80 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AXD SPORT. 



cards of invitation to this dinner were written, as 

 xisual, on red paper, and offered us only " a trifling 

 refreshment" just as in England one is sometimes 

 asked to a superb dinner, Avith the specious phrase 

 of "come and take a chop." The son who brought 

 up my card noticed that I was examining the Chinese 

 characters with which my name had been represented, 

 and shortly after he brought me another invitation, 

 saying that a mistake had been made in writing the 

 address. This was rather amusing, for in the first 

 card they had ventured on a sly hit, thinking I would 

 not find it out, which, thanks to a dictionary, I was 

 able to do ; and in the second they paid me a high 

 compliment. Most sounds may be expressed in 

 Chinese writing by several characters, so in express- 

 ing the sounds forming the name of a foreigner, some 

 quiet humour may be indulged in. My name, as 

 written in the first instance, was "turbulent, un- 

 settled fellow " ; but in the second I was called the 

 "generous successful prophet." That I am a prophet 

 was no news to me ; but the " successful " was an 

 acknowledgment which had the advantage of being 

 entirely novel. It will be observed that, in reality. 

 these titles were not contradictory ; for where was 

 ever a prophet who was not, in the first instance, 

 regarded as turbulent and unsettled ? On descending 

 to dinner each person shook his own hands in a 

 highly respectful manner, and a few minutes elapsed 

 before any person could be induced to sit down first, 



