. On one of these
occasions three of the crew took the jolly-boat and rowed ashore, a
distance of some hundred yards, and while smoking on deck I could see
them wading along by the bank, groping in the mud and occasionally
putting something into a bucket which they had taken with them.
Questioned as to what they were doing, the lowdah replied, "Fishing,"
and my astonishment was not diminished when they returned on board
with the bucket half-filled with fine perch, varying from perhaps
eight ounces to a pound in weight. Until then I was unaware that perch
existed in Chinese waters, nor have I since seen any.

The nearest approach to this kind of fishing that I know of is down in
my old home amongst the Norfolk broads, where on warm days, when lying
in the weeds, tench can be tickled with the fingers and caught by a
sudden nip behind the gills; but the art requires intimate knowledge
of local waters, much patience and great skill.

One of the most frequent questions that I am asked at home is, "Do not
Chinamen wear the finger-nails very long?" They do. Scholars perform
no manual labour, in visible token of which they allow the nails of
the left hand to grow an inch or an inch and a half in length, but the
nails on the right hand, while also long, are short in comparison with
those on the left.

To be classed with literary or educated men is the greatest of all
considerations, for which reason there is always a tendency for anyone
and everyone to wear a long coat and to don huge tortoise-shell-rimmed
spectacles, such as are affected by the _literati_, as well as to
cultivate the nails of the left hand. As the use of the word _esquire_
has degenerated in this country until not to apply it to all and
sundry is considered to be almost a snub, so the habit of wearing long
finger-nails in China has descended through every rank of Society
until it is now more often the badge of envious imitation than of any
scholarly attainments. So precious to the owners are these claw-like
nails that I have often seen them protected by silver sheaths, and
have heard that for cases of extraordinary growth the whole of the
left hand is even carried in a bag.

There is much outcry in these latter days against the newly-formed
habit of cigarette smoking cultivated by ladies of the West.
Condemnation of the practice seems if anything to act as an incentive,
so, yielding to the pleasant temptation of palliating faults in pretty
women, I would s