inese language and
other works brought out under his patronage. A Tartar himself,
unaccustomed to the sight of Tartar women struggling in such fetters, he
had no sympathy with the custom; but against the Chinese people, banded
together to safeguard their liberty of action in a purely domestic
matter, he was quite unable to prevail.

Within the last few weeks another edict has gone forth, directed against
the practice of foot-binding. Let us hope it will have a better fate.

Many years ago the prefect of T'ai-wan Fu said to me, in the course of
an informal conversation after a friendly dinner, "Do you foreigners
fear the inner ones?"--and on my asking what was meant, he told me that
a great many Chinese stood in absolute awe of their wives. "_He_ does,"
added the prefect, pointing to the district magistrate, a rather
truculent-looking individual, who was at the dinner-party; and the other
guests went into a roar of laughter.

The general statement by the prefect is borne out by the fact that the
"henpecked husband" is constantly held up to ridicule in humorous
literature, which would be quite impossible if there were no foundation
of fact.

I have translated one of these stories, trivial enough in itself, but,
like the proverbial straw, well adapted for showing which way the wind
blows. Here it is:--

Ten henpecked husbands agreed to form themselves into a society for
resisting the oppression of their wives. At the first meeting they were
sitting talking over their pipes, when suddenly the ten wives, who had
got wind of the movement, appeared on the scene.

There was a general stampede, and nine of the husbands incontinently
bolted through another door, only one remaining unmoved to face the
music. The ladies merely smiled contemptuously at the success of their
raid, and went away.

The nine husbands them all agreed that the bold tenth man, who had not
run away, should be at once appointed their president; but on coming to
offer him the post, they found that he had died of fright!

To judge by the following story, the Chinese woman's patience is
sometimes put to a severe test.

A scholar of old was so absent-minded, that on one occasion, when he was
changing houses, he forgot to take his wife. This was reported to
Confucius as a most unworthy act. "Nay," replied the Master, "it is
indeed bad to forget one's wife; but 'tis worse to forget one's self!"

Points of this kind are, no doubt, trivial, as I have said