[587] The Chinese love to refer to the “good old time” of their forefathers, when a man who dropped anything on the highway would have no cause to hurry back for fear of its being carried off by a stranger.
[return to text]
[588] One method is to wrap an old mirror (formerly a polished metal disc) in a handkerchief, and then, no one being present, to bow seven times towards the Spirit of the Hearth: after which the first words heard spoken by any one will give a clue to the issue under investigation. Another method is to close the eyes and take seven paces, opening them at the seventh and getting some hint from the objects first seen in a mirror held in the hand, coupled with the words first spoken within the experimenter’s hearing.
[return to text]
[589] In former days, these messengers of good tidings to candidates whose homes were in distant parts used to earn handsome sums if first to announce the news; but now, at any rate along the coast, steamers and the telegraph have taken their occupation from them.
[return to footnote anchor 589]
[return to footnote anchor 673]
[590] Accurate anatomical descriptions must not be looked for in Chinese literature. “Man has three hundred and sixty-five bones, corresponding to the number of days it takes the heavens to revolve.” From the Hsi-yüan-lu, or Institutions to Coroners, Book I., ch. 12. [See No. XIV., [note 100].]
[return to text]
[591] See No. X., [note 79].
[return to text]
[592] Radix robiniæ amaræ.
[return to text]
[593] As the Chinese invariably do whenever they get hold of a useful prescription or remedy. Master workmen also invariably try to withhold something of their art from the apprentices they engage to teach.
[return to text]
[594] The text has “of two hundred hoofs.”
[return to text]
[595] The ordinary “wine” of China is a spirit distilled from rice. See No. XCIII., [note 477].
[return to text]
[596] The commentator would have us believe that Mr. Lin’s fondness for wine was to him an element of health and happiness rather than a disease to be cured, and that the priest was wrong in meddling with the natural bent of his constitution.
[return to text]