h official is
handed over for safe keeping to the official's wife, a fact which
helps to dispose of the libel that women in China are the down-trodden
creatures they are often represented to be. All debts have to be paid
and accounts squared by midnight on the last day of the old year. A few
nights previously, offerings of an excessively sticky sweetmeat are
made to the Spirit of the Hearth, one of whose functions is that of
an accusing angel. The Spirit is then on the point of starting for his
annual visit to heaven, and lest any of the disclosures he might make
should entail unpleasant consequences, it is adjudged best that he shall
be rendered incapable of making any disclosures at all. The unwary god
finds his lips tightly glued together, and is unable to utter a single
word. Meanwhile, fire-crackers are being everywhere let off on a
colossal scale, the object being to frighten away the evil spirits which
have collected during the past twelve months, and to begin the year
afresh. The day itself is devoted to calling, in one's best clothes,
on relatives, friends and official superiors, for all of whom it is
customary to leave a present. The relatives and friends receive "wet"
gifts, such as fruit or cakes; officials also receive wet gifts, but
underneath the top layer will be found something "dry," in the shape of
silver or bank-notes. Everybody salutes everybody with the conventional
saying, "New joy, new joy; get rich, get rich!" Yet here again, as in
all things Chinese, we find a striking exception to this good-natured
rule. No one says "Get rich, get rich!" to the undertaker.

A high authority (on other matters) has recently stated that the Chinese
calendar "begins just when the Emperor chooses to say it shall. He is
like the captain of a ship, who says of the hour, 'Make it so,' and
it is so." The truth is that New Year's Day is determined by the
Astronomical Board, according to fixed rules, just as Easter is
determined; and it may fall on any day between the 21st of January and
the 20th of February, but neither before the former date nor after
the latter date, in spite even of the most threatening orders from the
Palace. This book will indeed have been written in vain if the reader
lays it down without having realized that no such wanton interference on
the part of their rulers would be tolerated by the Chinese people. But
we are wandering away from merry-making and festivity.

In their daily life the Chinese