h, had the opportunity been more favourable, I
would have made the feint to learn somewhat more of this secret practice
of burying in the enclosed space beneath the stairs. Thus is it set
forth why, after the statement, "They do not hesitate to express their
fathers' names openly," it is further written, "Walk slowly! Engrave
well upon your discreet remembrance the unmentionable Line of Tripe and
Trotter."

Another point of comparison which the superficial have failed to record
is to be found in the frequent encouragements to regard The Virtues
which are to be seen, like our own Confucian extracts, freely inscribed
on every wall and suitable place about the city. These for the most part
counsel moderation in taking false oaths, in stepping heedlessly upon
the unknown ground, in following paths which lead to doubtful ends, and
other timely warnings. "Beware a smoke-breathing demon," is frequently
cast across one's path upon a barrier, and this person has never failed
to accept the omen and to retrace his steps hastily without looking to
the right or the left. Even our own national caution is not forgotten,
although to conform to barbarian indolence it is written, "Slowly,
slowly; drive slowly." "Keep to the Right" (or, "Abandon that which is
evil," as the analogy holds,) is perhaps the most frequently displayed
of all, and doubtless many charitable persons obtain an ever-accruing
merit by hanging the sign bearing these words upon every available post.
Others are of a stern and threatening nature, designed to make the most
hardened ill-doer pause, as--in their own tongue--"Rubbish may be shot
here"; which we should render, "At any moment, and in such a place
as this, a just doom and extinction may overtake the worthless." This
inscription is never to be seen except in waste expanses, where it
points its significance with a multiplied force. There is another
definite threat which is lavishly set out, and so thoroughly that it may
be encountered in the least frequented and almost inaccessible spots.
This, as it may be translated, reads, "Trespass not the forbidden. The
profligate may flourish like the gourd for a season, but in the
end assuredly they will be detected, and justice meted out with the
relentless fury of the written law."

In a converse position, the wide difference in the ceremonial forms of
retaliatory invective has practically disarmed this usually eloquent
person, and he long since abandoned every hope of