ORIENTAL IVORY CARVINGS 127 



The apprentices and those employed in shops are required 

 to work ten hours each working day. However, while these 

 are long hours, there is a very rational alternation of work 

 and rest. Beginning his labours at 7:00 a. m., the carver 

 continues to work until 9:30 a. m., and then is given a full 

 hour for his morning meal; work is resumed at 10:30 a. m., 

 continuing from this hour to 1.30 p. M., when there is a 

 half hour's pause for tea drinking; then follows a session 

 lasting from 2:00 p. m. until 5:30 p. m., at which hour work 

 is again suspended and the worker is allowed two full hours 

 for his evening meal, after which he goes to work again for 

 two hours, his day's task finally terminating at 9:30 p. m. 

 There are about 316 working days in the Chinese year of 

 360 days. The 44 days remaining are reckoned as holidays 

 or vacations, as follows:* 



New Year holidays 7 days. 



Leave of absence for the " Ching Ming " term, the time when 



the Chinese worship the tombs of their ancestors . . 10 days. 

 The 5th day of the 5th Moon — Dragon Boat Festival . . 1 day. 

 The 27th day of the 8th Moon — the anniversary of the 



birthday of Confucius 1 day. 



The closing days previous to the New Year's Festivities, 



when the Chinese have a general cleaning, beginning 



about the 25th of the 12th Moon 5 days. 



Home leave, twice a year, each time ten days . . . . 20 days. 



44 days. 



Some quite effectively carved plaques of mammoth ivory 

 come from Tobolsk, Siberia. These offer characteristic 

 representations of the natives of the country, showing their 

 sledges drawn by reindeer, the animals being portrayed in 

 a lifelike manner, while the figures of the natives, bundled 

 up in their ample fur garments, are eminently suggestive of 



*A11 these details as to the Canton ivory carvers were communicated to the writer by 

 U. S. Consul-General F. D. Cheshire, in a letter dated Canton, China, August 11, 1913. 



