d," we have several times
read our destiny through the medium of some dirty old Chinaman. On the
last occasion we received the following advice in return for our 50
cash, paid as per tablet for a destiny in detail:--"Beware the odd
months of this year: you will meet with some dangers and slight
losses. Three male phoenixes (sons) will be accorded to you. Your
present lustrum is not a fortunate one; but it has nearly expired, and
better days are at hand. Fruit cannot thrive in the winter. (We had
placed our birthday in the 12th moon.) Conflicting elements oppose:
towards life's close prepare for trials. Wealth is beyond your grasp;
but nature has marked you out to fill a lofty place." How the above
was extracted from the eight characters which represented the year,
month, day, and hour of our birth, is made perfectly clear by a sum
showing every step in the working of the problem, though we must
confess it appeared to us a humbugging jumble, the most prominent part
of which was the answer. We found among other things that _earth_
predominated in the combination: hence our inability to grasp wealth.
_Water_ was happily deficient, and on this datum we were blessed in
anticipation with three sons, to say nothing of daughters.

And this is the sort of trash that is crammed down the throats of
China's too credulous children--the "babies," as the Mandarins are so
fond of calling them. For this rubbish they freely spend their
hard-earned wages, consulting some favourite prophet on most of their
domestic and other affairs with the utmost gravity and confidence. Few
Chinamen make a money venture without first applying to the oracle,
and certainly never marry without arranging a lucky day for the event.
Ignorance and credulity combine to support a numerous class of the
most consummate adepts in the art of swindling; the supply, however,
is not more than adequate to the demand, albeit they swarm in every
street and thoroughfare of a Chinese city.

GAMES AND GAMBLING

Chinamen suffer horribly from _ennui_--especially the first of the
four classes into which the non-official world has been subdivided.[*]
They have no rational amusements wherewith to fill up the intervals of
work. They hate physical exercise; more than that, they despise it as
fit only for the ignorant and low. Yet they have not supplied its
place with anything intellectual, and the most casual observer cannot
fail to notice that China has no national game. F