is necessary to be familiar. For instance, a "fairy
umbrella" means a mushroom; a "gentleman of the beam" is a burglar,
because a burglar was once caught sitting on one of the open beams
inside a Chinese roof; a "slender waist" is a wasp; the "throat olive"
is the "Adam's apple"--which, by the way, is an excellent illustration
from the opposite point of view; "eyebrow notes" means notes at the
top of a page; "cap words" is sometimes used for "preface;" the
"sweeper-away of care" is wine; "golden balls" are oranges; the "golden
tray" is the moon; a "two-haired man" is a grey-beard; the "hundred
holes" is a beehive; "instead of the moon" is a lantern; "instead of
steps" is a horse; "the man with the wooden skirt" is a shopman;
to "scatter sleep" means to give hush-money; and so on, almost _ad
infinitum_.

Chinese medical literature is on a very voluminous scale, medicine
having always occupied a high place in the estimation of the people, in
spite of the fact that its practice has always been left to any one who
might choose to take it up. Surgery, even of an elementary kind, has
never had a chance; for the Chinese are extremely loath to suffer any
interference with their bodies, believing, in accordance with Confucian
dogma, that as they received them from their parents, so they should
carry them into the presence of their ancestors in the next world.
Medicine, as still practised in China, may be compared with the European
art of a couple of centuries ago, and its exceedingly doubtful results
are fully appreciated by patients at large. "No medicine," says one
proverb, "is better than a middling doctor;" while another points out
that "Many sons of clever doctors die of disease."

Legend, however, tells us of an extraordinary physician of the fifth
century B.C. who was able to see into the viscera of his patients--an
apparent anticipation of the X-rays--and who, by his intimate knowledge
of the human pulse, effected many astounding cures. We also read of an
eminent physician of the second and third centuries A.D. who did add
surgery to this other qualifications. He was skilled in the use of
acupuncture and cautery; but if these failed he would render his patient
unconscious by a dose of hashish, and then operate surgically. He is
said to have diagnosed a case of diseased bowels by the pulse alone, and
then to have cured it by operation. He offered to cure the headaches
of a famous military commander of the day by opening