he empire. In any case, years must elapse before he can revisit "the
mulberry and the elm"--the garden he leaves behind. He may take his
"old woman" and family with him, or they may follow later on; as another
alternative, the "old woman" with the children may remain permanently
in the ancestral home, while the husband carries on his official career
alone. Under such circumstances as the last-mentioned, no one, including
his own wife, is shocked if he consoles himself with a "small old
woman," whom he picks up at his new place of abode. The "small old
woman" is indeed often introduced into families where the "principal old
woman" fails to contribute the first of "the three blessings of which
every one desires to have plenty," namely, sons, money, and life.
Instances are not uncommon of the wife herself urging this course upon
her husband; and but for this system the family line would often come to
an end, failing recourse to another system, namely, adoption, which
is also brought into play when all hope of a lineal descendant is
abandoned.

Whether she has children or not, the principal wife--the only wife, in
fact--never loses her supremacy as the head of the household. The late
Empress Dowager was originally a concubine; by virtue of motherhood she
was raised to the rank of Western Empress, but never legitimately took
precedence of the wife, whose superiority was indicated by her title
of Eastern Empress, the east being more honourable than the west. The
emperor always sits with his face towards the south.

The story of Sung Hung, a statesman who flourished about the time of the
Christian era, pleasantly illustrates a chivalrous side of the Chinese
character. This man raised himself from a humble station in life to be a
minister of state, and was subsequently ennobled as marquis. The emperor
then wished him to put away his wife, who was a woman of the people, and
marry a princess; to which he nobly replied: "Sire, the partner of my
porridge days shall never go down from my hall."

Of the miseries of exile from the ancestral home, lurid pictures have
been drawn by many poets and others. One man, ordered from some soft
southern climate to a post in the colder north, will complain that the
spring with its flowers is too late in arriving; another "cannot stand
the water and earth," by which is meant that the climate does not agree
with him; a third is satisfied with his surroundings, but is still a
constant sufferer fro