Chinese Grooms. 169 



course, was largely attended, especially as I made it known 

 that my wife would ride any pony brought to us. Before 

 our visit, the English residents had an idea that obstreperous 

 China ponies, of which there were many, could be handled 

 only by Chinamen. The mafoos (native grooms), who re- 

 gularly 'did Jos' for my destruction, were naturally the chief 

 originators of this absurd opinion. If an owner wanted to 

 inspect his pony's feet, the mafoo promptly applied some 

 appropriate devilment which made the animal kick and bite 

 so badly as to prevent the near approach of the so-called 

 proprietor. If the white man was persevering enough to order 

 Mr Pigtail to ' catchee this side leg,' Mr John would instantly 

 reply : ' No can catchee.' Thus, in the large majority of 

 cases, the mafoo groomed the pony just as much, or as little, 

 as he liked ; being without fear of inspection. Under such 

 a state of things, it was natural to find a great number of 

 reputed man-eaters and demons of ponies, whose supposed 

 foibles made stable work more of a pleasure than a toil to 

 the attendant mafoos. I had the satisfaction of demonstrat- 

 ing to the residents of Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tientsin, 

 that the China pony had not yet been bred, which a white 

 man could not handle, and an English lady could not ride, 

 with safety. My success in these experiments with vicious 

 biters, was greatly enhanced by the adoption of the very 

 simple plan of opening a biter's mouth by means of a stick 

 gently insinuated between the lips, and not by the fingers. 



The word Jos, which I used in the preceding paragraph, 

 means God ; and ' doing Jos,' worshipping God. If we are 

 to believe the old saying that man makes God in his own 

 image, what dolts Chinamen must be ! They look upon Jos 

 as a simpleton that can be beguiled by the most transparent 

 artifices ; so, when they want to propitiate him, they are 

 wont to present unto him imitation bricks of silver, made 

 of paper. Although these cardboard structures are as little 

 like the real article as the bit of tin on the top of the cork 

 of a soda-water bottle is to a silver sixpence, confiding Jos 



