Turning to the next page we found a priest sitting in
front of the temple in the act of beating his wooden drum,

while the poet exclaims:
O crystal pool and silvery moon,

So clear and pure thou art,
There's nought to which thou wilt compare

Except a Buddha's heart.
The child next directed our attention to various kinds of

flowers, more especially the marigold. A man in a boat rows with
one hand while he points backward to the blossoming marigold,

while in another picture the poet tells us that,
Along the eastern wall,

We pluck the marigold,
While on the south horizon,

The mountain we behold.
"What is that?" I asked as he turned to a picture of an old man

riding on a cow.
"That is Laotze, the founder of Taoism, crossing the frontier at

the Han Ku Pass between Shansi and Shensi, riding upon a cow.
Nobody knows where he went."

There were other pictures of Taoist patriarchs keeping sheep. By
their magic power they turned the sheep into stones when they

were tired watching them, and again the inscriptions told us,
"the stones became sheep at his call." Still others represented

them in search of the elixir of life, while in others they
were riding on a snail.

The object of thus bringing in incidents from all these
Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, and other sources is that by

catering to all classes the book may have wide distribution, and
whatever the Confucianist may say, it must be admitted that the

other religions have a strong hold upon the popular mind.
The last twenty-six illustrations in Vol. I represent various

incidents in the life, history and employments of women.
The first of these is an ancient empress "weaving at night by her

palace window."
Another represents a woman in her boat and we are told that,

"leaving her oar she leisurely sang a song entitled, 'Plucking
the Caltrops.' "

Another represents a woman "wearing a pomegranate-colored
dress riding a pear-blossom colored horse." A peculiar

combination to say the least.
The fisherman's wife is represented in her boat, "making her

toilet at dawn using the water as a mirror." While we are assured
also that the woman sitting upon her veranda "finds it very

difficult to thread her needle by the pale light of the moon,"
which fact, few, I think, would question.

In one of the pictures "a beautiful maiden, in the bright
moonlight, came beneath the trees." This is evidentlycontrary to

Chinese ideas of propriety, for the Classic for girls tells us
that a maiden should not go out at night except in company with a

servant bearing a lantern. As it was bright moonlight, however,
let us hope she was excusable.

This sauntering about in the court is not uncommon if we believe
what the books say, for in the next picture we are told that:

As near the middle summer-house,
The maiden sauntered by,

Upon the jade pin in her hair
There lit a dragon-fly.

The next illustration represented the wife of the famous poet
Ssu-Ma Hsiang-Ju in her husband's wine shop.

This poet fell in love with the widowed daughter of a wealthy
merchant, the result of which was that the young couple eloped

and were married; and as the daughter was disinherited by her
irate parent, she was compelled to wait on customers in her

husband's wine shop, which she did without complaint. In spite of
their imprudent conduct, and for the time, its unhappy results,

as soon as the poet had become so famous as to be summoned to
court, the stern father relented, and, as it was a case of

undoubted affection, which the Chinese readilyappreciate they
have always had the sympathy of the whole Chinese people.

One of the most popular women in Chinese history is Mu Lan, the
A Chinese Joan of Arc. Her father, a great general, being too old

to take charge of his troops, and her brothers too young, she
dressed herself in boy's clothing, enrolled herself in the army,

mounted her father's trusty steed, and led his soldiers to
battle, thus bringing honor to herself and renown upon her

family.
We have already seen how diligent some of the ancient worthies

were in their study. This, however, is not universal, for we are
told the mother of Liu Kung-cho, in order to stimulate her son to

study took pills made of bear's gall and bitter herbs, to show
her sympathy with her boy and lead him to feel that she was

willing to endurebitterness as well as he.
The last of these examples of noble women is that of the wife of

Liang Hung, a poor philosopher of some two thousand years ago. An
effort was made to engage him to Meng Kuang, the daughter of a

rich family, whose lack of beauty was more than balanced by her
remarkable intelligence. The old philosopher feared that family

pride might cause domestic infelicity. The girl on her part
steadfastly refused to marry any one else, declaring that unless

she married Liang Hung, she would not marry at all. This
unexpected constancy touched the old man's heart and he married

her. She dressed in the most common clothing, always prepared
his food with her own hand, and to show her affection and

respect never presented him with the rice-bowl without raising it
to the level of her eyebrows, as in the illustration.

It may be interesting to see some of the ornaments and
utensils the child made with his blocks. I shall therefore

add three, a pair of scissors, a teapot, and a seal with a
turtle handle.

Such is in general the character of the book the official's
little boy had with him. I afterwards secured several copies

for myself and learned to make all the pictures first shown
me by the child, and I discovered that it is but one of

several forms of what we may call kindergarten work, that
it has gone through many editions, and is very widely

distributed. My own set contains 216 illustrations such as I
have given.

CHILDREN'S SHOWS AND ENTERTAINMENTS
My little girl came running into my study greatly excited

and exclaiming:
"Papa, the monkey show, the monkey show. We want the monkey show,

may we have it?"
Now if you had but one little girl, and she wanted a monkey show

to come into your own court and perform for her and her little
friends for half an hour, the cost of which was the modest sum of

five cents, what would you do?
You would do as I did, no doubt, go out with the little girl,

call in the passing showman and allow him to perform, which would
serve the triple purpose of furnishing relaxation and instruction

for yourself, entertainment for the children, and business for
the showman.

This however proved to be not the monkey show but Punch and Judy,
a species of entertainment for children, the exact counterpart of

our own entertainment of that name. It may be of interest to
young readers to know how this show originated, and I doubt not

it will be a surprise to some older ones to know that it dates
back to about the year 1000 B. C.

We are told that while the Emperor Mu of the Chou dynasty was