Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1873-02-13

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They superintend the female servants
of the palace, and they prepare the OBJ
jects to be offered at the great sacrifi-
ces. In each and all these various SER
vices the concubines play inferior parts.
Their special duty is to assist the wives
of the third rank, and in managing the
servants and in preparing for the re-
ligious services. Some of them also
help the thirty-two eunuch tailors to
make the clothes OF the court, and
others tiLd employment in similar COM
pany as dressers to the Empress and
junior wives. These, aud the numer-
Gus other duties expected Of them, are
quite enough, if faithfully performed,
to keep the hundred and twenty.one
pairs of little hands busily engaged.
The " Rituals " declare that there shall
be no drones within the palace, and let
us hope that her Majesty Ah.lu.te and
her hundred and twenty one rivals, who
are now assembled round the boy-Em-
peror, will prove themselves as diligent
as are said to have been the model
ladies' of days gone by. If to
the performance of his public func-
tions we add the duty of his be-
coming acquainted with all these fair
daughters Of Ham, it is plainly impossi-
bic that the Emperor can pass his days
in idleness and down to the minutest
detail the "Rituals" prescribe the part
he is to play in all and every capacity,
whether as king upon his throne, as
priest before the altar, or a. paterfa-
milias in the midst of his domestic Joys.
And this illustrates the peculiar posi-
tion which the Emperor of China oc-
cupies among the mouarchs of the
East. As temporal sovereign he 10
obeyed, and as spiritual ruler he il
worshipped. In his double claim to
supremacy he somewhat resembles the
Kings Of Hebrew history, and finds his
approximate counterpart in modern
times in the Pope of Rome. The
sacredneas OF his person throws a reli-
gious halo around every action OF his
life. His meals are so arranged as to
symbolic sacrifcial feasts. When he
partakes of vegetables he is invited to
reflect on the work of the Chinese
Adam; and when he tastes the six kinds
! of grain, his thong hts are carried back
to the first turner of the sod. Soft
music is played to encourage his ap-
petite, and the dishes are removed
from the table to the tune Of flies and
drums. Tho maxim that t'thc King
can do no wrong takes rather the
form in China of " whatever the King
does is holy, righteous, and pure, "and
hence many of the Imperial doings,
which would be frowned at in Europe,
receive in China the sacred sanction OF
religion. To this circumstance we owe
it that in the ''Rituals" We find 60
many details of the private life of the
Emperor and of the ladies of the
palace. We learn that in every fiji
teen days the Emperor receives visits
from Representatives of each rank oi
wife and concubine. On each of the
first nine days of the month one of nine
concubines selected from tho eighty
one pay their respects to him; on the
next three succeeding days three Of ths
wives of the third rank have that honor
then follows one of the second rank
then one of each of the two superior
grades; and at every full moon Oh,
Empress, and she alone, is his compan
ion. During the last half of the month
the order of visits is reversed, and il
this way, in the course of about fou
months, the Emperor enjoys the societ,
of every lady Of his harem.-1ne Corn
hill Magazine.