on the other hand, are very common, the favourite games being those in which almost everything is left to chance.  As to open-air amusements, youths of the baser sort indulge in battledore and shuttlecock without the battledore, and every resident in China must have admired the skill with which the foot is used instead, at this foot-shuttlecock game.  Twirling heavy bars round the body, and gymnastics generally, are practised by the coolie and horse-boy classes; but the disciple of Confucius, who has already discovered how “pleasant it is to learn with a constant perseverance and application,"[+] would stare indeed if asked to lay aside for one moment that dignified carriage on which so much stress has been laid by the Master.  Besides this, finger-nails an inch and a half long, guarded with an elaborate silver sheath, are decidedly impedimenta in the way of athletic success.  No,—­when the daily quantum of reading has been achieved, a Chinese student has very little to fall back upon in the way of amusement.  He may take a stroll through the town and look in at the shops, or seek out some friend as ennuye as himself, and while away an hour over a cup of tea and a pipe.  Occasionally a number of young men will join together and form a kind of literary club, meeting at certain periods to read essays or poems on subjects previously agreed upon by all.  We heard of one youth who, burning for the poet’s laurel, produced the following quatrain on snow, which had been chosen as the theme for the day:—­

  The north-east wind blew clear and bright,
    Each hole was filled up smooth and flat: 
  The black dog suddenly grew white,
    The white dog suddenly grew—­

“And here,” said the poet, “I broke down, not being able to get an appropriate rhyme to flat.”  A wag who was present suggested fat, pointing out that the dog’s increased bulk by the snow falling on his back fully justified the meaning, and, what is of equal importance in Chinese poetry, the antithesis.

    [*] Namely, (1) the literati, (2) agriculturists, (3) artisans, and
    (4) merchants or tradesmen.

    [+] The first sentence of the Analects or Confucian Gospels.

Riddles and word-puzzles are largely used for the purpose of killing time, the nature of the written language offering unlimited facilities for the formation of the latter.  Chinese riddles, by which term we include conundrums, charades, et hoc genus omne, are similar to our own, and occupy quite as large a space in the literature of the country.  They are generally in doggerel, of which the following may be taken as a specimen, being like the last a word-for-word translation:—­

  Little boy red-jacket, whither away? 
    To the house with the ivory portals I stray. 
  Say will you come back, little red-coat, again? 
    My bones will return, but my flesh will remain.