diatonic progression of sounds in our scale is not, as has been supposed, a natural one; it is not, at any rate, universal.

The habits of the Chinese, as well as the character of their music, prevent dancing, but there are professional tumblers, and great use is made of skilful balancing and posturing on the stage. Gambling prevails everywhere, and forms one of the principal occupations of the Chinese in their leisure hours. It is illegal to open a gamblinghouse—unless, that is to say, a bribe has been previously paid to the local officers. Along every roadside vendors of spirits, sweetmeats, nuts, &c. are provided with a little basin, in which to throw a couple of dice. If a man is wanting an orange he will infinitely prefer risking his cash by a throw at the dice with the chance of getting his bargain for nothing, than buying it out and out. Every form of gambling is carried on, and it is common to see youngsters who can hardly toddle getting their hand in to the practice by risking their cash at one of the street stalls. Chess and draughts are played, but the games are unlike those of the same name in Europe. The commonest game is, perhaps, dominoes, which one can see played from morning to night in nearly every house or tea-shop. Cards, too, are not unknown, and are played by means of small pieces of red pasteboard, with black and red characters on the faces.

The Chinese have but little to engage their thoughts or wherewith to while away their idle time. They have no newspapers or light literature, nor do the people take any interest in politics or travels. Their sole concern is to make money, and get enough to eat and drink, to buy clothes and to provide themselves with a coffin when they die. Hence their time hangs heavily, especially after sundown. It is worse still for the women, who, debarred from active pursuits, and immured, as it may rightly be called, in the seclusion of their homes, and unable for the most part to read or write, have nought to occupy their time save the latest scandal, games of chance, and their embroidery and sewing.

Out of doors there are no violent games or athletic sports, and in this they reveal their quiet phlegmatic temperament; while the peaceableness of their disposition is shown in the absence of most of the unmanly and degrading sports which at one time or another have disgraced some of the countries in Europe. The Chinese are not a callous, unfeeling people; they manifest a love for flowers and birds

which is not consistent with cruelty, and they have no gladiatorial combats. The most common form of recreation, kite-flying, is confined almost exclusively to grown-up people. In this amusement the Chinese stand pre-eminent both in the various construction of their kites as well as in the heights to which they make them rise. They use a tough but very thin kind of paper, variously coloured, and with the addition of light strips of split bamboo manage to make kites that resemble every possible shape, beasts, birds, insects, human beings, dragons, all imitated in a marvellous manner, and flown in a most dexterous way. Very often a little contrivance is attached to the mouth or the tail, by which a loud vibratory sound is made, that can be heard at an immense distance. One of the most successful imitations is the dragon kite, which is made with an enormously long and very flexible jointed body, and the ceaseless motion imparted during the flight is a life-like representation of the sinuous gliding of a snake. The eyes are formed of two disks of coloured cardboard suspended on an axis, which are perpetually revolving, and when a little drum is added to the tail to make a loud hissing sound in its passage through the air, it can be imagined that it is rather startling and awe-inspiring to see for the first time one of these creatures in the air.

Sauntering along with a bird attached by a string to the finger is another amusement of the sedate Chinese ; and on a summer's evening it is the delight of a large portion of the people to take out their birds in their cages for an airing. Often on an open plot of ground or on the city wall, where there is a little more air than in the city below, a row of men may be seen standing patiently by the half-hour with a cage balanced on their extended fingers, held level with their head, listening to the gladsome song of the imprisoned thrush or canary. Among the younger portion of the males the commonest game is one played with a shuttlecock. A party stand in a circle and keep the shuttlecock passing round, using mostly their feet, the broad soles of which serve instead of a battledoor. Occasionally a conjuror or a party of acrobats attract a crowd in some open space of ground, but this is a kind of spectacle not encouraged by the authorities. Peep-shows are common, though probably derived from foreigners; but there is a native Punch-and-Judy, which from passing glimpses would seem a fair rival of its foreign relative. There are no

games, apparently, for the exhibition of strength or skill, though probably such may be in vogue in the army. Children are fond of witnessing combats between crickets and grasshoppers, but cockfights are unknown, I believe. Beggars sometimes traverse the streets with a number of ants coloured red and black, who, at a given signal, range themselves round a couple of little standards similarly coloured, in the manner of soldiers arrayed in battle. The most astonishing street show, however, is the frog school. I cannot vouch for the truth of the description, as I have never been fortunate enough to meet with this exhibition, but if report be true, the learned frogs rival the clever fleas which attracted so much attention in London a few years ago. One portly old frog acts as schoolmaster, while other little frogs are arranged in front of him as a class of scholars. At a tap on the board from the showman the schoolmaster croaks "kau-kau-kau," and then the little frogs in turn repeat the lesson after him, "kau-kau-kau." This is exactly the way a school is taught by the master, so that the exhibition is highly amusing to the Chinese.

The absence of any rough noisy games among boys is very noticeable, nor do the Chinese make much, if any, use of balls in any of their games. One longs sometimes to give the lads a shaking and stir them up, but they are averse to running, and while quite young like to affect the slow stately swinging movement of their fathers. This inactivity is possibly due in part to the climate, for in summer it is too hot to run, and in the winter the children are padded up with such a quantity of cotton wadding that it is quite impossible for them to move fast, and as one sees them in the street they look like a number of dumplings spattered about. Tops are a common amusement, and many of these toys excel for their loud humming, and the length of time they can spin. Other favourite games with boys are to roll a coin down a tilted brick, or to drag a little paper cart about with a lighted candle inside. It is rare to see any running in the games, and children exhibit but little excitement at any time, and are seldom boisterous.

Indoors, blind-man's-buff and hide-and-seek are played exactly as in England, but it is hard to imagine a party of children enjoying even these time-honoured games, for one seldom hears in this country the hearty laughter or sees the flushed cheeks of foreign children at

their play. A game not uncommon at home, of imitating the parson and preaching mock sermons, finds its analogue here in making believe to worship little idols, which are sold everywhere as toys.

Thus the Chinese enjoy themselves in a way peculiar to themselves, and without exhibiting even in their moments of unbending any enthusiasm or self-forgetfulness. You will never see a youngster climbing a tree in this country, or throwing a stone-unless it be on the sly at a foreigner. The Chinese are a "proper people," and usually sedate. They do not like to be ruffled or heated, and earnestness is more vulgar in China than even in England. It is easy to exhibit the oddities of this people, and to be amused by the combination of habits so contrary to the ways of a foreigner; but the differences are mostly external. Beneath their reserved and seemingly phlegmatic exterior they are capable of strong emotions, and are quick to respond to what touches their feelings. Their cold and sallow countenance is no clue to the condition of their hearts, and again and again incidents happen that call to mind " One touch of nature makes the whole world kin."

THE OLD TESTAMENT AND ASSYRIAN HISTORY.

J'

BY RICHARD CULL, F.S.A.

EHU, King of Israel, paid tribute to Shalmaneser, King of

Assyria. This fact is not stated in the Old Testament, nor was it suspected by biblical students, and is known to us only as recorded in the inscriptions of Shalmaneser. The silence of the ecclesiastical historian of Jehu's reign on the subject of the political status of the Kingdom of Israel in relation to the great military monarchy of Assyria, cannot be accepted as a valid objection to the truth of the military annals of Shalmaneser's inscriptions. Jehu reigned twentyeight years in Samaria, and the record of his reign is limited almost entirely to his acts in fulfilment of the prophecy of the prophet Elijah against Ahab (1 Kings xxi. 21, 22). The utter destruction of the house (family) of Ahab, and the extirpation of the worship of Baal in Israel, especially belongs to the history of the Hebrew Church, and is therefore recorded in the Books of Kings and

Chronicles. But the political and military history of Israel is contained in the lost Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel (2 Kings x. 34).

The history of Jehu is that of an important person, for he was known and distinguished long before he became king. The instruction to anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi was given to Elijah during the reign of Ahab, according to the received chronology, in B.C. 906; but he was not anointed until twenty-two years after, in B.C. 884.

Jehu was a well-known name in Israel; the earliest recorded in the genealogies is Jehu son of Obed (1 Chron. ii. 38). He lived in the period of the Judges; his name does not appear in that book, but it was probably about B.C. 1300.

The word Jehu, then, is an ancient word, and yet it is a compound abbreviated probably by wear. It is written and pronounced Yah, and 87 hu, so

Yahu. The two elements of the word are that a contraction has taken place in forming the compound. The letter aleph appears to have been pronounced as late as the time of Shalmaneser, who writes the word in Assyrian Ya-hu-a, but the N is left unpointed in our Hebrew Bibles, so that it was silent at the time of the Masorites.

The next recorded is Jehu son of Josibiah (1 Chron. iv. 35). "These mentioned by their names were princes in their families (38). This Jehu appears also to have lived in the unsettled times of the Judges.

Among the distinguished warriors that joined the standard of David at Ziklag was Jehu the Antothite (1 Chron. xii. 3), about B.C. 1050.

The next is Jehu the prophet, who was son of Hanani the seer. He was a leader among the prophets in the time of Baasha, King of Israel, about B.C. 930 (1 Kings xvi. 1, 7). He met Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, on his return to Jerusalem, after his unsuccessful attempt with King Ahab to take Ramoth-Gilead. He rebuked him for associating with Ahab, and praised him for his successes against idolatry (2 Chron. xix. 2, et seq.) about B.C. 896. Jehu wrote a history of the reign of Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. xx. 34), which is lost.

And the next is Jehu the king. He was a military officer of high rank in the reign of King Ahab, and one of his court (2 Kings ix. 25). Jehu is not mentioned during the reign of Ahaziah; and although