Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 27.djvu/118

 officer should be carried lower still. 3. When one is holding an article belonging to his lord, though it may be light, he should seem unable to sustain it. In the case of a piece of silk, or a rank-symbol of jade, square or round, he should keep his left hand over it. He should not lift his feet in walking, but trail his heels like the wheels of a carriage. 4. (A minister) should stand (with his back) curved in the manner of a sounding-stone, and his girdle-pendants hanging down. Where his lord has his pendants hanging at his side, his should be hanging down in front; where his lord has them hanging in front, his should descend to the ground. 5. When one is holding any symbol of jade (to present it), if it be on a mat, he leaves it so exposed; if there be no mat, he covers it with (the sleeve of) his outer robe.

2. 6. The ruler of a state should not call by their names his highest ministers, nor the two noble ladies of her surname, who accompanied his wife to the harem. A Great officer should not call in that way an officer who had been employed by his father, nor