Directory_and_Chronicle_1845 — Page 795

33.

CHINESE ANECDOTES TO INCULCATE A MORAL.

A Large Mouth.

Two men were telling stories with each other. One man said, “There's a man in our village, whose head reaches to heaven while he stands on the ground." The other said, There's a man in our village large than that; his upper lip reaches to the clouds, and his lower lip lies on the ground." The other asked, "Where's his body then?” “I have only seen his big mouth," rejoined the latter.

Moral—This last certainly had the thickest cheeks—i, e. no shame.

I didn't see him!

A foolish lictor was once carrying a criminal to the magistrate's office, who was a Budhist, and as he was starting on his way, lest he should forget his things and his errand, he carefullý noted them all in two sentences to say over to himself, viz.:-

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“Bundle, umbrella, cangue,

Warrant, priest, and I."

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As he went along, he repeated these two line every step to him-. self. The priest, seeing his character, got him drunk, then shaved: his hair off, and put the cangue on him, and stealthily fled. On com- ing to, the lictor said, "Let us wait till I examine whether everything. be right. Bundle and umbrella are here." Feeling on his neck, "the cangue is here too," he says, "and so is the warrant."

All at. once, half scared, he cries, "Haiya! I don't see the priest !" but just then rubbing the top of his head, he exclaims with glee, “The priest' is still here, but after all I do'nt see myself.”

Moral.—You will say what a fool this man is, but do you know that meŋ show as much folly in blindly running hither and thither in the pursuit of gain all their days, and never studying themselves; till at last, when their plans and life are scattered in the darkness of death, they come to them- selves? This is even greater folly than the lictor's.

The Blinking Cat.

A grimalkin, with eyes half shut, sat mewing and squalling, when two rats seeing her a long way off, said to each other, "The old cat is becoming reformed; she is saying her prayers to-day; we can go

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