Page:Leaves from my Chinese Scrapbook - Balfour, 1887.djvu/177

 boudoir; but the poets of China view the matter in a vastly different light. It appears to have been a certain Empress who first laid her fair hand upon this old emblem of chivalry, and appropriated it to the use of the "inner chambers;" and high compliments were paid Her Majesty on the occasion by the carpet-knights and versifiers of the Court. But the task of doing so must have taxed the poetic resources of these gentlemen to no ordinary degree. Truth must out; and we are bound to confess that this pretty little bit of history is somewhat tarnished by the reason assigned for the imperial depredation. The fact seems to be, that the Empress wanted something to switch away the insects which infested her apartments. We must not be too severe upon Her Majesty. Our own kings and archbishops swarmed with vermin centuries after the Chinese Empress, in desperation, apparently, at the lively condition of her floors, laid hands upon the martial semaphore and turned it into a weapon of defence against the hopping hosts by which the palace was invaded. Then it became a fashionable article of use and ornament, and a lively trade in the feather-brush sprang up, ably fostered by the Government. It was made generally of actual feathers, and this kind was, and is now, used for dusting furniture. Other sorts, however, were made of horsehair, and these were often placed in the hands of sick persons to wave about and prevent gnats and mosquitoes from annoying them as they lay in bed. It is even possible to see people at the present day walking about and laying about them right and left at their minute assailants. The writer once spent some weeks in the monastery of a certain Buddhist priest, a portly,