chances to have ophthalmia, the barber considers that his
eyes need cleaning, and proceeds to wipe out the inner side of the
eyelid with his instrument, of course to their serious injury. In the
ophthalmic hospitals of Chinese cities European physicians have found
this practice a fruitful cause of many diseases of the eyes, but no
remonstrances can induce the people and their barbers to give it up.

The mustache, as well as the pigtail of immoderate length, is a badge of
a certain dignity, for no man is allowed to cultivate it until he
reaches a certain age, and it is an error to suppose that Asiatics are
totally devoid of beard, for the old fellows among them sport grisly
beards and mustaches of respectable length, and altogether have quite a
venerable look. On the stage the emperor and mandarins are represented
as bearded like Turks. Indeed the excessive length of their horse-hair
mustaches, reaching to their girdles, shows what esteem the people
attach to a long, flowing beard.

On first landing in China, the impression given by so many long-tailed
and petticoated men is like the memory of a dream wherein one has seen
animals walking like men; and, although custom makes the sight familiar,
a Chinaman always appears an odd creature, especially when he passes the
end of his pigtail under his left shoulder and gently caresses it or
twists the final braid. A comical sight, to be seen almost every day in
Hong-Kong, is a sepoy policeman leading some Chinese culprit to the
lockup: the sepoy, tall and erect, with fierce mustaches, lean as a
tiger, and with a warlike air, leading along the meek Chinaman by the
end of his pigtail, John Chinaman following at about two paces behind,
just at the end of his natural tether.

We have already alluded to the grotesque appearance of an infant a few
months old, with close-shaved head, and pigtail two inches long, tied up
with a gay ribbon. When the youngster is four years old, and his pigtail
has reached the dignity of seven inches, it is duly braided, and
constitutes his only dress. Then, being armed with a basket, he is sent
out in this primitive and absurd costume to pick chips.

After the barbers, in order of importance among the Chinese shopkeepers,
come the coffin makers, and they are very important men indeed, in a
country where the worship of ancestors is carried to a degree unknown
elsewhere in the world. Their coffins are of all sizes and degrees of
finish, but of one invar