Sleeping Dictionaries

The World of Chinese - Manchu Minority

“One of the siege {of Peking} diarists described an encounter with Manchu women that was ‘like a narcotic when a roar of fever still hangs in one’s ears.’ Many men found local bed companions or ‘sleeping dictionaries’ an excellent and pleasurable way of learning the language.” 

Writings of Lafcadio Hearn, a half-Irish, half-Greek journalist and adventurer

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