ere sufficiently trained to make a good show,
it was arranged that a sham fight should be held in the presence of
the viceroy himself. The men were divided into two bodies under the
two foreign commanders, and in the course of operations one body had to
defend a village, while the other had to attack it. When the time came
to capture the village at the point of the bayonet, both sides lost
their heads; there was a fierce hand-to-hand fight in stern reality,
and before this could be effectively stopped four men had been killed
outright and sixteen badly wounded.

Considering how squalid many Chinese homes are, it is all the more
astonishing to find such deep attachment to them. There exists in the
language a definite word for _home_, in its fullest English sense. As a
written character, it is supposed to picture the idea of a family, the
component parts being a "roof" with "three persons" underneath. There
is, indeed, another and more fanciful explanation of this character,
namely, that it is composed of a "roof" with a "pig" underneath, the
forms for "three men" and "pig" being sufficiently alike at any rate
to justify the suggestion. This analysis would not be altogether out
of place in China any more than in Ireland; but as a matter of fact the
balance of evidence is in favour of the "three men," which number, it
may be remarked, is that which technically constitutes a crowd.

Whatever may be the literary view of the word "home," it is quite
certain that to the ordinary Chinaman there is no place like it. "One
mile away from home is not so good as being in it," says a proverb with
a punning turn which cannot be brought out in English. Another says,
"Every day is happy at home, every moment miserable abroad." It may
therefore be profitable to look inside a Chinese home, if only to
discover wherein its attractiveness lies.

All such homes are arranged more or less on the patriarchal system; that
is to say, at the head of the establishment are a father and mother, who
rank equally so far as their juniors are concerned; the mother receiving
precisely the same share of deference in life, and of ancestral worship
after death, as the father. The children grow up; wives are sought for
the boys, and husbands for the girls, at about the ages of eighteen and
sixteen, respectively. The former bring their wives into the paternal
home; the latter belong, from the day of their marriage, to the paternal
homes of their husbands. Bac