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The Chinese Boy and Girl-Part2_Issac Taylor Headland(1859-1942)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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Like a little withered flower,

That is dying in the earth,



I was left alone at seven

By her who gave me birth.



With my papa I was happy

But I feared he'd take another,



But now my papa's married,

And I have a little brother.



And he eats good food,

While I eat poor,



And cry for my mother,

Whom I'll see no more.



Such a rhyme cannot but develop the pathetic and sympathetic

instincts of the child, making it more kind and gentle



to those in distress.

A girl in one of the rhymes urged by instinct and desire to chase



a butterfly, gives up the idea of catching it, presumably

out of a feeling of sympathy for the insect.



Unfortunately all their rhymes do not have this same

high moral tone. They indicate a total lack of respect for the



Buddhist priests. This is not necessarily against the rhyme

any more than against the priest, but it is an unfortunate



disposition to cultivate in children. There are constant

sallies at the shaved noddle of the priest. They speak of



his head as a gourd, and they class him with the tiger as a

beast of prey.



Some of the rhymes illustrate the disposition of the Chinese to

nickname every one, from the highest official in the empire to



the meanest beggar on the street. One of the great men of the

present dynasty, a prime minister and intimate friend of the



emperor, goes by the name of Humpbacked Liu. Another may be

Cross-eyed Wang, another Club-footed Chang, another Bald-headed



Li. Any physicaldeformity or mentalpeculiarity may give him his

nickname. Even foreigners suffer in reputation from this national



bad habit.

A man whose face is covered with pockmarks is ridiculed by



children in the following rhyme, which is only a sample of what

might be produced on a score of other subjects:



Old pockmarked Ma,

He climbed up a tree,



A dog barked at him,

And a man caught his knee,



Which scared old Poxey

Until he couldn't see.



A well-knowncharacteristic of the Chinese is to do things

opposite to the way in which we do them. We accuse



them of doing things backwards, but it is we who deserve

such blame because they antedated us in the doing of them.



We shake each other's hands, they each shake their own

hands. We take off our hats as a mark of respect, they



keep theirs on. We wear black for mourning, they wear

white. We wear our vests inside, they wear theirs outside.



A hundred other things more or less familiar to us all,

illustrate this rule. In some of their nursery rhymes everything



is said and done on the "cart before the horse" plan.

This is illustrated by a rhyme in which when the speaker



heard a disturbance outside his door he discovered it was

because a "dog had been bitten by a man." Of course,



he at once rushed to the rescue. He "took up the door

and he opened his hand." He "snatched up the dog and



threw him at a brick." The brick bit his hand and he left

the scene "beating on a horn and blowing on a drum."



Tongue twisters are as common in Chinese as in English, and are

equally appreciated by the children. From the nature of such



rhymes, however, it is impossible to translate them into any

other language.



In one of these children's songs, a cake-seller informs the

public in stentorian tones that his wares will restore sight to



the blind and that

They cure the deaf and heal the lame,



And preserve the teeth of the aged dame.

They will further cause hair to grow on a bald head and



give courage to a henpecked husband. A girl who has been

whipped by her mother mutters to herself how she would



love and serve a husband if she only had one, even going to

the extent of calling that much-despised mother-in-law her



mother, and when overheard by her irate parent and asked




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