CURIOUS CUSTOMS OF CHLNA 



797 



quired on such occasions. In that posi- 

 tion he can pick out with his chop-sticks 

 any Httle tidbit, and either place it on 

 the table before his guest or place it di- 

 rectly in his guest's mouth. If his guest 

 were on his right side this could not be 

 done. 



The guest is compelled, by propriety, 

 fairly to gorge himself at a banquet in 

 order to show his appreciation of the 

 feast. He must leave nothing on his 

 plate. He will eructate into his host's 

 face to show^ his relish of the viands. 

 On entering and leaving, host and guest 

 will keep up the "Gaston and Alphonse" 

 act to weariness, vying with each other 

 as to who shall be the last to pay the 

 offices of politeness. 



If his tea or soup should grow cold 

 he will make a great noise with his lips 

 in drinking it, to give the impression that 

 it is hot, so that his host may not be 

 charged, even by implication, with any 

 neglect of hospitality. Tea might be 

 called the formal social glass in China, 

 but the real treat at the meeting of 

 friends in a social chat is pumpkin seeds. 

 Water is never drunk cold, but hot. 



Men and women do not eat together, 

 but the employer will eat freely with his 

 employees at the table. By eating with 

 women the dignity of the superior man 

 would be sacrificed. At a wedding the 

 groom is the center of interest. The 

 bride is noticed only as a matter of curi- 

 osity. Her feet are of the first interest, 

 because a woman's beauty, to the China- 

 man, is in her feet, not in her face. 



THE ORIENT VERSUS THE OCCIDENT 



The scholar never ])ares his nails. He 

 never works save with his pencil, and, 

 as he has little use for the left hand, he 

 loves to cultivate long nails on that hand. 

 Scholars with nails ten or twelve inches 

 long are seen. The nails of the Dowager 

 Empress w^ere from four to six inches 

 in length and protected by jade and gold 

 thimbles. 



The Chinaman, when puzzled, scratches 

 his foot instead of his head. Many other 

 instances of reversals of western customs 

 can be given, the reasons for which, how- 



ever, are not so easily discoverable. The}- 

 are due to custom and environment. 

 Their beds have no mattresses and their 

 furniture no upholstery, but the carving 

 and inlaying are beautiful. Their pillows 

 are hard blocks of wood or little boxes 

 in which the traveler carries his toilet 

 articles and money. They have no 

 stoves, and, in many sections, to kcejj 

 warm at night the beds are the tops of 

 brick ovens. AVhere there are no ovens 

 they simply pile garment on garment till 

 they are so solid with clothes they can 

 hardly move. They carry in the hand 

 little stoves in the shape of baskets con- 

 taining charcoal. 



The women wear ]3ants, while the men 

 wear long gowns down to their feet. The 

 vest is worn outside the coat and the 

 soles of their shoes are white and not 

 black. 



Although woman is so despised, she 

 has two weapons which give her incalcu- 

 lable power. One is her tongue, regard- 

 ing which their proverbs are extremely 

 eloquent. The other is her threat of sui- 

 cide. By this threat a Chinaman is scared 

 into giving his wife anything she desires. 

 We designate our criminals by numbers, 

 but the Chinese so designate their wives 

 as number one and number two wife. 



They locate intelligence in the stomach. 

 Their surgeons are outside doctors ; their 

 physicians are inside doctors. If a pa- 

 tient were shot by an arrow, for example, 

 the surgeon would break off the pieces 

 outside and the physician would extract 

 the remainder embedded in the flesh. 

 They pay their doctors to keep them well, 

 and punish them, if they can, if they get 

 worse or die. A doctor's fee is called 

 "horse money," because the physician's 

 office is a degraded one. No dissections 

 or amputations can be performed, be- 

 cause the body must pass inio the spirit 

 world unmutilated. If the surgeon pro- 

 posed amputation he would probably be 

 asked how much he would be willing to 

 pay for the privilege. 



DELICACIES OE THE TABLE 



Fruit left to ripen is considered un- 

 wholesome as being too near to decay, 



