they were, and all seemingly looking alike. The women were seated in
the west gallery on the right hand of the stage by themselves. This
is an Eastern custom which Asiatic nations generally observe. Even
in their religious assemblies the women sit apart. The custom arose
primarily from the idea that woman is inferior to man. In the Jewish
temple as well as in the synagogue, the sexes were separated. It is so
to-day in most synagogues. Among the Mohammedans, too, woman is ruled
out and is kept apart; and so strong is custom it even affected the
Christian church in Oriental lands in the early days. You see a trace
of it still in the East in church-arrangements.

A Chinese play takes a number of weeks or even months in which to
complete it. It may be founded on domestic life or on some historic
scene. Sometimes the history of a province of the Chinese Empire is
the theme. The plays are mostly comedy. There are no grand tragedies
like those of the old Greek poets. The Chinese have had no such
writers as Sophocles or Euripides, no such creators of plays as
Shakespeare, and they have no such actors as a Garrick or an Irving.
We were invited to seats on the stage--which had no curtains,
everything being done openly. In order to reach the stage the guide
conducted us down the passageway or aisle through the midst of the
audience. Then we ascended a platform at the end of the stage and went
behind it into a long room where the actors were putting on costumes
of a fantastic shape and painting their faces with bright coloured
pigments. Some of them also put on masks that would frighten a person
should he meet the wearers suddenly. The majority of the masks were
caricatures of the human face and were comical in expression. We felt
quite at home on the stage at once; for here, seated on either side
with the actors in the midst of the company, were many of our friends
lay and clerical, men and women, looking on in wonder at the strange