THESE stories possess the merit of not being true, nor are they necessarily founded on fact; they were written during three years’ service in China, and their conception served to more or less pleasantly while away many hours. If they afford the reader as many pleasant minutes, they will have well fulfilled their purpose. To those whose ideas of a Chinaman are gathered from the good-natured, doddering idiot as he is so often represented on the stage, he is here shown in a different form, however inadequate the portrayal may be.
CONTENTS
| To Explain | [1] | |
| I. | The Story of Fung Wa Chun | [19] |
| II. | Feng Shuey | [51] |
| III. | The Backsliding of Lao | [79] |
| IV. | The Punishment of Hong | [107] |
| V. | Bone of my Bone | [129] |
| VI. | The Melancholy Magistrate of Foh Lin | [155] |
| VII. | The Hunchback’s Piety | [183] |
| VIII. | Hoo, the Daughter of Tak Wo | [209] |
| IX. | Kwa Niu’s Derby | [235] |
RICE PAPERS
TO EXPLAIN
THE sun had shone brilliantly and torridly all day over the mud-laden river, the surrounding paddy-fields, and the copper-coloured backs of the sweating Chinese boatmen as they laboured at their yuloes in sampen and junk. It had, indeed, been a hot day even for up-river, and the extreme humidity of the atmosphere after the rains made the heat felt in every pore of the skin, so that even the half-naked steersmen of the junks sweated at their rudders.
But now the sun is setting. On all sides can be heard the rattle of the winches and the creaking as the heavy mat sails slide down the mast of the junks, a splash as the stone-weighted wooden anchor drops over the bows, and each junk in time swings to its rattan-twisted cable in the pea-soup known as fresh water in Chinese rivers. The heavy damp air is suddenly rent by a bugle note which signals the fact that the flag which represents the sovereignty of King Edward the Seventh is being hauled down till eight a.m. the next day on board the gunboat lying in the muddy river.