Could the reader witness such a scene as this and keep his gravity ?-two pompous Chinese gentlemen, elegantly attired, sitting on a barrow, thumping along the uneven road, their round cheeks trembling like a jelly, while two panting and perspiring coolies endeavor to steady the handles of the machine, and a melancholy mule drags it along by means of a rope. A hundred such strange sights may be seen in the day. "The Chinese take fewer holidays than any nation under Heaven. Except the festival of the New Year, none of the festivals can be described as particularly interesting or notable. The Chinese New Year falls, as a rule, in the middle of February, or more accurately, at the time when the new moon comes nearest to the point in which the sun is fifteen degrees of Aquarius.' The Chinese observe it as a general cleaning-up' time-'all seem to have taken a pledge against their normal dirty habits, and to be striving earnestly for reform.' The custom of the country regarding the reckoning of ages is peculiar and leads to some amusing mistakes. The Chinese reckon their age not from the day of birth but from New Year's Day. Thus 'a tiny shaven-headed bundle of humanity, scarcely able to stand alone for a moment,' is gravely spoken of as three years old! Should a child arrive in this world at 5 minutes to 12 on New Year's Eve, the fond father will proudly inform you next morning that the new arrival is two years old, and never so much as think that what he says is untrue! The New Year is the season when the Chinaman deems it his duty to make all comfortable with the gods.' Worship is then done in the 'gross' for the whole year. Priests are engaged to pray for the pardon of sins, and to preside at the offering of sacrifices. Prayers are written out on red paper and pasted on the doors of houses. On New Year's morning the civil and military mandarins do homage before the shrine of the reigning Emperor. But New Year's Eve is observed much after the English fashion of keeping the fifth of November, fifty years ago. A prodigious quantity of crackers is used, so large that afterwards the farmers come into the town to up the refuse paper for manure. sweep "In respectable households, where the proprieties are honored, the former half of the night is spent in preparation for the usual sacred ceremonies, and the latter half in the performance of them. The shrine of the family idols is decorated with vases containing the fragrant gourd called the Hand of Buddha, and flowers of hyacinth and narcissus. The bulbs have been placed in dishes filled with water and small stones, and timed to Now Voor Antifi. walled 'guest room,' or h A bucket of rice, ten bow tea, two large red candle pair of chopsticks, and a current year, is placed up representing gold and sil offering. The head of the table, holding in his right Knocking his head three t his thanks to Heaven and treats a continuance of t sacrifice is offered to the table are rice, vegetables incense as before, but in e ceremony is then perform ceased ancestors. "But the fourth and la the most curious of allmembers of the family b and grandparents. The e devotion of their offspri both parents are alive, th young or younger people feet three times, and cong vived to the beginning of should be called the wors open to discussion. But is used in it, nor are cand It only happens that the speaking of the reverence worship of the gods. Un the congratulations of the "In Amoy the custom takes place at about this charcoal fire is lighted in der the table. The vario sit around it and take a s that there is a belief that house from fire for the co question whether the prac union of the household ar "The Chinese make a gr is so unhappy as to be un: so as to start fair within t pays as much as he can, a honor and decency not to holiday season is over. "Kung-she! Kung-she friend bows low, and rej friend, when he meets hin Kung-she!" The meani "I wish you ΟΙ che organs of speech, and expresses a complete idea by is generally that they may b most earnest prayer in worship tself. Of these simple words there are about four hun- of existence. red and fifty; but, by varying the accent of many of vidual names, but are desi In many fam hem, an entirely different meaning is given, so that Two, Three, Four, etc. W ly their number should be reckoned as twelve hun- | So-and-So's wife; and, wher dor more. The words have no change of form to express their tions to each other, but their meaning is affected by r place in the sentence. For instance, ta in one e means 'great,' in another, 'greatness,' in another, e great,' and in another, 'very.' Some ideas are expressed by putting several words ther. Thus for 'people,' the Chinese would use s meaning 'multitude man;' for son, 'man-child;" he best man, 'a hundred man good.' The spoken language varies very much in different of China. People who live only one or two hunmiles apart cannot talk with each other without an preter. But the dialect called the Mandarin is the uage of the court and of literature, and is spoken ne educated throughout the empire though no are such-and-such a boy's m measure secluded, take and are expected to retire acquaintance out of the far enters the house. Among t are small, and who are oblig women of the family to do th carry out fully these rules of ties, the people are more str others. I heard in the provin ger being driven out of a vill the road to an adjoining to of taking the liberty of askin with more respect and conside years. Mothers are regarded tenderness, and grandmothe CHINESE IDOLS CUT ON THE ROCK AT ANG KOR. happy world, the land of the pure Buddhas," which the 11 Each one that a certain kind of p liver, and another kind aff have no idea of the intern of anatomy whatever. Th ception where the spleen course their treatment is q "One of their greatest r violently. One often sees tacks, covered all over wi have been pinched until ne very common treatment pr seen bodies with the skin tors in trying to cure them Each physician gives his fancy may dictate. The changed to suit the patien that costly medicine must rifice on the altar of ancestral reverence. The doc s cut out of her body a large piece of flesh, which the ing man eats. As a rule, the patient dies, and also heroic daughter. The relatives thereupon erect a nument on her grave inscribed with the story of her rifice, but it is needless to say such extraordinary atment and heroism as this are extremely rare." A Chinese Funeral. Mrs. Kip, a missionary at Amoy, China, gives the folwing account of a Chinese funeral in China that she ended: Over the entrance to the house was a strip of sack. th, and on either side hung white lanterns. Within outer court stood twenty life-sized paper figures, repreting mandarin attendants. Two held the large red umellas always seen in mandarin processions; four repreted the excutioners, with their conical high hats of I and black; while the rest were dressed as servants other followers. As their heads were attached in ch a manner as to move very easily, it was rather rtling to come suddenly upon this row of staring ures nodding at one. We were received by the eldest son of the deceased, d the ladies of our party were at once taken to the men's apartments and introduced to the widow and er female relatives. They were all dressed in sackth or unbleached cotton, according to their degree of ationship. They wore on the head a small triangle of kcloth, which stood upright over the forehead, and s bound on by a long strip of cotton tied behind, the Is of which hung down the back. The house was draped with unbleached cotton, and ere were curtains of the same before the main entrance 1 other doors. On each side of the inner court were o singular erections of paper, given by two married ighters, to be burned for their father's benefit. They re very similar, except that one was ornamented with t, the other with silver paper. They were called rectively the Golden and Silver Mountains. The foundɔn was a dragon, on which was built up an elaborate ucture of paper and gilt tinsel to represent rocks, on ich were men and wild animals, and a fine house, all the use of the spirit in the other world. The coffin stood in the back part of the main recepn hall. We were told its cost was three hundred dol3, but except that it was very large, and of unusually ck wood, it did not look different from the ordinary inese coffin. On the top of it stood a sort of shrine, monly seen in Chinese recepti a number of dishes of sweetm candles at each end. In front smaller tables close together, thirty bowls containing a grea more candles, and a dish for in We were given very good s everything that was going on. who sat on the floor just behin asking the usual questions abo until they heard the sound of they at once dropped the curt: The burst into a loud wail. main entrance were now draw priests entered, accompanied b their din at intervals througho of the sons also came in with t over his shoulder, from which ers of green paper depending The five priests now took chief in a yellow robe, stood 1 a long-handled censer, while c two in black robes holding the keeping time, such as bells an vice. The one in the centre no high note, and then chanted p others occasionally joined, to music. The son carrying the with two of his brothers, and selves before the tablet. Afterwards, one of the blac a paper what we understood of the deceased, and as soon a began another wail. Then came more chanting by to finish their part of the Several handsome scrolls were on the walls, a large mat and table for kneeling on, and mourning took their places, tw ter of Ceremonies then gave t the manner in which they v sticks, take one step forward, worshippers. Then the signal was give again while a petty official ad table. One of the servants sta him two lighted incense stick the tablet, raised to his fore aced abd the ceremonies would continue all day, we were obliged to leave without seeing the end. We were told there would be thirteen days of worship, at intervals of from three to seven days, during the fifty days set apart for mourning, and that the cost of it all would amount to thousands of dollars. ille TWO pole eam The VID were for ser ge four the ned em rom tles nec SUBURBS OF PEKING, CHINA. pieces of dried fish and por Chinese School Girls' New Year's Dinner. In Little Helpers is given a letter from a Mission-ed and sweetened with su nedary in China, giving an account of a Chinese School Girls' New Year's dinner. It says: "The girls in my school could not go home for their Chinese holidays, so I gave them a vacation of a week, and they had their feast together here with the matron and a friend of hers. "The Chinese have their feast on the last night of the old year. This year it came on our Sunday, so the girls had their feast on Saturday. Their vacation began on Thursday, and they commenced at once their prepara tions. "I thought perhaps you would like to know what these twenty girls had for their New Year's dinner. Their cakes were made of beans and rice flour. After washing and picking off the outside skin, the beans are cooked and pounded fine. The rice is also pounded thing like lavender-colored pork and sugar; turnips, dropped into hot water, an eats them; and rice. "You will notice that p erything. The Chinese ge think the reason the girls cheaper than pork. The 1 poor people cannot afford ↑ "At four o'clock in the : the girls were all in high g only at noon and so wer sweetened pork was to things as that of turkey wa "They had two tables a ed upon them in order. E vise and her chon |