Strangers meeting may freely ask each other their names, provinces, and even prospects; it is not so usual as is generally supposed to inquire a person’s age.  It is always a compliment to an old man, who is justly proud of his years, and takes the curious form of “your venerable teeth?” but middle-aged men do not as a rule care about the question and their answers can rarely be depended upon.  A man may be asked the number and sex of his children; also if his father and mother are still “in the hall,” i.e., alive.  His wife, however, should never be alluded to even in the most indirect manner.  Friends meeting, either or both being in sedan-chairs, stop their bearers at once, and get out with all possible expedition; the same rule applies to acquaintances meeting on horseback.  Spectacles must always be removed before addressing even the humblest individual—­sheer ignorance of which most important custom has often, we imagine, led to rudeness from natives towards foreigners, where otherwise extreme courtesy would have been shown.  In such cases a foreigner must yield, or take the chances of being snubbed; and where neither self-respect or national dignity is compromised, we recommend him by all means to adopt the most conciliatory course.  Chinese etiquette is a wide field for the student, and one which, we think, would well repay extensive and methodical exploration.

ETIQUETTE, NO.  II

The disadvantages of ignoring alike the language and customs of the Chinese are daily and hourly exemplified in the unsatisfactory relations which exist as a rule between master and servant.  That the latter almost invariably despise their foreign patrons, and are only tempted to serve under them by the remunerative nature of the employment, is a fact too well known to be contradicted, though why this should be so is a question which effectually puzzles many who are conscious of treating their native dependants only with extreme kindness and consideration.  The answer, however, is not difficult for those who possess the merest insight into the workings of the Chinese mind; for just as every inhabitant of the eighteen provinces believes China to be the centre of civilisation and power, so does he infer that his language and customs are the only ones worthy of attention from native and barbarian alike.  The very antagonism of the few foreign manners and habits he is obliged by his position to cultivate, tend rather to confirm him in his own sense of superiority than otherwise.  For who but a barbarian would defile the banquet hour “when the wine mantles in the cups” with a white table-cloth, the badge of grief and death?  How much more elegant the soft red lacquer of the “eight fairy” table, with all its associations of the bridal hour!  The host, too, at the head of his own board, sitting in what should be the seat of the most honoured guest, and putting the latter on his right instead of his left hand!  Truly these red-haired barbarians are the very scum of the earth.