4 SHOOTING IN CHINA 



is, with the dialect of the province which 

 he wishes to visit, he had as well not go 

 there, if he goes to learn the customs of 

 the inhabitants. I do not mean that to 

 enjoy shooting in China the shooter 

 should understand the language, nor do 

 I mean that he must incur the expense 

 of an interpreter, but if he has an inter- 

 preter who knows the dialect of the neigh- 

 bourhood in which he decides to shoot 

 he will learn much that will be useful 

 to his enjoyment. And it should be 

 emphasized, that however proficient an 

 interpreter may be in the dialect of one 

 province he will probably be totally 

 ignorant of that spoken in another ; and 

 this is a peculiarity the judge very likely 

 had in mind when he intimated that I 

 would learn many if I resided in China long. 

 I was first impressed by the radical difference 

 in the dialects of the provinces when on a 

 visit to Chefoo during a summer season. 

 I took with me my Chinese servant boy, 

 who had been in my employment for 

 sometime, but I had not been in Chefoo a 

 day before becoming aware that he could 

 not understand a word of the Chefoo dialect, 



