[213] Sc. a “sponge.”
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[214] Said to have been introduced into China from the west by a eunuch named San-pao during the Ming dynasty.
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[215] The women’s apartments being quite separate from the rest of a Chinese house, male visitors consequently know nothing about their inhabitants.
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[216] See No. XIII., [note 90].
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[217] A very ancient custom in China, originating in a belief that these birds never mate a second time. The libation is made on the occasion of the bridegroom fetching his bride from her father’s house.
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[218] A Chinese trousseau, in addition to clothes and jewels, consists of tables and chairs, and all kinds of house furniture and ornaments.
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[219] Which ended some sixteen hundred years ago.
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[220] Corresponding with our five “senses,” the heart taking the place of the brain, and being regarded by Chinese doctors as the seat not only of intelligence and the passions, but also of all sensation.
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[221] These nunneries, of which there are plenty in China, are well worth visiting, and may be freely entered by both sexes. Sometimes there are as many as a hundred nuns living together in one temple, and to all appearances devoting their lives to religious exercises; report, however, tells many tales of broken vows, and makes sad havoc generally with the reputation of these fair vestals.
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[222] In corresponding English, this would be:—The young lady said her name was Eloïsa. “How funny!” cried Chên, “and mine is Abelard.”
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