156 CHINESE PUZZLEDOM 



presence of a superior or of an equal, and highly improper 

 before a woman, even when indoors. To show civility a 

 Chinese gentleman removes his spectacles. Men salute each 

 other in the streets by taking off their spectacles. A Chinese 

 will no more think of removing his hat at meals than a 

 foreigner would think of taking off his boots; but he will 

 clear for action by taking off his coat. Water is wrung out 

 of a- piece of washing by twisting the article the other way 

 about. When stitching a hem the needle is thrust point 

 outwards and the tread is drawn away. A thimble is a ring 

 worn on the finger instead of a cap worn on the finger tip. 

 Their tobacco pipes, when compared with ours, are long in 

 the stem and small in the bowl. In many places, when they 

 build a house, they run up a framework and commence with 

 the roof. When a parcel has to be done up, the wrapper is 

 invariably placed diagonally and folded corner- wise. Paper 

 bags used in a grocer's shop are triangular instead of being 

 square. A dinner is commenced with the "nuts and wine" 

 and ends with the soup. They drink their wine hot instead 

 of cold, they put it in boiling water instead of on ice, and 

 they eat out of bowls instead of plates. Teacups have no 

 handles, and saucers are placed in the cups to serve as lids. 

 Long ears are a sign of intellectual power. * The seat of 

 wisdom and wit is in the bowels, not in the brain. The 

 heart is the seat of memory; a good memory is a retentive 

 heart; they do not say "bear it in mind," but "bear it in 

 the heart." Beckoning is done with the fingers pointed 

 downwards instead of upwards. Bells have no clapper, they 

 are sounded by being struck on the outside. A fiddle-bow is 

 not detachable from the fiddle, being held between the 

 strings. There is no distinction between the words "borrow" 

 and "lend." White is the colour of mourning. At a funeral 

 the chief mourner walks before the coffin instead of following 

 behind it, and tombstones are placed at the foot of the 

 grave instead of at the head. In a boat the rower 

 stands facing the bow instead of sitting facing the stem, 

 and he pushes the oar instead of pulling it. Books 

 are bound with the folded edge at the front, each leaf is thus 

 double, and the back edge is trimmed. A book begins at 

 what we call the end, and the pages are turned from left 

 to right. "Writing runs in perpendicular column from right 



*Aristotle is suppose to have said : "They, having the ears small, 

 are ape-like, but they, having them big, are ass-like." Cornelio 

 Ghirardelli, a Franciscan, and seventeenth century authority on 

 Human Ears says : 



"Auribus est longis aliquantum, stultus et aviplis, est vafer, est 

 invitee garrulitatis homo." 



