representation of New Year festivities, and ending with the drawing of the snow lion; and, though I cannot pretend to the perfection of the artists of bygone days, perhaps I may aspire to six or seven tenths of their talent. Written on the 4th day of the 4th month of the year Woo-shin, by Se Hea of Hangchow." There can be no doubt that art has declined in China, and this the Chinese themselves confess, as the above note will serve to show. Moreover, as with ourselves, the wealthy and cultivated classes in China expend large sums of money in collecting the works of the ancient masters, which they carefully preserve. Many of these old paintings have been executed on silk scrolls, and thus a Chinese picture gallery is quite unlike what we should expect to see, for the pictures are not framed and exposed on the walls, but are kept carefully rolled up and protected against the light and air. My friend Mr. Wylie, who is well known to Eastern scholars, when examining several old pictures which I had brought from Peking, made some interesting remarks on this point. He said, "Many anecdotes are on hand regarding the achievements of the old masters. Thus, in the third century we are told of a painter, Tsaou Puh-ying, who, when he had finished a screen for the Emperor, added some flies to the picture by a few touches of the pencil here and there; great was his gratification at seeing his Majesty take up a handkerchief to drive these flies away. Not less celebrated was Hwan Tseuen, who flourished about A.D. 1000, and who introduced several pheasants into a mural decoration in one of the halls of the palace. Some foreign envoys, who had brought a tribute of falcons, were ushered into this hall; and no sooner did the birds of prey get sight of the pheasants on the wall than they made a precipitate dart at their victims, more of course to the detriment of their heads than to the satisfaction of their appetites."
