Maiden, because of her faithfulness to her work, for thoughdays, and months, and years passed away, she never left her loom. 

Her diligence so moved the heart of her grandfather, the King ofHeaven, that he determined to give her a vacation, which she at oncedecided to spend upon the earth. 

In a village near where the maiden dwelt there was a young man namedAltair, whom the Chinese call the Cow-herd. 

Now the Cow-herd was in love with the Spinning Girl, but she was alwaysso intent upon her work as never to give him an opportunity to confesshis affection, but now he determined to follow her to earth, and, ifpossible, win her for his bride. 

He followed her through the green fields and shady groves, but neverdared approach her or tell her of his love. 

At last, however, the time came. He discovered her bathing in a limpidstream, the banks of which were carpeted with flowers, while myriadboughs of blossoming peach and cherry trees hid her from all the worldbut him. 

He secretly crept near and stole away and hid her garments made ofsilken gauze and finely woven linen, making it alike impossible for herto resist his suit or to return to her celestial home. 

She yielded to the Cow-herd and soon became his wife, and as the yearspassed by a boy and girl were born to them, little star children, twins, such as are seen near by the Spinning Girl in her heavenly hometo-day. 

One day she went to her husband, and, bowing low, requested that hereturn the clothes he had hid away, and he, thinking the presence ofthe children a sufficient guaranty for her remaining in his home, toldher he had put them in an old, dry well hard by the place where she hadbeen bathing. 

No sooner had she secured them than the aspect of their home waschanged. The Cow-herd's wife once more became the Spinning Girl andhied her to her heavenly abode. 

It so happened that her husband had a piece of cow-skin which gave himpower over earth and air. Snatching up this, with his ox-goad, hefollowed in the footsteps of his fleeing wife. 

Arriving at their heavenly home the happy couple sought the joys ofmarried life. The Spinning Girl gave up her loom, and the Cow-herd hiscattle, until their negligence annoyed the King of Heaven, and herepented having let her leave her loom. He called upon the WesternRoyal Mother for advice. After consultation they decided that the twoshould be separated. The Queen, with a single stroke of her greatsilver hairpin, drew a line across the heavens, and from that time theHeavenly River has flowed between them, and they are destined to dwellforever on the two sides of the Milky Way. 

What had seemed to the youthful pair the promise of perpetual joy, became a condition of unending grief. They were on the two sides of abridgeless river, in plain sight of each other, but forever debarredfrom hearing the voice or pressing the land of the one beloved, doomedto perpetual toil unlit by any ray of joy or hope. 

Their evident affection and unhappy condition moved the heart of HisMajesty, and caused him to allow them to visit each other once witheach revolving year, --on the seventh day of the seventh moon. Butpermission was not enough, for as they looked upon the foaming watersof the turbulent stream, they could but weep for their wretchedcondition, for no bridge united its two banks, nor was it allowed thatany structure be built which would mar the contour of the shining dome. 

In their helplessness the magpies came to their rescue. At early mornon the seventh day of the seventh moon, these beautiful birds gatheredin great flocks about the home of the maiden, and hovering wing to wingabove the river, made a bridge across which her dainty feet might carryher in safety. But when the time for separation came, the two weptbitterly, and their tears falling in copious showers are the cause ofthe heavy rains which fall at that season of the year. 

From time immemorial it has been known that the Yellow River is neithermore nor less than a prolongation of the Milky Way, soiled by earthlycontact and contamination, and that the homes of the Spinning Maidenand the Cow-herd are the centres of two of the numerous villages thatadorn its banks. It is not to be wondered at, however, that in an eviland skeptical world there should be many who doubt these facts. 

On this account, and to forever settle the dispute, the great travellerand explorer, Chang Ch'ien, undertook to discover the source of theYellow River. He first transformed the trunk of a great tree into aboat, provided himself with the necessities of life and started on hisjourney. 

Days passed into weeks, and weeks became months as he sailed up themurky waters of the turbid stream. But the farther he went the clearerthe waters became until it seemed as if they were flowing over a bed ofpure, white limestone. Village after village was passed both on hisright hand and on his left, and many were the strange sights that methis gaze. The fields became more verdant, the flowers more beautiful, the scenery more gorgeous, and the people more like nymphs and fairies. The color of the clouds and the atmosphere was of a richer, softer hue;while the breezes which wafted his frail bark were milder and gentlerthan any he had known before. 

Despairing at last of reaching the source he stopped at a village wherehe saw a maiden spinning and a young man leading an ox to drink. Healighted from his boat and inquired of the girl the name of the place, but she, without making reply, tossed him her shuttle, telling him toreturn to his home and inquire of the astrologer, who would inform himwhere he received it, if he but told him when. 

He returned and presented the shuttle to the noted astrologer ChunPing, informing him at the same time where, when and from whom he hadreceived it. The latter consulted his observations and calculations anddiscovered that on the day and hour when the shuttle had been given tothe traveller he had observed a wandering star enter and leave thevillages of the Spinning Girl and the Cow-herd, which proved beyonddoubt that the Yellow River is the prolongation of the Milky Way, whilethe points of light which we call stars, are the inhabitants of Heavenpursuing callings similar to our own. 

Chang Ch'ien made another important discovery, namely, that thecelestials, understanding the seasons better than we, turn the shiningdome in such a way as to make the Heavenly River indicate the seasonsof the year, and so the children sing:

 Whene'er the Milky Way you spy, Diagonal across the sky, The egg-plant you may safely eat, And all your friends to melons treat. 

 But when divided towards the west, You'll need your trousers and your vest When like a horn you see it float; You'll need your trousers and your coat. 

It is unnecessary to state that I did not go to sleep while the oldnurse was telling the story of the Heavenly River. The child sat on hislittle stool, his elbows on his knees and his chin resting in hishands, listening with open lips and eyes sparkling with interest. Tothe old nurse it was real. The spinning girl and the cow-herd wereliving persons. The flowers bloomed, --we could almost smell theirodor, --and the gentle breezes seemed to fan our cheeks. She had toldthe story so often that she believed it, and she imparted to us her owninterest. 

"Nurse, " said the child, "tell me about

 "'THE MAN IN THE MOON. '"

"The man in the moon, " said the old nurse, "is called Wu Kang. He wasskilled in all the arts of the genii, and was accustomed to play beforethem whenever opportunity offered or occasion required. 

"Once it turned out that his performances were displeasing to thespirits, and for this offense he was banished to the moon, andcondemned to perpetual toil in hewing down the cinnamon trees whichgrow there in great abundance. At every blow of the axe he made anincision, but only to see it close up when the axe was withdrawn. 

"He had another duty, however, a duty which was at times irksome, butone which on the whole was more pleasant than any that falls to men orspirits, --the duty indicated by the proverb that 'matches are made inthe moon. '

"It was his lot to bind together the feet of all those on earth who aredestined to a betrothal, and in the performance of this duty, he wasoften compelled to return to earth. When doing so he came as an old manwith long white hair and beard, with a book in his hand in which he hadwritten the matrimonial alliances of all mankind. He also carried awallet which contains a ball of invisible cord with which he tiestogether the feet of all those who are destined to be man and wife, andthe destinies which he announces it is impossible to avoid. 

"On one occasion he came to the town of Sung, and while sitting in themoonlight, turning over the leaves of his book of destinies, he wasasked by Wei Ku, who happened to be passing, who was destined to becomehis bride. The old man consulted his records, as he answered: 'Yourwife is the daughter of an old woman named Ch'en who sells vegetablesin yonder shop. '

"Having heard this, Wei Ku went the next day to look about him and ifpossible to get a glimpse of the one to whom the old man referred, buthe discovered that the only child the old woman had was an ill-favoredone of two years which she carried in her arms. He hired an assassin tomurder the infant, but the blow was badly aimed and left only a scar onthe child's eyebrow. 

"Fourteen years afterwards, Wei Ku married a beautiful maiden ofsixteen whose only defect was a scar above the eye, and on inquiries hediscovered that she was the one foretold by the Old Man of the Moon, and he recalled the proverb that 'Matches are made in heaven, and thebond of fate is sealed in the moon. '"

"Nurse, tell me about the land of the big people, " whereupon the nursetold him of

 THE LAND OF GIANTS. 

"There was in ancient times a country east of Korea which was calledthe land of the giants. It was celebrated for its length rather thanfor its width, being bounded on all sides by great mountain ranges, thelike of which cannot be found in other countries. It extends forthousands of miles along the deep passes between the mountains, at theentrance to which there are great iron gates, easily closed, but verydifficult to open. 

"Many armies have made war upon the giants, among which none have beenmore celebrated than those of Korea, which embraces in its standingarmy alone many thousands of men, but thus far they have never beenconquered. 

"Nor is this to be wondered at, for besides their great iron gates, andnumerous fortifications, the men are thirty feet tall according to ourmeasurement, have teeth like a saw, hooked claws, and bodies coveredwith long black hair. 

"They live upon the flesh of fowls and wild beasts which are found inabundance in the mountain fastnesses, but they do not cook their food. They are very fond of human flesh, but they confine themselves to theflesh of enemies slain in battle, and do not eat the flesh of their ownpeople, even though they be hostile, as this is contrary to the law ofthe land. 

"Their women are as large and fierce as the men, but their duties areconfined to the preparation of extra clothing for winter wear, foralthough they are covered with hair it is insufficient to protect themfrom the winter's cold. "

While the old nurse was relating the tale of the giants I could not butwonder whether there was not some relation between that and theBrobdingnagians I had read about in my youth. But I was not given muchtime to think. This seemed to have been a story day, for the nurse hadhardly finished the tale till the child said:

"Now tell me about the country of the little people, " and she relatedthe story of

 THE LAND OF DWARFS. 

"The country of the little people is in the west, where the sun goesdown. 

"Once upon a time a company of Persian merchants were making a journey, when by a strange mishap they lost their way and came to the land ofthe little people. They were at first surprised, and then delighted, for they discovered that the country was not only densely populatedwith these little people, who were not more than three feet high, butthat it was rich in all kinds of precious stones and rare and valuablematerials. 

"They discovered also that during the season of planting andharvesting, they were in constant terror lest the great multitude ofcranes, which are without number in that region, should swoop down uponthem and eat both them and their crops. They soon learned, however, that the little people were under the protecting care of the RomanEmpire, whose interest in them was great, and her arm mighty, and theywere thus guarded from all evil influences as well as from all danger. Nor was this a wholly unselfish interest on the part of the Romanpower, for the little people repaid her with rich presents of the mostcostly gems, --pearls, diamonds, rubies and other precious stones. "

I need not say I was beginning to be surprised at the number of talesthe old woman told which corresponded to those I had been accustomed toread and hear in my childhood, nor was my surprise lessened when at hisrequest she told him how

 THE SUN WENT BACKWARD. 

"Once upon a time Lu Yang-kung was engaged in battle with Han Kou-nan, and they continued fighting until nearly sundown. The former wasgetting the better of the battle, but feared he would lose it unlessthey fought to a finish before the close of day. The sun was near thehorizon, and the battle was not yet ended, and the former, pointing hislance at the King of Day caused him to move backward ten miles in hiscourse. "

"When did that happen?" inquired the child. 

"The Chinese say it happened about three thousand years ago, " repliedthe old nurse. 

"Now tell me about the man who went to the fire star. "

The old woman hesitated a moment as though she was trying to recallsomething and then told him the story of

 MARS, THE GOD OF WAR. 

"Once upon a time there was a great rebel whose name was Ch'ih Yu. Hewas the first great rebel that ever lived in China. He did not want toobey the chief ruler, and invented for himself warlike weapons, thinking that in this way he might overthrow the government and placehimself upon the throne. 

"He had eighty-one brothers, of whom he was the leader. They had humanspeech, but bodies of beasts, foreheads of iron, and fed upon the dustof the earth. 

"When the time for the battle came, he called upon the Chief of theWind and the Master of the Rain to assist him, and there arose a greattempest. But the Chief sent the Daughter of Heaven to quell the storm, and then seized and slew the rebel. His spirit ascended to theFire-Star (Mars)--the embodiment of which he was while uponearth, --where it resides and influences the conduct of warfare even tothe present time. "

"Tell me the story of the man who went to the mountain to gatherfire-wood and did not come home for such a long time. "

The old nurse began a story which as it progressed reminded me of

 RIP VAN WINKLE. 

"A long time ago there lived a man named Wang Chih, which in ourlanguage means 'the stuff of which kings are made. ' In spite of hisname, however, he was only a common husbandman, spending his summers inplowing, planting and harvesting, and his winters in gatheringfertilizers upon the highways, and fire-wood in the mountains. 

"On one occasion he wandered into the mountains of Ch'u Chou, his axeupon his shoulder, hoping to find more and better fire-wood than couldbe found upon his own scanty acres, or the adjoining plain. While inthe mountains he came upon a number of aged men, in a beautifulmountain grotto, intently engaged in a game of chess. Wang was a goodchess-player himself, and for the time forgot his errand. He laid downhis axe, stood silently watching them, and in a very few moments wasdeeply interested in the game. 

"It was while he was thus watching them that one of the old men, without looking up from the game, gave him what seemed to be a dateseed, telling him at the same time to put it in his mouth. He did so, but no sooner had he tasted it, than he lost all consciousness ofhunger and thirst, and continued to stand watching the players and theprogress of the game, thinking nothing of the flight of time. 

"At last one of the old men said to him:

"'You have been here a long time, ought you not to go home?'

"This aroused him from his reverie, and he seemed to awake as from adream, his interest in the game passed away, and he attempted to pickup his axe, but found that it was covered with rust and the handle hadmoulded away. But while this called his attention to the fact that timehad passed, he felt not the burden of years. 

"When he returned to the plain, and to what had formerly been his home, he discovered that not only years but centuries had passed away sincehe had left for the mountains, and that his relatives and friends hadall crossed to the 'Yellow Springs, ' while all records of his departurehad long since been forgotten, and he alone remained a relic of thepast. 

"He wandered up and down inquiring of the oldest people of all thevillages, but could discover no link which bound him to the present. 

"He returned to the mountain grotto, devoted himself to the study ofthe occult principles of the 'Old Philosopher' until the materialelements of his mortal frame were gradually evaporated or sublimated, and without having passed through the change which men call death, hebecame an immortal spirit returning whence he came. "

Just as the old woman finished this story, my teacher, who always tooka nap after lunch, ascended the steps. 

"Ah, the story of Wang Chih. "

"Do you know any of these stories?" I asked him as I sat down besidehim. 

"All children learn these stories in their youth, " he answered, andthen as if fearing I would try to induce him to tell them to me hecontinued, "but nurses always tell these stories better than any oneelse, because they tell them so often to the children, for whom alonethey were made. "