Coming to her turn to be treated, the doctor said to her, "What is your name?" This question always seems to paralyze a Chinaman, so that he never answers it at once. The woman's face was at once convulsed with amazement, and her eyes became staring as she gazed intently on the doctor. "You mean me?" she asked with every line livid with emotion. "Yes, I mean you," he said; "what is your name?" "You mean my name?" she cried, and she struck her breast with her open hand to make sure that she was the person he meant. "Yes, I mean you; so answer me quickly, as I have no time to waste." "I have no name," she answered, with a pathos that seemed to tremble through her voice. "No name!" he said. "What do you mean? You must have a name, everybody has some name or other." "I have no name," she answered deliberately, whilst she slowly shook her head as if to give emphasis to her statement. "May I ask," said the doctor, with a smiling face, "what people generally call you?" "They do not call me anything, for I have no name," she protested. "Well, when you were a girl what did your mother call you?" "She called me 'Pearl,'" she said, and now a flash of sunlight came into her face, as no doubt a vision of by-gone days rose before her. "Very well," said the doctor, "I shall put your name down as 'Pearl' in my register," though if he had only persevered a little longer he would no doubt have got the one by which she was commonly known amongst her neighbours. One of the reasons that has led the foreigner to entertain the idea that the Chinaman is incomprehensible arises from the fact that he seems to be an absolute bundle of contradictions. It is the existence of totally diverse qualities in the same person that has made one feel that after an intimate knowledge of him for many years there are still surprises in his character that show the complex nature of his being, and the difficulty of predicting what he will do in the future under any circumstances. He would be a daring man indeed that would take upon himself the _role_ of prophet about any individual, no matter how well he might be acquainted with him. [Illustration: CHINESE EATING RICE AND DRINKING SAMSHU (WHISKY). _To face p. 9._] A coolie, for example, is engaged by you to do general household work. He comes to you from an inland country where poverty is the prevailing characteristic of the whole population. Sweet potatoes are the staple food three times a day, year in, year out, helped down perhaps by salted turnip, bean curds and pickled beans--for it is only on special occasions that they have the rare happiness of indulging in the luxury of rice.