Even at banquets, which are often very rich and costly, unnecessary expense is by no means encouraged.  Dishes of fruit, of a kind which no one would wish to eat, and which are placed on the table for show or ornament, are simply clever imitations in painted wood, and pass from banquet to banquet as part of the ordinary paraphernalia of a feast; no one is deceived.  The same form of open and above-board deception appears in many other ways.  There are societies organized for visiting in a comfortable style of pilgrimage some famous mountain of historic interest.  Names are put down, and money is collected; and then the party starts off by boat or in sedan-chairs, as the case may be.  On arriving at the mountain, there is a grand feast, and after the picnic, for such it is, every one goes home again.  That is the real thing; now for the imitation.  Names are put down, and money is collected, as before; but the funds are spent over a feast at home, alongside of a paper mountain.

Another of these deceptions, which deceive nobody, is one which might be usefully adapted to life in other countries.  A Chinaman meeting in the street a friend, and having no leisure to stop and talk, or perhaps meeting some one with whom he may be unwilling to talk, will promptly put up his open fan to screen his face, and pass on.  The suggestion is that, wishing to pass without notice, he fails to see the person in question, and it would be a serious breach of decorum on the part of the latter to ignore the hint thus conveyed.

Japan, who may be said to have borrowed the civilization of China, lock, stock and barrel—­her literature, her moral code, her arts, her sciences, her manners and customs, her ceremonial, and even her national dress—­invented the folding fan, which in the early part of the fifteenth century formed part of the tribute sent from Korea to Peking, and even later was looked upon by the Chinese as quite a curiosity.  In the early ages, fans were made of feathers, as still at the present day; but the more modern fan of native origin is a light frame of bamboo, wood or ivory, round or otherwise, over which silk is stretched, offering a convenient medium for the inscription of poems, or for paintings, as exchanged between friend and friend.

The same innocent form of deception, which deceives nobody, is carried out when two officials, seated in sedan-chairs, have to pass one another.  If they are of about equal rank, etiquette demands that they should alight from their chairs, and perform mutual salutations.  To obviate the extreme inconvenience of this rule, large wooden fans are carried in all processions of the kind, and these are hastily thrust between the passing officials, so that neither becomes aware of the other’s existence on the scene.  The case is different when one of the two is of higher rank.  The official of inferior grade is bound to stop and get out of his chair while his superior passes by, though even now he has a chance of escape; he hears the gong beaten to clear the way for the great man, whose rank he can tell from the number of consecutive blows given; and hurriedly turns off down a side street.