[223] That is, she was the last to take the vows.
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[224] The usual signal that a person does not wish to take any more wine.
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[225] This would carry him well on into the third of the years during which Yün-ch‘i had promised to wait for him.
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[226] The celebrated lake in Hu-nan, round which has gathered so much of the folk-lore of China.
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[227] The instrument used by masons is here meant.
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[228] The guardian angel of crows.
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[229] In order to secure a favourable passage. The custom here mentioned was actually practised at more than one temple on the river Yang-tsze, and allusions to it will be found in more than one serious work.
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[230] Alluding to a legend of a young man meeting two young ladies at Hankow, each of whom wore a girdle adorned with a pearl as big as a hen’s egg. The young man begged them to give him these girdles, and they did so; but the next moment they had vanished, and the girdles too.
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[231] The text has nai-tung (“endure the winter”), for the identification of which I am indebted to Mr. L. C. Hopkins, of H.M.’s Consular service.
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[232] Women, of course, being excluded.
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