egetarian diet of the Buddhist. No
zealous Buddhist will touch meat or even eggs, neither will he kill the
smallest insect, lest he should thus inadvertently murder a relative.[2]
The men care but little for any religion beyond a veneration for their
ancestors.

Polygamy is very generally practiced, the limit to the number of wives
being determined by the ability to support them. Women usually become
more religious as they advance in years, and they spend much time in
worshiping in the temples. It is they who preserve the national religion
and make most difficult the work of missionaries.[3]

=The Home.=--The wife exists only for the comfort of her husband. It is
her duty to serve and obey him. If she abuses her husband, she receives
one hundred stripes; but abuse from him is not a punishable offense.
Instruction, at home as well as at school, is confined to boys. The
birth of a boy is indicated by hanging a bow and arrow over the door;
that of a girl, by a spindle and yarn. In naming the number of his
children, the father counts only the boys. Boys are clothed in the
finest material the family can afford; girls, in rags. Parents may
destroy their children, but only girls are ever sacrificed. The mother
can seldom read and write, her chief duty being to instill into her
children the two cardinal Chinese virtues--_politeness_ and _obedience_.
The relation of parents and children is the highest and purest
representation of the relation between the Creator and the creature, and
to venerate the parents is the first and holiest of all duties, higher
than the love of wife to husband, higher than the reverence for the
emperor; therefore the emperor's father cannot be his subject.

To the Chinaman all other duties are included in filial duties. The
bringing up of the children is left almost entirely to the mother. The
training begins very early, and greatest stress from the first is laid
upon obedience. Disobedience is a crime punishable by the father with
death.

There are no illustrated children's books, no nursery rhymes to inspire
the imagination, none of the bright and useful things so necessary to a
happy childhood. The child grows up with but few playthings calculated
to stimulate the powers of the mind.

=The Elementary School.=--At about six or seven years of age the child
enters school. Sometimes a few parents unite to employ a teacher for
their children. The government has no concern for the qualifications of
t