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
quantities by rich and poor alike. Another phrase is, _Don't ride the
donkey_, which may be explained by the proverbial dislike of Chinamen
for walking exercise, and the temptation to hire a donkey, and squeeze
the fare out of the money given them for other purposes. _That house
is not clean inside_, signifies that devils and bogies, so dreaded by
the Chinese, have taken up their residence therein; in fact, that the
house is haunted. _He's all rice-water_, i.e., gives one plenty of the
water in which rice has been boiled, but none of the rice itself, is
said of a man who promises much and does nothing. _One load between
the two_ is very commonly said of two men who have married two
sisters. In China, a coolie's "load" consists of two baskets or
bundles slung with ropes to the end of a flat bamboo pole about five
feet in length, and thus carried across the shoulder. Hence the
expression. Apropos of marriage, _the guitar string is broken_, is an
elegant periphrasis by which it is understood that a man's wife is
dead, the verb "to die" being rarely used in conversation, and never
of a relative or