observance of the latter prohibition are nearly anticipated by
stamping beforehand a number of blank sheets of paper, so that, if
occasion requires, a communication may be forwarded without delay and
without committing an actual breach of law or custom.

[*] A universal custom which may be quoted with countless others
against the degradation-of-women-in-China doctrine.

The New Year is the season of presents. Closely-packed boxes of
Chinese cake, biscuits, and crystallised fruit, are presented as
tributes of respect to the patriarchs of the family; grapes from
Shansi or Shan-tung, hams from Foochow, and lichees from Canton, all
form fitting vehicles for a declaration of friendship or of love. Now,
too, the birthday gifts offered by every official in the Empire to his
immediate superior, are supplemented by further propitiatory
sacrifices to the powers that be, without which tenure of office would
be at once troublesome and insecure. Such are known as _dry_, in
contradistinction to the _water_ presents exchanged between relatives
and friends. The latter are wholly, or at any rate in part, articles
of food prized among the Chinese for their delicacy or rarity, perhaps
both; and so to all appearance are the baskets of choice oranges, &c.,
sent for instance by a District Magistrate with compliments of the
season to His Excellency the Provincial Judge. But the Magistrate and
the Judge know better, for beneath that smiling fruit lie concealed
certain bank-notes or shoes of silver of unimpeachable touch, which
form a unit in the sum of that functionary's income, and enable him in
his turn to ingratiate himself with the all-powerful Viceroy, while he
lays by from year to year a comfortable provision against the time
when sickness or old age may compel him to resign both the duties and
privileges of government.

To "all between the four seas," patrician and plebeian[*] alike, the
New Year is a period of much intensity. On the 23rd or 24th of the
preceding moon it is the duty of every family to bid farewell to the
Spirit of the Hearth, and to return thanks for the protection
vouchsafed during the past year to each member of the household. The
Spirit is about to make his annual journey to heaven, and lest aught
of the disclosures he might make should entail unpleasant
consequences, it is adjudged best that he shall be rendered incapable
of making any disclosures at all. With this view, quantities of a very
sticky sweetm