effected in this laborious way. Barrows are common all over the
Empire, both for the conveyance of goods and passengers; and where
long distances have to be traversed, donkeys are frequently harnessed
in front. The traditional sail is also occasionally used: we ourselves
have seen barrows running before the wind between Tientsin and Taku,
of course with a man pushing behind. _The children have official
business_, is understood to mean they are laid up with the small-pox;
the metaphor implying that their _turn_ has come, just as a turn of
official duty comes round to every Manchu in Peking, and in the same
inevitable way. Vaccination is gradually dispelling this erroneous
notion, but the phrase we have given is not likely to disappear.

A magistrate who has _skinned the place clean_, has extorted every
possible cash from the district committed to his charge--a "father and
mother" of the people, as his grasping honour is called. _That horse
has a mane_, says the Chinese housebreaker, speaking of a wall well
studded at the top with pieces of broken glass or sharp iron spikes.
_You'll have to sprinkle so much water_, urges the friend who advises
you to keep clear of law, likening official greed to dust, which
requires a liberal outlay of water in the shape of banknotes to make
it lie. A _flowery bill_ is understood from one end of China to the
other as that particular kind in which our native servants delight to
indulge, namely, an account charging twice as much for everything as
was really paid, and containing twice as much in quantity as was
actually supplied. A _flowery suit_ is a case in which women play a
prominent part. _You scorched me yesterday_ is a quiet way of
remarking that an appointment was broken, and implying that the rays
of the sun were unpleasantly hot. _Don't pick out the sugar_ is a very
necessary injunction to a servant sent to market to buy food, &c., the
metaphor being taken from a kind of sweet dumpling consumed in great