one of his oxen
gives a figure which seems much too low, until he explains that he has
omitted to estimate the bones! A servant who was asked his height
mentioned a measure which was ridiculously inadequate to cover his
length, and upon being questioned admitted that he had left out of
account all above his shoulders! He had once been a soldier, where the
height of the men's clavicle is important in assigning the carrying of
burdens. And since a Chinese soldier is to all practical purposes
complete without his head, this was omitted.

Of a different sort was the measurement of a rustic who affirmed that
he lived "ninety _li_ from the city," but upon cross-examination he
consented to an abatement, as this was reckoning both to the city and
back, the real distance being as he admitted, only "forty-five _li_ one
way!" (p. 49) ...

The habit of reckoning by "tens" is deep-seated, and leads to much
vagueness. A few people are "ten or twenty," a "few tens," or perhaps
"ever so many tens," and a strictly accurate enumeration is one of the
rarest of experiences in China.... An acquaintance told the writer that
two men had spent "200 strings of cash" on a theatrical exhibition,
adding a moment later, "It was 173 strings, but that is the same as
200--is it not?" (p. 54).

A man who wished advice in a lawsuit told the writer that he himself
"lived" in a particular village, though it was obvious from his
narrative that his abode was in the suburbs of a city. Upon inquiry, he
admitted that he did not _now_ live in the village, and further
investigation revealed the fact that the removal took place nineteen
generations ago! "But do you not almost consider yourself a resident of
the city now?" he was asked. "Yes," he replied simply, "we do live
there now, but the old root is in that village."

...The whole Chinese system of thinking is based on a line of
assumptions different from those to which we are accustomed, and they
can ill comprehend the mania which seems to possess the Occidental to
ascertain everything with unerring exactness. The Chinese does not know
how many families there are in his native village, and he does not wish
to know. What any human being can want to know this number for is to
him an insoluble riddle. It is "a few hundred," "several hundreds," or
"not a few," but a f