Page:Essays on the Chinese Language (1889).djvu/149

135 woefully. Then ai is used as an adverb in such common expressions as ai-k‘u (哭), to weep sadly, ai-ch‘iu (求), to beseech mournfully, pray for earnestly, and ai-ai-kao-kao, very piteously to call and call for mercy. It also becomes an abstract noun meaning the emotion of sorrow. Thus ai and lo are often mentioned together as sorrow and joy; and the Emotions are classified as joy, anger, sorrow (ai) and delight.

From the Interjections, properly so called, we pass on to the vocal-gestures. These may serve at times as calls or requests like our hush! hallo! or they may denote assent or dissent, but they always have reference to other objects. They are often accompanied by facial expressions and bodily gestures, which may be used as substitutes for them if occasion so requires. There is, for example, the Foochow exclamation hai or hai-hai! An angry woman scolding another woman too far off to hear, scrapes her own face with her fore-fingers. This action means faciem perfricuisti, you are a shameless quean, you have scraped off the modest powder. When she can be heard by her victim, the virago cries out hai-hai, usually accompanying the exclamation by the scraping of the face. The hai-hai intensifies the meaning of shame! or shameless creature! which the gesture is intended to convey. So also the cry of tsü or ch‘ü often accompanies the scornful, insulting gesture of pointing the middle finger at one.

The cry hsü or hü has been already noticed. It is often a call to attention, and often a whew! of dissent, distrust, or disbelief. An exclamation which is in common use over at least a great part of China is that which sounds like t‘ssŭ. When this is uttered in a gentle, smiling manner it signifies admiration or pleasure, but when it is uttered in a loud tone and repeated with emphasis it expresses dislike or disgust. In this latter use it resembles our hiss, and it is sometimes heard as such in theatres and other places of public resort. It can be employed as a noun