They have two contrivances for the promotion of drinking at their merry-meetings. One of these, called Tsoey-moey, consists in each person guessing at the number of fingers suddenly held up between himself and his adversary, and the penalty of the loser is each time to drink a cup of wine. In still, calm evenings, during the continuance of the Chinese festivals, the yells of the common people engaged at this tipsy sport are sometimes heard to drown all other noises. precisely the same as the game of morra, common among the lower orders in Italy at the present day, and derived by them from the Roman sport of "micare digitis," of which Cicero remarked, that "you must have great

It is

1 Two of them are placed together in a bowl, and irritated until they tear each other to pieces.

faith in the honesty of any man with whom you played in the dark;"-" multâ fide opus est, ut cum aliquo in tenebris mices." The other festive scheme is a handsome bouquet of choice flowers, to be circulated quickly from hand to hand among the guests, while a rapid roll is kept up on a kettle-drum in an adjoining apartment. Whoever may chance to hold the flowers at the instant the drum stops, pays forfeit by drinking a cup of wine. It may be easily imagined that this rational amusement, at which the author (proh pudor!) has more than once assisted, occasionally gives rise to scenes worthy of Sir Toby and his associates in Twelfth Night.

In lieu of theatrical entertainments at their dinners, conjuring, sleight of hand, and other species of dexterity, are sometimes introduced for the diversion of the assembly. The conjuror has always an accomplice, as usual, who serves to distract the attention of the spectators. One of their best exhibitions of mere dexterity is where a common China saucer is spun on its bottom upon the end of a rattan cane, in a very surprising manner. The rapid revolution communicated to the saucer by the motion of the performer's wrist, through the medium of the flexible and elastic rattan, keeps it whirling round without falling,

even though the cane is occasionally held nearly horizontally, and sometimes passed behind the back, or under the legs of the exhibitor. It may be observed, that the cup is seldom in danger of falling, except for the moment when the eye of the performer may be taken off from it.

Among their out-of-door amusements, a very common one is to play at shuttlecock with the feet. A circle of some half-a-dozen keep up in this manner the game between them with considerable dexterity, the thick soles of their shoes serving them in lieu of battledores, and the hand being allowed occasionally to assist. In kite-flying the Chinese certainly excel all others, both in the various construction of their kites, and the heights to which they make them rise. They have a very thin, as well as tough, sort of paper made of refuse silk, which, in combination with the split bamboo, is excellently adapted to the purpose. The kites are made to assume every possible shape; and, at some distance, it is impossible occasionally to distinguish them from real birds. By means of round holes, supplied with vibrating cords, or other substances, they contrive to produce a loud humming noise, something like that of a top, occasioned by the rapid passage of the air as it is opposed to the kite. At a particular season of the year, not only boys, but grown men, take a part in this amusement, and the sport sometimes consists in trying to bring each other's kites down by dividing the strings.

The taste of the Chinese court in its amusements was observed by the several embassies to be nearly as puerile as that of most other Asiatics. Farces, tumbling, and fireworks were the usual diversions with which the emperor and his guests were regaled. Two of the sovereigns of this Tartar dynasty, Kânghy and Kien-loong, maintained the hardy and warlike habits of the Manchows by frequent hunting expeditions to the northward of the Great Wall. They proceeded at the head of a little army, by which the game was enclosed in rings, and thus exposed to the skill of the emperor and his grandees. We find, from Père Gerbillon's account of his hunting expedition with Kâng-hy, that a portion of the train consisted of falconers, each of whom had the charge of a single bird. The per

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sonal skill and prowess of Kâng-hy appear to have been considerable, and we have the following description from Gerbillon of the death of a large bear:-" This animal being heavy and unable to run for any length of time, he stopped on the declivity of a hill, and the emperor, standing on the side of the opposite hill, shot him at leisure, and with the first arrow pierced his side with a deadly wound. Whe. the animal found himself hurt, he gave a dreadful roar, and turned his head with fury towards the arrow that stuck in his belly. In the endeavour to pull it out, he broke it short, and then, running a few paces farther, he stopped exhausted. emperor, upon this, alighting from his horse, took a half-pike, used by the Manchows against tigers, and, accompanied by four of the ablest hunters armed in the same way, he approached the bear and killed him outright with a stab of his half-pike."

The

The amusements of the Emperor's court on the ice, during the severe winters of Peking, are thus given by Van Braam, who was one of the Dutch mission which proIceeded from Canton soon after Lord Macartney's embassy :-"The Emperor made his appearance on a sort of a sledge, supported by the figures of four dragons. This machine was moved about by several mandarins, some dragging before, and others pushing behind. The four principal ministers of state were also drawn upon the ice in their sledges by inferior mandarins. Whole troops of civil and military officers soon appeared, some on sledges, some on skaits, and others playing at football on the ice, and he that picked up the ball was rewarded by the Emperor. The ball was then hung up in a kind of arch, and several mandarins shot at it, in passing on skaits, with their bows and arrows. Their skaits were cut off short under the heel, and the fore part was turned up at right angles." These diversions are quite in the spirit of the Tartars, whose original habits were strongly opposed to those of the quiet and effeminate Chinese. However robust and athletic the labouring classes in the southern provinces of the empire, those who are not supported by bodily exertion are in general extremely feeble and inactive. Unlike the European gentry, they seldom mount on a

steel for lighting the pipe; and the tobacco is carried in an embroidered purse or pouch." Dr. Abel thus describes the appearance of the first well-dressed Chinese whom he saw on reaching the shores of the Yellow Sea. Arms are, in fact, never worn on the person except by soldiers at parade; and even the military mandarins do not wear swords on ordinary occasions of ceremony. The common people are not allowed to be seen with arms except for specific purposes of self-protection, as when carrying off their property from a fire, or for a defence against river pirates and the like.

The possession of fire-arms is altogether forbidden by the jealous Government, as may be seen from the following extract from a Peking gazette:-"For the people to have fire-arms in their possession is contrary to law, and orders have already been issued to each provincial government to fix a period within which all matchlocks belonging to individuals should be bought up at a valuation. ..... With regard to those fire-arms which are in immediate use for the safeguard of the country, the said Governor has already directed the proper officers to carve on every

matchlock the name of the person to whom it is delivered, and to preserve a general register of the whole. Let the Governor also give strict charge to make diligent search, and prevent the illicit storing up of fire-arms for the future; and let the workers in iron be rigidly looked after, lest they clandestinely manufacture and sell them: the evil may thus be cut off in its commencement. officers who have made full and complete musters within the limited period, the Governor is directed to notice properly as an encouragement to others." Those Chinese near Canton who employ themselves in shooting wild fowl for sale, are said to belong mostly to the militia of the province.

Those

The extremes of heat and cold which prevail throughout the country at opposite seasons of the year, joined to the general custom of living very much in the open air, are the causes which have probably given rise to the broad and marked distinctions that exist between the summer and the winter dress of the better classes. The difference is principally marked by the cap. The summer cap is a cone of finely woven filaments of bamboo, or a substance resembling chip, and

surmounted, in persons of any rank, by a red blue, white, or gilded ball at the apex or point of the cone. From the insertion of this ornamental ball descends all around, over the cap, a fringe or rather bunch of crimson silk or of red horse-hair; in front of the cap is sometimes worn a single large pearl.

The winter cap, instead of being a cone, fits closer to the shape of the head, and has a brim, turned sharply up all round, of black velvet, or fur, and rising a little higher in front and behind than at the sides. The dome-shaped top is surmounted by the same ball as in the other case, denoting the rank of the wearer; and from the point of insertion descends a bunch of fine crimson silk, just covering the dome. On the commencement of the cold or hot weather, the first person in each province, as the Tsoong-to, or Viceroy, assumes his winter or summer cap; the circumstance is noticed in the official gazette, or court circular, and this is the signal for every man under his government to make the same change. In the embassy of 1816, the

imperial legate, who conducted the mission down to Canton, being for the time superior in rank to the Viceroy, in this manner put on his winter cap, and gave the example to the province through which he was passing. Within doors they usually wear, in cold weather, a small skull-cap, either plain or ornamented.

The summer garment of the better classes is a long loose gown of light silk, gauze, or linen, hanging free at ordinary times, but on occasions of dress, gathered in round the middle by a girdle of strong wrought silk, which is fastened in front by a clasp of agate, or of the jade, which the Chinese call yu. In an oppressive climate, when the thermometer is at 80° or 90°, there is much ease and comfort in the loose sleeves, and the freedom from restraint about the neck, by which this dress is distinguished; and the tight sleeves with the huge collars and stocks of Europeans very naturally make them objects of compassion, if not ridicule. To the girdle are fastened the various articles noticed by