circle on the paper, and those whose names are traversed by it are doomed. The rest go forward to the next list, and if they are lucky enough to escape the red for three years they are free. People who growl at having relations would not survive a week in China. There a man is blessed with ramifications of relations in every direction and when he wants to hit his enemy over the head he has to stop and consider how it will affect this vast army of kindred if the law descends upon him. He has at least half a dozen mothers to begin with; there is his father's chief wife, the wife who bore him, the other wives (if any), the mother who brought him up, the step mother, the wife of the relative whose heir he becomes, the mother-in-law, and so on. In the five degrees of relationship there can be altogether 100 souls. Here is a curious instance of the way the system works in the case of a parent. A father was bribed to hush up the murder of a son. Another son revealing it, the father was excused, and the wretched youth heavily sentenced for bringing his father into danger of the law. Again, a woman, tired with reaping, slipped and caused her father-in-law to hurt himself. By special favour she got off with a fine in lieu of a bambooing and three years' transportation. It is interesting to know that to kill one's motrher-in-law involves a heavier penalty than to kill one's wife—" a possibly wise provision" sententiously remarks our commentator. The relation of master and pupil is a very important one. Thus a Chinese Squeers may not whack his scholars to death, nor is it right to knock a clumsy apprentice over among the pots and pans, and even a priest may not cast a stone at a sniggering dis ciple. The apprentice is free at the end of his term, but the other two relationships en dure unto the end of mortal existence; possibly further, since the arm of Chinese law extends into the land of shades as we shall see later.
A lunatic may become a great nuisance to his numerous relatives by involving them in his vagaries, nor does his irresponsible con dition always help him. If he drowns himself in the sacred waters of the Palace Lake or the Imperial City moat, his relatives will catch it, unless it can be proved that he fell in by accident. Lunacy is no defense, although the circumstances are carefully considered and the sentence is mitigated in proportion; but the curious effect of rela tionship is shown in the following case : A son trying to prevent a lunatic brother from beating his father, accidentally killed the latter. The lunatic suffered the " lingering death" (slicing to pieces), and the other decapitation subject to His Majesty's pleas ure. Guns kept handy for burglars may lead to trouble. Li Yung-ch'ing mistook his father for a night-robber and shot him : result, decapitation. Suicides have given rise to most curious complications. A man sent his wife (man like) to dun an elder brother for a 'debt. The work was thoroughly done; failing with tears and torrential abuse, she passed on to beating her head against the wall and charging him with doing it, thence to smash ing his best china and strangling his chil dren. Thereafter entered friends of the brother, who continued the process by cook ing and eating his goldfish and washing them down with his solitary jar of wine. Whereat the debtor went forth and hanged himself, and the brother, being held respon sible, was sentenced to strangulation. The wife escaped with a fine, but the friends paid two hundred blows apiece for their im promptu meal. A thief who hid under a lady's couch to avoid pursuit, so frightened the occupant that she promptly killed herself, for which the thief was transported for three years. The lady, as a reward for her nobility of mind, received a posthumous tablet. If a wife assists her husband to cut his throat, the law will send her after him with
