he-way places it is often very difficult
to get the operation performed. On several occasions I have been
obliged to rely on my mafoo, who with horse-clippers and iron scissors
proved to be effective if somewhat unartistic.

Of course, a Chinaman will soon learn, and at treaty-ports barbers are
a convenient luxury, for at the cost of a few dollars a month one will
come to your bedroom every morning at a stated time to perform the
daily shave, as well as cut the hair when required. Oftentimes I have
been still asleep when, leaving his shoes outside the door and
creeping in noiselessly with bare feet, he has adjusted the towel,
lathered and shaved me in bed without my having had more than a dim
consciousness of what was going on.

Tailors are cheap and plentiful. A West-end cut is not achieved, but
for flannels, light tweeds and all such clothes as are worn in the
tropics, they are very passable.

"Boy."

"Sai."

"Talkee that tailor-man four o'clock come. Wantchee new clothes."

At four o'clock the tailor is there with a bundle of patterns from
which you select a thin serge and a white flannel, and order a suit of
each. On asking the price you are informed that the serge "b'long
welly cheap" at fourteen dollars and the flannel at twelve.

Your surprise and indignation are great at the exorbitant figures, and
after a good deal of haggling, eleven dollars and ten respectively are
agreed upon, the clothes to be finished in two days.

"Can do."

Out comes the tape and he measures you all over, taking mental notes
but writing nothing down, the Chinese having marvellous memories.

Next morning he appears with the garments loosely stitched together to
try on, draws a chalk line here, puts in a pin there and hurries off.

The following day you discover both suits neatly folded up on your
bed, and on inspection find them to be of good and comfortable fit.

Another plan is, after selecting the material, to hand the tailor an
old suit with instructions to make the new one a counterpart of it,
which, as a rule, he will do to perfection. In fact, he has been known
to let a couple of patches into the seat of the new trousers in order
to make them correspond exactly with the pattern.

CHAPTER III

SHOOTING

To anyone who is fond of shooting, certain parts of China offer a
veritable paradise. When I say shooting I do not mean the kind of
sport to which one is accustomed at home, where to trespass a few
yards o