Harper's Young People, December 9, 1879 Part 5

BLIND PIGS.

The other evening, seated around the table as usual, we had a hearty laugh over a new idea that Bob had learned from one of his school-mates.

"Now you all take a pencil and piece of paper," he directed, "and try to draw a pig with your eyes shut."

"I can't draw a pig with my eyes open," said Mamie.

"That's just the reason," said Bob. "Now look here: begin at the ears, then draw the nose, and go on drawing the legs and the back, and when you think you've got round to the ears again, put in the eye, and then the tail; but you must keep your eyes shut tight."

So we each tried a pig, and--well, I would never eat roast pork or fried ham again if I thought real pigs were shaped like ours.

Just try making one some dull evening, and see if you do not have a good laugh, that is all.

=Face-Painting.=--Chinese men do not paint their faces, either on the stage or elsewhere, but in j.a.pan actors in certain plays are painted on the face with bright streaks of red paint, put on usually on each side of the eyes. The kind of painting is exactly that of savages. It is a curious fact that this form of painting, surviving in adults on the stage, is still used elsewhere for the decoration of young children. It is quite common to see children on festive occasions, when elaborately dressed by their parents, further adorned with one or two transverse narrow streaks of bright red paint, leading outward from the outer corner of their eyes, or placed near that position. Such a form of painting possibly existed in ancient times in China--perhaps to distinguish fighting men.

ANSWERS TO MATHEMATICAL PUZZLES IN NUMBER 2.

No. 1.--The first man had 7 sheep; the second man had 5 sheep.

No. 2.--The old man had 21 cents when the water-spirit first appeared to him.

No. 3.--The grocer had 31 eggs; the first woman bought 16, the second woman bought 8, the third 4, and the fourth 2.

No. 4.--Each son received $7000.

ANSWER TO NUMERICAL CHARADE IN NUMBER 2.

_Cetewayo_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "HI! MISTISS, IS DESE YOURN?"]