the Grand Examiner himself, whose place would then be taken by the
chief Assistant Examiner, who is also appointed by the Emperor, and
accompanies the Grand Examiner from Peking.

The long strain of three bouts of three days each has often been
found sufficient to unhinge the reason, with a variety of distressing
consequences, the least perhaps of which may be seen in a regular
percentage of blank papers handed in. On one occasion, a man handed in a
copy of his last will and testament; on another, not very long ago,
the mental balance of the Grand Examiner gave way, and a painful scene
ensued. He tore up a number of the papers already handed in, and bit
and kicked every one who came near him, until he was finally secured
and bound hand and foot in his chair. A candidate once presented himself
dressed in woman's clothes, with his face highly rouged and powdered,
as is the custom. He was arrested at the entrance gate, and quietly sent
home to his friends.

Overwork, in the feverish desire to get into the Government service, is
certainly responsible for the mental break-down of a large proportion
of the comparatively few lunatics found in China. There being no lunatic
asylums in the empire, it is difficult to form anything like an exact
estimate of their number; it can only be said, what is equally true of
cripples or deformed persons, that it is very rare to meet them in the
streets or even to hear of their existence.

As a further measure of precaution against corrupt practices at
examinations, the papers handed in by the candidates are all copied out
in red ink, and only these copies are submitted to the examiners. The
difficulty therefore of obtaining favourable treatment, on the score of
either bribery or friendship, is very much increased. The Chinese, who