SHORE OF GOOSE

china that it stands no poor chance of becoming gradually incorporated in the languages of more than nation of the west.
And yet. in spite of dr eitel's little hand book. we may venture to assert that a very small percentage of those who are
constantly using this phrase really have a distinct and correct idea as to the meaning of the words they employ. It is
vaguely known that feng shui is a powerful weapon in the hands of chinese officials whereby they successfully oppose
all innovations which savour of progress, and preserve unbroken that lethargic sleep in which china has been wrapt for so
many centuries: beyond this all is mystery and doubt. Some say the natives themselves do not believe in it: others declare
they do: others again think that the masses have faith, but that enlightened and educated chinese scout the whole thing as
a bare faced imposture. Most chinamen will acknowledge they are entirely ignorant themselves on the subject, though at
the same time they will take great pains to impress on their hearers that certain friends, relatives, or acquaintances as the
case may be. have devoted much time and attention to this fascinating study and are downright professors of the an. They
will further express their conviction of its infallibility. with certain limitations; and assert that there are occasions in life,
when to call in the assistance of feng shui is not only advisable but indispensable to human happiness. For those who will
not be at the trouble of reading for themselves dr eitel's valuable little book. we may explain that feng is the chinese
word for wind and shui for water consequently. feng shui is wind water; the first half of which, wind cannot be
comprehended, the latter half, water cannot be grasped. It may be defined as a system of geomancy, by the science of
which it is possible to determine the desirability of sites whether of tombs, houses, or cities, from the configuration of
such natural objects as rivers, trees, and hills, and to foretell with certainty the fortunes of any family. community, or
individual according to the spot selected: by the art of which it is in the power of the geomancer to counteract evil
influences by good ones, to transform straight and noxious outlines into undulating and propitious curves, rescue whole
districts from the devastations of flood or pestilence, and scatter plenty a smiling land which might otherwise have
known the blight of poverty and the pangs of want. To perform such miracles it is merely necessary to build pagodas at
certain spots and of the proper height, to pile up a heap of stones, or round off the peak of some hill to which nature's
rude hand has imparted a square and inharmonious aspect. The scenery round any spot required for building or burial
purposes must be in accordance with certain principles evolved from the brains of the imaginative founders of the
science. It is the business of the geomancer to discover such sites, to say if a given locality is or is not all that could be
desired on this head, sometimes to correct errors which ignorant quacks have committed, or rectify inaccuracies which
have escaped the notice even of the most celebrated among the fraternity. There may be too many trees. so that some
must be cut down: or there may be too few. and it becomes necessary to plant more. Water courses may not flow in
proper curves: hills may be too high, too low. and of baleful shapes, or their relative positions with another may be
radically bad. Any of these causes may be sufficient in the eyes of a disciple of feng shui to account for the sudden
outbreak of a plague. the gradual or rapid decay of a once flourishing town. The feng shui of a house influences not only
the pecuniary fortunes of its inmates, but determines their general happiness and longevity. There was a room in the
british legation at peking in which persons died with no great interval of time between each event: and subsequently of
the students lay there in articulo mortis for many days. The chinese then pointed out that a tall chimney had been built
opposite the door leading into this room, thereby vitiating the feng shui. and making the place u ninhabitable by mortal
man. From the above most meagre sketch it is easy to understand that if the natural or artificial configuration of
surrounding objects is really believed by the chinese to influence the fortunes of a city, a family, or an individual, they
are only reasonably averse to the introduction of such novelties as railways and telegraph poles, which must inevitably
sweep away their darling superstition never to rise again. And they do believe; there can be no doubt of it in the mind of
any who has taken the trouble to watch. The endless inconvenience a chinaman will suffer without a murmur rather than
lay the bones of a dear in a spot unhallowed by the fiat of the geomancer; the sums he will subscribe to build a protecting
pagoda or destroy some harmful combination: the pains he will be at to comply with well known principles in the
construction and arrangement of his private Rouse all prove that the iron of feng shui has entered into his soul, and that
the creed he has been suckled in is the very reverse of outworn. The child like faith of his early years gradually ripens
into a strong and vigorous belief against which ridicule is perhaps the worst weapon that can possibly be used. Nothing
less than years of contact with foreign nations and deep draughts of that real science which is even now stealing
imperceptibly upon them, will bring the chinese to see that feng shui is a vain shadow, that it has played its allotted in the
history of a great nation, and is now only fit to be classed with such memories of by gone glory as the supremacy of
china, the bow and arrow, the matchlock, and the junk. Money few things are more noticeable in china than the incessant
chattering kept up by servants, coolies. and members of the working classes. It is rare to meet a string of porters carrying
their heavy burdens along some country road, who are not jabbering away, and all. as if in the very heat of some exciting
discussion, and afraid that their journey will come to an end before their most telling arguments are exhausted Wonders
what ignorant, illiterate fellows like these can possibly have to tallk about to each other in a country where beer shop
politics are unknown, where religious disputations leave no sting behind, and want of communication limits the area of
news to half a dozen neighbouring streets in a single agricultural village. Comparing the uncommunicative deportment of
a bevy of english bricklayers, who will build a house without exchanging much beyond an occasional pipe light, with the
vivacious gaiety of these light hearted sons of han. the problem becomes interesting enough to demand a solution of the
question what is it these chinamen talk about and the answer is. money it may be said they talk, think, dream of nothing
else. They certainly live for little besides the hope of some day compassing, if not wealth, at any rate a competency. The
temple of plut us to be found in every chinese city is rarely without a CHAPTER " ~ 928