as
tragedian, comedian, low-comedy actor, walking gentleman or lady, and
similar parts, according to his capabilities.

It is not too much to say that women are very little missed on the
Chinese stage. The make-up of the actor is so perfect, and his imitation
of the feminine voice and manner, down to the smallest detail, even to
the small feet, is so exact in every point, that he would be a clever
observer who could positively detect impersonation by a man.

Generally speaking, a Chinese actor has many more difficulties to face
than his colleague in the West. In addition to the expression of all
shades of feeling, from mirth to melancholy, the former has to keep up
a perpetual make-believe in another sense, which is further great
strain upon his nerves. There being no scenery, no furniture, and no
appointments of any except the slenderest kind upon the stage, he has
to create in the minds of his audience a belief that all these missing
accessories are nevertheless before their eyes. A general comes upon the
scene, with a whip in his hand, and a studied movement not only suggests
that he is dismounting from a horse, but outlines the animal itself. In
the same manner, he remounts and rides off again; while some other actor
speaks from the top of a small table, which is forthwith transfigured,
and becomes to all intents and purposes a castle.

Many of those who might be apt to smile at the simple Chinese mind which
can tolerate such absurdities in the way of make-believe, require to
be reminded that the stage in the days of Queen Elizabeth was worked on
very much the same lines. Sir Philip Sidney tells us that the scene of
an imagined garden with imagined flowers had to do duty at one time for
an imagined shipwreck, and at another for an imagined battlefield, the
spectator in the latter case being helped out by two opposing soldiers
armed with swords and bucklers. Even Shakespeare, in the Prologue to
his play of _Henry V_, speaks of imagining one man to be an army of a
thousand, and says:--

Think, when we talk of horses that you see them
Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth;
For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings.

Here, then, is good authority for the quaint system that still prevails
in China.

Hundreds of Chinese pilgrims annually went their weary way to the top of
Mount Omi in the province of Ssuch'uan, and gaze downward from a sheer
and lofty precipice to view a huge c