All thought of by-gone days, like them, by-gone.”
[290] Signifying that it would be impossible for him to enter.
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[291] The result of A-ch‘ien’s depredations as a rat.
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[292] I have already discussed the subject of drunkenness in China (Chinese Sketches, pp. 113, 114), and shall not return to it here, further than to quote a single sentence, to which I adhere as firmly now as when the book in question was published:—“Who ever sees in China a tipsy man reeling about a crowded thoroughfare, or lying with his head in a ditch by the side of some country road?”
It is not, however, generally known that the Chinese, with their usual quaintness, distinguish between five kinds of drunkenness, different people being differently affected, according to the physical constitution of each. Wine may fly (1) to the heart, and produce maudlin emotions; or (2) to the liver, and incite to pugnacity; or (3) to the stomach, and cause drowsiness, accompanied by a flushing of the face; or (4) to the lungs, and induce hilarity; or (5) to the kidneys, and excite desire.
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[293] “The very name of Buddha, if pronounced with a devout heart 1,000 or 5,000 times, will effectually dispel all harassing thoughts, all fightings within and fears without.”—Eitel.
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[294] A religious and social offence of the deepest dye, sure to entail punishment in the world to come, even if the perpetrator escapes detection in this life.
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[295] The Buddhist rosary consists of 108 beads, which number is the same as that of the compartments in the Phrabat or sacred footprint of Buddha.
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[296] It here occurred to me that the word hitherto translated “well” should have been “shaft;” but the commentator refers expressly to the Tso Chuan, where the phrase for “a dry well,” as first used, is so explained. We must accordingly fall back on the supposition that our author has committed a trifling slip.
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