CHINESE PUZZLEDOM 151 



represent their respective names, and, as we would say, 

 "how do you spell it?" Chang enquires very politely 

 "which Li is it?" Quoth Li, ' 'Tis Li of the wooden son, 

 .and may I enquire which Chang it is? 'Tis Chang of the 

 long bow," replies the other. To say that a man is 

 "wooden," or "wooden-headed," rather implies that he is 

 .an image of Buddha,* the Jewel in the Lotus, for many of 

 those images are made of wood; and to say he "draws the 

 long bow" does not by any means insinuate that he is a 

 perverter of the truth. But they have other methods for 

 conveying the desired information; they may resort to the 

 silent expedient of tracing the character on the palm of the 

 left hand with the right index finger. In summer when fans 

 are carried nothing is more convenient, in case of doubt, 

 than to trace a character in the air with the folded fan, like 

 the conductor of an orchestra delicately punctuating a 

 staccato passage with his baton. You are expected to read 

 the invisible character in the air, which is just as legible as 

 an inscription on water; you nod assent whether you can 

 read it or not. Without mutual explanations of this sort, 

 one never knows how one stands with regard to isolated 

 sounds. 



Not long ago I lost a little dog. As the animal was a 

 pet of the whole household every effort was made for its 

 recovery. At last it occurred to the houseboy to resort to 

 magic, so he quietly repaired to a Professor of the occult in 

 the neighbourhood to have a character dissected with the 

 object of locating the lost dog. Having explained his errand, 

 and having deposited the modest sum of three coppers in 

 advance, the man of magic presented to him a tray contain- 

 ing about two hundred characters written on small pieces of 

 paper and rolled up into> spills resembling cigarettes. He 

 was told to take one. Into the promiscuous pile the boy 

 plunged his hand and carelessly drew forth one spill which 

 on being unrolled was found to bear the character $! (ch c en). 

 Now, this is the way the character was dissected and 

 analysed. "Here," said the man of magic, "is the character 

 ch'en. You will observe that there is a man in it; not a 

 child, not a woman, but one man, with a long pole on his 

 shoulder; the one is on the top and the man is below. In 

 between is the character ffl (t'ien), which reveals the fact 

 that he is a man from the fields — a peasant, — come into 

 town, no doubt, with a carrying-pole to find work. That is 



* ?fc BR A Jil lUi! • "He is the best of all guides of men; no 

 other being is like unto him ; he is like a jewel, of imperishable glory, 

 who hears the Law with a pure heart." The Buddha-Karita. 



