of retirement is cut down to three months, or even to one.

The death of an emperor is followed by a long spell of national
tribulation. For one hundred days no man may have his head shaved, and
no woman may wear head ornaments. For twelve months there may be no
marrying or giving in marriage among the official classes, a term which
is reduced to one hundred days for the public at large. The theatres are
supposed to remain closed for a year, but in practice they shut only
for one hundred days. Even thus great hardships are entailed upon many
classes of the community, especially upon actors and barbers, who might
be in danger of actual starvation but for the common-sense of their
rulers coupled with the common rice-pot at home.

The law forbidding marriage between persons of the same surname is
widely, but not universally, in operation. No Smith may marry a Smith;
no Jones may marry a Jones; the reason of course being that all of the
same surname are regarded as members of the same family. However, there
are large districts in certain parts of China where the people are one
and all of the surname, and where it would be a great hardship--not to
mention the impossibility of enforcing the law--if intermarriages of the
kind were prohibited. Consequently, they are allowed, but only if the
contracting parties are so distantly related that, according to the
legal table of affinity, they would not wear mourning for one another in
case of death--in other words, not related at all. The line of descent
is now traced through the males, but there is reason to believe that in
early days, as is found to be often the case among uncivilized tribes,
the important, because more easily recognizable, parent was the mother.
Thus it is illegal for first cousins of the same surname to marry,
and legal if the surnames are different; in the latter case, however,
centuries of experience have taught the Chinese to frown upon such