The answer not being very obvious to the Chinese, it is hardly to be expected that the Westerner, whose education (in the contents of the book in question) has been so sadly neglected, will have any chance of success, and its accompanying feast. Happily, as fat Chinese pork and, especially, Chinese gin afford little attraction to us, we may be content to give it up. The answer to the obscure conundrum, however, gives us the surname of the school teacher, as will be presently explained.

The Origin of Chinese Characters.

Every Chinese character takes us back to the blue distances where all seems heavenly, and where fancy, aided by tradition-telescopes, sees a wondrous sage some forty-six centuries away, “laying bare the permutations of nature, and devising a system of written records.” Having succeeded so far as to oust the earlier system of knotted cords, “heaven caused showers of grain to descend from on high; the disembodied spirits wept in the darkness; and the dragons withdrew themselves from human gaze.” The demigod Ts'ang Hieh it was who thus caused some very signal “permutations of nature.” His portrait is given herewith. The four eyes are probably meant to indicate his extraordinary power of insight.