University of Nanking - Linguist Yearbook (Nanking, China)

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IOS 'l'Hl:l l.lNGl.'lS'll in heavily curtained carriages or cars to the equally secluded women's quarters of one of the friends of their husband. They marvelled at the yellow of-my hair, like children, they wondered at and gloried in the fact that their skin, was even whiter and pinker than mine, a member of the white raceg they were astounded to find that I wore no heavy padded garments like theirsg and, because she was greatly con- cerned lest I be freezing to death, as she sat beside me the gay little- Third Mother dared lift the hem of my skirt to see how many pet- ticoats I had on. It was all just as it should have been, according to the stories that I had read. I loved it. After we had taken tea, we walked thru the garden-more accu- rately called the Rockery! The path led into quaint tea houses, past lovely ponds fiecked with gold fishes. over rocks into cool corners to handsome marble benches under great trees such as I had seen only inf temple courts, down into a dimly lighted cave-the shrine of an idol worshipped by at least two former presidents of the Chinese Republic' but now deeply covered with the dust of neglect and disbelief-until' we came back to the guest hall to find it prepared for the feast, the.- event. . There was the usual parleying over who would have to submit to being so extremely impolite as to be the first to seat himself at the table, but that having finally been accomplished, the feast began. Ac- cording to Chinese custom, the desserts are served first. and so, in the centre of the table was placed a dish of The Eight Precious Fruits and dish after dish of sweets and delicacies were placed about it. lt is. Chinese custom, too, that each should reach into these dishes with his own chop sticks, unless the guest has the honor of having the hostess, first serve her with her own chopsticks. So one Mother and then another served me--each vying with others to see who would be first to serve me from each dish., I do not know how many dishes we were served. As quickly as each had had sufficient from one dish, it was taken away and another, steaming hot, was set in its place in the circle. From time to time, the chopsticks, the two small dishes of fragile blue and whitest China, and the long brass spoon were exchanged for clean ones by one of the two women servants and the one man servant who attended each guest. A ,A For four hours we sat at the table. and the family was as much in- terested in each new dish as was I, for they, you see, had not provided the feast. VVhen some outsider wants to gain favor or to pay for a past favor, he expresses to the ofiicial his desire to provide a feast for him and for his honorable family. And so, the official, de- siring to give this feast, had merely notified the man at the head of his long list-and the feast had been provided. At the end, the family determined the name of the feast according to the combination of meats and vegetables and fishes served CEverything from delicious chicken to jelly fish and sea slugs !'y 1 stated the known cost of such a feast, and expressed their opinions of the donor. I am glad that I am not an ofhcialseeking favor or position.

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AS 'PHE GUEST OF .KN OlilflCl'Xl. 107 duced as Honorable Third Mother, for my host, speaking for the lirst time in English, said quite simply and with a frank smile, My father's third wife. Three NVives! I immediately became alert, watching for any sign of jealousy or ill-feeling. But neither then 'nor during the hours that I was there, did 1 see the least sign of it. Even when a fourth' wife came in, tho no one recognized her by for- mally introducing her, she was received into the conversation with very little if any distinction or difference. The Honorable Mother herself did not enter much into the conversation. Even during the feast which followed she, secure in her honored position, sat back -calmly and quietly while the third Mother directed the servants and -carried all responsibility. All in all. they seemed most like a group of sixteen year old girls having a party while Mother was away. Shortly after the Second Mother's entrance. my host a mere lad himself, had brought in his wife. just a littlengirl she was,with aching bound feet in spite of the beautiful jade ornaments in her banglcss hair, in spite of the cunning fat ball of a baby in the arms of the servant who 'followed her, in spite of the evident pride and affection of her young husband. She had immediately busied herself carrying 'to each Mother the lacquered box of lunglish cigarettes, often putting them to her own lips to light them and then passing them on to the Iilother, They thought it very strange that I would not smoke-but then they knew that foreigners were very queer and one just had to make the best of their strange ways. js- 1 V r Five months in China had scarcely made my knowledge of the ilanguage complete, but 'tis strange how much can be done with a very few words and many smiles. As we drank fragrant in-ehid-tea, etc. watcrmellon seeds and other dainties, they told me many things of the history of their own families and of their husband's family. llearned lthat 1 was only the second foreign woman with whom they had ever -come in contact. According to the ancient customs 'for the conduct of the women of a wealthy, honored ollieial family like theirs, no man -outside of the family is ever allowed to come into the women's por- '-tion of the house 5 the women seldom leavethe house and then only to go

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SEEING PALESTINE IN CHINA 109 My host goes to America this summer with his wife and baby. I wonder il he will linil in my America thc same charm and courtesy that I found in his home. Asl lclt. lie said My people like you very much. They say you are not proud. Proud? who are we Americans that we should be tooproudto be friendly? It's small wonder that we win them so slowly to Christianity. RUTH L. MYERS. i A good catch: Fishermen after a haul in a large pond in the interior of China, Ponds are very numerous and serve the twofold purpose of water sup- ply and meat supply. SEEING PALESTINE IN CHINA. A journey from Jericho to jerusalem in China today will bring before us in reality the scenes and customs that we have long visua- lized in our imaginations only. In China, away from the railroads, we travel a day's journey. We start with the dawn, either on foot or on donkey in order to reach our destination while it is yet day. Otherwise we shall arrive to find that there is no room in the inn and shall have to accept such shelter as can be found. As we pass through the country immediately outside the city wall, we see the swine herders tending their swine among the tombs and graves. Soon we come to the fields white unto harvest. Here and there the men are at work on the threshing floor, while some distance away the poor folk from the city are gleaning after the farmers who are laboriously cutting the grain with sickles. Some fields are already harvested and in these the oxen are plowing with the same cumbersome wooden yoke and plow of two thousand years ago. As we travel on in the early morning we are interested in the fisher- men who are fishing with nets in the ponds and streams. As we near a farm house, we notice how the people are crowding around it.