be able to tinkle on her music, to embroider, and to weave silk.

The gentlemen are proud of having one long nail on the little finger, to
show that they do not labor like the poor, for if they did, the nail
would break. Men in China wear necklaces and use fans.

What foolish customs I have described. Surely you will not think the
Chinese a wise people, though very _clever_, as you will soon find.

Men and women dress in black, or in dark colors, such as blue and purple;
the women sometimes dress in pink or green. Great people dress in red,
and the royal family in yellow. When you see a person all in white, you
may know he is in mourning. A son dresses in white for three years after
he has lost one of his parents.

HOUSES.--See that lantern hanging over the gate. The light is rather dim,
because the sides are made of silk instead of glass. What is written upon
the lantern? The master's name. The gateway leads into a court into
which many rooms open. There are not doors to all the rooms; to some
there are only curtains. Curtains are used instead of doors in many hot
countries, because of their coolness; but the furniture of the Chinese
rooms is quite different from the furniture of Turkish and Persian rooms.
The Chinese sit on chairs as we do, and have high tables like ours: and
they sleep on bedsteads, yet their beds are not like ours, for instead of
a mattrass there is nothing but a mat.

Instead of pictures, the Chinese adorn their rooms with painted lanterns,
and with pieces of white satin, on which sentences are written: they have
also book-cases and china jars. But they have no fire-places, for they
never need a fire to keep themselves warm: the sun shining in at the