CUSTOMS 255 



persons have been drowned, and the belief 

 is that the evil spirits are afraid to go again 

 to the place guarded by one of these posts, 

 and that no one can be drowned near where 

 a post is planted. 



There are so many curious customs in 

 China that a large book could be written 

 about them, but I have referred to a few 

 only, and the shooter will observe many 

 more if he shoots in China for any length 

 of time. He should remember that the 

 Chinese are the antipodes of the westerner, 

 not only geographically, but socially, moral- 

 ly, mentally and politically. Their manner 

 of life naturally seems upside down to a 

 westerner, for where the latter wears black 

 for mourning purposes the Chinese wear 

 white, and, in meeting, a Chinaman shakes 

 his own hand and not the hand of his friend 

 as in the west. At the table or elsewhere 

 the place of honor in China is on the left 

 hand and not the right as in the west. They 

 read their books from top to bottom, be- 

 ginning at the right and reading to the left. 

 In the west the notes of an author or a 

 commentator are written at the bottom of 

 the page while Chinese authors or com- 

 mentators write theirs at the top. 



