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.

By the time he has arrived at this conclusion our native domestic has
by a direct process of reasoning settled in his mind another important
point, namely, that any practice of the civilities and ceremonies
which Chinese custom exacts from the servant to the master, would be
entirely out of place in reference to the degraded being whom an
accidental command of dollars has invested with the title, though
hardly with the rights, of a patron. Consequently, little acts of
gross rudeness, unperceived of course by the foreigner, characterise
the everyday intercourse of master and servant in China. The house-boy
presents himself for orders, and even waits at table, in short clothes
--an insult no Chinaman would dare to offer to one of his own
countrymen. He meets his master with his tail tied round his head, and
passes him in the street without touching his hat, that is, without
standing still at the side of the street until his master has passed.
He lolls about and scratches his head when receiving instructions,
instead of standing in a respectful attitude with his hands at his
side in a state of rest; enters a room with his shoes down at heel, or
without socks; omits to rise at the approach of his master, mistress,
or their friends, and commits numerous other petty breaches of decorum
which would ensure his instant dismissal from the house of a Chinese
gentleman. We ourselves take a pride in making our servants treat us
with the same degree of outward respect they would show tow