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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



<Q International Film Service 



CHINESE BLACKSMITHS TAKE NO CHANCES WHEN SHOEING HORSES: PEKING 



This sling-like arrangement of ropes and knots permits the business in hand to be dispatched 



with greatest ease and no danger. 



Ill this land of contradictions, the 

 funeral and burial seldom, if ever, occur 

 together. In the case of the average 

 tradesman the funeral removes the body 

 as far as the "mortuary.'" a large one- 

 story building or group of buildings, on 

 the outskirts of the city, in which space 

 is rented for temporarily depositing the 

 coffin until the heavens, interpreted by 

 the diviner, indicate the advent of a suit- 

 able day for interment. 



At Canton this above-ground purga- 

 tory is so crowded that there is always a 

 "line" exposed to the weather waiting to 

 get in. Such a city of the dead might 

 -rem unhygienic in a subtropical climate 

 until it is considered that their big coffins 

 permit the use of a thick cushion of lime 

 entirely surrounding the body. 



It frequently happens that when the 

 home of the deceased is in a distant city 

 the body may be halted several times on 

 its way until the soothsayer in each stop- 

 ping place gives the word for proceeding. 

 What one might term the "overhead'' of 

 a well-to-do funeral is considerable. 



The services of the fortune-teller are 



in demand to select a day for commenc- 

 ing a long journey or embarking upon an 

 important financial venture. — that is, a 

 big gamble in piece goods or oil stock, 

 blending ancient superstition and modern 

 high finance, and for many other occa- 

 sions in the daily life of the people — so 

 that the soothsayer, if he has tact and 

 astuteness, need not lack a clientele. 



The rather somnolent and introspective 

 expression of our old man — a type in 

 which southern characteristics predomi- 

 nate — is misleading. Instead of being 

 bent upon mysticism, his thoughts are, 

 in conjunction with the corner of his eye, 

 busily engaged in figuring out what will 

 be his "cumshaw" for posing. 



THE FAMILY IS THE UNIT 



It has been mentioned that the law of 

 the "survival of the fittest" has been 

 known to the Chinese through experience 

 for centuries, and now and then, as one 

 encounters a victim of its working, he is 

 impressed by its inexorable application. 

 In China individualism and nationalism 

 are practically unknown ; so that no pro- 



