{"collection":"folklore-oral-tradition","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_522/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_522","id":"gutenberg_522","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/522","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Archaeology & Anthropology","Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Children -- China","Folklore -- China"],"text":"Produced by Charles Keller.  HTML version by Al Haines.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE CHINESE BOY AND GIRL\n\n\n\nBY\n\nISAAC TAYLOR HEADLAND\n\nOF PEKING UNIVERSITY\n\n\n\nAuthor of Chinese Mother Goose Rhymes\n\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\nNo thorough study of Chinese child life can be made until the wall of\nChinese exclusiveness is broken down and the homes of the East are\nthrown open to the people of the West. Glimpses of that life however,\nare available, sufficient in number and character to give a fairly good\nidea of what it must be. The playground is by no means always hidden,\nleast of all when it is the street. The Chinese nurse brings her\nChinese rhymes, stories and games into the foreigner's home for the\namusement of its little ones.\n\nChinese kindergarten methods and appliances have no superior in their\ningenuity and their ability to interest, as well as instruct. In the\nmatter of travelling shows and jugglers also, no country is better\nsupplied, and these are chiefly for the entertainment of the little\nones.\n\nTo the careful observer of these different phases it becomes apparent\nthat the Chinese child is well supplied with methods of exercise and\namusement, also that he has much in common with the children of other\nlands. A large collection of toys shows many duplicates of those common\nin the West, and from the nursery rhymes of at least two out of the\neighteen provinces it appears that the Chinese nursery is rich in\nMother Goose. As a companion to the \"Chinese Mother Goose,\" this book\nseeks to show that the same sunlight fills the homes of both East and\nWest. If it also leads their far-away mates to look upon the Chinese\nBoy and Girl as real little folk, human like themselves, and thus think\nmore kindly of them, its mission will have been accomplished.\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n  THE NURSERY AND ITS RHYMES\n  CHILDREN AND CHILD-LIFE\n  GAMES PLAYED BY BOYS\n  GAMES PLAYED BY GIRLS\n  THE TOYS CHILDREN PLAY WITH\n  BLOCK GAMES--KINDERGARTEN\n  CHILDREN'S SHOWS AND ENTERTAINMENTS\n  JUVENILE JUGGLING\n  STORIES TOLD TO CHILDREN\n\n\n\nTHE NURSERY AND ITS RHYMES\n\nIt is a mistake to suppose that any one nation or people has exclusive\nright to Mother Goose. She is an omnipresent old lady. She is Asiatic\nas well as European or American. Wherever there are mothers,\ngrandmothers, and nurses there are Mother Gooses,--or; shall we say,\nMother Geese--for I am at a loss as to how to pluralize this old dame.\nShe is in India, whence I have rhymes from her, of which the following\nis a sample:\n\n  Heh, my baby! Ho, my baby!\n  See the wild, ripe plum,\n  And if you'd like to eat a few,\n  I'll buy my baby some.\n\nShe is in Japan. She has taught the children there to put their fingers\ntogether as we do for \"This is the church, this is the steeple,\" when\nshe says:\n\n     A bamboo road,\n          With a floor-mat siding,\n     Children are quarrelling,\n          And parents chiding,\n\nthe \"children\" being represented by the fingers and the \"parents\" by\nthe thumbs. She is in China. I have more than 600 rhymes from her\nChinese collection. Let me tell you how I got them.\n\nOne hot day during my summer vacation, while sitting on the veranda of\na house among the hills, fifteen miles west of Peking, my friend, Mrs.\nC. H. Fenn, said to me:\n\n\"Have you noticed those rhymes, Mr. Headland?\"\n\n\"What rhymes?\" I inquired.\n\n\"The rhymes Mrs. Yin is repeating to Henry.\"\n\n\"No, I have not noticed them. Ask her to repeat that one again.\"\n\nMrs. Fenn did so, and the old nurse repeated the following rhyme, very\nmuch in the tone of, \"The goblins 'll git you if you don't look out.\"\n\n     He climbed up the candlestick,\n          The little mousey brown,\n     To steal and eat tallow,\n          And he couldn't get down.\n     He called for his grandma,\n          But his grandma was in town,\n     So he doubled up into a wheel,\n          And rolled himself down.\n\nI asked the nurse to repeat it again, more slowly, and I wrote it down\ntogether with the translation.\n\nNow, I think it must be admitted that there is more in this rhyme to\ncommend it to the public than there is in \"Jack and Jill.\" If when that\nremarkable young couple went for the pail of water, Master Jack had\ncarried it himself, he would have been entitled to some credit for\ngallantry, or if in cracking his crown he had fallen so as to prevent\nMiss Jill from \"tumbling,\" or even in such a way as to break her fall\nand make it easier for her, there would have been some reason for the\npopularity of such a record. As it is, there is no way to account for\nit except the fact that it is simple and rhythmic and children like it.\nThis rhyme, however, in the original, is equal to \"Jack and Jill\" in\nrhythm and rhyme, has as good a story, exhibits a more scientific\ntumble, with a less tragic result, and contains as good a moral as that\nfound in \"Jack Sprat.\"\n\nIt is as popular all over North China as \"Jack and Jill\" is throughout\nGreat Britain and America. Ask any Chinese child if he knows the\n\"Little Mouse,\" and he reels it off to you as readily as an\nEnglish-speaking child does \"Jack and Jill.\" Does he like it? It is a\npart of his life. Repeat it to him, giving one word incorrectly, and he\nwill resent it as strenuously as your little boy or girl would if you\nsaid,\n\n     Jack and Jill\n     Went DOWN the hill\n\nSuppose you repeat some familiar rhyme to a child differently from the\nway he learned it and see what the result will be.\n\nHaving obtained this rhyme, I asked Mrs. Yin if she knew any more. She\nsmiled and said she knew \"lots of them.\" I induced her to tell them to\nme, promising her five hundred cash (about three cents) for every rhyme\nshe could give me, good, bad, or indifferent, for I wanted to secure\nall kinds. And I did. Before I was through I had rhymes which ranged\nfrom the two extremes of the keenest parental affection to those of\nunrefined filthiness. The latter class however came not from the nurses\nbut from the children themselves.\n\nWhen I had finished with her I had a dozen or more. I soon learned\nthese so that I could repeat them in the original, which gave me an\nentering wedge to the heart of every man, woman or child I met.\n\nOne day, as I rode through a broom-corn field on the back of a little\ndonkey, my feet almost dragging on the ground, I was repeating some of\nthese rhymes, when the driver running at my side said:\n\n\"Ha, you know those children's songs, do you?\"\n\n\"Yes do you know any?\"\n\n\"Lots of them,\" he answered.\n\n\"Lots of them\" is a favorite expression with the Chinese.\n\n\"Tell me some.\"\n\n\"Did you ever hear this one?\"\n\n   \"Fire-fly, fire-fly,\n       Come from the hill,\n         Your father and mother\n           Are waiting here still.\n             They've brought you some sugar,\n                Some candy, and meat,\n                  For baby to eat.\"\n\n\nI at once dismounted and wrote it down, and promised him five hundred\ncash apiece for every new one he could give me. In this way, going to\nand from the city, in conversation with old nurses or servants,\npersonal friends, teachers, parents or children, or foreign children\nwho had been born in China and had learned rhymes from their nurses, I\ncontinued to gather them during the entire vacation, and when autumn\ncame I had more than fifty of the most common and consequently the best\nrhymes known in and about Peking.\n\nA few months after I returned to the city a circular was sent around\nasking for subscriptions to a volume of Pekinese Folklore, published by\nBaron Vitali, Interpreter at the Italian legation, which, on\nexamination, proved to be exactly what I wanted. He had collected about\ntwo hundred and fifty rhymes, had made a literal--not\nmetrical--translation and had issued them in book form without\nexpurgation.\n\nOthers learned of my collection, and rhymes began to come to me from\nall parts of the empire. Dr. Arthur H. Smith, the well-known author of\n\"Chinese Characteristics\" gave me a collection of more than three\nhundred made in Shantung, among which were rhymes similar to those we\nhad found in Peking. Still later I received other versions of these\nsame rhymes from my little friend, Miss Chalfant, collected in a\ndifferent part of Shantung from that occupied by Dr. Smith. I then had\nno fewer than five versions of\n\n     \"This little pig went to market,\"\n\neach having some local coloring not found in the other, proving that\nthe fingers and toes furnish children with the same entertainment in\nthe Orient as in the Occident, and that the rhyme is widely known\nthroughout China.\n\nThese nursery rhymes have never been printed in the Chinese language,\nbut like our own Mother Goose before the year 1719, if we may credit\nthe Boston story, they are carried in the minds and hearts of the\nchildren. Here arose the first difficulty we experienced in collecting\nrhymes--the matter of getting them complete. Few are able to repeat the\nwhole of the\n\n          \"House that Jack built\"\n\nalthough it has been printed many times and they learned it all in\ntheir youth. The difficulty is multiplied tenfold in China where the\nrhymes have never been printed, and where there have grown up various\nversions from one original which the nurse had, no doubt, partly\nforgotten, but was compelled to complete for the entertainment of the\nchild.\n\nA second difficulty in making such a collection is that of getting\nunobjectionable rhymes. While the Chinese classics are among the purest\nclassical books of the world, there is yet a large proportion of the\npeople who sully everything they take into their hands as well as every\nthought they take into their minds. Thus so many of their rhymes have\nsuffered.\n\nSome have an undertone of reviling. Some speak familiarly of subjects\nwhich we are not accustomed to mention, and others are impure in the\nextreme.\n\nA third difficulty in making a collection of Chinese nursery lore is\ngreater than either the first or the second,--I refer to the difficulty\nof a metrical rendition of the rhymes. I have no doubt my readers can\neasily find flaws in my translations of Chinese Mother Goose Rhymes\npublished during the past year. It is much easier for me to find the\nflaws than the remedies. Many of the words used in the original have no\nwritten character or hieroglyphic to represent them, while many others,\nthough having a written form, are, like our own slang expressions, not\nfound in the dictionary.\n\nNow let us turn to a more pleasant feature of this unwritten nursery\nliterature. The language is full of good rhymes, and all objectionable\nfeatures can be cut out without injury to the rhyme, as it was not a\npart of the original, but added by some more unscrupulous hand.\n\nAmong the nursery rhymes of all countries many refer to insects, birds,\nanimals, persons, actions, trades, food or children. In Chinese rhymes\nwe have the cricket, cicada, spider, snail, firefly, ladybug and\nbutterfly and others. Among fowls we have the bat, crow, magpie, cock,\nhen, duck and goose. Of animals, the dog, cow, horse, mule, donkey,\ncamel, and mouse, are the favorites. There are also rhymes on the snake\nand frog, and others without number on places, things and\npersons,--men, women and children.\n\nThose who hold that the Chinese do not love their children have never\nconsulted their nursery lore. There is no language in the world, I\nventure to believe, which contains children's songs expressive of more\nkeen and tender affection than some of those sung to children in China.\n\nWhen we hear a parent say that his child\n\n     \"Is as sweet as sugar and cinnamon too,\"\n\nor that\n\n     \"Baby is a sweet pill,\n     That fills my soul with joy\"\n\nor when we see a father, mother or nurse--for nurses sometimes become\nalmost as fond of their little charge as the parents\nthemselves,--hugging the child to their bosoms as they say that he is\nso sweet that \"he makes you love him till it kills you,\" we begin to\nappreciate the affection that prompts the utterance.\n\nAnother feature of these rhymes is the same as that found in the\nnursery songs of all nations, namely, the food element. \"Jack Sprat,\"\n\"Little Jacky Horner,\" \"Four and Twenty Black-birds,\" \"When Good King\nArthur Ruled the Land,\" and a host of others will indicate what I mean.\nA little child is a highly developed stomach, and anything which tells\nabout something that ministers to the appetite and tends to satisfy\nthat aching void, commends itself to his literary taste, and hence the\npopularity of many of our nursery rhymes, the only thought of which is\nabout something good to eat. Notice the following:\n\n     Look at the white breasted crows overhead.\n     My father shot once and ten crows tumbled dead.\n     When boiled or when fried they taste very good,\n     But skin them, I tell you, there's no better food.\n\n\nIn imagination I can see the reader raise his eyebrows and mutter, \"Do\nthe Chinese eat crows?\" while at the same time he has been singing all\nhis life about what a \"dainty dish\" \"four and twenty blackbirds\" would\nmake for the \"king,\" without ever raising the question as to whether\nblackbirds are good eating or not.\n\nWe note another feature of all nursery rhymes in the additions made by\nthe various persons through whose hands,--or should we say, through\nwhose mouths they pass.\n\nWhen an American or English child hears how a certain benevolent dame\nfound no bone in her cupboard to satisfy the cravings of her hungry\ndog, its feelings of compassion are stirred up to ask: \"And then what?\nDidn't she get any meat? Did the dog die?\" and the nurse is compelled\nto make another verse to satisfy the curiosity of the child and bring\nboth the dame and the dog out of the dilemma in which they have been\nleft. This is what happened in the case of \"Old Mother Hubbard\" as will\nreadily be seen by examining the meter of the various verses. The\noriginal \"Mother Hubbard\" consisted of nothing more than the first six\nlines which contain three rhymes. All the other verses have but four\nlines and one rhyme.\n\nWe find the same thing in Chinese Mother Goose. Take the following as\nan example:\n\n  He ate too much,\n    That second brother,\n  And when he had eaten his fill\n    He beat his  mother.\n\n\nThis was the original rhyme. Two verses have been added without rhyme,\nreason, rhythm, sense or good taste. They are as follows:\n\n  His mother jumped up on the window-sill,\n  But the window had no crack,\n  She then looked into the looking-glass,\n  But the mirror had no back.\n\n  Then all at once she began to sing,\n  But the song it had no end\n  And then she played the monkey trick\n  And to heaven she did ascend.\n\nThe moral teachings of nursery rhymes are as varied as the morals of\nthe people to whom the rhymes belong. The \"Little Mouse\" already given\ncontains both a warning and a penalty. The mouse which had climbed up\nthe candle-stick to steal tallow was unable to get down. This was the\npenalty for stealing, and indicates to children that if they visit the\ncupboard in their mother's absence and take her sweetmeats without her\npermission, they may suffer as the mouse did. To leave the mouse there\nafter he had repeatedly called for that halo-crowned grandmother, who\nrefused to come, would have been too much for the child's sympathies,\nand so the mouse doubles himself up into a wheel, and rolls to the\nfloor.\n\nIn other rhymes, children are warned against stealing, but the penalty\nthreatened is rather an indication of the untruthfulness of the parent\nor nurse than a promise of reform in the child, for they are told that,\n\n     If you steal a needle\n          Or steal a thread,\n               A pimple will grow\n                    Upon your head.\n\n     If you steal a dog\n          Or steal a cat,\n               A pimple will grow\n                    Beneath your hat.\n\n\nBoys are warned of the dire consequences if they wear their hats on the\nside of their heads or go about with ragged coats or slipshod feet.\n\n  If you wear your hat on the side of your head,\n  You'll have a lazy wife, 'tis said.\n  If a ragged coat or slipshod feet,\n  You'll have a wife who loves to eat.\n\nThose rhymes which manifest the affection of parents for children\ncultivate a like affection in the child. We have in the Chinese Mother\nGoose a rhyme called the Little Orphan, which is a most pathetic tale.\nA little boy tells us that,\n\n     Like a little withered flower,\n          That is dying in the earth,\n     I was left alone at seven\n          By her who gave me birth.\n\n     With my papa I was happy\n          But I feared he'd take another,\n     But now my papa's married,\n          And I have a little brother.\n\n     And he eats good food,\n          While I eat poor,\n     And cry for my mother,\n          Whom I'll see no more.\n\nSuch a rhyme cannot but develop the pathetic and sympathetic instincts\nof the child, making it more kind and gentle to those in distress.\n\nA girl in one of the rhymes urged by instinct and desire to chase a\nbutterfly, gives up the idea of catching it, presumably out of a\nfeeling of sympathy for the insect.\n\nUnfortunately all their rhymes do not have this same high moral tone.\nThey indicate a total lack of respect for the Buddhist priests. This is\nnot necessarily against the rhyme any more than against the priest, but\nit is an unfortunate disposition to cultivate in children. There are\nconstant sallies at the shaved noddle of the priest. They speak of his\nhead as a gourd, and they class him with the tiger as a beast of prey.\n\nSome of the rhymes illustrate the disposition of the Chinese to\nnickname every one, from the highest official in the empire to the\nmeanest beggar on the street. One of the great men of the present\ndynasty, a prime minister and intimate friend of the emperor, goes by\nthe name of Humpbacked Liu. Another may be Cross-eyed Wang, another\nClub-footed Chang, another Bald-headed Li. Any physical deformity or\nmental peculiarity may give him his nickname. Even foreigners suffer in\nreputation from this national bad habit.\n\nA man whose face is covered with pockmarks is ridiculed by children in\nthe following rhyme, which is only a sample of what might be produced\non a score of other subjects:\n\n    Old pockmarked Ma,\n          He climbed up a tree,\n    A dog barked at him,\n          And a man caught his knee,\n    Which scared old Poxey\n          Until he couldn't see.\n\nA well-known characteristic of the Chinese is to do things opposite to\nthe way in which we do them. We accuse them of doing things backwards,\nbut it is we who deserve such blame because they antedated us in the\ndoing of them. We shake each other's hands, they each shake their own\nhands. We take off our hats as a mark of respect, they keep theirs on.\nWe wear black for mourning, they wear white. We wear our vests inside,\nthey wear theirs outside. A hundred other things more or less familiar\nto us all, illustrate this rule. In some of their nursery rhymes\neverything is said and done on the \"cart before the horse\" plan. This\nis illustrated by a rhyme in which when the speaker heard a disturbance\noutside his door he discovered it was because a \"dog had been bitten by\na man.\" Of course, he at once rushed to the rescue. He \"took up the\ndoor and he opened his hand.\" He \"snatched up the dog and threw him at\na brick.\" The brick bit his hand and he left the scene \"beating on a\nhorn and blowing on a drum.\"\n\nTongue twisters are as common in Chinese as in English, and are equally\nappreciated by the children. From the nature of such rhymes, however,\nit is impossible to translate them into any other language.\n\nIn one of these children's songs, a cake-seller informs the public in\nstentorian tones that his wares will restore sight to the blind and that\n\n     They cure the deaf and heal the lame,\n     And preserve the teeth of the aged dame.\n\nThey will further cause hair to grow on a bald head and give courage to\na henpecked husband. A girl who has been whipped by her mother mutters\nto herself how she would love and serve a husband if she only had one,\neven going to the extent of calling that much-despised mother-in-law\nher mother, and when overheard by her irate parent and asked what she\nwas saying, she answers:\n\n     I was saying the beans are boiling nice\n     And it's just about time to add the rice.\n\nThese are rather an indication of good cheer on the part of the\nchildren than lack of filial affection. A parent must be cruel indeed\nto make a girl willing to give up her mother for a mother-in-law.\n\nAnother style of verses comes under the head of pure nonsense rhymes.\nThey are wholly without sense and I am not sure they are good nonsense.\nThey are popular, however, with the children, and critics may say what\nthey will, but the children are the last court of appeal in case of\nnursery rhymes. Let me give one:\n\n     There's a cow on the mountain, the old saying goes,\n     On her legs are four feet, on her feet are eight toes.\n     Her tail is behind on the end of her back,\n     And her head is in front on the end of her neck.\n\nThe Chinese nursery is well provided with rhymes pertaining to certain\nportions of the body. They have rhymes to repeat when they play with\nthe five fingers, and others when they pull the toes; rhymes when they\ntake hold of the knee and expect the child to refrain from laughing, no\nmatter how much its knee is tickled; rhymes which correspond to all our\nface and sense; rhymes where the forehead represents the door and the\nfive senses various other things, ending, of course, by tickling the\nchild's neck.\n\nAll of these have called forth rhymes among Chinese children similar to\n\"little pig went to market,\" \"forehead bender, eye winker,\" etc. The\nparent, or the nurse, taking hold of the toes of the child, repeats the\nfollowing rhyme, as much to the amusement of the little Oriental as the\n\"little pig\" has always been to our own children:\n\n     This little cow eats grass,\n     This little cow eats hay,\n     This little cow drinks water,\n     This little cow runs away,\n     This little cow does nothing,\n     Except lie down all day.\n          We'll whip her.\n\nAnd, with that, she playfully pats the little bare foot. If it is the\nhand that is played with the fingers are taken hold of one after\nanother, as the parent, or nurse, repeats the following rhyme:\n\n  This one's old,\n  This one's young\n  This one has\n             no meat;\n  This one's gone\n  To buy some hay,\n  And this one's on\n            the street.\n\nThere are various forms of this rhyme, depending upon the place where\nit is found. The above is the Shantung version. In Peking it is as\nfollows:\n\n  A great, big brother,\n  And a little brother, too,\n  A big bell tower,\n  And a temple and a show,\n  And little baby wee, wee,\n  Always wants to go.\n\nThe following rhyme explains itself: The nurse knocks on the forehead,\nthen touches the eye, nose, ear, mouth and chin successively, as she\nrepeats:\n\n     Knock at the door,\n          See a face,\n               Smell an odor,\n                    Hear a voice,\n                         Eat your dinner,\n                              Pull your chin, or\n                                   Ke chih, ke chih.\n\nTickling the child's neck with the last two expressions.\n\nWe have in English a rhyme:\n\n     If you be a gentleman,\n          As I suppose you be,\n     You'll neither laugh nor smile\n          With a tickling of your knee.\n\nI had tried many months to find if there were any finger, face or body\ngames other than those already given. Our own nurse insisted that she\nknew of none, but one day I noticed her grabbing my little girl's knee,\nwhile she was saying:\n\n     One grab silver,\n          Two grabs gold,\n               Three don't laugh,\n                    And you'll grow old.\n\nThere is no literature in China, not even in the sacred books, which is\nso generally known as their nursery rhymes. These are understood and\nrepeated by the educated and the illiterate alike; by the children of\nprinces and the children of beggars; children in the city and children\nin the country and villages, and they produce like results in the minds\nand hearts of all. The little folks laugh over the Cow, look sober over\nthe Little Orphan, absorb the morals taught by the Mouse, and are sung\nto sleep by the song of the Little Snail.\n\nSometimes however they, like children in other lands, are skeptical as\nto the reality of the stories told in the songs. Thus I remember once\nhearing our old nurse telling a number of stories and singing a number\nof songs to the little folk in the nursery. They had accepted one after\nanother the legends as they rolled off the old woman's tongue, without\nquestion, but pretty soon she gave them a version of a Wind Song which\naroused their incredulity. She sang:\n\n  Old grandmother Wind has come from the East.\n  She's ridden a donkey--a dear little beast.\n  Old mother-in-law Rain has come back again.\n  She's come from the North on a horse, it is plain.\n\n  Old grandmother Snow is coming you know,\n  From the West on a crane--just see how they go.\n  And old aunty Lightning has come from the South,\n  On a big yellow dog with a bit in his mouth.\n\n\n\"There is no grandmother Wind, is there, nurse?\"\n\n\"No, of course not, people only call her grandmother Wind.\"\n\n\"Why do they call the other mother-in-law Rain?\"\n\n\"I suppose, because mothers-in-law are often disagreeable, just like\nrainy weather.\"\n\n\"And why do they speak of snow and the crane, and lightning and a\nyellow dog?\"\n\n\"I suppose, because a crane is somewhat the color of snow, and a yellow\ndog swift and the color of lightning.\"\n\n\n\nCHILDREN AND CHILD-LIFE\n\nBefore going to China, I could not but wonder, when I saw a Chinese or\nJapanese doll, why it was they made such unnatural looking things for\nbabies to play with. On reaching the Orient the whole matter was\nexplained by my first sight of a baby. The doll looks like the child!\n\nNothing in China is more common than babies. Nothing more helpless.\nNothing more troublesome. Nothing more attractive. Nothing more\ninteresting.\n\nA Chinese baby is a round-faced little helpless human animal, whose\neyes look like two black marbles over which the skin had been\nstretched, and a slit made on the bias. His nose is a little kopje in\nthe centre of his face, above a yawning chasm which requires constant\nfilling to insure the preservation of law and order. On his shaved head\nare left small tufts of hair in various localities, which give him the\nappearance of the plain about Peking, on which the traveler sees, here\nand there, a small clump of trees around a country village, a home, or\na cemetery; the remainder of the country being bare. These tufts are\nusually on the \"soft spot,\" in the back of his neck, over his ears, or\nin a braid or a ring on the side of his head.\n\nThe amount of joy brought to a home by the birth of a child depends\nupon several important considerations, chief among which are its sex,\nthe number and sex of those already in the family, and the financial\ncondition of the home.\n\nIn general the Chinese prefer a preponderance of boys, but in case the\nfamily are in good circumstances and already have several boys, they\nare as anxious for a girl as parents in any other country.\n\nThe reason for this is deeper than the mere fact of sex. It is imbedded\nin the social life and customs of the people. A girl remains at home\nuntil she is sixteen or seventeen, during which time she is little more\nthan an expense. She is then taken to her husband's home and her own\nfamily have no further control over her life or conduct. She loses her\nidentity with her own family, and becomes part of that of her husband.\nThis through many years and centuries has generated in the popular mind\na feeling that it is \"bad business raising girls for other people,\" and\nthere are not a few parents who would prefer to bring up the girl\nbetrothed to their son, rather than bring up their own daughter.\n\n\"Selfishness!\" some people exclaim when they read such things about the\nChinese. Yes, it is selfishness; but life in China is not like ours--a\nstruggle for luxuries--but a struggle, not for bread and rice as many\nsuppose, but for cornmeal and cabbage, or something else not more\npalatable. This is the life to which most Chinese children are born,\nand parents can scarcely be blamed for preferring boys whose hands may\nhelp provide for their mouths, to girls who are only an expense.\n\nThe presumption is that a Chinese child is born with the same general\ndisposition as children in other countries. This may perhaps be the\ncase; but either from the treatment it receives from parents or nurses,\nor because of the disposition it inherits, its nature soon becomes\nchanged, and it develops certain characteristics peculiar to the\nChinese child. It becomes t'ao ch'i. That almost means mischievous; it\nalmost means troublesome--a little tartar--but it means exactly t'ao\nch'i.\n\nIn this respect almost every Chinese child is a little tyrant. Father,\nmother, uncles, aunts, and grandparents are all made to do his bidding.\nIn case any of them seems to be recalcitrant, the little dear lies down\non his baby back on the dusty ground and kicks and screams until the\nrefractory parent or nurse has repented and succumbed, when he get up\nand good-naturedly goes on with his play and allows them to go about\ntheir business. The child is t'ao ch'i.\n\nThis disposition is general and not confined to any one rank or grade\nin society, if we may credit the stories that come from the palace\nregarding the present young Emperor Kuang Hsu. When a boy he very much\npreferred foreign to Chinese toys, and so the eunuchs stocked the\npalace nursery with all the most wonderful toys the ingenuity and\nmechanical skill of Europe had produced. As he grew older the toys\nbecame more complicated, being in the form of gramophones,\ngraphophones, telephones, phonographs, electric lights, electric cars,\ncuckoo clocks, Swiss watches and indeed all the great inventions of\nmodern times. The boy was t'ao ch'i, and the eunuchs say that if he\nwere thwarted in any of his undertakings, or denied anything he very\nmuch desired, he would dash a Swiss watch, or anything else he might\nhave in his hand, to the floor, breaking it into atoms; and as there\nwas no chance of using the rod there was no way but to spoil the child.\n\nIt is amusing to listen to the women in a Chinese home when a baby\ncomes. If the child is a boy the parents are congratulated on every\nhand because of the \"great happiness\" that has come to their home. If\nit is a girl, and there are more girls than boys in the family, the old\nnurse goes about as if she had stolen it from somewhere, and when she\nis congratulated, if congratulated she happens to be, she says with a\nsigh and a funereal face, \"Only a 'small happiness'--but that isn't\nbad.\"\n\nWhen a child is born it is considered one year old, and its years are\nreckoned not from its birthdays but from its New Year's days. If it has\nthe good fortune to be born the day before two days old it is reckoned\ntwo years old being one year old when born and two years old on its\nfirst New Year's day.\n\nThe first great event in a child's life occurs when it is one month\nold. It is then given its first public reception. Its head is shaved\namid kicking and screaming, its mother is up and around where she can\nreceive the congratulations of her friends, its grandmother is the\nhonored guest of the occasion, and the baby is named.\n\nAll the relatives and friends are invited and every one is expected to\ntake dinner with the child, and, which is more important, to bring\npresents. If the family is poor, this day puts into the treasury of\nlife a day of happiness and a goodly amount of filthy lucre. If the\nfamily is rich the presents are correspondingly rich, for nowhere\neither in Orient or Occident can there be found a people more lavish\nand generous in their gifts than the Chinese. All the family can afford\nis spent upon the dinner given on this occasion, with the assurance\nthat they will receive in presents and money more than double the\nexpense both of the dinner and the birth of the child. If they do not\n\"come\" they are expected to \"send\" or they \"lose face.\" Among the\nmiddle-class, the presents are of a useful nature, usually in the form\nof money, clothing or silver ornaments which are always worth their\nweight in bullion.\n\nThe name given the child is called its \"milk\" name until the boy enters\nschool. Whether boy or girl it may answer a good part of its life to\nthe place it occupies in the family whether first, second or third.\n\nIf a girl she may be compelled to answer to \"Little Slave,\" and if a\nboy to \"Baldhead.\" But the names usually given indicate the place or\ntime of birth, the hope of the parent for the child, or exhibit the\nparent's love of beauty or euphony.\n\nA friend who was educated in a school situated in Filial Piety Lane and\nwho afterwards lived near Filial Piety Gate called his first son \"Two\nFilials.\" Another friend had sons whose names were \"Have a Man,\" \"Have\na Mountain,\" \"Have a Garden,\" \"Have a Fish.\" In conversation with this\nfriend about the son whose \"milk\" name was \"Have a Man,\" I constantly\nspoke of the boy by his \"school\" name, the only name by which I knew\nhim. The old man was perfectly blank--he knew not of whom I spoke, as\nhe had not seen his son since he got his school name. Finally, as it\nbegan to dawn on him that I was talking of his son, he asked:\n\n\"Whom are you talking about?\"\n\n\"Your son.\"\n\n\"Oh, you mean 'Have a Man.'\"\n\nThis same man had a little girl called \"Apple,\" not an ordinary apple,\nbut the most luscious apple known to North China. I have as I write a\nlist of names commonly applied to girls from which I select the\nfollowing: Beautiful Autumn, Charming Flower, Jade Pure, Lucky Pearl,\nPrecious Harp, Covet Spring; and the parent's way of speaking of his\nlittle girl, when not wishing to be self-depreciative, is to call her\nhis \"Thousand ounces of gold.\"\n\nThe names given to boys are quite as humiliating or as elevating as\nthose given to girls. He may be Number One, Two or Three, Pig, Dog or\nFlea, or he may be like Wu T'ing Fang a \"Fragrant Palace,\" or like Li\nHung Chang, an \"Illustrious Bird\" or \"Learned Treatise.\"\n\nDuring the summer-time in North China the child goes almost if not\ncompletely naked. Until it is five years old, its wardrobe consists\nlargely of a chest-protector and a pair of shoes. In the winter-time\nits trousers are quilted, with feet attached, its coat made in the same\nway, and it is anything but \"clean and sweet.\" The odor is not unlike\nthat of an up-stairs back room in a narrow alley at Five Points, in\nwhich dwell a whole family of emigrants.\n\nWhen the Chinese child is ill he does not have the same kind of\nhospital accommodations, nursing and medical skill at his command as do\nwe in the West. His bed is brick, his pillow stuffed with bran or\ngrass-seed, he has no sheets, his food is coarse and ill-adapted to a\nsick child's stomach. While his nurse may be kind, gentle and loving\nshe is not always skillful, and as for the ability of his physician let\nthe following child's song tell us:\n\n  My wife's little daughter once fell very ill,\n  And we called for a doctor to give her a pill.\n  He wrote a prescription which now we will give her,\n  In which he has ordered a mosquito's liver.\n  And then in addition the heart of a flea,\n  And half pound of fly-wings to make her some tea.\n\n\nWhen the child begins to walk and talk it begins to be interesting. Its\nfather has a little push cart made by which it learns to walk, and the\nnurse goes about the court with it repeating ba ba, ma ma, (notice that\nthese words for papa and mama are practically the same in Chinese as in\nEnglish, the b being substituted for p), and all the various words\nwhich mean elder brother, younger brother, elder and younger sisters,\nuncles, aunts, grandfathers, grandmothers, and cousins and all the\nvarious relatives which may be found in its family, village or home.\n\nIt is not an easy matter to learn the names of one's relatives in\nChina, as there is a separate name for each showing whether the person\nwhom we call uncle is father or mother's elder or younger brother or\nthe husband of their elder or younger sister. When it comes to learning\nthe names of all one's cousins it is quite a difficult affair. Suppose,\nfor instance, you were to introduce me to your cousin, and I wanted to\nknow which one, you might explain that he is the son of your mother's\nelder brother. In China the word you used for cousin would express the\nexact idea. The child begins his study of language by learning all\nthese relationships.\n\nThese are for the most part taught them by the nurse, who is an\nimportant element in the Chinese home and a useful adjunct to the\nchild. Each little girl in the homes of the better classes has her own\nparticular nurse, who teaches her nursery songs in her childhood, is\nher companion during her youth, goes with her to her husband's home,\nwhen she marries presumably to prevent her becoming lonesome, and\nremains with her through life. In conversation with the granddaughters\nof a duke and their old nurse, I discovered that the same games the\nlittle children play upon the street, they play in the seclusion of\ntheir green-tiled palace, and the same nursery songs that entice\nMorpheus to share the mat shed of the beggar's boy, entice him also to\nshare the silken couch of the emperor in the palace.\n\nWhen a boy is old enough, he grows a queue, which takes the place in\nthe life of the Chinese boy which his first pair of trousers does in\nthat of the American or English boy. It is one of the first things he\nlives for; and he should not be despised for wearing his hair in this\nfashion, especially when we remember that George Washington and\nLafayette and their contemporaries wore their hair in a braid down\ntheir backs.\n\nBesides the queue has a great variety of uses. It serves him in some of\nthe games he plays. When I saw the boys in geometry use their queues to\nstrike an arc or draw a circle, it reminded me of my college days when\nI had forgotten to take a string to class. The laborer spreads a\nhandkerchief or towel over his head, wraps his queue around it and\nmakes for himself a hat. The cart driver whips his mule with it; the\nbeggar uses it to scare away the dogs; the father takes hold of his\nlittle boy's queue instead of his hand when walking with him on the\nstreet, or the child follows holding to his father's queue, and the\nboys use it as reins when they play horse. I saw this amusingly\nillustrated on the streets of Peking. Two boys were playing horse. Now\nI have always noticed that when a boy plays horse, it is not because he\nhas any desire to be the horse, but the driver. He is willing to be\nhorse for a time, in order that he may be allowed to be driver for a\nstill longer time. A large boy was playing horse with a smaller one,\nthe latter acting as the beast of burden. This continued for some time,\nwhen the smaller, either discovering that a horse is larger than a man,\nor that it is more noble to be a man than a horse, balked, and said:\n\n\"Now you be horse.\"\n\nThe older was not yet inclined to be horse, and tried in vain, by\ncoaxing, scolding and whipping, to induce him to move, but the horse\nwas firm. The driver was also firm, and not until the horse in a very\nunhorselike manner, gave away to tears, could the man be induced to let\nhimself down to the level of a horse. From all of which it will be seen\nthat the disposition of Chinese children is no exception to that\nlonging for superiority which prevails in every human heart.\n\nAll kinds of trades, professions, and employments have as great\nattraction for Chinese as for American children. A country boy looks\nforward to the time when he can stand up in the cart and drive the\nteam. Children seeing a battalion of soldiers at once \"organize a\ncompany.\" This was amusingly illustrated by a group of children in\nPeking during the Chinese-Japanese war. Each had a stick or a weed for\na gun, except the drummer-boy, who was provided with an empty\nfruit-can. They went through various maneuvres, for practice, no doubt,\nand all seemed to be going on beautifully until one of those in front\nshouted, in a voice filled with fear:\n\n\"The Japanese are coming, the Japanese are coming.\"\n\nThis was the signal for a general retreat, and the children, in\nimitation of the army then in the field, retreated in disorder and\ndismay in every direction.\n\nThe Chinese boys and girls are little men and women. At an early age\nthey are familiar with all the rules of behaviour which characterize\ntheir after life and conduct. Their clothes are cut on the same\npattern, out of cloth as those of their parents and grandparents. There\nare no kilts and knee-breeches, pinafores and short skirts, to make\nthem feel that they are little people.\n\nBut they are little people as really and truly as are the children of\nother countries. A gentleman in reviewing my \"Chinese Mother Goose\nRhymes\" speaks of some of the illustrations which \"present the Chinese\nchildren playing their sober little games.\" Why we should call such a\ngame as \"blind man's buff,\" \"e-ni-me-ni-mi-ni-mo,\" \"this little pig\nwent to market\" or \"pat-a-cake\" \"sober little games,\" unless it is\nbecause of preconceived notions of the Chinese people I do not\nunderstand. The children are dignified little people, but they enjoy\nall the attractions of child-life as much as other children do.\n\nIt is a mistake to suppose that the life of Chinese children is a\ndoleful one. It is understood, of course, that their life is not the\nsame, nor to be compared with that of children in Europe or America:\nand it should be remembered further that the pleasures of child-life\nare not measured by the gratification of every childish whim. Many of\nthe little street children who spend a large part of their time in\nefforts to support the family, when allowed to go to a fair or have a\npublic holiday enjoy themselves more in a single day than the child of\nwealth, in a whole month of idleness.\n\nIn addition to his games and rhymes, the fairs which are held regularly\nin the great Buddhist temples in different parts of the cities, are to\nthe Chinese boy what a country fair, a circus or Fourth of July is to\nan American farmer's boy or girl. He has his cash for candy or fruit,\nhis crackers which he fires off at New Year's time, making day a time\nof unrest, and night hideous. Kite-flying is a pleasure which no\nAmerican boy appreciates as does the Chinese, a pleasure which clings\nto him till he is three-score years and ten, for it is not uncommon to\nfind a child and his grandfather in the balmy days of spring flying\ntheir kites together. He has his pet birds which he carries around in\ncages or on a perch unlike any other child we have ever seen. He has\nhis crickets with which he amuses himself--not \"gambles\"--and his gold\nfish which bring him days and years of delight. Indeed the Chinese\nchild, though in the vast majority of cases very poor, has ample\nprovision for a very good time, and if he does not have it, it must be\nhis own fault.\n\nStatements about the life of the children, however, may be nothing more\nthan personal impressions, and are usually colored as largely by the\nwriter's prejudices as by the conditions of the children. Some of us\nare so constituted as to see the dark side of the picture, others the\nbright. Let us go with the boys and girls to their games. Let us play\nwith their toys and be entertained by the shows that entertain them,\nand see if they are not of the same flesh and blood, heart and\nsentiment as we. We shall find that the boys and girls live together,\nwork together, study together, play together, have their heads shaved\nalike and quarrel with each other until they are seven years old, the\nperiod which brings to an end the life of the Chinese child. From this\nperiod it is the boy or the girl.\n\n\n\nGAMES PLAYED BY BOYS\n\nChildren's games are always interesting. Chinese games are especially\nso because they are a mine hitherto unexplored. An eminent archdeacon\nonce wrote: \"The Chinese are not much given to athletic exercises.\" A\nwell-known doctor of divinity states that, \"their sports do not require\nmuch physical exertion, nor do they often pair off, or choose sides and\ncompete, in order to see who are the best players,\" while a still more\nprominent writer tells us that, \"active, manly sports are not popular\nin the South.\" Let us see whether these opinions are true.\n\nTwo years ago a letter from Dr. Luther Gulick, at present connected\nwith the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y., came to us while in Peking,\nasking that we study into the character of Chinese children's games.\nDr. Gulick was preparing a series of lectures on the \"Psychology of\nPlay.\" He desired to secure as much reliable information as possible\nregarding the play-life of the children of the East, in order that he\nmight discover what relation exists between the games of Oriental and\nthose of Occidental children. By so doing he would learn the effect of\nplay on the mental and physical development as well as the character of\nchildren, and through them upon the human race as a whole. We were\nfortunate in having at our disposal a large number of students\nconnected with Peking University, the preparatory, intermediate and\nprimary schools, together with 150 girls in attendance at the girls'\nhigh school.\n\nWe received the letter at four o'clock, at which time the students had\njust been dismissed from school, and were taking their afternoon meal,\nbut at 4:30 we went to the playground, notebook in hand, called\ntogether some of our most interesting boys, explained to them our\nobject, and asked them to play for us. Some one may say that this was\nthe worst possible thing to do, as it would make the children\nself-conscious and hence unnatural--the sequel, however, will show.\n\nAt first that was exactly what happened. The children tittered, and\nlooked at each other in blank astonishment, then one of them walked\naway and several others gathered about us. We repeated our explanation\nin order to secure their interest, set their minds to work thinking up\ngames, and do away with the embarrassment, and it was only a few\nminutes before an intelligent expression began to appear in the eyes of\nsome of the boys, and one of them, who was always ready for anything\nnew, turned to his companion and said:\n\n\"You go and find Chi, and bring him here.\"\n\n\"Who is Chi?\" we inquired.\n\n\"He is the boy who knows more games than any of the rest of us,\" he\nexplained.\n\nAway he ran and soon reappeared with a very unpromising looking boy\nwhom we recognized as a street waif that had been taken into what some\none called our \"raggedy school\" a few years before. He was a glum\nlooking boy--a boy without a smile. There was a set expression on his\nface which might be interpreted as \"life is not worth living,\" or,\nwhich would be an equally legitimate interpretation in the present\ninstance, \"these games are of no importance. If you want them we can\nplay any number of them for you, but what will you do with them after\nyou get them?\"\n\nAll the crowd began at once to explain to Chi what we  wanted, and he\nlooked more solemn than ever, then we came to his rescue.\n\n\"Chi,\" we asked, \"what kind of games do boys play?\"\n\nSlowly and solemnly Chi wound one leg around the other as he answered:\n\n\"Lots of them.\"\n\nThis is the stereotyped answer that will come from any Chinaman to\nalmost any question he may be asked about things Chinese. \"For\ninstance?\" we further inquired.\n\n\"Forcing the city gates,\" he answered.\n\n\"Play it for me.\"\n\nThe boys at once appointed captains who chose sides and they formed\nthemselves into two lines facing each other, those of each line taking\nfast hold of each other's hands. The boys on one side then sang:\n\n     He stuck a feather in his hat,\n          And hurried to the town\n     And children met him with a horse\n          For the gates were broken down.\n\nThen one from the other side ran with all his force, throwing himself\nupon the hands of the boys who had sung, the object being to \"break\nthrough,\" in which case he took the two whose hands had been parted to\n\"his side,\" while if he failed to break through he had to remain on\ntheir side. The others then sang. One from this group tried to break\nthrough their line, and thus they alternated until one side or the\nother was broken up.\n\nThe boys were panting and red in the face when the game was over, a\nstrong argument against the\nChinese-are-not-much-given-to-vigorous-exercise theory.\n\n\"Now play something which does not require so much exercise,\" we\nrequested.\n\nEvery one looked at Chi, not that the other boys did not know the\ngames, but simply because this matter-of-fact boy was their natural\nleader in this kind of sport.\n\n\"Blind man,\" he said quietly.\n\nAt once a handkerchief was tied around the eyes of one of the boys who\nwas willing to be \"blind man,\" and a game corresponding almost exactly\nto our own \"blind man's buff\" was played, without the remotest\nembarrassment, but with as much naturalness as though neither teacher\nnor spectator was near them.\n\n\"Have you any other games which require strength?\" we inquired.\n\n\"Man-wheel,\" said Chi in his monosyllabic way.\n\n\"Play it, please.\"\n\n\"Go and call Wei-Yuan,\" to one of the smaller boys.\n\nThe boy ran off to find the one indicated, and Chi selected two other\nmiddle-sized and two small boys. When Wei-Yuan, a larger but very\ngood-natured, kindly-dispositioned lad, came, the two middle-sized boys\nstood beside him, one facing north, the other south, and caught each\nother's hand over Wei-Yuan's shoulder. The two smaller boys then stood\nbeside these two, each of whom clutched hold of the small boys'\ngirdles, who in turn clutched their girdles and Wei-Yuan took their\ndisengaged hands. Thus the five boys were firmly bound together. The\nwheel then began to turn, the small boys were gradually lifted from the\nground and swung or whirled around in an almost horizontal position.\n\n\"This game requires more strength,\" Chi explained, \"than any other\nsmall boys' game.\"\n\n\"Have you any games more vigorous than this?\"\n\n\"Pitching the stone lock, and lifting the stone dumb-bells, but they\nare for men.\"\n\n\"What is that game you were playing a few days ago in which you used\none stick to knock another?\"\n\n\"One is striking the stick, and another is knocking the stick.\"\n\n\"Play one of them.\"\n\nChi drew two lines on the ground eight feet apart, on one of which he\nput a stick. He then threw another stick at it, the object being to\ndrive it over the other line. He who first succeeds in driving it over\nthe line wins the game. The sticks are ten to fifteen inches long.\n\nStriking the stick is similar to tip-cat which we have often seen\nplayed by boys on the streets of New York. The children mark out a\nsquare five or six feet on each side. The striker takes a position\ninside, with his feet spread apart as wide as possible, to give him a\nbetter command of the square. One of the others places the block in the\nposition which he supposes will be most difficult for the striker to\nhit. The latter is then at liberty to twist around on one foot, placing\nthe other outside the square, in order if possible to secure a position\nfrom which he can strike to advantage. He then throws a stick about\nfifteen inches long at the block to drive it out of the square. If he\nfails, the one who placed the block takes the stick, and another places\nthe block for him. If he succeeds he has the privilege of striking the\nblock three times as follows: He first strikes it perpendicularly,\nwhich causes it to bound up two or three feet, when he hits it as one\nwould hit a ball, driving it as far as possible. This he repeats three\ntimes, and if he succeeds in driving it the distance agreed upon, which\nmay be 20, 50, 200, 300, 500 or more feet, he wins the game. If not he\nbrings back the block and tries again, continuing to strike until he\nfails to drive it out of the square. This game develops ingenuity in\nplacing the block and skill, in striking, and is one of the most\npopular of all boys' games.\n\nWhen they had finished striking the stick one of the smaller children\nwent over to where Chi was standing and whispered in his ear. The\nexpression of his face remained as unchangeable as that of a stone\nimage, as he called out:\n\n\"Select fruit.\"\n\nThe boys danced about in high glee, selected two captains who chose\nsides, and they all squatted down in two rows twenty feet apart. Each\nboy was given the name of some kind of fruit, such as apples, pears,\npeaches, quinces or plums, all of which are common about Peking. The\ncaptain on one side then blindfolded one of his boys, while one from\nthe other group arose and stealthily walked over and touched him,\nreturning to his place among his own group and taking as nearly as\npossible the position he had when the other was blindfolded. In case\nhis companions are uncertain as to whether his position is exactly the\nsame, they all change their position, in order to prevent the one\nblindfolded from guessing who it was who left his place.\n\nThe covering was then removed from his eyes, he went over to the other\nside, examined carefully if perchance he might discover, from change of\nposition, discomfort in squatting, or a trace of guilt in the face or\neyes of any of them, a clue to the guilty party. He \"made faces\" to try\nto cause the guilty one to laugh. He gesticulated, grimaced, did\neverything he could think of, but they looked blank and unconcerned, or\nall laughed together, allowing no telltale look to appear on their\nfaces. His pantomimes sometimes brought out the guilty one, but in case\nthey did not, his last resort was to risk a guess, and so he made his\nselection. If he was right he took the boy to his side; if wrong, he\nstayed on their side. One of their side was then blindfolded, and the\nwhole was repeated until one group or the other lost all its men. The\ngame is popular among girls as well as boys.\n\n\"Do you have any other guessing games?\" we asked Chi.\n\n\"Yes, there is point at the moon or the stars,\" he answered, \"and blind\nman is also a guessing game.\"\n\nBy this time the boys had become enthusiastic, and had entirely\nforgotten that they were playing for us or indeed for any purpose. It\nwas a new experience, this having their games taken in a notebook, and\neach was anxious not only that he play well, but that no mistake be\nmade by any one. The more Chi realized the importance of playing the\ngames properly the more solemn he became, if indeed it were possible to\nbe more solemn than was his normal condition. He now changed to a game\nof an entirely different character from those already played. Those\ndeveloped strength, skill or curiosity; this developed quick reaction\nin the players.\n\n\"What shall we play?\" inquired one of the boys.\n\n\"Queue,\" answered Chi.\n\nImmediately every boy jerked his queue over his shoulder and began to\nedge away from his companions. But as he walked away from one he drew\nnear another, and a sudden calling of his name would so surprise him\nthat in turning his head to see who spoke his short queue would be\njerked back over his shoulder and he received a dozen slaps from his\ncompanions, all of whom were waiting for just such an opportunity. This\nis the object of the game--to catch a boy with his queue down his back.\nSome of the boys, more spry than others, would move away to a distance,\nand then as though all unconsciously, allow their queue to hang down\nthe back in its natural position, depending upon their fleetness or\ntheir agility in getting out of the way or bringing the queue around in\nfront. This game is peculiarly interesting and caused much hilarity. At\ntimes even the solemn face of Chi relaxed into a smile.\n\n\"Honor,\" called out Chi, and as in the circus when the ringmaster\ncracks his whip, everything changed. The boys each hooked the first\nfinger of his right hand with that of his companion and then pulled\nuntil their fingers broke apart, when they each uttered the word\n\"Honor.\" This must not be spoken before they broke apart, but as soon\nas possible after, and he who was first heard was entitled to an\nobeisance on the part of the other. Those who failed the first trial\nsat down, and those who succeeded paired off and pulled once more, and\nso on until only one was left, who, as in the spelling-bees of our\nboyhood days, became the hero of the hour.\n\nChi, however, was not making heroes, or was it that he did not want to\nhurt the feelings of those who were less agile; at any rate he called\nout \"Hockey,\" and the boys at once snatched up their short sticks and\nbegan playing at a game that is not unlike our American \"shinny,\" a\ngame which is so familiar to every American boy as to make description\nunnecessary--the principal difference between this and the American\ngame being that the boys all try to prevent one boy from putting a ball\ninto what they call the big hole, which, like the others, tended to\ndevelop quickness of action in the boys.\n\n\nI was familiar with the fact that there are certain games which tend to\ndevelop the parental or protective instinct in children, while certain\nothers develop the combative and destructive, as for instance playing\nwith dolls develops the mother-instinct in girls; tea-parties, the love\nof society; and paper dolls teach them how to arrange the furniture in\ntheir houses; while on the other hand, wrestling, boxing, sparring,\nbattles, and all such amusements if constantly engaged in by boys, tend\nto make them, if properly guided and instructed, brave and patriotic;\nbut if not properly led, cause them to be quarrelsome, domineering,\ncruel, coarse and rough, and I wondered if the Chinese boys had any\nsuch games.\n\n\"Chi,\" I asked, \"do you have any such games as host and guest, or games\nin which the large boys protect the small ones?\"\n\n\"Host and guest,\" said Chi.\n\nThe boys at once arranged themselves promiscuously over the playground,\nand with a few peanuts, or sour dates which they picked up under the\ndate trees, with all the ceremony of their race, they invited the\nothers to dine with them. After playing thus for a moment, Chi called\nout:\n\n\"Roast dog meat.\"\n\nThe children gathered in a group, put the palms of their hands\ntogether, squatted in a bunch or ring, and placed their hands together\nin the centre to represent the pot. The boy on the left of the\nillustration represents Mrs. Wang, the guest of the occasion, while Chi\nhimself stands on the right with his hand on the head of one of the\nboys. Chi walked around the ring while he sang:\n\n     Roast, roast, roast dog meat,\n     The second pot smells bad,\n     The little pot is sweet,\n     Come, Mrs. Wang, please,\n     And eat dog meat.\n\nHe then invited Mrs. Wang to come and partake of a dinner of dog meat\nwith him, and the following conversation ensued.\n\n          I cannot walk.\n     I'll hire a cart for you.\n          I'm afraid of the bumping.\n     I'll hire a sedan chair for you.\n          I'm afraid of the jolting.\n     I'll hire a donkey for you.\n          I'm afraid of falling off.\n     I'll carry you.\n          I have no clothes.\n     I'll borrow some for you.\n          I have no hair ornaments.\n     I'll make some for you.\n          I have no shoes.\n     I'll buy some for you.\n\nThis conversation may be carried on to any length, according to the\nfertility of the minds of the children, the excuses of Mrs. Wang at\ntimes being very ludicrous. All these, however, being met, the host\ncarries her off on his back to partake of the dainties of a dog meat\nfeast.\n\n\"What were you playing a few days ago when all the boys lay in a\nstraight line?\"\n\n\"Skin the snake.\"\n\nThe boys danced for glee. This was one of their favorite games.\n\nThey all stood in line one behind the other. They bent forward, and\neach put one hand between his legs and thus grasped the disengaged hand\nof the boy behind him.\n\nThen they began backing. The one in the rear lay down and they backed\nover astride of him, each lying down as he backed over the one next\nbehind him with the other's head between his legs and his head between\nthe legs of his neighbor, keeping fast hold of hands. They were thus\nlying in a straight line.\n\nThe last one that lay down then got up, and as he walked astride the\nline raised each one after him until all were up, when they let go\nhands, stood straight, and the game was finished.\n\n\n\"Have you any other games which develop the protective instinct in\nboys?\" we inquired of Chi.\n\n\"The hawk catching the young chicks,\" said the matter-of-fact boy,\nanswering my question and directing the boys at the same time.\n\nThe children selected one of their number to represent the hawk and\nanother the hen, the latter being one of the largest and best natured\nof the group, and one to whom the small boys naturally looked for\nprotection.\n\nThey formed a line with the mother hen in front, each clutching fast\nhold of the others' clothing, with a large active boy at the end of the\nline.\n\nThe hawk then came to catch the chicks, but the mother hen spread her\nwings and moved from side to side keeping between the hawk and the\nbrood, while at the same time the line swayed from side to side always\nin the opposite direction from that in which the hawk was going. Every\nchick caught by the hawk was taken out of the line until they were all\ngone.\n\nOne of the boys whispered something to Chi.\n\n\"Strike the poles,\" exclaimed the latter.\n\nAs soon as they began playing we recognized it as a game we had already\nseen.\n\nThe boys stood about four feet apart, each having a stick four or five\nfeet long which he grasped near the middle. As they repeated the\nfollowing rhyme in concert they struck alternately the upper and lower\nends of the sticks together, occasionally half inverting them and thus\nstriking the upper ends together in an underhand way. They struck once\nfor each accented syllable of the following rhyme, making it a very\nrhythmical game.\n\n          Strike the stick,\n          One you see.\n  I'll strike you and you strike me.\n          Strike the stick,\n          Twice around,\n  Strike it hard for a good, big sound.\n          Strike it thrice,\n          A stick won't hurt.\n  The magpie wears a small white shirt.\n          Strike again.\n          Four for you.\n  A camel, a horse, and a Mongol too.\n          Strike it five--\n          Five I said,\n  A mushroom grows with dirt on its head.\n          Strike it six\n          Thus you do,\n  Six good horsemen caught Liu Hsiu.\n          Strike it seven\n          For 'tis said\n  A pheasant's coat is green and red.\n          Strike it eight,\n          Strike it right,\n  A gourd on the house-top blossoms white.\n          Strike again,\n          Strike it nine,\n  We'll have some soup, some meat and wine.\n          Strike it ten,\n          Then you stop,\n  A small, white blossom on an onion top.\n\nChi did not wait for further suggestion from any one, but called out:\n\n\"Throw cash.\"\n\nThe boys all ran to an adjoining wall, each took a cash from his purse\nor pocket, and pressing it against the wall, let it drop. The one whose\ncash rolled farthest away took it up and threw it against the wall in\nsuch a way as to make it bound back as far as possible.\n\nEach did this in turn. The one whose cash bounded farthest, then took\nit up, and with his foot on the place whence he had taken it, he\npitched or threw it in turn at each of the others. Those he hit he took\nup. When he missed one, all who remained took up their cash and struck\nthe wall again, going through the same process as before. The one who\nwins is the one who takes up most cash.\n\nThis seemed to call to mind another pitching game, for Chi said once\nmore in his old military way:\n\n\"Pitch brickbats.\"\n\nThe boys drew two lines fifteen feet apart. Each took a piece of brick,\nand, standing on one line pitched to see who could come nearest to the\nother.\n\nThe one farthest from the line set up his brick on the line and the one\nnearest, standing on the opposite line, pitched at it, the object being\nto knock it over.\n\nIf he failed he set up his brick and the other pitched at it.\n\nIf he succeeded, he next pitched it near the other, hopped over and\nkicked his brick against that of his companion, knocking it over. Then\nhe carried it successively on his head, on each shoulder, on back and\nbreast (walking), in the bend of his thigh and the bend of his knee\n(hopping), and between his legs (shuffling), each time dropping it on\nthe other brick and knocking it over.\n\nFinally he marked a square enclosing the brick, eighteen inches each\nside, and hopped back and forth over both square and brick ten times\nwhich constituted him winner of the game.\n\nChi had become so expert in pitching and dropping the brick as to be\nable to play the game without an error. The shuffling and hopping often\ncaused much merriment.\n\n\"What is that game,\" we inquired of Chi, \"the boys on the street play\nwith two marbles?\"\n\nWithout directly answering my question Chi turned to the boys and said:\n\n\"Kick the marbles.\"\n\nThe boys soon produced from somewhere,--Chinese boys can always produce\nanything from anywhere,--two marbles an inch and a half in diameter.\nChi put one on the ground, and with the toe of his shoe upon it, gave\nit a shove. Then placing the other, he shoved it in the same way, the\nobject being to hit the first.\n\nThere are two ways in which one may win. The first boy says to the\nsecond, kick this marble north (south, east or west) of the other at\none kick. If he succeeds he wins, if he fails the other wins.\n\nIf he puts it north as ordered, he may kick again to hit the other\nball, in which case he wins again. If he hits the ball and goes north,\nas ordered, at one kick, he wins double.\n\nEach boy tries to leave the balls in as difficult a position as\npossible for his successor; and here comes in a peculiarity which\nleaves this game unique among the games of the world. If the position\nin which the balls are left is too difficult for the other to play he\nmay refuse to kick and the first is compelled to play his own difficult\ngame--or like Haman--to hang on his own gallows. It recognizes the\nChinese golden rule of not doing to others what you would  not have\nthem do to you.\n\nThe boys spent a long time playing this game--indeed they seemed to\nforget they were playing for us, and we were finally compelled to call\nthem off.\n\nChi had turned the marbles over to the others as soon as he had fairly\nstarted it, and stood in that peculiar fashion of his with one leg\nwound around the other, and when we called to them, he simply said as\nthough it were the next part of the same game:\n\n\"Kick the shoes.\"\n\nThe boys all took off their shoes--an easy matter for an Oriental--and\npiled them in a heap. At a given sign they all kicked the pile\nscattering the shoes in every direction, and each snatched up, and, for\nthe time, kept what he got. Those who were very agile got their own\nshoes, or a pair which would fit them, while those who were slow only\nsecured a single shoe, and that either too large or too small. It was\namusing to see a large-footed boy with a small shoe, and a boy with\nsmall feet having a shoe or shoes much too large for him.\n\nThe game was a good test of the boys' agility.\n\nOn consulting our watch we found it would soon be time for the boys to\nenter school, but asked them to play one more game.\n\n\"Cat catching mice,\" said Chi.\n\nThe children selected one of their company to represent the cat and\nanother the mouse.\n\nThe remainder formed a ring with the mouse inside and the cat outside,\nand while the ring revolved, the following conversation took place:\n\n     \"What o'clock is it?\"\n          \"Just struck nine.\"\n\n     \"Is the mouse at home?\"\n          \"He's about to dine.\"\n\nAll the time the mouse was careful to keep as far as possible from the\ncat.\n\nThe ring stopped revolving and the cat popped in at this side and the\nmouse out at the other. It is one of the rules of the game that the cat\nmust follow exactly in the footsteps of the mouse. They wound in and\nout of the ring for some time but at last the mouse was caught and\n\"eaten,\" the eating process being the amusing part of the game. It is\nimpossible to describe it as every \"cat\" does it differently, and one\nof the virtues of a cat is to be a good eater.\n\nThe boys continued to play until the bell rang for the evening session.\nThey referred to many different games which they had received from\nEuropeans, but played only those which Chi had learned upon the street\nbefore he entered school. This was repeated day after day, until we had\ngathered a large collection of their most common, and consequently\ntheir best, games, the number of which was an indication of the\nrichness of the play life of Chinese boys.\n\nAnother peculiarly interesting fact was the leadership of Chi. The\nChinese boy, like the Chinese man is a genuine democrat and is ready to\nfollow the one who knows what he is about and is competent to take the\nlead, with little regard to social position. It is the civil service\nidea of a genuine democracy ingrained in childhood.\n\n\n\nGAMES PLAYED BY GIRLS\n\nAfter having made the collection of boys' games we undertook to obtain\nin a similar way, fullest information concerning games played by the\ngirls. Of course, it was impossible to do it alone, for the appearance\nof a man among a crowd of little girls in China is similar to that of a\nhawk among a flock of small chicks--it results in a tittering and\nscattering in every direction, or a gathering together in a dock under\nthe shelter of the school roof or the wings of the teacher. One of the\nteachers, however, Miss Effie Young, kindly consented to go with us,\nand a goodly number of the small girls, after a less than usual amount\nof tittering and whispering, gathered about us to see what was wanted.\nThe smallest among them was the most brave, and Miss Young explained\nthat this was a \"little street waif\" who had been taken into the school\nbecause she had neither home nor friends, with the hope that something\nmight be done to save her from an unhappy fate.\n\n\"Do you know any games?\" we asked her.\n\nShe put her hands behind her, hung her head, shuffled in an embarrassed\nmanner, and answered: \"Lots of them.\"\n\n\"Play some for me.\"\n\nThis small girl after some delay took control of the party and began\narranging them for a game, which she called \"going to town,\" similar to\none which the boys called \"pounding rice.\" Two of the girls stood back\nto back, hooked their arms, and as one bent the other from the ground,\nand thus alternating, they sang:\n\n     Up you go, down you see,\n     Here's a turnip for you and me;\n     Here's a pitcher, we'll go to town;\n     Oh, what a pity, we've fallen down.\n\nAt which point they both sat down back to back, their arms still\nlocked, and asked and answered the following questions:\n\n     What do you see in the heavens bright?\n          I see the moon and the stars at night.\n     What do you see in the earth, pray tell?\n          I see in the earth a deep, deep well.\n     What do you see in the well, my dear?\n          I see a frog and his voice I hear.\n     What is he saying there on the rock?\n          Get up, get up, ke'rh kua, ke'rh kua.\n\nThey then tried to get up, but, with their arms locked, they found it\nimpossible to do so, and rolled over and got up with great hilarity.\n\nThis seemed to suggest to our little friend another game, which she\ncalled \"turning the mill.\" The girls took hold of each other's hands,\njust as the boys do in \"churning butter,\" but instead of turning around\nunder their arms they turn half way, put one arm up over their head,\nbringing their right or left sides together, one facing one direction\nand one the other; then, standing still, the following dialogue took\nplace:\n\n     Where has the big dog gone?\n          Gone to the city.\n     Where has the little dog gone?\n          Run away.\n\nThen, as they began to turn, they repeated:\n\n     The big dog's gone to the city;\n     The little dog's run away;\n     The egg has fallen and broken,\n     And the oil's leaked out, they say.\n     But you be a roller\n     And hull with power,\n     And I'll be a millstone\n     And grind the flour.\n\nAs soon as this game was finished our little friend arranged the\nchildren against the wall for another game. Everything was in\nreadiness. They were about to begin, when one of the larger girls\nwhispered something in her ear. She stepped back, put her hands behind\nher, hung her head and thought a moment.\n\n\"Go on,\" we said.\n\n\"No, we can't play that; there is too much bad talk in it.\" This is one\nof the unfortunate features of Chinese children's games and rhymes.\nThere is an immense amount of bad talk in them.\n\nShe at once called out:\n\n\"Meat or vegetables.\"\n\nEach girl began to scurry around to find a pair of old shoes, which may\nbe picked up almost anywhere in China, and putting one crosswise of the\nother, they let them fall. The way they fell indicated what kind of\nmeat or vegetables they were. If they both fell upside down they were\nthe big black tiger. If both fell on the side they were double beans.\nIf one fell right side up and the other on its side they were beans. If\nboth were right side up they were honest officials. (What kind of meat\nor vegetables honest officials are it is difficult to say, but that\nnever troubles the Chinese child.) If one is right side and the other\nwrong side up they are dogs' legs. If the toe of one rests on the top\nof the other, both right side up and at right angles, they form a dark\nhole or an alley.\n\nThe child whose shoes first form an alley must throw a pebble through\nthis alley--that is, under the toe of the shoe--three times, or,\nfailing to do so, one of the number takes up the shoes, and standing on\na line, throws them all back over her head. Then she hops to each\nsuccessively, kicking it back over the line, each time crossing the\nline herself, until all are over. In case she fails another tries it in\nthe same way, and so on, till some one succeeds. This one then takes\nthe two shoes of the one who got the alley, and, hanging them\nsuccessively on her toe, kicks them as far as possible. The possessor\nof the shoes, starting from the line, hops to each, picks it up and\nhops back over the line with it, which ends the game. It is a vigorous\nhopping game for little girls.\n\nThe girls were pretty well exhausted when this game was over and we\nasked them to play something which required less exercise.\n\n\"Water the flowers,\" said the small leader.\n\nSeveral of them squatted down in a circle, put their hands together in\nthe centre to represent the flowers. One of their number gathered up\nthe front of her garment in such a way as to make a bag, and went\naround as if sprinkling water on their heads, at the same time\nrepeating:\n\n     \"I water the flowers, I water the flowers,\n     I water them morning and evening hours,\n     I never wait till the flowers are dry,\n     I water them ere the sun is high.\"\n\nShe then left a servant in charge of them while she went to dinner.\nWhile she was away one of them was stolen.\n\nReturning she asked: \"How is this that one of my flowers is gone?\"\n\n\"A man came from the south on horseback and stole one before I knew it.\nI followed him but how could I catch a man on horseback?\"\n\nAfter many rebukes for her carelessness, she again sang:\n\n     \"A basin of water, a basin of tea,\n     I water the flowers, they're op'ning you see.\"\n\nAgain she cautioned the servant about losing any of the flowers while\nshe went to take her afternoon meal, but another flower was stolen and\nthis time by a man from the west.\n\nWhen the mistress returned, she again scolded the servant, after which\nshe sang:\n\n     \"A basin of water, another beside,\n     I water the flowers, they're opening wide.\"\n\nThis was continued until all the flowers were gone. One had been taken\nby a carter, another by a donkey-driver, another by a muleteer, another\nby a man on a camel, and finally the last little sprig was eaten by a\nchicken. The servant was soundly berated each time and cautioned to be\nmore careful, which she always promised but never performed, and was\nfinally dismissed in disgrace without either a recommendation, or the\nwages she had been promised when hired.\n\nThe game furnishes large opportunity for invention on the part of the\nservant, depending upon the number of those to be stolen. This little\ngirl seemed to be at her wit's end when she gave as the excuse for the\nloss of the last one that it had been eaten by a chicken.\n\nThis game suggested to our little friend another which proved to be the\nsequel to the one just described, and she called out:\n\n\"The flower-seller.\"\n\nThe girl who had just been dismissed appeared from behind the corner of\nthe house with all the stolen \"flowers,\" each holding to the other's\nskirts. At the same time she was calling out:\n\n          \"Flowers for sale,\n               Flowers for sale,\n          Come buy my flowers\n               Before they get stale.\"\n\nThe original owner hereupon appeared and called to her:\n\n\"Hey! come here, flower-girl, those flowers look like mine,\" and she\ntook one away.\n\nThe flower-seller did not stop to argue the question but hurried off\ncrying:\n\n          \"Flowers for sale,\" etc.\n\nThe original owner again called to her:\n\n\"Ho! flower-seller, come here, those flowers are certainly mine,\"\nwhereupon she took them all and whipped the flower-seller who ran away\ncrying.\n\nAs the little flower-seller ran away crying in her sleeve, she stumbled\nover an old flower-pot that lay in the school court. This accident\nseemed to act as a reminder to our little leader for she called out,\n\n\"Flower-pot.\"\n\nThe girls divided themselves into companies of three and stood in the\nform of a triangle, each with her left hand holding the right hand of\nthe other, their hands being crossed in the centre.\n\nThen by putting the arms of two back of the head of the third she was\nbrought into the centre (steps into the well), and by stepping over two\nother arms, she goes out on the opposite side, so that whereas she was\non the left side of this and the right side of that one, she now stands\non the right side of this and the left side of that girl. In the same\nway the second and third girls go through, and so on as long as they\nwish to keep up the game, saying or singing the following rhyme:\n\n     You first cross over, and then cross back,\n     And step in the well as you cross the track,\n     And then there is something else you do,\n     Oh, yes, you make a flower-pot too.\n\nBy this time the girls had lost most of their strangeness or\nembarrassment and continued the flower-pot until we were compelled to\nremind them that they were playing for us. Everybody let go hands and\nthe little general called out,\n\n\"The cow's tail.\"\n\nOne girl with a small stick in her hand squatted down pretending to be\ndigging and the others took a position one behind the other similar to\nthe hawk catching the chicks. They walked up to the girl digging and\nengaged in the following conversation:\n\n     \"What are you digging?\"\n          \"Digging a hole.\"\n     \"What is it for?\"\n          \"My pot for to boil.\"\n     \"What will you heat?\"\n          \"Some water and broth.\"\n     \"How use the water?\"\n          \"I'll wash some cloth.\"\n     \"What will you make?\"\n          \"I'll make a bag.\"\n     \"And what put in it?\"\n          \"A knife and a rag.\"\n     \"What is the knife for?\"\n          \"To kill your lambs.\"\n     \"What have they done?\"\n          \"They've eaten my yams.\"\n     \"How high were they?\"\n          \"About so high.\"\n     \"Oh, that isn't high.\"\n          \"As high as the sky.\"\n\n\n  \"What is your name?\"\n     \"My name is Grab, what is your name?\"\n     \"My name is Turn.\"\n  \"Turn once for me.\"\n\nThey all walked around in a circle and as they turned they sang:\n\n     \"We turn about once,\n         Or twice I declare,\n     And she may grab,\n         But we don't care.\"\n\n     \"Can't you grab once for us?\"\n     \"Yes, but what I grab I keep.\"\n\nShe then ran to \"grab\" one of the \"lambs\" but they kept behind the\nfront girl just as the boys did in the hawk catching the chicks. After\nawhile however, they were all caught.\n\nWhy this game is called \"cow's tail\" and the girls called \"lambs,\" we\ndo not know. We asked the girls why and their answer was, \"There is no\nreason.\"\n\nThe girls were panting with the running before they were all caught and\nwe suggested that they rest awhile, but instead the little leader\ncalled out:\n\n\"Let out the doves.\"\n\nOne of the larger girls took hold of the hands of two of the smaller,\none of whom represented a dove and the other a hawk. The hawk stood\nbehind her and the dove in front.\n\nShe threw the dove away as she might pitch a bird into the air, and as\nthe child ran it waved its arms as though they were wings. She threw\nthe hawk in the same way, and it followed the dove.\n\nShe then clapped her hands as the Chinese do to bring their pet birds\nto them, and the dove if not caught, returned to the cage. This is a\nvery pretty game for little children.\n\nBy this time the girls were all rested and our little friend said:\n\n\"Seek for gold.\"\n\nThree or four of the girls gathered up some pebbles, squatted down in a\ngroup and scattered them as they would a lot of jackstones. Then one\ndrew her finger between two of the stones and snapped one against the\nother. If she hit it the two were taken up and put aside.\n\nShe then drew her finger between two more and snapped them.\n\nIf she missed, another girl took up what were left, scattered them,\nsnapped them, took them up, and so on until one or another got the most\nof the pebbles and thus won the game. Our little friend was reminded of\nanother and she called out:\n\n\"The cow's eye.\"\n\nImmediately the girls all sat down in a ring and put their feet\ntogether in the centre. Then one of their number repeated the following\nrhyme, tapping a foot with each accented syllable.\n\n     One, two, three, and an old cow's eye,\n     When a cow's eye's blind she'll surely die.\n     A piece of skin and a melon too,\n     If you have money I'll sell to you,\n          But if you're without,\n          I'll put you out.\n\nThe foot on which her finger happened to rest when she said \"out\" was\nexcluded from the ring. Again she repeated the rhyme excluding a foot\nwith each repetition till all but one were out.\n\nUp to this point all the children were in a nervous quiver waiting to\nsee which foot would be left, but now the fun began, for they took the\nshoe off and every one slapped that unfortunate foot. This was done\nwith good-natured vigor but without intention to hurt. It was amusing\nto see the children squirm as they neared the end of the game.\n\nThis game finished, the little girl called out:\n\n\"Pat your hands and knees.\"\n\nThe girls sat down in pairs and, after the style of \"Bean Porridge\nHot,\" clapped hands to the following rhyme:\n\n               Pat your hands and knees,\n               On January first,\n     The old lady likes to go a sightseeing most.\n               Pat your hands and knees,\n               On February second,\n     The old lady likes a piece of candy it is reckoned.\n               Pat your hands and knees,\n               On March the third,\n     The old lady likes a Canton pipe I have heard.\n               Pat your hands and knees,\n               On April fourth,\n     The old lady likes bony fish from the north.\n               Pat your hands and knees,\n               The fifth of May,\n     The old lady likes sweet potatoes every day.\n               Pat your hands and knees,\n               The sixth of June,\n     The old lady eats fat pork with a spoon.\n               Pat your hands and knees,\n               The seventh of July,\n     The old lady likes to eat a fat chicken pie.\n               Pat your hands and knees,\n               On August eight,\n     The old lady likes to see the lotus flowers straight.\n               Pat your hands and knees,\n               September nine,\n     The old lady likes to drink good hot wine.\n               Pat your hands and knees,\n               October ten,\n\n     The old lady, you and I, may meet  hope again.\n\nThis we afterwards discovered is very widely known throughout the north\nof China.\n\nThe foregoing are a few of the games played by the children in Peking.\nIn that one city we have collected more than seventy-five different\ngames, and have no reason to believe we have secured even a small\nproportion of what are played there. Games played in Central and South\nChina are different, partly because of climatic conditions, partly\nbecause of the character of the people. There, as here, the games of\nchildren are but reproductions of the employments of their parents.\nThey play at farming, carpentry, house-keeping, storekeeping, or\nwhatever employments their parents happen to be engaged in. Indeed, in\naddition to the games common to a larger part of the country, there are\nmany which are local, and depend upon the employment of the parents or\nthe people.\n\n\n\nTHE TOYS CHILDREN PLAY WITH\n\nOne day while sitting at table, with our little girl, nineteen months\nold, on her mother's knee near by, we picked up her rubber doll and\nbegan to whip it violently. The child first looked frightened, then\nsevere, then burst into tears and plead with her mother not to \"let\npapa whip dolly.\"\n\nFew people realize how much toys become a part of the life of the\nchildren who play with them. They are often looked upon as nothing more\nthan \"playthings for children.\" This is a very narrow view of their\nuses and relationships. There is a philosophy underlying the production\nof toys as old as the world and as broad as life, a philosophy which,\nuntil recent years, has been little studied and cultivated.\n\nPlaythings are as necessary a constituent of human life as food or\nmedicine, and contribute in a like manner to the health and development\nof the race. Like the science of cooking and healing, the business of\ntoy-making has been driven by the stern teacher, necessity, to a rapid\nself-development for the general good of the little men and women in\nwhose interests they are made.\n\nThey are the tools with which children ply their trades; the\ninstruments with which they carry on their professions; the goods which\nthey buy and sell in their business, and the paraphernalia with which\nthey conduct their toy society. They are more than this. They are the\nanimals which serve them, the associates who entertain them, the\nchildren who comfort them and bring joy to the mimic home.\n\nToys are nature's first teachers. The child with his little shovels,\nspades and hoes, learns his first lessons in agriculture;  with his\nhammer and nails, he gets his first lessons in the various trades; and\nthe bias of the life of many a child of larger growth has come from the\ntoys with which he played. Into his flower garden the father of\nLinnaeus introduced his son during his infancy, and \"this little garden\nundoubtedly created that taste in the child which afterwards made him\nthe first botanist and naturalist of his age, if not of his race.\"\n\nNo experiments in any chemical laboratory will excite more wonder or be\ncarried on with more interest, than those which the boy performs with\nhis pipe and basin of soapy water. The little girl's mud pies and other\nsham confectionery furnish her first lessons in the art of preparing\nfood. Her toy dinners and playhouse teas offer her the first\nexperiences in the entertainment of guests. With her dolls, the\ndomestic relations and affections.\n\nNo science has ever originated and been carried to any degree of\nperfection in Asia. There is no reason why this statement should cause\nthe noses of Europeans and Americans to twitch in derision and pride,\nfor there is another fact equally momentous in favor of the\nAsiatics,--viz., no religion that originated outside of Asia has ever\nbeen carried to any degree of perfection.\n\nThe above facts will indicate that we need not hope to find the\nbusiness of toy-making, or the science of child-education in a very\nadvanced state in China--the most Asiatic country of Asia. Child's play\nand toy-making have been organized into a business and a science in\nEurope, as astronomy, which had been studied so long in Asia, was\ndeveloped into a science by the Greeks. And so we find that what is\ntaught in the kindergarten of the West is learned in the streets of the\nEast; and the toys which are manufactured in great Occidental business\nestablishments, are made by poor women in Oriental homes, and the same\nmistakes are made by the one as by the other.\n\nThe same whistle by which the cock crows, enables the dog to bark, the\nbaby to cry, the horse to neigh, the sheep to bleat and the cow to low,\njust as in our own rubber goods. The same end is accomplished in the\none case as in the other. The two, three or twenty cash doll does for\nthe Chinese girl what the two, three or twenty dollar one does for her\nantipodal sister,--develops the instinct of motherhood, besides\nstanding a greater amount of rough handling. Nevertheless it usually\ncomes to the same deplorable end, departing this world, bereft of its\narms and legs, without going through the tedious process of a surgical\noperation.\n\nChinese toys are less varied, less complicated, less true to the\noriginal, and less expensive than those of the West,--more perhaps like\nthe toys of a century or two ago. Nevertheless they are toys, and in\nthe hands of boys and girls, the drum goes \"rub-a-dub,\" the horn\n\"toots,\" and the whistle squeaks. The \"gingham dog and calico cat,\"\nbesides a score of other animals more nearly related to the soil of\ntheir native place--being made of clay--express themselves in the\nlanguage of the particular whistle which happens to have been placed\nwithin them. All this is to the entire satisfaction of \"little Miss\nMuffet\" and \"little boy Blue,\" just as they do in other lands.\n\nWhen the children grow older they have tops to spin that whistle as\ngood a whistle, and buzzers to buzz that buzz as good a buzz, and music\nballs to roll, and music carts to pull, that emit sounds as much to\ntheir satisfaction, as anything that ministered to the childish tastes\nof our grandfathers; and these become as much a part of their business\nand their life as if they were living, talking beings. Furthermore,\ntheir dolls are as much their children as they themselves are the\noffspring of their parents.\n\nChinese toys embrace only those which involve no intricate scientific\nprinciples. The music boxes of the West are unknown in China except as\nthey are imported. The Chinese know nothing about dolls which open and\nshut their eyes, simple as this principle is, nor of toys which are\nself-propelling by some mysterious spring secreted within, because,\nforsooth, they know nothing about making the spring.\n\nThere are some principles, however, which, though they may not\nunderstand, they are nevertheless able to utilize; such, for instance,\nas the expansion of air by heat, and the creation of air currents. This\nprinciple is utilized in lanterns. In the top of these is a paper wheel\nattached to a cross-bar on the ends of which are suspended paper men\nand women together with animals of all kinds making a very interesting\nmerry-go-round. These lantern-figures correspond to the sawyers,\nborers, blacksmiths, washers and others which twenty or more years ago\nwere on top of the stove of every corner grocery or country post-office.\n\nWhen we began the study of Chinese toys our first move was to call in a\nChinese friend whom we thought we could trust, and who could buy toys\nat a very reasonable rate, and sent him out to purchase specimens of\nevery variety of toys he could find in the city of Peking. We ordered\nhim the first day to buy nothing but rattles, because the rattle is the\nfirst toy that attracts the attention of the child.\n\nIn the evening Mr. Hsin returned with a good-sized basket full of\nrattles. Some were tin in the form of small cylinders, with handles in\nwhich were small pebbles: others were shaped like pails; and others\nlike cooking pots and pans.\n\n\nSome of the most attractive were hollow wood balls, baskets, pails and\nbottles, gorgeously painted, with long handles, necks, or bails. The\npaint was soon transferred from the face of the toy to that of the\nfirst child that happened to play with it, which child was of course,\nour own little girl.\n\nThe most common rattles representing various kinds of fowls and animals\nknown and unknown are made of clay. Others are in the form of fat\nlittle priests that make one think of Santa Claus, or little roly-poly\nchildren that look like the little folks who play with them.\n\nAs the child grows larger the favorite rattle is a drum-shaped piece of\nbamboo or other wood, with skin--not infrequently fish skin, stretched\nover the two ends, and a long handle attached. On the sides are two\nstout strings with beads on the ends, which, when the rattle is turned\nin the hand, strike on the drum heads. These rattles of brass or tin as\nwell as bamboo, are in imitation of those carried by street hawkers.\n\nWe said to Mr. Hsin, \"Foreigners say the Chinese do not have dolls, how\nis that?\"\n\n\"They have lots of them,\" he answered in the stereotyped way.\n\n\"Then to-morrow buy samples of all the dolls you can find.\"\n\n\"All?\" he asked with some surprise.\n\n\"Yes, all. We want to know just what kind of dolls they have.\"\n\nThe next evening Mr. Hsin came in with an immense load of dolls. He had\nlarge, small, and middle sized rag dolls, on which the nose was sewed,\nthe ears pasted, and the eyes and other features painted. They were\nrude, but as interesting to children as other more natural and more\nexpensive ones, as we discovered by giving one of them to our little\ngirl. In not a few instances Western children have become much more\nfirmly attached to their Chinese cloth dolls than any that can be found\nfor them in America or Europe.\n\nHe had a number of others both large and small with paper mache heads,\nleather bodies, and clay arms and legs. The body was like a bellows in\nwhich a reed whistle was placed, that enabled the baby to cry in the\nsame tone as the toy dog barks or the cock crows. They had \"real hair\"\nin spots on their head similar to those on the child, and they were\ndressed in the same kind of clothing as that used on the baby in\nsummer-time, viz., a chest-protector and a pair of shoes or trousers.\n\nMr. Hsin then took out a small package in which was wrapped a\nhalf-dozen or more \"little people,\" as they are called, by the Chinese,\nwith paper heads, hands and feet, exquisitely painted, and their\nclothing of the finest silk. Attached to the head of each was a silk\nstring by which the \"little people\" are hung upon the wall as a\ndecoration.\n\n\"But what are these, Mr. Hsin?\" we asked. \"These are not dolls.\"\n\n\"No,\" he answered, \"these are cloth animals. The children play with\nthese at the same time they play with dolls.\"\n\nHe had gone beyond our instructions. He had brought us a large\ncollection of camels made of cloth the color of the camel's skin, with\nlittle bunches of hair on the head, neck, hump and the joints of the\nlegs, similar to those on the camel when it is shedding its coat in the\nspringtime. He had elephants made of a grayish kind of cloth on which\nwere harnesses similar to those supposed to be necessary for those\nanimals. He had bears with bits of hair on neck and tail and a leading\nstring in the nose; horses painted with spots of white and red, matched\nonly by the most remarkable animals in a circus; monkeys with black\nbeads for eyes, and long tails; lions, tigers, and leopards, with\nlarge, savage, black, glass eyes, with manes or tails suited to each,\nand properly crooked by a wire extending to the tip. And finally he\nlaid the bogi-boo, a nondescript with a head on each end much like the\nhead of a lion or tiger. When not used as a plaything, this served the\npurpose of a pillow.\n\n\"Do the Chinese have no other kinds of toy animals?\" we inquired.\n\n\"Yes,\" he answered, \"I'll bring them to-morrow.\"\n\nThe following evening he brought us a collection of clay toys too\nextensive to enumerate. There were horses, cows, camels, mules, deer,\nand a host of others the original of which has never been found except\nin the imagination of the people. He had women riding donkeys followed\nby drivers, men riding horses and shooting or throwing a spear at a\nfleeing tiger, and women with babies in their arms while grandmother\namused them with rattles, and father lay near by smoking an opium pipe.\n\nFrom the bottom of his basket he brought forth a nuber of small\npackages.\n\n\"What are in those?\"\n\n\"These are clay insects.\"\n\nThey were among the best clay work we have seen in China. There were\ntumble-bugs, grasshoppers, large beetles, mantis, praying mantis, toads\nand scorpions, together with others never seen outside of China, and\nsome never seen at all, the legs and feelers all being made of wire.\n\nIn another package he had a dozen dancing dolls. They were made of\nclay, were an inch and a half long, dressed with paper, and had small\nwires protruding the sixteenth of an inch below the bottom of the\nskirt. He put them all on a brass tray, the edge of which he struck\nwith a small stick to make it vibrate, thus causing the dancers to turn\nround and round in every direction.\n\nThe next package contained a number of clay beggars. Two were fighting,\none about to smash his clay pot over the other's head: another had his\npot on his head for a lark, a third was eating from his, while others\nwere carrying theirs in their hand. One had a sore leg to which he\ncalled attention with open mouth and pain expressed in every feature.\n\nFrom another package he brought out a number of jumping jacks,\nimitations as it seemed of things Japanese. There were monkey acrobats\nmade of clay, wire and skin, fastened to a small slip of bamboo. A doll\nfastened to a stick, with cymbals in its hands would clash the cymbals,\nwhen its queue was pulled. Finally there was a large dragon which\nsatisfied its raging appetite by feeding upon two or three little clay\nmen specially prepared for his consumption.\n\nBut, perhaps, among the most interesting of his toys were his clay\nwhistles. Some of these burnt or sun-dried toys were hollow and in the\nshape of birds, beasts and insects. When blown into, they would emit\nthe shrillest kind of a whistle. In others a reed whistle had been\nplaced similar to those in the dolls, and these usually had a bellows\nto blow them. Whether cock or hen, dog or child, they all crowed,\nbarked, cackled, or cried in the self-same tone.\n\n\"What will you get to-morrow?\"\n\n\"Drums, knives, and tops,\" said Mr. Hsin. He was being paid by the day\nfor spending our money, and so had his plans well laid.\n\nThe following evening he brought a large collection of toy drums, some\nof which were in the shape of a barrel, both in their length and in\nbeing bulged out at the middle. On the ends were painted gay pictures\nof men and women clad in battle-array or festive garments, making the\ndrum a work of art as well as an instrument of torture to those who are\ndisturbed by noises about the house.\n\nHe had large knives covered with bright paint which could easily be\nwashed off, and tridents, with loose plates or cymbals, which make a\nnoise to frighten the enemy.\n\nThe tops Mr. Hsin had collected were by far the most interesting.\nChinese tops are second to none made. They are simple, being made of\nbamboo, are spun with a string, and when properly operated emit a\nshrill whistle.\n\nThe ice top, without a stem, and simply a block of wood in shape of a\ntop, is spun with a string, but is kept going by whipping.\n\nAnother toy which foreigners call a top is entirely different from\nanything we see in the West. The Chinese call it a K'ung chung, while\nthe top is called t'o lo. It is constructed of two pieces of bamboo,\neach of which is made like a top, and then joined by a carefully turned\naxle, each end being of equal weight, and looking not unlike the wheels\nof a cart. It is then spun by a string, which is wound once around the\naxle and attached to two sticks. A good performer is able to spin it in\na great variety of ways, tossing it under and over his foot, spinning\nit with the sticks behind him, and at times throwing it up into the air\ntwenty or thirty feet and catching it as it comes down. The principle\nupon which it is operated is the quick jerking of one of the sticks\nwhile the other is allowed to be loose.\n\n\"To-morrow,\" said Mr. Hsin, as he ceased spinning the top, \"I will get\nyou some toy carts.\"\n\nThe Chinese cart has been described as a Saratoga trunk on two wheels.\nThis is, however, only one form--that of the passenger cart. There are\nmany others, and all of them are used as patterns of toy carts. They\nall have a kind of music-box attachment, operated by the turning of the\naxle to which the wheels of the toys, as well as those of some of the\nreal carts, are fixed.\n\nThe toy carts are made of tin, wood and clay. Some of them are very\nsimple, having paper covers, while others possess the whole\nparaphernalia of the street carts. When the mule of the toy cart is\nunhitched and unharnessed, he looks like a very respectable mule.\nNevertheless, instead of devouring food, he becomes the prey of\ninsects. Usually he appears the second season, if he lasts that long,\nbereft of mane and tail, as well as a large portion of his skin.\n\nThe flat carts have a revolving peg sticking up through the centre, on\nwhich a small clay image is placed which turns with the stick. Others\nare placed on wires on the two sides, to represent the driver and the\npassengers.\n\nThese in Peking are the omnibus carts. Running from the east gate of\nthe Imperial city to the front gate, and in other parts of the city as\nwell, there are street carts corresponding to the omnibus or street\ncars of the West. These start at intervals of ten minutes, more or\nless, with eight or ten persons on a cart, the fare being only a few\ncash. Toy carts of this kind have six or eight clay images to represent\nthe passengers.\n\nMr. Hsin brought out from the bottom of his basket a number of neatly\nmade little pug dogs, and pressing upon a bellows in their body caused\nthem to bark, just as the hen cackled a few days before.\n\nWhat we have described formed only a small portion of the toys Mr. Hsin\nbrought. Cheap clay toys of all kinds are hawked about the street by a\nman who sells them at a fifth or a tenth of a cent apiece. With him is\noften found a candy-blower, who with a reed and a bowl of taffy-candy\nis ready to blow a man, a chicken, a horse and cart, a corn ear, or\nanything else the child wants, as a glass-blower would blow a bottle or\na lamp chimney. The child plays with his prize until he tires of it and\nthen he eats it.\n\n\n\nBLOCK GAMES--KINDERGARTEN\n\nIt was on a bright spring afternoon that a Chinese official and his\nlittle boy called at our home on Filial Piety Lane, in Peking.\n\nThe dresses of father and child were exactly alike--as though they had\nbeen twins, boots of black velvet or satin, blue silk trousers, a long\nblue silk garment, a waistcoat of blue brocade, and a black satin\nskullcap--the child was in every respect, even to the dignity of his\nbearing, a vest-pocket edition of his father.\n\nHe had a T'ao of books which I recognized as the Fifteen Magic Blocks,\none of the most ingenious, if not the most remarkable, books I have\never seen.\n\nA T'ao is two or any number of volumes of a book wrapped in a single\ncover. In this case it was two volumes. In the inside of the cover\nthere was a depression three inches square in which was kept a piece of\nlead, wood or pasteboard, divided into fifteen pieces as in the\nfollowing illustration.\n\nThese blocks are all in pairs except one, which is a rhomboid. They are\nall exactly proportional, having their sides either half-inch, inch,\ninch and a half, or two inches in length.\n\nThey are not used as are the blocks in our kindergarten simply to make\ngeometrical figures, but rather to illustrate such facts of history as\nwill have a moral influence, or be an intellectual stimulus to the\nchild.\n\nHe may build houses with them, or make such ancient or modern\nornaments, or household utensils, as may suit his fancy; but the\nprimary object of the blocks and the books, is to impress upon the\nchild's mind, in the most forcible way possible, the leading facts of\nhistory, poetry, mythology or morals; while the houses, boats and other\nthings are simply side issues.\n\nThe first illustration the child constructed for me, for I desired him\nto teach me how it was done, was a dragon horse, and when I asked him\nto explain it, he said that it represented the animal seen by Fu Hsi,\nthe original ancestor of the Chinese people, emerging from the Meng\nriver, bearing upon its back a map on which were fifty-five spots,\nrepresenting the male and female principles of nature, and which the\nsage used to construct what are called the eight diagrams.\n\nThe child tossed the blocks off into a pile and then constructed a\ntortoise which he said was seen by Yu, the Chinese Noah, coming out of\nthe Lo river, while he was draining off the floods. On its back was a\ndesign which he used as a pattern for the nine divisions of his empire.\n\nThese two incidents are referred to by Confucius, and are among the\nfirst learned by every Chinese child.\n\nI looked through the book and noticed that many of the designs were for\nthe amusement of the children, as well as to develop their ingenuity.\nIn the two volumes of the T'ao he had only the outlines of the pictures\nwhich he readily constructed with the blocks. But he had with him also\na small volume which was a key to the designs having lines indicating\nhow each block was placed. This he had purchased for a few cash. Much\nof the interest of the book, however, attached to the puzzling\ncharacter of the pictures.\n\nThere was one with a verse attached somewhat like the following:\n\n  The old wife drew a chess-board\n     On the cover of a book,\n  While the child transformed a needle\n     Into a fishing-hook.\n\nChinese literature is full of examples of men and women who applied\nthemselves to their books with untiring diligence. Some tied their hair\nto the beam of their humble cottage so that when they nodded with\nsleepiness the jerk would awake them and they might return to their\nbooks.\n\nOthers slept upon globular pillows that when they became so restless as\nto move and cause the pillow to roll from under their head they might\nget up and study.\n\nThe child once more took the blocks and illustrated how one who was so\npoor as to be unable to furnish himself with candles, confined a\nfire-fly in a gauze lantern using that instead of a lamp. At the same\ntime he explained that another who was perhaps not able to afford the\ngauze lantern, studied by the light of a glowworm.\n\n\"K'ang Heng,\" said the child, as he put the blocks together in a new\nform, \"had a still better way, as well as more economical. His house\nwas built of clay, and as the window of his neighbor's house was\nimmediately opposite, he chiseled a hole through his wall and thus took\nadvantage of his neighbor's light.\n\n\"Sun K'ang's method was very good for winter,\" continued the child as\nhe rearranged the blocks, \"but I do not know what he would do in\nsummer. He studied by the light reflected from the snow.\n\n\"Perhaps,\" he went on as he changed the form, \"he followed the example\nof another who studied by the pale light of the moon.\"\n\n\"What does that represent?\" I asked him pointing to a child with a bowl\nin his hand who looked as if he might have been going to the grocer's.\n\n\"Oh, that boy is going to buy wine.\"\n\nThe Chinese have never yet realized what a national evil liquor may\nbecome. They have little wine shops in the great cities, but they have\nno drinking houses corresponding to the saloon, and it is not uncommon\nto see a child going to the wine shop to fetch a bowl of wine. The\nBuddhist priest indulges with the same moderation as the official class\nor gentry. Indeed most of the drunkenness we read about in Chinese\nbooks is that of poets and philosophers, and in them it is, if not\ncommended, at least not condemned. The attitude of literature towards\nthem is much like that of Thackeray towards the gentlemen of his day.\n\nThe child constructed the picture of a Buddhist priest, who, with staff\nin hand, and a mug of wine, was viewing the beautiful mountains in the\ndistance. He then changed it to one in which an intoxicated man was\nleaning on a boy's shoulder, the inscription to which said: \"Any one is\nwilling to assist a drunken man to return home.\"\n\n\"This,\" he went on as he changed his blocks, \"is a picture of Li Pei,\nChina's greatest poet. He lived more than a thousand years ago. This\nrepresents the closing scene in his life. He was crossing the river in\na boat, and in a drunken effort to get the moon's reflection from the\nwater, he fell overboard and was drowned.\" The child pointed to the\nsail at the same time, repeating the following:\n\n     The sail being set,\n          He tried to get,\n     The moon from out the main.\n\nI noticed a large number of boat scenes and induced the child to\nconstruct some of them for me, which he was quite willing to do,\nexplaining them as he went as readily as our children would explain Old\nMother Hubbard or the Old Woman who Lived in her Shoe, by seeing the\nillustrations.\n\nConstructing one he repeated a verse somewhat like the following:\n\n     Alone the fisherman sat,\n          In his boat by the river's brink,\n     In the chill and cold and snow,\n          To fish, and fish, and think.\n\nThen he turned over to two on opposite pages, and as he constructed\nthem he repeated in turn:\n\n     In a stream ten thousand li in length\n          He bathes his feet at night,\n\n\n     While on a mount he waves his arms,\n          Ten thousand feet in height.\n\n\nThe ten thousand li in one couplet corresponds to the ten thousand feet\nin the other, while the bathing of the feet corresponds to the waving\nof the arms. Couplets of this kind are always attractive to the Chinese\nchild as well as to the scholar, and poems and essays are replete with\nsuch constructions.\n\nThe child enjoyed making the pictures. I tried to make one, but found\nit very difficult. I was not familiar with the blocks. It is different\nnow, I have learned how to make them. Then it seemed as if it would be\nimpossible ever to do so. When I had failed to make the picture I\nturned them over to him. In a moment it was done.\n\n\"Who is it?\" I asked.\n\n\"Chang Ch'i, the poet,\" he answered. \"Whenever he went for a walk he\ntook with him a child who carried a bag in which to put the poems he\nhappened to write. In this illustration he stands with his head bent\nforward and his hands behind his back lost in thought, while the lad\nstands near with the bag.\"\n\nWe have given in another chapter the story of the great traveller,\nChang Ch'ien, and his search for the source of the Yellow River.\n\nIn one of the illustrations the child represented him in his boat in a\nway not very different from that of the artist.\n\nAnother quotation from one of the poets was illustrated as follows:\n\n     Last night a meeting I arranged,\n          Ere I my lamp did light,\n     Nor while I crossed the ferry feared,\n          Or wind or rain or night.\n\nThe child's eyes sparkled as he turned to some of those illustrating\nchildren at play, and as he constructed one which represents two\nchildren swinging their arms and running, he repeated:\n\n     See the children at their play,\n     Gathering flowers by the way.\n\n\"They are gathering pussy-willows,\" he added.\n\nIn another he represented a child standing before the front gate, where\nhe had knocked in vain to gain admission. As he completed it he said,\npointing to the apricot over the door:\n\n     Ten times he knocked upon the gate,\n          But nine, they opened not,\n     Above the wall he plainly saw,\n          A ripe, red apricot.\n\nHe continued to represent quotations from the poets and explain them as\nhe went along.\n\nThere was one which indicated that some one was ascending the steps to\nthe jade platform on which the dust had settled as it does on\neverything in Peking; at the same time the verse told us that\n\n     Step by step we reach the platform,\n          All of jade of purest green,\n     Call a child to come and sweep it,\n          But he cannot sweep it clean.\n\n\"You know,\" he went on, \"the cottages of many of the poets were near\nthe beautiful lakes in central China, in the wild heights of the\nmountains, or upon the banks of some flowing stream. In this one the\npavilion of the poet is on the bank of the river, and we are told that,\n\n      In his cottage sat the poet\n          Thinking, as the moon went by,\n      That the moonlight on the water,\n          Made the water like the sky.\"\n\nChanging it somewhat he made a cottage of a different kind. This was\nnot made for the picture's sake, but to illustrate a sentence it was\ndesigned to impress upon the child's mind. The quotation is somewhat as\nfollows:\n\n     The ringing of the evening bells,\n          The moon a crescent splendid,\n     The rustling of the swallow's wings\n          Betoken winter ended.\n\nThe child looked up at me significantly as he turned to one which\nrepresented a Buddhist priest. I expected something of a joke at the\npriest's expense as in the nursery rhymes and games, but there was\nnone. That would injure the sale of the book. The inscription told us\nthat \"a Buddhist lantern will reflect light enough to illuminate the\nwhole universe.\"\n\nTurning to the next page we found a priest sitting in front of the\ntemple in the act of beating his wooden drum, while the poet exclaims:\n\n     O crystal pool and silvery moon,\n          So clear and pure thou art,\n     There's nought to which thou wilt compare\n          Except a Buddha's heart.\n\nThe child next directed our attention to various kinds of flowers, more\nespecially the marigold. A man in a boat rows with one hand while he\npoints backward to the blossoming marigold, while in another picture\nthe poet tells us that,\n\n     Along the eastern wall,\n          We pluck the marigold,\n     While on the south horizon,\n          The mountain we behold.\n\n\"What is that?\" I asked as he turned to a picture of an old man riding\non a cow.\n\n\"That is Laotze, the founder of Taoism, crossing the frontier at the\nHan Ku Pass between Shansi and Shensi, riding upon a cow. Nobody knows\nwhere he went.\"\n\nThere were other pictures of Taoist patriarchs keeping sheep. By their\nmagic power they turned the sheep into stones when they were tired\nwatching them, and again the inscriptions told us, \"the stones became\nsheep at his call.\" Still others represented them in search of the\nelixir of life, while in others they were riding on a snail.\n\nThe object of thus bringing in incidents from all these Buddhist,\nTaoist, Confucian, and other sources is that by catering to all classes\nthe book may have wide distribution, and whatever the Confucianist may\nsay, it must be admitted that the other religions have a strong hold\nupon the popular mind.\n\nThe last twenty-six illustrations in Vol. I represent various incidents\nin the life, history and employments of women.\n\nThe first of these is an ancient empress \"weaving at night by her\npalace window.\"\n\nAnother represents a woman in her boat and we are told that, \"leaving\nher oar she leisurely sang a song entitled, 'Plucking the Caltrops.'\"\n\nAnother represents a woman \"wearing a pomegranate-colored dress riding\na pear-blossom colored horse.\" A peculiar combination to say the least.\n\nThe fisherman's wife is represented in her boat, \"making her toilet at\ndawn using the water as a mirror.\" While we are assured also that the\nwoman sitting upon her veranda \"finds it very difficult to thread her\nneedle by the pale light of the moon,\" which fact, few, I think, would\nquestion.\n\nIn one of the pictures \"a beautiful maiden, in the bright moonlight,\ncame beneath the trees.\" This is evidently contrary to Chinese ideas of\npropriety, for the Classic for girls tells us that a maiden should not\ngo out at night except in company with a servant bearing a lantern. As\nit was bright moonlight, however, let us hope she was excusable.\n\nThis sauntering about in the court is not uncommon if we believe what\nthe books say, for in the next picture we are told that:\n\n     As near the middle summer-house,\n          The maiden sauntered by,\n     Upon the jade pin in her hair\n          There lit a dragon-fly.\n\nThe next illustration represented the wife of the famous poet Ssu-Ma\nHsiang-Ju in her husband's wine shop.\n\nThis poet fell in love with the widowed daughter of a wealthy merchant,\nthe result of which was that the young couple eloped and were married;\nand as the daughter was disinherited by her irate parent, she was\ncompelled to wait on customers in her husband's wine shop, which she\ndid without complaint. In spite of their imprudent conduct, and for the\ntime, its unhappy results, as soon as the poet had become so famous as\nto be summoned to court, the stern father relented, and, as it was a\ncase of undoubted affection, which the Chinese readily appreciate they\nhave always had the sympathy of the whole Chinese people.\n\nOne of the most popular women in Chinese history is Mu Lan, the A\nChinese Joan of Arc. Her father, a great general, being too old to take\ncharge of his troops, and her brothers too young, she dressed herself\nin boy's clothing, enrolled herself in the army, mounted her father's\ntrusty steed, and led his soldiers to battle, thus bringing honor to\nherself and renown upon her family.\n\nWe have already seen how diligent some of the ancient worthies were in\ntheir study. This, however, is not universal, for we are told the\nmother of Liu Kung-cho, in order to stimulate her son to study took\npills made of bear's gall and bitter herbs, to show her sympathy with\nher boy and lead him to feel that she was willing to endure bitterness\nas well as he.\n\nThe last of these examples of noble women is that of the wife of Liang\nHung, a poor philosopher of some two thousand years ago. An effort was\nmade to engage him to Meng Kuang, the daughter of a rich family, whose\nlack of beauty was more than balanced by her remarkable intelligence.\nThe old philosopher feared that family pride might cause domestic\ninfelicity. The girl on her part steadfastly refused to marry any one\nelse, declaring that unless she married Liang Hung, she would not marry\nat all. This unexpected constancy touched the old man's heart and he\nmarried her. She dressed in the most common clothing, always prepared\nhis food with her own hand, and to show her affection and respect never\npresented him with the rice-bowl without raising it to the level of her\neyebrows, as in the illustration.\n\nIt may be interesting to see some of the ornaments and utensils the\nchild made with his blocks. I shall therefore add three, a pair of\nscissors, a teapot, and a seal with a turtle handle.\n\nSuch is in general the character of the book the official's little boy\nhad with him. I afterwards secured several copies for myself and\nlearned to make all the pictures first shown me by the child, and I\ndiscovered that it is but one of several forms of what we may call\nkindergarten work, that it has gone through many editions, and is very\nwidely distributed. My own set contains 216 illustrations such as I\nhave given.\n\n\n\nCHILDREN'S SHOWS AND ENTERTAINMENTS\n\nMy little girl came running into my study greatly excited and\nexclaiming:\n\n\"Papa, the monkey show, the monkey show. We want the monkey show, may\nwe have it?\"\n\nNow if you had but one little girl, and she wanted a monkey show to\ncome into your own court and perform for her and her little friends for\nhalf an hour, the cost of which was the modest sum of five cents, what\nwould you do?\n\nYou would do as I did, no doubt, go out with the little girl, call in\nthe passing showman and allow him to perform, which would serve the\ntriple purpose of furnishing relaxation and instruction for yourself,\nentertainment for the children, and business for the showman.\n\nThis however proved to be not the monkey show but Punch and Judy, a\nspecies of entertainment for children, the exact counterpart of our own\nentertainment of that name. It may be of interest to young readers to\nknow how this show originated, and I doubt not it will be a surprise to\nsome older ones to know that it dates back to about the year 1000 B. C.\n\nWe are told that while the Emperor Mu of the Chou dynasty was making a\ntour of his empire, a skillful mechanic, Yen Shih by name, was brought\ninto his presence and entertained him and the women of his seraglio\nwith a dance performed by automaton figures, which were capable not\nonly of rhythmical movements of their limbs, but of accompanying their\nmovements with songs.\n\nDuring and at the close of the performance, the puppets cast such\nsignificant glances at the ladies as to anger the monarch, and he\nordered the execution of the originator of the play.\n\nThe mechanic however ripped open the puppets, and proved to his\nastonished majesty that they were only artificial objects, and instead\nof being executed he was allowed to repeat his performance. This was\nthe origin of the play in China which corresponds to Punch and Judy in\nEurope and America.\n\nTo the question which naturally arises as to how the play was carried\nto the West, I reply, it may not have been carried to Europe at all,\nbut have originated there. From marked similarities in the two plays\nhowever, and more especially in the methods of their production, we may\nsuppose that the Chinese Punch and Judy was carried to Europe in the\nfollowing way:\n\nAmong the many traders who visited Central Asia while it was under the\ngovernment of the family of Genghis Khan, were two Venetian brothers,\nMaffeo and Nicolo Polo, whose wondering disposition and trading\ninterests led them as far as the court of the Great Khan, where they\nremained in the most intimate relations with Kublai for some time, and\nwere finally sent back to Italy with a request that one hundred\nEuropean scholars be sent to China to instruct them in the arts of\nEurope.\n\nThis request was never carried out, but the two returned to the Khan's\ncourt with young Marco, the son of one of them, who remained with the\nMongol Emperor for seventeen years, during which time he had a better\nopportunity of observing their customs than perhaps any other foreigner\nsince his time. His final return to Italy was in 1295, and a year or\ntwo later, he wrote and revised his book of travels.\n\nThe art of printing in Europe was discovered in 1438, and the first\nedition of Marco Polo's travels was printed about 1550-59. Our Punch\nand Judy was invented by Silvio Fiorillo an Italian dramatist before\nthe year 1600. I have found no reference to the play in Marco Polo's\nworks, nevertheless, one cannot but think that, if not a written, at\nleast an oral, communication of the play may have been carried to\nEurope by him or some other of the Italian traders or travellers. The\ntwo plays are very similar, even to the tones of the man who works the\npuppets.\n\nIn passing the school court on one occasion I saw the students gathered\nin a crowd under the shade of the trees. A small tent was pitched, on\nthe front of which was a little stage. A manager stood behind the\nscreen from which position he worked a number of puppets in the form of\nmen, women, children, horses and dragons. These were suspended by black\nthreads as I afterwards discovered from small sticks or a framework\nwhich the manager manipulated behind the screen. When one finished its\npart of the performance, it either walked off the stage, or the stick\nwas fastened in such a way as to leave it in a position conducive to\nthe amusement of the crowd. These were puppet shows, and were put\nthrough entire performances or plays, the manager doing the talking as\nin Punch and Judy.\n\nAfter the performance several of the students passed around the hat,\neach person present giving one-fifth or one-tenth of a cent.\n\nAs I came from school one afternoon, the children had called in from\nthe street a showman with a number of trained mice. He had erected a\nlittle scaffolding just inside the gateway, at one side of which there\nwas a small rope ladder, and this with the inevitable gong, and the\nsmall boxes in which the mice were kept constituted his entire outfit.\n\nIn the boxes he had what seemed to be cotton from the milk-weed which\nfurnished a nest for the mice. These he took from their little boxes\none by one, stroked them tenderly, while he explained what this\nparticular mouse would do, put each one on the rope ladder, which they\nascended, and performed the tricks expected of them. These were going\nthrough a pagoda, drawing water, creeping through a tube, wearing a\ncriminal's collar, turning a tread-mill, or working some other equally\nsimple trick.\n\nAt times the mice had to be directed by a small stick in the hands of\nthe manager, but they were carefully trained, kindly treated, and much\nappreciated by the children.\n\nAlthough less attractive, there is no other show which impresses itself\nso forcibly on the child's mind as the monkey, dog and sheep show.\n\nThe dog was the first to perform. Four hoops were placed on the corners\nof a square, ten feet apart. The dog walked around through these hoops,\nfirst through each in order, then turning went through each twice, then\nthrough one and retracing his steps went through the one last passed\nthrough.\n\nThe showman drove an iron peg in the ground on which were two blocks\nrepresenting millstones. To the upper one was a lever by which the dog\nwith his nose turned the top millstone as if grinding flour. He was\nhitched to a wheelbarrow, the handles of which were held by the monkey,\nwho pushed while the dog pulled.\n\nThe most interesting part of the performance, however, was by the\nmonkey. Various kinds of hats and false faces were kept in a box which\nhe opened and secured. He stalked about with a cane in his hand, or\ncrosswise back of his neck, turned handsprings, went through various\ntrapeze performances, such as hanging by his legs, tail, chin, and\nhands, or was whirled around in the air.\n\nThe leading strap of the monkey was finally tied to the belt of the\nsheep which was led away to some distance and let go. The monkey\nbounded upon its back and held fast to the wool, while the sheep ran\nwith all its speed to the showman, who held a basin of broom-corn seed\nas a bait. This was repeated as often as the children desired, which\nended the show. Time,--half an hour; spectators,--all who desired to\nwitness it; price,--five cents.\n\nThe showmen in China are somewhat like the tramps and beggars in other\ncountries. When they find a place where there are children who enjoy\nshows, each tells the other, and they all call around in turn.\n\nOur next show was an exhibition given by a man with a trained bear.\n\nThe animal had two rings in his nose, to one of which was fastened a\nleading string or strap, and to the other, while performing, a large\nchain. A man stood on one end of the chain, and the manager, with a\nlong-handled ladle, or with his hand, gave the bear small pieces of\nbread or other food after each trick he performed.\n\nThe first trick was walking on his hind feet as if dancing. But more\namusing than this to the children was to see him turn summersaults both\nforward and backward. These were repeated several times because they\nwere easily done, and added to the length of time the show continued.\n\nChildren, however, begin to appreciate at an early age what is\ndifficult and what easy, and it was not until he took a carrying-pole\nsix feet long, put the middle of it upon his forehead and set it\nwhirling with his paws, that they began to say:\n\n\"That's good,\" \"That's hard to do,\" and other expressions of a like\nnature.\n\nThey enjoyed seeing him stand on his front feet, or on his head with\nhis hind feet kicking the air, but they enjoyed still more seeing him\nput on the wooden collar of a convict and twirl it around his neck. The\nmanager gave him some bread and then tried to induce him to take it\noff, but he whined for more bread and refused to do so. Finally he took\noff the collar, and when they tried to take it from him he put it on\nagain. When he took it off the next time and offered it to them they\nrefused to receive it, but tried to get him to put it on, which he\nstubbornly refused to do, and finally threw it away.\n\nHis last trick was to sit down upon his haunches, stick up one of his\nhind feet, and twirl a knife six feet long upon it as he had twirled\nthe carrying-pole upon his head. The manager said he would wrestle with\nthe men, but this was a side issue and only done when extra money was\nadded to the regular price, which was twelve cents.\n\nOne of the most common showmen seen on the streets of Peking, goes\nabout with a framework upon his shoulder in the shape of a sled, the\nrunners of which are turned up at both ends. It seemed to me to be less\ninteresting than the other shows, but as it is more common, the\nchildren probably look upon it with more favor, and the children are\nthe final critics of all things for the little ones.\n\nThe show was given by a man and two boys, one of whom impersonated a\ngirl. Small feet, like the bound feet of a girl, were strapped on like\nstilts, his own being covered by wide trousers, and he and the boy sang\nsongs and danced to the music of the drum and cymbals in the hands of\nthe showman.\n\nThe second part of the performance was a boat ride on dry land. The\ngirl got into the frame, let down around it a piece of cloth which was\nfastened to the top, and took hold of the frame in such a way as to\ncarry it easily. The boy, with a long stick, pushed as if starting the\nboat, and then pulled as if rowing, and with every pull of the oar, the\ngirl ran a few steps, making it appear that the boat shot forward. All\nthe while the boy sang a boat-song or a love-ditty to his sweetheart.\n\nAgain the scene changed. The head and hind parts of a papier mache\nhorse were fastened to the \"tomboy\" in such a way as to make it appear\nthat she was riding; a cloth was let down to hide her feet, and they\nran to and fro, one in one direction and the other in the other, she\njerking her unmanageable steed, and he singing songs, and all to the\nmusic of the drum and the cymbals.\n\nIt sometimes happens that while the girl rides the horse, the boy goes\nbeside her in the boat, the rapidity and character of their movements\nbeing governed by the music of the manager.\n\nThe best part of the whole performance was that which goes by the name\nof the lion show. The girl took off her small feet and girl's clothes\nand became a boy again. One of the boys stood up in front and put on an\napron of woven grass, while the other bent forward and clutched hold of\nhis belt. A large papier mache head of a lion was put on the front boy,\nto which was attached a covering of woven grass large enough to cover\nthem both, while a long tail of the same material was stuck into a\nframework fastened to the belt of the hinder boy.\n\nThe manager beat the drum, the lion stalked about the court, keeping\nstep to the music, turning its large head in every direction and\nopening and shutting its mouth, much to the amusement of the children.\n\nThere is probably no country in the world that has more travelling\nshows specially prepared for the entertainment of children than China.\nScarcely a day passes that we do not hear the drum or the gong of the\nshowmen going to and fro, or standing at our court gate waiting to be\ncalled in.\n\n\n\nJUVENILE JUGGLING\n\n\"How is that?\"\n\n\"Very good.\"\n\n\"Can you do it?\" asked the sleight-of-hand performer, as he rolled a\nlittle red ball between his finger and thumb, pitched it up, caught it\nas it came down, half closed his hand and blew into it, opened his hand\nand the ball had disappeared.\n\nHe picked up another ball, tossed it up, caught it in his mouth,\ndropped it into his hand, and it mysteriously disappeared.\n\nThe juggler was seated on the ground with a piece of blue cloth spread\nout before him, on which were three cups, and five little red wax balls\nnearly as large as cranberries.\n\nHe continued to toss the wax balls about until they had all\ndisappeared. We watched him closely, but could not discover where they\nhad gone. He then arose, took a small portion of my coat sleeve between\nhis thumb and finger, began rubbing them together, and by and by, one\nof the balls appeared between his digits. He picked at a small boy's\near and got another of the balls. He blew his nose and another dropped\nupon the cloth. He slapped the top of his head and one dropped out of\nhis mouth, and he took the fifth from a boy's hair.\n\nHe then changed his method. He placed the cups' mouths down upon the\ncloth, and under one of them put the five little balls. When he placed\nthe cup we watched carefully; there were no balls under it. When he\nraised it up, behold, there were the five little balls.\n\nHe removed the cups from one place to another, and asked us to guess\nwhich cup the balls were under, but we were always wrong.\n\nThere was a large company of us, ranging from children of three to old\nmen and women of seventy-five, and from Chinese schoolboys to a bishop\nof the church, but none of us could discover how he did it.\n\nLater, however, I learned how the trick was performed. As he raised the\ncup with his thumb and forefinger, he inserted two other fingers under,\ngathered up all the balls between them and placed them under the cup as\nhe put it down. While in making the balls disappear, he concealed them\neither in his mouth or between his fingers.\n\nThe Chinese have a saying:\n\n     In selecting his balls from north to south,\n     The magician cannot leave his mouth;\n     And in rolling his balls, you understand,\n     He must have them hidden in his hand.\n\nOf quite a different character are the jugglers with plates and bowls.\nNot only children, but many of a larger growth delight to watch these.\nOur only way of learning about them was to call them into our court as\nthe Chinese call them to theirs, and that is what we did.\n\nThe performer first put a plate on the top of a trident and set it\nwhirling. In this whirling condition he put the trident on his forehead\nwhere he balanced it, the trident whirling with the plate as though\nboring into his skull.\n\nHe next took a bamboo pole six feet long, with a nail in the end on\nwhich he set the plate whirling. The plate, of course, had a small\nindentation to keep it in its place on the nail. He raised the plate in\nthe air and inserted into the first pole another of equal length, then\nanother and still another, which put the plate whirling in the air\nthirty feet high.\n\nThus whirling he balanced it on his hand, on his arm, on his thumb, on\nhis forehead, and finally in his mouth, after which he tossed the plate\nup, threw the pole aside and caught it as it came down. The old manager\nstanding by received the pole, but as he saw the plate tossed up, he\nfell flat upon the earth, screaming lest the plate be broken.\n\nThis same performer set a bowl whirling on the end of a chop-stick.\nThen tossing the bowl up he caught it inverted on the chop-stick, and\nmade it whirl as rapidly as possible. In this condition he tossed it up\nten, then fifteen, then twenty or more feet into the air catching it on\nthe chop-stick as it came down.\n\nHe then changed the process. He tossed the bowl a foot high, and struck\nit with the other chop-stick one, two, three, four or five times before\nit came down, and this he did so rapidly and regularly as to make it\nsound almost like music. There is a record of one of the ancient poets\nwho was able to play a tune with his bowl and chop-sticks after having\nfinished his meal. He may have done it in this way.\n\nThis trick seemed a very difficult performance. It excited the\nchildren, and some of the older persons clapped their hands and\nexclaimed, \"Very good, very good.\" But when he tossed it only a foot\nhigh and let go the chop-stick, making it change ends, and catching the\nbowl, they were ready for a general applause. In striking the bowl and\nthus manipulating his chop-sticks, his hands moved almost as rapidly as\nthose of an expert pianist.\n\n\"Can you toss the knives?\" piped up one of the children who had seen a\njuggler perform this difficult feat.\n\nThe man picked up two large knives about a foot long and began tossing\nthem with one hand. While this was going on a third knife was handed\nhim and he kept them going with both hands. At times he threw them\nunder his leg or behind his back, and at other times pitched them up\ntwenty feet high, whirling them as rapidly as possible and catching\nthem by the handles as they came down.\n\nWhile doing this he passed one of the knives to the attendant who gave\nhim a bowl, and he kept the bowl and two knives going. Then he gave the\nattendant another knife and received a ball, and the knife, the ball\nand the bowl together, the ball and bowl at times moving as though the\nformer were glued to the bottom of the latter.\n\nThese were not all the tricks he could perform but they were all he\nwould perform in addition to his bear show for twelve cents--for this\nwas the man with the bear--so the children allowed him to go.\n\nSome weeks later they called in a different bear show. This bear was\nlarger and a better performer, but his tricks were about the same.\n\nThe juggler in addition to doing all we have already described\nperformed also the following tricks.\n\nHe first put one end of an iron rod fifteen inches long in his mouth.\nOn this he placed a small revolving frame three by six inches. He set a\nbowl whirling on the end of a bamboo splint fifteen inches long, the\nother end of which he rested on one side of the frame, balancing the\nwhole in his mouth.\n\nWhile the bowl continued whirling, he took the frame off the rod, stuck\nthe bamboo in a hole in the frame an inch from the end, resting the\nother end of the frame on the rod, brought the bowl over so as to\nobtain a centre of gravity and thus balanced it.\n\nHe took two small tridents a foot or more in length, put the end of the\nhandle of one in his mouth, set the bowl whirling on the end of the\nhandle of the other, rested the middle prong of one on the middle prong\nof the other and let it whirl with the bowl. Afterwards he set the\nprong of the whirling trident on the edge of the other and let it whirl.\n\nHe took two long curved boar's teeth which were fastened on the ends of\ntwo sticks, one a foot long, the other six inches. The one he held in\nhis mouth, the other having a hole diagonally through the stick, he\ninserted a chop-stick making an angle of seventy degrees. He set the\nbowl whirling on the end of the chop-stick, rested one tooth on the\nother, in the indentation and they whirled like a brace and bit.\n\nFinally he took a spiral wire having a straight point on each end. This\nhe called a dead dragon. He set the bowl whirling on one end, placing\nthe other on the small frame already referred to. As the spiral wire\nbegan to turn as though boring, he called it a living dragon. These\nfeats of balancing excited much wonder and merriment on the part of the\nchildren.\n\nThe juggler then took an iron trident with a handle four and a half\nfeet long and an inch and a half thick, and, pitching it up into the\nair, caught it on his right arm as it came down. He allowed it to roll\ndown his right arm, across his back, and along his left arm, and as he\nturned his body he kept the trident rolling around crossing his back\nand breast and giving it a new impetus with each arm. The trident had\non it two cymbal-shaped iron plates which kept up a constant rattling.\n\nThis showman had with him three boy acrobats whose skill he proceeded\nto show.\n\n\"Pitch the balls,\" he said.\n\nThe largest of the three boys fastened a cushioned band, on which was a\nleather cup, around his head, the cup being on his forehead just\nbetween his eyes.\n\nHe took two wooden balls, two and a half inches in diameter, tossed\nthem in the air twenty feet high, catching them in the cup as they came\ndown. The shape of the cup was such as to hold the balls by suction\nwhen they fell. He never once missed. This is the most dangerous\nlooking of all the tricks I have seen jugglers perform.\n\n\"Shooting stars,\" said the showman.\n\nThe boy tossed aside his cup and balls and took a string six feet long,\non the two ends of which were fastened wooden balls two and a half\ninches in diameter. He set the balls whirling in opposite directions\nuntil they moved so rapidly as to stretch the string, which he then\nheld in the middle with finger and thumb and by a simple motion of the\nhand kept the balls whirling.\n\nHe was an expert, and changed the swinging of the balls in as many\ndifferent ways as an expert club-swinger could his clubs.\n\n\"Boy acrobats,\" called out the manager, as the manipulator of the\n\"shooting stars\" bowed himself out amid the applause of the children.\n\nThe two smaller boys threw off their coats, hitched up their\ntrousers--always a part of the performance whether necessary or\nnot--and began the high kick, high jump, handspring, somersault, wagon\nwheel, ending with hand-spring, and bending backwards until their heads\ntouched the ground.\n\nOne of them stood on two benches a foot high, put a handkerchief on the\nground, and bending backwards, picked it up with his teeth.\n\nThe two boys then clasped each other around the waist, as in the\nillustration, and each threw the other back over his head a dozen times\nor more.\n\nExit the bear show with the boy acrobats, enter the old woman juggler\nwith her husband who beats the gong.\n\nThis was one of the most interesting performances I have ever seen in\nChina, perhaps because so unexpected.\n\nThe old woman had small, bound feet. She lay flat on her back, stuck up\nher feet, and her husband put a crock a foot in diameter and a foot and\na half deep upon them. She set it rolling on her feet until it whirled\nlike a cylinder. She tossed it up in such a way as to have it light\nbottom side up on her \"lillies,\"[1] in which position she kept it\nwhirling. Tossing it once more it came down on the side, and again\ntossing it she caught it right side up on her small feet, keeping it\nwhirling all the time.\n\nMy surprise was so great that I gave the old woman ten cents for\nperforming this single trick.\n\nThe tricks of sleight-of-hand performers are well-nigh without number.\nSome of them are easily understood,--surprising, however, to\nchildren--and often interesting to grown people, while others are very\nclever and not so easily understood.\n\nInstead of the hat from which innumerable small packages are taken, the\nChinese magician had two hollow cylinders, which exactly fit into each\nother, that he took out of a box and placed upon a cylindrical chest,\nand from these two cylinders--each of which he repeatedly showed us as\nbeing without top or bottom and empty--he took a dinner of a dozen\ncourses.\n\nHe called upon the baker to bring bread, the grocer to bring\nvegetables, and after each call he took out of the cylinders the thing\ncalled for. He finally called the wine shop to bring wine, and removing\nboth cylinders, he exposed to the surprised children a large crock of\nwine.\n\nAs he brought out dish after dish, the children looked in open-mouthed\nwonder, and asked papa, mama or nurse, where he got them all, for they\nevidently were not in the cylinders. But papa saw him all the time\nmanipulating the crock in the cylinder which he did not show, and he\nknew that all these things were taken from and then returned to this\ncrock, while instead of being full of wine, he had only a cup of wine\nin a false lid which exactly fitted the mouth of the crock, and made it\nseem full.\n\nWhen he had put away his crock and cylinders, he produced what seemed\nto be two empty cups.\n\nHe presented them to us to show that they were empty, then putting them\nmouth to mouth, and placing them on the ground, he left them a moment,\nwhen with a \"presto change,\" and a wave of the hand, he removed the top\ncup and revealed to the astonished children and some of the children of\na larger growth, a cup full of water with two or three little fish or\nfrogs therein.\n\nOn inquiry I was told that he had the under cup covered with a thin\nfilm of water-colored material, and that as he removed the top cup he\nremoved also the film which left the fish or frogs exposed to view.\n\nThis same juggler performed many tricks of producing great dishes of\nwater from under his garments, the mere enumeration of which, might\nprove to be tiresome.\n\nI was walking along the street one day near the mouth of Filial Piety\nLane where a large company of men and children were watching a juggler,\nand from the trick I thought it worth while to invite him in for the\namusement of the children. He promised to come about four o clock,\nwhich he did.\n\nHe first proceeded to eat a hat full of yellow paper, after which, with\na gag and a little puff, he pulled from his mouth a tube of paper of\nthe same color five or six yards long.\n\nThis was very skillfully performed and for a long time I was not able\nto understand how he did it. But after awhile I discovered that with\nthe last mouthful of paper he put in a small roll, the centre of which\nhe started by puffing, and this he pulled out in a long tube. He did it\nwith so many groanings and with such pain in the region of the stomach,\nthat attention was directed either to his stomach or the roll, and\ntaken away from his mouth.\n\n\"I shall eat these needles,\" said he, as he held up half a dozen\nneedles, \"and then eat this thread, after which I shall reproduce them.\"\n\nHe did so. He grated his teeth together causing a sound much like that\nof breaking needles. He pretended to swallow them, working his tongue\nback and forth in his tightly closed mouth, after which he drew forth\nthe thread on which all the needles were strung.\n\nHe had a number of small white bone needles which he stuck into his\nnose and pulled out of his eyes, or which he pushed up under his upper\nlip and took out of his eyes or vice versa. How he performed the above\ntrick I was not able to discover. He seemed to put them through the\ntear duct, but whether he did or not I cannot say. How he got them from\nhis mouth to his eyes unless he had punctured a passage beneath the\nskin, is still to me a mystery.\n\nHis last trick was to swallow a sword fifteen inches long. The sword\nwas straight with a round point and dull edges. There was no deception\nabout this. He was an old man and his front, upper teeth were badly\nworn away by the constant rasping of the not over-smooth sword. He\nsimply put it in his mouth, threw back his head and stuck it down his\nthroat to his stomach.\n\n[1] Small feet of the Chinese woman.\n\n\n\nSTORIES TOLD TO CHILDREN\n\nOne hot summer afternoon as I lay in the hammock trying to take a nap\nafter a hard forenoon's work and a hearty lunch, I heard the same old\nnurse who had told me my first Chinese Mother Goose Rhymes, telling the\nfollowing story to the same little boy to whom she had repeated the\n\"Mouse and the Candlestick.\"\n\nShe told him that the Chinese call the Milky Way the Heavenly River,\nand that the Spinning Girl referred to in the story is none other than\nthe beautiful big star in Lyra which we call Vega, while the Cow-herd\nis Altair in Aquila.\n\n\nTHE HEAVENLY RIVER, WITH THE PEOPLE WHO DWELL THEREON.\n\nOnce upon a time there dwelt a beautiful maiden in a quiet little\nvillage on the shore of the Heavenly River.\n\nHer name was Vega, but the people of China have always called her the\nSpinning Maiden, because of her faithfulness to her work, for though\ndays, and months, and years passed away, she never left her loom.\n\nHer diligence so moved the heart of her grandfather, the King of\nHeaven, that he determined to give her a vacation, which she at once\ndecided to spend upon the earth.\n\nIn a village near where the maiden dwelt there was a young man named\nAltair, whom the Chinese call the Cow-herd.\n\nNow the Cow-herd was in love with the Spinning Girl, but she was always\nso intent upon her work as never to give him an opportunity to confess\nhis affection, but now he determined to follow her to earth, and, if\npossible, win her for his bride.\n\nHe followed her through the green fields and shady groves, but never\ndared approach her or tell her of his love.\n\nAt last, however, the time came. He discovered her bathing in a limpid\nstream, the banks of which were carpeted with flowers, while myriad\nboughs of blossoming peach and cherry trees hid her from all the world\nbut him.\n\nHe secretly crept near and stole away and hid her garments made of\nsilken gauze and finely woven linen, making it alike impossible for her\nto resist his suit or to return to her celestial home.\n\nShe yielded to the Cow-herd and soon became his wife, and as the years\npassed by a boy and girl were born to them, little star children,\ntwins, such as are seen near by the Spinning Girl in her heavenly home\nto-day.\n\nOne day she went to her husband, and, bowing low, requested that he\nreturn the clothes he had hid away, and he, thinking the presence of\nthe children a sufficient guaranty for her remaining in his home, told\nher he had put them in an old, dry well hard by the place where she had\nbeen bathing.\n\nNo sooner had she secured them than the aspect of their home was\nchanged. The Cow-herd's wife once more became the Spinning Girl and\nhied her to her heavenly abode.\n\nIt so happened that her husband had a piece of cow-skin which gave him\npower over earth and air. Snatching up this, with his ox-goad, he\nfollowed in the footsteps of his fleeing wife.\n\nArriving at their heavenly home the happy couple sought the joys of\nmarried life. The Spinning Girl gave up her loom, and the Cow-herd his\ncattle, until their negligence annoyed the King of Heaven, and he\nrepented having let her leave her loom. He called upon the Western\nRoyal Mother for advice. After consultation they decided that the two\nshould be separated. The Queen, with a single stroke of her great\nsilver hairpin, drew a line across the heavens, and from that time the\nHeavenly River has flowed between them, and they are destined to dwell\nforever on the two sides of the Milky Way.\n\nWhat had seemed to the youthful pair the promise of perpetual joy,\nbecame a condition of unending grief. They were on the two sides of a\nbridgeless river, in plain sight of each other, but forever debarred\nfrom hearing the voice or pressing the land of the one beloved, doomed\nto perpetual toil unlit by any ray of joy or hope.\n\nTheir evident affection and unhappy condition moved the heart of His\nMajesty, and caused him to allow them to visit each other once with\neach revolving year,--on the seventh day of the seventh moon. But\npermission was not enough, for as they looked upon the foaming waters\nof the turbulent stream, they could but weep for their wretched\ncondition, for no bridge united its two banks, nor was it allowed that\nany structure be built which would mar the contour of the shining dome.\n\nIn their helplessness the magpies came to their rescue. At early morn\non the seventh day of the seventh moon, these beautiful birds gathered\nin great flocks about the home of the maiden, and hovering wing to wing\nabove the river, made a bridge across which her dainty feet might carry\nher in safety. But when the time for separation came, the two wept\nbitterly, and their tears falling in copious showers are the cause of\nthe heavy rains which fall at that season of the year.\n\nFrom time immemorial it has been known that the Yellow River is neither\nmore nor less than a prolongation of the Milky Way, soiled by earthly\ncontact and contamination, and that the homes of the Spinning Maiden\nand the Cow-herd are the centres of two of the numerous villages that\nadorn its banks. It is not to be wondered at, however, that in an evil\nand skeptical world there should be many who doubt these facts.\n\nOn this account, and to forever settle the dispute, the great traveller\nand explorer, Chang Ch'ien, undertook to discover the source of the\nYellow River. He first transformed the trunk of a great tree into a\nboat, provided himself with the necessities of life and started on his\njourney.\n\nDays passed into weeks, and weeks became months as he sailed up the\nmurky waters of the turbid stream. But the farther he went the clearer\nthe waters became until it seemed as if they were flowing over a bed of\npure, white limestone. Village after village was passed both on his\nright hand and on his left, and many were the strange sights that met\nhis gaze. The fields became more verdant, the flowers more beautiful,\nthe scenery more gorgeous, and the people more like nymphs and fairies.\nThe color of the clouds and the atmosphere was of a richer, softer hue;\nwhile the breezes which wafted his frail bark were milder and gentler\nthan any he had known before.\n\nDespairing at last of reaching the source he stopped at a village where\nhe saw a maiden spinning and a young man leading an ox to drink. He\nalighted from his boat and inquired of the girl the name of the place,\nbut she, without making reply, tossed him her shuttle, telling him to\nreturn to his home and inquire of the astrologer, who would inform him\nwhere he received it, if he but told him when.\n\nHe returned and presented the shuttle to the noted astrologer Chun\nPing, informing him at the same time where, when and from whom he had\nreceived it. The latter consulted his observations and calculations and\ndiscovered that on the day and hour when the shuttle had been given to\nthe traveller he had observed a wandering star enter and leave the\nvillages of the Spinning Girl and the Cow-herd, which proved beyond\ndoubt that the Yellow River is the prolongation of the Milky Way, while\nthe points of light which we call stars, are the inhabitants of Heaven\npursuing callings similar to our own.\n\nChang Ch'ien made another important discovery, namely, that the\ncelestials, understanding the seasons better than we, turn the shining\ndome in such a way as to make the Heavenly River indicate the seasons\nof the year, and so the children sing:\n\n     Whene'er the Milky Way you spy,\n     Diagonal across the sky,\n     The egg-plant you may safely eat,\n     And all your friends to melons treat.\n\n     But when divided towards the west,\n     You'll need your trousers and your vest\n     When like a horn you see it float;\n     You'll need your trousers and your coat.\n\nIt is unnecessary to state that I did not go to sleep while the old\nnurse was telling the story of the Heavenly River. The child sat on his\nlittle stool, his elbows on his knees and his chin resting in his\nhands, listening with open lips and eyes sparkling with interest. To\nthe old nurse it was real. The spinning girl and the cow-herd were\nliving persons. The flowers bloomed,--we could almost smell their\nodor,--and the gentle breezes seemed to fan our cheeks. She had told\nthe story so often that she believed it, and she imparted to us her own\ninterest.\n\n\"Nurse,\" said the child, \"tell me about\n\n          \"'THE MAN IN THE MOON.'\"\n\n\"The man in the moon,\" said the old nurse, \"is called Wu Kang. He was\nskilled in all the arts of the genii, and was accustomed to play before\nthem whenever opportunity offered or occasion required.\n\n\"Once it turned out that his performances were displeasing to the\nspirits, and for this offense he was banished to the moon, and\ncondemned to perpetual toil in hewing down the cinnamon trees which\ngrow there in great abundance. At every blow of the axe he made an\nincision, but only to see it close up when the axe was withdrawn.\n\n\"He had another duty, however, a duty which was at times irksome, but\none which on the whole was more pleasant than any that falls to men or\nspirits,--the duty indicated by the proverb that 'matches are made in\nthe moon.'\n\n\"It was his lot to bind together the feet of all those on earth who are\ndestined to a betrothal, and in the performance of this duty, he was\noften compelled to return to earth. When doing so he came as an old man\nwith long white hair and beard, with a book in his hand in which he had\nwritten the matrimonial alliances of all mankind. He also carried a\nwallet which contains a ball of invisible cord with which he ties\ntogether the feet of all those who are destined to be man and wife, and\nthe destinies which he announces it is impossible to avoid.\n\n\"On one occasion he came to the town of Sung, and while sitting in the\nmoonlight, turning over the leaves of his book of destinies, he was\nasked by Wei Ku, who happened to be passing, who was destined to become\nhis bride. The old man consulted his records, as he answered: 'Your\nwife is the daughter of an old woman named Ch'en who sells vegetables\nin yonder shop.'\n\n\"Having heard this, Wei Ku went the next day to look about him and if\npossible to get a glimpse of the one to whom the old man referred, but\nhe discovered that the only child the old woman had was an ill-favored\none of two years which she carried in her arms. He hired an assassin to\nmurder the infant, but the blow was badly aimed and left only a scar on\nthe child's eyebrow.\n\n\"Fourteen years afterwards, Wei Ku married a beautiful maiden of\nsixteen whose only defect was a scar above the eye, and on inquiries he\ndiscovered that she was the one foretold by the Old Man of the Moon,\nand he recalled the proverb that 'Matches are made in heaven, and the\nbond of fate is sealed in the moon.'\"\n\n\"Nurse, tell me about the land of the big people,\" whereupon the nurse\ntold him of\n\n          THE LAND OF GIANTS.\n\n\"There was in ancient times a country east of Korea which was called\nthe land of the giants. It was celebrated for its length rather than\nfor its width, being bounded on all sides by great mountain ranges, the\nlike of which cannot be found in other countries. It extends for\nthousands of miles along the deep passes between the mountains, at the\nentrance to which there are great iron gates, easily closed, but very\ndifficult to open.\n\n\"Many armies have made war upon the giants, among which none have been\nmore celebrated than those of Korea, which embraces in its standing\narmy alone many thousands of men, but thus far they have never been\nconquered.\n\n\"Nor is this to be wondered at, for besides their great iron gates, and\nnumerous fortifications, the men are thirty feet tall according to our\nmeasurement, have teeth like a saw, hooked claws, and bodies covered\nwith long black hair.\n\n\"They live upon the flesh of fowls and wild beasts which are found in\nabundance in the mountain fastnesses, but they do not cook their food.\nThey are very fond of human flesh, but they confine themselves to the\nflesh of enemies slain in battle, and do not eat the flesh of their own\npeople, even though they be hostile, as this is contrary to the law of\nthe land.\n\n\"Their women are as large and fierce as the men, but their duties are\nconfined to the preparation of extra clothing for winter wear, for\nalthough they are covered with hair it is insufficient to protect them\nfrom the winter's cold.\"\n\nWhile the old nurse was relating the tale of the giants I could not but\nwonder whether there was not some relation between that and the\nBrobdingnagians I had read about in my youth. But I was not given much\ntime to think. This seemed to have been a story day, for the nurse had\nhardly finished the tale till the child said:\n\n\"Now tell me about the country of the little people,\" and she related\nthe story of\n\n          THE LAND OF DWARFS.\n\n\"The country of the little people is in the west, where the sun goes\ndown.\n\n\"Once upon a time a company of Persian merchants were making a journey,\nwhen by a strange mishap they lost their way and came to the land of\nthe little people. They were at first surprised, and then delighted,\nfor they discovered that the country was not only densely populated\nwith these little people, who were not more than three feet high, but\nthat it was rich in all kinds of precious stones and rare and valuable\nmaterials.\n\n\"They discovered also that during the season of planting and\nharvesting, they were in constant terror lest the great multitude of\ncranes, which are without number in that region, should swoop down upon\nthem and eat both them and their crops. They soon learned, however,\nthat the little people were under the protecting care of the Roman\nEmpire, whose interest in them was great, and her arm mighty, and they\nwere thus guarded from all evil influences as well as from all danger.\nNor was this a wholly unselfish interest on the part of the Roman\npower, for the little people repaid her with rich presents of the most\ncostly gems,--pearls, diamonds, rubies and other precious stones.\"\n\nI need not say I was beginning to be surprised at the number of tales\nthe old woman told which corresponded to those I had been accustomed to\nread and hear in my childhood, nor was my surprise lessened when at his\nrequest she told him how\n\n          THE SUN WENT BACKWARD.\n\n\"Once upon a time Lu Yang-kung was engaged in battle with Han Kou-nan,\nand they continued fighting until nearly sundown. The former was\ngetting the better of the battle, but feared he would lose it unless\nthey fought to a finish before the close of day. The sun was near the\nhorizon, and the battle was not yet ended, and the former, pointing his\nlance at the King of Day caused him to move backward ten miles in his\ncourse.\"\n\n\"When did that happen?\" inquired the child.\n\n\"The Chinese say it happened about three thousand years ago,\" replied\nthe old nurse.\n\n\"Now tell me about the man who went to the fire star.\"\n\nThe old woman hesitated a moment as though she was trying to recall\nsomething and then told him the story of\n\n          MARS, THE GOD OF WAR.\n\n\"Once upon a time there was a great rebel whose name was Ch'ih Yu. He\nwas the first great rebel that ever lived in China. He did not want to\nobey the chief ruler, and invented for himself warlike weapons,\nthinking that in this way he might overthrow the government and place\nhimself upon the throne.\n\n\"He had eighty-one brothers, of whom he was the leader. They had human\nspeech, but bodies of beasts, foreheads of iron, and fed upon the dust\nof the earth.\n\n\"When the time for the battle came, he called upon the Chief of the\nWind and the Master of the Rain to assist him, and there arose a great\ntempest. But the Chief sent the Daughter of Heaven to quell the storm,\nand then seized and slew the rebel. His spirit ascended to the\nFire-Star (Mars)--the embodiment of which he was while upon\nearth,--where it resides and influences the conduct of warfare even to\nthe present time.\"\n\n\"Tell me the story of the man who went to the mountain to gather\nfire-wood and did not come home for such a long time.\"\n\nThe old nurse began a story which as it progressed reminded me of\n\n          RIP VAN WINKLE.\n\n\"A long time ago there lived a man named Wang Chih, which in our\nlanguage means 'the stuff of which kings are made.' In spite of his\nname, however, he was only a common husbandman, spending his summers in\nplowing, planting and harvesting, and his winters in gathering\nfertilizers upon the highways, and fire-wood in the mountains.\n\n\"On one occasion he wandered into the mountains of Ch'u Chou, his axe\nupon his shoulder, hoping to find more and better fire-wood than could\nbe found upon his own scanty acres, or the adjoining plain. While in\nthe mountains he came upon a number of aged men, in a beautiful\nmountain grotto, intently engaged in a game of chess. Wang was a good\nchess-player himself, and for the time forgot his errand. He laid down\nhis axe, stood silently watching them, and in a very few moments was\ndeeply interested in the game.\n\n\"It was while he was thus watching them that one of the old men,\nwithout looking up from the game, gave him what seemed to be a date\nseed, telling him at the same time to put it in his mouth. He did so,\nbut no sooner had he tasted it, than he lost all consciousness of\nhunger and thirst, and continued to stand watching the players and the\nprogress of the game, thinking nothing of the flight of time.\n\n\"At last one of the old men said to him:\n\n\"'You have been here a long time, ought you not to go home?'\n\n\"This aroused him from his reverie, and he seemed to awake as from a\ndream, his interest in the game passed away, and he attempted to pick\nup his axe, but found that it was covered with rust and the handle had\nmoulded away. But while this called his attention to the fact that time\nhad passed, he felt not the burden of years.\n\n\"When he returned to the plain, and to what had formerly been his home,\nhe discovered that not only years but centuries had passed away since\nhe had left for the mountains, and that his relatives and friends had\nall crossed to the 'Yellow Springs,' while all records of his departure\nhad long since been forgotten, and he alone remained a relic of the\npast.\n\n\"He wandered up and down inquiring of the oldest people of all the\nvillages, but could discover no link which bound him to the present.\n\n\"He returned to the mountain grotto, devoted himself to the study of\nthe occult principles of the 'Old Philosopher' until the material\nelements of his mortal frame were gradually evaporated or sublimated,\nand without having passed through the change which men call death, he\nbecame an immortal spirit returning whence he came.\"\n\nJust as the old woman finished this story, my teacher, who always took\na nap after lunch, ascended the steps.\n\n\"Ah, the story of Wang Chih.\"\n\n\"Do you know any of these stories?\" I asked him as I sat down beside\nhim.\n\n\"All children learn these stories in their youth,\" he answered, and\nthen as if fearing I would try to induce him to tell them to me he\ncontinued, \"but nurses always tell these stories better than any one\nelse, because they tell them so often to the children, for whom alone\nthey were made.\"","title":"The Chinese Boy and Girl","tradition":"folklore-oral-tradition","translated_text":null,"word_count":29919}