[153] Cf. the offerings to Ashtoreth the Moon-goddess of the Hittites. For mention of similar offerings in England itself, see Dennys's Folk-lore of China, p. 28.
[154] There is a play on this Chinese word, which has the same sound as a different character meaning to go up or to receive promotion. He who eats the cake is supposed to be securing his own advancement in life. There is a similar double-meaning in the phrase têng kao.
[155] For remarks on the ancient custom of drinking this wine, see De Groot, Religious System of China, vol. iv. p. 322.
[157] There is some reason to believe that the Hearth-god was once regarded as an anonymous ancestor of the family, though nowadays this relationship is ignored. The Chinese Tsao shên may be compared with the Japanese Kojin. For some valuable notes on Hearth-worship in general, see Gomme's Folk-lore Relics of Early Village Life, pp. 87 seq. The cult of a hearth-god has been known in western Europe and also in New Zealand.
CHAPTER IX
THE WOMEN OF WEIHAIWEI
The reader who has already learned from an earlier chapter of this book how frequently women figure in the law-courts, will perhaps be prepared for a not too flattering description of Chinese womankind as represented in the leased Territory. If the litigious and quarrelsome females were typical specimens of their sex it would indeed be difficult to utter a word of truthful praise for the women of Weihaiwei. But it is only fair to remember that it is just the turbulent and masterful females that chiefly come within a British magistrate's range of experience. Chaste and filial daughters, gentle and companionable wives, brave and devoted mothers, bring happiness to multitudes of cottage homes and are to be found in every village; but they seldom come under the official notice of the authorities.
Women in Weihaiwei are, indeed, ignorant of nearly everything that is generally implied by education; they are handicapped from childhood by the thoroughly bad old custom of foot-binding; they know nothing of the world beyond the limits of their own group of villages: yet the lives they lead are probably, as a rule, happy, honourable and useful. The Chinese suppose that a woman's proper sphere is the management of the household affairs and the upbringing of her children: and Chinese women seem as a rule to acquiesce willingly and cheerfully in their lot as thus defined.