and the tsung-tsu, the father, the grandfather,
and the great-grandfather, of whom he is the
miniature model — all are kite-flyers.

It is not an uncommon subject for a picture*
in China to exhibit a languishing small-footed
young lady sitting in a grove, with a pipe in her
hand, a female slave at her side pouring out the
tea into an ornamented cup upon a lacquered
table, looking fascinatingly upon a handsome
youth, to whom she has " never told her love,"
for the simple reason that she has never had the
opportunity of telling it. The young man is
standing on a bridge built upon a neighbouring
hill near a temple — a temple decorated with
scarlet roof and golden horns, half shaded with
flowery forest trees, with a fountain of water
flowing by — and the said young man is looking,
not on the temple, not on the wood, not on the
water, no, not even on the fair and languishing
young lady with the golden-lily feet, but his
gaze is devoutly fixed upon the kite that is borne
by the wind, that is dancing towards the clouds,
and making sweet music as it ascends. Will
not the echoes bring the sighs of the pretty
maiden to the ears of the ko-ngai, the beloved
one, so absorbed in the contemplation of that
distracting seduction ? Alas ! no ; he hears no
sound but the whistle of the instrument which
is running up the string of the kite, and whose
triumphant progress to its goal is celebrated by
the harmonies which are gradually lost in the
distance. Another picture is now before us, in
which a whole group of boys are gathered
together to see the wonders worked by their elders
in the kite-flying art. There are kites with their
adorned tails, and tails, by the way — men's
tails — are objects of such reverence in China, that
a man would much prefer the penalty of losing
his ears, or his nose, or both, to that of losing
his pien-tze (cue), which loss, indeed, is the
most opprobrious infliction upon a felon. Other
kites look like nosegays of many-coloured
flowers suspended on high; and if smiles of
wondering approval can be fancied as expressed
on any Chinese visage, those smiles are there.

* See Chinese Kites, vol. xi., page 17.

But let us stop for a moment to say that the
history of men's tails in China is instructive
and entertaining. They were forced upon the
Chinese by the conquering Manchoos more than
two hundred years ago, and, from being the
mark and evidence of subjugation, have become
the most cherished of personal possessions.
The care and culture of the cue is the daily
concern and the constant amusement of the whole
nation. The man is the object of envy whose
tail touches the ground, and it is intertwined
with gay ribbons, while the black tressed hair is
as glossy as the back of a raven. A labourer
guards his tail with as much pride as a lord, and
when engaged in any occupation which may tend
to its disarrangement, he twists it round his
head. But no servant dares to present himself
before his master unless his tail hangs down
perpendicularly outside his long robes. A
handsome gentleman's cue is as much an object
of attraction to a Chinese lady, as is the smallness
of the crushed foot of a lady to a Chinese
lover. One of the sports of the Chinese is to
tie their companions together by the tails, the
untying being sometimes difficult enough for the
exercise of the science of a Davenport. But
ihe tail is a grand instrument in the hands of
the police, and often leads to the capture and
safe keeping of a misdoer. We possess a splendid
tail upon which hangs a tale worth telling.
There was a burglar of Hong-Kong, greatly
distinguished in his profession, the planner of most
of the housebreakings that took place in the
colony. He was discovered, sent to prison, and,
as some security for the future, and a fit punishment
for the past, he was deprived of his cue.
He had so much influence, and so much money,
that he was (probably with the cognisance of his
bribed keepers) carried away in a sedan-chair by
his confederates while passing with the chaingang
through a street in Hong- Kong. Burglaries
on a large scale soon disturbed the public peace,
and the convict was again captured and sentenced
to imprisonment ; but he escaped a second
time with the man to whom he was chained,
having no doubt arranged the matter with those
who had him in custody. Burglaries were again
rife, and we well knew by whom they were
planned, and by whose agents they were
executed. But he was so well served, and so well
concealed, that for some time all researches
were vain, and the felonious operations were
carried on uninterruptedly. One day a little
boy, who had been imprisoned for some small
offence, sent a message to the governor, saying
that, if pardoned, he, being acquainted with the
haunts of the felon, would put the police on
his track, and enable them to capture him. He
led them to a large house, where a gentleman
was sitting, handsomely clad, and with a beautiful
unexceptionable tail. " That is your man," said
the boy. " Impossible," was the reply ; " the
rogue's tail is in the jail !" Reassured, the policemen
sprang upon the hero, seized his cue, upon
which the thief jumped out of the window, leaving
a false cue in its captor's hand. No dignitary
was ever adorned with a less objectionable pien-
tze. These false tails are often suspended for
sale in barbers' shops, not always for the use of
the thieving fraternity, for as old age and
exposure diminish the thickness of the chevelure,
the Chinese hairdresser is sometimes called on
to perform restorative functions somewhat
resembling those of the former wig-maker in
England. The cutting off of hair in China is equivalent
to an abandonment of the world. In our
Catholic nunneries it is the final act, performed
by others, and deemed the most interesting
evidence of the devotion of the young novitiate
to the conventual life. In China it is a self-
infliction ; it is not unusual for a bride who has
been disappointed in the character, or has
suspected the fidelity of a bridegroom, to cut off
her hair, and send it as a token that she
contemplates suicide, which, indeed, is in China a
very common refuge for misery. The plebeian
mode of destruction is ordinarily opium, the