the understanding is the stomach. They have villages which contain a
million of inhabitants. Their boats are drawn by men, but their carriages
are moved by sails. A married woman while young and pretty is a slave, but
when she becomes old and withered is the most powerful, respected, and
beloved person in the family. The emperor is regarded with the most
profound reverence, but the empress mother is a greater person than he.
When a man furnishes his house, instead of laying stress, as we do, on
rosewood pianos and carved mahogany, his first ambition is for a handsome
camphor-wood coffin, which he keeps in the best place in his room. The
interest of money is thirty-six per cent, which, to be sure, we also give
in hard times to stave off a stoppage, while with them it is the legal
rate. We once heard a bad dinner described thus: "The meat was cold, the
wine was hot, and everything was sour but the vinegar." This would not so
much displease the Chinese, who carefully warm their wine, while we ice
ours. They understand good living, however, very well, are great epicures,
and somewhat gourmands, for, after dining on thirty dishes, they will
sometimes eat a duck by way of a finish. They toss their meat into their
mouths to a tune, every man keeping time with his chop-sticks, while we,
on the contrary, make anything but harmony with the clatter of our knives
and forks. A Chinaman will not drink a drop of milk, but he will devour
birds'-nests, snails, and the fins of sharks with a great relish. Our
mourning color is black and theirs is white; they mourn for their parents
three years, we a much shorter time. The principal room in their houses is
called "the hall of ancestors," the pictures or tablets of whom, set up
against the wall, are worshipped by them; we, on the other hand, are only
too apt to send our grandfather's portrait to the garret.[10]



§ 2. Chinese Government based on Education. Civil-Service Examinations.