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 CHINA AND THE CHINESE 
 
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 CHARLES WrLLlAM WASON 
 
 CLASS OF 1876 
 
 1918 
 

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 PRINTED INU. 5. A. 
 
 Cornell University Library 
 DS 796.C23G78 
 
 Fourteen months in Canton / 
 
 3 1924 023 216 819 
 

In 2 vols, 8vo., with 140 Illustrations, Price 32s. 
 
 CHINA: 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE LAWS, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS 
 
 OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 By JOHN HENEY GEAY, M.A., LL.D. 
 
 ABCHDEACON OF HONG-KOKG. 
 
 EDITED BY WILLIAM GOW GREGOE. 
 
 " Its pages contain the most truthful and vivid picture of 
 Chinese life which has ever been published." — Athencetim, 
 
 ** In no previously published work has so much of the inner life 
 of the people been set forth." — Fall Mall Gazette. 
 
 " This work of Dr. Gray's is the only elaborate and valuable book 
 we have had for many years, treating generally of the people 
 
 of the Celestial Empire We have a very valuable 
 
 collection of the illustrations of the life of the Chinese as sketched 
 by themselves, and the idea of presenting them was a happy one.'' 
 — Academy. 
 
 " If a long residence in the country, an acquaintance with the 
 spoken language of the people, abundant leisure, and indefatigable 
 industry, are qualifications such as should fit an author to write 
 an account of China, Dr. Gray is the right man for the task." — 
 Saturday Eemem. 
 
 " He has embodied the results of his study in two volumes which, 
 with their profusion of curious illustrations from drawings by 
 native artists, may fairly take rank as the standard work upon 
 a subject of which the interest is apparently inexhaustible." — 
 John Bull. 
 
 " Presents a vivid and trustworthy picture, not merely of the 
 religion, government, and ethnology of the Chinese empire, but 
 of the every-day life of the people, in their homes, shops, and 
 streets ; the administration of justice, the police of their cities ; 
 the moral progress, life, and character of all classes ; in a word, 
 of how and why they are what they are." — Standard. 
 
 MACMILLAN & CO., LONDON. 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 92402321 681 9 
 
iX^^L't^*-<.-<. 
 
 FOUETEEN MONTHS 
 
 CANTON. 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS 
 
 CANTON, 
 
 MRS. a RAY. 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 ^onliBn: 
 MAOMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 1880. 
 
 [The night of Translation is 7-eserved.} 
 
LOKDOS : 
 
 FEINTED BY -WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, 
 
 STAMFOED STREET AND CHAIIING CROSS. 
 
TO 
 MY HUSBAND, 
 
 JOHN HENEY GKAY, M.A., LL.D., 
 
 ARCHDEACON [LATE OF HONG KONG), 
 WHOSE LONG RESIDENCE IN THE CITY OF CANTON, 
 
 AND INTIMATE ACQUAINTANCE WITH 
 
 ITS INHABITANTS, 
 
 ENABLED ME TO SEE AND LEARN SO MUCH OF THEIR 
 
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
INTEODUCTION. 
 
 The letters forming the subject of this small 
 work were written during a fourteen months' 
 residence in the city of Canton, where I enjoyed 
 many opportunities of seeing the inner life of the 
 Chinese, and of learning much of their daily life 
 in their own homes. The letters were written for 
 circulation amongst my family and a few friends 
 who kindly expressed an interest in all I saw 
 and did in the far-off country of China. These 
 descriptive letters accompanied others I wrote at 
 the same time to my family, and so they do not 
 contain any reference to domestic matters neces- 
 sary to suppress. They are therefore published 
 in extenso. We left Liverpool in the S.S. 
 Abyssinian on our outward journey, January 
 13th, 1877, and arrived at New York in fourteen 
 days. Our voyage was rough and uninteresting, 
 especially so perhaps to me, as I was very ill the 
 whole time. Pourteen days spent in a cabin is 
 very trying, even to the most patient of minds. 
 
 h 3 
 
viii INTEODUCTION. 
 
 We stayed four or five days in New York, and 
 then went on to Niagara. The Falls far sur- 
 passed my most vivid imagination of them, and I 
 felt that had they alone been the object of our 
 journey, we should have been well repaid. The 
 only mistake we made was in our selection of an 
 hotel. We followed the advice of some fellow- 
 travellers and remained on the American side 
 of the Falls. The Canadian side is, I think, 
 much more lovely, one is nearer to the Falls, 
 and the view of the Horse-shoe Fall from the 
 windows of the hotels which are situated close 
 to it is most charming. After a three days' stay 
 at Niagara we went on to Chicago, where we 
 spent two days, and were much struck with the 
 indefatigable industry of the people in having 
 raised such a noble town so quickly after the 
 destruction of the greater part of the old city. 
 We went on from Chicago to the Salt Lake 
 City and stayed there at the Mormon Hotel, so 
 that we might hear as much as possible of the 
 saints and their doings. Mr. Townsend, the pro- 
 prietor of the hotel, was most willing to give all 
 details of the Mormon belief and its practices, 
 and made us several long visits in our sitting- 
 room, and talked until I felt so indignant that I 
 could scarcely refrain from speaking out my mind. 
 The position of the Salt Lake City is lovely. 
 
INTEODUCTION. ix 
 
 and I never saw a scene that enchanted me so 
 much, as on the evening when we drew near 
 to it. The surrounding snow-capped mountains 
 are grand, and when we first caught sight of 
 them, they were of roseate hue. Brigham Young 
 showed no small judgment when he selected this 
 spot as the cradle of his infant kingdom. It 
 contains in itself all that is necessary for the use 
 of man. It abounds, especially, in mineral wealth. 
 The valley in which the town lies embosomed is 
 a Paradise. I was, however, much disappointed 
 in the town itself, as I had read iu some work 
 that it was a paragon of neatness and cleanliness. 
 It is at all events now most commercial in ap- 
 pearance, with large advertisements at the corners 
 of the streets, and " Very cheap," " Not to be 
 rivalled," and so on, written up in the shops. 
 
 After visiting all the places of interest in Salt 
 Lake City, we left on the fourth day, and passing 
 by the great Salt Lake itself, the waters of which 
 were as smooth as glass, proceeded by train to 
 San Francisco. And what can I say of that mar- 
 velldus journey across the continent of America ? 
 — it disappointed me. The Eocky Mountains 
 and the Sierra Nevadas are magnificent, the 
 country we passed through in California is most 
 charming, but I was not prepared for the hundreds 
 of miles through the prairies, where we saw 
 
X INTEODUCTION. 
 
 nothing to interest us, nor for the dirty towns at 
 which we stopped en route. The travelling, too, 
 is to my mind uncomfortable, and the carriages 
 not so well arranged as they might be. The 
 refreshment rooms at the stations are overheated, 
 and I often only put my head into them to beat 
 a hasty retreat. 
 
 San Francisco reached, we discovered that our 
 projected trip into the Yosemite Valley was an 
 impossibility. The road was not open, being still 
 choked up by snow, so with regret we had to 
 give up our desire to see this most lovely spot. 
 We remained at San Francisco five days, and 
 then embarked on board the S.S. Belgio, and 
 started on our long sea voyage to Hong Kong. 
 We were equally unfortunate in the weather in 
 this voyage as in that across the Atlantic. The 
 only really fine day we had was that on which we 
 started. Afterwards we experienced a succession 
 of squalls and bad weather. The captain had 
 predicted a smooth and rapid voyage, as our 
 course, with the view of avoiding tempestuous 
 weather, was 500 miles farther south than is 
 usually the case. Day after day there was the 
 same remark to make at dinner, " What a rough 
 day we have had." The officers of the vessel 
 said it was exceptionally squally and trying. One 
 night not a person on board closed his eyes ; the 
 
INTBODUCTION. xi 
 
 wind blew a gale, the cargo shifted, and we were 
 so much on one side that it seemed as if we must 
 roll over. Another day, during a storm, some 
 high waves broke against the ship, and struck the 
 port-holes of our cabin, which was on deck, with 
 such terrific force, that we feared, for a moment, 
 the sea must dash in. This happened twice 
 during the same gale. 
 
 We did not reach Japan until four weeks after 
 we had left San Francisco, and the time seemed 
 double in length, as the monotony of sea life was 
 not broken by any ships in sight, save one small 
 vessel, or by other objects of interest. I was 
 enchanted with the approach to Japan, and the 
 sight of land was doubly welcome after one had 
 been so long at sea. Yokohama I delighted in ; 
 and Tokio, in which we spent ten hours rushing 
 about in jinrickshaws, to each of which two men 
 were harnessed, was most intensely interesting to 
 me. How I laughed when I got into this most 
 curious conveyance, and my two brown naked- 
 legged Japanese ran off with me. We visited 
 most of the buildings, temples, etc., in Tokio, 
 our jinrickshaw men taking us from place to 
 place with almost the speed of ponies. I longed 
 to be able to spend some weeks in this most 
 charming country of Japan, and returned with 
 much regret to the Bdgic at midnight. Had 
 
Xll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 we known that we could have taken our tickets 
 to Yokohama, and have remained there for 
 four or five days, and then have gone on by 
 another service to Hong Kong, we should most 
 certainly have done so; but the steamboat 
 agent in London told us that by breaking our 
 journey we should incur a fortnight's delay, 
 and this we were not willing to risk. A week's 
 voyage from Yokohama brought us to the 
 port of Hong Kong. The entrance to the har- 
 bour of Hong Kong is beautiful, and I was 
 lost in wonder and interest as I watched the 
 ocean and coasting junks and all the river 
 craft in their fantastic and varied forms. The 
 town of Hong Kong, as viewed from the sea, 
 is very fine and important-looking, and stands 
 well, being built along the margin of the harbour, 
 and on the side of a high hill. The harbour is 
 very broad and deep, and capable of holding a 
 large mercantile fleet. 
 
 I shall always retain a vivid recollection of the 
 interest and pleasure which the quaint and vast 
 city of Canton afforded me,- where all was so 
 different to anything I had seen before. I never 
 went into it or its suburbs without seeing some- 
 thing new, something which greatly interested 
 me. The formation of the city, its narrow streets, 
 its innumerable alleys and turnings, its shops, 
 
INTEODUCTION. xiu 
 
 with their curiously-fashioned contents, were a 
 never-ending study to me. My residence in 
 Canton was, with much regret, brought abruptly 
 to a close on the 8th of June, 1878, by a serious 
 illness. We were compelled to return to England 
 by the shortest possible route, and to give up 
 our intention of Tisiting India on the way home. 
 The sea voyage partially restored me to health, 
 and I was able to land at Saigon, Singapore, 
 Ceylon, and Aden, and to see all that it was 
 possible to see in the short time allowed to 
 passengers at those places. Ceylon is a lovely 
 island, and I consider Wahwallah, with its exten- 
 sive view, one of the most beautiful spots I have 
 ever visited. 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 LETTEE I. 
 
 Canton, April lat, 1877. 
 
 My dear Mothee, 
 
 We were delighted to receive your letters, 
 as well as those from our friends ; please receive 
 our warmest thanks for them. They only 
 arrived at Hong Kong the same day as we did 
 (last Monday), and as they were reserved for us 
 at the Post Office, and not sent on to Canton, we 
 received them as a welcome to China, and it was 
 most delightful ! You should have seen us devour 
 all our correspondence as we sat at tiffin at the 
 Hong Kong Hotel. 
 
 After we had lunched, we hired chairs and began 
 to explore the city. I was much surprised at the 
 size and extent of it, and at the palatial dimensions 
 of the private houses. They reminded me of 
 Italian palaces; and they look so well, as the 
 situation on which they are built, overlooking the 
 
 B 
 
2 rOUETEBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 harbour, is Tery charming. The town is kept m 
 good order, and strikes a stranger as a prosperous 
 city. 
 
 We wound some distance up the road which 
 leads to the peak, then returned into the main 
 road, and went round the Happy Yalley. The 
 weather now was cloudy and misty, so I did not 
 see this part of the town to advantage, but I 
 could judge how beautiful it must look on a 
 bright, sunshiny day. On our return, we dis- 
 missed our chairs, and went into the hotel and 
 ordered dinner. Afterwards we took a stroll 
 through the Chinese quarter of the city, and I 
 saw much that interested and surprised me. 
 The lighting-up of shops and houses with large 
 paper lanterns struck me as so very strange. 
 
 At nine o'clock p.m. we returned on board the 
 Bdgie, where we had been most courteously in- 
 vited to spend the night. The following morning 
 we started at eight o'clock in the river steamer 
 for our foreign home, to which I had looked for- 
 ward for so many weeks. I was astonished at 
 the immense number of Chinese crowded on the 
 lower deck of the steamer. These river steamers 
 are very fine, and the journey of ninety-five miles 
 is performed in six hours if the tide be favourable. 
 One thing much surprised me on the steamer 
 and that was to see a man with a naked sword 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 3 
 
 stationed at tlie closed gangway. He never took 
 his eyes off the gangway, and when he had been 
 at his post an hour or so another man relieved 
 him. On inquiry, I learnt that this precaution 
 is adopted in consequence of some Chinese 
 pirates having gone on board the steamer Sjpark 
 some months ago as passengers. When they had 
 reached the estuary of the Canton river, they rose, 
 murdered the European ofBcers and passengers, 
 and took the treasure. 
 
 When we had passed the Bogue Forts, and had 
 so come under the protection of other vessels, the 
 man with the sword relinquished his post. And 
 now I made my first acquaintance with Chinese 
 scenery, with pagodas, with pawn towers, and 
 with all the curious craft upon the river. As we 
 approached Canton, the goal to which we had 
 been hastening these ten weeks past, my heart 
 was very full, and I was impatient to arrive at 
 our destination. When the steamer dropped her 
 anchor, the noise around us was deafening. 
 Crowds of passenger boats were waiting for hire, 
 and pushing against each other in their eagerness 
 to get a good place near the gangways of the 
 steamer. The boatmen were screaming out to 
 attract the attention of people to their particular 
 boats, and the boatwomen came on board en- 
 deavouring to secure passengers. Their costume 
 
 B 2 
 
4 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 struck me as being so peculiar. It is a dark- 
 blue cotton blouse and wide trousers, which reach 
 a little way below the knee. The feet and legs 
 are bare. And then what is so curious to our 
 European eyes, is the hair fully dressed teapot 
 fashion, the jadestone clasps in it, the jadestone 
 earrings, and the jadestone bangles worn by these 
 poor women. The women's heads of hair strike 
 me as being beautifully neat. The whole scene 
 around me bewildered me. I saw an old China- 
 man talking to Henry, and soon learnt that it 
 was our head servant Mak, who, hearing that 
 there was a chance of our arriving on Tuesday, 
 had come to the steamer to meet us. 
 
 A large crowd of Chinese had assembled to 
 see the steamer come in; and their costumes, 
 their shaven heads, their tails, attracted all 
 my attention. And now Mak (our comprador) 
 having selected a boat out of the many crowding 
 round the steamer, we got into it, and proceeded 
 by the river wall of Shameen* to the Chaplaincy, 
 which is at the farther end of the small island. 
 I thought Shameen looked very pretty as we 
 passed along it, and I was surprised, when we 
 pulled up before the Chaplaincy, to see what a 
 charming, comfortable house it seemed to be. 
 When I entered it I was still better pleased, 
 * The European settlement. 
 
POtJKTEEK MONTHS IN CANTON. 5 
 
 as the house is so well arranged. I will give 
 you a description of my new home. It is in the 
 Italian style of architecture, built in two stories, 
 with two deep verandahs at the back of the 
 house, looking upon the river. You enter a 
 good-sized hall, and on your left is the drawing- 
 room — a large room with two windows opening to 
 the ground at each end, and three windows run- 
 ning down the side of it. From, the verandah 
 you step on to a narrow piece of grass which 
 separates us from the bund or walk on the river 
 wall. 
 
 From the front door you face the wide grass 
 walk, which goes down the entire length of the 
 settlement. 
 
 Our house is in the same compound as the 
 church, which is also of Italian architecture, and 
 which seems to me large, considering the small 
 number amongst the community who are members 
 of the Church of England. The church, our house, 
 and the wall which surrounds them, are painted a 
 stone colour in two shades. I like our part of 
 Shameen much. It is at the extreme end of the 
 small island, and is all to ourselves. We have a 
 beautiful view of the broad river Pearl. 
 
 The name Shameen, means "sand face," and 
 wa* given to the settlement partly from the fact 
 that, until the Europeans bought it, it was but a 
 
6 FOTJBTBBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 sand-bank ; and partly from the shape of the island 
 resembling a human face. It is a small island, 
 only a mile and a half in circumference. The 
 bund encircling it is ornamented by a row of 
 banyan^trees, which look so green at this time 
 of year. 
 
 The houses in the settlement are very handsome 
 and the whole of it is beautifully laid out. The 
 walks are all bordered by the banyan-trees. I am 
 much struck with the tropical plants I have seen in 
 the gardens, especially with the palm-trees. Our 
 heavy luggage not having arrived, we are occupy- 
 ing ourselves by walking into the city, and have 
 already seen several of the interesting places in it. 
 We have visited many of the old chinaware shops, 
 and have picked up, even in these two or three 
 days, some good pieces of ancient blue china, so our 
 drawing-room begins to look homelike. You must 
 remember that the Chaplaincy is alreadyfurnished. 
 We have purchased some small, square Chinese 
 carpets, some of which are yellow in the ground 
 colour, with devices in blue ; others white in the 
 ground colour, with most curious patterns in ser- 
 pents, ancient characters (such as Shau, meaning 
 longevity), and various animals. In make they 
 much resemble coarse tapestry. We could, had we 
 wished, have bought European carpets, as we saw 
 some hanging up in the street where we made 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 7 
 
 our purchases, and I believe that the houses in 
 Shameen generally are carpeted with them ; but we 
 intend to embellish our house as much as possible in 
 Chinese style. On our arrival (which was somewhat 
 unexpected) at the Chaplaincy, the whole house 
 was in disorder, and the dining-room floor was in 
 the hands of a painter ; but a very short time 
 sufficed for the Chinese boys to arrange the 
 furniture, and as the floors are painted in the 
 sitting-rooms as well as the bedrooms, there is 
 no need to lay down carpets, as with us in England. 
 Whilst we were still in disorder, a friend of 
 Henry's arrived in her chair, and most kindly 
 begged of us to stay with her for a few days, 
 until our house could be made ready for our use ; 
 but we declined her kind invitation, as, after our 
 journey of ten weeks, we longed to be quiet in our 
 own house. 
 
 During the ten days we have been here, we 
 must have walked five or six miles daily, and 
 have stood about for hours sightseeing. Oh! 
 there is so much to see in Canton, and all is so 
 different to what one meets with in European 
 cities. The narrow, long, numerous streets, with 
 their brilliant signboards in all colours, are very 
 curious. These signboards hang in front of the 
 shops, and bear the names of the owners, and 
 the kind of articles sold in the shops. 
 
;8 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 You cannot imagine how gay they are. Some 
 are eight to ten feet long, and are painted scarlet 
 with raised characters in black — or blue with 
 raised letters in gold — or white with red charac- 
 ters ; in fact there is every variety excepting green 
 boards, which are rarely to be seen. The streets 
 often contain shops of one kind only, so you see 
 on a whole row of many-coloured signboards a 
 shoe, a stocking, a musical instrument, or a hat, 
 painted at the bottom, according to the article 
 sold in that particular street. Over some shops 
 hang signboards made in the shape of the article 
 sold in them, such as a hat suspended over a 
 hatter's, a stocking over a hosier's. One particular 
 shop I passed amused me much. It belonged to 
 a dentist, and^beside the characteristic signboard 
 denoting the business of the owner, there was a 
 large-sized figure, well executed and coloured, of 
 a man in the act of brushing a splendid row of 
 white teeth. Sometimes a dentist indicates his 
 calling by hanging at the doorpost of his shop 
 strings of decayed teeth. The streets bear very 
 curious names, which Henry translated for me in 
 some instances. I will give you a few of these 
 names for examples. There are " Peace Street," 
 "Bright Cloud Street," "Street of Everlasting 
 Love," "Street of One Hundred Grandsons," 
 " Street of a Thousand Beatitudes," « Street of 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 9 
 
 the Ascending Dragon," " Street of the Eeposing 
 Dragon," etc. Again, some streets are dis- 
 tinguished from others by the numbers which 
 they bear. Many of the principal streets are 
 named thus: "First Ward," "Second Ward," 
 " Third Ward," etc. I have thoroughly enjoyed 
 the shopping, and wish you could see us enter a 
 shop, salute the master of it, receive his chin- 
 chin in return, then take a seat in the inner shop 
 (for, in many cases, the shops are divided into two 
 compartments), and receive a tiny cup of the 
 simple, in its full sense, as it is without milk or 
 sugar. Then you mention what you require, and 
 the article is brought in and displayed before you. 
 The master of the shop names his price. Henry, 
 after appearing to reflect for a few seconds, prob- 
 ably offers half what is demanded, and the bar- 
 gaining is then begun. It is all done in perfect 
 good humour. Sometimes Henry's first offer is ac- 
 cepted, and then one knows that it is more than 
 a fair price ; sometimes he advances nearer to the 
 merchant's demand, but he does this slowly, and, 
 as a rule, as he advances the owner of the shop 
 drops his price little by little. In a street, how- 
 ever, where the foreigners generally deal, which 
 is close to Shameen, the price is a fixed one. In 
 this street are some beautiful shops containing 
 ivory carvings, jewellery, silk goods, and black 
 
10 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 wood furniture. In the provision shops you see 
 strange sights. In some I have noticed dried rats, 
 cooked dogs' flesh — which when cut up, as it is, 
 into joints for sale, I have mistaken for sucking- 
 pig — ducks' bills, edible birds' nests, and every 
 variety of meat and fish. The latter is a disgust- 
 ing sight, as to make it look fresh each piece 
 when cut is smeared over with blood. In poul- 
 terers' shops I have seen owls, white storks with 
 their eyes sewn up to prevent them from taking 
 fright at the passers-by, as they stand usually on 
 one leg on perches in front of the shops, lizards, 
 tortoises, etc., all for human food. Nothing is 
 wasted by the thrifty Chinese : all and every part 
 of an animal is reckoned by them as good to be 
 eaten. I have also observed a great number of 
 open-air stalls, which are placed either under mat 
 coverings, or simply under large umbrellas made 
 of dried palm-leaves. I have seen most pictur- 
 esque groups standing round these stalls drinking 
 soup, or eating boiled rice with chopsticks, or 
 perhaps taking cakes or other light refreshment. 
 The Chinese are most inveterate gamblers, and I 
 have noticed small boys gambling at stalls where 
 nuts, oranges, or other fruits are sold. In the 
 streets and squares one often sees groups of four or 
 five Chinese squatting, who are engaged in play- 
 ing cards and dominoes, whilst others stand and 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 11 
 
 look on at the game. I find the Chinese most 
 polite in the streets, always making room for us 
 to pass ; and although they follow us and stand at 
 
 m 
 
 the entrance of the shops when we enter them, to 
 gaze at us, they are most good-tempered. When 
 Henry speaks Chinese they are much amused 
 
12 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 and say, so he tells me, " He speaks the clear 
 language." When he writes down our address so 
 that our purchases may be sent to us, our atten- 
 tive followers cry out sometimes, " This barbarian 
 has a written language." 
 
 You must understand that the shop fronts are 
 not glazed ; all are open to the air. The shops 
 where they sell precious stones, especially jade- 
 stone, form one long street, and in its numerous 
 shops are contained thousands of pounds' worth of 
 jadestone, so much prized by Chinese of all ranks. 
 This jadestone street is quite a mile in length, 
 with shops on each side of it for the sale of jade 
 and other stones. I cannot convey to you an idea 
 of the size of Canton with its hundreds and 
 hundreds of narrow streets. How Henry can 
 find his way about as he does puzzles me; he 
 knows every short cut in this vast labyrinth of 
 streets and lanes, every queer, tortuous turn seems 
 familiar to him. He is a splendid guide in the 
 city. All his Chinese friends seem delighted to 
 see him, ask him where he has been, congratulate 
 me, ask my age, if I come from England, etc. 
 As we pass along, I often hear the Chinese in 
 the streets or in the shops say " Sing-Sang," the 
 Chinese for teacher, and one of the names by 
 which Henry is known to them. 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 13 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 Taai-Tung-Koo-Tsze Monastery, April 4th, 1877. 
 
 My deae Mothbe, 
 
 PiCTUEE us most comfortably seated in 
 an upper room of a garden house of a Buddhist 
 monastery, on the other side of the Pearl River 
 from Shameen. Henry has spent many, many 
 days in this retreat before, and the monks have 
 most kindly given him the garden house for his 
 use. Our room is very quaint in its divisions, 
 and in one corner, or perhaps, more correctly 
 speaking, in a small room separated from the 
 one we are in, is a wooden Chinese bed. Our 
 sitting-room is divided into, two compartments 
 by wooden trellis carving. In the divisions 
 there are fragments of pictures. When new 
 it must have been very pretty, but it requires 
 to be put in order, and Henry tells me that 
 this is a thing a Chinese does not understand. 
 He builds, by degrees the place becomes dilapi- 
 dated, but no money is spent upon it ; and at last, 
 when the building will no longer hold together, it 
 is pulled down, and a new place raised upon the 
 site. The air is lovely ; and as it is warm to-day, 
 we are sitting with the windows (such windows ! 
 divided into the smallest panes, pleasing to the 
 eye of the medievalist) thrown open. The trees 
 
14 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 in the garden are tall and shady ; a fine pomelo- 
 tree is opposite our windows, the branches of 
 which overhang a small square pond surrounded 
 by brickwork. Beyond is a pavilion with one of 
 the beautiful double wooden roofs. We have 
 brought a table, chairs, and a lunch box from the 
 Chaplaincy. On our arrival we saw one of the 
 few monks belonging to this monastery, and he 
 took us into the visitors' room. It is very charm- 
 ing, furnished with carved black wood furniture, 
 and the windows have small panes set in dark 
 wood of a curious pattern. 
 
 I have just seen a lovely large butterfly pass 
 the windows, its wings black and as soft-looking 
 as velvet. The birds are singing sweetly in the 
 garden. Here we are as busy as bees — ^I with 
 my correspondence, and Henry sitting at my side 
 correcting his manuscripts. • Before we left home, 
 a Chinese merchant, an old friend of Henry's, 
 called. He is a good-tempered-looking old man 
 of seventy-six years of age. As he spoke pigeon 
 English, I understood but little of what he said. 
 He stared at me, asked my age, and said patronis- 
 ingly, " You proper face." When speaking of the 
 present Emperor's age (he is a child of five years), 
 he said, "But his mother very cunning, take 
 care of that pigeon," meaning State affairs. 
 When Henry asked him if his new wife (No. 2) 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 15 
 
 had any children, he answered, " No, no piecee : 
 one piecee come but no stay," meaning the child 
 was dead. The poor old gentleman could not 
 understand me at all. 
 
 On Sunday evening, after the three o'clock 
 service, we started in a slipper boat for Whampoa, 
 which is at a distance of eleven miles down the 
 river, as Henry is anxious to resume evening 
 services there on Sundays. The place is much 
 altered since he first began to hold services 
 at this port. The large ships are no longer 
 to be seen in its roadstead. The docks, etc., 
 have been sold to the Chinese, and the whole 
 place looks deserted and wretched. The large 
 ocean steamers go up straight to Canton now, and 
 do not, as formerly, discharge their cargoes at 
 Whampoa. As the tide was in our favour, we went 
 down to Whampoa in two hours; but the return 
 journey was very long, over four hours, and we did 
 not reach home until midnight. On our way there 
 we saw a long procession of state barges, about 
 eighteen in number. The Chinese Governor was 
 returning to Canton from an inspection of the 
 forts down the river. I was filled with wonder 
 as I saw the river swarming with its boating 
 population. Henry tells me that there are, it is 
 reckoned, 300,000 human beings who live entirely 
 in their boats. They never stay on land and 
 
16 POTJETBBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 are a distinct community, one may say, to the 
 population on shore. It lias been conjectured that 
 they are the descendants of rebels who were com- 
 pelled by an emperor of the past to be thus cut 
 off from communion with their fellow men. There 
 are anchorages marked out for each set of boats, 
 and there are streets and streets of boats thickly 
 packed together. Men, women, boys and girls, but 
 more particularly women, scull and row these boats. 
 The costume of the latter is a tunic and wide, 
 short trousers, coming to the middle of the leg, in 
 dark-blue cotton. They wear neither shoes nor 
 stockings. I am getting accustomed to the naked 
 legs and feet of the lower orders. Even the city 
 guard are without stockings. I have noticed that 
 many superior-looking men take off their smart, 
 embroidered shoes and carry them when it rains. 
 In the streets I have been much struck with the 
 quiet, gentle deportment of the Chinese. I have 
 already seen some small-footed women. One we 
 met on our way to this monastery was riding 
 on the back of her female attendant.* She was 
 the young wife, Henry thought, of a farmer, on 
 her way to visit a friend in one of the neigh- 
 bouring villages. 
 
 * Chinese ladies Bometimes ride on the backs of their amahs 
 when going from village to village to pay visits to their friends. 
 This custom they also adopt in getting about their large gardens. 
 
FOUKTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 17 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 Canton, April 12th, 1877. 
 
 My deak Mother, 
 
 We paid several calls' on Wednesday, and 
 found most of our friends at home. I was glad 
 to have an opportunity of seeing the interior of 
 the houses in our settlement. I was much struck 
 with their English appearance, carpeted as they are 
 with English carpets, many well-known engravings 
 hanging on the walls. The black wood furniture 
 and the large verandahs alone make one realise 
 that one is in the East, when seated in one 
 of these large drawing-rooms. I think when 
 Europeans return to their native lands, they must 
 feel very much disappointed with the contracted, 
 cramped houses they have to live in. When our 
 calls were paid, we went into the city, and after 
 a search in some of the curiosity shops for blue 
 china, we entered the Flowery Forest Mona- 
 stery. The monks were having a meal in the hall, 
 and plentiful the feast appeared to be, with its 
 many dishes containing various portions of food. 
 They rose and welcomed us, and expressed great 
 pleasure in seeing Henry again. We begged 
 them (you can imagine mine was the pantomimic 
 
 c 
 
18 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 action) to be seated. They offered us seats at 
 another table, and one of the young monks 
 brought us tea in covered cups. Another of 
 them, whose duty it is to receive visitors, sat 
 down with us, and Henry and he chin-chinned each 
 other by touching cups, and then we sipped our 
 tea. Dried fruit of various kinds, lichees, wampees, 
 dragon's eyes, dried ginger, etc., were placed on 
 the centre of the table in a lacquered box made 
 in many compartments. The monk handed the 
 dried fruit to us on a little two-pronged fork, and 
 opened the dried lichees before he passed them to 
 us. Henry, then, in true Chinese style, took a 
 piece of the dried fruit on the little fork, rose, and 
 put it into our host's mouth. In the meantime the 
 repast was going on at the other table close to us. 
 I should think there must have been some thirty 
 little china bowls, with various kinds of food in 
 them, in the, centre of the table. Meat is for- 
 bidden to these Buddhist monks, but it is by no 
 means certain that sundry small pieces of pork 
 and other flesh were not to be found in these 
 little bowls. Each monk had his own basin in 
 one hand, the chopsticks in the other, and he 
 helped himself first to one of the dainties, then 
 to another, from the centre of the table. This is 
 the way all Chinese take their food. When the 
 repast was over, the monks came to our table and 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 19 
 
 stood by us; each then spoke to us, took some 
 morsel from our centre dish, and handed it to us. 
 The dragon's eyes and other kinds of dried fruit 
 were so distasteful to me, that I had to take them 
 slily from my mouth and hide them in my saucer. 
 The monks are dirty-looking men, with un- 
 intellectual faces, and the long nails that they 
 wear on some of their fingers look as if they had 
 not seen soap and water for many a long day. 
 They are very courteous, and the ceremony of 
 bowing at each of the little doorways in taking 
 leave of the monk who conducts you to the 
 street, is very wearisome. 
 
 On leaving this reception hall we went to see 
 the shrine of The Five Hundred Disciples of 
 Buddha. It is a most extraordinary sight. The 
 figures, which are almost life-size, are made in 
 clay and gilded, and as they have just been 
 restored they are extremely bright. As you 
 enter the shrine you see long rows of these 
 figures, sitting on a raised platform, in lines and 
 cross lines. Each figure represents a disciple 
 according to his idea of sanctity. Some hold 
 their arms upright, which have stiffened in this 
 position ; one I saw with both arms so raised ; 
 others are in contemplative postures. One 
 carried a crozier in his hand, another had a mitre 
 on his head, while others wore crowns. All are 
 
 c 2 
 
20 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 represented as having dark-blue hair, and in 
 some instances the figures hare blue beards. No 
 two are alike. In a few cases represented, the 
 disciples being especially holy, a little image 
 of Buddha is formed in the chest, giving a most 
 curious appearance to the idol. The vestments 
 these figures wear are, curiously enough, Catholic 
 in form. We afterwards passed through the 
 Beggars' Square; here beggars are allowed to 
 assemble, and to sleep, and in case of death are 
 provided with a coffin by the guild of the Fokien 
 merchants. The rules of the beggars' guild are 
 strict, and elders are appointed to enforce them. 
 The beggars are under the protection of special 
 deities. 
 
 From the Beggars' Square we returned home. 
 You perhaps can imagine how strange I feel at 
 present in this new life ; to be waited upon only 
 by men, not to have a female servant in the 
 establishment, for I have acted on Henry's 
 advice, and have not engaged an amah. He 
 thinks these women given to gossiping, and a 
 great evil in a house. It seems to me as if I 
 were staying at an hotel, as I do not know what 
 will appear at table ; nor have I seen my cook, as 
 he does not come into the house. The servants' 
 offices are a low range of buildings joined to 
 the house on the one side. The singular costume 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 21 
 
 of the servants strikes me much ; their queer lingo 
 I cannot understand— aaturafly they have the 
 same difficulty in respect to my English. Our 
 head boy being asked the other day if he knew 
 what I said, replied, " I no savez, missussi talkee 
 ploper English." Our dining-room is now ready, 
 and I must say our rooms are very comfortable. 
 I hope the account of my illness, which Henry 
 sent you last week, did not alarm you much. I 
 was very ill at the time, and for two or three days 
 the doctor could not make out what was the 
 matter with me. He looked very serious, and 
 alarmed Henry by saying that he had been called 
 in only just in time. He was surprised at the 
 agony I suffered not lessening with the remedies. 
 At last he pronounced the illness to be caused by 
 paint poisoning, and said that I must, ill as I was, 
 be taken in a boat across the river, and sit for some 
 hours in one of the gardens at Fa-tee, as change 
 of air was really necessary for me. The mar- 
 vellous effect that the remedy produced upon me 
 proved that Dr. Brereton was right in his treat- 
 ment. I was helped to the boat, and could 
 scarcely sit upright, but after I had been in the 
 garden house of our favourite retreat an hour or 
 so I began to feel better, and the miserable feel- 
 ing of nausea, which had not left me for six days, 
 was sensibly lessened. On my return at night I 
 
22 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 was much better, and from that time improved 
 rapidly. My experience of painter's colic is that 
 it is one of the most painful illnesses possible. In 
 my case the fever was so high that in the first 
 night I was seized I became partly delirious. 
 Henry says, in all his experience of visiting 
 amongst the sick at Canton, he has not known 
 any patient so scorched up with fever as I was. 
 
 I must now tell you about a day's excursion we 
 made into the country. Do you remember Henry 
 saying, before we left England, that he would 
 take me as soon as possible the forty miles' trip 
 through the valleys encircling the White Cloud 
 Mountains ? No European but he knows this 
 route, and he accidentally discovered it some 
 years ago. Two mountain chairs, which are 
 much lighter than those used for the city and 
 level places, were brought round to the Chap- 
 laincy at a very early hour yesterday morning. 
 These chairs are made of bamboo rods, and 
 have a covering of dark-green cotton over the 
 head and sides, which can be taken off the light 
 bamboo poles, which support it, at pleasure. In 
 our case it was taken off as soon as we had 
 left the city, and not replaced. We started 
 immediately after the morning service, a little 
 after nine o'clock. Such a cavalcade we formed, 
 with our fourteen chair coolies and an old coolie 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 23 
 
 whom Henry has employed for years to accompany 
 him in all his excursions. The chair coolies 
 when not engaged in carrying us (we had the 
 double number, Henry eight and I six, so as to 
 have relays) had long bamboo poles resting on 
 their shoulders, from one end of which hung 
 their large circular hats, and from the other end 
 the clothes of those carrying the chairs were sus- 
 pended. The hats belonging to the chair coolies 
 are either blue, or red and black; they have 
 pointed crowns, and are about the size of a lady's 
 sunshade. The men, after we had started, only 
 wore short dark-blue or brown cotton drawers, 
 reaching to the knee ; some had on straw sandals, 
 others walked the whole distance with naked feet. 
 Their brown shoulders glistened in the sun, and 
 my heart bled at the deep-red marks made by 
 the pressure of the chair-poles on them. Imagine 
 any European carrying a burden and walking forty ' 
 miles in the day, and for half that distance haying 
 to share the weight of a chair and its passenger ! 
 Our route first took us througli the city, then 
 through its suburbs and outlying villages. The 
 number of Chinese going in the same direction as 
 ourselves was very great, as the worshipping of 
 the tombs had just begun. Most of these people 
 were on foot, but some went along in chairs. 
 They carried with them long strings of paper 
 
24 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 ingots, to burn at tlie tombs. These ingots, or 
 mock-money, are done up like little sugar-loaves, 
 and are strung on cord. I saw men carrying 
 five or six such long strings of ingots from the 
 end of their bamboos. They also had offerings 
 of cake in red painted boxes, fire-crackers, and 
 bright-coloured and white paper, the latter of 
 which they stick in strips on the graves. I also 
 saw some men carrying roasted pigs cooked whole, 
 for offerings. The Chinese are too thrifty to leave 
 these at the tombs ; they merely offer them, then 
 bring them home and feast on them with their 
 relations. All male members of a family must 
 worship their ancestors' tombs yearly, and we 
 met fathers taking their sons of all ages with 
 them to the graves. But before I say more on 
 this subject, I must tell you what we saw before 
 we reached the place of tombs. When we had 
 passed through the suburbs of the city we came 
 to the asylum, or rather, small village, set apart 
 for lepers. Here one sees the disease of leproSy in 
 all stages ; in some cases it is not apparent to the 
 stranger, in others it has assumed a most repul- 
 sive form, and is more sad to look upon than any- 
 thing I had ever witnessed. One young girl had 
 only the stumps of her hands left, and her feet 
 were without toes. The lepers intermarry, and thus 
 the disease is propagated and increased ; it is most 
 
26 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 sad to see the little children affected by this 
 loathsome disease. The Government support this 
 leper village, but those who are capable of work- 
 ing make ropes, which they sell, and so obtain 
 additional comforts for themselves. These poor 
 lepers have also their temple and their especial 
 god. After walking through this sad place, 
 where all are most anxious to display their 
 deformities to get a kumshaw from the strangers, 
 we got into our chairs. We next passed by a hill 
 where malefactors who have been decapitated 
 are buried. A stream of people, bearing offer- 
 ings, was passing on, and others we met were 
 returning empty-handed from the graves. The 
 tombs were soon on all sides of us ; they are in the 
 form of a horse- shoe, and are built on the sides of 
 the mountain in stone or asphalte. These belong 
 to the rich ; the graves of the poorer class are 
 simply marked by an upright stone or a conical 
 mound of earth. We now heard the report of 
 numberless fire-craekers being let off on all 
 sides to frighten away evil spirits, and this 
 sound continued at intervals the whole day. 
 It gives one the effect of military funerals, as 
 if salutes were being fired over the graves. 
 The bills were literally covered by worshippers. 
 The tombs do not, as a rule, look imposing, as 
 they are hollowed out of the hills, and with few 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 27 
 
 exceptions are plain. Some have high granite 
 pillars and red flag poles in front of them, denoting 
 the rank of the deceased. A few have rows of 
 animals and attendants carved in stone, which 
 form an avenue, and lead to the tomb of a man 
 of high rank. 
 
 We very much enjoyed the country, which 
 became pretty, and in parts really beautiful after 
 we had left the city far behind us. On we went 
 past fields prepared for rice, and by small patches 
 of the rice growing thick together, which after 
 a short time will be transplanted, and will be 
 sufficient to cover several acres. We passed by 
 lands prepared for every description of seed. It 
 was most interesting to me to see agricultural 
 labour going on according to Chinese custom. 
 This is of a most primitive kind : they plough 
 with buffaloes ; the harrow is most curious, some- 
 thing like a gridiron, and with this they mix the 
 mud and water together to prepare tlie land for 
 the transplanting of the young rice. The fields 
 are wonderfully small here, which is partly owing, 
 so Henry says, to the need of facilitating irrigation. 
 The seed is sown by hand. I was struck by 
 noticing a man banking up the earth oyer some 
 beds containing vegetable seeds. He used a 
 large spade for this purpose, to which a double 
 cord was attached, and a boy standing on the 
 
28 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 opposite side of the bed assisted the labourer by, 
 pulling the spade towards him by the cord. None 
 of these peasants seemed pressed for time ; they 
 rise very early and work late, and they look as if 
 they do not know what it is to be in a hurry. We 
 passed by groves and groves of peach-trees, the 
 fruit of which is now set, but will not be ready 
 for the market until June. 
 
 At one o'clock we stopped at a farmhouse, 
 where Henry has lunched several times before 
 when he has made this long excursion. How can 
 I describe this strange scene? First, a woman 
 came out, took care of me, and led me into what 
 I thought was a kitchen. In trooped men and 
 boys to stare at me ; the little boys only seven or 
 eight years of age amused me, as in most instances 
 they had babies strapped on to their backs. One 
 of these odd-looking little babies was unwound 
 from a boy's back and given me to nurse. The 
 little thing, about six months old, had a silver 
 chain, with charms hanging to it, round his 
 neck, and silver bangles on his arms and legs. I 
 then joined Henry, who was in the large hall of 
 the house, and I found our coolie placing our 
 luncheon on the table. We were objects of the 
 greatest interest to the whole clan, which was 
 collected in all its force to-day. The family had 
 just returned from worshipping the tombs of their 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 29 
 
 ancestors, and were about to spread their repast 
 in this large hall ; but on our arrival they most 
 kindly, left it for our use, and themselves dined 
 al fresco. We must have had sixty persons 
 round us, and when we began to eat they pressed 
 close to us, and were most anxious to see how we 
 used our knives and forks. They would have 
 become troublesome, had not the elders of the clan 
 kept them in order. It was so curious to feel 
 that our ways were looked upon as so barbarous 
 and foreign. Possibly they concluded that when 
 we became more enlightened, we should copy 
 them in tlie use of chopsticks, etc. 
 
 When we had finished our luncheon, we went 
 outside, and found a large gathering sitting on 
 the ground, with the remains of a feast before 
 them. This was the ancestral feast, and is supposed 
 by the people to come direct to them from their 
 ancestors, as the expenses of it are defrayed from 
 the endowment of the ancestral altar. Every 
 member of the clan partakes of this feast, and 
 one of the greatest punishments which can be in- 
 flicted on an undutiful son is to prevent him 
 from participating in it. The country became 
 still more charming after we left the farmhouse, 
 and the mountains and valleys i^were beautiful 
 with the shades of the sun upon them. 
 
 We should have missed the finest part of the 
 
30 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 scenery if Henry had not known the route, as the 
 chair coolies wished to take us direct over a high 
 hill after we left the farmhouse, which would 
 have shortened the journey by some six or seven 
 miles. They refused to take us where Henry 
 intended to go, round the base of this hill. I got 
 out of my chair and we walked on, the men 
 stoutly declining to give in, and they became 
 threatening in their attitude. When we had 
 walked on a mile (I must own with depressed 
 feelings on my part, as we were at least twenty- 
 six miles from home) the chair coolies, seeing 
 that they could not intimidate us, brought up the 
 chairs, and we continued our long journey. Our 
 way now led us across the large Canton plain, 
 which is highly cultivated, and produces tobacco, 
 cotton, sugar, indigo, rice, and vegetables of 
 various kinds. 
 
 It was eight o'clock p.m., when we were some 
 five miles from the city, and by this time it had 
 become quite dark. I was in front, and not 
 hearing the voices of Henry's coolies, 1 became 
 uneasy, and called out to him. No answer came, 
 and I called again. I had been warned by Henry 
 not to show distrust of the Chinese, so, with as 
 cheerful a voice as I could command, I continued 
 to call, but in vain — no answer came. I felt anxious, 
 as just after we started I had been told that I was 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 31 
 
 foolish in going out for an excursion, such as we 
 intended to take, with my gold earrings, locket, 
 and rings all exposed to view. The men too had 
 been so very insubordinate, and one had looked 
 so evil fn the discussion of the choice of routes, 
 that I feared something might have happened to 
 Henry. I could neither speak nor understand a 
 word of Chinese, and, therefore, could not tell the 
 coolies to stop, so on we went. After some ten 
 minutes or more, we came to one of the resting- 
 places erected by some man as a meritorious 
 work, and here I was put down on the floor. I 
 can assure you my feelings were not enviable at 
 that moment. I had not even our old coolie with 
 me, as he had succumbed to the fatigue of the 
 long walk, and had remained in one of the villages 
 we had passed through. Some people sitting 
 about this resting-place, wishing, I suppose, to 
 see what I was like, thrust one of the large 
 coloured paper lanterns into the chair, and then 
 laughed at my appearance. I hoped to remain 
 in this place until Henry's chair might arrive, 
 but to my disappointment up I was taken after a 
 delay of five minutes, and on we marched. You can 
 imagine what my joy was when the steps of the 
 other chair coolies became audible. When Henry 
 came up, he told me that he had also felt very 
 anxious about me. The coolies carrying his 
 
32 FOTJETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 chair had become very much fatigued, and it 
 was time for the other four to take their turn, 
 but when inquired for, they were nowhere to be 
 found. They had evidently given their friends the 
 slip, and had slunk off in the dark. We arrived 
 home about half-past nine, very tired, but having 
 enjoyed the day's excursion most thoroughly. 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 Canton, April 15th, 1877. 
 My dear Mother, 
 
 After I had finished writing my letters 
 
 the other afternoon, we had dinner in our garden 
 
 house at the monastery, at seven o'clock, and then 
 
 started for the Temple of Paak-taai, where a 
 
 festival was taking place in honour of the god 
 
 Paak-Taai, one of the most popular deities in 
 
 China. But I must tell you first how easily the 
 
 Chinese servants manage these impromptu picnic 
 
 dinners. The cook and waiting-boys go over to 
 
 the monastery by boat, taking with them the 
 
 provisions, and the utensils for cooking, also a 
 
 table-cloth and everything necessary for the table. 
 
 All is packed up in a large box, which is slung 
 
 by ropes on a bamboo pole and carried on the 
 
 shoulders of a coolie and the boy belonging to 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 33 
 
 the boat. We dine just as if we were at home, 
 having soups, entrees, etc. All is cooked in 
 the queerest little kitchen imaginable at the 
 monastery. A Chinese cook is never at fault, 
 hovvever long dinner is kept waiting. For in- 
 stance, last night we were out very late, as the 
 tide was against us, and we had a long distance 
 to row back to Shameen. The dinner was 
 ordered for half-past seven, but we did not sit 
 down to it until nine o'clock. Yet the food was 
 as well cooked and as hot as if we had not been 
 unpunctual. Had we returned at half-past seven 
 we should have found dinner ready to be served. 
 When we arrived at the Temple of Paak-taai it was 
 past eight o'clock, and we found that the singular 
 ceremony that we wished to see was nearly over, 
 so we left, making up our minds to return to the 
 temple the following evening, which was the third 
 and last night of the ceremony. At this festival 
 of Paak-taai the Chinese take their larks (this is 
 the favoilrite bird with the Chinese, and not only 
 do very many possess them, but the gentry as 
 well as poorer people pay large sums for them if 
 they sing well), and suspend the cages from 
 bamboo poles, placed across the temple, about six 
 feet from the ground. They leave their birds from 
 six to half-past seven p.m., three evenings in suc- 
 cession, in this temple, to do honour to Paak-taai. 
 
 D 
 
34 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 When they are brought in, the cages are 
 covered with handkerchiefs. On these being 
 withdrawn, the birds break out into a volume of 
 song, mistaking, one would suppose, the glare of 
 light from hundreds of lamps, suspended from the 
 roof of the temple, for broad daylight. Bird sings 
 against bird, trying to silence each other, until 
 the noise is deafening. The Chinese lark is a 
 handsome bird, larger than our English lark, and 
 is capable of being taught to imitate various 
 sounds ;* it flaps its wings when it sings, and it 
 continues its song for long periods, but the note 
 is not so sweet as that of our English lark. Not 
 only is Paak-taai supposed to be honoured by this 
 ovation from the larks, but the owners of the 
 birds expect blessings from the god for their atten- 
 tion to him. The temple was crowded by people 
 of the poorer class, who seemed to thoroughly 
 enjoy this concert of larks. There were some 
 hundreds of these songsters suspended in their 
 ornamental cages from the poles. I am so much 
 amused by the extreme care the Chinese men 
 bestow upon their feathered favourites. You 
 will meet with a sober-looking man dressed in a 
 
 * I subsequently saw one on board a steamer at Whampoa 
 which had been taught to imitate the barking of a dog, and 
 the mewing of a cat, for which its owner, a Chinese, asked the 
 sum of 60 dollars. 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 35 
 
 beautiful long silk coat, holding in his open hand 
 a cage in which you may see a lark or other pet 
 bird. I concluded when I first met these men 
 that the birds were for sale, but Henry much 
 amused me by saying that it is a custom in 
 Canton for the Chinese to take their birds out for 
 change of air. An English lady told me the 
 other day, that when her parrot was very ill, her 
 compradore advised her to engage a bird coolie 
 to take it to the White Cloud Mountains for 
 change of air and scene. 
 
 On Wednesday we heard that the procession 
 in honour of Paak-taai would pass through the 
 streets, so we went to a grass-cloth shop, before 
 which the procession was advertised, by news- 
 vendors, to pass. We arrived much too early at 
 the shop, a fact one cannot help in China, for as a 
 rule punctuality is unknown, and one must wait 
 long for these ceremonies, or perhaps miss them 
 altogether. We were invited into the inner shop 
 and were refreshed by a cup of tea, the tea being 
 handed first to Henry, according to true Chinese 
 etiquette. On such occasions I sit quietly by, 
 and can observe all so well from the fact (humili- 
 ating as it may be) that no one notices me, all 
 the attention being paid to my husband. He has 
 argued several times with Chinese gentlemen on 
 the subject of equality between men and women, 
 
 D 2 
 
36 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 and has pointed out to them the duty of giving 
 to woman her proper position. One with whom 
 he was conversing on the subject did not attempt 
 to argue the point, but observed quietly in 
 conclusion, " Man is as the sun, woman as the 
 moon." The carving is most beautiful in this 
 shop, some of it is gilded, some is left its natural 
 colour. It is most ornamental and well executed. 
 It forms a kind of half screen at the end of the 
 shop, under which is the image of the god 
 specially worshipped by the shopmen. A ledge 
 is in front of the idol, on which paper flowers, 
 lights, and joss-sticks are arranged. 
 
 A lamp, formed of a floating wick placed in a 
 glass receptacle suspended from the ceiling, hangs 
 before this tutelary god, and is lighted morning 
 and night. Joss-sticks are also burnt before it 
 twice daily. When it was announced that the 
 procession was in sight we went into the outer 
 shop, and sat upon chairs placed for us on a 
 raised platform. The shop was barricaded with 
 a ladder put across the opening, to prevent the 
 crowd pushing into it. 
 
 We were a source of the greatest interest to all 
 the men in the street, and also to the women and 
 children, who were sitting in the shops opposite. 
 The latter had come in from the country to see 
 the procession. 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IK CANTON. 37 
 
 The men forming the procession itself con- 
 stantly turned to stare at us, and laughed at 
 an'^ nodded to us. 
 
 The dark, handsome beard of an English 
 friend who accompanied us, attracted much at- 
 tention. Only the aged are allowed to wear 
 beards in China, and one sees none but short- 
 pointed white beards on these old men's faces. 
 You must picture us in a street as narrow as 
 an alley in London, a crowd thickly packed, 
 perhaps three deep on each side of the street, 
 and a narrow passage in the middle only just 
 sufficiently large enough to let the procession 
 squeeze through. We literally sat in the street : 
 as there are no steps leading into a shop, you 
 enter it direct from the street. 
 
 There is the most marvellous economy of space 
 practised in this city, and from the roof of one of 
 its high pawn towers you cannot perceive a break, 
 no streets : the roofs of the houses seem to touch 
 each other. Even in the narrow streets there 
 are stalls in all available nooks and corners, and 
 it is difficult for our chairs to get along. It 
 requires a good deal of management, and a great 
 deal of noise on the part of the chair coolies, 
 when two chairs meet and have to pass each other. 
 To return from this digression : the procession was 
 immensely long, and occupied one hour in passing 
 
38 FOUBTBBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 by the shop in which we were seated. First there 
 came men bearing large lanterns, Paak-taai's 
 name and titles painted on them ; then followed 
 banner-men, with banners aloft, embroidered 
 handsomely and edged with deep, many-coloured 
 fringes, some events in Paak-taai's life forming 
 the subject of the embroidery. 
 
 We saw also long, low, double banners, connected 
 by bars of wood, supported by men who, walking 
 between them, were hidden from view. These 
 were ornamented with little figures dressed in 
 various costumes, representing scenes in Paak- 
 taai's history. These double banners were in 
 some cases glazed. They were wonderfully orna- 
 mented with kingfisher's feathers laid on gilt, 
 and which, to an unpractised eye, resembled 
 enamel work. Then came men bearing red 
 boards with many titles on them, also insignia of 
 celestial rank, which have been conferred on 
 Paak-taai by the present and past emperors. 
 The procession was, as you may say, divided into 
 groups by these various banners, ornamental 
 poles and long banners given by different 
 districts to Paak-taai. Attendants accompanied 
 them dressed in white, or in bright-coloured 
 silk robes. These men, some of whom are men 
 of position, volunteer for the honour of walking 
 in the god's procession. In each division of the 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 39 
 
 procession there were children, some very young, 
 perhaps four or five years of age only, who rode 
 on the queer little Chinese ponies. These boys 
 and girls (the latter sit astride like boys) were 
 dressed fantastically to represent heroes and 
 heroines in Paak-taai's time. Poor little things, 
 they had started at six o'clock a.m., and it was 
 past noon when we saw them. One very small 
 hero had succumbed and was in the arms of an 
 attendant fast asleep, his pony riderless. Some, 
 in fact many of the children, belong to the 
 gentry, and have attendants supporting them on 
 each side of the pony, who feed them constantly 
 with biscuits and sweets. One little boy much 
 amused us, and also the crowd about us. He 
 carried a large representation of a fabulous 
 monster in his arms. On his face he wore a 
 large bea-rd, and had a helmet on his head with 
 long feathers. As he passed us, he puffed out 
 his little cheeks, and put his arms akimbo, 
 preserving the utmost gravity of face. He was 
 received with shouts of laughter by the people. I 
 should think fifty of these boys and girls passed 
 us. One little one was suspended in the air, to 
 represent an angel. Two passed, carried along on 
 a little platform, and were acting a part; in a 
 third erection, borne on the shoulders of some 
 men, a boy was lying on his back and a little girl 
 
40 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 was supported on his upraised foot. I have 
 forgotten to say that at an interval of every ten 
 minutes a band of so-called music broke the 
 stillness of the scene. Such music it was! 
 In some cases the instruments were played by 
 little boys dressed in beautifully embroidered long 
 coats ; in some, men played wind instruments ; in 
 others, a deafening, most unmusical sound was 
 made by men striking gongs, which were carried 
 along on a species of truck slung on poles. 
 
 These were followed by men with most noisy 
 instruments, which they played by striking them 
 together; others played on screeching pipes, 
 and horns. Certainly the Chinese are lovers of 
 noisy music. Every now and again the proces- 
 sion was broken by little portable tables, bearing 
 sweetmeats, tea, and other refreshments, which, 
 upon the cavalcade halting for a minute or so, 
 were served out to the members of the procession. 
 I saw many, delicacies popped into the mouths 
 of the little heroes and heroines as they passed by. 
 Pavilions decorated with figures inlaid with king- 
 fisher's feathers, contained precious stones, beauti- 
 ful vases in jadestone, or old bronzes in charming 
 forms, which were lent by the gentry to do honour 
 to Paak-taai's procession. You would have been 
 amused had you seen the fat men who graced the 
 occasion, clad in brilliant yellow silk. The upper 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 41 
 
 part oftlie garment is worn over one shoulder only, 
 the other shoulder is unadorned. At last came 
 three large carved black wood pavilions, the first 
 and second containing small idols of Paak-taai's 
 father and mother. The third pavilion was pre- 
 ceded by musicians, aud by citizens of respecta- 
 bility, wearing long coats of silk with squares 
 of embroidery on the chest and shoulders. This 
 pavilion contained the idol of Paak-taai, and, as 
 it advanced, the people chin-chinned it, that 
 is to say, they put their hands together in the 
 attitude of prayer and bowed again and again 
 towards the image. No greater act of idolatry 
 than this could be witnessed. The shopkeepers 
 show their devotion to the idol by raising their 
 offerings from the small altars erected for the 
 occasion in the doorways of their shops, and 
 presenting them to the idol. Sometimes they 
 pour out libations as the image passes by. In all 
 Chinese temples there is a second idol of the 
 presiding god made in a small portable size, to 
 be used on these festive occasions. Immediately 
 the procession had passed, a great number of fire- 
 crackers were let off to frighten away all evil 
 spirits from the neighbourhood. The crowd, who 
 had been most good-natured all the while, and 
 had only occasionally broken in upon the pro- 
 cession, now began to disperse. The police had 
 
42 POUETBBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 switches made of rattan ia their hands ; they were 
 stockingless and very shabby. Their hats, which 
 are in this shape, have red silk fringes hanging 
 from the pointed crowns. We waited until the 
 
 HAT WORN BY CHINESE POLICEMEN. 
 
 streets were clear of the crowd, and then went 
 into several shops to see the industries. The 
 flour mills were most interesting to me. The 
 old double millstones placed one above the other 
 are used, and they are kept in motion by oxen. 
 These oxen are blindfolded to prevent them suffer- 
 ing from giddiness. We then went on by boat to 
 Honam to see the fine Ocean Banner Monastery. It 
 is the best preserved and most interesting Buddhist 
 monastery in the city. Henry was most warmly 
 welcomed by the monks, and we were invited to 
 have a cup of tea with them. Henry knows every 
 corner of the monastery, and at one time studied 
 in one of the rooms, which was given up to him 
 for his use by the monks. I must attempt a 
 feeble description of this fine monastery. It, like 
 all others, has a large shrine with idols of the three 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 43 
 
 Buddhas, colossal in size, in a sitting position. 
 They are carTed ia wood and gilded ; down tke 
 side of the shrine are sixteen idols, representing 
 the most distinguished disciples of Buddha, each 
 haying an incense jar before it. Chains hang 
 from the roof supporting lights, which are always 
 burning before the three Buddhas. Three large 
 altars stand before them, which are richly carved 
 and gilded, and on them are placed immense 
 jars made in zinc, some holding artificial flowers, 
 others incense. Another shrine, under a separate 
 roof, contains a relic of Buddha, over which is 
 placed a magnificent dagoba of scultpured marble. 
 A third 'shrine contains a large idol of Koon- 
 Yam, the goddess of mercy. We were present at 
 the evening prayers. The monks, both here and in 
 the other monasteries in Canton, show their great 
 respect for Henry by allowing him to stand 
 inside the shrines at the hour of seryice. The 
 same privilege was extended to me, and so I had 
 an opportunity, which I otherwise should not have 
 had, of narrowly observing the ritual and cere- 
 monials of the Buddhists' evensong. No Chinese 
 are admitted ; they stand outside and watch the 
 service through the open gates of the shrine. 
 There were about thirty priests present, wearing 
 grey cotton cowls; and long yellow squares of, 
 silk made in many pieces to represent the robe of 
 
44 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 poverty, were wora over their shoulders. By the 
 light of the lamps this robe looks very sacerdotal ; 
 and the shaven heads of the priests, together -nith 
 their devotional mien and attitude of prayer, make 
 them resemble monks of Catholic countries. Two 
 of the monks only stood at the altar before the 
 future Buddha (the present Buddha is considered 
 too sacred to offer him worship excepting through 
 a mediator) ; one of these priests beat a tom-tom 
 to regulate the chanting, the other struck a con- 
 cave gong. Many of the priests knelt at each 
 side of the shrine arranged before the idols of 
 the disciples of Buddha, who are worshipped as 
 intercessors. The monks at given times per- 
 formed the kau-tau, that is, they bent their 
 foreheads to the ground, and joined their hands, 
 turning the palms upwards as their heads rose 
 from the floor. This kau-tau was performed by 
 all the monks simultaneously, with perfect 
 gravity and solemnity. The chanting, which was 
 conducted in different keys, lasted about half 
 an hour. Then the officiating monk walked 
 slowly to the front of the altar, but making a 
 slight detour, as no one is considered holy enough 
 to approach direct even to the future Buddha. 
 He now took a small bronze cup in his hand 
 with rice in it, elevated it three times, then 
 walked backwards to his kneeling-mat in the 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 45 
 
 centre, at some distance from tlie altar, prostrated 
 himself, passed his hand over the vessel as if in 
 the act of consecrating the rice, and on rising 
 placed it on a small table outside the shrine for 
 the birds of the air. We were standing imme- 
 diately behind him, and could see most clearly 
 all he did. We then returned to a bench where 
 we had sat during the chanting, and witnessed 
 the procession of monks pass three times round 
 the shrine. They walked with hands joined in 
 the attitude of prayer, eyes cast down, and in 
 single file, repeating in plain-chant " 0-mi-to-fat," 
 the name of the future Buddha, or mediator. 
 Immediately before the procession started, the 
 officiating monk had performed the kau-tau to 
 the other priests, and all turning to the north; 
 had prostrated themselves, and worshipped 
 heaven. This service takes place daily, in the 
 morning and evening. The greatest decorum 
 and reverence had been observed by the monks. 
 Each priest had his place assigned to him ; he knelt 
 on the floor, his body upright, and his hands placed 
 together. The language used in the service is 
 the Pali, and many of the monks only learn the 
 service by rote, not understanding a word of it. 
 We went afterwards to see a large private house 
 belonging to one of the richest and first families 
 in Canton, of the name of 'Ng. We met the 
 
46 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 head of the family in the garden ; he sprang 
 forward, when he saw Henry, exclaiming, "lyah, 
 you come back from England, my heart too 
 muchee likee see you." He took us into his 
 private rooms, and to the room of mourning, 
 where there was a picture of his wife, who had 
 died three or four months before. An altar, 
 was arranged -in front of it. The walls of the 
 room were hung with banners of cloth, red and 
 purple in colour, on which were large characters 
 expressing sympathy to the bereaved. This 
 Chinese gentleman had evidently loved his wife, 
 and often said to Henry, who had known her, 
 " Oh, my wife have die, my wife have die, my 
 heart too muchee sorry." He had had only one 
 wife, and says he does not mean to marry again. 
 He showed us with much pride his private 
 sitting-room, furnished in the European style. 
 Yesterday we had a wonderful day's sightseeing. 
 Henry's old College friend still being with us, 
 there is even an extra inducement to go about 
 the city. Amongst the temples we visited was 
 one in which was a shrine for disconsolate 
 women. Those who have bad husbands take 
 pieces of paper cut out in the form of men 
 and stick them on to the altar, praying that 
 the goddess may give them back the love of 
 their husbands; sometimes ^you see the small 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 47 
 
 efSgies with the feet uppermost, meaning that 
 the heart is in the wrong place and requires 
 turning. Women who liave children prone to 
 take diseases, or who are troublesome, take paper 
 effigies of them with the names of the children 
 written on them. These papers are not more 
 than five or six inches in length, and they are 
 placed with the heads of the effigies hanging down, 
 the mothers thus asking the goddess, who is 
 supposed to have the power, to move the hearts of 
 the children into the right position, so that they 
 may become fortunate or good. The same is the 
 case with female slaves who have unkind mis- 
 tresses. We saw the Temple of the G-oddess of 
 Women and Children, and paid a second visit to 
 the large Five Hundred Disciples' Temple, where 
 we were regaled with tea and sweetmeats by the 
 monks. The abbot died a iew days ago, so the 
 monk who received us, being in deep mourning, 
 did not sit down with us, but deputed a friend to 
 do the honours. Two of the young priests, who 
 were pupils of the lately departed abbot, wore as 
 a sign of mourning white dresses with white bands 
 round their waists. We saw the coffin of the 
 abbot with a light bnrning under it, to induce 
 one of the three souls (which every man is 
 supposed to possess) to remain with the body. 
 We returned home very tired with our day's 
 
48 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 sightseeing, but with memories full of all the 
 interesting sights we had seen, and I was eager to 
 go into the city again to continue my exploration 
 of it. 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 Canton, April 22nd, 1877. 
 
 My dear Mother, 
 
 The day after I sent my letter to you, we 
 made up our minds to devote the whole afternoon 
 to visiting the charitable institutions of the city, 
 viz., the Eetreat for Poor Old Women, a similar 
 Eetreat for Old Men, the Blind Asylum, and the 
 Foundling Hospital. In the Eetreats for Aged 
 Men and Women, each person is given a small 
 house to live in, and these houses are buHt in long 
 rows. The pittance these poor people receive 
 from Government is very small, and as soon as 
 they see a stranger they hold out their baskets, 
 calling out "kumshaw, kumshaw." No one 
 is supposed to reside in these alms-houses who 
 is under sixty years of age; but, as relations 
 and friends of the old people find it convenient 
 to pay them long visits, we saw numbers of 
 young women and children living in these chari- 
 table institutions. Several of the old people were 
 over eighty years of age. I was much struck 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 49 
 
 with one room we visited ; its occupant was very 
 aged, and in a corner, exposed to view, there 
 was a coffin ready for the old man. It had evi- 
 dently been a birthday gift * to him from some 
 relation, and it made his mind easy to know 
 that he would not be wanting this much-prized 
 covering when he died. The Chinese consider 
 tha,t one of the three souls animating a human 
 body accompanies it to the grave, and is made 
 happy when the body which it inhabited is en- 
 closed in a coffin. 
 
 In the Asylum for Old Women we met with 
 many small-footed women, and Henry was deter- 
 mined I should see one of these poor deformed 
 feet unbandaged. An old woman, who heard 
 what we required, said she would, if we gave her 
 a kumshaw, take us to a house where a young 
 woman, who had unusually small feet, was on a 
 visit to its aged inmate. When we arrived at 
 the door, we were surrounded by a crowd of old 
 women. They knocked at the door and desired 
 the young woman to speak to us. When she was 
 told our errand, she looked very shy, and said 
 that she could not unbandage her foot. We 
 showed her a five-cent piece, and she then con- 
 sented to let " Nai-nai " go with her into her room, 
 
 * It is not unusual for Chinese to preseut their aged parents 
 and aged relations with coffins as birthday gilts. 
 
 E 
 
50 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 and to let me see her foot. But our friend, who 
 much wished also to see it, attempted to accom- 
 pany me, upon which the young woman ' refused 
 to remove the bandages. So we were obliged to 
 leave the house. In the meantime the old women 
 had placed a form for us outside the door, and 
 they were most energetic in their endeavours to 
 persuade the young woman to comply with our 
 request. In order to overcome her scruples, 
 Henry told her that he and our friend were both 
 old men, he with his white hair, and his friend 
 wearing a long beard. They meant no harm, he 
 added. The old women used these arguments 
 secondhand with great vehemence. At last a 
 string of one hundred cash, in value about five 
 pence, was added to the first offer, and it was all 
 put into the hand of the young woman. This 
 temptation proved too strong for her to resist 
 any longer, and she sat down upon the bench, re- 
 moved her tiny embroidered shoe, and unrolled the 
 bandage. This bandage takes the place of a 
 stocking with all Chinese women who have con- 
 tracted feet, and in the case of ladies it is made 
 in bright-coloured wide ribbon. The maimed 
 foot vas a sad sight, utterly deformed. The toes 
 were crushed under the sole of the foot, reachino- 
 to the under part of the big toe. They were sore 
 and slightly bleeding, and the sole of the foot 
 
FOUETEBN MONTHS IN CANTON, 51 
 
 upon which they were crushed was also raw. The 
 toes (excepting the large toe) were not visible on 
 the front of the foot. The heel was so much 
 squeezed that it was square in shape, and ended 
 in a hard ridge of flesh. I saw a deep division 
 between it and the sole. The crushed feet sel- 
 dom heal, and from the young woman's manner 
 I am sure it hurt her much when she touched 
 her foot. Yet the bandage must be removed 
 daily in order to wash the foot, else it would 
 become most offensive. Nothing I have read or 
 heard of the compression of the feet of Chinese 
 females, made me fully realise how sad the 
 custom is, until I saw this young woman's foot. 
 
 The bandaging does not commence until the 
 little girl is four or five years of age. The feet 
 are then bound with a strip of calico. This 
 is tightened by degrees until, after some years' 
 suffering, the poor feet are crushed into the desired 
 shape. It is very distressing, they say, to hear 
 the screams of a little child when the bandages 
 are being removed, or when they are being drawn 
 tighter. The ankle becomes a straight bone, 
 and the leg loses all shape, and resembles a 
 stilt. A Chinese lady looks elegant until she 
 moves, when she loses all grace to our eyes (not, 
 though, to the Chinese, who consider the gait of a 
 small-footed woman most elegant), as she hobbles 
 
 E 2 
 
52 FOUKTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 about, Bupporting herself on the arm of her 
 attendant. 
 
 From this Eefuge for Old Women we went on 
 to the Foundling Hospital, where a most sad spec- 
 tacle presented itself to our eyes. This building 
 is Tery dark and dreary, and the little ones told a 
 sad tale of neglect with their starved, pinched faces. 
 Many of them looked like little shrivelled-up 
 monkeys. These poor unfortunate infants are all 
 girls, sent to the asylum by fathers disappointed 
 of their hope of having sons, and not caring for 
 the expense and trouble of bringing up these 
 poor, uncared-for female children. The little 
 things are parted from their mothers often when 
 only a few hours old, and in this hospital as many 
 as three are often given to one woman to be 
 nourished by her. The greater number soon die, 
 and one must look upon them as the more for- 
 tunate children, as those who live are sold for 
 slaves, or are brought up to a life worse than 
 slavery. I saw one little baby, perhaps a month 
 old, which had a fearful cough, like an old man's 
 asthmatic cough. The woman to whose care it 
 was entrusted said it was an unfortunate little 
 thing, and from her manner you could see she 
 considered that it was not worth notice, being under 
 tlie displeasure of the gods, and so doomed to die 
 early. Babies are considered unlucky when they 
 
POUETBEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 53 
 
 die young, aud are buried without form or cere- 
 mony ; in fact, sometimes they are wrapped up in 
 matting and thrown into the river. From all 
 accounts it seems to be too true that the cus- 
 tom of killing female children is still practised, 
 particularly in those districts occupied by the 
 Hakkas. 
 
 The other day, when we had our luncheon at 
 the farmhouse in a valley beyond the White 
 Cloud Mountains, we noticed that all the children, 
 and there were many round us, were boys, and 
 we asked each other the question. Where are the 
 female children ? This village I speak of is in- 
 habited by Hakkas. Every now and then a kind 
 of mission, under the auspices of the Chinese 
 literati, is preached against infanticide. In the 
 heart of the city there is a square called Pi-ai-ting, 
 and in this square sermons are preached daily on 
 this and other subjects. When we were in it a 
 few days since, we saw a large illustrated paper 
 posted against the wall. , There were about eight 
 pictures representing a wicked woman guilty of 
 infanticide. In one illustration the attendant 
 was preparing a wine bath in which to drown the 
 female child, the mother being present. In the 
 second the mother was dropping her child into 
 this bath. In others the mother appeared before 
 the god of Hades to be punished, and the last 
 
54 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 representation showed you a serpent, with a 
 baby's head, rising to devonr the guilty woman. 
 
 We found the Asylum for the Blind a sadly 
 neglected place, and the charity much abused. 
 We were struck by observing that a large number 
 of the inmates had the full use of their eyesight, 
 and on inquiry we found these were friends and 
 relations of the blind, who live with them and 
 share the profits gained by begging. The blind 
 are not well cared for, as they are supposed to be 
 under the displeasure of the gods, or suffering 
 from sins committed in another stage of existence. 
 And now, having seen all we had planned to see, 
 we returned home. 
 
 On Friday last we made rather a perilous ex- 
 cursion down the river as far as the Lin-Fa-Shan 
 Pagoda, which is about twenty-four miles from 
 Canton. Knowing that we had a long day's work 
 before us, we started from home at half-past six a.m. 
 A slipper boat was in readiness to take us. As I have 
 not told you what these boats are like, I will try to 
 do so now. They are in the exact form of a slip- 
 per, and the passengers sit as it were on the instep 
 under the mat covering by which this part of the 
 boat is enclosed. Three men stand in the heel, 
 as it were, of the slipper, a fourth sits down and 
 assists in propelling one of the oars. They can 
 send these boats very quickly through the water. 
 
FOTJETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 55 
 
 Henry, our friend, myself and our old coolie, sat 
 upon the floor of the boat, and I found in this, 
 my second experience of a slipper boat, the 
 position very cramped, the movement of the 
 boat rolling, producing in me a feeling of sea- 
 sickness, and I felt altogether uneasy in it. We 
 passed Whampoa, which was about halfway to the 
 place of our destination, and as I went along 
 I was much interested in all the river craft 
 and in the sights along the banks of the river. 
 When we were within an hour of our journey's end, 
 the river became very rough, and I felt thoroughly 
 sea-sick, nervous, and miserable. We landed 
 about one o'clock and found ourselves at some 
 considerable distance from the pagoda, with a 
 good hill to climb between it and ourselves. We 
 first had to walk in single file along a narrow, 
 muddy path between some large ponds, then to 
 climb by a small waterfall over some very rough 
 ground. After this, we had to find our way 
 between some patches of cultivated land, and a 
 hillside covered with small mounds, which I 
 discovered were tombs. A burial-place in the 
 south of China is never surrounded by walls, 
 and graves are placed in all directions upon 
 the sides of hills. There were a few granite 
 tombs, but the far larger number were merely 
 little hillocks of earth. We arrived at the nine 
 
56 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 storied "pagoda at last, and immediately began 
 its ascent. This pagoda is yery ancient, and 
 the stone staircase very much broken ; but, with 
 perseverance, we mounted eight of its storeys. 
 We found that the ninth storey was blocked 
 up in consequence of its dilapidated state. 
 The view became more and more extensive and 
 more beautiful as we mounted higher and higher. 
 The wind was very high, too much so for my 
 comfort. I wanted both hands to help me to 
 scramble up the broken staircase, the stones 
 giving way, and rattling down as we tried to 
 stand upon them; but the wind was so strong, 
 especially when we came to the openings in the 
 wall, that I was obliged to hold on my hat, which 
 occasionally lifted itself from my head in a very 
 suspicious manner. The pagoda is made of brick 
 and is about five hundred years old. The descent 
 was very tiresome, and I sometimes required the 
 assistance of my two companions. 
 
 On leaving the pagoda we went into the City 
 of Eefage, which is close by. It is merely a large 
 space shut in by a thick wall, having a path along 
 the top of it. This place is intended for, and has 
 been used as, a place of refuge for women and 
 children of the neighbouring villages, when at- 
 tacked by pirates or other enemies. The cattle 
 are then driven up here, and the place is defended 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 57 
 
 by the men belonging to the villages attacked. We 
 afterwards went to see some very extensive caverns 
 about a mile from this walled enclosure. They 
 are said to be natural caverns, but Henry looks 
 upon them as artificially made, probably by the 
 Buddhist monks as places for solitude and ab- 
 straction. He has seen similar, but incomparably 
 finer, caverns in India. The ferns growing around 
 and over the caverns we were visiting were 
 lovely, and some of the fronds were of gigantic 
 size. After we had enjoyed a three hours' 
 ramble on shore we returned to our slipper boat 
 and commenced our homeward journey. The 
 wind was now in our favour, so the boatmen 
 hoisted a sail, and rested a little time from their 
 labours. We made slow progress, however, and 
 it was long before we came to another object 
 of interest, the Temple of Hung-Sing-Wong, the 
 god of the Southern Ocean. 
 . It is a very fine large temple, and is the only 
 State temple of this god. Many emperors of China, 
 on ascending the throne, have sent ambassadors 
 from Pekin to this temple to offer worship in their 
 names to this idol, and this at a considerable 
 cost. The prayers offered on these occasions have 
 been engraved on black marble slabs, which have 
 been placed in the corridor enclosing the large 
 quadrangle. 
 
58 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 There is a black idol in this temple, much 
 thought of and much worshipped. No one can 
 say what personage it is intended to represent; 
 some think it is in memory of a Buddhist mission- 
 ary from India ; others, in memory of a black sailor 
 who was cast on shore at this spot. The Buddhist 
 missionary is said to have died suddenly in an up- 
 right position while standing at the gate of the 
 temple, and the Chinese therefore consider that he 
 was translated without dying to Elysium. The 
 country is very pretty in the neighbourhood of 
 this temple, and from a small hill close to it, called 
 Polo-shan, we saw a most lovely sunset. 
 
 On taking our seats again in our small boat, we 
 hoisted sail, and made our way slowly through 
 the darkness, which now set in, to Whampoa, 
 We did not reach this place until a quarter to 
 nine p.m. After waiting half an hour there for 
 Henry, who had some arrangements to make about 
 the Sunday evening services, we started for home. 
 We were feeling very tired by this time, and 
 our friend kindly volunteered to sing to us. 
 After listening to several songs I became drowsy, 
 and was obliged to confess, on cross-examination, 
 that I had not heard some half dozen of them. 
 It was now lightning and thundering, but there 
 were bright spots in the sky between the heavy 
 clouds. 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 59 
 
 Suddenly the whole heavens became overcast 
 with a blackness that one could feel. As our 
 friend was in the middle of a song, I did not 
 like to interrupt him by drawing attention to 
 the sudden alarming change in the sky. But in 
 a few seconds, before the song had come to an 
 end, the squall was upon us. The first burst of 
 it was tremendous, and the boatmen were alarmed 
 and began to talk in a loud and high key. For- 
 tunately our sail was down, though the little mast 
 was still up. One of the boatmen climbed like a 
 monkey over the top of the boat to take it down ; the 
 others took a long bamboo pole out of the boat, 
 and most fortunately were able to drive it into 
 the ground, and so tie our boat to it. The rush 
 of wind was fearful, and it seemed to me that our 
 boat must be capsized by it. It shook it as a cat 
 shakes a rat she has between her teeth. Then 
 down came a tremendous rain such as you can 
 only have in the tropics ; this was accompanied 
 by most vivid lightning and heavy thunder. 
 The boatmen drew a covering over their heads, 
 and made things as water-tight as possible, but a 
 great deal of wet leaked in upon us. I was terrified 
 when the storm of wind burst, for I had never expe- 
 rienced such a sudden squall before. We remained 
 at anchor for nearly an hour, and as the storm 
 was then over, we pursued our weary way, making 
 
60 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 slow progress, as our boatmen were now worn out 
 with their long day's work. We were about half- 
 way from Whampoa to Canton when the storm 
 surprised us, so we had six miles or more to pull 
 before we could reach our destination. I thought 
 the men must give in and fall asleep, they were so 
 wearied. At a foot's pace we crawled on through 
 never-ending mud-banks, and at length, at four 
 o'clock A.M., arrived at our landing-stage. I 
 wonder if the tortoise felt as tired when he reached 
 the goal as we did when we landed at Shameen. 
 
 Seven long hours had elapsed since we left 
 Whampoa. All our servants came out on the 
 bund to meet us, and inquired "Alio men 
 well?" I asked our compradore what they 
 meant, and he said, " We alio fear, very big wind, 
 too muchee fear that largee wind have broke that 
 boat, and alio men have die." 
 
 The boat-people about Shameen had been 
 much terrified by the squall, Mak said, and had 
 called upon their gods to save them. This is a 
 treacherous river with very strong currents, and 
 at this time of year, especially, the tides are 
 very high. The following day Henry called upon 
 the captain of a steamer anchored opposite our 
 house, and also went on board a gunboat. The 
 officers of both vessels said that it had been a 
 very heavy gale, and were surprised to hear 
 
FOUETBEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 61 
 
 we had been out' in it. Providentially we 
 happened to be at the side of the river, and in 
 shallow water, when the squall burst upon us; 
 had we been in the centre of the river our 
 boat must have been capsized. 
 
 LETTEE YI. 
 
 Cantox, April 28th, 1877. 
 
 My dear Mothee, 
 
 I HAVE been very fortunate since I last 
 wrote to you, in being able to see a funereal cere- 
 mony in one of the houses belonging to a Chinese 
 gentleman. He is a friend of Henry's, and as we 
 saw the usual emblems of mourning at the door of 
 the house, Henry took me in, glad of the oppor- 
 tunity of showing me the ceremony, which he 
 knew would then be going on. We entered 
 a large hall, at the end of which stood the 
 coffin of the deceased, who proved to be an aunt' 
 of the master of the house. In front of it an 
 altar had been placed, on which offerings of 
 various kinds, candles, and incense burners were 
 arranged. A large coloured portrait of the 
 deceased lady hung on the wall behind. By 
 the side of the altar life-size figures made in 
 paper, representing attendants, were placed ; 
 
62 FOUKTEEN MONTHS IK OAJSfTON. 
 
 various paper representations, such as sedan 
 chairs of ordinary size, fans, dresses, and boxes, 
 were placed about the hall, ready to be burnt 
 as oiTerings. These superstitious people believe 
 that by the action of fire the spirit of the 
 thing represented passes into Elysium, and is 
 then at the service of the soul of the deceased. 
 Many coloured banners presented by friends of 
 the family, containing words complimentary to 
 the deceased, covered the walls. A pretty 
 young lady now came forward from the interior 
 of the house, dressed in plain cotton mourning 
 garments. The Chinese etiquette is most strict 
 on this point, no silk garments and no rouge 
 (which ordinarily is worn to the greatest degree 
 by the ladies) is allowed during the prescribed 
 period of mourning. The youug lady was a 
 daughter-in-law of the deceased. It is difiicult 
 to convey to your mind the number of people 
 contained in a Chinese gentleman's house ; a whole 
 clan lives together, each male member of the 
 clan bringing his bride home to his ancestral 
 house. The young lady and her sister, who had 
 joined her — both small-footed women — now put 
 on white sackcloth cloaks and hoods, the latter 
 completely covering their faces, and began, after 
 prostrating themselves, to wail the dead. It was 
 a curious sight to see these two, who had up to 
 
FOUETBEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 63 
 
 the moment of covering themselves with the 
 mourning cloaks, laughed and chatted with one 
 another, suddenly throw themselves on the ground 
 and howl and moan, their heads swaying about to 
 the cadence of their wailing. One felt the whole 
 scene was unreal, merely a necessary piece of 
 ceremonial. The husband of the young lady who 
 first came in, a fine young man also dressed in 
 white, with a pipe in his mouth, walked up and 
 down, and acted as master of the ceremonies. 
 After the two ladies had wailed piteously to all 
 appearance for five minutes, the young man gave 
 the signal for them to cease. They rose imme- 
 diately and at once took off their mourning outer 
 garb. We went into a very pretty, quaint garden 
 at the back of the house, in which was the in- 
 variable pond with a bridge over it. We now 
 left the house and went on to the temple, 
 called by the Chinese, " Ten Thousand Years 
 Palace," but known to Europeans by the name of 
 the Emperor's Temple. 
 
 We passed through a massive granite arch, and 
 saw the lofty roof of the temple covered with 
 yellow tiles, which denotes that it is a State 
 endowment. We then went through two court- 
 yards into a quadrangle enclosed by cloisters. Im- 
 mediately opposite the large entrance gates stands 
 the great shrine, containing the tablet of the 
 
64 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 emperor. In the centre of the paved pathway, 
 and also on the steps leading immediately to 
 the shrine, I saw two or three figures of dragons, 
 and a representation of the sun engraved on the 
 stone pavement. No person, it is supposed, will 
 be sacrilegious enough to tread on these sacred 
 emblems, and therefore no one will dare to walk 
 straight towards the throne of majesty, on which 
 the imperial tablet rests. The shrine is enclosed 
 by red-stained walls, and the roof is covered 
 by yellow tiles. On entering the shrine we saw a 
 facsimile of the dragon throne at Pekin. It is 
 most elaborately carved and gilded, and is ap- 
 proached by nine steps. The imperial tablet is in 
 red, on which in letters of gold is the following in- 
 scription, " May the Emperor reign ten thousand 
 years, ten thousand times ten thousand years." An 
 altar stands in front of the throne, on each side of 
 which are arranged the insignia of royalty. At 
 the end of the second quadrangle of this temple 
 stands a shrine similar to the one we had just 
 left, which is erected in honour of the empress. 
 In it is a tablet bearing this inscription, " May 
 the Empress live one thousand years, one thou- 
 sand times one thousand years." All the man- 
 darins, both civil and military, worship in this 
 temple on the first day of the year, and on the 
 birthdays of the emperor and empress, ^ere 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 65 
 
 they prostrate themselves and weep when an 
 emperor or empress dies. All officials who may 
 have occasion to pass this temple must alight 
 from their horses, or sedan chairs, and walk past 
 its gates as a mark of reverence to their imperial 
 majesties. 
 
 I was much amused at seeing innumerable 
 cakes of white wax which were lying on the floor 
 of the second shrine ; some hundreds of these 
 cakes looking like white cheeses were there. It is 
 a costly gift annually presented by the wax mer- 
 chants of Canton to the emperor. One hundred 
 and ten pieuls constitute the quantity, and each 
 piculwas, Henry says, in 1873, worth eighty dollars. 
 This insect wax comes from the province of 
 Szechuen, but when it arrives at Canton it is not 
 quite white. Therefore the cakes are broken up 
 into little pieces, placed in sieves, standing on 
 white metal vessels. They are placed in caldrons 
 of boiling water, and the pieces of wax as they 
 melt fall tlirough the sieves into these vessels. 
 When congealed, the wax is made into cakes and 
 exposed to the sun. It certainly was dazzlingly 
 white when we saw it ready for packing. 
 
 On our way to this temple we visited a large 
 hall belonging to the Tea Guild.* In its garden, 
 which I found most interesting, is the original 
 * The Guild of the Green Tea Merchants. 
 
 F 
 
66 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 quaint bridge and scenery, from which tlie willow 
 pattern (or rather that part of it which is not 
 mythological) was taken. The truth was, that a 
 young lady eloped with a neighbour from this 
 garden. The angry father and gardener are 
 represented in the willow pattern on this bridge 
 pursuing the runaway couple. No Cliinese story, 
 however, would be considered interesting without 
 a dash of the marvellous, and therefore they pro- 
 ceed to say that, as the angry father was in the 
 act of catcbing the runaway couple, the goddess 
 of marriage interposed, and metamorphosed them 
 into a pair of turtle doves. This episode, Henry 
 says, is a favourite subject on the Chinese stage. I 
 very much admired the curious small gateways 
 and windows I saw in this garden ; some were in 
 the form of leaves and others in the form of fruits 
 and flowers. After leaving this guild we went over 
 a lacquer-ware factory, and watched the different 
 processes of painting, colouring, etc. 
 
 I have forgotten to tell you of one incident of 
 our day's excursion. Before we reached the im- 
 perial temple, we arrived at a small turning, as 
 it appeared to be, and Henry came to my chair 
 and asked me to alight. I walked with him on 
 to a narrow, long strip of ground, on which various 
 pieces of pottery were lying about. Its name, 
 from the supposed similarity of shape, is Horse's 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 67 
 
 Head. When asked to guess where I was, I 
 failed to give an answer. I was then told I was 
 standing on the execution ground. Before I 
 knew this, however, a nice-looking young man 
 came forward from one of the small neighbouring 
 houses, where his wife, child, and mother were 
 standing on the doorstep. Imagine my amaze- 
 ment when Henry told me this was one of the 
 four executioners employed by the authorities. 
 When asked how many heads had fallen to his 
 svvord abeady, he replied one hundred and seventy, 
 and said that on the day following there was to 
 be an execution on a large scale, in which he 
 hoped to have a share. We heard that forty 
 pirates were to be decapitated. Our friend, who 
 was with us, arranged at once to be present. I 
 saw the crosses on which the men are tied who 
 are condemned to be strangled, or to be cut into 
 pieces, also some large earthenware vessels con- 
 taining the heads of several malefactors who had 
 been decapitated a few days previous to our visit. 
 I trust that I may never meet a procession on 
 its way to this place teeming with horrors. 
 
 The unfortunate criminals are pinioned tightly, 
 are then placed in baskets, and superscriptions, 
 fastened to strips of bamboo, are placed behind 
 their necks, stating their names, their crimes, 
 and their punishments.; in this way they are 
 
 jp 2 
 
68. FOUETEEJ^- MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 carried to tbe execution ground. After all I 
 had heard of the wholesale executions in China, 
 the smallness of the ground, and its unprepared 
 state when we visited it, struck me very much. 
 On quitting this field of blood, we passed through 
 the street called Wing-Ts'ing-Kai, celebrated 
 as the place where the Erench put to death 
 ninety-six persons, men, women, and children, 
 when the city was occupied by the armies of 
 Great Britain and France. This was to avenge 
 the death of a cook from a French man-of-war, 
 who had been assassinated by some Chinese in 
 a provision shop in this street. 
 
 We proceeded from the lacquer-ware factory 
 (where I broke off from my narrative) to the 
 Examination Hall, a place used once in three 
 years for the examination of those who have 
 already taken their B.A. degree, but who are 
 anxious to obtain the higher degree of Kue-Tan, 
 or M.A. The number is very great of those who 
 assemble in this hall for this purpose, frequently 
 exceeding 12,000 or 13,000. Out of this large num- 
 ber of candidates possibly not more than 120 can 
 obtain the degree, as the number is limited by law 
 in each province. It seems to correspond to the 
 patient nature of a Chinese, that a man should 
 try again and again for his degree under such 
 difficult circumstances. The hall consists of a large 
 
FOUETBEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 69 
 
 quadrangle ; branching from each side of it are 
 several long rows or streets of cells, each cell 
 being five feet six inches in length, and not more 
 than three feet eight inches wide. They are open 
 in front ; each cell is provided, during the ex- 
 amination, with a bed, which simply consists of 
 seven or eight narrow deal boards. Some of these 
 boards removed from their place by day serve the 
 candidate for a table, and those remaining in 
 their grooves are used by him as a seat. These 
 streets of cells are named by characters from the 
 " One Thousand Character Classic " and each 
 cell is numbered, so the examiners have no 
 difficulty in summoning any particular candidate 
 from his cell. 
 
 In the centre of the quadrangle stands a 
 pavilion, made in the form of a triple gateway, 
 to which the name of Watch Tower is applied. 
 The two examiners for each province are de- 
 spatched from Pekin and are received in the 
 provincial capitals with great honours. The 
 candidates enter the hall according to their 
 counties (at least those who can get in, for the 
 crush is so great that some do not succeed in 
 pushing in until a late hour), at the early hour of 
 four A.M., and have to answer to their names at 
 the second and also the third gates of the hall. 
 Before they enter the latter gate they are provided 
 
70 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 with sheets of paper on which to write essays and 
 poems. The candidates have / previously paid 
 for their paper at the temple of Kwan-tai, the 
 god of war. At the third gate of the Examination 
 Hall they are searched, to ascertain whether they 
 have provided themselves with " cribs " in the 
 form of small pocket editions of the classics. 
 
 A cook and a waiter are allotted to each ten 
 candidates, and they are pledged to hold no com- 
 munication with them. During the early part of 
 the examination, the candidates, who vary in age 
 from eighteen to eighty, remain three days in 
 their cells, and are engaged in writing essays and 
 poems. The successful candidates in this first 
 examination go in again for another term of three 
 days, when they have to write five essays from 
 themes selected from the five classics. Those suc- 
 cessful in this second examination have yet to go in 
 for another and final examination, which consists 
 of five papers on any subjects chosen by the 
 examiners. Out of those who have thus passed 
 through three times three days of hard examina- 
 tion only 120, as I have already stated, may be 
 chosen. I have forgotten to mention that the 
 emperor provides for each candidate, during his 
 stay in the Examination Hall, the food follow- 
 ing : — four taels of pork, four taels of ham, six 
 taels of salt fish, congee water, four moon cakes 
 
FOXJETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 71 
 
 a quantity of rice, a preserved egg, and a modi- 
 cum of pickled vegetables. Those who obtain 
 their M.A. degree wear a dress peculiar to tlie 
 degree, and a gilded ornament on the top of their 
 hats, and are invited to dine with the governor 
 of the province, when the examination is over. 
 
 They are presented to the chief officials at the 
 banquet, and then are required to perform the kau- 
 tau before the imperial tablet. They are afterwards 
 escorted through the streets by their friends. 
 Their names are publislied throughout the pro- 
 vince of which they are natives. The last act of 
 the scene is a douceur given by the newly made 
 Masters of Arts to the examiners. I am afraid I 
 shall weary you with our long day's proceedings. 
 As our friend was with us we were most anxious 
 for him to see all that was possible for him to 
 see during his visit. So, weary as we began 
 to feel, we went on to the " City of the Dead," 
 one of the strangest and most unique places I 
 have ever visited. The two gentlemen were on 
 foot all day. I was in a chair, as I could not 
 do such a day's sightseeing with the additional 
 fatigue of walking long distances. The " City of 
 the Dead," (so foreigners style these places con- 
 taining the dead) was at some distance from the 
 Examination Hall and very far from Shameen. It 
 is very difficult to convey to you any idea of this 
 
72 FOUETEEN MONTHS' IN CANTON. 
 
 strange, silent city laid out in streets, and on each 
 side of flhich are rows of small one-storied houses 
 built in stone. I think the only simile I can draw 
 is that of rows of small almshouses. Imagine the 
 death-lilce stillness that prevails in this place, 
 where each house is occupied only by the dead. 
 In most cases the room containing the large 
 wooden cofSn is divided into two. The first 
 division contains an altar, which has in many 
 cases a light burning over it, and effigies in 
 paper, life size, or nearly so, of male and 
 female attendants, standing by it. There are 
 paper flowers often on the altar ; the decora- 
 tions vary much, according to the rank of the 
 deceased. I saw, in some cases, outside the 
 doors red boards and insignia of rank. In the 
 middle of the inner division of the room is the 
 large uncovered coffin with the foot of it towards 
 the door. On entering one of these houses of the 
 dead, our friend inadvertently touched one of 
 the paper effigies, which represented a female 
 attendant ; she fell into our friend's arms and her 
 neck became dislocated. We could not forbear 
 a smile even in these grim surroundings. As all 
 cannot afibrd to pay a sufficient sum for their 
 relations to have a room to themselves in this 
 temporary resting-place, you see four or more 
 coffins in some of the rooms. In one large room I 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 73 
 
 noticed as many as twelve coffins. The doors of 
 the houses are folding doors and can be pushed 
 open easily. We entered many of them, as we 
 passed down street after street. This large city 
 of the dead has 194 houses in it. The dead only 
 remain here for a time. The relations consult 
 the geomancers as to a lucky spot for interment, 
 and sometimes these soothsayers take a long time 
 before they giye an answer. Whilst therefore the 
 relations wait to be assured of a lucky spot for bury- 
 ing their lost ones (a point much thought of by the 
 Chinese, who are most superstitiously anxious to 
 avoid all cause of offence towards the dead), they 
 place them in these receptacles, and pay so 
 much a month for the resting-place. Sometimes a 
 delay in interment must take place in the case 
 of those who die at a distance from their homes. 
 It is imperatively necessary for a man to be 
 gathered to his own after death, for the purpose of 
 ancestral worship ; should he be buried away from 
 home, his spirit, unhappy and dissatisfied at being 
 deprived of the homage of his descendants, might 
 rove about seeking to injure the living to tlie utmost 
 of its power. At the entrance of this City of the 
 Dead is a very large piece of water surrounded 
 by trees, inhabited by hundreds and hundreds of 
 storks. These birds are considered sacred in China. 
 The sombre water with its deep shades, and these 
 
74 FOXJETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 birds uttering their dismal uote, form a fitting 
 entrance to a place devoted to such a purpose as 
 this City of the Dead. The only living beings 
 here are a few Buddhist monks, whose duty it is to 
 receive the dead who are brought here, and to pray 
 for the repose of their souls. One is startled to 
 see a white cock run out of one or other of these 
 houses of the dead; but I learned from Henry 
 that this proceeds also from a gross superstition. 
 The white cock is supposed to attract the soul 
 of the dead by its Growing, and thus to prevent 
 the spirit wandering away from the body.* 
 
 My chair coolies seemed to be much relieved 
 when it was suggested that we should return home 
 by boat. As my two companions had walked and 
 stood about for many hours, they did not feel 
 equal to the five miles' walk home, so we made 
 our way to the banks of the river, hired a sampan, 
 and after very slow progress, iu consequence of 
 the strong tide being against us, arrived home 
 after eight o'clock p.m., tired and more than ready 
 for our dinner. 
 
 * As I have previously observed, the Chinese believe that each 
 human body is animated by three souls : the first of which is 
 supposed to remain with a tablet bearing the name of the 
 deceased, placed in the ancestral temple ; the second to remain 
 with the corpse ; and the third to go to Elysium. 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 75 
 
 LETTEE VII. 
 
 Cakton, May 4tb, 1877. 
 
 Mt dear Mother, 
 
 I THINK you will be somewhat surprised 
 to hear that we have had a small seance in the 
 Chaplaincy, given by a Chinese spiritualist. He 
 called upon us, and asked to be allowed to give 
 a performance at our house. We inquired his 
 terms, and found that he expected five dollars for 
 an evening's entertainment. This we thought 
 too much to give, as we did not know the man's 
 capabilities ; but, on talking it over with this fine 
 gentlemanly Chinese, he proposed to give one 
 of his wonders for a dollar. On our assenting, 
 he requested that a large round table should 
 be brought from the servants' room, and this 
 was then placed feet upwards on a small basin 
 of water. Four of our servants were now 
 called in, and each was told to place one of 
 his hands on a foot of the table. The per- 
 former then began to walk round and round 
 the table, first with, slow and measured step, 
 lighted joss-sticks in his hands, and his lips 
 employed in using words of incantation. After 
 about four minutes' delay, the table began to 
 
76 FOUBTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 turn slowly, but on the performer quickening 
 his step, it increased its speed, until both table and 
 performer were running round and round. The 
 incantation was continued the whole time in an 
 undertone. It was a strange sight, and one not 
 to be accounted for. There was no connection 
 of hands on the part of the four servants, and 
 one of the latter turned literally green from 
 fright as the table whirled round and round. 
 When the performer, out of breath, stood still, 
 the table also rested from its labours. We asked 
 him how he had accomplished this feat, and in a 
 subdued voice he answered, "It is Joss (God) 
 that does it, I pray to him." He wished much 
 to show us how he could call up the spirits of 
 the departed and make them answer him. This 
 table-turning, clairvoyancy, spirit communion, etc., 
 have been practised in China for many centuries 
 past. When the performer had left we asked 
 our coolie, who had looked so scared, what he 
 thought of the table-turning, and he said, "belong 
 Joss pigeon, my no savez what Joss." 
 
 We were not able to start for our sight- 
 seeing yesterday until late, as the rain was 
 coming down in torrents. It is now the rainy 
 season, and everything is damp. Our marble- 
 paved hall looks as if buckets of water had been 
 thrown over it, and we are obliged to keep a 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON, 77 
 
 fire night and day in the library for the sake of 
 Henry's books. 
 
 You will be amused to hear that we have a 
 coolie whose duty is simply to rub the books 
 to prevent the damp from spoiling them, and to 
 see that white ants are not attacking them. 
 He is supposed to take down a certain number 
 of books daily, and to rub each in turn. He 
 is such a curious-looking old fellow, and works 
 deliberately with long pauses, and an occasional 
 wh.iff of a pipe to ligliten, I suppose, his arduous 
 duties. Of course he is related to our chief ser- 
 vant. You will find in all houses that the com- 
 pradore surrounds himself with his relations. 
 The old man of whom I speak is Mak's uncle, 
 our second waiting-boy is Mat's son, and one of 
 our coolies is Mak's cousin. The whole arrange- 
 ment of domestic concerns in China is curious. 
 You pay so much, say seven or eight dollars, to 
 your boys, so many dollars monthly to your 
 coolies. But this in its entirety is not enjoyed 
 by them. Each must pay a kumshaw, probably 
 of a dollar a month, to the compradore ; and again, 
 if a boy or coolie recommends his friend to you 
 and you engage him, the latter has to give to 
 the former a kumshaw of at least half-a-doUar, 
 possibly a dollar a month, all the time he 
 remains in your service. This custom is very 
 
78 POTJKTBEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 much, against the European householders. The 
 same system of kumshaw is practised from the 
 highest to the lowest in the empire. Should you 
 go to a shop recommended you by your servant, 
 he receives a douceur proportionate, I imagine, to 
 what you buy. The chair coolies when hired from 
 the streets by your compradore are squeezed by 
 him. Again, the money used in China is a source 
 of never-ending trouble to us foreigners. Henry 
 writes a cheque for our monthly account with the 
 outside compradore (provision dealer) and for other 
 expenses. On this being presented to the com- 
 pradore of the merchant on wliom the cheque is 
 drawn, this man gives the sum in light dollars. 
 Our compradore receiving these, keeps them 
 and pays the provision merchant, shopmen, 
 etc., in still lighter dollars. So that there is 
 constant contention on this subject. When we 
 make a purchase, before the bargain is quite con- 
 eluded, the man with whom we are treating will 
 stipulate for " number one good dollars," " ploper 
 dollars," as he calls them. The whole system is 
 iniquitous, but you must submit, there is no plan 
 by which you can escape this robbery ; the only 
 thing you can do is to limit it as much as possi- 
 ble. I could scarcely forbear laughing when the 
 provision dealer showed us the other day two or 
 three dollars Mak had given him on our account. 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 79 
 
 Sucli things they were, very thin, with large pieces 
 cut out of them. Whea Chinese bargain with each 
 other, the men on both sides weigh tlie money, and 
 you see most earnest faces bent on this employ- 
 ment, and a quarrel or wrangle ensues if the money 
 is a fraction under weight. To make up for the 
 clipped dollar, some dollars are chipped into pieces, 
 and these fragments are put into the scale to 
 make up the weight. No man trusts the other, and 
 I have been most amused, when passing through 
 the streets where food is sold, to see the purchaser 
 take his own scales out and weigh the small 
 portion of fish, fowl, or vegetable that he is 
 buying, to be sure that he is not being cheated 
 of a tithe of his rights. 
 
 This is a long digression from the subject of 
 the sightseeing that we accomplished yesterday. 
 On first starting, we were fortunate enough to 
 see a marriage feast at the house of a Chinese 
 gentleman. The bride had only just arrived at 
 her future home. We were all allowed to go into 
 an inner room to see her, as, she and her i'emale 
 friends take no public part in the marriage feast. 
 When we had entered the room, her two female 
 attendants, who stood on each side of her, and 
 assisted her to rise from her seat (this is strict 
 Chinese etiquette, a bride not being expected 
 to move by herself), lifted up the pearl and silk 
 
80 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 fringe which hung over her face from the gay- 
 crown she wore on her head. This marriage 
 crown has a most theatrical appearance, being 
 made in gold tinsel and immensely ornamented 
 with kingfisher's feathers and sham pearls. These 
 crowns are not purchased for the bride, but are, 
 with the marriage chair, which is a very gay affair, 
 covered with gold and ornamented with innu- 
 merable little figures overlaid with kingfisher's 
 feathers, hired for the occasion. The bride looked 
 very shy, but this she is also by the rules of eti- 
 quette expected to assume, and she made us many 
 low bows, her arms lifted up by her attendants to 
 the level of her shoulders, her hands joined as she 
 chin-chinned us. She was quite young, but not 
 good-looking. She wore no rouge, this being 
 forbidden to a bride on her marriage day. On a 
 table standing close by her the wedding presents 
 were displayed, lighted candles showing them to 
 advantage. Some ladies, friends of the bride, 
 who were standing near her, wore beautifully 
 embroidered bright-coloured silk dresses. As we 
 left the bride's apartment, and went into the large 
 hall, we saw a number of men who were seated at 
 the marriage feast. They all rose and received 
 us most politely, offering us chairs. The bride- 
 groom, who is a friend of Henry's, handed us tea 
 and waited upon us. Another singular feature in 
 
FOUETEBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 81 
 
 marriage ceremonies amongst the Chinese is this : 
 the bride and bridegroom take the lowest position, 
 and are servants to all on their wedding day. 
 The young host asked Henry if he thought the 
 bride was "good look see," and seemed much 
 pleased with Henry's congratulations, given in 
 true Chinese style. The bridegroom had unfortu- 
 nately taken off the bright-coloured silk bands he 
 had worn earlier in the day over his chest and 
 shoulders. He most politely accompanied us to 
 the outer door when we took leave. 
 
 Have I told you how very frightful the shaven 
 heads of the Chinese men appear to me ? You 
 remember that Henry's Chinese servant who ac- 
 companied him to England wore a little black 
 silk cap on his head. They do the same in 
 cold weather in China, but now the warmer 
 weather has begun they go without any covering to 
 the head. There is often a piece of short, loose 
 hair between the shaven part of the head and the 
 tail, which when long enough will be plaited into 
 the tail, but in its short state it rises from the 
 head when the wind blows, and presents a most 
 untidy, ludicrous appearance. 
 
 As I go along the streets my eyes are occupied 
 incessantly with all the strange sights, and I like 
 to tell you my first impressions of people and 
 things in this far-off land. The babies amuse 
 
 G 
 
82 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 me immensely. Baby boys have their heads 
 wholly shaven, excepting on one spot at the back 
 of the head, perhaps two inches wide ; this is the 
 nucleus for the future tail. When some months 
 old the little boy may have a wee tail two inches 
 long, which is as soon as possible plaited on to a 
 little bit of red silk, and it stands stiff and upright 
 from the head. The ordinary woman's dress strikes 
 me as very inelegant ; it is composed of a wide 
 blue or prune-coloured cotton blouse edged with 
 black, and very wide blue or prune-coloured cotton 
 trousers. Sometimes the dress, etc., are made in 
 dark -brown cotton. All this caught my eye as 
 I was on the way in my chair from the bride- 
 groom's house to the Examination Hall, where 
 candidates are examined for their B.A. degree. 
 It is very large, partly roofed over, an implnvium 
 intersecting the large hall. Eows and rows 
 of stone tables, with a bench in stone on one 
 side of them, stand on each side of this open-air 
 hall. On the end of each of these stone benches 
 a Chinese character is carved, signifying some 
 good attribute, such as goodness, brightness, 
 etc. This hall is used for two years in succes" 
 sion for the examination of candidates for the 
 B.A. degree. The third year it is closed, as the 
 examination for the M.A. degree taltes place 
 then at the other Examination Hall, which 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 88 
 
 I have already described. The hall we were now 
 visiting can hold 3400, candidates. It stands at 
 the entrance of the yamun (or official residence) 
 of the Literary Chancellor. When we left this 
 hall we returned towards home and went into 
 a Chinese restaurant, not far from Shameen, 
 where a dinner in true Chinese style had been 
 ordered by Henry. Our fiiend, whose visit was 
 now drawing to a close, had expressed a great 
 wish to have a dinner in one of the Chinese res- 
 taurants served in native style. The restaurant 
 which we patronised is large and has many garden 
 rooms, in one of which we could have dined most 
 agreeably had it been earlier in the day, but it was 
 now too late to think of this, so we went iuto one 
 of the upper rooms of the house. Here Mak 
 was waiting to receive us, and the table, which 
 was round in shape, was already arranged for our 
 dinner. The coujp d'ceil reminded me of my early 
 days, when a child's feast was shared by young 
 friends. In the centre of the table were placed 
 many very small porcelain basins, containing a 
 variety of fruits, preserved eggs, sliced pears, etc., 
 all in miniature. 
 
 Immediately in front of each of us were four 
 very small plates containing pepper, salt, soy, 
 and sugar. Chopsticks, a porcelain spoon with a 
 large bowl and a very short handle, a tiny porce- 
 
 G 2 
 
84 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 lain wine cup, and a little two-pronged fork were 
 placed before each guest. Henry asked Mak to 
 sit down with us, as he could explain the dishes, 
 customs, etc., to us. He behaved so well, only 
 as a Chinaman of inferior rank can behave 
 when in company of his superiors. He was 
 neither shy nor forward. 
 
 As I intend to enclose a bill of fare in my 
 letter, I will only tell you a few things about the 
 dinner that most attracted my attention. 
 
 We began our repast by helping ourselves at 
 our pleasure to the fruit, etc., from the centre of 
 the table, eating according to Chinese form. You 
 do not necessarily put what you take from the 
 dishes or basins into your own little basin, but 
 more generally eat what you have secured either 
 by chopsticks or the fork at once. You can 
 imagine how much I appreciated the little fork, as 
 I could not use the chopsticks at all. I struggled 
 and struggled, but what I took up with them 
 fell on to the table before I could convey it to 
 my mouth. And now courses of dishes were 
 placed on the table by degrees, and as none 
 were removed until the dinner was finished, we 
 had an increasing circle of porcelain basins in 
 the centre, and by the time that the feast came 
 to an end there must have been between thirty 
 and forty of these bowls on the table. Everything 
 
FOUETBEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 85 
 
 was cooked to rags, and all of it was flavoured or 
 accompanied by mushrooms, garlic, water-chest- 
 nuts, slices of bamboo shoots, etc. The dishes 
 were put on the table in singular order to our 
 ideas : sometimes a dish of a sweet flavour was 
 followed by one containing boned duck, then came 
 pork, boiled conch, etc. In the middle of the re- 
 past tea and little cakes were given us, and from 
 this moment tea was supplied ad libitum until the 
 end of the dinner. The tea was made in covered 
 cups, out of which we drank ; and when we wanted 
 more of it, fresh tea-leaves, with boiling water 
 poured on them, were put into fresh cups and 
 handed to us. The china lid of the cup you have 
 to partly withdraw when you drink, and it is 
 useful for preventing the tea-leaves from going 
 into your mouth. 
 
 The wine, which was put on the table at the be- 
 ginning of the repast, was contained in little white 
 metal tankards about sis inches in height. Two 
 kinds of wine, each most disagreeable to my taste, 
 were given us : white wine made from rice, which 
 tasted a little like weak whisky, and a red wine 
 made from lichees. The wine was poured into 
 tiny porcelain cups. At the end of the dinner 
 thi-ee pretty-looking china bowls, bright green 
 inside, were placed on the table, and I immediately 
 became suspicious of what they contained. 
 
86 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 Do you remember that Henry said he was deter- 
 mined that I should eat dog, cat, and rat very soon 
 after my arrival in China ? I had seen black cat's 
 flesh when cooked at a cat and dog restaurant 
 (about which I must tell you in another letter), 
 and I thought I recosrnised it in one of these little 
 basins before me. I proved to be right, and I 
 could only be prevailed upon to put a little piece 
 of the dog's flesh into my mouth ; I could not 
 touch the other two dishes. The dried rat was 
 served up with peas. Cat is not a dish, as gene- 
 rally supposed in Europe, which can be frequently 
 indulged in by the poor man ; it can only be 
 enjoyed by him as a very rare treat. A dinner 
 of cat's flesh cannot be procured for less than a 
 quarter of a dollar. Another delicacy had been 
 ordered by Henry to grace the. meal. Do you 
 recollect that when he spoke of tipsy shrimps 
 at a dinner party in England, one of our relations 
 who was present told a friend afterwards it was 
 but a traveller's tale ? Henry was determined that 
 I should verify his anecdote. So tipsy shrimps were 
 placed on the table. They were brought on in a 
 little covered china bowl, into which wine had been 
 poured some short time before. When the cover 
 was removed, the shrimps began to jump about 
 and to spring out of the little basin on to the table. 
 Had an experienced Chinaman been present he 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 87 
 
 would have caught them on his chopsticks as they 
 were in the act of springing, but my companions 
 were not able to do this. I could not put one of 
 these live things into my mouth, but Henry took 
 one, and as to our friend, I think, I may safely 
 say he ate two or three. I never saw any one so 
 determined to eat all and everything as our friend ; 
 he had helped himself previously to this, most 
 liberally to cat, dog, and rat, and said he did not 
 find them disagreeable. And now our dinner 
 closed, as is the case at all Chinese repasts, 
 with soups of various kinds. When we left the 
 table I was much amused by seeing Mak and our 
 other servants empty each of the numerous china 
 basins standing on the table into a cloth, to con- 
 vey the various contents home for their own use. 
 
 I have forgotten to mention that little squares 
 of the ordinary whitey-brown Chinese paper, 
 about six inches square, were given to us to use 
 as table-napkins. 
 
 When we rose from table, hot water in brass 
 bowls was placed before us, and small towels were 
 provided for us on which to dry our haiids. I did 
 not think very much of the birds'-nest soup, 
 which of course was one of the delicacies of which 
 we had partaken ; it is gelatinous, and has no 
 flavour in particular that I could discover. It 
 was served with pigeons' eggs and. bam. It must, 
 
88 POUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 I , fancy, ba very nutritious. The Malay name 
 for it is " Foam of the Sea." I am to visit one of 
 the shops where the nests are prepared for use 
 and sold, and to see the great amount of care that 
 has to be bestowed upon them before they are fit 
 to be converted into food. The Malays believe 
 that the birds swallow the foam, and eject it after 
 it has undergone some change in their stomachs. 
 I will now give you the bill of fare, which I wrote 
 down as each dish was put on table. 
 
 In the centre of the table, in tiny dishes, were : 
 
 1. Oranges out into small slices. 
 i. Fears cut into thin slices. 
 8. Bitter almonds. 
 
 4. Preserved walnuts. 
 
 5. Ducks' gizzards out into small pieces. 
 
 6. Preserved eggs, green in colour, cut into small pieces. 
 
 7. Tiny square pieces of pork, very dark in colour, looking 
 more like a sweetmeat than meat. 
 
 1. Minute plate with pepper in it. 
 
 2. „ „ „ salt in it. 
 
 3. „ „ „ sugar in it, 
 i. „ „ „ soy in it. 
 
 Four of these small plates were placed before 
 each person. 
 
 The first dish placed on table after all were 
 seated was : 
 
 1. Bgohe de mer. (Sea slugs). 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 89 
 
 2. Stewed boned duck, served with forcemeat, so much cooked 
 as to be easily divided by oliopstioks. 
 
 3. Hashed pigeon with ham. 
 
 4. Birds'-nest soup. 
 
 5. Stewed mutton and bamboo shoots. 
 
 6. Boiled conch (a large shell-fish) cut into slices. 
 
 7. Stewed crab. 
 
 8. Black fish, fried. 
 
 A pause, in which tea and cakes of two kinds 
 
 were handed. 
 
 (1.) Cakes named " A Thousand Storeys.'' 
 
 (2.) Sponge cakes about an inch and a half square. 
 
 During this interlude we helped ourselves 
 from the various dishes already placed upon the 
 table. 
 
 ' Now was served : 
 
 9. Fowl and ham, cooked until they could be divided by 
 chopsticks. 
 
 10. Turtle soup with pieces of fat tm'tle floating in it, taken 
 by porcelain spoons, 
 
 11. Hashed dog. 
 
 12. Stewed black cat. 
 
 13. Fried rat. 
 
 14. Maccaroni soup. 
 
 15. Salt fish. 
 
 16. Salted eggs. 
 
 17. Pork niiuoed so small as to represent bread crumbs. 
 
 18. Ham out into small pieces and placed upon a, green 
 vegetable. 
 
 ' 19. Basins of rice. 
 
90 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 20. Congee (rice watej). 
 
 21. Melon seeds. 
 
 22. Betel-nuts wrapped up in green leaves bearing the 
 name of Tching-Lau, the whole to be eaten. 
 
 23. Betel-nuts pounded. 
 
 24. Tipsy shrimps. 
 
 25. Soups of various kinds. 
 
 LETTEE VIII. 
 
 Canton, May 11th, 1877. 
 My dear Mothee, 
 
 I HAVE now visited the shop where 
 edible birds' nests are prepared, and can there- 
 fore tell you from experience how much pains are 
 taken over this much valued article of food. We 
 went into one of the shops where these birds' 
 nests alone are sold. In the first stage I saw the 
 nest in its natural state as it is brought from 
 Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and Sooloo. A dirty- 
 looking little dry nest it is, with a lining of 
 feathers. It is first scraped, the soft lining is 
 removed, and then it is washed. It is now 
 pulled to pieces, and the small feathers which still 
 cling to the gelatinous matter require to be 
 carefully removed. I saw many men employed 
 in this last delicate operation. When prepared, 
 the birds' nests are beautifully white. The birds, 
 
FOUETEETSr MONTHS IN CANTON. 91 
 
 which make these nests in most inaccessible 
 places, are a species of swallow, or rather house 
 marten. You will conclude from the time the 
 nests take to prepare, and the danger and difficulty 
 in procuring them from the rocks and caverns, 
 that it is an expensive article of food, beyond 
 the reach of all the poorer classes. 
 
 The day after we had had our grand Chinese 
 dinner we went into the city, and the first object 
 we visited was the Clepsydra (or water clock), 
 which is placed in a chamber erected on the tower 
 called Kung-Pak-Lau. (See illustration, p. 92.) 
 
 We saw four tubs containing water, which are 
 placed on an inclined plane, and connected by 
 open spouts. The tubs vary in size, the largest 
 one being at the top. The water trickles from 
 the one tub into the other. A copper dial resem- 
 bling a carpenter's rule, with Chinese characters 
 engraved on it marking its divisions, rests on a 
 wooden float in the lowest tub. As this dial rises 
 it shows the length of time expired.* A man 
 remains in the building night and day, for the 
 
 * " The index in the lowest jar is set eTery morning and after- 
 noon at five o'clock, by placing the mark on it for these hours, 
 even with the cover, through which it rises and indicates the 
 time. The water is dipped out and poured back into the top 
 jar when the index shows the completion of the half-day, aiid 
 the water is renewed every quarter." 
 
 Vide Archdeacon Gray's ' Walks in the City of Canton.' 
 
92 
 
 POUETBEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 purpose of giving the hour to the citizens of 
 Canton. This he does during the day, by plac- 
 ing boards outside the clock tower, which are 
 
 WATER CLOCK. 
 
 painted white, and bear large black Chinese 
 characters marking the hour. A gong and drum 
 are kept in the tower, by which the watchman 
 
rOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 93 
 
 makes known the various watches, or hours of 
 the night, A small shrine is placed immediately 
 above the steps leading to the water clock, in 
 honour of Pwan-Ku, who is described in Chinese 
 mythology as having been the first man. As 
 clothes were supposed to be unknown when he 
 flourished, he is represented as wearing an apron 
 or girdle of green leaves. He appears to be 
 regarded as the tutelary god of the water clock. 
 I may here remark that this singular method 
 of measuring time was practised by the ancient 
 Egyptians. 
 
 Before we left the tower, the man in charge 
 drew our attention to small bundles of "time- 
 sticks," used, as the name would imply, for mea- 
 suring time. These sticks are thirty-two inches 
 long, and burn for twelve hours. They are 
 used especially by the Tartar population as time- 
 pieces. There are different kinds, some to be used 
 in fine weather, others when the wind is high, 
 when of course the candles burn more quickly. 
 They have been in use for centuries past. On 
 one of the bundles Henry observed a label, on 
 which was a printed notice that the candles were 
 made according to the directions of official as- 
 tronomers and astrologers ; that those intended 
 for day must be lighted at the dawn of day, 
 when the lines on the palm of the hand are 
 
94 FOUETEBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 just visible, and those for use at night must be 
 lighted at dusk, when the lines on the palm of the 
 hand are not discernible. After further informa- 
 tion, the circular set forth that purchasers must 
 be careful to note the trade-mark, that there is 
 only one establishment in which time-measuring 
 sticks are manufactured, and that the price of each 
 stick is six kandareens. 
 
 At the top of the same tower is a small temple, 
 in which we saw a shrine dedicated to Sin-Fuung, 
 who is supposed to be able to command the 
 return of runaway slave?. An efSgy of a mounted 
 courier stands near the idol, ready to execute his 
 celestial master's commands. Those who have lost 
 slaves proceed to this altar, and, having worshipped 
 the idol, tie cords round the neck of the horse on 
 which the courier is seated, possibly for him to use 
 in binding the runaways when caught. At another 
 altar in this temple we noticed offerings of staves, 
 much resembling the poles placed outside barbers' 
 shops in England. On leaving this temple, we 
 turned our faces homewards, and called en route 
 at the private residence of a Chinese gentle- 
 man. We were shown a number of small rooms 
 furnished with black wood furniture, and a 
 library filled with Chinese classics. All these 
 rooms were much, ornamented by wood-carvings ; 
 they were a suite used by the family in summer. 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 95 
 
 I was much struck on seeing one of the rooms 
 arranged as an oratory. Henry tells me that this 
 is the case in almost all the houses of the gentry. 
 An altar, with its incense burner in zinc, candle- 
 sticks in zinc, and usual decorations, stood at the 
 end of the room, A Buddhist nun was kneeling 
 before it, saying prayers to Koon-Yam,the goddess 
 of mercy, for the souls of the departed members 
 of the family. We walked through the gardens, 
 which are very extensive, and arranged like all 
 those I have seen here, a garden within a garden, 
 having ponds encircled by walls on which are 
 placed pots of flowers. Bridges of various shapes 
 cross the ponds ; one of them, as is always the 
 case, is made in tortuous windings to represent 
 a dragon, the much-prized emblem. Garden 
 houses, furnished with black wood furniture with 
 marble let in, and some of it ornamented with 
 mother-of-pearl, stand in the grounds. They 
 call these garden houses places of rest; they 
 afford a beautiful shade from the glaring sun of 
 the East, and are much used by all the members 
 of the family during the summer. The double, 
 carved wooden roofs of these garden houses are most 
 picturesque, and so is that of a little summer^ 
 house erected on the centre arch of one of the 
 miniature bridges. This immense house and 
 large grounds belong to one of Henry's oldest 
 
96 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 Chinese friends of the name of Howqua. ' The 
 former head of this family, who died some years 
 ago, was a great friend and admirer of Europeans. 
 When we returned into the house, a lady with a 
 very pleasant face, dressed in plain cotton tunic 
 and trousers, the mourning dress for ladies, as 
 then silk robes are forbidden, came forward and, 
 smiling sweetly, took me by the hand and led 
 me to the seat of honour. She then took some 
 sweetmeats from a box handed to her by a female 
 attendant, and put them into my mouth by means 
 of a little silver two-pronged fork. She did not 
 desist from this hospitality for some time, and I 
 never ate so many sweetmeats at one time before. 
 I could only bow my thanks. She then ordered 
 some tea, and when it arrived, in a small covered 
 china cup, she poured a little into the saucer 
 and handed it to me. There was an indescribable 
 grace and courtesy in all she did, I was then 
 led by my friend into the inner hall, up to an 
 altar, behind which there was a portrait of a 
 young lady, evidently newly painted. 
 
 Henry explained to me that it was the lady's 
 daughter-in-law, who had very recently (some 
 three weeks or more) died. The coffin was 
 placed on the left of the altar. As the Chinese 
 do not use leaden coffins, it is singular that they 
 should be able to keep their dead so long as 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 97 
 
 seven weeks in the house, before placing them in 
 one of the cities of the dead, or in a family tomb* 
 When we stood before the coffin, which was 
 uncovered and in polished wood, made of four 
 pieces, the lady turned to me and smote her 
 breast. A young man, who was also dressed in 
 cotton mourning clothes, now came forward, and 
 said to me, " My wife, my wife." This was the 
 son of my friend, who had lost his only wife. He 
 looked about thirty, and as he could speak a few 
 words of English, he made me understand his 
 position. 
 
 There were no mourning emblems outside the 
 house, as I had seen in other cases, and this I was 
 told was accounted for by tlie fact that this lady 
 had died young, and that in consequence she was 
 regarded as under the displeasure of the gods, and 
 so not worthy of much attention. She has left one 
 little boy, whona I saw. He was dressed in mourn- 
 ing cotton clothes, his little tail was plaited with 
 white cord and he was wearing white shoes. Two 
 little girls are also left to the grandmother's care, 
 but the fourth and youngest child, a little girl, had 
 been given away, as the family considered it would 
 be too great a trouble to bring up three daughters. 
 Continuing our homeward walk, I was much struck 
 
 * I have since learned that Chinese cofBns are hermetically 
 sealed with chuuam, a species of putty. 
 
 H 
 
98 FOUKTEEN MONTHS IST CANTON. 
 
 with the amount of religious worship going on in 
 the streets, especially in front of the open-air 
 shrines. The Chinese certainly are a people given 
 to superstition, but yet one cannot but admire 
 the way they carry out what they profess. For 
 instance, every night and morning lamps are 
 lighted before the ancestral altars, joss-sticks are 
 placed on the altars, and before each shop in a 
 queer little place made for the purpose on the 
 ground, cut out of the stone projections in front of 
 the shops, you will see three lighted joss-sticks at 
 the dawn and at the setting of the sun.* 
 
 Eeligious worship is also much observed in the 
 boats. The sampan we always employ (a small 
 boat with a broad beam, enclosed by a mat roof 
 over the centre, propelled by two oars, worked in 
 the bow of the boat, and by a very powerful scull 
 astern, generally kept in motion by women) has a 
 small altar erected in the stern of the boat, which 
 is covered by a sliding door by day. Morning 
 and night the little door is withdrawn, and you 
 see the miniature altar, crowded with effigies of 
 the household gods, tiny tablets for ancestral 
 worship made in wood, painted red, bearing gilt 
 characters signifying the names of the deceased 
 
 * Canton is, in this manner, fumigated twice daily, and it is 
 to this circumstance that some attribute the rareness of epidemics 
 in the city. 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 99 
 
 ancestors, offerings of fruits and flowers in tiny- 
 cups and vases, and several little zinc ornaments 
 
 surrounding the idols in the centre. Incense-sticks 
 are burnt night and morning on this altar, at the 
 
 H 2 
 
100 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 bow of tlie boat, and also at the entrance of the 
 covered part where passengers sit. The other 
 night I noticed a large paper lantern suspended 
 from this part of the boat, which burnt for half an 
 hour, and when I asked the sampan boy the mean- 
 ing of it, his answer was interpreted to me as, " It 
 is Joss' lantern." It bore the name of the tutelary 
 god of the boat in red characters. Now when one 
 considers the extreme poverty of these boat-people, 
 and the daily expense of these religious offerings, 
 trifling a sum as it may be, but a serious con- 
 sideration to those who often have not the where- 
 withal to buy rice, one cannot but be struck by 
 the contrast of the heathen's devotion to his gods, 
 and our own careless observances in England, 
 where for the most part our countrymen put 
 religion entirely on one side during the week, 
 airing it only on Sunday. The earnestness of 
 these worshippers may well put us to shame. 
 We returned home to luncheon, as we intended to 
 make an excursion by water in the afternoon, to 
 show our friend, before be left us, one of the 
 villageB where ducks are hatched and reared. In 
 short, we were going to a duck village. We looked 
 forward very much to our rural afternoon. 
 
 We entered one of the establishments for 
 batching ducks in the village of Pak-A-Ts'uen, 
 and a more curious sight than this I have seldom 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 101 
 
 seen. The whole process of hatching was shown 
 and explained to us. The first is this : a number 
 of eggs are placed in a basket filled with heated 
 husks or chaff of rice ; they are then removed into 
 a dark room and are put upon shelves of lattice- 
 work. Under the lowest of these shelves there 
 are grates filled with burning charcoal. The 
 eggs remain in this heated room for twenty-four 
 hours ; they are then removed into an adjoining 
 room and are placed in cloths, about fifty in each 
 cloth. The first cloth with its contents is lowered 
 gently to the bottom of a cylindrical-shaped 
 basket made of rattan. Then a second cloth 
 containing eggs is placed above the first, and so 
 on until the basket is full. These baskets are 
 about three feet high, and are lined with sheets 
 of coarse brown paper. The eggs remain in 
 these baskets for three weeks, but in order that 
 all of them may be equally heated, men are 
 employed to alter their position once during the 
 day and once during the night, so, when pro- 
 perly looked after, the eggs which were at the 
 bottom in the morning should be at the top at 
 night. How they are not broken when the men 
 lift out the various cloths I cannot tell, but the 
 Chinese are wonderful manipulators, they seldom 
 injure anything they touch. At the end of the 
 three weeks the eggs which have been placed in 
 
102 POUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 the baskets are removed to another room, and are 
 arranged on very wide shelves of hard wood. 
 They are then covered by sheets of thick, coarse 
 brown paper, and here they remain for some hours, 
 possibly for two or three days, when they burst 
 into life. I was fortunate enough to see an 
 immense number in the act of being hatched ; 
 hundreds of little ones peeped from their shells, 
 and others were taking their first walk over the 
 shells of their companions. Imagine a hatch of 
 a thousand ! What Avould a farmer's wife say 
 to it in England, who shows you with pride a 
 duck which has brought off fourteen little ones 
 in triumph? No tender care is taken of thei 
 newly-born, pretty little golden ballsi A man 
 walks round and roughly catches hold of as many 
 as are free from their egg-shells, and throws them 
 into a basket. They are then removed to the 
 outer part of the establishment and, when a 
 purchaser arrives, are counted out by a man, who' 
 seizes four little necks at a time, and cries out 
 the number in a high key. I saw a great many 
 counted out in this manner in this duck-breeding 
 establishment. The man, who bought hundreds of 
 the newly-hatched ducks, took them off at once 
 to one of the duck farms to rear them. It is 
 wonderful how the young duck manages to crawl 
 out of his temporary home when the moment 
 
FOUKTEEUr MONTHS IN CANTON- 103 
 
 comes for him to be launched into the world, 
 as sometimes he is partly imder his neighbours' 
 shelly coverings (the eggs are arranged two deep) ; 
 but by delicate manoeuvring he succeeds. It was 
 fascinating to me to watch their efforts, and I 
 could have remained a much longer time than 
 we could allow in this part of the establishment. 
 
 On leaving this hatching establishment we 
 went on to a duck farm, if one may so call 
 it, in the same village. "We saw here 3000 
 orphan ducks, which were about five or six weeks 
 old, also many hundreds much younger in a 
 place apart, all the latter being of the same 
 tender age. There are itinerant duck and geese 
 vendors who come to this village in large boats ; 
 they buy from 150 to 1000 ducks or geese at a 
 time, and drive them into broad, enclosed wooden 
 platforms attached to the sides of their boats. 
 This gives these boats a very singular and 
 clumsy appearance, and also renders them unsafe 
 in tempestuous weather. Several of these duck 
 boats were capsized close to the Bogue Forts, 
 in the fearful typhoon which took place in 1862, 
 and for upwards of a mile the Pearl river was 
 literally covered by the feathered inhabitants 
 of these wrecked duck boats. The sellers of 
 ducks and geese then take their boats up the 
 creeks and sell their birds, either wholesale or 
 
104 FOUKTEBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 retail, to the country people, or to the provision 
 dealers in the villages and towns. There is 
 still no gentle care bestowed upon these un- 
 fortunates. They are not regarded individually, 
 but en masse, and a certain percentage is always 
 reckoned upon for casualties. We walked down 
 a long street in the village, on each side of which 
 were duck and geese dealers, with their birds in 
 wicker baskets beside them. I saw some of the 
 young ones placed in open wicker baskets sus- 
 pended from bamboo poles over the shoulders 
 of some men. They were taken to the river's 
 bank and dipped, baskets and all, into the river 
 for health's sake, then brought dripping back 
 to the particular spot of the street where their 
 owners were wont to exhibit them. I had almost 
 forgotten to say that the ducks and geese which 
 are taken off in the duck boats do not cost their 
 masters a cent for food. Twice during the day 
 the duck boat is brought up to the side of the 
 creek or river, the wooden compartment at the 
 side of the platform on which the ducks are kept 
 is removed, and they are allowed to wander about 
 the banks at will, finding most ample repasts in 
 the worms, slugs, snails and frogs which abound 
 in the mud on the edge of the rivers and creeks 
 at low tide. I have seen from 1500 to 2000 
 ducks gaining their own livelihood in this manner, 
 
POXJETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 105 
 
 as we haTe passed along the banks of the river. 
 The most curious feature of this proceeding is 
 that the ducks are trained to obey the human 
 voice, and when, after a delay of two or three 
 hours, the man in charge of them considers he 
 has given them ample opportunity of feeding 
 themselves off the various delicacies he does 
 not provide for them, he makes a call, and the 
 birds obey his voice at once, and return to the 
 boat. They certainly cannot have learned 
 obedience from their parents, never, from earliest 
 infancy, having known a parent's care. On our 
 return from this curious duck village we went 
 to see a floating street, which is only at a short 
 distance from Shameen, where rice is sold in 
 great quantities. It is diiBcult to approach it, 
 as so many boats crowd round the entrance to 
 this floating street, the boat-people bringing their 
 baskets to purchase rice. Originally these dealers 
 in rice lived in junks which were anchored, boards 
 being placed between them for the sake of com- 
 munication. They could therefore, at the first 
 notice given them of danger, put up sail and go 
 off to a place of safety. This happened, to the 
 surprise of the English and French, during the 
 war with China, 1859. But since then a large 
 fire occurred, and many have now placed their 
 junks on piles driven into the bed of the river. 
 
106 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 However several of the junks forming this street 
 still float. The people belonging to the rice 
 stores live entirely in their queer habitations. 
 Few foreigners visit them, and we had a string 
 of men and children following us as we walked 
 up and down the street. I was very much sur- 
 prised to see pictures from the Illustrated London 
 News in the boat used as a school (for there 
 is a school even here), but the people could not 
 understand them, one would imagine, as two of 
 them were upside down. 
 
 Before I close my letter, I must tell you that I 
 have been a victim of a wicked conspiracy on the 
 part of my husband and the servants. You will 
 learn from my last letter that I could not be 
 prevailed upon to taste the three delicacies of 
 cat, dog, and rat provided at the Chinese dinner, 
 and served up in the dainty bowls. Well, when 
 Henry returned home that night, he said to Mak, 
 " Now understand, your missisee must eat cat, 
 dog, and rat ; you go catchee them, and every 
 morning-time you give one piecee to eat that 
 breakfast time." Two days passed, and Henry^ 
 thinking the servant had forgotten all about his 
 order, sat down to breakfast, and I am glad to 
 say that the biter was bitten, for he, as well as 
 our friend, partook of a dish of mince, which 
 .was served up with a wall of potatoes. This was 
 
rOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 107 
 
 according to Henry's wish, as he thought the 
 potatoes, served English fashion, would be a good 
 disguise. Having tasted it, and not liking the 
 flavour, Henry said, sotto voce, to the waiting-boy, 
 " What fashion chow-chow this thing ? " and the 
 answer was, " Belong one piecee dog." I ate my 
 portion without comment, thinking it calf's head 
 minced, but the idea did pass through my head 
 that it was rather high, and I looked towards our 
 friend, but he seemed to be enjoying it. The 
 following morning another mince was served up, 
 of which Henry did not partake, but I did not 
 notice this. He declares that I helped myself 
 twice to it. This mince was also disguised by a 
 wall of potatoes. On the, third morning another 
 of these choice dishes, ornamented again with 
 potatoes, was handed round, and our friend, who 
 had been let into the secret, helped himself liber- 
 ally, and declared the dish good. I remained in 
 ignorance of what I had eaten until the middle of 
 the third day, when the gentlemen burst into a 
 fit of laughter, and told me of the hoax that had 
 been practised upon me, and that I had eaten dog 
 the first morning, cat the second, and rat the 
 third morning. Does it not show how much, 
 there- is in imagination? for, had I been told be- 
 forehand what the dishes would contain, I could' 
 not have swallowed a morsel of their contents. 
 
108 FOUKTEElSr MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 Canton, May 23rd, 1877. 
 
 My dear Mother, 
 
 The weather is warm and settled now, and 
 the rainy season being at length over, we no 
 longer have the trouble with our clothes that we 
 had in April. Imagine what- it was to have every- 
 thing brought down from the wardrobes and 
 drawers of the bedrooms and put into the library, 
 where a fire was kept burning night and day 
 for three weeks. You know how things look 
 when heaped together. I tell Henry that the 
 library, full of his cloth-clothes, boots, my dresses, 
 etc., has looked like an old clothes shop. The 
 heat of the room has been something unendurable. 
 I do not know if we have had an unusually rainy 
 season, but the effect of the damp was very dis- 
 agreeable. If you put a pair of boots you had 
 taken off in the corner of the bedroom, when you 
 looked at them again in two or three days' 
 time, you found a thick coating of mildew over 
 them. The books in our bedroom also became 
 very damp, and I was obliged to have them taken 
 downstairs and put into the hot room. 
 
 The heat of the atmosphere has been nothing 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 109 
 
 to complain of until now, but we must expect 
 soon to have ttie summer heat upon us in its full 
 force. We think it so much better to work very 
 hard at sightseeing before we are prevented from 
 doing so by the arrival of the heat, and you 
 will judge from my letters, when they reach 
 you, that we have not been idle during the 
 seven weeks we have been in Canton. Since I 
 wrote to you we have been very busy, and have 
 seen much that is interesting. One morning we 
 went in our sampan to the Wong-Sha suburb 
 to the temple of Loi-Sun-Yaong, as it is 
 there that devotees resort to receive from Loi- 
 Sun-Yaong communications through the medium 
 of spiritualistic writing. The gentlemen had 
 been over to the temple before breakfast, but 
 the Tauist priests were not there at the moment, 
 as they had been up all night at a gentleman's 
 house in the city saying prayers for the repose 
 of a departed soul. A votary was waiting at the 
 temple for the return of the priests ; and Henry 
 and his friend were told that if they came back 
 at nine o'clock they would have an opportunity 
 of witnessing the ceremony. On learning from 
 them that it was impossible to return at that 
 hour, the keeper of the temple promised to delay 
 the service till ten o'clock. Accordingly, we 
 went to the temple at the hour appointed, and 
 
110 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 were asked to walk into the reception-room. 
 We were supplied with tea, but before we had 
 time to drink it a monk came in to say that 
 the devotee was impatient to ask the gods for 
 some information he much required. We there- 
 fore went at once into the shrine, and saw the 
 monk and the petitioner kneeling before the 
 altar. Tlie monk was kneeling in front of the 
 devotee. Wax tapers were already lighted, and 
 burning joss-sticks were in the incense-burners. 
 These were gifts from the votary. Both priest 
 and petitioner seemed very earnest in their sup- 
 plications. Three minutes, perhaps, were occupied 
 by these prayers, then both men rose from their 
 knees. 
 
 Our attention now became absorbed in another 
 monk, who had before him on a table a large 
 wooden board covered withi, sand. He was stand- 
 ing by the altar. A second monk was by his 
 side, with pen and paper, to write down the 
 message supposed to be delivered by the god 
 whose image stood on the altar. A third monk 
 joined the other two, whose duty, we learned, was, 
 to explain the message when written. As a,. 
 spiritualistic language is the medium employed, 
 it requires to be translated. This language 
 is supposed not to be understood by the other, 
 two, assistants at tliis strange ceremony. The 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. Ill 
 
 chief performer now took his instrument, which 
 was a piece of stick about a foot in length, 
 into his hand, or rather he balanced it on his 
 two forefingers. It resembles a long pen-handle, 
 and is made of white wood. From the centre 
 below projects a small piece of wood, which writes 
 on the sanded board. It altogether reminded me 
 of the planehettes so much in fashion a few years 
 ago in England. In a few minutes the wooden 
 instrument begair to move, as was supposed, 
 without the help of the monk who held it. It 
 moved up and down on the board, tracing large 
 characters on it ; and when the board was marked 
 all over, that part of the message was transcribed 
 on paper by the monk, the sand was shaken, and 
 the board placed again on the table ready for 
 the continuation of the writing. This happened 
 three times, the petitioner looking on all the 
 while with rapt attention. The fourth time the 
 lightly-balanced wooden instrument refused to 
 move, and the monk said the god had retired. 
 When the writing was translated by the third 
 monk, it was found to be a message for the 
 foreigners, and not a word was addressed to the 
 poor devotee. The paper was handed to us, and 
 was translated as follows : " The god is very much 
 pleased that the foreigners- are present; he holds 
 communication with their god, and he knows that 
 
112 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 they have come to China on a good errand." 
 The petitioner then made a second attempt to 
 obtain an answer from the god. He came to 
 the front of the altar, chin-chinned the idol, 
 and said a few words very earnestly. For some 
 time the wooden instrument, which was again 
 balanced on the fingers of the monk, remained 
 inactive ; then it moved, but only to write a few 
 characters. When this short message was trans- 
 lated to the petitioner, it ran thus : " The god 
 cannot speak to you to-day ; he wishes you to 
 come another day." The man, to our surprise, 
 seemed quite satisfied, folded the paper, and put 
 it into his pocket. He did not seem to grudge 
 his wasted tapers and incense-sticks. The man- 
 darins are afraid of this supposed power of holding 
 converse with the gods, and say that through 
 it the people are enabled to look into futurity. 
 
 Is it not difficult to come to a conclusion about 
 it? The monk who acted the chief part did not 
 certainly appear to move a muscle of his hand 
 or arm. If it be a fraud wilfully committed, it 
 seems incredible that men should give up the 
 world and practise such deceit. Mak was with 
 us, and when questioned about his belief in this 
 spiritualistic writing, said quietly, "All belong 
 lie pigeon." Is it not wonderful to find that 
 the practice of spiritualism, mesmerism, calling 
 
FOURTEEN lyiONTHS IN CANTON. 113 
 
 up the spirits of the departed, etc., which at 
 present is exciting so much attention in Europe 
 and America, should have been practised in 
 China for many centuries past. 
 
 The annual iestival of Kum-Fa has been held 
 this week, and on Tuesday we went to the temple 
 called Kum-Fa-Miu to witness it. This temple 
 is situated in the Honam suburb, on the opposite 
 side of the river to the city of Canton. Both men 
 and women worship this goddess, but she is more 
 especially the tutelary deity of women and children. 
 She was, when in the flesh, a native of Canton, and 
 lived about 1470. From early youth she devoted 
 herself to the service of the gods, refused to 
 marry, and was supposed to hold communion 
 with the gods. Becoming weary of the world, she 
 committed suicide by drowning herself in a pond, 
 which is still shown you, close to the temple. 
 Suicide, under certain conditions, is supposed by 
 the Chinese to be a meritorious act. Search was 
 long made for her body, but without success, but 
 it afterwards rose to the surface of the water. 
 After the body was recovered from the water, the 
 air was redolent with sweet perfume, and an imago 
 of her is said to have risen to the surface of the 
 pond in which she drowned herself. When we 
 entered the temple, we saw a large gilded idol of 
 Kum-Fa behind the chief altar, and at each of the 
 
 I 
 
114 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 side altars ten gilded images of her attendants. 
 These women are supposed to preside over the 
 wants of little children. Each has her vocation : 
 thus one is supposed to superintend the feeding of 
 new-born babies ; a second to grant male children 
 to the suppliant praying before her; a third 
 teaches children to smile; a fourth teaches children 
 to walk ; a fifth presides over the ablutions of 
 children, and so forth. At this festival men 
 and women come to return thanks to the goddess 
 for the gift of children, which slie is supposed to 
 have granted them during the past year. 
 
 Women too come to beseech her to give them 
 children, and so to prevent their husbands 
 taking other wives. I saw many little ones in the 
 temple, and learnt that they had been brought 
 by their mothers to be presented to the goddess 
 to receive her blessing. V/e were not fortunate 
 enough to see many ladies, they had most 
 probably visited the temple very early in the 
 morning, to escape the crowd that would later in 
 the day besiege it. The women I saw were of 
 the lower orders, but amongst them, duriug our 
 visit to the temple, were two ladies, beautifully 
 dressed (they always come to this festival in their 
 richest robes to do honour to the goddess), who 
 looked shy and nervous, and who shrank into a 
 corner with their attendants, to wait until the 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 115 
 
 altar was not so crowded. They seized a favour- 
 able moment, presented their offerings of fruit, 
 flowers, and cakes, worshipped the goddess, and 
 then retired. In this temple, in an upper room, 
 we saw a strange sight. This room is set apart 
 as the bedchamber of the goddess, and contains a 
 bedstead, coverlet, tables, chairs, toilet services, a 
 dressing case and many dresses, all the offerings 
 of female devotees to the goddess Kum-Fa. There 
 is also a small idol of the goddess in this room 
 which is used in processions. She occupies the 
 same position amongst the Chinese deities as 
 Venus Genitrix held amongst the Eoman god- 
 desses. The interior of the temple was a strange 
 sight to my eyes. Women were chatting with 
 each other as they walked about, showing no 
 reverence for the building. The keepers of the 
 temple were dirty-looking men, and it was strange 
 to see them sitting at a little table in the centre of 
 the temple, taking their meals. The women were 
 much pleased to chin-chin me, came close to me, 
 examined my dress, asking (as Henry interpreted 
 to me) if my watch-chain was gold, and other 
 similar questions, amongst them one suitable to 
 the occasion, " Have you a son ? " Women only 
 go up to the chief altar. The men collect at the 
 lower end of the temple and offer their presents 
 and their worship at an altar near the door. 1 was 
 
 I 2 
 
116 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 amazed at the size of some of the offerings. Men 
 came in carrying, hy means of bamboo poles resting 
 on their shoulders, large red boxes containing pigs 
 roasted whole, dumplings coloured red, cocks boiled 
 whole with their combs left on their heads, fresh 
 lichees, etc. A table was placed before the second 
 altar, on which these offerings stood whilst the 
 elders of the clan worshipped at the altar. There 
 were six or seven elders in their long silk robes, 
 with squares of gold embroidery on their chests and 
 shoulders, who worshipped in this way. After these 
 men had left, and their offerings had been carried 
 out of the temple, eight mats were placed before 
 the altar, and eight men belonging to another clan 
 came forward and knelt upon them. The principal 
 man knelt alone some paces in front of the others 
 immediately before the altar, and he poured out 
 a libation of wine three successive times from a 
 tiny porcelain cup, which he re-filled for the pur- 
 pose. The men were dressed in long coats of silk 
 in various light bright shades, and silk trousers, 
 and they wore handsomely embroidered shoes. 
 Each man did the kau-tau thrice and then rose 
 from his knees. The offerings, which had been 
 previously placed upon the altar, were then 
 removed, carried home, and would serve for a 
 feast for the elders of the clan. We conjectured 
 that a son had been born to the chief of this clan 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IK CANTON. 117 
 
 during the past year, and that the principal 
 members of it had come to the temple to return 
 thanks to Kum-Fa for the blessing. A yery old, 
 benevolent-looking attendant of the clan adTanced 
 to the mat which had been used by the principal 
 worshipper, did the kau-tau, and then he also 
 poured out three libations of wine. The old man 
 looked full of joy, and afterwards went round to the 
 elders congratulating them, and each member of 
 the clan in turn chin-chinned the faithful servant. 
 It was a touching sight. There is a great bond 
 of affection between the heads of Chinese families 
 and their retainers. All the worshippers I saw 
 in the temple presented paper money; in the 
 case of the poor it' was simply pieces of plain 
 whitish brown paper, but the paper money pre- 
 sented by the rich was ornamented with gold and 
 silver, and done up in shapes to represent ingots. 
 This paper money,, and paper effigies representing 
 children especially committed to the care of Kum- 
 Fa, were set alight and thrown into a large bronze 
 incense-burner in the centre of the temple. Each 
 time this was done a drum was beaten, for the pur- 
 pose of scaring away all hungry ghosts who might 
 be anxious to seize the offerings and so deprive the 
 goddess of her due, and the worshipper of her 
 favour. I also saw large painted ornamental 
 caudles and bundles of incense sticks offered at 
 
118 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 the altar. Sitting at the side of the temple were 
 musicians dressed in most gaudy red cloaks, which 
 were worn over other garments as dirty as they 
 could be. They made a most deafening noise. 
 In front of them stood a long table on which 
 were red dumplings, lichees, etc., for sale, so that 
 the worshippers who had not brought any offerings 
 with them could buy them here. A very old 
 man wearing an official hat acted as master of the 
 ceremonies. Some men stood behind a long deal 
 counter which was placed on the right hand of 
 the temple, and on which were paper charms, 
 paper money, and answers to prayers, for sale. 
 A worshipper anxious to obtain some request 
 from a god or goddess takes two pieces of wood in 
 his hand, made in form like a ram's horn, split 
 from top to bottom. He kneels down in front 
 of the altar, and throws the two pieces of wood 
 into the air. Should they both fall on the convex, 
 or concave side, it is implied that the god refuses 
 to hear the prayer of the votary. He, however, 
 being importunate, throws the pieces of wood into 
 the air, until he succeeds in placing the one on the 
 convex, and the other on its concave side. It is 
 now understood that the god has yielded to his 
 importunity, and is prepared to hear his petition. 
 He then addresses the god in a voice inaudible 
 to all who may be standing around him, and tells 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 119 
 
 him his requirements. He then rises, and in 
 order to obtain the response of the god, takes 
 a long circular wooden box from the altar, which 
 is filled with small slips of wood, much resembling 
 spelicans, and, again kneeling, jerks the box 
 rapidly until one of these narrow slips of wood 
 drops out. Each is numbered, and the worshipper 
 on taking it to the long counter obtains a printed 
 response corresponding to the number on his parti- 
 cular slip of wood. For this oracular response he has 
 to pay a few cash. As it is written in most ambig- 
 uous terms it requires to be interpreted, and for this 
 purpose the Totary takes it to a fortune-teller, who 
 generally sits at the door of the temple, and from 
 him receives the interpretation on the payment 
 of a small sum of money. And thus these fortune- 
 tellers ply a busy trade, working on the credulity 
 of the people. As we stood by and witnessed 
 these ceremonies, we were forcibly reminded of 
 the Oracle of Delphi and its dark sayings. 
 
 Whilst we were still in the temple, six or seven 
 Tauist priests (their heads are not wholly shaven 
 like the Buddhist priests, they wear their long 
 tails of hair done up in curious fashion on 
 the top of the head, fastened in a knot by 
 a wooden comb of a singular pattern) came in 
 and arranged themselves in a half circle before 
 the second altar, and offered up prayers, to the 
 
120 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 accompaniment of a bell and some instruments 
 played by three of their number. They are 
 occupied in such services at intervals during this 
 day, praying to Kum-Fa that children may be 
 granted in great numbers to the Chinese nation, 
 and that her blessing may rest upon the children. 
 These priests wore long red robes richly embroi- 
 dered. The abbot, who was with them, walked 
 last, carrying a short crozier. The priests con- 
 cluded their service by going outside the temple 
 and offering prayers to the river deities, to an 
 accompaniment of hundreds of fire-crackers. 
 
 The square in front of the temple was much 
 decorated; a great shed with a mat covering 
 had been raised, and the place was brilliant 
 with many chandeliers. The latter held innu- 
 merable lights, which burned day and night. 
 There were many frames containing representa- 
 tions of Kum-Fa, and of scenes in her life, and 
 the puppets in them had wax faces, and moved 
 their heads, arms, etc., to the delight of the 
 lookers on. Screens, ornamented with beautiful 
 embroidery, paper flowers, and various ornaments, 
 had been lent by the gentry for the occasion. 
 Kum-Fa is a most popular goddess. 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 121 
 
 LETTEE X. 
 
 Canton, May 30th, 1877. 
 
 My deae Mothee, 
 
 I AM glad to say that I have had my great 
 ■wish granted, and have been admitted into the 
 inner family life of a Chinese home, I think you 
 will be interested if I give you a detailed account 
 of the afternoon we spent at Howqua's house last 
 Friday. About eleven o'clock that day seven 
 Chinese gentlemen belonging to, or friends of, the 
 Howqua family, called upon us, and amongst them 
 was the son of our particular friend, the widower, 
 about whom I wrote to you the other day. He 
 said that his mother would much like to see 
 " Nai-nai," and asked us if we would call upon her 
 that afternoon. I have not, I think, yet told you 
 that a little girl, whose father is European and 
 whose mother is Chinese, comes to me every 
 morning, and I teach her, as there is no school 
 in Canton to which she can go for instruc- 
 tion; she was, I am glad to say, included in 
 the invitation, and proved to be of the greatest 
 assistance to me, in acting as interpreter. We 
 went to the Howquas' house about three o'clock, 
 and were received by young Mr, Howqua. He 
 
122 FOUETEElSr MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 took us into the gardens and showed us the 
 garden houses, which are used by the Chinese as 
 places of resort in summer. I was astonished 
 to see two deer confined in a yard, and some 
 geese in cages on the opposite side of the path. 
 Henry told me that deer, peacocks, and geese* 
 are kept because they are supposed to bring luck, 
 and that you will find them in most gentlemen's 
 grounds. When we returned into the house, I 
 was taken through various halls, through suites of 
 rooms, and at last into a room where a Chinese 
 lady received me. She was not the lady I had 
 seen previously at this house. After a ten 
 minutes' conversation, carried on by the help of 
 my little interpreter, the mother of our friend 
 Mr. Howqua came into the room accompanied by 
 two young ladies, who were very much rouged, 
 and had the smallest feet one could imagine. They' 
 were thirteen and fourteen years of age. They 
 wore their long, smooth hair in a single plait ; it 
 was tied with blue cord on account of mourning 
 for their sister-in-law. Is it not curious that the 
 Chinese look upon blue as a very triste colour ? 
 The colour they admire is red of all shades, which 
 they use on festive occasions. When we had 
 sat some time with the ladies (my little friend 
 
 * The deer is, in China, emblematical of happiness, the pea- 
 cock of rank, and the goose of constancy. 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 123 
 
 and I ; the gentlemen were in a separate room), I 
 thought it time to take leave, but, on rising, I 
 was told, to my great surprise, that a European 
 dinner had been prepared for us at four o'clock, 
 and that it would soon be ready. We were then 
 conducted by Mrs. Howqua, she leading me by 
 the hand, into the room where my husband and 
 the gentlemen of the family were assembled. 
 Here we found a long table arranged in true 
 English style. It was decorated with flowers, 
 dessert was on the table, and English knives, 
 forks, and glasses, were placed round it. No chop- 
 sticks were there. Dinner was soon ready, and Mr. 
 Howqua placed me on his right hand, Henry on 
 his left. We found out that he had received full 
 instructions about English manners from Henry's 
 Chinese teacher, who lives with our compradore. 
 This man was also invited, and was appealed to by 
 Mr. Howqua on all matters of etiquette. Meat of 
 all kinds, including pork, ham, duck, etc., was 
 well cooked, but it was all served up cold. Sherry 
 was provided for us, and I noticed that all the 
 Chinese gentlemen present helped themselves to 
 it in large quantities. I was much amused at see- 
 ing that English table-napkins were placed for 
 us, but they were unhemmed. Henry's Chinese 
 teacher must have given minute instructions, for 
 a plate came in piled up with large slices of 
 
124 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 bread. Mr. Howqua helped this himself, giving 
 each of us two large slices. He was most hospi- 
 table, aud gave me such large portions of food on 
 my plate that I did not know what to do. Minnie 
 said that he constantly complained that I did 
 not like what was provided, for I ate so little. 
 Ten Chinese gentlemen sat down with us, but only 
 two belonged to the Howqua family. Our host 
 sat at the top of the long table, his half-brother 
 at the bottom. The tutor of our host's little 
 son was one of the guests. When dinner was 
 over, Mrs. Howqua stepped into the room and 
 spoke to me, saying she hoped I had had a good 
 dinner. She ordered a young slave to fan me, 
 and from that moment this poor little girl, eight 
 years old, fanned me vigorously with a large palm 
 fan which she held in both hands. If she desisted 
 for a minute, Mr. Howqua turned and frowned at 
 her. It was a luxury much to be appreciated, for 
 the room had become stiflingly hot. There was 
 not the slightest ventilation, excepting by the 
 open side of the room far away from the table. 
 I never saw fruit helped in such a bountiful 
 manner, and when we rose from table Mr. 
 Howqua filled Minnie's handkerchief with peaches, 
 lichees, and oranges. A bottle of cherry brandy 
 was put ou table at the end of the repast, and 
 was taken by the Chinese in wineglassfuls, and 
 
FOUKTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 125 
 
 after that the native rose wine was handed, which 
 is a strong spirit ; that which we tasted was two 
 years old. The ladies claimed me when dinner was 
 over, and Minnie and I returned to their apart- 
 ments. I was then taken by Mrs. Howqua (her 
 position is somewhat difficult to explain to you, 
 as she is the third of the widows still living of 
 the late Mr. Howqua) to pay my respects to the 
 small-footed widow of old Mr, Howqua. She 
 ranks as the first lady la the house, and is 
 treated with marked deference by the other 
 widows and wives living in this large patri- 
 archal establishment. My friend is a large- 
 footed woman, but she ranks high among the 
 widows, being the mother of a son. She did not, 
 however, sit down in the presence of the small- 
 footed lady, for before doing so it is etiquette for 
 her and the other ladies of the household to wait 
 for an invitation. The old lady gave me tea and 
 sweetmeats, and questioned me in the same manner 
 as the other ladies had done previously, as to my 
 age, how long 1 had been in the country, etc. 
 Every ornament I had on was taken off and 
 handled by the old lady, who asked me how 
 much each had cost, whether my watch-chain 
 was true gold, the price of my dress, my hat, and 
 a string of similar questions. After my visit was 
 ended I was taken to another suite of rooms to 
 
126 FOUKTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 see an old aunt of Mr. Howqna's, who was very 
 ill. She was on the bed, and looked a very old 
 woman. Here I again underwent the same ex- 
 a,mination as to age, etc., value of the ornaments 
 I wore, and so forth. I had to sip another cup of 
 tea, and fruit was handed to me. You cannot 
 imagine the size of Chinese dwellings belong- 
 ing to rich families. They are in fact a num- 
 ber of houses under one roof, having separate 
 kitchens, suites of rooms, and gardens. Having 
 paid these visits of ceremony, my friend took me 
 into a bedroom, where she and her daughters 
 sleep. Chinese ladies spend much of their time 
 in their bedrooms, and take their meals in the 
 atrium upon which the bedrooms open. This 
 bedroom, in which we took seats, had no win- 
 dows and no door, one side of it being open to 
 the impluvium. There were two carved wooden 
 bedsteads in it, two or three native chests of 
 drawers, and black wood furniture. Mrs. Howqua 
 showed me with evident pride a large portrait 
 in oils of herself, taken in full costume as a 
 high mandarin's wife, and therefore entitled to 
 wear a court dress, hat, and red button, and a 
 jadestone necklace. She spoke of her son's 
 widowhood, and told me he would marry again 
 in two or three moons. I chatted with the 
 ladies for about an hour, my little friend having 
 
rOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 127 
 
 much difficulty in translating quickly enough, 
 what the different ladies said to me, and my 
 answers to them, I was very much interested 
 in watching their manners, and much amused with 
 the two young girls, who were evidently very 
 vain of their small feet — golden lilies, as the 
 Chinese call them. When they sat down they 
 put the tiny deformed feet a little forward out 
 of their trousers, so that I could see the beautifully 
 embroidered shoes not more than three inches in 
 length, looking less than this, as the toe of the shoe 
 is brought to a sharp point. The girls often changed 
 their position into one not so elegant. They 
 crossed their legs and took one of their tiny feet 
 into their hands and sat like this some ten minutes 
 or more at a time. Their trousers, which are 
 extremely wide, when seen like this are most 
 inelegant. You would have been amused to see 
 me as I walked from room to room, my hand held 
 by my hostess, a slave girl holding up my dress 
 behind me. My long dress was evidently looked 
 upon by them as a train, for Chinese ladies 
 wear a tunic, short skirt beneath, and long 
 trousers showing perhaps a quarter of a yard below 
 the skirt, and so no part of their dress touches 
 the ground. I began at length to feel very tired, 
 the atmosphere of the bedroom was so close, and 
 the exertion of perpetually smiling and looking 
 
128 FOXTETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 pleasant, without being able to express a word of 
 wliat I felt without an interpreter, was very 
 exhausting. I rose to put on my hat, but before I 
 could do so, one of the ladies took it and put it on, 
 and also tried on my cloak. You cannot imagine 
 how strange this Chinese lad}' looked in the Euro- 
 pean hat and cloak. The ladies in the south of China 
 never wear any covering on their heads, their hair 
 being fully dressed and ornamented with flowers 
 (artificial or natural), and pearl ornaments, jade- 
 stone, silver and gold hair-pins, when they leave 
 their homes to pay visits. Young girls for full-dress 
 gild their hair. I did not know before I arrived 
 at Canton that the ladies in the south of China 
 never appear in the streets excepting in covered 
 chairs, which completely screen them from view. 
 The only exception to this is in the case of the 
 wives of high ofScials, who sit in their chairs 
 with the curtains withdrawn from the glass 
 windows, and so are visible to all as they pass 
 through the streets to pay their visits of state. 
 But to return to my friend, whom I left admiring 
 herself before the glass in her disguise of European 
 hat and cloak. She was much pleased with her- 
 self, and asked me if I would let her try on 
 my dress, and offered to dress me in her 
 garments, I was too tired to comply with this 
 request, so shook my head, and said I must take 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 129 
 
 my leave. My hostess again took charge of me, 
 and conducted me to the gentlemen's room to re- 
 join my husband. She then accompanied me to 
 the outer hall, where our chairs were waiting for 
 us, and she and our host took a most cordial 
 farewell of us, asking us to repeat our visit as 
 soon as possible. 
 
 LETTEE XI. 
 
 Canton, June 10th, 1877. 
 
 My deak Motheb, 
 
 I SPENT a very interesting morning yester- 
 day, and I hasten to describe what I saw, as 
 I think you will be amused to hear about it. 
 Henry's Chinese teacher is instructed by him to 
 let us know whenever any festival or anything of 
 ititerest is about to take place. He came in to 
 the library early yesterday morning to tell Henry 
 that the festival of the god of medicine, Yeuk- 
 Wong, was to be celebrated that day. Unfortu- 
 nately, Henry was engaged, as he had promised 
 to take a tourist from Europe into the city. He 
 was so anxious I should not lose the sight, that 
 he suggested I should be escorted to the temple 
 by Chong-Shing, the teacher. So we started as 
 soon as possible in two chairs, and made our way 
 to the Yeuk-Wong-Miu. The birthday of the god 
 
130 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 is celebrated at this festival, and the superstitious 
 people are taught to believe that he goes out yery 
 early in the morning of this day to the mountains 
 to gather herbs, which he uses in the medicines 
 that he prepares for his sick devotees. As the dis- 
 tance to the mountains is great, and the weather 
 hot at this season, Yeuk-Wong is supposed to be- 
 come tired and over-heated from his long excur- 
 sion. Therefore his temple is crowded all day by 
 worshippers (chiefly women), who go to it from 
 dawn to late at night to fan the idol. The 
 temple was erected a.d. 1655, and contains a 
 large figure of Yeuk-Wong, which is placed 
 behind the principal altar on a raised dais. 
 Steps lead up to the idol; on each side of it 
 stand five effigies of men who, when alive, 
 were celebrated for their knowledge of medicine 
 and for skill in its practice. We arrived too late 
 at the temple to see the lady devotees, who go 
 there very early in the morning. The temple, 
 when we were there, was crowded with women of 
 the lower class ; some were ascending the steps 
 on one side of the dais on which the immense 
 idol rests ; others were standing in front and at 
 tlie sides of the idol itself, fanning it with the 
 greatest solemnity of manner. Others, having 
 performed their acts of devotion, were de- 
 scending the stairs leading from the dais. The 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 131 
 
 women buy fans at the door of the temple, and 
 "when fanning the god stand in a reverent posture, 
 saying words of prayer to him, asking him to keep 
 them and their families from sickness. They 
 were doing what my heathen friend in his pigeon- 
 English called "chin-chinning Joss." I saw one 
 woman who bent with great derotion each time 
 she raised her fan ; she had a child strapped on 
 her back, for whom she was most likely inter- 
 ceding, perhaps asking Yeuk-Wong to preserve 
 it from infantile diseases during the ensuing year. 
 Little children I also saw fanning the idol. The 
 Chinaman who was with me seemed to believe 
 in the power of the god, and told me seriously, 
 " He- too muchee tired for alio thing he do for 
 that sick man." Some of the women presented 
 the faus to the god after using them, and laid 
 them on his lap, which was in fact covered with 
 fans and artificial flowers, evidently the gifts of 
 grateful patients. I saw others carrying their 
 fans home, which they considered blessed by the 
 god. When any member of their families is sick, 
 they use these particular fans, to fan the invalid, 
 believing that a healing virtue is in them. The 
 temple is small and very dirty. On one side of 
 it there is a long counter, behind which medicines 
 are arranged in jars, and together with various 
 plaisters are sold to the frequenters of the temple, 
 
 K 2 
 
132 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 and are received by them as coming from Yeuk- 
 Wong himself. The women remained about an 
 hour more or less, fanning the idol all the time ; 
 they then did obeisance to him and retired. 
 They presented paper money and incense-sticks 
 to the god before they left the temple. 
 
 We had now seen the whole ceremony, so we 
 got into our chairs. Scarcely had we gone a 
 f#w yards before my chair was suddenly placed 
 on the ground. I presumed that my guide had 
 met with a friend, as his chair was not following 
 mine. I could not ask, so I patiently sat still, 
 and I became the object of the greatest curiosity 
 to a crowd of men and boys. The latter pushed 
 their faces into my chair in their anxiety to see 
 me; whereupon one of the chair coolies came 
 forward to put up the blind in front of me. As 
 it was, I felt suffocated from the heat of the 
 summer day, my chair being enclosed on three 
 sides by green curtains, so I would not allow my 
 only air-hole to be taken from me. The chair 
 coolie then said, evidently surprised at my bold- 
 ness, " More better my shuttee, then no man see 
 you." An elderly man came forward i'rom the 
 crowd, who had until now indulged himself in 
 staring at me to his heart's content, and ordered 
 the crowd to move away. They all obeyed him 
 at once, and I felt the benefit of the great rever- 
 
FOUBTBEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 133 
 
 ence and obedience paid in China to the elders 
 by all the juniors. If the children are too noisy 
 in the street, or in a temple, they become quiet 
 immediately when remonstrated with by an elder. 
 Apropos of Henry's Chinese teacher, I must tell 
 you that he is a man full of conceit, especially 
 vain of his knowledge of English. He comes 
 into the library every morning after breakfast to 
 give Henry his lesson in Chinese ; and if I am in 
 the room, he advances towards me, bis full round 
 face beaming with self-complacency, and shakes 
 hands witli me in European fashion, saying " How 
 you do. Bar?" On our way home from the 
 temple we passed by one of the cat and dog cafes. 
 I have not yet told you that Henry took me into 
 one of them the other day, and I thought the 
 owner of it was disappointed as we did not order 
 a dish of either of the delicacies he had for sale. 
 This restaurant is known to the Chinese by the 
 name of Whoon-Hang-Kau-Maau-Yuuk-Poo. This 
 signifies, Whoon-Hang, the sign of the shop ; Kau, 
 dog ; Maau, cat ; Yuuk, flesh ; Poo, eating-house. 
 I saw many joints of dog in the front of the shop 
 to tempt passers-by, which looked to my eyes 
 exactly like the joints of a sucking-pig. There 
 was a kitchen-range with pots and pans in this 
 small shop, waiting for a savoury stew or hash 
 to be ordered by a customer. A small placard 
 
134 FOUETBEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 was fixed up, saying (as Henry translated it to 
 me) that good black cat's flesh was always 
 ready here. The black cat is much more 
 prized for food than any other of the feline 
 race. We went up the stairs leading to the 
 saloon, where several small dining tables were 
 placed. At one of these tables we saw a man 
 with a little basin full of a steaming stew. Henry 
 went up to him and said, " Maau ? " (cat), and he 
 answered " Yau " (yes). It had a very dark 
 appearance (warranted black cat, I should think), 
 and had a most savoury smell. On the wall a 
 bill of fare was placed, stating the cost of a repast 
 of dog and cat. Henry had this bill of fare 
 translated for him, by one of his Chinese tutors, 
 twelve years ago. This is the correct rendering 
 of it :*' " One tael of black dog's flesh, eight cash ; 
 .... one tael weight of black dog's fat, three 
 kandareens of silver; one large basin of black 
 ■cat's flesh, one hundred cash; one small basin 
 of black cat's flesh, fifty cash; one large bottle of 
 common wine, thirty-two cash ; one small bottle of 
 common wine, sixteen cash ; one large bottle of 
 dark rice wine, sixty-eight cash ; one small bottle 
 of dark rice wine, thirty-four cash ; one large bottle 
 of plum wine, sixty-eight cash ; one small bottle of 
 plum wine, thirty-four cash ; one large bottle of 
 * Tide ' Walks in the City of Canton.' — Archdeacon Gray. 
 
POUETEBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 135 
 
 pear wine, sixty-eight cash ; one small bottle of 
 pear wine, thirty-four cash; one large bottle 
 of Tien-tsin wine, ninety-six cash ; one small 
 bottle of Tien-tsin wine, forty-eight cash ; one 
 basin of congee, three cash ; one small plate of 
 pickles, three cash ; one small saucer of ketchup, 
 or vinegar, three cash ; and one pair of black cat's 
 eyes, three kandareens of silTer." These restau- 
 rants are crowded at the celebration of the Ha- 
 chi, or festival of the summer solstice, by men of 
 all ranks. To eat dog's flesh, especially black 
 dog's flesh, on that day, is to secure the eater 
 against sickness for the rest of the summer. A 
 strange sight I saw this morning on passing by 
 the Namhoi prison, and one of a very painful 
 nature. Many human beings were confined in a 
 small enclosed space, which was barred. These 
 poor wretches were closely packed, and the look 
 of the place reminded me of what I had read of 
 the Black Hole in Calcutta. These unfortunates 
 are condemned to wear cangues, or large wooden 
 collars, which difier in weight and size* In hot 
 weather these must prove a torture to these 
 prisoners, whose offence is one of petty larceny 
 only. They can scarcely lie down, and jostle 
 against each other as they force their way to the 
 bars of their cell to get nearer to the stranger 
 visiting the place. They hold out their emaciated. 
 
136 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN, CANTON. 
 
 dirty hands between the bars, and cry out in- 
 cessantly, "Kumshaw, Kumshaw." It is a sad 
 sight — these human beings shut up in a cage. 
 Many die from this painful punishment during 
 the summer. In the square in front of the Nam- 
 hoi prison, I saw numbers of prisoners exposed to 
 scorn,, who wore long chains round their necksy 
 to which heavy weights were attached, to prevent 
 the possibility of escape. There are varieties in 
 this kind of punishment, but the object of the 
 whole is that these m,en should be held up to 
 the scorn and derision of all who pass this way. 
 They are allowed to pursue their trades in the 
 street. I saw some who were w^orking as shoe- 
 makers. When they caught sight of us they 
 stood up, took their chains in their hands, 
 dragging their weights of iron or stone behind 
 them as they shuffled along towards us, and begged 
 us in piteous voices for kumshaws. I have just 
 received a visit from the American consul's wife, 
 who lives on the other side of the creek, in the 
 western suburb of Canton. From her windows a 
 very busy crowd is always to be seen ; and one 
 day last week, as she was looking out of one of 
 the windows, she saw a man in the street who 
 had a shawl tied round him. From this shawl 
 peeped out three little heads. A crowd of women 
 gathered round this man, the shawl was un- 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 137 
 
 done, and the poor little baby girls were passed 
 round from one woman to another to be ex- 
 amined. Then the bargaining began ; the high- 
 est bidder offered five cents for one of the little 
 creatures, but the man demanded six cents, and 
 refused to sell either of the infants under this 
 price. 
 
 He eventually walked off from the spot with- 
 out meeting with a purchaser for his tender 
 human freight. The Chinese are not altered in 
 this respect, a father looks upon the birth of a 
 female infant as a misfortune, a bitter disappoint- 
 ment. When some of the mandarins have called 
 upon us who can speak a little pigeon English, 
 and Henry has asked either of them how many 
 children he has, he has answered as the case may 
 be, " Three," or " four piecee." Then Henry will 
 say, " How many piecee girls," and probably the 
 answer will be, "Two" or "three piecee girls." 
 They have not been even counted in the number 
 of the family. A wife who only has daughters 
 is never a favourite, and if she be a first and 
 small-footed wife this is a great source of sorrow 
 to her, as she knows that her husband will take a 
 second wife. In the latter case a man can make 
 the choice himself, and generally selects a slave 
 or a woman from the humbler walks of life, who 
 has not contracted feet. If he choose a slave he 
 
138 FOUKTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 pays a certain sum of money to the owner to 
 redeem her. The second, third, or other wife has 
 therefore a greater chance of being loved than the 
 one who, as first wife, is always selected for the 
 young man by his parents, and whom he has not 
 been permitted to see until the marriage day, in 
 fact until she has been brought to his home. An 
 inferior wife takes a subordinate position in the 
 bouse, and scarcely attains to the true rank and 
 dignity of a wife until she becomes a mother. 
 If the husband choose, he can raise one of these 
 extra wives to the first position on the death of 
 the small-footed head wife ; but this is rarely done. 
 The heat of summer is now upon us, and I 
 can speak from experience of the peculiar, un- 
 pleasant, damp heat that is one's constant com- 
 panion night and day. Still I do not suffer as 
 some appear to do from the climate. I rise at half- 
 past six and am occupied with my little friend 
 from eight o'clock until prayers in the church at 
 nine. After breakfast we have some more lessons, 
 and then Henry sometimes takes us out sightseeing. 
 We call our sampan, and as Henry knows every 
 creek he can direct our boat's crew to any spot 
 where he wishes to land. Often he sends the 
 sampan round to some other creek to await us. 
 It seems to me so curious, these boat people are 
 content to wait any length of time for us and 
 
rOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 139 
 
 charge nothing for their time, only expecting the 
 fare to and from the place of destination. Henry, 
 from his many years' residence in China, was so 
 accustomed to this arrangement that, soon after 
 his arrival in England, he took a cab from the West 
 End to the City, and kept it waiting some two 
 hours or more. He was much surprised when a 
 large fare was demanded, one item being, of 
 course, for the length of time the cab had waited 
 for him. The family who belong to the sampan 
 we hire have seldom, if ever, been beyond that 
 part of the river which is immediately facing 
 Canton ; they have never ascended the creeks, 
 and sometimes look very angry when they are 
 made to go farther than they wish. We make 
 various excursions up these creeks, landing at 
 pretty spots, and having our tea prepared in 
 the boat and brought on shore to us. How you 
 would laugh, and how English servants would 
 grumble, at our arrangements. A tray containing 
 a teapot, milk jug, and cups and saucers, is placed 
 at the end of the sampan ; a tin of butter, bread 
 and knives are put into a basket, also a bundle of 
 firewood. But I have forgotten the chief ingre- 
 dient, which, besides the tea, is necessary for our 
 comfort, and that is a bottle of fresh water. The 
 river water is simply unfit to be taken in any 
 way, and one day that our boy had forgotten to 
 
140 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 take the fresh water, and we were obliged to try the 
 river water, the tea, as far as I was concerned, was 
 thrown away. I should like you to picture our 
 little party starting for our excursions either 
 early in the morning or in the afternoon — Henry, 
 myself, and Minnie, our old coolie, and one of 
 the waiting-boys, who looks after our tea. Even 
 the boys know nothing of the country close to 
 Canton. The people at the places where we land 
 are much interested in us, and on the whole 
 are very polite. Sometimes children will raise 
 the old obnoxious cry of " Fanqui " (foreign 
 devil) when they run after us, but Henry rebukes 
 them and quiets them by telling them he will 
 take them before the mandarin if they persist 
 in applying that word to us. 
 
 I cannot say much for the walks about Canton. 
 We have taken several, but we cannot walk two 
 abreast, and so we go along in Indian file. The 
 chief walks we have tried have been amongst the 
 paddy fields. The economy of the Chinese pre- 
 vents their wasting land on roads, so you have 
 only narrow footpaths on raised banks, broad 
 enough generally for one person. These paths are 
 in some cases paved with granite, which is roughly 
 cut in all shapes and sizes, so if you are not careful 
 you are apt to stumble. When a chair comes 
 along these paths and has to pass you, it is a 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 141 
 
 difficult matter, and I had to climb up a bank, a 
 few days ago, to get out of the way of one of them. 
 We have a most faithful little follower in a new 
 purchase we have made. When we were at the 
 Fa-ti gardens some days ago, a number of dogs 
 sprang towards us barking furiously, which is the 
 habit of these Chinese dogs. Their bark is worse 
 than their bite, for all their enmity ends in noise. 
 The Chinese cuff them and kick them with their 
 high soled shoes to keep them quiet. Amongst 
 this party of dogs a sweet-looking little puppy 
 came forward and looked at us in a most friendly 
 manner. I was smitten with him at once, and we 
 asked the owner of the garden what he would 
 take for him. He said, " Three hundred cash," 
 which we promised to send him by our coolie (we 
 never carry money about with us), so the pur- 
 chase was concluded, and I carried my pet off in 
 my arms. This little dog is a full yellow in 
 colour ; he has a longish curly coat, a black tongue, 
 and a black roof to his mouth. When he is older 
 he will have a long bushy tail curling over his 
 back. He evidently prefers foreigners to his own 
 countrymen. This is not the case with another 
 puppy lately given to us by a friend. He is only 
 happy with the servants, seems to hate our society, 
 rushes into our room when we are at dinner, takes 
 what we offer him, and bolts out of the room 
 
142 POUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 again. If his manners do not improve, we shall 
 make him a present to one of his beloved coun- 
 trymen. 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 Gaston, June 19th, 1877. 
 
 Mt dear Mother, 
 
 A VEEY curious festival was observed here 
 on the 15th inst. ; it was held on the river, and so 
 Shameen was much resorted to on that day. The 
 Chinese, who ordinarily are not admitted into our 
 settlement, unless they have some business to 
 transact with foreigners, are allowed to come 
 into Shameen for this festival, and a great num- 
 ber availed themselves of this permission last 
 Friday. A detachment of the Chinese city guard 
 was sent by the mandarins to keep order. This 
 singular festival is in honour of Wat- Yuen, who 
 lived more than 2000 years ago. He was prime 
 minister to a soTereign who ruled over one of 
 the three kingdoms into which China was divided 
 at that time. This king was a most profligate 
 prince, and Wat- Yuen remonstrated with him 
 again and again on his conduct, but without 
 success. 
 
 At last Wat- Yuen, despairing to effect any 
 reform, resolved to commit suicide; this being 
 
FOUKTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 143 
 
 considered an honourable act under the circum- 
 stances. 
 
 He therefore threw himself over a bridge and 
 was drowned. Some fishermen who were in a boat 
 close to the spot saw him fall into the water, and 
 tried to recover the body. But they could not 
 find it, nor were the people more successful on the 
 following day, who went in great numbers to seek 
 for the corpse. Tiey threw rice into the river, so 
 that the fish might eat it, and not touch the body, 
 an idea prevailing amongst the Chinese that the 
 soul of a man is mucb grieved if the body which it 
 inhabited be at all mutilated. Since then, yearly, 
 on the anniversary of the day on which Wat- Yuen 
 committed suicide, a festival has been observed, 
 during which dragon boats go up and down the 
 rivers, iull of men who are supposed to be searching 
 for his body. 
 
 But I must describe these curious dragon boats 
 to you. They are of great length, and are ex- 
 tremely narrow ; they are painted in very bright 
 colours, red and gold predominating, and are orna- 
 mented at the bow with the head of a dragon 
 painted in gaudy colours, and at the stern they 
 carry the tail of the dragon. Some of these boats 
 are constructed to carry sixty, some eighty, some 
 a hundred men. Those who propel the boats use 
 short paddles, most energetically throwing the 
 
FOTJETBBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 145 
 
 water high into the air on raising them. They of 
 course sit down in the boat. Between the rowers 
 a number of men, dressed in most ornamental, 
 embroidered clothes, stand, making wild gestures, 
 and shouting as they go along. Some of them 
 beat gongs, others drums, to give time to the 
 rowers, and by this continuous sound you know 
 when a dragon boat is anywhere in your neigh- 
 bourhood. 
 
 One man in the bows of the boat waves a flag 
 wildly, others imitate the action of throwing rice 
 into the river as an offering to the manes of Wat- 
 Yuen. The noise accompanying the dragon boat is 
 supposed to frighten and to drive away all evil 
 spirits and to prevent the fish from preying upon 
 Wat-Yuen's body. Along the centre of the boat 
 are bright-coloured umbrellas, flags, banners, etc. 
 The crews are frantic with excitement, and present 
 a very wild effect. These dragon boats belong to 
 different villages and clans, and the expense of 
 each is defrayed by the particular village or clan 
 to which it belongs. 
 
 After the festival is over the boats are sunk 
 in the muddy beds of creeks, and are not 'taken 
 up until the following dragon festival. Accom- 
 panying each large boat are six or seven smaller 
 ones, which have similar flags at their prows, 
 and contain members of the clan to whom the 
 
 L 
 
146 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 large boat belongs. In the leading boat of the 
 six or seven small boats, a man blows continually 
 upon a conch shell. The dragon boats from their 
 peculiar construction run great risks, and often 
 some accident takes place during these festivals. 
 The observance of this feast is universal through- 
 out the empire. It was not well observed this 
 year owing to the floods, which rendered the river 
 very dangerous. 
 
 We took our sampan and remained on the river 
 nearly the whole day, witnessing the festival from 
 various points. 
 
 When we were in the W^ong-Sha creek, which 
 is in fact a water street with liouses on each side 
 built on stakes, we met one of these dragon boats. 
 W^hether the men purposely threw up their 
 paddles with greater force than usual as they 
 passed us, I do not know, but we had a complete 
 shower-bath and were wet through. Yesterday 
 another heathen festival was observed at a place 
 called Hwang-Chu-Kee, about four miles iip the 
 river, at which we were present. As a rule, the 
 Chinese at this festival resort to a temple about 
 five days' journey from Canton, to worship Luung- 
 Moo, the dragon's mother ; but this year, in coijse- 
 quence of the floods caused by part of the river's 
 bank giving way on the western branch of the 
 Canton Eiver, and the immensely strong currents 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 147 
 
 caused by the recent heavy rains, the worsliippers 
 of Luung-Moo resorted to one of her temples 
 situated at Hwang-Chu-Kee. 
 
 This temple is very small, and could not ac- 
 commodate a large crowd of worshippers, so a large 
 mat tent had been erected, and a small idol of the 
 goddess had been carried into it to receive the 
 homage of her votaries. Numbers of large house 
 boats passed us on their way up tlie river to Hwang- 
 Chu-Kee. These boats are verv handsome, being: 
 gaily painted and carved. They are most com- 
 modious, and are^ used by Chinese families when 
 going into the interior of the country. They were 
 gaily decorated with flags and lanterns, the latter 
 bearing the names and titles of the families who 
 had hired them. Some of these boats contained 
 men only, others women. I was much interested 
 in watching the latter as we passed close under 
 the stern of their house boats. Some of the ladies 
 were beautifully dressed, and their heads were 
 decorated in full with flowers, real or artifi(?ial. 
 There were crowds of female attendants with the 
 ladies. The separation of sexes in public is 
 rigidly observed in the south of China. A father 
 would not like to be seen with his daughter in 
 the streets, nor a husband with his wife. The 
 European custom of men and women walking 
 together is not understood, and when European 
 
 L 2 
 
148 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 or American ladies are seen holding the arms of 
 their male companions, it is an abomination to the 
 Chinese. Henry and I are most particular, and 
 when we enter a Chinese house, we do not speak 
 together, nor sit near each otiier, fearing to 
 transgress the strict rule of Chinese etiquette on 
 this point. 
 
 We had much difficulty in arriving at the 
 temple of Luung-Moo, as the current was so 
 strong; and the boatwomen of the sampan we 
 had hired could scarcely make way against it, 
 in fact at one time it was only by clinging on 
 to the trunks of the trees that were near us that 
 the women succeeded in pushing the boat along. 
 We were really going over the fields, which owing 
 to the inundation are in many places covered with 
 water. We took three hours at least to do the 
 distance of four miles. Crowds of women were 
 assembled in the mat house I have mentioned. 
 Some wore dark or light blue silk tunics, which 
 were much embroidered ; many others were quietly 
 dressed in blue or prune coloured cotton clothes. 
 Chinese ladies often go to these ceremonies very 
 simply dressed, as they can thus pass unnoticed 
 in the crowd. I could not in very many cases 
 distinguish the mistresses from their attendants. 
 
 It was a sight to see the gaily decorated heads 
 of many of the ladies; they are particularly partial 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON, 149 
 
 to the sweet-smelling Arabian jessamine, which 
 they place down the sides of the teapot-shaped 
 coiffure. What strikes one so much when one 
 sees such a gathering as the present is the want 
 of variety in the colour of the hair, eyes, and 
 complexion of the Chinese. The goddess Luung- 
 Moo lived in the fifteenth century, and the only 
 thing for which she appears to have been cele- 
 brated is the vain supposition that she gave birth 
 to a dragon instead of a child. The heat was 
 intense in the temporary temple, and was much 
 increased by the large fire in the incense burner, 
 which was incessantly fed by paper offerings. 
 The ladies were m.f>st polite to me, smiled, nodded, 
 and seemed as if they would like to have had 
 a chat with me. From the temple we went into 
 the village of Hwang-Ohu-Kee, and Henry took 
 me into the large ancestral hall, in front of 
 which, in December 1847, six of our countrymen, 
 young merchants, were murdered. They went up 
 the river and landed at this village, and, after a 
 walk of some five or six miles, they returned to 
 the village in order to rejoin their boat. They 
 were seized, confined in tlie ancestral hall, and, 
 after an examination had taken place before the 
 elders, were put to death. As the bodies, when 
 recovered by the community at Canton, pre- 
 sented a most mutilated appearance, tliere was 
 
150 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 eyery reason to suppose that tbey liad been 
 cruelly tortured before receiving the coup de 
 grace. Five Chinese were afterwards beheaded 
 for this crime, on the village green of Hwang-Chn- 
 Kee, in the presence of a company of H.M. 95th 
 Eegiment, M'hich was sent from Hong-Kong to be 
 present at the execution. As the condemned 
 men were gagged, it was thought that they were 
 not the perpetrators of the murder, but rather 
 some malefactors under sentence of death for 
 other crimes. ' At that time a very bad feeling 
 existed on the part of the Chinese towards all 
 foreigners. Henry's Chinese teacher accompanied 
 us on this excursion, and remained with us whilst 
 we were in the temple, but when we proceeded 
 towards the village he was non est. We met 
 him again on our return to the boat. Henry, 
 knowing full well that the man was a coward, and 
 feared to be seen with the foreigners in the 
 village, asked him why he had not accompanied 
 us. His ready answer, given with the invariable 
 smile of self satisfaction, was, " That villagee too 
 muchee dirty, my no likee walkee." I have for- 
 gotten to mention that mothers who have eligible 
 daughters worship the goddess Luung-Moo, pray- 
 ing her to grant them good sons-in-law. On 
 our way home, as we approached the confines of 
 the city, we noticed that one of the boats used 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 151 
 
 for worship looked unusually gay, and we drew up 
 by the side of it, and went on board. We were 
 told that one of the young men belonging to the 
 river population was celebrating his wedding festi- 
 vities on this boat, and we saw a long table at the 
 end of it which was covered with various offerings, 
 consisting of a pig roasted whole, coloured dump- 
 lings, dyed eggs, etc. These edibles were to 
 form the feast in the evening, and we were 
 invited to remain and partake of the good things. 
 Musicians were placed on a raised platform at 
 the prow of the boat; they immediately com- 
 menced playing in our honour, and made such a 
 din as was truly deafening with their gong, drum, 
 shrill pipe, and another wind iustrument. The 
 bridegroom sat at this end of the boat, apart from 
 his bride, who stood amongst the women by the 
 table. I was disposed to pity the poor man, think- 
 ing he must have had. the drum of his ear nearly 
 broken by the noisy instruments ; but he looked 
 serene and placid, and perhaps enjoyed the noisy 
 music. The women handed me a cup of tea, and 
 gave to Minnie some eggs made in sugar and 
 coloured, very similar to our Easter eggs. They 
 had been offered to the goddess Kum-Fa, in hopes 
 that she would grant a male child to the newly- 
 wedded pair. Having drank our cups of tea, 
 we rose to take leave. I chin-chinned the 
 
152 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 women, and they returned the salute to me, 
 continuing to do so from the bows of their 
 boat (which was at anchor) as we rowed off 
 towards home. I do not think I have de- 
 scribed the floating temples, as these boats used 
 for religious worship may be justly called. It is 
 in them that all religious ceremonies for the popu- 
 lation on the water take place. They are con- 
 stantly passing up and down the river, and as 
 they pass you see the altar, a long table for offer- 
 ings, and the attendant priests who are chanting 
 some especial service. On a marriage occasion 
 they are very bright, witli lanterns and gay 
 flags. At other times, when prayers are being- 
 said for the dead by priests engaged for that 
 purpose, the flags and banners are white and blue. 
 I think the river is most fascinating, and I per- 
 petually see something fresh and attractive on it. 
 The passenger boats, with their large dark brown 
 sails in the shape of a butterfly's wings, are my 
 especial delight. They look so grand as they 
 sail slowly down the centre of the river. If the 
 tide is strong and against them, they creep as 
 close as possible to the river wall. From our 
 windows these large sails look so strange, as they 
 rear their heads above the banyan-trees quite close 
 to our house. Boats containing everything for 
 the use of the water-population ply about the 
 
FOXJETEBN MONTHS IN CANTON 153 
 
 river. Thus you see a floating greengrocer with 
 vegetables and fruit, looking very picturesque as 
 they are exposed to view. Then comes a floating 
 fishmonger, a floating florist, a floating vendor of 
 firewood, or a floating potter. Then a small boat 
 passes you with a barber inside it, who plies his 
 trade amongst the river-population only. A 
 small boat, whose approach is made known by 
 the tinkling of a bell, contains a doctor for the 
 boat-people. The large floating kitchens are 
 very peculiar, being, as their name denotes, for 
 the use of those whose requirements exceed the 
 limited space in their own boats. One also sees 
 poor dingy boats which are kept for the use of 
 conveying the dead to their burial. And, yet 
 again, there is a peculiar class of boats belonging 
 to lepers, who can never mix with other men ; 
 and a piteous sight it is to see this afflicted 
 race cut off from communion with their fellow- 
 creatures. These lepers belong to the river- 
 population. Flower boats are not so numerous 
 on this river as they used to be, and I am 
 disappointed with them. The entrance to the 
 saloon, which is high and has a very deep 
 covered roof, is much carved, and sometimes 
 painted in bright green and gold. As we 
 have often passed down the river after sunset, 
 which is now at seven o'clock, I have again 
 
154 FOUBTEESr MONTHS IN CANION. 
 
 and again seen these boats illuminated. There 
 are several in a row, and they look very gay 
 and bright at night. I have been amazed 
 with the number of floating hotels, which are 
 anchored together in a vast concourse, in fact 
 tliese boats form streets on the water. They are 
 extremely useful to the people; for suppose a 
 passenger boat from the country should arrive 
 late, those travelling in it cannot enter into the 
 city of Canton, for, as you are aware, the city is 
 shut up by many gates and barricades at nine 
 o'clock, and no Chinese can pass through them 
 after that hour. Barricading the streets at night 
 is one of the strangest and most Oriental customs 
 practised here. Foreigners are permitted to pass 
 through most of the barricades at night, but it is 
 a great labour to do so ; you have, even if it be 
 tolerably early, say ten o'clock p.m., to arouse the 
 watchman, who sleeps on a bench by the gate. 
 You must then call out that you are foreigners, 
 and wait some minutes for the man to bestir him- 
 self. The unfastening and removing the great 
 wooden bars, to let you pass through, is a work 
 of time. When we have been out some distance 
 sightseeing, and feel tired, these gates and barriers 
 are a trial to our patience. To-day is the Chinese 
 Midsummer Day, called Ha-chi, and a very curious 
 custom, as I have previously told you, is observed 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 155 
 
 on it. Every one who can. obtain it eats black 
 dog's flesh, as it is supposed that it renders all 
 who take it on this particular day strong and well 
 during the ensuing twelvemonths. Our servants 
 .are enjoying a feast of it to-day. If black dog's 
 flesh, which is more appreciated than the flesh 
 of dogs of any other colour, cannot be obtained, 
 people content themselves with the flesh of 
 other coloured dogs. I have had to keep a 
 sharp look-out for our four favourites, as dogs 
 are often stolen at this particular time of year. 
 Many Chinese went yesterday to see the dogs 
 killed, but I declined an invitation to be present. 
 Dogs are slaughtered in all parts of the city, and 
 much cruelty is shown towards them, as they are 
 often severely beaten before they are killed. This 
 cruel custom is in connection with some super- 
 stitious belief. 
 
 LETTER XIII. 
 
 Taai-Tung-Koo-Tszk Monastery, June 25th, 1877. 
 My dear Mother, 
 
 I HOPE I do not tire you with my long 
 descriptions of all I see in this wonderful city. 
 I am seldom without a subject for my descriptive 
 letters, and I am sure you will agree with me that 
 we have worked hard at sight-seeing. I really feel 
 the heat less when employed. I think the most 
 
156 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 trying hours are from twelve to three o'clock p.m., 
 and if I am at home, and not obliged to occupy 
 myself, I confess to finding the heat very oppres- 
 sive. We had expressed a wish some days ago, 
 in Mr. Howqua's hearing, to see a lotus-garden, 
 many of which are now in bloom. Mr. Howqua 
 kindljr remembered what we had said, and called 
 " t Friday to arrange to take us to a friend's lotus- 
 gaiden up the river. He came yesterday, bringing 
 with him a large mandarin-boat, which was most 
 comfortable and roomy, and was capable of 
 holding twenty persons. It was divided into two 
 compartments ; in the inner one an English lady, 
 my little friend Minnie, I, young Howqua and his ■ 
 two amahs sat. We started about noon, a party 
 of eleven, including seven gentlemen, Henry being 
 the only European gentleman. We were less than 
 an hour on our way to the garden, as we had 
 the tide in our favour. This is a most serious 
 matter for consideration in .arranging water parties 
 on the Pearl Eiver. In the garden we entered 
 a charming garden house, two storeys in height, 
 beautifully furnished with black wood furniture 
 inlaid with mother-of-pearl or \\ith marble. 
 There was much fine wood-carving in it. The 
 small rooms were divided by screens of carved 
 wood, and many Chinese paintings in scrolls 
 hung on the walls. Chinese gentlemen use these 
 
rOUETBEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 157 
 
 gardens, which may be at long distances from 
 their private houses, for entertainments, but some- 
 times they spend a few days in them during the 
 summer. There are sleeping-rooms, beside many 
 sitting-rooms in them. We saw two fine peacocks 
 in a large cage in this garden, a deer, and also 
 some white geese, which were in such a crrmped 
 cage that they could scarcely turn. All th'- -> 
 creatures, as I have observed in a former let ^er, 
 are kept by the gentry to ensure, good luck to 
 their families. We were disappointed in not find- 
 ing any of the lotus plants here in bloom. We 
 therefore went on in the mandarin-boat to another 
 garden, belonging also to a friend of Mr. Howqua ; 
 but here we were equally unsuccessful, as a large 
 pond, which should at this time of year be full 
 of lotus plants in bloom, only showed green 
 leaves, and no flowers. We only saw a few pots 
 of the lotus in bloom; one of which, a white lotus, 
 was most beautiful. I admire the green leaves of 
 this plant, they are so charming in shape and are 
 bright green in colour. Mr. Howqua placed a drop 
 of water on one of these leaves he had ]plucked, 
 and it shone like a brilliant as it ran about on 
 the shining surface of the leaf. I think this plant 
 more lovely than any other I have ever seen. 
 There was also a large garden house here, and, 
 as one usually finds, it was abundantly furnished 
 
158 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 with black wood couches, chairs of different sizes, 
 and tables. But this garden house is falling 
 rapidly into decay, the upright supports are out 
 of the straight, and we saw many cracks in the 
 walls. It will, as is too often the case in China, 
 be allowed to fall a victim to white ants, damp, 
 etc. ; not a care will be bestowed upon it. When it 
 is unsafe for use, it will be pulled down, and a new 
 house built in its place. Our host had ordered a 
 Chinese luncheon to be brought on here. Little 
 plates containing meat dumplings, or cakes and 
 sweets, were on the centre of the table, and chop- 
 sticks were placed for each person. Every one 
 when seated began to help himself with his chop- 
 sticks to what he fancied, and our host and his 
 friends placed on our plates, first a cake, then a 
 little meat dumpling, again a cake, and so on. 
 It is not very pleasant to see your neighbour's 
 chopsticks at one moment with their tips in his 
 month, the next moment taking up a little cake 
 and placing it on your plate. After luncheon we 
 strolled about the garden and then returned to our 
 boat. I forgot to say that tea and fruit, consisting 
 of lichees and whampees,had been given us on the 
 boat whilst we went up the river. Fruit was 
 again handed to us in the first garden house we 
 visited. Mr. Howqua made a large purchase of 
 lichees just before we entered our boat on our 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 159 
 
 return home, and the Chinese gentlemen ate 
 fruit at intervals until we reached Shameen. A 
 Chinese gentleman does not seem to know what 
 rest means, he is either eating, smoking, taking 
 snuff, or fidgeting about at all times. Mr. 
 Howqua allows us no quiet when we are with 
 him : he is perpetually on the move, and when 
 you hope that you will be allowed to sit down 
 for a few minutes in a garden house or else- 
 where, he says, "Now, we go on." Just before 
 we drew up at our landing steps tea was agaiu 
 handed round, as a final chin-chin. We arrived 
 home at four o' clock, the Chinese gentlemen 
 accompanying us into tlie Chaplaincy and sitting 
 down for five minutes. When they had left, 
 Chong-Shing, the teacher, handed a covered tea- 
 cup to Henry, which the latter had admired en 
 route, and in his pigeon English said, " Howqua 
 present you this." 
 
 Mr. Howqua told us that he is adding a new 
 room to his house, and intends to furnish it in 
 European style for his bride elect. He is to be 
 married in a month or so, when a lucky day can 
 be discovered for the marriage. His widowhood 
 will not have lasted more than four or five months. 
 I am writing this letter in what I call our little 
 garden house, in our favourite monastic retreat. 
 As we were having our luncheon (for we have been 
 
160 
 
 FOUKTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 here all day) in the grand visitors' room of the 
 monastery, we were told it would be required when 
 we had finished our meal by a party of Chinese 
 who were wishing to dine there. One of these 
 
 AL FRESCO SHAVING. 
 
 gentlemen came into our room just now, and, 
 having recognised Heniy, saluted him. He has 
 held high official rank in one of the provinces. He 
 and his two companions are more than middle- 
 aged men ; each has three or four wives at home, 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 161 
 
 and yet they were accompanied by three young 
 girls of very bold manner and certainly not 
 suited to be their companions. The monks allow 
 this kind of society to frequent their monastery, 
 because it brings dollars to them. There are great 
 
 AL FBESOO TAII.-PLAITING. 
 
 rejoicings going on in the city to-day amongst 
 the carpenters, shipwrights, and stonemasons, 
 many of whom have their workshops in this 
 neighbourhood. There is a general holiday 
 amongst these classes, as it is the festival of their 
 tutelary god, Loo-pan. So great is the din from 
 
 M 
 
162 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 gongs and firecrackers, as to disturb the seclusion 
 of this monastic retreat, and to render letter- 
 writing difficult. The Chinese festivals last three 
 days, namely, tlie eve, the day itself, which 
 is most observed, and the following day. Tem- 
 porary theatres have been erected on this side 
 of the river in honour of the fete. The mandarins 
 have closed the theatres in the city for the 
 present, as there have been disturbances in them, 
 and one or two free fights have taken place at 
 some of the late performances. As we came to 
 the monastery this morning, I was very much 
 amused at seeing, close by the gates of the 
 monastery, barbers plying their trade al fresco. 
 Two men were being operated upon; one was 
 being shaved, the other having his tail plaited. 
 It is a common sight in the streets of the city 
 to see barbers shaving their customers in the 
 open air. 
 
 LETTER Xiy. 
 
 Canton, July 8th, 1877. 
 
 My dear Mothbe, 
 
 I AM sure you will be much amused vdth 
 a description I am about to give you, of a visit 
 we have lately received from several Chinese 
 ladies and gentlemen. Punctually at the hour 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 163 
 
 we had invited them, three o'clock p.m., they 
 arrived. The party consisted of my friend Mrs. 
 Howqua, her two daughters, a friend of theirs 
 (the wife of a high mandarin, who brought her 
 two little boys), three grandchildren of Mrs. 
 Howqua, a little boy aged eight, and two girls 
 of four and six years. They were accompanied 
 by a great number of amahs, and also by male 
 attendants. Eight gentlemen arrived, indepen- 
 dently of the ladies, and about a quarter of an 
 hour after them. Two of them were the brothers 
 Howqua, the others their friends, and young 
 Howqua's tutor. Some youths, whose relationship 
 to the gentlemen I never found out, were also 
 with them. Many male attendants accompanied 
 the gentlemen, and you can imagine what a large 
 party they, looked when they were all assembled. 
 Just before the ladies came, a present arrived for 
 me from Mrs. Howqua in true Eastern style. It 
 consisted of four cages with their feathery 
 occupants. These were two canaries, a parrot, a 
 pair of love-birds, and three very small Chinese 
 birds. Accompanying them were two live 
 Chinese pheasants tied up in a basket. Some 
 coolies brought these cages, etc., into the 
 verandah. They scarcely had set them down, 
 and I had not had time to look at them, when 
 there was a ring at the bell and the ladies were 
 
 M 2 
 
164 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 carried into the hall in their covered chairs. 
 Out they stepped in their blue embroidered cos- 
 tumes, their hair immensely decorated with 
 flowers, rouge on their cheeks and by the side of 
 their eyebrows, their lips painted vermilion, and 
 in some cases the palms of their hands also 
 rouged. I felt overwhelmed, and could only 
 smile a welcome. The ladies took seats in the 
 drawing-room; the gentlemen moved about the 
 rooms, examined our blue porcelain, of which we 
 now have a large collection, and pronounced it 
 good. They then took a turn in the verandah, 
 and in the compound, and asked to see the 
 church. 
 
 We had had dinner prepared for all the party, 
 intending the ladies to sit at one table in the 
 dining-room, the gentlemen at another. But this 
 did not satisfy the rigid rules of Chinese etiquette. 
 The ladies on hearing of the arrangement shook 
 their heads and begged Minnie to tell me that they 
 required nothing to eat ; they had come only to 
 see me. The actual fact was that they had 
 expressed a wish to be present at a dinner served 
 up in European fashion. On our pressing the 
 matter, the gentlemen spoke for the ladies, and 
 said they could only eat if they might have their 
 dinner first, before the gentlemen entered the 
 dining-room. 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 165 
 
 It still wanted three quarters of an hour to the 
 time at which we had ordered the repast for the 
 whole party ; but on the waiting-boys being con- 
 sulted they said that the cook could give the ladies 
 dinner by themselves in ten minutes. With the 
 marvellous facility that Chinese show in pre- 
 paring a dinner at the shortest notice possible, 
 the meal was prepared in that time, the half 
 of what had been ordered for the whole party 
 being served up. The ladies, to while away the 
 ten minutes, went upstairs, examining everything 
 with childlike curiosity. Minnie told m,e that 
 one and all were struck with the cleanliness of 
 the European house. 
 
 The young ladies were delighted witli the con- 
 tents of my workbox, and begged for some needles 
 and some pearl buttons. The amahs received a 
 needle each from me, which they stuck into their 
 coiffures. We now sat down to dinner, the amahs 
 taking up their places behind their respective 
 mistresses, upon whom they waited as if they were 
 little children. They become very confidential 
 companions of the ladies, and are treated well as 
 a rule by them ; in fact these ladies seemed to 
 cling to their amahs as English children cling to 
 their nurses, asking them their advice and their 
 opinion, in all matters. We had by request no 
 chopsticks on the table, using only knives and 
 
166 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 forks. My poor friends looked sorely puzzled as 
 to the manner in which they should be held, 
 and tried to copy me. The European food ap- 
 peared to be most distasteful to them, and I saw 
 one of the young ladies retch and put out of her 
 mouth into her amah's hand, when she thought I 
 did not see her, some meat she had tasted. They 
 persisted all the time in saying that it was all 
 very good, very good. They struggled valiantly 
 on, and just tasted each dish, repeatedly saying 
 that they liked it. The poor things were a little 
 relieved, I fancy, when the sweets made their 
 appearance. 
 
 I was quietly watching all the movements 
 around me, and I saw an amah take a little sponge 
 cup pudding into her hand, break it into pieces 
 and feed her mistress with it. The same thing 
 also happened with the fruit. A Chinese lady is 
 most dependent upon her amah, she does nothing 
 for herself; and they say that her garments are 
 taken off by the amah at night, and that she is 
 lifted up and put into bed like an infant. Chinese 
 ladies cannot understand us European ladies ; they 
 say, " You all the same as men." They certainly 
 do not admire us, neither our manners, nor our 
 dress, nor our independence. They ask me why I 
 do not dress like them, why I do not rouge, etc. 
 The ladies were very abstemious, only tasting the 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 167 
 
 champagQe and sherry. TJie tea was evidently 
 a great comfort to tliem as it was served in their 
 own fashion. When our dinner was over, the 
 ladies proposed that I should take them to the 
 Shameen gardens, which are at ten minutes' dis- 
 tance from the Chaplaincy. You would have been 
 diverted if you could have seen our party start 
 from the house. The ladies wore beautifully 
 embroidered robes ; the under skirt was in dark 
 blue silk, with raised embroidery of shaded light 
 blue flowers. The skirt sits extremely close, and 
 is in fact very narrow ; the front piece of it is laid 
 on, and is stiff with embroidery. At the sides and 
 back it is folded into tiny plaits, and the em- 
 broidery is worked on the outside of each plait. 
 There was a border of pale blue shaded flowers 
 round the edge of the ladies' skirts. The trousers 
 were made in plain dark blue silk, and the tunic, 
 in the same colour and material, made with wide 
 flowing sleeves. The throat and sleeves were 
 edged with the shaded pale blue embroidery. 
 The ladies on arriving apologised that they had 
 not on their best red costumes, saying that they 
 could not wear them on account of their mourning. 
 The two Miss Howquas' dresses were plainer in 
 style than the dresses of the elder ladies. Their, 
 shining long hair was worn in one long plait, tied 
 at the end with blue ribbon. All my visitors (I 
 
168 FOTJKTEEK MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 mean the ladies) were small-footed excepting Mrs. 
 Howqua. On leaving our house I gave my hand 
 to the latter in true Chinese style, and we started 
 on our walk. I felt a little shy of stepping on 
 to the public promenade with my Chinese friends. 
 The young ladies hobbled on a few steps, but they 
 soon became tired and mounted the backs of their 
 amahs. The young married lady was carried in 
 this manner all the way. I must say that it 
 is a most inelegant style of being carried. The 
 lady passes her arms round the amah's neck, and 
 places her knees in the hands of the servant, 
 which are held out behind her. Our progress 
 was very slow, and I believe the distance seemed 
 immense to the ladies, who are wholly unac- 
 customed to walk outside their gardens. Mrs. 
 Howqua rested on each bench by the way, and 
 we took half an hour or more to walk the short 
 distance. We returned home in the same style ; 
 and when we reached the Chaplaincy the amahs 
 handed the ladies long pipes, from which they 
 took a whiff or two. The attendant stands behind 
 on one side and prepares the pipe. When it ^is 
 ready, she puts the end of the long tube to the 
 lady's lips, who takes one or two whiiFs only. 
 The ladies now enjoyed a quiet gossip with each 
 other. I have not yet told you that the three 
 young children belonging to the widower were 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 169 
 
 dressed in strict mourning. The little girls wore 
 plain cotton tunics and trousers, and had no 
 flowers in their hair. Their shoes were plain 
 white bound with blue. The little boy wore 
 pale blue silk trousers tied round the ankle 
 with blue ribbon ; he wore also white shoes, and 
 his tail was tied with blue. 
 
 The gentlemen expressed much satisfaction 
 with the dinner and also with the wines, to which 
 1 heard they had done ample justice. Mr. 
 Howqua came up to me and said, "Thank you, 
 No. 1 good dinner." All were now in the 
 verandah, and tea was again handed. The ladies 
 sat apart from the gentlemen, not addressing 
 them, only speaking to each other. They at last 
 rose to take leave, and we ordered their chairs 
 to be brought into the hall. With many band- 
 ings, nods and chin-chins, they now entered 
 their chairs, taking the children with them, and 
 were carried off. The gentlemen left soon after, 
 about seven o'clock. 
 
 They sent their visiting cards (which are made 
 of broad strips of red paper, having the names 
 written on the right-hand side) to us imme- 
 diately on reaching their house. This is an 
 Eastern custom, signifying that tlie guests have 
 arrived home in safety. This entertainment 
 took place on Tuesday, and on Wednesday an 
 
170 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 invitation arrived for us to dine at the Howquas' 
 house, and to take some friends with us. But I 
 must reserve the account of this dinner for another 
 letter. 
 
 LETTEE XV. 
 
 Canton, July 14th, 1877. 
 
 My dear Mother, 
 
 My last letter contained the account of the 
 entertainment we gave to our kind Chinese friends. 
 Now I must tell you all about the afternoon we 
 spent with them. Our original invitation had been 
 for five o'clock, but on Wednesday a message came 
 from Mr. Howqua asking us to go at half-past one, 
 as he wished us to see some Chinese conjuring. 
 He also said he hoped we would take others besides 
 tlie two friends who had already promised to go 
 with us. So I sent a note to the American Con- 
 sulate, to ask the consul and his family to join our 
 party. The consul was engaged and could not go, 
 but his wife, her daughter of twelve years of age, 
 and a friend accepted the invitation. When our 
 large party arrived at the Howquas' house, we 
 were received by the gentlemen, and conducted by 
 them into one of the sitting-rooms. Mrs. Howqua 
 and her daughters met us there. They were all 
 dressed in plain blue cotton dresses edged with 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 171 
 
 black, as they were at home and it was still the 
 season of mouruing with them. We had sat for 
 a few minutes only when we were asked if we 
 would like to go into the garden and visit the 
 elder brother's house, which, although under the 
 same roof, is distinct in all its arrangements. The 
 sun was scorching, and I wondered to see Mrs. 
 Howqua with her head uncovered walk through 
 the sunny spots in the garden. We returned 
 to the house about half-past two, I and another 
 of our party having our minds somewhat eagerly 
 iixed upon the thought of luncheon, as we had 
 eaten nothing since breakfast. On entering the 
 house we were shown into a room in which a 
 Chinese dinner was laid out in style on a long, 
 narrow table, but alas, there were no signs of 
 luncheon. We were asked to take seats in the 
 atrium, or hall ; the musicians were then taking 
 their places in the outer court. Such a half-clothed, 
 dirty-looking set they were, and their instruments 
 were of the most primitive kind. When they 
 were seated, one of the players beat loudly upon 
 a tom-tom, another played a drum, another a life, 
 another cymbals, and the rest played upon wind 
 instruments. The chief performer now stepped 
 into the centre of the half circle made by the 
 musicians, and beat a pair of large cymbals to- 
 gether to the accompaniment of the other instru- 
 
172 FOXJETBEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 ments. The noise was deafening, and we all longed 
 to be farther off from the musicians. The performer 
 in the centre then played a variety of tricks with 
 his cymbals, causing one to roll on the edge of the 
 other, throwing one into the air and catching it on 
 the other as it was still spinning round. He then 
 fixed a stick into the centre of one of the 
 cymbals, and caused it to rotate violently, placing 
 the end of the- stick alternately on his chest, on 
 his face, and neck. His last trick was the best. 
 He took into his hands what looked like a long 
 folded paper umbrella, and having caused it to 
 rotate with great speed, a sudden explosion was 
 heard : the umbrella disappeared, and a lamp with 
 a liglit in it took its place. Our hopes of luncheon 
 faded into the distance, as Mrs. Howqua handed us 
 fresh lichees, taking off the husks herself, and the 
 attendants brought round plates containing two 
 peaches and two kinds of tiny cakes. I have not 
 yet, I remember, told you, of a little performance 
 given to us in the garden. Before we re-entered 
 the house, two men came into the garden with a 
 monkey, a Pekinese pug, and a poor thin sheep. 
 The monkey jumped through hoops on to the 
 back of the sheep, walked on a tight-rope, rode 
 on the back of the pug dog, and then the animals 
 performed other tricks. This performance was 
 very poor, but it seemed to be appreciated by the 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 173 
 
 numerous amahs and slaves, who sat behind their 
 mistresses. In this house of the Howqua family- 
 there are at least a hundred retainers. But to 
 return to our party, whom I left listening to the 
 musical performance : after a time it ceased, and 
 the Chinese gentlemen, in that curious unsettled 
 state that seems to be their nature, took us round 
 the gardens and garden houses a second time. 
 When we had had our stroll, we returned to the 
 house, and the ladies of our party were conducted 
 to the different suites of rooms to visit the ladies 
 of the family, whom we had not yet seen. We all 
 underwent the usual examination of our dresses, 
 jewellery, etc. One of our party, a tall and 
 handsome woman, had dressed herself in a bright 
 dinner dress, which she thought would please the 
 Chinese ladies. They very much admired her, 
 but thought it a pity she did not rouge, as it 
 would improve her so much. One of the 
 Chinese ladies, whose acquaintance I had pre- 
 viously made, said she was sorry I could not speak 
 Chinese, for, if I could do so, she would ask me to 
 spend two or three days with her. I think during 
 that time I should expire from want of air, as the 
 bedrooms into which we were shown, where the 
 ladies were sitting, had a most oppressive atmo- 
 sphere. At last our host came into one of the 
 rooms in which we were chatting through our two 
 
174 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 interpreters, Minnie and the young daughter of 
 the American Consul, and asked us to return to 
 the room in which dinner was waiting for us. 
 When we had all assembled, Mr. Howqua — in- 
 structed again as to matters of English etiquette 
 by Chong-Shing, who was also an invited guest — 
 advanced to me and said, "Number one lady, 
 come," and took me by the hand to the post of 
 honour on the right side of the table. He tlien re- 
 turned to the group of ladies at the end of the 
 room, and said to the American Consul's wife, 
 " Number two lady, come," and he took her to the 
 table, placing her on his left; and so he acted 
 until all the ladies were seated at the upper end 
 of the table. Poor man, he looked sorely puzzled 
 as to what to do on such an altogether novel 
 occasion ; but when he was quite at a loss, he 
 appealed to Chong-Shing for instructions. And 
 now — the gentlemen placing themselves as they 
 liked, the elder brother of our host sitting at the 
 bottom of the long table-^dinner began. It was 
 all served up in small porcelain basins, each holding 
 about as much as an European breakfast cup. 
 Nearly all the varieties of food were taken in the 
 form of soup. We had birds' nest soup, sharks' 
 fin soup, seaweed soup, duck soup with small 
 pieces of ham and bamboo slips cut up in it, and 
 soup after soup followed too numerous to mention. 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 175 
 
 After about twenty of these meat soups, a sweet 
 soup was served round by tlie attendants (they 
 bring a little basin of each kind and place it in 
 front of the guests) ; it was, we were told, made of 
 eggs, and flavoured with the lotus seed. Sweet 
 cakes accompanied this dish. We thought, and 
 I might say hoped, that the dinner was drawing to 
 a close, but meat and soup were handed on and 
 on in endless variety. The meats served to us 
 were boiled mutton and duck ; beef is never 
 eaten in Chinese houses, as they consider it a sin 
 to eat the flesh of the ox and buffalo, which are 
 so useful to man for agricultural purposes. We 
 learned afterwards that our host stopped several 
 varieties of viands coming to the table which 
 were prepared for us, as Chong-Shing had heard 
 us say to each other that we could not attempt 
 to eat any more, and so he gave the hint to Mr. 
 Howqua. It was really a kind action towards us, 
 as you are considered to be wanting in polite- 
 ness if you do not taste all that is provided 
 for you at a Chinese banquet. Now, besides 
 the stream of dishes that had flowed in upon 
 us, we had been helped by our host to various 
 dishes from the centre of the table. The wines 
 provided were sherry, champagne (the two former 
 most indifi'erent in quality), and sam-shu, a 
 strong white spirit. The Chinese are woefully 
 
176 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 cheated by the compradores in wine ; for instance, 
 they give them a high price for champagne, and 
 are supplied with a wine which savours of goose- 
 berry rather than champagne, and is really unfit 
 to be taken. 
 
 I was much surprised to see the Chinese gentle- 
 men drinking wine with each other at this dinner, 
 but I learnt from Henry, on returning home, that 
 this practice has been in vogue in China for many 
 centuries past. I was constantly called upon to 
 take wine with one or other of our Chinese friends, 
 and found that I must, much as I disliked it, sip 
 one of the three wines placed in porcelain wine- 
 cups before me. 
 
 The gentlemen have a curious way of drinking 
 to each other : they raise cups full of wine to their 
 lips, toss them off, and turn the mouths of the 
 empty cups towards the table. The dining-room 
 became more and more oppressive : it was devoid 
 of fresh air, and the atmosphere was suffocating. 
 Our host seemed to suffer from the heat as much 
 as we did. He and the other gentlemen turned 
 their wide sleeves back over their elbows, and 
 sat with arms exposed for a few minutes at a 
 time. They all groaned and puffed at intervals, 
 and seemed to feel the heat very much. I dare 
 say they did not know that the discomfort arose 
 from vstut of ventilation. No punkahs are used 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 177 
 
 by the Chinese, but their place is supplied by 
 female slaves, who stand behind the guests 
 using large fans without ceasing. During the 
 whole time we were at dinner the musicians 
 played, and so loudly, that one felt as if the 
 drums of one's ears must break. The tom- 
 toms and the drums were rarely at rest. It was 
 curious music, not divided into pieces, but was 
 continuous. It did not vary as regards forte 
 and piano. The only difference I could find in it 
 was this, that at times there was a kind of fife 
 solo with drum accompaniment. Sometimes the 
 cymbals had it more to themselves. 
 
 At intervals, two or three of the musicians 
 sang, in the peculiar falsetto always used in 
 Chinese Tocal music. I believe that the whole 
 we heard referred to some historical event of the 
 past. The grimaces made by the singers are 
 most comical. To produce some of their high, 
 curious sounds, they extend their mouths to 
 their ears, and then suddenly close them. They 
 invariably keep their eyes fixed on the ground 
 when they sing. The falsetto is not only used 
 in song, it is also the voice in which all Chinese 
 actors speak, and it produces a strange effect upon 
 an ear unaccustomed to the sound. Actors are 
 never allowed to use the natural voice. The 
 female characters are always taken by men, and 
 
 N 
 
178 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 this falsetto is supposed to imitate a woman's 
 voice. 
 
 When we had at length finished dinner, which 
 must have occupied between two and three hours, 
 seats were again arranged for us at the lower end 
 of the room, and the concert began with renewed 
 vigour. Our host becoming excited, he stepped 
 into the circle of the musicians, and banged away 
 with some cymbals until we were nearly driven 
 wild with the noise. Two of our party were ill 
 the next day with nervous headache, caused, I 
 believe, by the noise and heat. I forgot to say 
 that at dessert some of the gentlemen played, at 
 our request, a game which curiously enough is 
 much in vogue in Italy. With a shout at the 
 top of their voices each of the two players puts 
 forth so many fingers of the right hand with a 
 sudden jerk, throwing the hand forward towards 
 the other player. Each cries out the number of 
 fingers which he supposes are held out on his 
 and the adversary's hand. The game is played 
 most rapidly. The one who makes a wrong guess 
 has to drink a glass of wine as a forfeit. We 
 rose to take leave about nine o'clock, and were 
 accompanied to the outer hall by Mr. Howqua, 
 his friends, and Mrs. Howqua mere. They took 
 leave of us in European fashion, shaking our 
 hands. As we were leaving, the elder Mr. Howqua, 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 179 
 
 a man of about forty years of age, invited us to 
 take dinner with him in two or three days' time. 
 He sent the usual red letters of invitation on the 
 morning of the day we were expected. His house 
 is, as I have said, under the same roof as the one 
 in which we had dined with his brother, but it is 
 differently arranged, and has its own kitchens, suite 
 of rooms, visitors' hall, and is, in fact, a separate 
 house. We dined in a very pretty room, beauti- 
 fully furnished with carved black wood furniture. 
 There was some charming carving about the room, 
 forming a half screen from the ceiling. The 
 dinner was most varied, and the number of soups 
 which were served exceeded that of the former 
 dinner. The same peculiarity I noticed here : one 
 ' soup might be birds'-nest ; the second had pieces of 
 pork in it ; the third was sweet, made of the seeds 
 of the lotus ; the fourth had pieces of duck in it ; 
 and so on, in endless variety. We had at the 
 very least thirty different kinds of soup, and it 
 became at last a very difficult matter to me 
 even to taste the new dish placed before me. 
 
 I was filled with astonishment at the capacity 
 for taking food exhibited by Master Howqua. 
 He ate everything in turn ; I watched him, and 
 did not see him refuse one dish. He also drank 
 champagne and wine freely, and incessantly 
 pledged all around him. No one checked him. 
 
 N 2 
 
180 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 We Europeans missed our bread to eat with the 
 various meat soups. No rice was handed with 
 them, which would have taken its place. Eice 
 was served only as a separate dish ; a basin of it 
 placed before us, flavoured to Chinese taste, was 
 unlike anything I have tasted before. Young 
 Howqua ate all bis portion of rice, holding up 
 the little bowl to his lips, and stuffing the rice 
 into his mouth rapidly with his chopsticks. One 
 would have imagined, to see him take this ric^ 
 at the end of the repast, that he had not tasted 
 the thirty odd soups which I had seen disappear 
 from before him. The room in which we were 
 entertained most fortunately looked on to a pretty 
 garden, and was open to the air. The lotus was 
 out in flower, and was a great ornament to the 
 garden. I could not succeed in conquering 
 the difficulty of eating with chopsticks. Before 
 I went out to China I fancied that one of 
 them was taken in one hand, and the second 
 in the other hand, but I find that both are held 
 between the thumb and forefinger of the right 
 hand. After many vain attempts, I gave in, 
 and my host, seeing my difficulty, spoke to one 
 of the waiting-boys, who brought me a knife and 
 fork. 
 
 When we go to the houses of Chinese gentle- 
 men to dine, the host ■ sometimes sends to our 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 181 
 
 house and borrows glass, knives and forks, etc., 
 for our use. 
 
 The weather is now intensely hot. There is 
 no refreshing breeze, and the heat of the sun is 
 very great. The mosquitoes are great torments 
 just now ; but I do not suffer from their bites 
 as others do. They are especially fond of new- 
 comers, and Henry finds that they again dis- 
 cover an European flavour in him. They bite 
 him much more now than they did before he 
 left China for England. 
 
 We saw a rock snake yesterday in the path 
 immediately by our compound. We called our 
 coolies, and after what seemed a long "talkee 
 talkee " they captured and killed it. 
 
 LETTEE XVl. 
 
 Cantos, August let, 1877. 
 
 My dear Motuee, 
 
 I HAVE witnessed a most curious ceremony 
 since wiiting my last descriptive letter, and it was 
 a scene 1 can never forget. It is customary for 
 (Chinese women to go to the cities of the dead, 
 but especially to oue to which the name of Ti- 
 Tsong-Om is given, on the fourteenth day of the 
 seventh month, to wail and lament for their 
 
182 FOXJETEBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 dead relations, principally for those they have lost 
 during the preceding year. Widows particularly 
 resort to these places to bewail the death of their 
 lords and masters. When we were yet some 
 distance from the Ti-Tsong-Om, we could hear the 
 women's voices raised in groans and lamentations. 
 As we entered the temple attached to this city 
 of the dead, a most curious sight presented itself 
 to our view. In the great hall of the temple we 
 saw a set of temporary altars erected round the 
 entire hall, each altar being devoted to the use of 
 one mourner, or to a group of mourners. These 
 bereaved ones had placed on these altars various 
 offerings for the departed. I saw as many, if not 
 more, than thirty small china bowls full of 
 various meats and fruits, arranged before one set 
 of mourners. Behind each small altar two strips 
 of red paper were pasted on the wall, bearing on 
 them in black characters the names of the lost 
 relatives. In some cases, efSgies made in com- 
 position to represent attendants, male and female, 
 nearly the size of life, stood by the altars. All is 
 regulated according to the position and wealth 
 of the mourners, the offerings varying much in 
 number and quality. On some of the altars I saw 
 sealed red paper packets, which I learned on 
 inquiry contained letters addressed to the dead ; 
 these letters and paper money, paper clothes, and 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 183 
 
 paper sedan chairs, etc., are burnt in the quadrangle 
 of the temple, and are thus by the action of fire 
 supposed to be conyeyed to the souls of the de- 
 parted. In front of the long row of altars sat the 
 mourners in various positions. Some had covered 
 their faces with coloured handkerchiefs, and were 
 sobbing bitterly, rocking themselves backwards 
 and forwards as if in the agony of grief ; others were 
 kneeling on the ground, making a low wailing 
 sound ; and again others were resting from their 
 demonstrations of sorrow, and were employed in 
 offering paper money, or were lighting joss- 
 sticks. The noise, the heat, the crowd, you caur 
 not exaggerate to your mind's eye. These women 
 had been occupied in this manner for hours and 
 hours. They began at dawn of day, and it was 
 five P.M. when we visited this marvellous scene. 
 
 We went into four or five of these halls, or 
 shrines, and found each of them full of women 
 lamenting their dead. There was not the slightest 
 ventilation in either of these places ; and the heat 
 was increased not only by the crowds of mourners, 
 but also by the burning paper money offerings, 
 which flared up to a great height from the 
 incense burners by the centre altar, and by the 
 lighted incense sticks, which were innumerable. 
 Hundreds and hundreds of women were collected 
 together in this temple. I could pot distinguish 
 
184 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 between the ladies and their attendants, as all 
 wore cotton clothes, the ladies laying aside silk 
 dresses on such an occasion. Their heads too 
 were not ornamented with flowers, but plainly 
 dressed k la teapot ; nor were their faces rouged. 
 As we threaded our way down the very narrow 
 opening left for passers-by, we caused much 
 distraction to those who were engaged in howling. 
 They would stop suddenly, look at us for a few 
 seconds with great curiosity, and then resume 
 their lamentations. I saw few tears, and I felt 
 that a good deal of the noisy demonstration of 
 grief was not real, but rather an acted part. In 
 some cases, though, we saw women with tears 
 streaming from their eyes, who looked as if the 
 outwardly expressed sorrow were real. On leaving 
 these crowded shrines, we were shown into the 
 reception hall, and were offered cups of tea, which 
 proved most refreshing to us, overcome as we 
 were from the intense heat of the day, and from 
 the stifling atmosphere in which we had spent 
 the last few hours. 
 
 After we had rested a short time, we walked 
 down some of the streets of this great city of the 
 dead. On leaving it, we went to the landing 
 stairs where we had left our boat, got into it, and 
 had a weary, long pull home against the tide. It 
 was quite dark when we started homewards, and 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 185 
 
 the river looked so pretty with its brightly 
 lighted streets of floating hotels, flower boats, 
 and floating temples. 
 
 We have now the full heat of summer upon us, 
 and it seems to me wonderful that people are 
 equal to giving and to going out to dinner parties 
 at this season. I was struck on my first arrival 
 at Canton to see the English ladies with so much 
 colour in their complexions, and the yellow tint 
 one notices on the faces of those who have spent 
 some years in India, not visible here to any 
 degree. But now, as the liot weather continues 
 day after day, I notice the colour fading from 
 the ladies' cheeks, and a pallor taking its place. 
 I am told that by the end of the hot weather 
 all of us will bear a very washed-out appearance. 
 
 We have been into the city many times 
 since I last wrote, and I begin to know some 
 of the streets very well, and Henry contrives 
 that I shall go down some new ones in each of 
 our walks. The more I see of the city, the more 
 I am struck with its vast size. The other day we 
 went into a temple dedicated to two deities, one 
 being considered the inventor of letters and the 
 other the inventor of the art of printing. The 
 former idol bears the name of Tchong-Kit, the 
 latter the name of Tchoy-Chung. 
 , Tchong-Kit lived 2852 years before the Christian 
 
186 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 era, and is said to have been asked by the emperor 
 of China then reigning to invent some characters 
 for recording events, as at that time the emperor's 
 only resource for remembering what had happened 
 was by tying knots in a piece of string. The 
 people are also taught to believe that miraculous 
 displays accompanied this invention of letters, 
 that reptiles, dragons, snakes, and demons, had 
 previously much tormented the people, but that 
 they feared, upon the written characters being 
 used, their evil deeds would be reported to the 
 celestial rulers, and so they would incur their 
 displeasure. They, therefore, resolved no longer 
 to terrify the people. The earth, too, testified^her 
 gladness at the invention of letters, and produced 
 spontaneously abundant crops of rice. Tchong- 
 Kit is supposed to have invented ten thousand 
 of the fifty thousand characters now forming the 
 Chinese language. Students come to this temple 
 and ask these gods for assistance in their literary 
 labours. It bears the name of Chong-Tchoy-Tchu- 
 Miu. In it stands a small board bearing in gold 
 letters the sixteen sacred precepts. At certain 
 seasons of the year sermons are preached in this 
 temple by the literati, who generally select one 
 of these sixteen precepts as a text. When I was 
 visiting it the other day, one of these sermons 
 was being delivered to a very attentive audience, 
 
POUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 187 
 
 composed of men of all ages and of all ranks. 
 Two small pagoda-shaped furnaces stand in the 
 courtyard of this temple, into wliich the man in 
 charge throws scraps of paper, which bear printed 
 or written characters. These are collected from 
 all parts of the city by men employed by the 
 literati, who carry two baskets made of rattan, 
 hanging at the ends of a bamboo pole, on which 
 are inscribed in Chinese characters, "Spare the 
 waste paper." The man bearing the basket cries 
 out, as he slowly passes down the streets, " Spare 
 the waste paper ! Spare the waste paper ! " All 
 who hear the cry hasten to give up the waste 
 paper in their possession bearing printed or 
 written characters. The ashes of the burnt 
 paper are taken from the furnaces, put into 
 earthenware jars, which are then taken to the 
 river, placed in it, and are carried onwards by 
 the tide to the ocean. I have often seen these 
 jars containing the ashes of the waste paper 
 floating down the centre of the Canton Eiver. 
 The reverence that the Chinese pay to a written 
 language which can convey the wisdom of past 
 ages to all succeeding generations, makes them 
 consider it a sacrilege to trample under foot any 
 paper which bears written or printed characters. 
 They hold learning in the greatest honour, and 
 their aristocracy is necessarily a highly-educated 
 
188 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 one. They appreciate literary distinction in 
 Europeans, and the mandarins often ask Henry 
 what degree he has taken. When he tells them 
 he is a doctor of law, they rise and chin-chin him-. 
 
 LETTER XVII. 
 
 Cakton, August 9th, 1877. 
 
 3It deae Mother, 
 
 I AM half afraid you will think us over- 
 enthusiastic sightseers when you read the descrip- 
 tion I am about to give you of our excursion into 
 the city at dead of night. A day or two ago, 
 Chong-Shing told Henry that a grand gathering 
 of worshippers was to take place in the temple 
 of Sheng-Wong, the city king, the week following. 
 We felt very disappointed about it at £rst, as we 
 were engaged to go to a dinner party that particular 
 night. As, however, Henry learnt that it would 
 not be necessary to go into the city until a very 
 late hour of the night, we determined not to miss 
 the wonderful sight of these worshippers, who 
 come from all parts to the Sheng-Wong-Miu, 
 on the 27th day of the seventh month of the 
 Chinese year. We went to our dinner party, and 
 remained with our friends until eleven o'clock, 
 not mentioning our intended excursion to them, 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON, 189 
 
 as few or none of the foreign community take any 
 interest in the events happening in the Chinese 
 city. We returned home from our dinner party 
 in our chairs, changed our evening costumes, and 
 at half-past eleven we made our start for the city. 
 
 The temple which was the object of our journey, 
 and which we reached at half-past twelve, was 
 that called " Sheng-Wong-Miu," dedicated as the 
 name implies to Sheng-Wong, the city king, or as 
 he is sometimes called, " The Protector of Walled 
 Cities." The distance to the temple was about 
 four miles, and there was much delay in getting 
 the city gates and the barricades open for our 
 chairs. The coolies cried out, " Open for a 
 venerable foreigner who wishes to pass througL" 
 The cry had to be repeated many times before 
 the sleeping guardians of the gates or barricades 
 were aroused, and after they had answered, they 
 were (what appeared to us) long before they 
 turned out of their queer sleeping quarters by the 
 •sides of the gates. 
 
 We were obliged at one place to get out' of 
 our chairs, go up some steep stone steps on to 
 a portion of the city wall, walk a short distance 
 on ~ the wall, and then go down some very steep 
 ■steps on to a parade ground. Here also we 
 had to wait until some double gates, the Kwei- 
 kok-lau-mun, were opened for us. It is certainly 
 
190 FOUBTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 a wonderful privilege granted to the Europeans, 
 and denied to the Chinese, to go through 
 this military gate of the city at night. For- 
 tunately the English Consul lives in the heart 
 of the city, and a communication must at all 
 times be kept up betwean him and the residents 
 at Shameen. And so the promise was given when 
 peace was concluded between England and China, 
 that foreigners should be suffered to pass through 
 this gate at night. The sick resort to the Sheng- 
 Wong-Miu on this festival to receive the blessing 
 of the god, and those who cannot walk are carried 
 there by their friends, and laid on the ground in 
 the large shrine or smaller shrines of the temple. 
 They, and all the worshippers who can do so, wait 
 here for the arrival of the prefect, one of the 
 leading magistrates of the city, who worships 
 the god in the name of the people. As very 
 many of these poor devotees had come in from all 
 parts of the country, and would not be allowed 
 to pass through the city gates after eight o'clock, 
 they came to the temple early in the after- 
 noon. When we arrived the concourse of human 
 beings was immense, the gilded idols glittered 
 in the brightness of innumerable lamps and 
 chandeliers, and the words came to my lips, 
 " And the temple of Baal was full from the one 
 end to the other." 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 191 
 
 The sick were lying all around us, and it was 
 difficult to thread our way without treading on 
 the feet or hands of the prostrate forms. We 
 saw disease in every shape and kind, and it was sad 
 to notice the sick children there in very great 
 numbers, who looked worn out with the long 
 waiting. Poor little things, many were asleep 
 curled up under our very feet, others were asleep 
 in their mothers' arms. Each nook and corner 
 were occupied by human beings, and the temple 
 contained thousands of worshippers, men, women, 
 and children. I think that two-thirds of the 
 worshippers, however, belonged to the gentler 
 sex. The outside approaches to the temple were 
 covered over, and thus the narrow streets looked 
 like long arcades. 
 
 Stalls had been erected in the immediate 
 neighbourhood of the temple for the sale of 
 bright-coloured pictures representing the god in 
 all his actions when on earth, or disciples of his, 
 or great men of his time. Between these picture- 
 stalls, tables covered with creature comforts were 
 placed, containing, amongst other things, drinks 
 of various kinds in tiny glasses, and fruit. 
 
 The approach by which we entered the temple 
 reminded me most forcibly of that leading to a 
 Roman church on a hill close to Eouen, which I 
 once visited on a fete day, where the bright 
 
192 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 pictures of the Blessed Virgin and saints, and 
 the stalls where various blessed rosaries, etc., were 
 sold, were arranged in a similar manner. The vast 
 gathering of people was most orderly. Only a 
 military mandarin with a handful of soldiers was 
 present. Many of the worshippers, not finding 
 places inside the temple, seated themselves on 
 the outside and waited patiently there until 
 the state worship should begin. I saw a vast 
 number of men and women who, after wor- 
 shipping before the high altar, lighted long 
 prayer sticks which they had purchased in the 
 temple, and carried them away. These incense 
 sticks are afterwards placed upon their family 
 altars. Others had brought clothes belonging 
 to their sick relatives to be blessed by the 
 god, and to receive the impression of his great 
 seal. 
 
 Again in other cases, it was those who had 
 recovered from some severe sickness during tbe 
 past year, who had come to offer their grateful 
 worship and to thank Sheng-Wong for his mer> 
 ciful care of them. ■ ^ 
 
 It was a most wonderful, the saddest sight 
 possible, to see these thousands and thousands of 
 human beings collected together, having in many 
 cases borne much fatigue and pain in long journeys 
 to this vast temple, and then to look from them 
 
FOUBTBEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 193 
 
 to the object of their reverent worship — a poor 
 wooden idol. Henry tells me that wheri he last 
 witnessed this same festival, 24,000 people were 
 present at the ceremonies. 
 
 We passed on to a corner of the building 
 where the worshippers were closely packed to- 
 gether, and were pressing eagerly forward, intense 
 excitement visible in their faces. They were 
 occupied, at least those who succeeded in press- 
 ing near enough, in pushing pictures they had 
 purchased at the stalls outside the temple, 
 through some wooden bars, behind which several 
 men were standing, employed in receiving the 
 pictures from the hands of the worshippers. With- 
 in this partition, railed off, and most jealously 
 guarded, these men having received the pictures 
 passed them on to others who were busily and 
 incessantly engaged in stamping them with the 
 god's great seal. This is a State temple, and 
 belonging to it are two seals which bear the 
 god's name. They are too valuable to be left in 
 the temple, but on this day of the year they 
 are brought from the prefect's ofiSoial residence, 
 where they are kept, and are allowed to remain 
 in the tempje from eleven o'clock P.M. of this 
 day, until three o'clock the morning following. 
 During this time men use them for putting 
 the seal on to the pictures and clothes of the 
 
 
 
194 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 devotees, who in this way consider they gain a 
 blessing from the god. 
 
 One of the large seals is made of silver, the 
 other is made of jadestone. Should those oifer- 
 ing their pictures or clothes to be blessed be able 
 to afford a few cash only, the latter seal is used ; 
 but should they offer a larger gift, the silver 
 seal is brought into play. On receiving their 
 scrolls or pictures, with the seal impressed upon 
 them, they take them home and hang them up 
 as talismen, as they are considered to be efSca- 
 cious in warding off epidemics and other evils. 
 The money received for the use of the seals is 
 given afterwards to the person who farms this 
 source of revenue to the temple. On the in- 
 stallation of a new prefect of Canton the privi- 
 lege, which has been purchased, of selling all 
 kinds of offerings, such as incense sticks, prayer 
 papers, the annual use of the seals, etc., is again 
 put up for sale. As the bargain lasts good only 
 so long as the same prefect is in office, it is 
 attended with some risk. 
 
 The vast multitude of peoplie were very polite, 
 made way for us, and we had no fear of their 
 molesting us ; but the military mandarin on 
 seeing us pass his chair, and recognising Henry, 
 was courteous enough (I think partly from fear 
 of any mishap befalling the foreigners) to order 
 
FOXJETBEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 195 
 
 some of his soldiers to guard us, and to conduct 
 us about the temple. You must not picture these 
 soldiers to yourself as in uniform. Two of those 
 who took care of us wore ordinary long white 
 grasscloth coats, the others had on a kind of 
 livery. The latter were dressed in blue cotton, 
 with a pattern worked in white on their backs. 
 They all wore pointed mandarin hats, trimmed 
 with red fringe. How amused you would have been 
 could you have seen Henry and me picking our 
 way through the densely packed crowd, and on 
 either side of us our guard, who carried Chinese 
 paper lanterns suspended from bamboo rods. 
 
 The people really were much amused to see us 
 amongst them, and many of them said " Chin- 
 chin " as we passed them. We were too tired to wait 
 for the arrival of the prefect at three o'clock a.m. 
 Henry has been present at the whole ceremony, 
 and he tells me that when the prefect comes into 
 the temple the vast multitude give a shout in 
 honour of Sheng-Wong. The prefect then, having 
 performed the kau-tau before the high altar, pre- 
 sents his offering to the god and withdraws from the 
 temple. The people then proceed to worship the 
 god, but they are so closely packed it is impossible 
 for them to perform the kau-tau. They stand, 
 therefore, and raise burning incense sticks above 
 their heads. This festival lasts three days, 
 
 2 
 
196 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 the '27th, 28th, and 29th days of the seyenth 
 month of the Chinese year. 
 
 LETTER XVIII. 
 
 Canton, August IStli, 1877. 
 
 My dear Mother, 
 
 A DAY or two after I had written my last 
 descriptive letter to you, an iuvitatioa came from 
 the Howquas for us. We started from home on 
 Saturday, after having taken luncheon, as we con- 
 cluded we were only invited to pay a long afternoon 
 call upon our Chinese friends. When we arrived 
 at the Howquas' house the ladies of the family 
 took possession of Minnie and of me, and we 
 scarcely saw Henry all the afternoon, nor any- 
 thing of the gentlemen of the Howqua family 
 excepting our particular friend, who often came 
 into the ladies' room to see what we were doing, 
 and to have a chat with his mother. To our 
 surprise we had not sat with the ladies more than 
 half an hour before we were told that luncheon 
 was ready. It was laid out in true Chinese style 
 on a small round table in the atrium outside 
 Mrs. Howqua's bedroom. There was no cloth on 
 the table, nor is it customary for the Chinese 
 repasts to be placed on a covered table ; they are 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 197 
 
 laid on the bare board. The usual cakes in 
 great varieties were in the centre of the table, 
 and chopsticks were placed for each of us. The 
 Chinese ladies stood round the table some short 
 time before they took their seats, as there was a 
 great question as to which of them should take her 
 seat first. This goes on at every meal amongst the 
 ladies ; each says the other must take the prece- 
 dence. My hostess bowed towards her friend, and 
 waved her hand towards the chair, evidently 
 begging her to seat herself; the friend returned 
 the compliment, and so the ladies bowed and 
 bowed for some minutes until the friend took 
 her seat. The absurdity of the whole matter is, 
 that etiquette is so strict and defined in China 
 that there was no doubt as to which of the 
 ladies would eventually seat herself first, but 
 it is customary to show this affected humility 
 before accepting the honour. As I could not 
 speak Chinese I thought I had better accept at 
 once, and on Mrs. Howqua requesting me to be 
 seated, I with a smile obeyed, thus of course ap- 
 pearing very discourteous to the Chinese ladies. 
 One of Mr. Howqua's daughters was with us, 
 and was about to take her seat at the table 
 after the elder ladies had at last placed them- 
 selves, when her mother reminded her that it was 
 a fast day in memory of her father's death, so she 
 
198 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 and her younger sister, who had also joined us, 
 sat and looked on as we took our luncheon. It is 
 not customary for the Chinese to entertain on these 
 days of fasting, which last three days in succes- 
 sion, and I was surprised, when I heard the occa- 
 sion of the fast, that Mrs. Howqua should sit 
 down with us, but it was evidently in compliment 
 to me as a foreigner that she did so. 
 
 The courtesy of Chinese to strangers is very 
 great. You feel on entering one of their houses 
 that their great desire is to please you, and that 
 their whole attention is given to you as a guest. 
 Henry says when he has called at a house of 
 mourning, in which, according to Chinese custom, 
 the seats of the chairs are covered with blue, a 
 servant has been called to bring a red covering 
 to place on the chair intended for him, as a 
 Chinese gentleman considers it is not kind to 
 make his friends mourn for his particular loss. 
 I noticed Mrs. Howqua partook only of a gela- 
 tinous kind of soup and some small cakes, 
 which are the orthodox food for fasting days. 
 Our small party at table consisted of Mrs. 
 Howqua, her particular friend, a pretty woman, 
 but highly rouged and coquettish, young Howqua, 
 Minnie, and myself. I have never felt more 
 embarrassed than I did at this unexpected meal, 
 for, besides having partaken of luncheon only a 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 199 
 
 couple of hours before, I was feeling ill. How to 
 eat the various dishes placed before me 1 did uot 
 know. I wished my little interpreter to say to 
 my hostess that I was feeling unwell, but she 
 said that this was impossible, as the ladies would 
 be afraid at once that I might be sickening with 
 some contagious illness, or, as they would put it, 
 that I might have brought some evil spirit into 
 the house which would also harm them. So I was 
 forced to hide my feelings and put into my 
 mouth pieces of food which at the best of times 
 would have made me feel very uncomfortable. 
 The ladies often said to Minnie that I was not 
 eating, that I did not like what was provided ior 
 me, and Minnie turned to me begging me to 
 make greater efforts. It is so very amusing, she 
 and I speak in the most unconcerned manner 
 upon what is passing before us ; she explains to 
 me the various customs I have not seen before, 
 for in the office of interpreter she can speak to 
 me at any moment, and for this reason she is 
 generally placed next to me at table. " Pray help 
 yourself," was Mrs. Howqua's frequent remark, 
 "or we shall not think you friendly." All con- 
 straint was thrown aside, and I saw the Chinese 
 ladies in their accustomed home life. They 
 and young Howqua helped my little friend and 
 me to many delicacies with their own chopsticks. 
 
200 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 At the end of the entertainment, when I con- 
 sidered my efforts to take the food which was so 
 distasteful to me had been crowned with success, 
 and after I had tasted several sweet cakes, etc., 
 Mrs. Howqua rose fi-om her chair, 'dipped a piece 
 of duck, at least two inches square, which she held 
 in her chopsticks, into the little basins containing 
 soy and mustard, and put the whole as a honne 
 louche into my mouth. I rose when I saw the 
 fate coming upon me, smiled I should say a 
 ghastly smile, and was obliged to swallow this 
 large piece of meat. Champagne was supplied ; 
 Mr. Howqua came himself and opened the 
 bottle, and you should have seen his struggles 
 to accomplish this. He knelt down, held the 
 bottle at arm's length, the attendants standing 
 at some distance. At last he had in despair to 
 break off the neck of the bottle. He appeared 
 at one time with a bottle of white wine, which by 
 the label I found to be whisky made in Germany. 
 When luncheon was over we adjourned into Mrs. 
 Howqua's bedroom, and the lady who dined with 
 us told me I was a Number one lady, and that 
 she intended to embroider me a pair of shoes.* 
 
 * A Chinese lady spends iier time ia embroidering shoes and 
 other work, in card and domino playing, in lounging in garden 
 houses, in gossiping with her female friends and amahs, and 
 in smoking ooeasionally. 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 201 
 
 A drawer full of newly embroidered shoes was 
 brought forward for me to see. They were made 
 for uncompressed feet. The natural size of the 
 Chinese foot is very small, and both feet and 
 hands of a Chinese lady are most symmetrical. 
 The colours and patterns shown me were varied, 
 and I was asked to choose which I liked best ; I 
 think this choice took half an hour at the least, 
 Mr. Howqua's taste being at last appealed to. 
 Eventually a white silk ground, a pale pink shade 
 let in and embroidered with a darker shade of 
 the same colour, with very narrow black and gold 
 braid worked in, was pronounced by all to be 
 in perfect taste. 
 
 Having quite decided, the lady sent for her 
 silks, and then quietly informed me that she only 
 had a pale mauve silk that must form the ground- 
 work of the shoes. It all had to be begun again, 
 and we finally decided that a pale yellow silk 
 should be embroidered with a darker silk on this 
 mauve ground. The Chinese ladies are just like 
 grown-up children. I believe this lady knew all 
 the time that she had no variety of silks to offer 
 me. I asked her if she would embroider the 
 piece of work and let me have it to make up 
 in European fashion, and at her request I took 
 my shoe off for her to see the style. She and the 
 other ladies were so amused with my shoe ; those 
 
202 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 who had not compressed feet tried it on, and you 
 should have seen their conscious vanity, when they 
 put their feet into it, and found it much too large for 
 them. They could not understand the heel being 
 raised, as in their shoes the middle of the sole is , 
 the deepest, which causes them to walk on that 
 part and the toes and heels of the shoes to turn up. 
 My friend's mind was much relieved when I con- 
 sented to have her present made up in Chinese 
 fashion. I had seen the look of helpless bewilder- 
 ment in her face when I suggested how the pattern 
 should be worked for European shoes. I now 
 begged to say adieu to my hostesses, but they would 
 not hear of my leaving, and begged me to stay 
 and dine with them. At first I refused, but upon 
 being very much pressed, I consented to stay, 
 reluctantly as regarded a second trial of Chinese 
 food, but gladly as regarded a further insight 
 into Chinese domestic life. I felt very tired and 
 oppressed with the want of ventilation in the 
 rooms in which I had passed the last two or three 
 hours ; but there was to be no rest for me yet. 
 Mrs. Howqua took me by the hand and led me to 
 pay a second visit to the elderly small-footed lady, 
 who is evidently of the first rank in the house. She 
 looked most curious as she had small round pieces 
 of black plaister on both temples. This is a cure 
 much resorted to by the Chinese for headache. 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 203 
 
 We sat down and were given tea., and also the 
 seeds of the lotus plant. I could not think what 
 I was eating until my little friend enlightened 
 me. On my expressing approval of these seeds, 
 the old lady gave me two or three stems of the 
 lotus, bearing, what I will call in absence of a 
 better term, pods. I do not much like to visit 
 this old lady, she has such a habit of putting me 
 through a series of cross-questions. She took out 
 her jade earrings to show me. They were very 
 handsome, made in the same fashion as those all 
 the ladies wear in the south of China. Each 
 consisted of a large gold ring, from which 
 a circle of jadestone was suspended. The old 
 lady evidently had great pride in these earrings, 
 and I am sure that they were very valuable ; but 
 no inexperienced eye can discern the finest and 
 most expensive jade from the medium qualities. 
 These Chinese ladies wear very costly ornaments. 
 The clusters and sprays of stones they place on 
 the top and sides of their coiffures for iull dress 
 contain beautiful pearls which we Europeans fail 
 to appreciate, as they are made up with the king- 
 fisher's feathers enamelled on silver. This makes 
 them appear false, and the large pearls lose much 
 of their beauty by the mounting. 
 
 A very good-looking young Chinese married 
 woman, with the smallest feet imaginable, joined 
 
204 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 us in this old lady's room. I discovered that she 
 was the wife of the elder brother of oiir host ; she 
 said she could not receive us when we dined with 
 her husband as she was ill at the time. She was 
 as pleased as a child to show me her ornaments, 
 and most anxious to examine mine. In conse- 
 quence of being in mourning, I wore my jet brace- 
 lets only ; but the young lady much admired them, 
 and wanted to exchange one of her rattan brace- 
 lets mounted in gold for one of my jet bracelets. 
 I felt I could not accept the exchange, it would 
 have been so much in my favour. This young 
 lady sent her attendant for her photographs, in 
 which she had been taken in full dress as a high 
 mandarin's wife, and was much pleased at my 
 saying the likeness was very good. The photo- 
 graphs were as highly coloured as the lady was 
 when I saw her. 
 
 The Chinese ladies certainly do not agree with 
 the idea " Beauty unadorned, adorned the most," 
 for they assist nature in every possible way. This 
 young lady's face was immensely rouged in the usual 
 Chinese fashion. There were circular patches 
 of 'the rouge by the eyebrows going up to the 
 brow, and circular patches of it on the cheeks 
 at some little distance from the nose. The colour 
 is most brilliant, and no attempt is made to 
 disguise the rouge. Her eyebrows were shaved 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. . 205 
 
 into a perfect arch., and pencilled ; a line was 
 painted under her eyes, and her lips were stained 
 with vermilion. She really was a pretty woman, 
 with delicate straight features, and a very pretty 
 well-formed nose. She insisted upon taking out 
 her earrings and upon my trying them ; they were 
 made in the double ring, the higher one in gold 
 with grey enamel on it, the lower one in jade- 
 stone. All the ladies in one family wear jewel- 
 lery of the same pattern and value. 
 
 The one thing no man can accuse the Chinese 
 of is love of change. The style of hair, costume, 
 jewellery, shoes, etc., is all stereotyped. A certain 
 set of things is worn for the summer by the ladies, 
 and certain sets for the winter, autumn and spring. 
 No modiste is required to set the fashions in 
 China ; a new style of garment would be looked 
 upon with suspicion and dislike by a Chinese lady. 
 Sumptuary law reigns sttpreme here. Mr. Howqua 
 now came into the room, and told us that dinner 
 was ready, and we went back to the atrium leading 
 to Mrs. Howqua's bedroom. There the table was 
 laid exactly in the same manner as it had been 
 for luncheon, only the dishes were more numerous. 
 The sarnie delay in sitting down was observed, 
 and I tried to look modest, bowed, and by my 
 manner asked my hostess to seat herself. But I 
 soon gave up the contest and took my seat. "VVe 
 
206 /fourteen months in canton. 
 
 were surrounded by amahs and slaves, and we were 
 fanned the whole time by some young slave girls. 
 Certainly this is very much needed in the intense 
 heat of a Chinese summer. I was much surprised 
 to feel something moist suddenly applied to my 
 forehead, and on turning round I found one of the 
 amahs had a little brush in her hand wet with 
 some kind of cosmetique. The vigorous fan- 
 ning behind me raised my hair, and caused it 
 to look very untidy in the eyes of a Chinese 
 woman. When the hair is arranged in the teapot 
 style, a matter which takes some hours to com- 
 plete, a brush wet with a thick cosmetique is drawn 
 over the whole, giving it a most sticky appear- 
 ance. This is renewed at intervals during the day. 
 A Chinese lady spends daily between one and 
 two hours before her glass whilst her amah is 
 arranging her hair. The amah attended to my 
 hair several times during dinner, going to the 
 corner of the hall to fetch her little brush when 
 my hair, recovering from the cosmetique, began 
 to assert itself. I received the same amount of 
 attention from my hostess as she had shown me 
 at luncheon : my little basin was always full of 
 various delicacies, and I had to rise several times 
 to receive dainty morsels from the points of my 
 friend's chopsticks. Henry had told me before 
 that Chinese etiquette required that I should 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 207 
 
 return the attention in the same manner. But 
 this was impossible, as I was not mistress, of my 
 chopsticks. My ineffectual efforts to convey 
 the food to mj- mouth with them caused much 
 merriment to the ladiefs, and young Howqua often 
 showed me how to use them. He ate in the same 
 voracious manner as before, and was not checked 
 by his grandmother. One of the amahs interfered 
 with him as he was sitting cross-legged with his 
 feet on his chair like a young Turk. The young 
 gentleman became furious, turned round and 
 abused the attendant, and begged his mother 
 to beat her for the offence. 
 
 One dish which was placed before me puzzled 
 me much : it looked like fine grass, and when I 
 asked the name of it, I learned that it was sea- 
 weed. It was so entangled that I could not 
 extract a mouthful of it from the basin with my 
 chopsticks. Without speaking to me, my par- 
 ticular attendant took the green tangled contents 
 into her hands from the little bowl, divided it 
 with her fingers, and replaced it in my basin. 
 These amahs are accustomed to help their mis- 
 tresses in this way. The last dish was rice, and 
 my little bowl was piled up with it, and the ladies 
 tried to teach me to eat it in true Chinese fashion. 
 They place the basin close to the under lip, and 
 then with closed chopsticks push the rice into 
 
208 rOUKTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 their mouths with marvellous rapidity. Mrs, 
 Howqua told me not to be shy about it, that it 
 was the custom for all to eat rice in this way. It 
 was not shyness that prevented me from proving 
 an apt pupil, but the desire not to put much of 
 the rice into my mouth, as it was flavoured 
 with something which gave it a pink colour and 
 a most unpleasant taste. I had already done 
 sufficient violence to my feelings in the various 
 dishes of which I had partaken. With the rice 
 a little dish was brought in containing silk-worm 
 chrysalises boiled and served up with chilies. The 
 pretty young lady partook of this dish in great 
 quantities, although it was so hot in flavour tbat 
 I could scarcely swallow one of the chilies. I 
 could not bring myself to taste one of the fat, soft- 
 looking chrysalises. This dish, so this lady in- 
 formed me, is a cure for indigestion. Between the 
 various mouthfuls of it she took a puff from a 
 pipe held to the side of her mouth by her amah, 
 who was placed behind her. When dinner was 
 over we again adjourned to Mrs. Howqua's bed- 
 room. Have I told you that there are two hand- 
 somely carved wooden bedsteads in this room, 
 one black and one red? At this time of year 
 there is neither mattress nor coverings on the beds, 
 only a piece of matting laid on the bedstead, and 
 wooden pillows. Mosquito curtains hang round 
 
FOUKTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 209 
 
 the bed. A large black wood wardrobe goes down 
 the length of the room, and there is a table 
 made in black wood on which is placed a high 
 toilet glass. The seats are, in fact, high stools. 
 After we had sat together in Mrs. Howqua's 
 bedroom half an hour or more, I became so in- 
 tensely tired that I could remain no longer, and, 
 notwithstanding the entreaties of the ladies not 
 to leave, I stood up resolutely and said I must 
 put on my hat. 
 
 LETTEE XIX. 
 
 Canton, August 23rd, 1877. 
 
 My deak Mother, 
 
 I HAD neither time nor space to write all 
 I had to say in my last budget, and could not 
 therefore describe to you an amusing interview 
 we had had with some Chinese ladies in our 
 favourite retreat, the Taai-Tung-Koo-tsze monas- 
 tery. On paying a certain sum of money, ladies 
 are allowed to occupy the chief rooms for a 
 time, and the monks, few in number as they are, 
 retire to smaller rooms below. The object these 
 ladies had, we found, in coming to this monastery, 
 and remaining in it two or three days, was to 
 worship Koon-yam, the goddess of mercy, and to 
 pray to her for the souls of those who, having 
 
 p 
 
210 rOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 died, have left no one behind them on earth to 
 
 pray for them, and are therefore supposed to be 
 
 flitting about, unappeased and angry, capable of 
 
 annoying the living in every possible way. This 
 
 particular worship, with its accompaniments of 
 
 offerings of paper money, and paper clothes, and 
 
 the letting off of a great quantity of fire-crackers, 
 
 is going on in all parts of the city. These Chinese 
 
 ladies, seeing us in the garden from their windows, 
 
 invited us upstairs to pay them a visit. We were 
 
 spending the day, as we so often do, in our garden 
 
 house, which was perhaps two minutes' walk from 
 
 the apartments where the ladies were staying. 
 
 Henry was also allowed to go upstairs, and my little 
 
 friend accompanied us. They seemed so pleased 
 
 to see us, made us sit down, and waited upon us, 
 
 bringing us tea, melon-seeds — which the Chinese 
 
 ladies most adroitly break open with their front 
 
 teeth — preserved pineapple, and cakes. These 
 
 ladies did not belong to the higher rank of society 
 
 like the Howqua family, but they were gentle 
 
 and refined in manner. Two out of the seven had 
 
 small feet. One of them decorated my hair with 
 
 natural flowers, which were standing in a saucer 
 
 to be used for ornamenting their coiffures. They 
 
 were much amused with the fairness of my arms, 
 
 comparing them with their own brown arms. One 
 
 of the ladies cracked the melon-seeds for me with 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 211 
 
 her teeth (one must put away one's natural pre- 
 judices when one moves amongst a strange peo- 
 ple), and all were most attentive to me. There is 
 something very winning and unselfish in the way 
 a Chinese lady behaves towards her guest j she 
 does not, seem to wpnder what we foreigners think 
 of her — her whole manner is as artless and un- 
 studied as that of a child. They always regret 
 that I cannot speak to them, but say, I suppose 
 to console me, that will come " maan-maan " 
 ("presently"). 
 
 A strict fast from meat is observed whilst this 
 worship for the souls of the uncared-for departed 
 takes place. Certain boats, only used for religious 
 purposes, are hired at this time by those who are 
 anxious to join in the worship, and priests are 
 hired to chant services for the spirits of the men 
 who have died unwept and unhonoured. These 
 boats are most brilliantly illuminated, when dark- 
 ness has set in, from stem to stern by multitudes 
 of lanterns, and as they glide down the river 
 they have a fairy-like appearance. The mono- 
 tonous chant of the priests sounds most Catholic, 
 and one could fancy it was a Gregorian strain 
 rather than a chant from the lips of heathen 
 monks. The small lanterns are suspended in 
 endless number from the masts and ropes, and the 
 boat is outlined and covered with these bright- 
 
 p 2 
 
212 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 coloured lanterns. The effect of one of these boats 
 as it floats by our house is as of a thing of magic, 
 and the reflection in the river is brilliant. The 
 priests throw burning paper clothes and paper 
 money into the river as they recite the prayers 
 for the dead. These paper clothes and mock money 
 are supposed to become spiritualised by the action 
 of fire, and so to be adapted to the use of the poor, 
 naked, craving ghosts flitting on the surface of the 
 water. A small boat, with a fire burning in it, is 
 rowed in front of the larger one in which the re- 
 ligious worship is going on, to the accompaniment 
 of musical instruments. A gong is beaten at inter- 
 vals to attract the spirits to the spot. Several 
 smaller boats, also having lires burning in them, 
 capable of holding one man only, are rowed by 
 the side of the floating temple. The object of 
 tliese is to show the spirits the spot wliere the 
 paper clothes and paper money are being thrown 
 into the river for their use. Oil lamps are also 
 placed in small earthenware vessels, and float in 
 the track of the large boat to serve as guides for 
 the spirits. Truly, one exclaims, this is a super- 
 stitious people, wedded to their own idolatrous 
 belief and customs ! 
 
 The weather has become cooler since I last 
 MTote to you, and we have had much rain and 
 high winds. On the 21st, about noon, we sud- 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 213 
 
 denly heard a curious sound like that of a 
 large steamer coming up the rirer. The boat 
 population at once screamed out in fear, and 
 talked loudly, rowing at the same time as hard 
 as they could to the shelter of the river wall. 
 Henry was writing at the table in the dining- 
 room, the windows of which were as usual open 
 to the ground. In a moment all his papers were 
 blown off the table on to the floor. On looking 
 out from the verandah we saw that the river was 
 agitated into waves, and the wind was rushing 
 madly towards us, making a wide path in the 
 centre of the river. All was confusion. Our 
 servants called out " Typhoon ! typhoon ! " 
 (which means "large wind! large wind!"), and 
 immediately closed all the windows and the 
 typhoon shutters. The rain came down in tor- 
 rents, and was driven before the hurricane. The 
 noise of voices raised to a high pitch of alarm 
 continued to increase as the boats were hurried 
 past our windows to the creeks where the chance 
 of safety was greater. The people vociferated 
 as Chinese only can vociferate when any calamity 
 takes place. We soon heard that an accident 
 had occurred just to the left of our house: a 
 boat had been capsized, and two children, of six 
 and eight years of age, had been washed out of 
 it and drowned. They were picked up by the 
 
214 FOTJETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 crew of a gig belonging to one of the steamers, 
 and were placed on the bund close to our house. 
 A Chinese doctor liappened to be on the spot, 
 but he could render no aid, as life was extinct in 
 both children. Family affection is great in China,* 
 and the mother of these children was screaming in 
 her grief, wringing her hands, and imploring the 
 doctor to give her back her children. This hur- 
 ricane, and the same applies to all storms of wind, 
 was supposed by the Chinese to be caused by the 
 dragon, which inhabits the Pearl River, turning 
 himself, and twisting his tail out of the water. One 
 of our coolies, an intelligent man, gravely told us 
 that yesterday, at the commencement of the storm 
 of wind, he saw the dragon's tail lifted out of the 
 water, and that a little boat was raised on it. 
 Our old book coolie, however, would not subscribe 
 to this, and when Henry questioned him he said 
 that Chan-ashu (the coolie) might have seen the 
 dragon, but that he believed the big wind came 
 from heaven. So you see, even here amongst the 
 believers in the combined teaching of Confucius 
 and Buddha, there is a difference in points of 
 faith. The river dragon is supposed to possess the 
 power of keeping in durance vile a limited num- 
 
 * This assertion may seem strange after my remarks, in a 
 preceding chapter, on infanticide. It is, nevertheless, true, 
 and may be regarded as one of the many inconsistencies which 
 mark tlie Chinese character. 
 
FOUETBBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 215 
 
 ber of souls, ani of calling those he desires to 
 him. When a certain number of men are newly 
 drowned, so many souls in proportion become free 
 from the dragon's power, and can ascend from the 
 water. This is one great cause why the Chinese 
 will not help drowning people. They fear, by 
 doing so, they might make the soul angry whose 
 turn it is to escape from the dragon's power, and 
 that, when it has an opportunity, it would do 
 some harm to them. 
 
 The river dragon is much feared, and therefore 
 much worshipped, by the population living in boats. 
 We have since heard of other accidents caused by 
 this mighty rush of wind. Two passenger boats, 
 carrying a great number of people, were upset 
 and the passengers drowned. Some houses were 
 blown down, and the inhabitants who were in them 
 were badly injured. It was a mercy we were not 
 on the river at the moment. We had intended 
 to cross over to Fa-tee to sit in our garden house, 
 and it was arranged that Henry should go first, 
 and Minnie and I were to follow after luncheon. 
 Henry would certainly have been on the river at 
 the moment of the hurricane, if a heavy shower 
 had not preceded it, and prevented him from 
 starting. This is a dangerous and treacherous 
 river, and I am very nervous at times when 
 makuig excursions on it. This year especially it 
 
216 FOUETEEX MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 has been most unsafe, from the strong currents 
 and overflowing tides. A boat was caught the 
 other day in an eddy close to the city, and went 
 down head foremost. I am very anxious about 
 Henry's weekly journeys to Whampoa, and it 
 is very late before he gets home to put my 
 fears to rest. It has been two o'clock, and eveu 
 past that hour, before he has reached Shameen, 
 when the wind and tide have been against him. 
 He starts from Whampoa about half-past nine p.m. 
 He cannot take a nap, as if he were to do so his 
 four boatmen would give in and not attempt to pull 
 with all their remaining strength against the tide. 
 After the storm came the calm, and we were able 
 to cross the river (I with no feeling of security) 
 and spend the afternoon at Fa-tee. On our return 
 home about seven o'clock, we saw the curious 
 ceremony of burning paper clothes and paper 
 money in a street on the banks of the river. We 
 rowed towards the spot, and went ashore to see 
 what was taking place. Large piles of paper 
 money had been burnt, and all along the river's 
 bank in this neighbourhood I saw a row of red 
 candles alight. I, suppose there must have been 
 two or three hundred of them. This particular 
 worship for the souls of those who have died in 
 the streets was given by the proprietors of a large 
 warehouse. Before the warehouse a long table 
 
FOTJKTBEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 217 
 
 was placed, and on it was spread a great variety of 
 offerings in fruit and vegetables. These are ex- 
 posed for a given time, during which the spiritual 
 part is supposed to be accepted by the hungry 
 ghosts. The material part is then taken home 
 and provides a feast for the worshippers. We 
 saw on our way home many of these grand illu- 
 minations and burning of paper money and 
 clothes, taking place at intervals along the banks 
 of the river. All this is done in honour of the 
 spirits of the poor, and of those who have none 
 on earth to pray for them. These ceremonies 
 last from the Ist to the 15th day of this the 
 seventh month of the Chinese year. 
 
 We sit out on the bund immediately opposite 
 our house, or on our verandah, after dinner, as it 
 is too hot to remain indoors. I am lost in 
 admiration of the pretty fire-flies which flit about 
 in all directions, and look like small lanterns in 
 the distance. I enjoy our walks into the city and 
 its suburbs as much as ever. We buy blue china 
 in all parts of the city, and the other day found 
 two good plates in a most curious little shop in 
 the purlieus of the city. I am also anxious to 
 collect some of the beautiful Chinese embroidery 
 in silk. It is most charming in taste and design. 
 We have a queer little man, a dealer in embroidery, 
 who visits us at times when he has anything he 
 
218 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 thinks will tempt us. " That work man have come," 
 our boy says to me, and away I go at once to in- 
 spect the treasures he has brought. I generally find 
 the queer little man, with a pipe in his mouth, 
 sitting in the library with my husband. He displays 
 what he has with him, and if it should be a grand 
 embroidered coat, the ugly little one-eyed man puts 
 it on, stretching out his arms wide so that we may 
 see the whole pattern on it. He names his price, 
 generally a high one, and Henry says quietly, 
 "No can, too muchee money." The little man 
 then takes his seat again and pufis at his pipe. 
 After ten minutes' interval at least, he names a 
 rather lower price, but most probably still too 
 high. Sometimes we come to terms ; sometimes 
 he departs with all he has brought. Once or 
 twice he has gone to the servants' quarters, and 
 there waited, and after some time has sent one of 
 the boys in to make an offer at a lower price. A 
 great deal of the beautiful old work comes from 
 the theatres, for they do not adopt the European 
 custom of painting or working for effect at a dis- 
 tance. All is genuine and good, and the costumes 
 and decorations in China must cost each trading 
 guild which gets up a theatrical representation 
 a considerable sum of money. Some of the em- 
 broidery now in our possession has been used in 
 theatres. It looks quite fresh, and is very hand- 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON, 219 
 
 some. Some of it is embroidered in gold on scarlet 
 oloth, and part of it is gold embroidery in beautiful 
 scrolls and patterns on a black ground. I was much 
 amused with our little Chinese friend the other day. 
 He had brought some embroidery for us to see, 
 and displayed it in our drawing-room over the sofa, 
 chairs, etc. We had then just purchased some 
 large black carved wood chairs, two for our- 
 selves, which were placed in our drawing-room; 
 and four others, bought for friends, stood in 
 the dining-room. The little man's quick eye 
 saw the new furniture, and within two or three 
 days he brought us six beautiful red chair-back 
 covers and seats, which were embroidered in gold. 
 These covers and seats are used by the Chinese 
 on fete days, and look so bright and handsome on 
 the black wood furniture. After some discussion 
 we purchased two of these tempting pieces of 
 embroidery. One curious fact in Chinese furni- 
 ture is the little variety one meets with in it in 
 size and pattern. I begin to know all the devices. 
 The chairs are either small, and so of a size for 
 use at table, etc., or of a large size, with arms, to 
 be used in reception halls. There was therefore 
 no doubt about these chair-covers, which were 
 intended to go tight over the backs and arms of 
 the chairs, being the right size. 
 
220 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 LETTER XX. 
 
 Canton, August 25tli, 1877. 
 My DEAR MOTHEE, 
 
 On tlie 20th inst., the state worship on 
 occasion of the emperor's birthday took place. 
 Henry was most ansioxis for me to go, as he 
 feared that if I did not embrace the present 
 opportunity, another might not offer. Next year 
 the ceremony may take place on a Sunday ; or 
 we might be up the country ; or something 
 else might prevent me from seeing this worship 
 paid to the emperor's tablet. As is always the case 
 with special religious services in China, it was held 
 very early in the morning, in fact at break of day, 
 four o'clock A.M. The spirits are supposed to be 
 more active, more inclined to hear petitions, and 
 to be more especially present in the tablets, idols, 
 etc., early in the day. We agreed to be called at 
 two o'clock A.M. on Monday morning, to go down 
 the river in a slipper boat as far as one of the 
 city gates. A chair was to be in readiness for 
 me there, in which I was to go to the Maan- 
 Shau-Kuung,' or Ten Thousand Years Palace. 
 It would have been very inconvenient to go 
 all the way in chairs on account of the closed 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 221 
 
 city gates and barricaded streets through which 
 we should have had to pass, but by perform- 
 ing most of the journey by water, we only had 
 one gate to pass through. We sent a coolie 
 the night before (Sunday) to promise this gate- 
 keeper a kumshaw if he would get up at two 
 o'clock the following morning, and open the 
 gate for us. Our plans were upset when the 
 morning arrived, as Henry had had a very tedious 
 row home from Whampoa against a strong tide, 
 and did not reach the Chaplaincy until after half- 
 past twelve. It was impossible for' him to attempt 
 another journey, he was so thoroughly prostrated 
 by the fatigue and lieat, and his heavy day's work. 
 He would not hear of my giving up our proposed 
 excursion, so, to prevent his attempting what I 
 feared would make him really ill, I suggested that 
 he should trust me with our compradore and 
 Chong-Shing, the teacher. 
 
 When the rap came at the bedroom door at 
 two o'clock, I must say that I heartily wished the 
 mandarins were not so early in their habits. We 
 started about half-past two, the two men I have 
 mentioned, our old coolie, and I. The four boat- 
 men in the slipper boat were equal to the duty, 
 although they had had such a heavy pull up from 
 Whampoa. All went smoothly. I found my 
 chair waiting at the city gate, and I got into it. 
 
222 FOUKTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 I was much amused by a feature of extreme 
 economy in my guides. Ttiey had started from 
 home in their short jackets, and both carried a 
 little parcel done up in a handkerchief. At 
 this gate the parcel was undone and the two men 
 put on their long coats. Although we arrived 
 at the temple soon after three o'clock a.m., many 
 of the inferior mandarins had already assembled 
 and were seated in an outer court, and one or 
 two higher class mandarins occupied their seats 
 in the inner court. All these ceremonials are 
 attended by the greatest amount of etiquette it is 
 possible to conceive. 
 
 Thus the smallest man starts from his yamun 
 at an hour long before the appointed time of the 
 ceremony, and on leaving his residence he sends 
 a messenger to the yamun of the mandarin next 
 higher in rank to himself, to say that he is already 
 on his journey. Number two then starts, know- 
 ing that the inferior will have arrived before him 
 at the rendezvous, and be there to rise and receive 
 him in due form. Number two on starting des- 
 patclies a messenger to number three, and so on, 
 until the greatest man is reached at last. Each 
 fresh arrival of a higher mandarin was greeted by 
 the mandarins already assembled, who advanced 
 towards the entrance of the robing-room in two 
 rows mute and motionless, whilst the bigger man 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 223 
 
 passed tlirough them with slow and majestic gait, 
 looking neither to the right nor left of him, but 
 proceeding to his appointed seat, all the others 
 following in dignified silence. A mandarin of 
 important rank is simply inflated by pride and 
 pomposity. His movements are all regulated 
 by rules of etiquette. Therefore each man of 
 equal rank is a copy of the one model. So 
 exactly to time is the foot encased in its huge 
 black silk boot brought forward, turned to a 
 right angle, and then raised before being placed 
 forward to take a majestic step, that it gives these 
 mandarins the effect of being moved by wires. 
 No smile is to be seen on their faces, no expression 
 but one of stereotyped stolidity. When a man- 
 darin seats himself on these public occasions 
 all is again by rule. He raises his long silk coat, 
 gradually drops into the chair, puts his feet in 
 the first position with his knees wide apart, and 
 generally places a hand on each knee. When finally 
 adjusted in his chair, ho raises his eyes and takes 
 a dignified look about him, not altering a muscle 
 of his face, nor appearing to be struck by anything 
 he sees. The three most important men present 
 on this occasion were the Yiceroy, the Governor 
 and the Tartar General, all mandarins of the first 
 order, and each wearing the much coveted pale 
 red button. The Viceroy takes precedence of 
 
224 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 the Governor and Tartar General, and is the first 
 man in the province. To show his importance, 
 it was fully a quarter of an hour after the 
 Governor had arrived before we heard sounds of 
 his approaching procession. The temple itself pre- 
 sented a most fairylike appearance, dimly lighted as 
 it now was with an immense number of oil chan- 
 deliers and coloured lanterns painted in various 
 devices. The quadrangle immediately before the 
 shrine which, as I told you in a previous letter, 
 contains a fac-simile of the emperor's throne at 
 Pekin with the emperor's tablet resting on it, 
 was lighted with hundreds of small lights. These 
 lights, which much resembled our nightlights, 
 were placed four in number, in receptacles, on iron 
 rods which hung from the roof of the cloister sur- 
 rounding the quadrangle. As no mandarin is con- 
 sidered high enough in rank to enter the shrine 
 itself to worship the tablet, it is in the centre of 
 the quadrangle that the ceremony is performed. 
 
 I had been immensely interested in all that was 
 going on around me during the hour of delay before 
 the worship began, in watching the mandarins 
 receiving each other — at walking over to the 
 other side of the quadrangle to see the military 
 mandarins. Two of these were of the first rank 
 and sat on a dais at the end of their robing-room, 
 looking as pompous as man can look. There was 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 225 
 
 a great hurrying to and fro of attendants, who 
 swarmed in the quadrangle. The lowest man- 
 darins have twenty, and mandarins of the first 
 rank, one hundred attendants. Servants brought 
 into the quadrangle large wooden chests, sus- 
 pended from their shoulders on bamboo poles, 
 containing suits of mourning apparel for the man- 
 darins. This curious custom is observed on the 
 supposition that the Emperor might possibly die 
 whilst the ceremony is taking place, and so pro- 
 vides that in this case the mandarins should go 
 home in mourning garments. Other boxes carried 
 in by servants contained court hats worn by the 
 mandarins only at the time the ceremony is being 
 performed. In other boxes I saw teapots, cups and 
 saucers, pipes, etc. The mandarins wear their 
 handsome full court dress on this occasion. The 
 skirt is dark blue silk beautifully embroidered in 
 silk and gold thread ; a tippet is also worn, which 
 is much ornamented with gold embroidery. The 
 hat, which is the ordinary pointed official hat, is 
 trimmed fully with a deep fringe of red floss 
 silk, and surmounting the apex is that distin- 
 guishing mark of rank, the coloured pear-shaped 
 button. 
 
 Every official present rose as the clash of musical 
 instruments announced the near approach of the 
 Viceroy. In two or three minutes he arrived, 
 
 Q 
 
226 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 alighted from his State chair, and passed up the 
 centre of the long row of mandarins standing by 
 the entrance of the robir:g-room, in the centre of 
 which the Governor was waiting to receive him; 
 The two great men chin-chinned each other, and 
 passed up together to the raised dais at the 
 end of the room, and seated themselyes simul- 
 taneously. The twelve mandarins varying from 
 the first to the fourth rank took their seats on 
 benches arranged down the sides of the room, 
 where they had already passed the last hour or 
 more smoking and chatting together, when not 
 required to go to the entrance to welcome a 
 higher brother-ofScial. These robing-rooms were 
 open to the quadrangle, so that from where I 
 stood I could see all that passed in them. The 
 court hats, tippets, and skirts were now put on by 
 the mandarins with the assistance of their atten- 
 dants. The three great men then walked slowly 
 into the quadrangle, followed by all the mandarins 
 according to their rank. The Viceroy, Governor, 
 and Tartar General placed themselves side by side 
 before the first three kneeling-mats in the centre of 
 the quadrangle, and the other mandarins arranged 
 themselves in order of precedence behind them. A 
 band of musical instruments accompanying them, 
 ceased playing when all had taken their places ; 
 and the master of the ceremonies, standing on 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 227 
 
 the highest step to the right of the shrice, gave 
 the word for the ceremony to commence. It 
 was this : " Advance, kneel, knock the head." An 
 inferior mandarin first advanced, and after three 
 repeated kau-taus withdrew. He was supposed 
 to make the offerings to the emperor, which 
 were already placed on the altar before the 
 tablet. The voice of the master of the ceremonies 
 was heard a second time, and now the Viceroy, 
 Governor, Tartar General and every mandarin 
 present, solemnly advanced their left feet forward 
 at the same moment, took them back, then ad- 
 vanced their right feet, knelt on both knees, and 
 bending their heads knocked them three times on 
 the ground. All the company of mandarins then 
 rose, rested a minute until the shrill voice of 
 command was again heard, when they all went 
 through the same genuflections. They again 
 rose and for the third time bent the knee and 
 performed the kau-tau. When the three times 
 three had been performed, the whole assembly 
 left the quadrangle in regular order, and each 
 mandarin returned to his appointed place. Tlie 
 centre shrine was a blaze of light: large chan- 
 deliers lighted it inside, and little lanterns were 
 hung under the broad roof along the fapade of 
 the building. The doors were wide open, and the 
 imperial tablet, the object of worship, was thus 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 FOUETBEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 visible to all. As I have already described 
 it aud its inscription, I will not say more about 
 it now. I was standing the whole time of the 
 ceremony on the granite steps which occupy the 
 centre of the quadrangle, having the Viceroy 
 and Governor immediately on my left, the Tartar 
 General and some mandarins on my right hand. 
 
 1 returned now with my guides, and took up my 
 position in front of the robing-room. I saw the 
 high officials disrobe, remove their court hats, and 
 put on their ordinary mandarin hats ; they then sat 
 down, tea was handed, and they chatted together. 
 In a sliort time I heard some steps behind me, 
 and on turning round I saw the procession of the 
 Tartar General and military mandarins, who had 
 left their robing-room, and were advancing to 
 salute the Yiceroy, Governor, etc. The two 
 latter rose to receive their guests, chin-chinned 
 them, and placed the Tartar General on the dais. 
 You cannot, without seeing it for yourself, fully 
 understand the manner of these ofScials. It is 
 self-contained, dignified, pompous, intensely quiet, 
 and brimful of etiquette. 
 
 You will wonder how the crowd had behaved 
 to me all this time, and how I had been able, the 
 only woman present, to stand amongst tliem. 
 Well, the truth is that they took no notice of me 
 at all. All had come to see the ceremony, or to 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 229 
 
 wait on their masters, and I escaped with little 
 observation. Our compradore now said to me, 
 " More better you go that side, 'spose you wantchee 
 see alio that largee mandarin go." So I got into 
 my chair, and was carried to a quiet spot to wait 
 and see the processions of the different officials 
 as they left the temple. But first, I have forgotten 
 to say I had a look at an open-air theatre, which 
 was temporarily placed in the outer court of the 
 temple, where a play was being performed whilst 
 the religious ceremony was being held in the 
 temple itself. This play represented an emperor 
 bestowing honours and rewards upon his faithful 
 ministers of state. 
 
 There were nine actors on the stage. A throne 
 was erected, and an actor, grandly dressed, 
 representing the emperor, was seated on it, 
 and in a high falsetto key was speechifying. 
 No doubt he was giving some excellent advice. 
 The other actors were arranged on each side 
 of this personage, and were moving about in 
 true dignified, pompous, mandarin style. After 
 waiting in my chair for half an hour, gongs an- 
 nounced the approach of some of the ofScials 
 from the temple. Several mandarins passed 
 me in succession, each accompanied by many 
 attendants, varying in number according to the 
 rank of their masters. Then came the chief 
 
230 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 procession. Words fail me to describe the extra- 
 ordinary appearance of these cavalcades. At the 
 head of each came men bearing huge lanterns 
 with the titles painted on them of the great man 
 to whom they belonged ; then there were ragged 
 boys carrying the insignia of rank, silk fiags, and 
 painted boards with titles upon tliem in raised 
 characters. Then equerries, who were handsomely 
 dressed in silk robes and mounted on ponies, passed 
 by. The ponies were but poor creatures, very 
 thin, with their bones nearly coming through the 
 skin, the fat riders in their flowing robes looking 
 very caricatures on their sorry brutes. Then 
 came the military; do not picture to yourself 
 European troops when I mention these. Their 
 legs and feet were bare, and they wore red or red 
 and blue tunics and trousers, very shabby in 
 appearance ; their hats I cannot describe, except 
 by saying that some of them were in shape 
 like a tall European hat, only these were made 
 in transparent lattice-work of bamboo. Others 
 wore headdresses still more difficult to describe. 
 They were made of gold tinsel in the shape of 
 crowns ; from the sides of the highest part rose 
 two long argus pheasant feathers, more than 
 four feet in length, made longer than nature 
 intended by being mounted on to wire ends. 
 Picture to yourself this costume, this theatrical 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 231 
 
 headgear, the owner in shabby tunic and red 
 trousers just past the knee, bare-legged, and 
 having no shoes. 
 
 The whole struck me as like a pantomime, and 
 appeared still more grotesque as daylight now 
 began to appear. You know we have no dawn here ; 
 as the sun rises, so day begins. The lanterns were 
 extinguished, and I saw the members of the pro- 
 cession in their true unvarnished light. And now 
 came the Viceroy in his chair of state borne by 
 twelve men. He sat with arms raised on the 
 shelves beside him, and his head thrown forward. 
 His stolid expression was preserved. The proces- 
 sion was closed by more mandarins on horseback, 
 attendants bearing flags, insignia, etc. I have not 
 yet mentioned my early ramble in the city to any 
 of the European community. I fear tliey may 
 think me strong-minded ; and what is the use 
 of speaking of these things to those who take 
 no interest in the manners and customs of the 
 singular people among whom they dwell ? 
 
 LETTER XXI. 
 
 Canton, August 30th, 1877. 
 
 My dear Mother, 
 
 I ALWAYS have so much to describe when I 
 sit down to write you an account of what I have 
 
232 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 seen in the city, that I must necessarily omit much. 
 As we are going along the streets I feel engrossed 
 in all I see around me, and I am often calling 
 upon Henry for an explanation. This is rather 
 difficult, as, if we are in chairs, it takes some time 
 for me to make the coolies ahead stop, and 
 we oftfen have passed the particular spot or shop 
 before I can make Henry hear. If we are walk- 
 ing we are rarely side by side. The streets are 
 so very much crowded and there is seldom room 
 for us to be together ; if we walk abreast for a 
 few minutes, we are sure to be interrupted by an 
 itinerant pork-seller, fishmonger, or some man 
 carrying a burden, who cries out, " Clear the 
 way." Very often it is a chair for which you 
 have to stand on one side, the coolies sometimes 
 calling out "Make. way, a great physician is in 
 our chair, who is on his road to see a dying 
 patient." This cry Henry knows to be not 
 strictly true at all times, as the coolies have 
 resorted to ,it when carrying him in haste to some 
 particular spot. The streets are also a snare to 
 me: I have to look where I am going, for the 
 granite slabs by which they are paved are most 
 uneven ; in fact there is no pretence at using any 
 particular sized blocks of stone ; so if one is not 
 careful one may catch one's heel in a piece of stone 
 standing high above its neighbour. The bridges 
 
FOUETEKlSr MONTHS IN CANTON. 233 
 
 are numerous in the city, and are generally ap- 
 proached by steep stone steps. They please me 
 very much by their quaintness, and the Chinese 
 in their large pointed crowned hats, their tails, 
 and flowing robes, look most picturesque as they 
 cross them. They are most varied in design, 
 some being very much raised in the centre, 
 others flat. In one of our walks, a few days 
 ago, we saw a great many of the sights which 
 came in our way, and we spent the day in the 
 city and its suburbs. The first halt was made 
 at a Chinese dispensary, where three or four 
 native physicians give advice gratis from eight 
 A.M. to two P.M. daily. A ticket is handed 
 to each patient, which is given up by him on 
 receiving advice. Small sums of money and 
 rice are also given here, to aged and poor 
 widows. Four free schools also receive pecu- 
 niary assistance from this dispensary, and coffins 
 too are provided for paupers. On coming out of 
 the dispensary we saw a group of men playing at 
 cards in the street. The players were squatting 
 on the ground with a board in front of them, and 
 men interested in the game were looking on. 
 The cards used by Chinese, and with which they 
 play a great variety of games, are about the 
 same length as European cards, but they are 
 very narrow, being scarcely an inch in width. 
 
234 
 
 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 I have often seen groups of men playing at cards 
 in the streets, and so absorbed were they in their 
 
 games as to be utterly regardless of the busy 
 crowds around them. We went into one of 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 235 
 
 the opium divans which is close to the dis- 
 pensary, and saw men in all stages of stupor 
 from smoking the drug. It was a most re- 
 Yolting sight, and I turned with disgust from 
 the man who was supplying the opium to these 
 poor creatures. Wooden couches are placed 
 round the room, upon which these infatuated 
 men lie and inhale the poisonous drug. Many of 
 them had a most attenuated appearance. When 
 once opium smoking has become a confirmed 
 habit, the victim is utterly wretched if he, by any 
 circumstance, should be unable to indulge in his 
 opium pipe at the customary hours. When walk- 
 ing along the streets the other day, we met a man 
 who had evidently been deprived of his opium 
 pipe beyond the usual time ; his distress was most 
 evident, and as he went along towards the opium 
 divan his moaning was most painful to hear. 
 We walked on afterwards to see the beautiful 
 French cathedral, which was begun in 1863 and 
 is not yet completed. It is built of granite, and 
 is a noble specimen of Perpendicular Gothic. 
 One is surprised to find this fine cathedral within 
 the walls of the heathen city. There are schools 
 and an orphanage in connection with it. The 
 present bishop has resided in Canton upwards 
 of thirty years, and is much beloved by his 
 co-religionists. The French cathedral, schools. 
 
236 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 etc., occupy the site on which the palace of the 
 Viceroy Yeh formerly stood. In marked contrast 
 to the cathedral was the building which we next 
 visited, a whitewashed dissenting chapel with bare 
 walls, most uninviting to the passers-by. It must 
 be difficult for the Chinese convert, accustomed as 
 he has been to a high ritual, to much decoration in 
 the temple, and to the giving of his substance for 
 the worship of his gods, to understand the motive 
 which influences these Christians to worship God . 
 in a meagre house of prayer which costs them as 
 little as possible, and is as plain as hands can 
 make it. On leaving this chapel we entered the 
 old city, and passed through the street called by 
 Europeans the Bird-cage Walk, in which, as the 
 name suggests, are several shops where birds of 
 various kinds and ornamental bird-cages are 
 sold. I have bought here lately some canaries, 
 Java sparrows, two small birds called nuns, with 
 brown bodies and black heads, two kingfishers, and 
 a blue jay. These feathery creatures, excepting 
 the last two, which are in cages by themselves, 
 are now in my large aviary. We now entered 
 a street called the Street of Four Monu- 
 mental Arches, in which we saw five rather than 
 four of these arches, all of them raised to the 
 memory of men celebrated in their day either for 
 learning, virtue, valour, filial piety, or longevity. 
 
POUETEBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 237 
 
 Monumental arches in China take the place of 
 public statues in European cities, and are 
 generally made of granite, but sometimes of 
 red sandstone or brick. They are built in the 
 form of a triple arch, having in the centre a 
 large gate, and a smaller one on each side. An 
 inscription is placed on a slab in the centre of 
 the large arch, informing passers-by to whose 
 honour the arch is erected. On a small slab, 
 in a prominent position on the arch, are two 
 characters which set forth that it is built by 
 imperial decree. Having examined these monu- 
 mental arches, which are now hemmed in at 
 the sides by shops, we passed on and entered the 
 Temple of the Five Genii.* Thfese worthies 
 are supposed to have entered the city of Canton 
 riding on rams, and dressed in different coloured 
 robes. On passing through one of the markets 
 they are reported to have said, " May famine 
 never visit the markets of this city," and then 
 they winged their flight through the air. Five 
 stones found near the spot were supposed, from 
 their resemblance to the rams, to be the petrified 
 remains of those animals, and eventually they 
 were removed to this temple. They are arranged 
 at the feet of five well-executed idols, represent- 
 
 * These genii are supposed to represent the five elements, 
 viz., fire, eartb, water, metal, and wood. 
 
238 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 ing the five genii. Tliese idols sit in a row in a 
 large shrine, and are coloured so as to resemble 
 life. Votaries worship here, especially in the 
 fourth month of the Chinese year, when they come 
 to return thanks to these gods for restored health. 
 These votaries then wear a red dress similar to a 
 Chinese prisoner's dress ; round their necks are 
 chains, fetters are on their ankles, and handcuffs of 
 iron round their wrists. These strange observances 
 are supposed to indicate humility on the part of 
 the worshippers. In front of this shrine stands 
 the Great Bell Tower. The Chinese and Tar- 
 tars are most superstitious in regard to the bell 
 which hangs in this tower, and believe that it 
 has not been struck, since it was cast in 1368, with- 
 out bringing disaster to the city. An epidemic 
 which caused the death of a thousand children was 
 attributed to this bell having been inadvertently 
 struck. In 1845 the tower having fallen into 
 ruin had to be rebuilt, and the workmen were 
 enjoined not to let the bell be struck as they 
 lowered it to the ground. But with all their 
 caution it sounded out its doleful voice, and 
 the consequence of this was a great mortality 
 amongst the Tartars, and also a fire in a theatre, 
 by which three thousand men died. Again 
 in 1865 it was struck by a falling shot from 
 I1.M.S. Encounter, and the Chinese attributed 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 239 
 
 the subsequent capture of the city by the allies 
 to this sound of ill-omen. 
 
 In one of the courtyards of this temple I saw 
 an impression, on a basaltic rock partly covered 
 with water, resembling the print of a human foot, 
 which is supposed by the Chinese to be the 
 impression of Buddha's foot. You will be amused 
 to hear that there is a small shrine here in 
 honour of a monkey god. He is said to have 
 been formed from a rock, and to have been 
 hatched during the day by the heat of the sun, 
 and during the night by the warmth of the moon. 
 He became in time the king of all monkeys, and, 
 learning the art of speaking, he was associated 
 with man, and eventually taken into the service 
 of Buddha. We went from this temple into 
 the yamun in which the great Viceroy Yeh was 
 captured in 1858 by British sailors. Close to 
 this yamun is the Confucian Temple, approached 
 by a triple gateway built of red stone. In the 
 courtyard I saw an artificial pond, in the form 
 of a crescent, which is spanned by a bridge of 
 three arches. I learnt from Henry that water is 
 always placed in the precincts of a Confucian 
 temple. It denotes purity, and therefore is sup- 
 posed to be an emblem of the virtue of the sage 
 and of the purity of the doctrines he taught. 
 In the shrine which stands at the end of the 
 
240 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 quadrangle an idol of Confucius has been placed 
 contrary to the express teaching of the sage, 
 who was much opposed to graven images. It is 
 more usual to find a red tablet only in a Confucian 
 temple, with the name of Confucius recorded on 
 it in letters of gold. A long cloister runs down 
 the length of the quadrangle, and contains small 
 shrines, in honour of the seventy-two disciples of 
 Confucius who shone with pre-eminence out of the 
 number of his three thousand followers. In the 
 inner quadrangle of the temple a shrine is dedicated 
 to the parents and grandparents of Confucius. The 
 Chinese not only honour a great man himself, 
 but they extend their worship to his progenitors, 
 as they consider it is owing to their care and skill 
 that the illustrious man is indebted for his great- 
 ness. We went into a small shrine dedicated 
 to the memory of virtuous women, which is op- 
 posite to the Confucian temple. Here we saw 
 many wooden tablets arranged on shelves, which 
 bore the names of women who had spent their lives 
 in single blessedness. A granite arch is raised to 
 their honour and stands in the courtyard of the 
 shrine. Other tablets in this shrine record the 
 names of those whose afSanced husbands died 
 before the marriage day had arrived, and who passed 
 the rest of their lives in a state of virginity. Other 
 tablets are in honour of widows who refused to 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 241 
 
 marry a second time, or who on the death of 
 their husbands committed suicide, not choosing to 
 survive them. The l&,tter form of suicide is still 
 regarded as meritorious by the Chinese. 
 
 We next visited the Mohammedan mosque 
 which greatly resembles Chinese temples in its 
 architecture. It was built by an Arabian in 620, 
 who is said, in Chinese annals, to have been a 
 younger brother of the mother of the prophet 
 Mahomet. As the walls of the mosque are painted 
 red, it must have been erected by the sanction of 
 the Chinese emperor then reigning. It is a plain 
 building, bearing above the sanctum sanctorum the 
 first line of the Koran in large Arabic characters, 
 "There is but one God, and Mahomet is his 
 prophet." The pulpit is of wood, and a staff is 
 placed near it upon which the preacher leans as 
 he delivers his sermons. The emperor's tablet 
 stands on an altar in the mosque, and Mo- 
 hammedans* are compelled by Chinese law to 
 burn incense before this tablet, and to worship it. 
 The law commands that this worship to the tablet 
 of the emperor shall be paid in every Buddhist, 
 Tauist and Mohammedan temple in the country. 
 I saw the minaret in the courtyard which was for- 
 merly used by the muezzins, who ascended it and 
 
 * It is computed that not less than 30,000,000 of Chineea 
 have embraced the Mohammedan faith. 
 
2i2 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 « 
 
 proclaimed from its summit the hour of prayer. 
 It has now fallen into decay. The limit of our 
 excursion this day was the five-storied pagoda, 
 which is built on the heights above Canton. On 
 our way there we turned aside into the street 
 called Chi-Hong-Kai, and entered a small temple 
 to see the prophetic stone which is supposed to 
 reflect, when gazed upon by those who consult it, 
 what the future has in store for them. Women 
 chiefly visit this temple, and all classes are to be 
 seen here, many of whom consult the stone to 
 know if there is any probability of their earnest 
 longing to become mothers of male children being 
 gratified. 
 
 We afterwards passed the Flowery Pagoda. I 
 must describe this most beautiful pagoda to you, as 
 it is one I so much admire and have often seen. 
 It is nine storeys in height ; it was built a.d. 505, 
 and was intended as a shrine to hold some relic 
 of Buddha. The original idea in building pagodas 
 was to represent the many mansions into which 
 the Buddhistical paradise is divided. The most 
 ■virtuous when they die are supposed, as Buddhas, 
 , to inhabit the highest place for millions or 
 billions of years — those who are less renowned for 
 their good deeds are supposed to occupy the lower 
 storeys. Now, however, pagodas are erected by the 
 Chinese for the purpose of exerting a good geo- 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 243 
 
 mantic influence over the country. Thus, the fields 
 in the neighbourhood of a pagoda are supposed to 
 produce good and abundant crops of grain ; the 
 rivers which flow past it to abound with fish; 
 young men who live in its neighbourhood to be 
 successful at the literary examinations ; and peace 
 to prevail throughout the surrounding districts. 
 We went on to the foot of a hill, getting out of 
 our chairs to walk up the long flight of steps 
 leading to the temple dedicated to Koon-Yam. 
 The idol of this goddess is clothed, and in 
 this respect differs from most of the idols in the 
 city. Her dress is handsomely embroidered. One 
 curious custom is observed in this temple. 
 Tradesmen, principally of the humbler kind, as 
 hawkers, barbers, etc., come to it on the 26th day 
 of the first month of the Chinese year, to borrow 
 money from the goddess, as they consider it for- 
 tunate to trade with her capital. If the monks 
 of this temple advance five hundred cash to one 
 of these votaries, he must deposit security for six 
 hundred cash, and on the same day in the follow- 
 ing year must repay the sum borrowed with a few 
 cash in addition. Men beginning business after 
 the new year consider that money borrowed from 
 this goddess brings luck to them. We then 
 walked on to the Ng-Tsang-Lau, or Pagoda of 
 Five Storeys, which stands on the north wall of the 
 
 R 2 
 
2i4 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 city. It is more properly speaking a square tower, 
 and is quite (different in shape to the other pagodas 
 in and about the city. It is built of red sandstone 
 or brick, and is a wide building, having five very 
 spacious chambers, I mounted the different 
 storeys, and enjoyed a fine view of the city from 
 the summit. It was here from a temporary 
 scaffold, which was erected on the roof of the 
 tower, that the illustrious Yeh watched the 
 proceedings of his army, with the rebel forces. 
 During the war which took place between China 
 and the allied armies of England and France, com- 
 panies of French and English troops on taking 
 Canton were quartered in this tower. We were 
 obliged now to get into our chairs and hurry 
 home through the city, darkness having fallen up- 
 on us. You cannot picture to yourself what the 
 streets are like at this hour of night. The shops 
 are closed, and in some cases are barricaded by 
 long beams. In the principal streets only, small 
 oil lamps bang at intervals from a beam placed 
 across the street ; and before the chief shops are 
 large oiled paper lanterns, bearing the name of 
 the hong on one side, and the name of a tutelary 
 deity on the other. These lanterns are most 
 picturesque, varying in size, and shape, and in the 
 characters painted on them ; some are very large, 
 others veiy small. They impart to the streets a 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 245 
 
 most oriental appearance, and it is always a source 
 of interest to me to pass through them when they 
 are lighted up. It is a most curious sight, when 
 entering a long street, to look up it, and see the 
 various coloured lanterns hanging in all directions. 
 
 At intervals one comes upon the city watch- 
 men, who group themselves round paper lanterns 
 placed on tripods, with their old-fashioned large 
 weapons piled near them. 
 
 The smaller streets are left to darkness, except- 
 ing where paper lanterns hang before the doors 
 of shops, or still larger ones hang before private 
 houses, but these are extinguished by half-past 
 nine p.m. 
 
 As we go through these silent, dimly-liglited 
 deserted streets, the footsteps of our chair coolies, 
 and the curious sound they make, a kind of 
 humph ! humph ! humph ! (really a grunting 
 noise), awake the silent echoes. A man every 
 now and then passes us, or perhaps a blind 
 singing girl led by an old woman who conducts 
 and takes care of her. The singer is beautifully 
 dressed, and her hair is bedecked with flowers. 
 Her guide beats castanets to let the inmates 
 of the closed houses know that she and her 
 companion are at hand to be engaged if re-^ 
 quired. Sometimes the master of a shop calls the 
 girl in to sing to his apprentices, as they work 
 
246 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 up to a late hour, for, although the shutters 
 are closed, the busy Chinese tradesmen are not 
 idle. 
 
 Our way home, this night, led us through a 
 street called Ooi-Sin-Kai, the greater part of 
 which is occupied by blacksmiths. They were 
 working late, and owing to the glare of their 
 furnaces the whole street appeared to be in a 
 blaze. I observed in passing these smithies tiiat 
 instead of two smiths only working together at an 
 anvil, as in England, there were three here, two 
 of whom were using large hammers, and the 
 third a small hammer. Sometimes blacksmiths 
 work in the open air under a wide spreading 
 mat umbrella as represented in the illustration 
 annexed. 
 
 Tiie Chinese require little sleep, and can work 
 late and rise early. I noticed the other day, 
 during one of our early rambles in the city, that 
 the pork butchers were astir before three o'clock 
 
 A.M. 
 
 LETTEE XXII. 
 
 Canton, September 5th, 1877. 
 
 My dear Mother, 
 
 Hearing that the military examinations 
 were taking place on the Eastern Parade Ground, 
 
248 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 we made up our minds to go and see part of the 
 proceedings. We took our boat up the river 
 within sight of the large parade ground on which 
 the examination was being held. When we ar- 
 rived, there were many spectators gathered to- 
 gether, and a large marquee had been erected 
 at the end of the field for the examiners and their 
 attendants. 
 
 The whole scene reminded me of a country race 
 in England. When we went on to the ground, 
 it was about eleven o'clock a.m., and a pause in the 
 programme was taking place to allow the officials, 
 who were conducting the examination, an oppor- 
 tunity of taking their luncheon. We looked round 
 for a shelter from the hot sun, which was really 
 scorching, and also to free ourselves from a crowd 
 of Chinese who were most anxious to inspect us. 
 We saw a mat shed a little ahead of us, and 
 near it, the beautiful Imperial yellow grounded 
 flag, with the^dark blue dragon, waved in the air. 
 This made it evident that some official was the 
 occupant of the tent. When we were opposite 
 the entrance of it, we saw a mandarin sitting 
 inside, but he made no sign for us to enter the 
 tent. As the desire for shelter was pressing much 
 upon us, we walked in, and having overcome all 
 shyness in this attempt, we proceeded to seat our- 
 selves on stools which stood behind the inhospit- 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 249 
 
 able official. The mandarin preserved his usual 
 stolid expression, and took no notice of us for some 
 time. The crowd, however, began to press in 
 at the door, in order to gratify their curiosity, upon 
 which the mandarin made a movement with his 
 hand towards his two attendants to drive the tire- 
 some men and boys away. But they were deter- 
 mined to stare at us, so they went round to the 
 back of the tent and proceeded to pull off a portion 
 of the dried palm-leaves of which it was made, 
 and when I turned round I saw dozens of dark eyes 
 peeping through the holes. A number of them 
 also had climbed up a bamboo division in the tent, 
 which separated the part where we were sitting 
 from that in which the mandarin's chair had been 
 placed. This was too much for the imperturbable 
 official. He rose without stiying a word, walked 
 out of the tent, and left the nest to the cuckoos 
 who had taken such forcible possession of it. At 
 last we heard the sounds of a trumpet, which, judg- 
 ing fi'om its gruff sounrl, must have been a very 
 old instrument. The man who blew it was one 
 of the city guard, and was dressed in the most 
 singular, and most ragged style you can imagine. 
 He looked as if he had dressed himself to take 
 a part in some pantomime. When this trumpet 
 gave forth its uncertain muffled sound the doors 
 at the back of the marquee, which had been 
 
250 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 closed on our arrival, were thrown open, and the 
 prefect and deputy prefect advanced and took 
 their places behind two tables covered with red 
 cloth. These tables were placed in front of the 
 marquee. The whole scene reminded me of pic- 
 tures I had seen before leaving home of Chinese 
 ceremonials. A numerous staff of attendants, 
 wearing a most solemn expression on their faces, 
 stood behind their respective masters, and formed 
 a row two deep. The crowd of spectators stood 
 in two thick lines in front, leaving a long passage 
 clear for the prefect and his deputy to see what 
 was taking place. When these mandarins came 
 in and seated themselves, we were standing very 
 near them, and Henry with much parade took 
 off his hat and bowed first to the official at 
 the one table, and then to the second at the 
 other table. They returned the salute by bowing 
 in a most stately manner. The examination now 
 re-commenced by men shooting arrows as they 
 rode at full speed down a short course or rather 
 trench made for that purpose. Three large 
 white targets were placed at intervals down this 
 path. 
 
 At the sound of a gong a little pony was led 
 forth, bright with high embroidered saddle, and 
 trappings. 
 
 A young man then appeared (one of the 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 251 
 
 candidates), dressed in a long silk coat, a broad 
 black sash round his waist, and wearing high 
 black satin boots. Two attendants sprang forward, 
 hoisted him on to the high saddle, on the mean- 
 looking pony's back, helping him up in a most 
 undignified manner, to our eyes at least. They 
 caught hold, of the band of liis wide sash and 
 by this means settled him on the saddle. The 
 stirrups were so extremely short that the young 
 man's feet were nearly even with the saddle, and 
 his position on horseback looked most cramped. 
 Directly he was seated, he bent forward, so low 
 that his face nearly touched the pony's mane. 
 He put himself into a studied attitude, his elbows 
 high, a bow stretched to the full extent in his hands 
 and an arrow adjusted on it (the figure of the young 
 man, at this time, was that of a spread eagle), 
 and then he started on his gallop, the attendants 
 urging the pony forward. The young man dis- 
 charged an arrow at each target as he passed, 
 and a gong was sounded behind the particular 
 target when an arrow pierced it. 
 
 When the candidate had ridden to the end 
 of the trench, he returned preserving the same 
 cramped position, and as he came near to the 
 marquee he shouted out his name. An official 
 stationed at the entrance of the tent turned 
 towards the two tables, and in a loud voice re- 
 
252 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON 
 
 peated the name of the candidate, and gave the 
 number of successful hits. Each of the examiners 
 then placed the numbers against the particular 
 name which was on a list before him. The candi- 
 date was now helped off the pony by his attend- 
 ants, who, taking hold of the silk sash, lifted 
 him down from his most uncomfortable-looking 
 saddle. He then walked up to the official tables, 
 carrying his bow and horse-whip in his hand, and 
 stopping in front of them, bowed with bended 
 knees, first to the official on the left, then to the 
 one on the right. The examiners returned the 
 salutation by inclining their heads sliglitly with 
 majestic gravity. Some of the candidates were 
 quite young men, and some middle-aged. They 
 ranged from about sixteen to forty-five years of 
 age. 
 
 If unsuccessful at the one examfnation, they 
 can try again and again. Tiie social rank of the 
 candidates varied much. Military degrees are 
 open to all, and when obtained they give a man 
 a locus standi in his town or village. Some 
 of the candidates were most gaily arrayed in 
 pale lavender, pale yellow or other coloured 
 long coats, and silk leggings, in endless variety of 
 colour, which generally harmonised well with the 
 costume. Others were very plainly dressed and 
 were evidently of inferior social position, as they 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 253 
 
 wore the ordinary black shoes, and not the long 
 satin boots. Each competitor has to ride over 
 the course three times during the day, and so dis- 
 charges nine arrows. There were hundreds and 
 hundreds of candidates present, but only a limited 
 number of those who have the highest number 
 of marks can obtain a degree. 
 
 These examinations are held every three years. 
 We afterwards went to. another part of the ground 
 and saw men lifting heavy weights, and turning 
 heavy weapons in every direction over their heads, 
 behind their backs, etc. Two examiners were 
 sitting in a building close to the spot, and marking 
 down failure or success. 
 
 We did not stay long, as we felt tired, from 
 the excessive heat of the day, so we returned 
 home intending to revisit the parade ground at 
 another stage of the military examinations. Two 
 days after we carried out our intention, and were 
 present when the candidates shot, on foot, at targets 
 placed at a great distance. After they had dis- 
 charged nine arrows, they went before the ex- 
 aminers, who sat behind tables, surrounded by 
 mandarins of lesser rank and an endless number 
 of attendants. The candidates were then given 
 strong bows, which they were requii-ed to pull 
 out to the fullest extent ; and if they succeeded 
 in this feat, a still stronger bow was handed to 
 
254 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 them upon which to try their strength. We 
 stayed some time watching this part of the ex- 
 amination, and then went on and saw those who 
 had successfully passed in shooting with arrows, 
 engaged in lifting massive iron javelins, turning 
 them round and round their bodies. They also 
 lifted immense blocks of stone.' In some cases, 
 very powerful men knelt on one knee and raised 
 these ponderous stones first on to the one thigh, 
 then on to the other, and eventually on to their 
 chests. But I noticed that many failed in these 
 feats of strength. 
 
 On the way to our boat from the parade 
 ground, I was much amused, as I always am, by 
 watching several very young girls and boys with 
 babies strapped on to their backs. When these 
 young people are engaged in play, they seem 
 utterly to forget their living burdens, and one 
 fears for the safety of the poor little babies. At 
 times, when we pass through villages, the boys 
 and girls, in their fright at the sudden appearance 
 of Europeans, take to their heels and scamper 
 away, and then the babies on their backs appear 
 to be in imminent danger. 
 
 Another source of amusement to me, this after- 
 noon, was seeing two little children in our sampan 
 with small wooden buoys bound to their backs. 
 This singular method is adopted by Chinese boat 
 
256 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 women to save tlieir children from drowning, should 
 they fall into the water. The family group in the 
 boat was completed by a baby which was strapped 
 on to its mother's back, as she sculled, and by 
 a child of two years old, who was tied by a long 
 piece of cord to one of the bamboo supports of 
 the roof of the boat. This child reminded me of 
 a dog in its kennel. 
 
 LETTER XXIII. 
 
 Canton, August 9th, 1877.. 
 
 My dear Mother, 
 
 Since I wrote my descriptive letter about 
 the military examinations, Henry and I have again 
 made a very early excursion into the city, to see 
 the imposing ceremony of the autumnal State 
 worship paid to Confucius. We left the Chap- 
 laincy at the very early and trying hour of 
 2.45 A.M., and went by boat to the Ma-tau 
 landing-place, and proceeded thence to the chief 
 Confucian temple, where the ceremony was to be 
 held. Henry had written the day before to ask 
 M. Sales, the French Vice-Consul, to be so kind 
 as to request the mandarin to have the great 
 east gate of the city, which is near to his con- 
 sulate, opened for us. We obtained the permission, 
 but had no idea at the time that we were really 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 257 
 
 asking a favour difficult to be granted. We liad 
 chairs in readiness for us at this gate, and arrived 
 at the temple at four o'clock. The precincts of 
 the temple were already crowded by Chinese 
 gentlemen and their attendants, who, like our- 
 selves, had come to see the State worship. A 
 long time before we reached the temple we saw 
 numerous lanterns arranged on tripods, and 
 groups of the city guard sitting on the ground 
 around them. I need not describe the arrival of 
 tiie mandarins according to order of rank, their 
 ceremonious reception of each other, the greatest 
 man of all, the Viceroy, again keeping all waiting 
 for him, as I have described a similar scene in 
 a former letter. The large shrine, which was 
 brilliantly illuminated, contained the offerings 
 presented on this day to Confucius. We went 
 into the shrine to see them, and a strange sight 
 presented itself to our view. In front of the 
 altar, behind which is the niche, holding the 
 tablet bearing the name of Confucius, the whole 
 carcass of an ox, from which the hair had been 
 scraped, was placed in a sitting posture on a raised 
 platform. It looked as though it were alive. The 
 hair had been left on its long tail. A ring was 
 passed through the nose of the animal to which a 
 cord was attached. It was an ugly sight. Other 
 offerings were also of a curious kind, especially so 
 
 s 
 
258 POUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 the carcasses of sheep and pigs. These were not 
 placed upon the side altars, until the moment 
 before the arrival of the Viceroy, a precaution 
 taken, we considered, to prevent their being stolen. 
 Very ancient musical stringed instruments were 
 arranged down the right aide of the shrine, which 
 were in use in the time of Confucius. No one 
 now knows how to play them, but on this par- 
 ticular night, bachelors of music, wearing long 
 blue academic robes edged with black, stood 
 before them, and made a pretence of bringing out 
 sounds from their long unused keys. In a corner 
 close by, the same farce was enacted with some 
 wind instruments belonging to the same ancient 
 period. Again in front of these old instruments 
 ancient bells were suspended from a wooden 
 platform, and were struck by some bachelors 
 of music to the accompaniment of two huge 
 drums on either side of the shrine. These 
 players lead and regulate the religious worship. 
 The Viceroy and the Tartar General were, in 
 the meantime, robing, and chin-chinning each 
 other. Some mandarin in authority had seen us 
 pass up to the shrine, and had given orders for 
 one of his official attendants to accompany us. 
 This officer was most attentive to us, and gave us 
 the best position possible for seeing the ceremony. 
 And now the mandarins walked towards the front 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 259 
 
 of tlie shrine in procession, the Viceroy and the 
 Tartar General first, the others following in order, 
 to the accompaniment of a band of music. The 
 civil mandarins arranged themselves on one side 
 of the great quadrangle, the military mandarins 
 on the other. As before, a master of ceremonies 
 gave the word of command throughout the pro- 
 ceedings. The kau-tau was first performed simul- 
 taneously by all the civil and military mandarins 
 present, then the Viceroy and the Tartar General 
 left the quadrangle, and the Viceroy went up the 
 steps on the leit, the Tartar General up the steps 
 on the right leading to the shrine. No man, save 
 the Emperor, may go up the centre stairs leading 
 direct to the shrine of tlie great Confucius. The 
 two high oificials moved with much deliberation 
 and dignity, each taking a step at the same 
 moment as the other, for fear one might be a little 
 in advance of the other. Each was accompanied 
 by a bachelor of arts, and by a conductor of 
 ceremonies. At this moment the scene was most 
 impressiTO. Two flambeaux placed on the tops 
 of poles, wrapped in scarlet cloth, blazed high, 
 and threw a brilliant light upon the outer court 
 of the shrine, in the centre of which stood about 
 forty young boys dressed as bachelors of arts. 
 They were thus dressed in right of being the 
 sons of those who had attained that degree. In 
 
 s 2 
 
260 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 their hands they held thick plumes made of 
 the very long tail feathers of the argus pheasant. 
 The Viceroy on arriving at the shrine advanced 
 to the chief altar, while the Tartar General took 
 his position at a side altar. The immense drums 
 were beaten, instruments of various kinds, which 
 were placed at the end of the shrine, sent out 
 most curious and noisy sounds, and whilst this 
 din of music was heard, the great men knelt and 
 did the kau-tau to the directions of the master of 
 ceremonies, delivered in a shrill chanting key. 
 But before the Viceroy and the Tartar General 
 knelt in worship, one of the bachelors of arts 
 presented, amidst solemn silence, an offering to 
 the tablet, which was contained in a sandal- 
 wood box, and which had been carried into the 
 shrine raised high above the heads of the 
 bearers. This form of holding anything above 
 the head denotes tlie greatest mark of respect 
 to the thing thus carried. The box was then 
 passed on to a second bachelor of arts, who placed 
 it upon the altar. Then the kau-tau took place. 
 The Viceroy and the Tartar General, having per- 
 formed this act of worship, returned to their 
 positions in the quadrangle ; one at the head 
 of the civil, the other at the head of the 
 military mandarins. The forty young boys 
 bearing the plumes of feathers then prostrated 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 261 
 
 themselves. Nine times the two great men 
 walked up with solemn step to the shrine, the 
 Viceroy sometimes making his kau-tau and 
 offerings at the chief altar, sometimes at a 
 lesser altar. The last three times he made his 
 offerings at the three small altars at the left 
 of the shrine, while the Tartar General finished 
 his three final acts of worship at the three small 
 altars to the right of the shrine. Here I was 
 standing, and I had to move on one side to 
 enable him to kneel before the last altar. The 
 offerings consisted of wine presented in old 
 classic-shaped brass vessels, and of cakes. The 
 Viceroy came up the steps leading to the shrine 
 alone on one occasion, and presented a folded 
 letter, written on yellow paper, to Confucius. 
 A mandarin, kneeling by the Viceroy's side, 
 opened the letter and read it aloud, solemn 
 silence being observed by the crowd. After it had 
 been read, and the kau-tau performed by the Vice- 
 roy, the mandarin, holding the letter, advanced 
 to the chief altar, and, presenting it to Confucius, 
 laid it on the altar. There it remained until the 
 ceremony was over. It was then removed by the 
 same mandarin, who carried it in both hands high 
 above his head, and was thrown by him into the 
 sacred fire in the outer quadrangle. After the 
 Viceroy had completed his ninth visit to the shrine. 
 
262 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 he, the Tartar General, and all the mandarins left 
 the quadrangle and returned to the robing rooms. 
 We had been most fortunate in our position 
 within the shrine. This was of course owing to 
 Henry, who is well known to all the high ofRcia,ls, 
 as he has been so constantly present at their 
 grand ceremonials. Had I been placed at a 
 distance, 1 should have lost a great part of the 
 observances in the shrine itself; as it was, I was 
 simply amongst the chief actors. This is the 
 grandest ceremonial I have yet seen, and although 
 it occupied a long time, it seemed too short 
 for the interest that was crowded into the space 
 of an hour or more whilst the State worship took 
 place. 
 
 LETTER XXIV. 
 
 Canton, September 16th, 1877. 
 
 My dear Mother, 
 
 We were awoke most unexpectedly this 
 morning at six o'clock by Chong-shing rapping at 
 our bedroom door, and upon Henry inquiring the 
 cause, he was told that the B.A. degree was to 
 be conferred that day upon the successful candi- 
 dates in the late military examination. As Chong- 
 shing proceeded to inform us that the ceremony 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 263 
 
 was to begin at seven o'clock, we hurried up, took 
 a hasty cup of tea, and were in a slipper boat en 
 roufeiov the Literary Chancellor's yamun at seven 
 o'clock. The tide was in our favour, and in a 
 short time we arrived at the landing stage near 
 the south gate of the city. A mile's walk brought 
 us in sight of the yamun. Standing near it were 
 many chairs ornamented with strips of needlework. 
 The names of the successful candidates, to whom 
 these chairs belonged, were printed on strips 
 of red paper which were pasted in a conspicuous 
 position on them. 
 
 As we entered the gates of the yamun, which 
 were thrown open for us, a very gay scene pre- 
 sented itself to our view. 
 
 Numbers and numbers of the successful candi- 
 dates were assembled there, dressed in long bright 
 blue tunics, which were made in silk or cotton, 
 to suit the circumstances of the wearer. The 
 tunics were edged at the bottom of the skirt, the 
 neck and the sleeve? with a border of black. 
 Brilliant wide bands, made in a bright shade of 
 red silk, were worn across the chest and back of 
 the Bachelors of Arts, and hung down in long 
 ends in front. These were ornamented with 
 immense rosettes made in red silk. Tippets 
 made in the same blue as the tunics, richly em- 
 broidered and edged with gold, were also worn. 
 
264 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 All had on long black satin boots. But their 
 festive appearance culminated in their hats, 
 which were made in the ordinary mandarin 
 pointed shape, trimmed with fringes of red floss 
 silk. The grand decoration peculiar to the day 
 consisted of two long sprays of silver and gold 
 leaves with little balls of red floss silk, to repre- 
 sent flowers, placed between the leaves which 
 were worn on the points of the hats. These hats 
 will be worn by the graduates on all public 
 occasions, on all high festivals, and on their 
 marriage days. As it was evident that the 
 ceremony was not likely to commence for some 
 little time, we went to the same room we had 
 occupied on one of the former occasions, and were 
 invited to take seats there by some small man- 
 darins. We remained here for at least an hour. 
 Punctuality is a virtue unknown amongst Chinese 
 oflicials. • 
 
 All was in readiness and every one waiting, 
 before the sound of a drum, and a movement 
 amongst the crowd, announced the fact that the 
 Literary Chancellor * was on his way to take 
 his seat behind the table placed immediately in 
 front of the private entrance gates of his yamun. 
 
 * It is the duty of the Literary Chancellor to confer the B.A. 
 degree on all who pass the military examinations as well as on 
 those who pass the literary examinations. 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 265 
 
 These gates had amused me much. They bore 
 huge coloured representations of the Ki-lun, a 
 fabulous quadruped. During the long delay, 
 whilst we sat in the room at the side of the 
 yamun, used by the aides-de-camp of the chan- 
 cellor, Henry spoke to some of the mandarins, 
 in the court dialect, and was pleased at being 
 able to understand so much that was said. The 
 officers appeared much interested in the. stranger, 
 asked Henry if he had taken any degree, and 
 a variety of questions. Amongst others, one of 
 the mandarins said, so Henry translated to me, 
 " Is it true that your Soyereign is a woman ? how 
 can you let a woman govern you ? " Henry im- 
 mediately turned the tables upon the mandarin by 
 saying, " You have not only one woman, but two 
 to govern you." They all burst out laughing, and 
 much enjoyed the joke, as, of course, the Empress 
 mother and the Dowager Empress rule China in 
 the name of the little boy emperor, who is only 
 five years of age. The empresses sit behind a 
 curtain when the cabinet councils are held, and 
 their opinions decide all questions. As the move- 
 ment amongst the crowd became more evident, 
 we rose and went into the quadrangle. The 
 bachelors of arts placed themselves in the centre 
 of the quadrangle opposite the inner gates of 
 the yamun, which were now thrown open, and 
 
266' FOURTEBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 the chancellor appeared. He was helped up and 
 down the steps leading to the place where the 
 table stood, by an attendant on each side of him, 
 not on account of his age, as he is only forty- 
 seven, but to give dignity to his appearance. 
 At this moment some men carried a large box 
 to the table, and, amidst the shouts of all as- 
 sembled, scrolls bearing the names of the suc- 
 cessful candidates were placed in it. The box 
 was then carried off to the temple of Confucius. 
 To our astonishment and disappointment, the 
 chancellor now rose, and retired into his yamun, 
 and the doors were closed behind him. We 
 became so much crowded by the bachelors of 
 arts, who wished to take as near a look as 
 possible of us, and whose curiosity caused the 
 atmosphere around us to become intolerably op- 
 pressive, that we again retired to our room for 
 shelter. We waited some little time here, until 
 the beating of drums announced that the chan- 
 cellor was again on his way, and he soon appeared 
 at the inner gates. This time he was dressed 
 in full court costume, wearing a beautifully 
 embroidered robe and full-dress hat. The robe 
 was made of silk, the foundation colour of which 
 was a deep claret, and rich embroidery was 
 worked on it in gold thread and coloured silks. 
 A small altar with an embroidered coverings 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 267 
 
 hanging down in front was now brought near to 
 the chancellor's table, and on it were placed the 
 Emperor's tablet, and lighted joss-sticks. The 
 chancellor advanced, knelt before the altar, and 
 did the kau-tau thrice before the tablet. A 
 master of ceremonies, as usual, directed the kneel- 
 ing, kau-tau, etc. All the bachelors of arts, now 
 arranged themselTes in a half-circle near the altar, 
 and, where it was possible, they did the kau-tau, 
 but many of them were too pressed for room to 
 knee], and they only raised their hands in sign of 
 worship when the kau-tau was performed by the 
 others. The chancellor' now disappeared once 
 more behind the great doors, and remained 
 invisible for another half hour or so. We went 
 back to our shelter, and the open doorway was 
 soon filled with a curious crowd bent upon 
 staring at us. 
 
 You will agree with me that Chinese officials 
 do not hurry over their work. When we heard 
 the drums, we again went out conducted by our 
 kind friendly mandarin, who took us each time 
 to a first-rate position, quite close to the chan- 
 cellor's table. When the chancellor appeared 
 for a third time, we saw that he had taken off 
 his grand court dress and hat, and was dressed 
 in his usual plainer costume, which is a dark silk 
 coat with a square of gold embroidery on the 
 
268 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 shoulder and one on the chest. The latter is 
 divided in half to allow of the coat being buttoned 
 up in front. He had not, however, taken off his 
 handsome chain of coral beads and jadestone. 
 When he seated himself at the table, one of the 
 attendants placed before him a large paper book, 
 in which were recorded the names of the success- 
 ful candidates according to the various divisions of 
 the prefecture from which they had come. A man 
 standing on a raised platform read aloud the names 
 in succession. The candidates, who were grouped in 
 front of the chancellor's table and down the centre 
 of the quadrangle, called out "yau" (yes), in 
 answer to their names. The chancellor is evidently 
 an irritable man, for every now and then, with a 
 scowl on his face, he interrupted the official who 
 was calling out the names, and complained iu a 
 querulous voice that he could not hear him. He 
 was waited upon in a most assiduous manner 
 by an attendant, who turned over the pages 
 of the book for him and showed him the place 
 where the particular name called out was written 
 down. 
 
 He sipped his tea and took snuff as he followed 
 the names in the book. When the calling out of 
 the names was over, small cups of wine were 
 carried into the quadrangle on trays, and the 
 chancellor and the candidates drank wine together. 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 269 
 
 After this the whole of the bachelors of arts pros- 
 trated themselves and did the kau-tau to the 
 chancellor. Such a bright mass of colour they 
 looked as they all knelt together. 
 
 The chancellor stood up as this was going on, 
 and on its conclusion, he left and re-entered his 
 yamun. The newly created bachelors of arts 
 now distributed themselves about the quadrangle, 
 looking most proud of themselves, and their 
 relatives clustered round them in admiration. 
 Many of them sat down at small tables on 
 which were refreshments of a light kind, and they 
 chattered together with beaming countenances. 
 All eventually got into their gaily-decorated 
 chairs and were carried through certain streets 
 in procession ; through the great south gate 
 (or imperial gate) and then on through the 
 street called Chong-uen-fong, or street of literary 
 honours, although many of them had to retrace 
 their steps to go to their homes. As you see, 
 from the long description I have given you, the 
 Chinese pay the greatest honour to those who 
 obtain degrees, whether the candidates be from 
 the higher or lower grades pf society. 
 
270 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 LETTEE XXV. 
 
 Canton, September 27tli, 1877. 
 
 Mt dear Mothek, 
 
 We were invited last Wednesday to a 
 dinner given by Mr. Howqua in honour of his 
 second marriage, which had taken place three 
 days before. We were requested to take some 
 friends with us, and we therefore asked an 
 American lady and her daughter, and two 
 other friends who had accompanied us on a 
 previous occasion, to join our party. When 
 we arrived at our friend's house, we ladies 
 were at once conducted to the new suite of 
 rooms which had been prepared for the bride, 
 and were received by her. She is a pretty 
 girl, sixteen years of age, with small regular 
 features. She was dressed in a beautifully 
 embroidered silk costume, and carried in her 
 hand a deep yellow silk handkerchief, which 
 she told us she had embroidered herself. The 
 pattern of flowers and butterflies on it was most 
 charmingly shaded, in fact shaded as only these 
 Easterns know how to shade colours. We were 
 asked to seat ourselves ; then the bride broug-ht 
 round wine to us, she holding the glasses, when 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 271 
 
 presenting them to us, in both hands. We asked 
 Minnie to beg her to be seated, but we could 
 not prevail upon her to take a chair, and we 
 learnt that the reason was that the fifth 
 wife of the late Howqua was in the room, and 
 a younger wife cannot seat herself in the 
 presence of one who is older, unless specially 
 invited by her to do so. It is also the custom 
 for a bride to stand in the presence of the bride- 
 groom, unless he ask her to take a seat. This 
 little bride has such a bright expression, I am 
 tempted to say quite an European expression, 
 and seemed so pleased with our admiration. She 
 did not belong to the same rank of society as 
 her husband. In fact she has been a slave, and 
 was redeemed by her husband for the sum of 
 three hundred dollars. As this is the case, and 
 as she is not a small-footed woman, she cannot 
 take the position of first wife, although she is 
 really the only wife Mr. Howqua has at present. 
 She had never seen an European before, but 
 although she evidently felt, shy in her new 
 position, she behaved charmingly, with all the 
 native grace of a Chinese lady. She and the 
 young American lady, who were of the same age, 
 became very friendly, and laughed and chatted 
 together. We were now told that dinner was 
 ready, and were taken into the dining hall. 
 
272 rOUKTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 We did not see the bride again until we 
 returnel to her room after dinner. Had she 
 been a first wife she would have handed rice 
 round to the guests at the close of the repast. 
 Before we left her to go into the dining hall, 
 she had taken off her beautifully embroidered 
 dress and appeared in a plain dark one. The 
 Chinese are pre-emioently an economical people. 
 When we spoke of the beauty of the dress, it 
 was brought in for us to see ; it was folded up 
 and had evidently been put away carefully. The 
 dinner was essentially Chinese in all respects, 
 with as many courses as on former occasions. 
 The only thing worthy of note was, that a 
 blind singing woman sang all dinner time to 
 the accompaniment of two stringed instruments. 
 I cannot get accustomed to Chinese vocal music, 
 it must require a long education on the part of 
 an European before he can appreciate it. But 
 may not this be also the case with our music 
 to a Chinese ear ? Probably they can distinguish 
 no melody in it. This blind songstress sang on and 
 on, not pausing more than two or three times 
 during the time we were at dinner. I certainly 
 could not distinguish that she varied the note more 
 than to three or four different keys, and the whole 
 singing was in a high falsetto. It was,, as usual, 
 a history of some celebrated hero or heroine of 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 273 
 
 bygone ages which formed the subject of her 
 song. When dinner was over, we all, Henry and 
 the bridegroom included, went to the bride's 
 apartments. They consist of two rooms, a sitting- 
 room with some pretty cabinets in it, some Euro- 
 pean chairs, carpet, looking-glass, ornaments, and 
 curtains of chintz and muslin which a friend of 
 ours chose for Mr. Howqua at Hong Kong. I was 
 amused at seeing several English crotchet chair- 
 backs placed on the chairs. The room remains, 
 nevertheless, essentially Chinese in its appear- 
 ance, with its curious pieces of wood carving on 
 the partition between the two rooms, and pic- 
 tures of coloured glass let in as transparencies. 
 European curtains took the place of a door be- 
 tween the two rooms. You go from the sitting- 
 room into the bedroom. Here the European 
 style does not prevail. The blind , female singer 
 now came into the bride's sitting-room with her 
 guitar, and a blind man accompanied her, holding 
 a stringed instrument. 
 
 With all their formalities, deference to rank, 
 etc., the Chinese are a most republican people, as 
 was illustrated by the blind man asking for a 
 match, lighting his pipe, and indulging in a 
 smoke before the performance began. We ladies 
 retired into the inner room and had a chat 
 with the bride by the aid of our two young 
 
 T 
 
274 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 friends. One of our party had consented to 
 be rouged by a Chinese lady, and I was 
 most amused at watching the process, and 
 seeing the amount of rouge she put on. The 
 admiration was universal when our friend was 
 released from the hands of her decorator, and 
 each lady asked us if we did not think hpr 
 beautiful, much more beau;tiful than before 
 she was rouged. They wanted to use the 
 same art on all our faces, but we politely 
 declined, much to the regret of our hostesses. 
 The bride, who was now again dressed in 
 her beautiful costume, handed tea to us all, 
 Henry included. After we had spent some 
 time in these rooms, fruit being offered to us 
 at intervals, we took leave of our kind friends. 
 We were charmed with the gentle girlish bride, 
 and she seemed to be equally attracted by her 
 strange visitors. Before we left she promised to 
 come at some future time and take an English 
 dinner with us. 
 
 Our particular friend amongst the Mistresses 
 Howqua (I find it difficult to represent her in her 
 true title, as we have no equivalent in England to 
 wives No. two, three, and four) took me by the hand, 
 one of the elder ladies conducting our friends. 
 We walked through the several rooms, halls, and 
 quadrangles, which led from the sanctum sane- 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 275 
 
 torum, where we had been entertained, to the 
 outer reception hall, where our chairs were in 
 readiness for us. It is . difficult to convey to you 
 the size of these family residences : it took us at 
 least five minutes to pass from the bride's apart- 
 ments to the entrance-hall. These houses must, 
 with their gardens, occupy many acres of ground, 
 and it strikes one at first as so strange to pass 
 into them from the narrow crowded streets. The 
 large halls of the houses are most charming for 
 summer, as they are very cool, the sun's rays not 
 being able to penetrate into them, but the want 
 of ventilation in the smaller rooms makes them 
 oppressive. 
 
 LETTER XXVI. 
 
 Camton, October 2nd, 1877. 
 
 My dear Mothek, 
 
 On Friday last, a friend very kindly in- 
 vited us to make a long excursion up the country 
 with him in a steam-launch, and we most gladly 
 accepted his offer. The day was beautiful, but 
 very hot, and we suffered a good deal from the 
 sun. We started at seven a.m., and steamed 
 at full speed during the twelve hours we were 
 out, from seven a.m. to seven P.M., making a 
 
 T 2 
 
276 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 distance of 120 miles. The steara-lauiich we 
 were in belongs to the Chinese government, and 
 is manned by Chinese sailors, who look well in 
 their naval uniform. They wear jackets and 
 wide trousers made in blue cotton, a wide crim- 
 son sash round their waists, and broad-brimmed 
 straw hats at the back of their heads. The 
 Chinese make very good sailors when commanded 
 by Europeans. We passed Tchun-Tchun, cele- 
 brated for its salt fish, which is eaten in large 
 quantities with rice by the Chinese. There are 
 also vast rice stores here. We then steamed past 
 Poon-Poo, a paper-making district. Some parts 
 of the river are exceedingly pretty, and as this 
 branch of it makes constant abrupt turns, you 
 seem to be land-locked at times, and so have 
 the beautiful effects of lake scenery. We were in 
 sight of a fine range of hills all day. We passed 
 close to extensive paddy fields, which looked fresh 
 and brilliantly green, more so than our brightest 
 meadows at home ; then we went by large mul- 
 berry plantations which stretched to the banks of 
 the river. In some of them, men and women were 
 stripping the leaves off the trees. These country- 
 men looked picturesque with their naked brown 
 legs and their immense straw hats, which cul- 
 minate in a peak in the centre. We passed by 
 Taai-Laong, the capital of the county Shun-Tuk, 
 
POUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 277 
 
 and then reached Kum-Chuk, where are some 
 rapids which we had to shoot. Two children who 
 were with us were dreadfully alarmed, and the 
 youngest said to his mother, our hostess, " Will 
 the steamer be drowned?" He was constantly 
 inquiring afterwards if we should come to any 
 more rocks. We were now in the very heart of 
 the silk district. We then went by Luk-Lau, 
 and within a mile of the large town of Kow- 
 Kong. The distance we had to travel in the day 
 prevented us from landing at any point of interest, 
 which was a great disappointment to me, as I 
 much wished to go over some of the large nurseries 
 for silk-worms. The people were very anxious for 
 rain in this neighbourhood, as it was much needed 
 for the mulberry plantations. Our circuitous route 
 brought us back into that branch of the Pearl Eiver 
 which flows by Shameen by a different channel to 
 the one we had taken in starting for our trip. We 
 saw during the day very many picturesque-looking 
 country boats of various kinds, but I admired none 
 so much as those with sails shaped like butterfly 
 wings. We had had a beautiful excursion, and seen 
 a large tract of country ; the sun's heat had been the 
 single drawback. The awning, though double, did 
 not shelter us as much as it would have done had 
 we not made so many sharp turns. The sun was 
 always pouring his ardent oblique rays upon us at 
 
278 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 unexpected moments, and the heat quite upset me 
 and made me unable to appreciate the scenery for 
 some miles. I could not do more than take a look 
 at some parts of the country through partially 
 closed eyes, and I felt so ill that I longed to lie 
 down. Canton looked very pretty as we came in 
 sight of it. It was lighted up with thousands of 
 lanterns, in honour of the goddess of the moon. 
 We took a hasty dinner on our arrival at home, 
 and then walked into one of the suburbs of 
 the city, where we ascended a pawn-tower to 
 enable us to have a good view of the illumination. 
 But first I must give you a description of these 
 towers, the names of which sound so curious to our 
 ears. The one we visited is in the street called 
 Shap-Ts'at-Poo, and its name is Uen-Ching. It is 
 a very large building, consisting of a very high 
 brick tower, made fire-proof. These pawn-shops 
 are divided into three classes, and are kept by 
 imperial sanction. 
 
 A licence is issued to those seeking to commence 
 business as pawnbrokers for the term of sixty 
 years ; at the end of that period it must be renewed, 
 but by another person, not the one who originally 
 took out the licence. A certain tax is paid by the 
 men first commencing the business, and also by 
 those who wish to continue it after the term of 
 sixty years has expired. The pawnbrokers are 
 
FOUETEBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 279 
 
 obliged to accept a loan from the provincial 
 treasurer, for which they have to pay at the rate 
 of twelve per cent, per annum. Should a firm of 
 pawnbrokers fail, the other establishments of the 
 same nature must refund to the government the 
 loss it has sustained by the failure. There are one 
 hundred first-class pawn-shops in Canton. People 
 who deposit goods at these pawn-towers, must pay 
 at the rate of thirty-six per cent, per annum ; but 
 this percentage can be lowered at the will of the 
 pawnbroker on a large transaction. The govern- 
 ment requires that they should lower their rate of 
 percentage to all those who redeem their goods 
 in the tenth month of the year, as by this means 
 those who have pawned their winter's clothing, 
 blankets, etc., can more easily redeem them when 
 they are most needed. 
 
 It was most polite of the owners of the pawn- 
 tower to allow us to enter it at nine o'clock 
 at night, as they are most particular whom 
 they admit, and naturally would fear any light 
 being carried about the various storeys of which 
 it consists. These towers are most strongly 
 built, and strictly guarded. As we mounted the 
 different stages, I saw shelves upon shelves 
 divided into pigeon-holes, and each full of pawned 
 articles, some of which were of a most costly 
 nature. They are very different to our pawn- 
 
280 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 shops, and Chinese gentlemen often deposit their 
 furs and valuables to be taken care of in these 
 towers. Do not be shocked when I tell you that my 
 furs are at the present moment in this very pawn- 
 tower. When at last we arrived on the flat roof, 
 I saw large stones placed there, to throw on the 
 heads of assailants, for sometimes these towers 
 are attacked by bands of robbers. There were 
 also earthenware vessels on the roof containing 
 water to be used in case of incipient fire. The 
 illumination of the city looked pretty from this 
 elevated position, but you can imagine that it 
 I'equires many thousands of lanterns to make any 
 grand display of light in such an immense city as 
 Canton. In some cases high poles were erected^ 
 on the tops of which were placed clusters of 
 lanterns. On each of these lanterns was inscribed, 
 " King-po-chung-tsui," which means " Joyfully 
 congratulate the mid autumn." In other cases 
 lanterns suspended from the tops of poles illu- 
 minated the roofs of the houses. This feast is held 
 on the 15th day of the 8th moon of the Chinese 
 year, and is called Chung-tsui. We had intended, 
 when we started from home, to return by the 
 steamboat wharves on the banks of the river; 
 but as this route was longer, and as we were 
 extremely tired, we gave up our plan and went 
 home by the way we had taken in going to the 
 
rOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 281 
 
 pawn-tower. And fortunate it was we did so, as 
 at that very time a large body of Chinese attacked 
 one of the river steamers which was lying along- 
 side the wharf, probably thinking that she had 
 treasure on board. The captain had to send for 
 aid from a gan-boat before the mob could be 
 driven back and dispersed. Had we returned 
 home by the river, we should have been in the 
 midst of the tumult, and probably should have 
 been attacked and injured by the excited mob. 
 There are many strangers in the city who have 
 come from Hong Kong and other places to 
 see the illuminations, and they are a lawless, 
 riotous set of men. We heard, on our return 
 home, that, in a quarrel on board one of 
 the flower boats that evening, a man had been 
 killed. 
 
 A curious festival has also been held this week 
 in honour of the Seven Sisters (goddesses), who 
 are supposed by the Chinese to occupy a group of 
 seven stars. It is said that one of these sisters 
 made a clandestine marriage with a cow-herd oc- 
 cupying a planet on the other side of the Milky 
 Way; and once a year the wife is permitted 
 by her sisters, who were greatly incensed at her 
 marriage, to cross the Milky Way to meet her 
 husband. Women especially worship these seven 
 sisters, and all influential families, who are not in 
 
282 POTIRTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 mourning (at the time of mourning it is strictly- 
 forbidden for a family to take part in this or any 
 other festival), make grand preparations for the 
 observance of this ceremony. We were fortunately 
 invited by a Chinese gentleman named Wong, 
 one of the Shun-Kum, or leading gentry of 
 the city, to inspect the offerings presented to 
 these goddesses at his residence. We were carried 
 in our chairs into the reception-hall of Mr. Wong's 
 house at seven p.m., on Monday night, and, when 
 the inner doors were opened, a blaze of light 
 burst upon our view. In the centre of the large 
 inner hall a very long wide table stood, which 
 was covered with offerings of various kinds. 
 Fruits in great variety were arranged on in- 
 numerable small plates, which were placed at 
 intervals down the centre and sides of the table. 
 Between tliem we saw a large display of em- 
 broidered clothes for the goddesses, all made in 
 miniature. These had been worked by the ladies 
 of the family for the occasion. I was much 
 amused as I walked up and down the sides of the 
 table, and inspected the work. It consisted of 
 beautifully embroidered shoes, very tiny, evidently 
 implying that the goddesses have compressed 
 feet ; numbers of very small embroidered bags to 
 hold scent ; embroidered head-dresses beautifully 
 worked, tiny silk umbrellas, silk tunics and trousei-s 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 283 
 
 fully embroidered, standards, insignia of rank, 
 etc., etc., all in miniature. In the centre of the 
 table stood models of Chinese houses, European 
 houses containing minute inhabitants, a model 
 of a ship, a model of the bridge over which the 
 married goddess is supposed to cross the Milky 
 Way on this night of the festival, baskets of 
 artificial flowers made of the thinnest paper of 
 various colours, or of grains of unboiled rice and 
 seeds. Arrangements of real flowers were also 
 on the table; these, as is always the case with 
 flowers put together by the Chinese, were 
 picked off close to the stalks, and pressed to- 
 gether in plates, no green leaves being mixed with 
 them. Overhead hung many chandeliers festooned 
 with real or artificial flowers. At this festival, poor 
 as well as rich friends of the family are allowed 
 to come in and gaze upon the grand sight, and 
 a crowd of people was moving round the heavily 
 laden table when we entered, but at our host's 
 request they immediately made way for us to 
 pass. After we had made our tour of inspection, 
 Minnie and I were conducted by Mr. Wong to 
 the ladies' apartments, to be introduced to his 
 mother, a lady eighty-six years of age. She 
 was most gracious, and asked me many questions. 
 Before taking leave of her, she requested me to 
 be her god-child. As I had previously learned 
 
284 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 that Lotliing more was meant by this proposal 
 than a kind of kinship, I expressed my readiness, 
 through Minnie, to accept the honour, and then the 
 old lady and I bowed and chin-chinned each other. 
 
 Some weeks ago, when I was on a visit to 
 another Chinese family, I was startled by one 
 of the young ladies asking me- to be her god- 
 mother, and not understanding then what was 
 meant by the term, I said that could not be 
 unless she became a Christian. "Yes, I will 
 become a Christian," was the ready answer, the 
 young lady not knowing in the least what was 
 meant by the term Christian. 
 
 After visiting the old lady, I went into an- 
 other of the suites of rooms, and was introduced 
 to my host's wife and some other ladies. The 
 small-footed wife was eating her dinner when 
 I entered the room, and she did not allow my 
 visit to interfere with her occupation, for as she 
 talked to me she helped herself to the contents 
 of the various little basins in the centre of the 
 table. Fruit was handed to me by- the slaves 
 belonging to the lady. On leaving this fine 
 Chinese residence, we went into a neighbouring 
 house, and here we saw similar arrangements of 
 offerings placed upon a long table in the prin- 
 cipal hall, but it was all on a smaller scale. Had 
 I not been too tired to wait until midnight, 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 285 
 
 I should have been able to see the single ladies 
 of this family draw water from a well, which 
 they do yearly, on this the seventh night of the 
 eighth month of the Chinese year. This custom 
 is observed in all Chinese families. The water 
 when drawn is placed in earthenware vessels, and 
 hermetically sealed. In case of fever attacking 
 the family, this water, which is looked upon as a 
 febrifuge, is given to the invalid, and is supposed 
 to be able to work his cure. The observance of 
 this festival includes burning paper offerings of 
 various kinds, amongst them a paper representa- 
 tion of the canopy of heaven. These seven sisters, 
 in whose honour the festival is held, are supposed 
 to grant skill in needlework, and to shield their wor- 
 shippers from diseases. We were invited to return 
 to Mr. Wong's house the following day, to take 
 luncheon with him and to go over his large house 
 and numerous gardens. When we arrived and 
 entered the inner hall, we again saw the long table 
 with its display of fruits, embroidery, etc., and a 
 crowd of visitors was engaged in inspecting the 
 treasures. Walking up this long hall, we chin- 
 chinned a group of ladies belonging to the family, 
 who were standing at the door of one of the apart- 
 ments. We were conducted to the atrium, which is 
 fitted up in the invariable style of Chinese sitting- 
 rooms. A row of black wood chairs with marble 
 
286 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 seats and backs was placed down each side of it, 
 and between the chairs teapoys (small tables) were 
 arranged. We found a party of fifteen Chinese 
 gentlemen assembled in this room, many of whom 
 had previously called upon us. They all chin- 
 chinned us. This silent salutation is performed, 
 as I daresay you know, by bending the body 
 forward, placing the clenched fists together, and 
 raising them up and down two or three times. 
 A child, in chin-chinning his parents or aged 
 persons, bends nearly and sometimes quite to the 
 ground. Tea was now brought in, and the waiting- 
 boys placed cups of it for us on the little tables 
 which stood between our chairs. The host then 
 said, " Tam-Cha " (" Drink tea "), and a general 
 bowing to each other and raising of tea cups took 
 place. 
 
 Scarcely, however, had we time to sip our tea 
 before the gentlemen rose and asked us to go into 
 the garden. A want of rest is a peculiarly marked 
 feature in the Chinese character, especially so 
 amongst men. Mr. Wong and his friends did not 
 sit still for more than five minutes on the same 
 chairs during our visit. They constantly changed 
 their positions. Mr. Wong walked in and out of the 
 room, took a whiff of a pipe in an anteroom, sat 
 down for a minute or two, then rose and walked 
 to the -other end of the atrium. The move- 
 
FQUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 287 
 
 ments of these gentlemen reminded me of bees 
 going in and out of their hives, only in the case 
 of the former, no particular object was gained 
 by the constant buzzing about. Do you realise 
 from what I have said that there are no doors 
 to open and shut on entering or leaving Chinese 
 rooms ? You walk into them through open carved 
 entrances from square gardens or imifiv/viums, which 
 divide one large reception-room from another. 
 The arrangemenis of the rooms remind one of 
 those of a Pompeian house. Indeed a very good 
 idea of the interior of a Chinese gentleman's 
 residence may be obtained from the Pompeian 
 Court in the Crystal Palace. We found the 
 gardens well worth seeing. A very large piece 
 of ornamental water stands in the centre of the 
 largest garden, with a stone bridge crossing it, 
 A handsome carved stone palisade surrounds it, 
 upon which innumerable green glazed pots, con- 
 taining chrysanthema, were placed. They are 
 now only in an early stage of growth, but in two 
 months' time they will be in full flower, and pre- 
 sent a grand show. Mr. Wong has kindly asked 
 us to go and see them when in bloom. One of the 
 four garden houses is built on a high artificial 
 mound and the path leading to it is paved with 
 pebbles arranged in various devices. The small 
 gardens pleased me much : you come upon them 
 
288 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 unexpectedly between the suites of rooms. These 
 gardens were full of flower-pots containing the 
 beautiful lotus, cockscombs in the most brilliant 
 shades of red, and ferns in endless Tariety. The 
 same feature I noticed in these gardens as in others 
 I have visited. If a piece of ornamental wood or 
 stone-work had been injured or broken down, it 
 had not been repaired ; there was the gap, giving 
 a dilapidated look to the whole. Eubbish too, 
 broken crockery and other untidinesses, I saw 
 put a,waj in corners. 
 
 The Chinese do not understand the art of 
 keeping their houses or gardens neat, and the 
 first exclamation they make on going over the 
 Chaplaincy is, that it is so clean and neat in every 
 corner. We returned to the atrium through a 
 long covered way made of stone, and were asked 
 to seat ourselves. Immediately upon our doing so, 
 tea was brought to us. Luncheon was then placed 
 on a small round table standing in the centre 
 of the room; and numerous small basins were 
 arranged in a cluster in the middle of it. As 
 usual, no tablecloth was used. When we were 
 seated round the table, we were invited to 
 help ourselves to the tiny pork puddings, little 
 flat dumplings containing minced meat, dougli 
 dumplings stained red, sweet cakes, pine-apple 
 preserve, and other fruits which graced the table. 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 289 
 
 The gentlemen constantly placed various kinds of 
 food on my tiny plate, and I was obliged to do my 
 best with chopsticks, being without fork or spoon. 
 The luncheon was eaten most rapidly, and this is 
 the case with all Chinese meals. Before it was over, 
 two blind singing women, beautifully dressed in 
 blue embroidered silk tunics edged with black, 
 were led in by their amahs, or more properly 
 speaking their foster-mothers. They seated them- 
 selves at a distant corner of the room, and were 
 given refreshments. When they were ready to 
 begin their performance, I left the luncheon-table, 
 and took a seat immediately opposite them. 
 Young women desirous to become singers often 
 deprive themselves of sight, or, as our compradore 
 said in speaking of them, " He makee he own eye 
 blin," in order to be eligible for the vocation. One 
 method of taking away the sight, to which they 
 or their parents resort, is to put vaccine matter 
 into the eyes. The two singers first took long 
 pointed shields, made of quills, out of the pockets 
 of their tunics, and drew them on over the long 
 nails of the thumbs and forefingers of their left 
 hands, so as to enable them to produce a sharp 
 twanging sound from their instruments. They 
 then tuned their guitars, which were singular and 
 antiquated-looking instruments differing in shape, 
 but both covered bysnakes' skins. They now began 
 
290 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 to play a most curious accompaniment, and one of 
 them broke out into a high falsetto. After a time, 
 a long interlude was played by both guitars, the 
 amahs or foster-mothers fanning the performers 
 the whole time, and keeping up a conversation with 
 them between the songs. When the first singer 
 had sung in a shrill falsetto for an hour, with 
 scarcely any change of note perceptible to my 
 uninitiated ear, the two young women exchanged 
 instruments, and the second singer began her 
 high-pitched song, and continued it until we rose 
 to take our leave. 
 
 LETTER XXYII. 
 
 Canton, October 16th, 1877. 
 
 My dear Mother, 
 
 Two or three nights after we had taken 
 the excursion up the river, about which I wrote 
 to you on the 2nd inst., we went into the western 
 suburb of the city, and passed through the street 
 called Shap-Ts'at-Poo to see some wonderful 
 illuminations given in honour of Wa-Kwong, the 
 god of fire. It is most difScult for me to de- 
 scribe these illuminations to any one who has 
 seen nothing of the kind, but I will endeavour 
 to give you some idea of them. Various streets 
 are illuminated the same night, the shop-keepers 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON, 291 
 
 who live in tbem agreeing to hire all the chan- 
 deliers, hangings, etc., for that purpose. On each 
 of the nights of the month's festival some part 
 of the city is decorated and illuminated. As I 
 have already mentioned, the streets are narrow, 
 and the houses seem nearly to touch one another 
 at the top. On the nights of this festival heavy 
 chandeliers hang down from the centre of beams 
 placed across the streets; they contain many 
 lights, and are placed at frequent intervals. 
 These chandeliers struck me much at first, as 
 they are so European in appearance, much 
 like our old-fashioned heavy-cut drawing-room 
 chandeliers to hold candles. They are made 
 in all sizes and patterns, and some of them are 
 most pretentious in appearance. Between these 
 chandeliers, bright frames containing innumei-- 
 able figures, dressed like life, representing scenes 
 in past Chinese history, are suspended from 
 beams across the streets just above one's head. 
 The puppets are beautifully dressed in silk-em- 
 broidered robes, and no pains are spared on them 
 or on any of the decorations. Some of the little 
 figures in the frames move their heads, hands, 
 arms, or legs. These frames are very often 
 double, and so are filled with little puppets at 
 the front and back. They are endless in num- 
 ber and are placed at lengths, perhaps two or 
 
 u 2 
 
292 POUETBBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 three yards, from each other. Deep silk fringe, 
 made in bright variegated colours, hangs round 
 these picture frames, and above thenj and at the 
 side of them are long silken ornaments like 
 tassels. I think we must have seen more than two 
 hundred of these large frames slung across the 
 long street we walked down. Some of the people 
 in the mob were very rough, more so than I had 
 previously experienced, and we heard that a great 
 number of pickpockets were about us. They tried 
 to molest us; and I became very anxious to leave 
 the crowd and go down a quiet side street, but 
 Henry said we must show no fear, and so we went 
 on some way farther. A villainous-looiiing man 
 constantly came near me, his unshaven head and 
 general appearance showing that he had recently 
 come out of prison. He walked close to me on my 
 left side, with his arms interlaced, and his hand 
 ready to grasp at my earrings. I called to Henry 
 who was in front to look after this man, and he 
 turned round and faced him. He saw at once 
 that he was a dangerous character. The mob 
 continued to press very closely upon us, and 
 it struck me that some of them tried to trip 
 me up, and I can assure you that it was not a 
 pleasant experience. We turned now, fearing 
 to go on any farther as there was great danger of a 
 rush and a fray, but we found it difficult to make 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 293 
 
 our way in tliis lawless crowd. My evil-looking 
 companion turned with us and kept close to my 
 elbow, and even Henry now began to think there 
 was cause for alarm. I wore a wide piece of 
 black lace on my shoulders, and Henry considered 
 the thief supposed that I had some jewellery 
 under it ; but most fortunately I had left all my 
 personal ornaments, excepting my earrings, at 
 home. Henry continued to turn round and face 
 my tormentor and one or two bad-looking fellows 
 who were with him, until we came to a cross 
 street. Here some of the city guard were stand- 
 ing, and Henry went up to one of them, and 
 said in a loud voice, " You see, that bad man is 
 following and annoying us." This had the desired 
 effect — our villainous friend and his associates 
 immediately turned upon their heels and ran off. 
 I was most thankful when we were once more in a 
 quiet street. I had been so nervous about our little 
 friend Minnie who was with us, as I was afraid she 
 might be hurt in the fearful pressure of the crowd. 
 We now walked home without further adventure. 
 Hearing a day or two after this that the illu- 
 mination was to be held on a still grander scale 
 in the street called Shwang-Mun-Li, we resolved 
 to go and see it, notwithstanding the difiSculties we 
 liad met with the other night. But this time we 
 agreed not to take Minnie with us, as she attracted 
 
294 POUKTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 SO much attention. The streets by which we ap- 
 proached that portion of the city especially illu- 
 minated were yery bright and pretty ; strips of gay 
 coloured stuffs, festooned and gathered into the 
 centre by a rosette, hung at intervals between the 
 shops. These stuffs were of the prettiest shades 
 possible, in yellow, pale blue, and red. A few 
 chandeliers hung here at long intervals. But 
 when we reached the fulLy-illuminated street, 
 a very gay scene presented itself to our view. 
 It was most profusely decorated with the framed 
 effigies, bright tassels, and other silken orna- 
 ments. The chandeliers were innumerable, most 
 various in shape and size, some containing as 
 many as eighteen large glass, globes. In the 
 widest part of the street, a bamboo-house had 
 been erected ; it was very high, and the inside of 
 the roof was ornamented with brightly-painted 
 boards. On a stage built at some little height 
 from the ground, large incense burners and high 
 candlesticks were arranged, also plants and shrubs 
 trained into shapes of animals, boats, and fans. 
 Some framed pictures also hung here, worked in 
 kingfisher's feathers. Musicians sat on this stage. 
 The crowd was very great, but it was composed 
 of a much better class than on the previous 
 occasion, and there were many mandarins present. 
 Yesterday we again went into the city, as we 
 
FOUBTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 295 
 
 heard that the fine street in which the bankers 
 live (called by foreigners, in consequence, Lom- 
 bard street), named Ta-T'uung-Kai, was to be 
 grandly illuminated in Wa-Kwong's honour. No 
 expense had been spared, and the whole effect 
 of this illumination was finer than either of those 
 we had seen before. Eafters had been placed 
 over the street, and white drill was stretched upon 
 them so as to afford a protection in case of rain. 
 From these rafters very large chandeliers were 
 hung in the centre of the street. Many of 
 them were very handsome, and some were highly 
 decorated with silk ornaments and long tassels. 
 Along each side of the street hung oil lamps 
 made of a single globe only. These cliandeliers 
 and glass globes were within a few feet of each 
 other ; and in one part of the very long street 
 they, and bright parti-coloured stuff hangings, 
 formed the only decorations. The effect of the 
 gay, wide hangings as they were carried across the 
 street, looped high in the centre with thick-clus- 
 tered rosettes, and hanging down on each side, was 
 very charming. The colours were so beautifully 
 blended together and formed pretty contrasts. 
 A delicate grey mixed with a pale pink, a deep 
 yellow with blue, a very dark red with a pale 
 pink, and so on in endless variety. At an- 
 other part of the street there were some curious 
 
296 rOUETBBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 representations which were made in paper or 
 silk; some imitated a couple of citrons in two 
 colours, others storks, others were floral decora- 
 tions. There were also many ornaments made 
 in real flowers, which were pressed as close to- 
 gether as possible, and formed a mass of colour. 
 Some of the latter ornamented the ends of the 
 chandeliers. Other lamps bore figures decorated 
 with kingfisher's feathers. Then, as we walked 
 on, we came to a great number of the framed 
 pictures, with the curious effigies in them — each 
 representing some scene. In one there was a boat 
 which rocked up and down, some figures were 
 sitting in it, and others were standing in various 
 attitudes. Some of these frames contained about 
 fifty of these figures, which were at least twelve 
 inches high. I was amused at a scene represented 
 very well in one of them. A princess was consult- 
 ing a fortune-teller ; she was sitting surrounded 
 by her attendants, and the group altogether 
 was well arranged. Many of these pictorial 
 representations had a reference to the history of 
 Wa-Kwong or his times. The crowd was very 
 great, and again of the rougher sort, and we con- 
 gratulated ourselves that we had gone into the city 
 so early. It was half-past five o'clock, p.m., when 
 we arrived at the illuminated streets, and the men 
 had just begun to light the lamps, as the sun was 
 
FOUETEBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 297 
 
 setting. We left shortly after seven o'clock, and 
 so escaped the danger of again being surrounded 
 by pickpockets and men of bad character. 
 
 LETTEE XXVIII. 
 
 Canton, October 2l8t, 1877. 
 
 Mt dear Mother, 
 
 On Thursday last, Henry and I made a 
 most lovely excursion to the White Cloud Moun- 
 tains. I had looked forward much to this trip, 
 and the morning of Thursday was so beautiful 
 that we felt we could not stay at home. We 
 ordered mountain chairs, and at eleven o'clock 
 we started. These chairs are yery light, and 
 as we had four coolies each, we went at a very 
 good pace. We passed quickly through the city, 
 and on reaching the Lling-Miu, which is in the 
 northern suburb, our chair-coolies stopped at a 
 street restaurant to regale themselves before going 
 into the open country. Henry and I got out of 
 our chairs and sat under a wide-spreading banyan 
 tree. We were much amused by watching many 
 wayfarers, who were passing from or into the city, 
 refreshing themselves at the street restaurant, 
 either with tea and cakes, or boiled rice and fried 
 fish, or with soups, fruits, etc. 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 299 
 
 After a rest of a quarter of an hour, our coolies 
 having invigorated themselves, we went on our 
 way. The next halt we made was at a large 
 Mohammedan mosque, called Ts'ing-Chan-Tsze, 
 in which is a bell-shaped mausoleum, held to be 
 very sacred, as it is supposed to contain the remains 
 of the maternal uncle of Mahomet. Again resum- 
 ing our journey, we passed along narrow pathways 
 skirting rice fields and cucumber gardens. At 
 length we reached the base of the mountain, and 
 after a short pause began the ascent. 
 
 The journey from Shameen to the highest mona- 
 stery took us just three hours. It was a lovely 
 day, with a fresh invigora,ting wind, just such a day 
 as we often have at Brighton in October, and 
 it was especially enjoyed by us who had lately 
 passed through such a trying hot season. One 
 seemed to breathe again. , As we wound our way 
 up the mountain, we much enjoyed the fine 
 extensive view of the city and its environs, which 
 lay spread out like a map at our feet. The plain 
 of Canton is very large, and is most abundantly 
 watered by the many tributaries of its great river. 
 The whole scene is striking. 
 
 The pagodas standing up in sharp relief give 
 such a truly Chinese character to the scenery, 
 which effect much increases as you ascend the 
 mountain and perceive that it and the surrounding 
 
300 rOUETBBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 hills are one vast place of burial. The tombs are 
 built on the sides of the hills, and those we saw 
 varied very much in size, colour, and material. The 
 size is determined by the rank of the man buried 
 in the tomb. Should he have been a great man, 
 the tomb is immense, and very high poles, bearing 
 the insignia of his rank, stand on each side of the 
 approach to the grave. In one case I noticed 
 a very grand arrangement leading to a vast tomb. 
 There were many carved stone figures of atten- 
 dants and of animals life-size. I think there were 
 about six of these figures on each side of the 
 approach to the tomb, and stone pillars surmounted 
 by little stone lions were placed immediately close 
 to it. I saw pale red, dark slate colour, and white 
 sepulchres. Some of the hills are literally covered 
 with them, from the summit to the base, while 
 others are comparatively free from them, or have 
 two or three only dotted about them. Geomancers 
 have most likely pronounced the latter to be un- 
 lucky sites for burial. As a tomb is never disturbed 
 after it is once made (unless one of the sons or grand- 
 sons of the deceased be convicted of high treason, 
 in which case the bones of the latter are exhumed 
 and scattered to the winds), and as one man only 
 is often buried in these large receptacles for the 
 dead, you can imagine how many thousands of 
 tombs have accumulated in this vast burial ground. 
 
FOUETEBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 301 
 
 Whatever be their size, or the material of which 
 they are made, they are always in the Omega or 
 horse-shoe form.* No one has been able to explain 
 satisfactorily the reason why Chinese tombs are 
 constructed in this shape. It has been conjectured 
 that the Omega, the concluding letter of the 
 Greek alphabet and which signifies the end, may 
 have been known to the Chinese. The Omega 
 was added, as is well known (with five other 
 letters) to the Greek alphabet, by Cadmus. 
 Whence he got the letter is a matter of uncer- 
 tainty ; but this much is known, that he brought 
 it from the East, and Egypt has been named as 
 the country in which he found it. Some persons 
 contend that there was an intercourse between 
 ancient Egypt and China; if so, it is probable 
 that the Egyptians may have borrowed the Omega 
 from the Chinese. In further support of the 
 argument that the ancient Egyptians and the 
 Chinese were at one period of their history in 
 communication with each other, is the fact that 
 both nations marked the hours of the day by 
 clepsydras, or water clocks. 
 
 The monasteries (and there are thirteen of 
 
 them on these White Cloud Mountains) are most 
 
 beautifully situated. I feel how delightful it would 
 
 be to spend a week in one of them during the heat 
 
 "■ Vide illustration of Chinese tomb in Letter III. 
 
302 POUBTBBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 of summer. The pathway leading to the sum- 
 mit is very narrow, and only one cliair can go 
 along at a time. At the steep parts of the 
 ascent, stone steps have been made. A Chinese 
 lady gave the money for this work, as an act of 
 reparation ;* her husband, a banker, having em- 
 bezzled large sums of money intrusted to his care. 
 These steps are extremely steep, and it is hard work 
 for coolies to carry their living burdens up them. 
 We rested for a couple of hours when we arrived 
 at the highest monastery, and the keen bright air 
 had made us hungry and so gave a relish to the 
 simple luncheon we had taken with us. There 
 are rooms in this monastery set apart for the 
 use of strangers, and one of the monks attends 
 to the comforts of those who, like ourselves, 
 spend a few hours, and picnic here. The " 
 monastery is charmingly situated, and its quaint 
 double Chinese roof looks so picturesque through 
 the trees, as you approach. Having finished 
 our luncheon, we walked down the hill a short 
 distance to another monastery, which is, I think, 
 even more beautifully situated than the one 
 in which we rested. This monastery is called 
 
 * Building bridges, making roads, paving pathways with 
 granite, placing steps on steep ascents, erecting resting-places 
 on the high roads for wayfarers, providing the poor with cold 
 tea in summer, and with ginger-soup in winter, are regarded by 
 the Chinese as meritorious acts, and well-pleasing to the gods. 
 
POUBTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 303 
 
 Chaang-Ohn-Ki, and is named after the hero in 
 whose honour it was built. When he was on 
 earth, he was a high minister of state and lived 
 about 246 B.C. He was sent to the White Cloud 
 Mountains by the Emperor then reigning, in 
 search of the herb or grass which was supposed to 
 impart immortality to man. Chaang-Ohn-Ki, it 
 is said, found this elixir of life growing in abun- 
 dance on the mountain side, and at once partook 
 of it. On his doing so, the precious plant dis- 
 appeared from the mountain side — none of it 
 remained for his royal master. His despair was 
 great, and with the view of hiding himself from his 
 master's wrath, he assumed the garb of a hermit, 
 and resolved to spend the remainder of his life 
 amidst the solitudes of this mountain. Becoming 
 weary of life, he attempted suicide by throwing 
 himself from the top of the rock on which the 
 temple now stands into the plains beneath. A 
 stork, however, is said to have caught him in the 
 air and conveyed him to Elysium. Thousands of 
 people resort to this monastery on the twenty- 
 seventh day of the seventh moon, to ask this god 
 to give them the blessings of health and long life. 
 Henry, having on a previous occasion slept at 
 this monastery, is well known to the three or four 
 Buddhist monks who reside there. They all wel- 
 comed him most cordially, and entered into an 
 
304 
 
 FOTJBTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 animated conversation with him. Whilst they 
 were talking together, I was amusing myself by 
 watchins; another monk who was in the act of 
 having his head shaved by an itinerant barber. 
 
 AS ITINEBAKT BAUEEE. 
 
 These itinerant barbers are quite an institution in 
 China, going, as they do, from village to village 
 and from monastery to monastery, in pursuit of 
 their calling. They look so picturesque, as one 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 305 
 
 meets them about the country, wearing, as they 
 do, broad-brimmed straw hats, loose jackets, and 
 long flowing trousers. These men carry a minia- 
 ture chest of drawers, in which they keep their 
 razors, brushes, combs, and earnings, suspended 
 
 AN ITINEEANT BABBEE WAITINO FOB A CUSTOMER. 
 
 from one end of a thin bamboo pole which rests 
 on their shoulders. From the other end a wooden 
 washstand and basin are suspended. I have not 
 mentioned soap, as none is used in Chinese 
 shaving. The tiny chest of drawers serves as a 
 seat for the customers. 
 
 X 
 
306 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 I was delighted with the lovely ferns I found 
 on the way up the mountain, and in my stroll on 
 the summit. What a fine collection of ferns might 
 be made on this mountain. We returned home by 
 a different route, and found to our disappointment 
 that, in consequence of the late hour (it was past 
 seven o'clock, p.m.), the east gate, by which we had 
 hoped to enter the city, and so make a short cut, 
 was not only closed, but that the key had been con- 
 veyed to the Tartar General. Nothing remained 
 for us but to make a detour, dark as it had now 
 become, so as to go through the northern and 
 western suburbs. We were taken by the path 
 under the east wall; our coolies eventually lost 
 their way, and we found ourselves amongst some 
 knolls, which proved to be graves. I was nearly 
 upset in my chair, and had to get out, tired as I 
 was, and to climb up a hill. Most fortunately 
 the moon shone clearly from the clouds at this 
 moment and so enabled us to find our way, and, 
 after a scramble and a walk along a very narrow 
 path at the top of a hill, we reached the approach 
 to the suburb. I again had the pleasure of going 
 through the streets when lighted up with the 
 picturesque lanterns, and noticed many things I 
 had not seen before. On reaching the Chaplaincy 
 we made a hasty supper, and were glad to go to bed 
 immediately after we had risen from the table. 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 307 
 
 LETTEE XXIX. 
 
 Canton, October 22nd, 1877. 
 My deab Mother, 
 
 We went last Tuesday to the Chinese 
 parade ground, as we heard that a military re- 
 yiew was to take place. There are two parade 
 grounds, one on which Chinese troops are drilled, 
 and the Tartar ground, on which Tartar troops 
 go through their exercises. It was the second 
 day of the review when we went to the ground, 
 and the infantry were under inspection. A 
 military mandarin was seated as usual behind 
 a table covered with a scarlet cloth, placed 
 in a raised building at the end of the field. 
 A red-coloured ensign was held by the side 
 of the table. To the left, on a platform made 
 of brick, the Imperial yellow standard was raised, 
 and men directed the military movements from 
 this elevated position by beating drums. It is 
 most difficult for me to convey to you any cor- 
 rect idea of the curious performances we saw. 
 They resembled so exactly what one sees on the 
 stage of a theatre at home, that it was only by a 
 strong effort I could in the least realise that 
 it was real life I was witnessing, and not scenes 
 
 X 2 
 
308 FOUKTEEK MONTHS IN CANTON.: 
 
 of a play passing before me. When we) arrived 
 on the ground at seven a.m., we saw three or four 
 curious-looking erections, and we could not at first 
 sight imagine what they were, but on going close 
 to them we discovered that they were shields 
 piled up high into a pointed form to represent 
 fortifications. When we went to the back of 
 them, we saw that men were holding them in 
 their positions. The men holding the first row 
 of shields knelt, those holding the second row 
 were partly bent, and the men upholding the 
 third row stood erect. A man in addition held a 
 shield in his upraised arms, which formed the 
 pinnacle of the design. Behind these sets of 
 shields stood soldiers, who were not at the 
 moment taking an active part in the proceed- 
 ings. At a given signal, they advanced from 
 behind the piled shields, generally in twos and 
 twos, arriving in front of the supposed fortification. 
 But they did not walk forward ; the simple truth 
 is, they arrived with a hop, skip, and a jump, 
 just as an European acrobat comes on to the stage 
 at a performance given in a hippodrome. At 
 one moment these combatants were armed with 
 short swords or spears, at another moment with 
 bludgeons, or with double swords. Often the 
 two who engaged each other used different wea- 
 pons ; the one holding a long sword, the other a 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 309 
 
 curious-|ooking bamboo weapon having sharp iron 
 points. At other times the two warriors carried 
 shields, which always have some hideous face 
 drawn on them in colour, like those you have 
 seen in our collection at the Crystal Palace. 
 Then one would -drop his shield, and have to de- 
 fend himself against his opponent who retained his 
 shield. The one bearing the shield would then 
 fall, roll over on the ground, and regain his proper 
 position before his opponent could strike. It was 
 most ludicrous to see these curious-looking men 
 roll over and over, and we could not help laugh- 
 ing heartily at the sight. The combatants fought 
 as much with their feet as with their hands ; they 
 kicked each other, put their feet into the first 
 position, and performed all manner of antics with 
 them, reminding us again and again of English 
 acrobats. Their costume too, or uniform as I 
 should perhaps call it, was most startling to our 
 eyes. The men who were engaged when we 
 were on the ground were Tartars, for both Chinese 
 and Tartars were reviewed that day. The Tartar 
 troops serve under eight different banners, and 
 are allowed certain immunities. Each company 
 of these soldiers wore uniforms made in the 
 colour of the especial banner under which it 
 was enrolled. The short loose sleeveless jacket 
 in one company was red, in another yellow, faced 
 
310 POTJETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 with brown ; in a third dark blue, in a fourth 
 white, and so on in accordance with each parti- 
 cular banner. The tunics were white, the stock- 
 ings coloured, according to the colour of the 
 loose jacket. The boots were high, made of 
 black cloth. A large banner was carried before 
 each division. As we were looking.'' on, we were 
 startled by seeing one of the soldiers appear on 
 the top of the sham fortification, jump down, and 
 run forward to engage an enemy. When this kind 
 of two-handed, or four-handed, fighting was over, 
 the men advanced and took their shields from the 
 pyramidal heap, and then we discovered that a 
 ladder had been placed at the back of them iipon 
 which our acrobatic performer had stood when he 
 appeared to be resting on the piled shields. A 
 general kind of engagement finished this part 
 of the review, and the troops then marched off to 
 the farther end of the field. They did not march 
 in step, nor in any kind of order. The larger 
 banners were carried in the hand, but the smaller 
 flags were placed in flag-holders, which were 
 strapped on to the soldiers' backs. The effect is 
 curious when you see the soldiers coming towards 
 you with the flags rising from their shoulders 
 over their heads. When we followed to the end 
 of the field, we saw the men pile their shields ; 
 this they did by walking round a centre, each man 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 311 
 
 depositing his shield as he passed a certain spot. 
 Some more sham fighting went on : then the 
 archers stood in a semicircle, and the swordsmen, 
 placed in two long lines, went through their sword- 
 exercises. They swung their swords to the right, 
 then brought them to the left, making a curious 
 loud shouting noise as they did so. Then they 
 pointed their swords in all directions. While 
 they were doing this they rested on one knee, 
 and kept their shields on the left arm. 
 
 As we learnt that there was to be a pause of 
 two hours before the artillery practice began, we 
 left the parade ground, and returned home in our 
 chairs. We had found them useful on the ground, 
 and rested in them when nothing important 
 was going on. Two tall Tartars, with long- 
 thonged whips in their hands, had kept the crowd 
 from pressing upon us during the review, but be- 
 fore we left the ground the people began to be 
 very troublesome to us, and we were glad to escape 
 from their too-pronounced curiosity. We went 
 again to the same parade ground last Thursday 
 at six A.M., as we were told that a review was to 
 be held on a still grander scale on that day. On 
 arriving at the ground we found that the report 
 was true. In the elevated building at the end of 
 the field, twenty mandarins were seated ; nineteen 
 of them wore blue buttons, but the chief man's 
 
312 POUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 hat was decorated with the much coveted red 
 button. The crowd was considerably greater, and 
 the ground altogether had a much more military 
 aspect than on the previous occasion. As we 
 came upon the ground, the infantry, over 1000 
 strong, were drawn up at the further end of the 
 field, and the cavalry in front of them, waiting un- 
 til the time came for them to be reviewed. In the 
 centre of the field a sunken bridle-pa;th stretched 
 across, and it was here that the exercises were 
 taking place. On each side of the path, at inter- 
 vals, red poles with circular tops were placed for 
 gun practice, and low targets, about two feet high, 
 stood on the ground for bow and arrow practice. 
 Three men stood a little way in front of the build- 
 ing in which the mandarins were sitting, holding 
 different coloured ensigns in their hands, and 
 behind them the royal standard was displayed. 
 The big drum now sounded from the high brick 
 building to the left of us, and as one of tlie three 
 standard-bearers dipped a dark blue flag, a rider 
 galloped from one side of the field to the other 
 along the sunken bridle-path. Many horsemen 
 now passed in quick succession. Sometimes it was 
 a mounted archer, who discharged his arrows at 
 the small targets at full speed ; sometimes it was 
 a mounted dragoon, armed with a Chinese carbine, 
 with which he took aim at the higher targets as 
 
POUETBEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 313 
 
 lie rushed by. But the most strange and in- 
 teresting sight was a man, dressed in the parti- 
 coloured uniform of one of the banners, who per- 
 formed feats on horseback precisely as European 
 actors amuse an audience at a hippodrome. The 
 drum sounded, the flag was dipped, and then ap- 
 peared one of the curious leaa Chinese ponies at 
 full gallop, with what looked most unlike a living 
 burden on its back. Sometimes a leg raised in the 
 air was all you could make out of the rider's outline, 
 ■he being on his head, one leg hanging down on 
 one side, the other raised as high as possible in the 
 air. At another time a pony rushed by with a 
 rider lying along the side of its body, not sup- 
 ported by a saddle, as there was none ; the man's 
 head by the pony's neck, his legs stretched out 
 behind him. Then another pony dashed past, 
 apparently without a rider, as the soldier riding 
 him was lying along the animal on the farther 
 side. When the pony arrived in the centre of 
 the course, the man jumped up and stood upon 
 the animal's back. We also saw a rider stand 
 on the pony he was riding, then kneel, clap 
 his hands, twist himself suddenly and ride 
 on the animal's neck with his face turned to 
 its tail. This military exercise is, Henry tells 
 me, an exact imitation of the Cossack training, 
 and therefore shows great affinity between the 
 
314 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 two nations. After these evolutions, the targets 
 were cleared away, a movement took place 
 among the troops at the end of the field, and 
 then the shooting commenced. Some men now 
 advanced bearing long poles, which they placed 
 in the ground, and then stretched printed drill 
 over them. We discovered that this erection 
 was a representation of a city wall, and that 
 there were gates in it which opened and closed. 
 The walls were imitated by a dark grey, with 
 white lines painted on it so as to represent stones. 
 The gates were a brilliant scarlet, studded with 
 brass nails. Men, having conch shells in their 
 hands, now took up their position immediately 
 in front of where we were standing, which was 
 close to the raised platform on which the man- 
 darins were seated. These men with the conch 
 shells, about twenty in number, were dressed in 
 the oldest and the dirtiest of costumes. They 
 blew their shells, making a most dismal sound, 
 the musical instruments and drums were beaten 
 from the elevation, the scarlet gates were thrown 
 open, and through them issued the infantry 
 bearing banners and gingals. These large guns 
 require two men to carry them, one supporting 
 the muzzle end on his shoulder, the other the 
 butt end on his shoulder. The troops advanced, 
 formed a circle, and then fell into lines, each line 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 315 
 
 being headed by a different coloured banner. The 
 men were arranged according to their especial 
 standards, and the effect was very good when the 
 bright jackets were grouped into colours. The 
 subaltern officers stood a little way in front of each 
 line, holding small ilags in their hands, which they 
 dipped as a signal to commence firing, and then 
 kneeling, they continued to wave them to and fro 
 on the ground according to the direction in which 
 the firing was to continue. A large drum placed 
 a short way in front of the mock city gates gave 
 the signal to cease firing. The men when they 
 prepared to fire the gingals placed themselves 
 in a most curious position. They advanced the 
 right leg considerably in front of the left, then 
 the one at the muzzle, the other at the butt end, 
 bent their bodies with the view of taking aim. 
 When the firing had ceased, the troops marched 
 in line through the scarlet gates to the sound of 
 the dismal groans (which were most uncertain in 
 their sound) of the conch shells. The drums on 
 the elevation were again beaten most vigorously, 
 and the review was over. The Tartar troops are 
 a fine broad-shouldered body of men, with open 
 countenances, very intelligent-looking, and alto- 
 gether more prepossessing in appearance than the 
 Chinese inhabitants of the city. 
 
316 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 LETTEE XXX. 
 
 Canton, October 29th, 1877. 
 
 My dear Mothee, 
 
 We made up our miuds last week to go to 
 the early fair which is held in the city every day 
 from six to eight A.M. in the street called In-T'sze- 
 Li. The fair is well worth seeing, and generally 
 contains an endless variety of goods, such as china, 
 glass, dresses of all kinds, second-hand shoes, a 
 very large amount of valuable jadestone orna- 
 ments, diamonds, and other jewellery. The jewel- 
 lery and jadestone ornaments are displayed in 
 open halls, each dealer having a little counter 
 before him. The goods, such as china vases, 
 glass, old iron, oruaments of every variety, etc., 
 are arranged on the ground in front of the shops 
 forming the street. I was amused by seeing men 
 walking about displaying beautifully embroidered 
 second-band robes on their backs or spread over 
 their arms, tbey having no stalls on which to 
 arrange their goods. All has to be cleared away 
 before eight a.m. Many of the valuables come from 
 the pawn-shops, and are sold as unredeemed 
 pledges, but Henry says a great deal that is 
 exhibited is stolen property. The thieves carry 
 
FOUKTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 317 
 
 their possessions yery early ou the following 
 morning after stealing them, to the fair, and so 
 dispose of them before any one is on their track. 
 We did not dare to make any offer for the jade- 
 stone ornaments which we admired, for it requires 
 a practised eye to discriminate the value of the 
 jadestone. There is a great variety of worth in 
 it, thus one bangle may be worth eight dollars, 
 another two thousand dollars, and to our un- 
 initiated eyes they look much the same, in fact 
 we might buy the inferior quality in ignorance. 
 Having made some small purchases, an em- 
 broidered Pekinese lady's jacket amongst them, 
 we re-seated ourselves in our chairs and went on 
 for some distance beyond the north gate of the 
 city to witness cricket-fighting, a favourite pastime 
 of the Chinese. As we approached the field 
 where it took place, we saw crowds of men stand- 
 ing about some sheds erected on the spot. Most 
 of the company were of the lowest order, but there 
 were some respectable men, including Tartar 
 officers and mandarins. Much money is lost in 
 this form of gambling. On entering the largest 
 shed, we saw a raised platform on which some men 
 sat behind a counter, who were employed in 
 weighing the crickets, in weighing the dollars, in 
 recording the bets, in receiving the money laid by 
 both sides on each match, and in paying the 
 
318 POTJETEBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 winner of each particular fight, after deducting- 
 a percentage for the expenses of the building. 
 In this shed numbers of men were collected, each 
 holding in his hand a little round earthenware 
 basin covered with a cloth. These basins con- 
 tained the fighting-crickets. The matches are 
 played for Iai-ge as well as small sums of money, 
 and many hundred dollars changed hands during 
 the short time we were present. We entered one 
 of the smaller mat sheds, consisting of two or three 
 rooms, and stood by a round table, and although 
 the people assembled there belonged to the 
 lowest orders, they were most polite to us. Two 
 men had come in from the large tent, each having 
 a little earthenware bowl in his hand, and after 
 they had uncovered them, and examined the two 
 occupants to certify they were their identical 
 crickets, the chirping combatants were put into an 
 earthenware bowl on the table,and the fight began. 
 The two men held small feather pencils in their 
 hands by which they stirred up and enraged the 
 belligerents, which fight generally with great 
 spirit, and often lose legs and wings in the contest. 
 The two crickets walk round and round the bowl 
 at first, then rush at each other with such vio- 
 lence that they are often thrown on their backs. 
 Should the one cricket run away from his opponent 
 three times iu succession, he is pronounced by the 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 319 
 
 umpire present, to be defeated. Those standing 
 round the table make bets upon the one or other 
 of the fighting-crickets. , The successful crickets 
 are taken home, and when they die (they live but 
 a hundred days, or with care a hundred and thirty 
 
 
 OKIOKET-FIGHTING. 
 
 days) are placed in tiny silver coffins, and are 
 buried secretly by their owners on the hills. In 
 the beginning of the next summer the latter go 
 at night when the crickets are to be found on the 
 hills, and wend their way to the particular spots 
 
320 POUETEEK MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 where they have buried their successful crickets, 
 and collect a number of new combatants, be- 
 lieving that the spirits of the departed insects 
 go into the bodies of the crickets found in the 
 same neighbourhood. When the war was going 
 on between England and China in 1857, a captain 
 of one of Her Ma-jesty's ships, which was stationed 
 at Whampoa, for the purpose of keeping up the 
 blockade of the river, seeing as he thought a host 
 of Chinese braves advancing over the neighbouring 
 hills, landed his marines and blue-jackets, marched 
 up the hills, and attacked the supposed enemy. 
 The men on the hills, who carried lanterns, were 
 armed, as it is unsafe for Chinese to be about 
 without weapons at night. They returned the 
 shots of- the English sailors, and some men were 
 wounded on each side. On approaching close to 
 the enemy the English captain, who was in the 
 meantime seriously wounded, discovered that 
 his opponents were in truth villagers who were 
 searching on the hills for crickets. 
 
 Before dismissing the subject of cricket-fighting, 
 I must tell you one circumstance that came 
 under my special notice, and which will, I think, 
 rather astonish you. Many of the Buddhist 
 monks indulge in this sport, and the other day 
 at our monastic retreat at Taai-tung-Koo-tsze, 
 we met with a Buddhist priest, who had come to 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 321 
 
 Canton from a monastery in the remote part of 
 the county of Tuung-Koon, to attend the cricket- 
 pits, and had brought with him six fighting- 
 crickets. Out of these only one had proved 
 victorious, but as it had won several battles, and 
 gained six hundred dollars, which was a large 
 Slim of money for the priest, he was returning 
 home the day we saw him, in high spirits. 
 
 I do not think I have told you how I have 
 got on during the great and continuous heat of 
 the past two or three months. It has at times 
 been very trying, especially at night. We could 
 scarcely breathe with the mosquito-curtains drawn, 
 so, during August and September, we slept without 
 them. We were not troubled, however, at all by 
 the mosquitos during those two months. Perhaps, 
 owing to the excessive heat, these tormentors 
 had left the house and had gone into the open 
 air. After dinner we find it too oppressive to 
 stay in the house, as we do not get a breath of 
 fresh air. We think this is in consequence of 
 the short thick banyan trees which line the bund 
 opposite to our verandah. We, therefore, go out 
 and sit on the bund. You would be amused to 
 see us. An ordinary glass lantern is hung upon 
 a branch of one of the banyan trees to give us 
 light. Our four dogs, two of the short-haired 
 Chinese breed, and two of the long-haired kind, 
 
 Y 
 
322 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 lie stretched on the ground about us. Poor things, 
 they seem to suffer a great deal in this hot 
 weather. At nine o'clock one of our boys brings 
 a tea-poy (small table) out of the house, the 
 other carries a tray with the tea equipage on 
 it, and we take our tea al fresco. Sometimes 
 we do get a little breeze from the river. At 
 all events the atmosphere is not so stifling as 
 it is in the house, and on moonlight nights the 
 scene on the river is very pretty. 
 
 LETTER XXXI. 
 
 Canton, November 6th, 1877. 
 
 My DEAE Mother, 
 
 Last week we paid another visit to the 
 parade ground to be present at a grand triennial 
 review that was to take place in the presence 
 of the Viceroy, the Tartar Greneral, and all the 
 leading officials of the province. We engaged a 
 slipper boat to be ready for us very early in the 
 morning, and entered it at half-past six a.m. We 
 had the advantage of having the tide in our favour, 
 and arrived at the parade ground before half-past 
 seven. The boatmen followed us from the boat, 
 carrying our large bamboo chairs, as we knew from 
 experience that it was wiser to have our own chairs 
 
FOUETEKN MONTHS IN CANTON. 323 
 
 with us. The ground presented a very gay scene 
 as we entered it; there was a large body of 
 cavalry assembled at the end of the field, and the 
 flags of the various regiments looked very bright. 
 We had been told that the review would commence 
 about six o'clock, but it was fully au hour after we 
 arrived before the Viceroy made his appearance. 
 There was again a long pause after the last of 
 the mandarins had assembled, before this biggest 
 of all the big officials in Canton arrived on the 
 parade ground. The centre building was occu- 
 pied by the Viceroy, Tartar Geaeral, and mauy 
 high mandarins. Close to it three tempoi-ary 
 buildings had been erected ; one on the left for 
 the sons of the officials, one by the side of the 
 latter occupied by the Howqua family, and 
 the third, on the right of the main building, 
 placed at the disposal of foreigners. The whole 
 effect was much like an English race-course, 
 with its grand-stand and other buildings near it. 
 This review was on a much larger scale than 
 those we had previously seen, but most of the 
 movements were similar to those on the former 
 occasions. The varieties were : some wrestling 
 matches, which took place immediately in front 
 of the Viceroy's position, and some practice in 
 shooting by young Tartar boys, who were from 
 eight to twelve years of age. These boys were 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 FOTJETEEN MONTHS IJf CANTON. 
 
 good-looking, fine grown lads. They advanced in 
 fives, each of the sets of five wearing tlie colours of 
 one of the eight banners. They had on military 
 hats with two foxes' tails hanging from the backs 
 of them. Their military master advanced in the 
 centre of them, and he bore a flag placed in a 
 little stand on his back between his shoulders. As 
 the boys reached the spot immediately in fi-ont of 
 the Viceroy, they stopped, put themselves into 
 most studied positions, formed a circle, advanced 
 one by one in front of their master and fired their 
 small carbines in turn. When all the movements 
 had been performed by one set of five, they 
 passed on with measured step, and the next five, 
 clustering round their teacher, advanced and went 
 through the same exercise. About twelve sets 
 of these boys and their teachers passed before the 
 Viceroy. They then advanced eii masse, and 
 stood before the Viceroy, who received them with 
 a most gracious smile. Silver medals were pre- 
 sented to each of them. These little fellows 
 looked every inch what they were — soldiers' sons, 
 and Henry tells me that they are all brought 
 up to serve in the army, and in this way the 
 Tartar garrison in this cify has been reinlbrced 
 for three centuries past. The troops reviewed this 
 day were Tartar soldiers only. Another new feature 
 in this review was, that the officers themselves, of 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 325 
 
 kll grades, most grave, dignified men, some of 
 whom were nearly seventy years of age, were 
 examined in archery practice. It was a strange 
 sight to see these officers advance, step on to 
 a dais placed a little way in front of the 
 Viceroy's table, and solemnly discharge their 
 arrows in turn. A target was placed at what 
 appeared to me a short distance from the dais. 
 A small red cloth was spread, on which the 
 officer stood whose turn it was to shoot, another 
 placed himself in readiness immediately behind, 
 and the rest of the military mandarins arranged 
 in two and two according to their buttons de- 
 noting their rank, remained in rows behind and 
 advanced gradually to the dais. For a wonder, 
 the Chinese use their bows much as Europeans 
 use theirs. The arrows were tipped with sharp 
 points of iron. Each man carried a quiver bearing 
 five handsome arrows, the feathers of which were 
 those of the argus pheasant. The bows, which 
 were large, were made of ash, and were orna- 
 mented by snakes' skins. The target was large, 
 in shape like the panel of a door, with three red 
 bull's eyes placed at intervals on it. It was covered 
 with white paper. It did not seem to matter 
 in what part the arrows struck the target, as the 
 gong was sounded each time one pierced it. You 
 must not imagine that these military mandarins 
 
326 FOUETEESr MONTHS IN CANTON". 
 
 looked like soldiers to our eyes. They were dressed 
 in long blue figured silk robes, and in white or 
 pale blue underskirts beautifully embroidered. 
 Gay silk bags containing scent, which is used as 
 a charm against evil, hung at their sides. High 
 black satin boots with curious thick (three or 
 four inches thick) white soles, and official hats 
 trimmed with red fringe, completed their toilettes. 
 The iirst officers who advanced to shoot wore 
 the pale blue button on their hats, from which 
 hung ravens' feathers. Then came the dark 
 blue, crystal, white, and gold buttons in suc- 
 cession. Each man who struck the target with 
 four out of the five arrows, received from the 
 Viceroy two rolls of mandarin silk folded up in 
 white paper. They bent the knee when the rolls 
 were handed to them by one of the officials, who 
 took them from a long table that was placed by 
 the side of the official table. When these officers 
 received the rolls of silk into their hands, they 
 bowed to the ground, then raised the rolls high 
 above their heads, thus honouring the Emperor, 
 whose gift tliey were. Those who missed with 
 two of the five arrows received only one roll of 
 silk, and in one case, an officer missing the target 
 with three arrows, had to retire without any 
 present. It is difficult to convey to you the 
 faintest idea of the studied dignity and solemnity 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 327 
 
 of expression in the countenances of these officers. 
 All military mandarins haye to undergo this 
 triennial examination until they reach the rank 
 of general in the army. The review finished 
 as before, with artillery practice, marching in 
 line, in circles, etc., the erection of city walls, and 
 marching through the gates to the sound of the 
 drum, conch, and other musical instruments. 
 
 LETTER XXXII. 
 
 Oakton, November 10th, 1877. 
 
 My dear Mothek, 
 
 Since I sent my last descriptive letter to 
 you, I have been with Minnie to see a bride 
 leave her husband's house the third day after her 
 marriage, on a visit of ceremony to her parents. 
 We were told that she would start from her new 
 home in a bridal-chair at nine o'clock a.m., so 
 we hurried our breakfast and contrived to be at the 
 bridegroom's (a doctor's) house by half-past nine. 
 With true Chinese disregSird of time, nothing was 
 then ready for the bride's start, and we sat for 
 more than an hour in a house on the opposite 
 side of the street, which belongs also to the father 
 of the bridegroom, before we were invited into 
 the bridegroom's bouse. When we entered the 
 
328 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 bridal-house, the customary presents were all pre- 
 pared and men were just starting with them to the 
 bride's parents' house. There were about ten pigs 
 roasted whole lying in open red boxes. In other 
 open cases there were fruits of various kinds, cakes, 
 and large bundles of fire-crackers. The bearers, 
 wearing red tunics, were in the act of slinging 
 these boxes on bamboo poles to carry them to the 
 parents of the bride. Some short time after these 
 presents had been sent off, the bride appeared in 
 the visitors' hall where we were sitting. She was 
 dressed in her red wedding-dress ornamented 
 with gold, and wore the gold marriage crown from 
 which a thick beaded fringe hung over and nearly 
 concealed her face. She came into the room 
 with her hands joined and raised before her 
 face in the orthodox bashful style of a Chinese 
 bride. An amah walked on each side of her 
 and held her by the elbows ; they then assisted 
 her to kneel before the ancestral altar, and 
 raised her arms up and down as she performed 
 her act of worship. They helped her to rise, 
 and she advanced towards us, and chin-chinned 
 us first, and then her numerous young sisters-in- 
 law who were present. The bride was only six- 
 teen and her husband seventeen years of age 
 
 the sisters-in-law of the bridegroom were all under 
 twenty. The bride is small footed, and so of 
 
FOUKTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 329 
 
 course is a first wife. Poor girl, I pitied lier, 
 for she stood for nearly two hours on those 
 poor little cramped painful feet, every now 
 and then only leaning against the amahs, who 
 sat down and thus supported her. The parents 
 of the bridegroom now came in, and the bride 
 knelt before them, and performed the kau- 
 tau. After this a great deal of fun and merri- 
 ment went on, all the young people went up to 
 the bride and teased her, and, as my little friend 
 explained to me, asked her for cakes, saying 
 that she was very mean not to give them more. 
 They crowded round her and told her jokingly 
 that her life would be very miserable, that her 
 husband would beat her, etc. etc. 
 
 Quite an uproar of merriment took place every 
 now and then. No one heeded me, so I could 
 sit and look on and see family rejoicings ac- 
 cording to the manners and customs of this 
 country. 
 
 I think the bridegroom was disappointed that 
 I did not join in the jokes; but how could I? 
 my tongue was tied by ignorance of the Chinese 
 language. 
 
 All this time the wedding-chair was hidden away 
 by some of the family party, a joke always prac- 
 tised on this particular day of the bride's return 
 to her home. The company declared, as they 
 
330 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 surrounded the young bride, that she should not 
 go home to see her parents. She did not speak 
 more than a few words the whole time, but I 
 think she much enjoyed her position and feeling 
 of importance. I was asked by the bridegroom 
 what I thought of his bride, if she had a pretty 
 face (of course I told my little friend to answer 
 in as flattering terms as possible, with truth), but 
 the bride was not nearly so pretty, I saw, when 
 the veil of fringe was lifted from her face, as two 
 young married women who were in the room 
 with us. There are six sons in this family, and 
 the father is not over forty-five. He and five of 
 the sons practise as doctors. The youngest is 
 sixteen, and is the only one unmarried ; and 
 he, too, is being educated for the medical pro- 
 fession. At last there was a decided movement 
 at the outer door, and I thought the wedding- 
 chair had arrived, but it proved to be the coolies 
 bringing back the boxes from the house of the 
 bride's parents. As is the established custom, 
 the head and feet of the pigs were returned in the 
 boxes and also a portion of the cakes and fruit. I 
 was offered some of the latter, and then, for the 
 fourth or fifth time, tea was handed round. 
 
 Just before twelve o'clock, when I was overcome 
 with fatigue, and thought of leaving, the grand 
 gold wedding-chair, richly ornamented with little 
 
POUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 331 
 
 figures decorated with blue enamel made of king- 
 fisher's feathers, came to the door. 
 
 It had at last been found, said the merry party 
 round the bride. I mounted on a stool, as I was 
 invited to do, to see the bride enter her bridal- 
 chair. Her attendants then closed the door, and 
 she became invisible to the vulgar gaze. The 
 chair was very heavy, a mass of gilding and 
 ornament ; but it was not the private property of 
 this family, but was, as is always the case, hired 
 for the term of the wedding festivities, which last 
 about eight days. The bride was to return to her 
 husband's house at seven o'clock p.m. the same 
 day. 
 
 LETTER XXXIII. 
 
 Canton, November 26th, 1877 
 
 My deae Motheb, 
 
 I HAVE had a terrible shock since I last 
 wrote to you, and I am sure you will be thankful 
 to hear that Henry escaped a great danger in which 
 he was placed last Sunday evening. He started 
 for Whampoa as usual about five, to take his eight 
 o'clock evening service, and had not proceeded 
 above halfway, when he noticed a long snake-boat 
 lying immediately in the path of his slipper boat. 
 Henry sits upon a bamboo chair which is placed on 
 
332 FOUETBBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 the toe of the slipper boat, and as he has no cover- 
 ing in front of him, he can see clearly anything 
 that takes place around him. He had a presenti- 
 ment of evil on perceiving the position of the snake- 
 boat, but had scarcely time to examine it closely, 
 before a shot was fired point blank at him from it* 
 His boatmen called out in terror that they had 
 an Englishman on board, but before they had got 
 their words out, a second shot came from the 
 pirates which struck the slipper boat. The boat- 
 men ducked their heaiis, and swayed their bodies 
 to the side of the boat, by which movement 
 they ■ upset Henry's chair, and he fell back- 
 wards. There was great danger of the slipper 
 boat being capsized at that moment. On re- 
 covering his feet, Henry called out in Chinese 
 and asked the men what they meant by firing at 
 him, and the coolie and the boatmen screamed 
 out that their passenger was a foreigner from 
 the Chung-Lau (Bell-tower). The pirates, upon 
 hearing this, turned their boat's head and rowed 
 off as fast as possible across the river and entered 
 a creek. There is no doubt that they were on 
 the watch for Chinese, who often carry treasure 
 about with them. In these winter months the 
 pirates abound on the river, and render it very 
 unsafe for passenger boats. The Chinese fear 
 them greatly, and when a junk is going up the 
 
FOUETEBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 333 
 
 river it is not only armed, but, as a rule, several 
 junks start together and keep close to each other 
 as long as possible. Passenger boats are also 
 armed. The Chinese government is maldng a 
 great effort to put down piracy, and, as I told you 
 in a former letter, employ European officers on 
 board their gun-boats for this purpose, but it 
 must be long before the pirates are cleared off 
 the river. A trading junk, apparently per- 
 fectly harmless, will turn pirate when an op- 
 portunity presents itself, and so there is a great 
 Tvant of confidence felt by the Chinese towards 
 vessels of any sort. Bobberies take place al- 
 most nightly on the river. When the sun sets, 
 the boating population, to protect themselves 
 from pirates, close and barricade the mouths of 
 the creeks. I am enjoying the change in the 
 weather very much. It is now quite cold in the 
 early morning and evening, and we have already 
 had a fire in our dining-room, and sooq we shall 
 require fires daily. 
 
 I have just sent for my furs from the pawn- 
 shop. Does not this sound odd to English ears ? 
 The furs have been at this pawn-shop all the 
 summer, and will thuS' have been saved from 
 being devoured by the moth. It is most difSeult 
 to keep them free from this insect in one's own 
 house; — nearly impossible, but a+ the pawn-shops 
 
334 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 they are quite safe. "We shall only pay a couple 
 of dollars to the owner of the pawn-shop when we 
 receive our furs. 
 
 1 shall be very glad of them now, for a 
 marvellous change took place in the weather on 
 the 20th inst. On that day Henry started for 
 Whampoa, wearing his alpaca clothes. He 
 could not have put on his cloth things as it was 
 intensely hot in the morning, but at half-past 
 seven p.m. down came the north wind, and in two or 
 three hours it became very cold. The following 
 morning we were thankful to put on our winter 
 clothes. So you see that the cold, when it first 
 comes in, is as difficult to bear as the heat; not that 
 I grumble at it, as I am delighted with the change 
 of weather, and am glad beyond measure that the 
 heat of summer has at last passed away. We 
 have both been really ill, since I last wrote, from 
 eating some oysters which were sent us by a 
 friend from Macao. On inquiry we discovered 
 that these oysters had been opened before they 
 arrived, a fact our servants did not let us know, 
 and it was only when we were so ill, that one of 
 them said " that oyster no plopa when he come this 
 side, he no have got shell." We were poisoned by 
 these bad oysters, and one of the coolies who ate 
 some of them also became very ill. It is not un- 
 common for persons to be affected by the Macao 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 335 
 
 oysters, as the rocks upon which they grow are of 
 a cupreous nature, "We were obliged to call in 
 our Chinese doctor ; but even with his care, we 
 were very much indisposed for three days. 
 
 I must tell you of an amusing circumstance 
 that has taken place in our house. A few 
 weeks ago, one of my canaries, which had been 
 placed in a small cage in the dining-room, was 
 missing when the coolie entered the room early 
 in the morning, and the only trace left of it was a 
 few feathers on the bars of the cage. I was very 
 much vexed, and inquired of the servants what 
 animal could have entered the room through the 
 Venetians, and seized my pretty little favourite ? 
 They all answered that it w as " one piecee cat." 
 Henry doubted the truth of this statement, as he 
 did not think a cat could have entered by the 
 partially closed Venetians ; but the waiting boy 
 and coolies persisted in saying that the enemy was 
 a cat and not a rat, and that it was a particular cat 
 from a neighbouring house. We asked them 
 why, having seen it, they did not try to catch it ? 
 upon which they told us it was a fierce cat, and 
 that they were obliged to allow it to escape. I 
 ordered the Venetians to be more closely fastened, 
 and again and again complained that my orders 
 were not obeyed. When I remonstrated, the boy 
 answered, "That'piecee cat no come this side 
 
336 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 again, my can secure he no come again." It 
 is only just now that I have learnt the true 
 state of the case from Minnie. The coolie had 
 not only caught the cat the morning it stole my 
 bird from the cage in the dining-room, but he 
 had also cooked and eaten it, and simply would 
 not acknowledge to having caught it, for fear we 
 should laugh at him for having made a meal of 
 the enemy. Possibly too, he may have considered 
 that our neighbour would complain of the sum- 
 mary justice executed upon the offender. Our 
 waiting boy, who is twenty'years of age, has just 
 gone into the country to be married. We have 
 given him in consequence a week's holiday. He 
 will leave his bride at his father's house in the 
 country, when he returns to us, and see her most 
 likely only at very rare intervals. He, like all 
 young men in China, has been betrothed from his 
 youth. It is a most unusual thing to meet with a 
 bachelor in China over twenty years of age, and 
 when this is the case a man is looked upon as a 
 bad citizen. Single life is of course observed by 
 all Buddhist monks and by some of the priests of 
 the. sect of Tau. 
 
 Yesterday we received a very full budget by 
 the English mail, fourteen letters, including those 
 from home which did not arrive last week. We 
 look out for the river steamer most anxiously when 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 337 
 
 the mail is expected. When our coolie comes in 
 and says "This house no got chit,"- our dis- 
 appointment is very great. We have much 
 better food now the weather is cool, and there is a 
 great improvement in the mieat, which is much 
 more tender. I think you will be interested to 
 hear what we can now procure in the way of food, 
 vegetables and fruit. Good game comes down 
 from Shanghai, and we have received a present 
 of pheasants, teal, and a hare from that port. The 
 game was in very good preservation after its 
 journey of over nine hundred miles. We have 
 very good vegetables just now, and amongst them 
 are peas, potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, small 
 carrots, and cabbages. Our fruit at this season con- 
 sists of sweet oranges, native walnuts, native chest- 
 nuts, persimmons, bananas, etc. I do not remember 
 telling you about one thing that has again and 
 .again amused me in our household. Occasionally 
 when we pass through our servants' quarters to 
 the boat, we see one or other of them in the hands 
 of a barber, having his head shaved, or his tail 
 trimmed and plaited. The tails of many of the 
 Chinese are very long and thick. This remark 
 applies to young and middle-aged men only, 
 for a man in years has generally a very small 
 and short portion of hair in his tail, the rest of it 
 being composed of silk. The barber also trims 
 
/'^^^f 
 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 339 
 
 the eyebrows of his customer and reduces them to 
 a slender line, and removes all superfluous hair 
 from his face and ears. Shaving and hairdressing 
 are generally done in public in China, and I have 
 often been amused at watching the process going 
 on alfresco. 
 
 LETTEE XXXIV. 
 
 Canton, December 6th, 1877. 
 
 My deae Mother, 
 
 I WONDER if you picture us as we really are 
 now. Before I left England I did not realise the 
 fact of the winter being as cold as it is here, and 
 I fancy few people who have not experienced it 
 know what kind of winter one has in the south of 
 China. We have a fire in our bedroom at night, 
 and the room is still so cold that T have bought 
 a high screen to place by the side of the bed to 
 shelter us from the draught. These houses are 
 built with a view to make them as cool as possible 
 in summer, and so it is very difficult to shut out 
 the cold wind in winter. Our dogs can no longer 
 go out into the verandah at night, and two of 
 them sleep in our room, and two on the land- 
 ing at the top of the staircase. They cause us 
 some trouble at night. Our youngest one (we 
 have given away the youngest of all, as he would 
 
 z 2 
 
310 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 not stay with us, but lived entirely in the ser- 
 vants' offices) is most jealous of one of the 
 older dogs, and it is most diiBenlt to keep him 
 quiet. In fact, the young one does not rest 
 until the old dog is driven into a corner. The 
 growl of these dogs which precedes a fight is 
 enough to disturb a household. They much re- 
 semble in form and colour the Esquimaux dog. 
 We owe our safety to one of our favourites ; for 
 some time ago, when we had just fallen asleep, 
 one of the older dogs in the verandah barked 
 furiously. We both started from sleep, and felt 
 conscious that some one was in the bedroom, and 
 Henry called out in Chinese, "Who is there?" 
 The intruder in his flight must have touched the 
 towel-horse, as it was shaken and nearly knocked 
 over, and there is no doubt that he escaped by 
 the open window close to it. Our watches and 
 jewellery were on that side of the room along 
 which he was approaching, and we think that 
 he must have been aware of it. I much dread 
 any fracas with a Chinese thief, for, although 
 Henry is very powerful, he would have no chance 
 with a man of this kind. For the thieves are 
 generally armed with knives, and their tails, which 
 are false, are filled with fish-hooks. If a guard 
 seize a prisoner, he catches him by the tail 
 and twists it round his arm. I have seen this 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 341 
 
 done myself, so I suppose that is the reason 
 why thieves adopt the expedient of wearing false 
 tails. Should a burglar be caught with arms 
 upon him, he is decapitated according to Chinese 
 law. This makes burglars very reckless, and 
 if resisted, they would not hesitate to commit 
 murder, if by doing so they could make good 
 their escape. 
 
 During one of our excursions lately, we yisited 
 the Buddhist nunnery, which beare the name of 
 T'aan-To-Om. We saw in the principal shrine 
 an idol of Buddha, before which fifty nuns say 
 their prayers morning and evening. Unless I 
 had been informed to the contrary, I should 
 have concluded that the persons who gathered 
 around us on our entering the quadrangle of the 
 nunnery were Buddhist monks, as the dress is 
 similar. The mms' heads are entirely shaved ; 
 they wear tunics, white stockings, and black 
 shoes, like the priests. It is supposed that this 
 dress was adopted to enable the nuns to go 
 about the streets without being observed. A 
 few days ago, we saw what we both considered 
 to be a nun entering the English chemist's shop 
 where we were going. We asked if it were a nun 
 we had seen, but were told by the chemis£ that it 
 was a young nobleman, who had taken a vow to live 
 as a monk for a certain period. He had therefore 
 
342 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 shaved his head and adopted the monk's habit. 
 The nuns are consecrated at the same time as 
 the monks. 
 
 I have not yet mentioned one curious feature 
 of a Buddhist priest's appearance : you will notice 
 at once that his head, which is entirely shaven, 
 has several little white scars on it. These are 
 vows which are burnt into his head by the 
 end of a lighted incense stick. A monk not 
 only takes the three vows of poverty, chastity, 
 and obedience at his ordination ; he takes other 
 vows according to his desire, such as abstaining 
 from wine, from meat, from brawling, from 
 gambling, etc. The latter is, however, a vice 
 much indulged in by the priests, many of whom 
 disregard their vows in a very open manner. We 
 went into the templp of Sheng-Woug the same daj', 
 and there saw many most curious representations 
 of the Buddhist hades. These figures are placed 
 in various compartments on each side of the great 
 quadrangle of the temple. In each of these 
 compartments a king sitting in judgment, sur- 
 rounded by his ministers of justice, is represented. 
 In one compartment there are clay figures of men 
 and women, who are undergoing various torments 
 inflicted on them by order of the king, for un- 
 repented sin. In a second, Buddhist monks and 
 nuns, who have received money for saying prayers 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 343 
 
 for the repose of souls, and have neglected to do so, 
 are confined in a dark tower, and by the light of 
 a very small lamp are condemned to read liturgical 
 services, printed in the smallest type possible. In 
 another representation, wicked inen are made to 
 gaze in a mirror upon the forms of beasts, reptiles, 
 insects, etc., one or other form of which their 
 souls will animate on their return to earth. 
 In another, homicides are surrounded by water, 
 which they cannot obtain, and are tantalised 
 by the sight of it, while they suffer the 
 agonies of thirst. Twice a month they have to 
 undergo all the pains of body and soul which 
 their victims have gone through at their hands. 
 Various horrors, such as being ground in a mill, 
 returning to life again, to be re-ground — burning 
 in flames of fire — thrown on to spikes — being de- 
 capitated, then made whole in body, to be again 
 decapitated — roasted alive under a red-hot bell — 
 sawn asunder — thrown into caldrons of boiling oil, 
 are all depicted, with other varieties of torture. In 
 fact, the whole representations recalled to my mind 
 a book I had much feared in my early youth, but 
 which was highly valued by my nurse — Fox's 
 ' Book of Martyrs.' 
 
344 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 LETTER XXXV. 
 
 Canton, January 1st, 1878. 
 
 Mt 1)eae Motheb, 
 
 We have had two or three warm days this 
 last week, and much rain. Our house has be- 
 come very damp again, and the marble pavement 
 of the ball looks as if pails of water had been 
 thrown upon it. Old residents say it is unusually 
 warm and damp for the time of year. The mos- 
 quitos are unendurable ; they are buzzing in my 
 ears, and settling on my hands as I write. All 
 our servants came in to chin-chin us this morning 
 early, and presented us with their large red paper 
 visiting cards, and several Chinese have called to 
 wish Henry a happy new year. The day is much 
 observed in our settlement. Grentlemen of all 
 nations make congratulatory calls upon the ladies. 
 I had a very great number of visitors to receive 
 alone, as Henry of course was also engaged in 
 paying new year's visits. 
 
 We have been into the city two or three times 
 since I last wrote to you, spending our time 
 chiefly in the street called Sai-Loi-Ch'oh Ti, 
 where we have bought several articles of black 
 wood furniture. The streets, at this time of the 
 year, are very much crowded with open-air stalls 
 of all kinds, owing to the near approach of the 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 345 
 
 Chinese new year. Some of these stalls contain 
 wearing apparel; others, shoes and caps; and 
 others, articles of virtu. The latter are bought 
 to give away as new-year's presents. Fruit- 
 
 BOY GAMBLING FOE FRUIT. 
 
 stalls are especially numerous, and are gener- 
 ally surrounded by little boys who gamble with 
 the stall-keeper for the fruit. These open-air fruit- 
 stalls now display oranges, bananas, apples, pears, 
 
346 FOXJETBEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 and pea-nuts. The fruit must be very tempting 
 to the boys, but so great is their innate love of 
 gambling that they would rather run the risk 
 of losing the fruit than forego the pleasure of 
 throwing the dice. The propensity for gambling, 
 however, is not confined to boys, in China, men 
 and women being also very much addicted to 
 that vice. 
 
 I have not told you, I think, how much we are 
 occasionally startled by salutes fired off from the 
 men-of-war which come up to Canton. They 
 anchor so close to Shameen, that the vibration is 
 great from the guns ; the windows of our house 
 rattle, and the panes of glass seem to be in 
 jeopardy. Last Sunday when we were at church, 
 and whilst Henry was preaching, we were startled 
 by the guns of a French ship of war firing a 
 royal salute in honour of a visit from the Chinese 
 Viceroy. The noise was simply deafening, and so 
 prolonged, as the salute was fired slowly, that 
 Henry was obliged to make a long pause in his 
 sermon. The river is at all times a scene of noise 
 and bustle, most particularly so where the boats 
 congregate near the steamers, but our end of 
 Shameen is sufficiently noisy. It was difficult 
 to sleep during the summer when our bedroom- 
 windows were wide open. About one or two o'clock 
 A.M. we were often awoke by salvoes of fire-crackers 
 which were fired when Chinese boats were starting 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 347 
 
 on their voyages. The boat population do not sleep 
 the nigTit through, but seem to catch sleep at 
 intervals during the night and day. We are never 
 free during the summer from noise on the river. 
 When a death takes place in any of the boats, the 
 relations immediately begin to howl, and continue 
 to do so at intervals until the body is buried. It 
 is a most distressing sound at night, and one 
 which we frequently hear. Quarrels often take 
 place amongst the boat people, and they become 
 much excited and scream one to the other, some- 
 times for ten minutes or so, and sometimes for 
 hours together. In fact there is scarcely an 
 hour during the night, in summer, when complete 
 stillness reigns on the river. The smallness 
 of sleeping accommodation on board the boats 
 for the families living in them may partly ac- 
 count for this restlessness and wakefulness of 
 the boat population. 
 
 What a strange life these boat people live ! 
 They are born in their boats, marry from their 
 boats (boatmen marrying boatwomen) and take 
 their brides home to their boats, three generations 
 often occupying the same floating home. Further, 
 they die in their boats, and are conveyed to 
 the grave in their boats. When a member of a 
 boat family dies, the body is taken to a vast 
 cemetery on the banks of the river, iive or six 
 miles to the west of the city of Canton. Many 
 
348 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 of the boatmen serve as sailors on board the ocean- 
 going junks and other native trading vessels, 
 and are consequently away for several weeks or 
 even months at a time. On returning from their 
 voyages they find their boats exactly in the same 
 position as that in which they left them. This, 
 however, is no longer a matter of surprise, when 
 one learns that there is a marine magistrate called 
 the Hoi-Teng, who assigns to each boat its position 
 on the river, in which it has an undisputed right 
 to remain year after year. The boat population 
 is regarded with contempt by people living on 
 shore, and to every boatwoman the opprobrious 
 epithet of " water-hen " is applied. 
 
 LETTEE XXXVI. 
 
 Cakton, March 20th, 1878. 
 
 My dear Mother, 
 
 I TAKE up my pen again after a rest of two 
 months to write you one of my descriptive letters, 
 liittle of importance has happened during my 
 silence. The Chinese new year has been observed 
 as usual. Salvoes of fire-crackers were let off 
 without ceasing from eight o'clock of the last 
 night of the old year, until daylight of the first 
 day of the new year. The temples, small and 
 great throughout this vast city, were open the 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 349 
 
 whole night, and were crowded by worshipperF, 
 who were offering thanks for the good things 
 received during the year passing away, and 
 praying for mercies during the year just dawn- 
 ing. All the elders of the districts who attended 
 these ceremonies wore their official robes. Wor- 
 ship, too, was paid to all the State deities by the 
 leading oiBcials of the city. In each dwelling- 
 house the ancestral altars, and those in honour 
 of the tutelary gods, were lighted up during 
 the greater part of the night, and around them 
 were gathered all the members of the family. 
 During the few days in which the festivities of 
 the new year are observed, all the shops are closed 
 and Canton seems to be deserted. The passenger 
 boats are crowded with men and women who are 
 going into the country to visit friends. Many 
 failures have taken place as usual at the new 
 year. '^I'he shops which were closed owing to in- 
 solvency, have had red papers affixed to the doors, 
 stating that the owners were bankrupts, and the 
 amount of liabilities they had incurred. All debts 
 must be paid before the new year, and the man 
 who cannot meet his demands then, must declare 
 himself a bankrupt. During the two or three last 
 days of the Chinese year, articles which have been 
 previously exposed for sale at a high price, are 
 offered at a much lower rate for cash. Henry 
 has been very anxious for me to go over one of 
 
350 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 tbe large ocean-going junks, all of wiich are now 
 preparing for sea. We were in a sampan a few 
 days ago, and in passing one of these junks, we 
 made up our minds to go on board. I can scarcely 
 describe the curious appearance of these vessels. 
 The sterns are very high and wide, and are richly 
 ornamented with painted decorations, such as the 
 Chinese Phoenix with outstretched wings and white 
 plumage on a bright red ground. The bows 
 are also decorated with coloured representations 
 of dragons, etc. The men belonging to the junk 
 showed no surprise when I arrived on board their 
 ship, although most probably. I was the first 
 European lady who had ever visited one of these 
 ocean junks. On examining this ship, I saw 
 she was very long and curiously divided into 
 water-tight compartments. The saloon, which we 
 entered on invitation, was at the stern, and 
 we had to descend by deep steps into it from 
 the deck. I noticed a richly carved and 
 gilded altar with a lighted lamp hanging before 
 it, at the end of the saloon, and in a niche was 
 the image of Tien-Hau, the goddess worshipped 
 by all sailors. This goddess is regarded by the 
 Chinese as the queen of heaven. Before the vessel 
 starts on any voyage, Tauist priests are engaged 
 to go on board and hold a religious service, 
 asking for the goddess's protection of the ship and 
 crew during the ensuing voyage. On the deck 
 
FQUETBEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 351 
 
 there were five large cisterns for fresh water, 
 made of wooden planks, the seams of which were 
 made water-tight hy means of chunam. The two 
 masts of the vessel were without yards, and, 
 having little or no rigging, looked very bare. 
 The rudder and its tiller were colossal in size. We 
 asked to see the compass, which we found to be 
 one of a most primitive kind, possibly not much 
 improved since its use was first discovered by the 
 Chinese, B.C. 2634. We were surprised when one 
 of the sailors accosted us in broken English, and 
 on inquiring of him where he had learnt it, he 
 told us that he had been a sailor on an English 
 steamer. These ocean junks carry merchandise 
 from one port to another. Their number has of 
 late much decreased in consequence of the great 
 many English steamers now employed in these 
 waters. This morning a friend, who is captain of 
 one of the Chinese gun-boats, took us in a small 
 steam launch to his ship. Five of these gun- 
 boats belonging to the Chinese government, which 
 were built in England, are manned by Chinese, 
 and are commanded and officered by Englishmen. 
 They are employed by the Chinese government to 
 pursue and destroy pirates, and to demolish villages 
 inhabited by them. Captain Godsil has just re- 
 turned from a very successful voyage. He de-' 
 stroyed in the. gulf of Tonquin eleven piratical 
 junks, and two piratical villages. He accomplished 
 
352 FOTJETBEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 this with his own crew only, who do not muster 
 more than eighty. The mandarin (one of whom 
 always accompanies these vessels so that he may 
 be responsible to his government for any junks 
 taken or villages destroyed) had gone off in a boat 
 with some of Captain Godsil's men, to collect the 
 crews of his war junks and prepare for the attack. 
 He did not hurry back, and arrived an hour and a 
 half after the piratical junks had been captured 
 and the villages destroyed by Captain Godsil. 
 There is not the slightest chance of the true de- 
 scription of this adventure reaching the Viceroy's 
 ears, as the mandarin sends in the report of the 
 voyage to him, and so of course will take the 
 whole credit of the affair to himself, and will 
 probably receive promotion for his supposed daring 
 exploit. 
 
 All the pirates captured by Captain Godsil, 
 amounting to two hundred men, were sent to 
 the prison in the district where they were 
 taken, and will be, or rather ate probably already 
 executed. 
 
 The Chinese man-of-war's men look remarkably 
 well. They are now dressed in their winter 
 uniform, blue cotton shirt and trousers, with a 
 bright red sash round their waists. Their hats 
 are large straw hats with wide brims, worn off the 
 forehead. In summer their uniforiji is white, with 
 the red sash. We witnessed a most interesting 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 353 
 
 festival, fourteen days ago, which: was given in 
 honour of the Tu-ti (pronounced Tdo-te), the gods 
 of the earth. This festival is held in many parts 
 of the city, and generally takes place in the squares 
 in front of temples. There was a great crowd 
 where we were, and for some time, to avoid the 
 pressure of the people, we sat in the committee- 
 room of the temple. Here men were , writing 
 names of the givers of prizes on pieces of ted 
 paper. As usual, the ceremony did not begin for 
 more than an hour after the time advertised. 
 When the preparations were nearly completed we 
 went out of the committee-room and were admitted 
 into a little open-air theatre, belonging to, and 
 opposite, the temple, and a form was placed for 
 us on which we stood to witness the proceedings." 
 
 The prizes were displayed on shelves in the open- 
 air theatre, and were, we thought, most trumpery 
 in character. They consisted of high erections orna- 
 mented with red and white paper, artificial flowers, 
 and figures made in pasteboard and coloured. • ' 
 
 We were told, however, that some of the pirizes 
 were valuable, as jadestone bangles were kis- 
 pended from them. These erections represented 
 houses of several storeys, with lots of little figures 
 in them, many of which nodded their heads, 
 and shook their arms and legs. Each prize was 
 numbered, and differed in form and decoration. 
 In some there were representations of men on 
 
 2 A 
 
354 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 horseback (such creatures the horses were), and 
 small figures dressed in grand silk, etc. The faces 
 of all the figures were of the same much-admired 
 style. The eyebrows slanted up towards the fore- 
 head, the eyes were narrow slits. In the centre 
 of the square a platform had been erected, on 
 which three men stood, and when the proper time 
 arrived, they received from one of the members 
 of the guild which defrayed the costs of the festival, 
 a short bamboo gun, from which, when it was fired 
 off, a small ball shot up high into the air. As it 
 was descending there was a great scuffle amongst 
 tlie dense crowd eager to catch it, and sometimes a 
 fight took place. The man who was so fortunate 
 as to catch it, walked up some steps to the elders 
 of the district who were seated on a dais, and 
 his name was inscribed in a book as the winner of 
 the particular prize which had just been shot for. 
 The first two successful men belonged to the 
 upper classes, others who won prizes were of the 
 lower orders. It is supposed by the Chinese that 
 the ball is directed towards the man who catches 
 it, by the Tu-ti, and therefore he is regarded as 
 favoured by these gods. The. prizes are carried 
 to the homes of those who have gained them, after 
 the ceremony is over, to the accompaniment of 
 music, and they are placed upon ancestral altars. 
 They are held to be most acceptable offerings 
 to the spirits of departed ancestors. In the 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 355 
 
 usual thrifty way of the Chinese, the guild secures 
 the prizes for the following year by making each 
 winner enter his name in a book, with a written 
 prpmise to give at the festival of Tu-ti, in the 
 following year, a prize costing the same amount of 
 money as the one he has just received. I was 
 much amused to see the means employed to de- 
 scribe the prize and its number to the people. 
 Two men walked about with long bamboo poles 
 bent at the top, fi-om which swung pieces of red 
 paper with the number and description of the 
 prize on them in Chinese characters. The wind 
 was high, and the ball, when discharged from the 
 miniature gun, often alighted on the wide roof of 
 the temple, and, when this was the case, men who 
 were placed on the roof threw it amidst the crowd 
 below. Some men of most respectable appearance 
 held long strings of fire--crackers which they let 
 off. The loud and long-continued report was 
 deafening — and a volley of these fire-crackers was 
 let off between each struggle for a prize. Gongs 
 and musical instruments added their quota to the 
 prevailing hubbub. The crowd was great and was 
 composed of the lowest class of people as well 
 as of some well-dressed men. When we passed 
 through them on leaving our retreat, they were 
 very polite. They stared, of course, but made 
 way for us. 
 
 Amongst the few people who were admitted to 
 
 2 A 2 
 
356 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 the small open-air theatre, besides ourselves, was 
 a beautiful Tartar girl, who had regular features 
 and a transparent complexion. She would have 
 made a lovely picture just as she was, with a 
 curious little band of bright-coloured stuif worn 
 across her forehead. 
 
 On leaving the square in which this festival was 
 being celebrated, we went into a Tery fine ancestral 
 hall belonging to the clan Tarn. It is the largest 
 building of the kind in Canton. Above the altar 
 we saw a vast number of ancestral tablets, which 
 are computed at from three thousand to four 
 thousand. In the centre of the building there is a 
 very spacious quadrangle on each side of which are 
 several cells for the use of students. All members 
 of the clan Tarn can claim board and lodging in 
 this ancestral hall when reading for their degrees. 
 When we visited it many young men, members 
 of the clan, were residing in it, and preparing 
 themselves for the ensuing literary examinations. 
 Henry had been far from well all the morning, and 
 now felt that it would be impossible for him to 
 continue his walk home. He, therefore, went out 
 of the hall, in order to hire a chair, and I was thus 
 left alone for several minutes. For sometime I 
 had 'seen several pairs of black eyes peeping at 
 me from the various apartments on each side. The 
 students now becoming bolder, advanced, stared 
 at me and were evidently much surprised, and 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 357 
 
 apparently shocked to see me in their hall. I did 
 not at the time understand the cause of their sur- 
 prise, nor had I heard then that one of the many, 
 rules painted on a board placed in the porch of the 
 hall was as follows : " Females shall not be allowed 
 to enter this building." When Henry returned to 
 me we inspected a lofty brick tower forming a 
 part of this large pile of ancestral buildings. To 
 thi? tower, dedicated to Man-Chaong, the god of 
 learning, the students of the clan resort and pray 
 to the idol for success in their approaching 
 literary examinations. 
 
 On continuing our journey through the city 
 towards Shameen, we saw several gatherings ipi 
 honour of the Tu-ti. They were similar, in all 
 respects, to the one which I have just described. 
 ■ In the evening of this day we went by invita- 
 tion to a Chinese gentleman's house to see a private 
 display of fireworks which he was giving in honour 
 of the Tu-ti. We sat in the picturesque garden, that 
 is, the ladies of the family and I, immediately close 
 to a large piece of artificial water. On the opposite 
 side ofit stood the family theatre* with its beautiful, 
 carved double roof, A temporary bamboo platform 
 had been erected over the pond, an4 on this the fire- 
 works were let off. The display was very grand, 
 
 * As a rule, wealthy Chinese families have private theatres 
 in their houses or grounds, more especially to provide amuse- 
 ment for the ladies of the /amiUeS), 
 
358 POUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 and altogether unlike any fireworks I had seen in 
 Europe. There were thirteen set pieces represent- 
 ing groups of figures which constantly changed 
 their positions. In one, a man mounted on a horse, 
 fell from the animal and lay beside it. In another 
 a dragon vomited fire. Out of one piece, which 
 was very well managed, strings of pagodas fell 
 down, and from another, innumerable lanterns 
 were suspended. Each of these set pieces ended 
 in a dazzling display of gold and silver fire. 
 
 The scene around me was truly oriental. We 
 ladies were surrounded by innumerable amahs and 
 slaves, who waited upon and chatted with us. 
 The elder ladies smoked, that is to say they took 
 occasional whiffs out of copper pipes with long 
 stems, presented to them by the amahs. They 
 just turned their heads slightly, took whiffs, and 
 the pipes were withdrawn by the amahs, to be 
 re-lighted in a few minutes. The amahs frequently 
 handed lacquei'ed boxes divided into compart- 
 ments and filled with various kinds of preserved 
 fruits. 
 
 The ladies were either eating some of this fruit 
 or splitting melon seeds between their front teeth, 
 the whole time. I very much liked the sugar- 
 candy and the preserved fruits, but I could not 
 swallow some of the sweets that were put into my 
 mouth, which had at the same time a sweet, a 
 bitter, and an acid flavour. My enjoyment of 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 359 
 
 the fruit was also much diminished by the fact 
 that the particular amah, who waited upon me, 
 took a silver hair-pin from her coiffure, stuck 
 it into the preserve, and then put the preserve 
 into my mouth.. The gentlemen were seated at 
 some distance from us, and during the whole 
 evening there was no communication between 
 the party of gentlemen and that of the ladies. 
 We thoroughly enjoyed our evening, and did not 
 return home until midnight. 
 
 LETTER XXXVII. 
 
 Cantok, March 26th, 1878. 
 
 My DEAR Mother, 
 
 We had a very pleasant Chinese luncheon- 
 party two or three days ago. Amongst our 
 guests was our friend Mr. 'Ng, who has the 
 beautiful house and grounds at Honam, You can 
 imagine the size of his residence, when 1 tell 
 you that it takes two hours to go over the house, 
 and its numerous gardens and garden houses. 
 He was accompanied by three of his friends, 
 one of whom was an ex-chief justice of the vast 
 province of Szechuen, which in area is larger than 
 England. He filled a most responsible and high 
 position. I could only wonder, as I looked at 
 him, how many miserable prisoners he had con- 
 
360 FOUKTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 demned to be executed. He is a fine-looking man, 
 and the dress he wore was very handsome. His 
 long, dark rich brown silk coat was lined through- 
 out with fur ; he showed us this fur lining when 
 we pressed him to sit near the fire. It is by thick 
 clothing that the Chinese protect themselves from 
 cold. Fire-places are not allowed in any of the 
 houses, kitchens alone excepted, for fear of the 
 harm that might ensue, in case of accident, to 
 neighbouring dwellings in the naiTOw and thickly- 
 populated streets. Small charcoal fires, enclosed 
 in bronze or earthenware pans, are used by the 
 Chinese in very cold weather. These portable 
 fires are placed generally in the centre of the 
 sitting-rooms, and the members of the family 
 congregate around them. The chief justice had 
 very long nails on four of his fingers ; they were 
 from two to three inches in length. I cannot 
 understand how he and others who have these very 
 long nails preserve them from injury, as they do 
 not wear shields over them in society. At night, 
 however, they enclose them in silver or bamboo 
 tubes. I sat at table with our Chinese guests, 
 Henry having explained to them previously, that 
 it is the European custom for the ladies to dine 
 with the gentlemen of their families. The chief 
 justice sat by my side at the top of the table, 
 and Mr. 'Ng was on my left. We gave an 
 European luncheon, only taking care to have no 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 361 
 
 beef on table, and to have the soup made of 
 chicken. Before our guests touched the soup, 
 they asked the question, " Is there any beef in 
 it ? " It is against the teaching of Confucius to 
 eat oxen; he forbids his followers to do so on 
 account of that animal's usefulness in the 
 service of man. Our Chinese guests expressed 
 great satisfaction with pork chops, and also with 
 pancakes and plum pudding which we had pro- 
 vided for them. Before our friends arrived, 
 a large box containing a present from the chief 
 justice was sent to us. Two sets of silk costumes 
 were in the box, one for our little boy and one for 
 .our little girl. In the former the coat was a 
 bright green, and the trousers a brilliant red. 
 The jacket for our baby girl was violet, and 
 the trousers were green. A little cap of many 
 colours for the boy, with a row of silver- 
 gilt figures to wear round it, and a bright 
 coloured head-dress, to be worn round the fore- 
 head (the top of the head being uncovered), for 
 our little girl, accompanied the other garments, 
 There were also silver-gilt bangles, and a pair 
 of jadestone bangles, both very small in size, 
 for immediate use, a silver «hain and an orna- 
 ment in silver, representing the Ki-lun, or fabulous 
 animal, for the boy's neck, and a Chinese lock on a 
 tiny silver chain for our baby girl. Two card-cases 
 
362 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 of carved sandal-wood completed the present. 
 When we thanked the mandarin for his hand- 
 some gift, he said in true Cliinese style, " It is 
 only a very small present, indeed it is but a 
 trifle." He fortunately is a native of the pro- 
 vince of Canton, so Henry and he kept up a 
 conversation together, whilst Mr, 'Ng did his 
 best with me in pigeon English. It was most em- 
 barrassing to have the chief justice at my side, and 
 not to be able to say a word to him. I have told 
 you before how much literary degrees are valued 
 in this country. To whatever class a man may 
 belong, if he attain the B.A. degree, or still more 
 the M.A. degree, he is at once raised in social 
 position. A man who takes his Doctor's degree 
 confers an honour on his whole clan, and becomes 
 a man of distinction. Therefore, when these gentle- 
 men on inquiry learned that Henry had taken 
 his Doctor's degree, it not only raised him but also 
 me in their estimation. They at once rose, chin- 
 chinned Henry, and turning to me addressed me 
 as " Taai-Taai," a higher title than " Nai-Nai." I 
 have not yet told you, I believe, that some few days 
 ago we received a congratulatory present from a 
 military mandarin. • It not only consisted of silk 
 clothes, bangles and ornaments for our children, 
 but also comprised a large packet of sugar^ 
 another of preserved fruit, a third of a different 
 
FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 363 
 
 kind of fruit, and a small chest of tea. All the 
 presents were done up in red paper, and visiting 
 cards of the mandarin accompanied them. 
 
 After our Chinese guests had left, we went in 
 our sampan to Paak-Hok-Tuung, and walked 
 thence to Haang-Kau-Oha-Shaan, where there 
 is a small tea plantation. The tea shrub is an 
 evergreen and greatly resembles the box-tree 
 with which we are so familiar in England. It 
 grows to a height of two or three feet. We saw 
 men and women picking leaves from the plants, 
 and putting them into baskets which they 
 held on their arms. I noticed that they used 
 great care, picking one leaf only at a time from 
 the shrubs. On the following day I had an 
 opportunity of visiting a tea-factory, where I saw 
 the process of picking out stems and bad leaves 
 from quantities of tea spread on rattan-trays. 
 This was done by women and girls who employed 
 both hands at a time with great dexterity. In 
 another department of the factory, I saw men 
 sieving and winnowing tea leaves, the , machine 
 used for winnowing being precisely similar to the 
 machine employed by English farmers in winnow- 
 ing grain. In another department through whicii 
 we passed, men were casting tea leaves into large 
 immoveable fire-pans, rendered hot by charcoal 
 fires. To prevent the leaves from burning, they 
 continually stirred them up with their hands. 
 
364 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 The men, who were very scantily clothed, \vere 
 dripping with perspirHtion whilst engaged in this 
 work. I was somewhat startled on seeing the 
 means used to make Canton green teas. To pro- 
 duce the colour, Prussian blue and turmeric 
 were mixed with the tea leaves. Gypsum was 
 also added, and when I asked the reason why 
 this was done, I was told that it was to give a 
 pungent flavour to the mixture. We finally went 
 into the packing room, and I was much amused 
 at seeing men pressing tea into tea chests by 
 means of their naked feet. 
 
 We arrived at Canton last year just too late 
 to see the State worship and other ceremonies 
 observed by the mandarins at the opening of the 
 ploughing season. We resolved, therefore, to 
 attend them this year, and hearing a few days 
 ago that they were to take place yesterday, we 
 made all the necesr^ary preparations for a visit to 
 the Sin-Nuung-Taau, a temple dedicated to the 
 god of agriculture, where they were to be held. 
 We arose at two a. m., and went in a sampan to a 
 landing-place within half a mile of the temple. 
 When we left the boat it was very dark, and 
 we had to walk over some broken ground, which 
 was attended with difficulty, our only light being 
 a large paper lantern, on which our surname and 
 address were painted in big red characters. We 
 afterwards met several Chinese gentlemen who 
 
POURTEEK MONTHS IN CANTON. 365 
 
 Tvere on the same errand as ourselves^ > Their 
 attendants were bearing lanterns before them, as 
 in China no one is considered respectable who 
 goes out after dark without a lantern. On ap- 
 proaching the temple, we passed, at intervals, 
 groups of soldiers squatting round large lanterns 
 placed on tripods. They were awaiting the 
 arrival of the great mandarins. Their piled arms, 
 jconsisting of matchlocks, spears, and battle-axes, 
 with gay banners arranged behind them,; looked 
 most picturesque as seen by the dim light of the 
 lanterns. Looking into the temple, we saw in 
 the centre of the quadrangle a high stone dais or 
 altar, upon which sacrifices of sheep, and swine, 
 and offerings of fruits were placed. At length, 
 all the officials arrived, and upon entering the 
 temple at once engaged in worship. As the 
 temple, which is very small, was overcrowded and 
 stiflingly hot, we quickly withdrew and seated our- 
 selves on a bench at the gates of the Wing-Shing- 
 Tsze, or " City of the Dead," which was cldse by. 
 It was a strange, weird-looking scene upon which 
 we gazed ; daylight was gradually approaching, 
 and we could just distinguish the sacred storks 
 (or night herons as they may be called) flying to 
 and from their nests in the thickly- wooded grove 
 of the City of the Dead behind us. It: was now 
 five o'clock, and we saw many labourers going 
 to their daily work, and several market-gardepers 
 
366 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 passed us, carrying the produce of their gardens 
 towards the city. They were evidently amused 
 at our appearance, as they all turned rouad 
 and stared at us. Several lepers,- having a most 
 loathsome appearance, also passed the place 
 where we were sitting. They came from some 
 mat huts erected for them on the top of a 
 neighbouring hill by humane persons, there 
 being no room for them in the asylum for lepers. 
 These unfortunate creatures had not come to see 
 the State ceremony which was then being held, 
 but to await the arrival of funeral processions 
 passing from the city to the neighbouring 
 cemeteries, with the view of extorting money 
 from the mourners. This custom is practised 
 daily by lepers. Immediately in front of us there 
 was a small field, belonging to the temple of the 
 god of agriculture, irrigated and made ready for 
 ploughing. It was intersected by nine long 
 narrow wooden platforms, each of which was 
 raised about a foot from the ground and covered 
 by a mat roof. The mandarins, when ploughing, 
 walked along these temporary platforms, and sO 
 avoided the mud and slnsh with which the paddy 
 field was covered. Nine peasants dressed in yellow 
 now brought red ploughs into the field, to each of 
 which a buffalo was yoked. No sooner were these 
 preparations completed than a stir amongst the 
 soldiers on duty at the gates of the temple showed 
 
FOUKTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 367 
 
 that the officials had tinished tlieir worship. We, 
 therefore, took our position close to the platform 
 on which the Viceroy was to walk while ploughing 
 his furrows. We now observeH that all the officials, 
 attended by a number of singing boys wearing 
 yellow robes, were coming towards the field. The 
 Viceroy and goyernor were conducted to the two 
 centre platforms ; the Tartar General, the Pro- 
 vincial Treasurer, the Chief Justice, the Literary 
 Chancellor, and three other officials, occupying 
 the side platforms. These nine high mandarins 
 were dressed alike in robes which are only worn on 
 this and similar occasions. The robes were long, 
 made in dark blue silk, with patterns of dra,L;ons 
 on them worked in gold thread. They were 
 tucked up in front by belts worn round the 
 waist. The costumes were completed by court 
 hats trimmed with red floss fringe. Each official 
 carried a small wand in his hand, which was 
 wound round by silk threads of five colours. 
 These wands were supposed to represent whips, 
 The singing boys now arranged themselves on the 
 banks of the paddy field, and at the command oi 
 the master of ceremonies burst forth into hymns oi 
 praise. The officials, too, at this moment, placed 
 their hands on the ploughs and began to plough 
 their nine furrows. Each of these State plough- 
 men was followed by two mandarirs, who scattered 
 
368 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 rice seed from boxes, which they held in their 
 hands. These amateur ploughmen and sowers of 
 seed walked up and down their respective plat- 
 forms nine times, and the ceremony was then 
 brought to a close. 
 
 You would have been greatly amused had you 
 witnessed this State ceremony. The officials were 
 brimful of pomposity, walking in the peculiar 
 mandarin gait, with countenances unmoved, all 
 expression banished from them. This ceremony 
 is observed on the same day, throughout the 
 length and breadth of China. The Emperor 
 -himself takes part in it, ploughing his nine fur- 
 rows with a yellow plough. However much we 
 may laugh at some of the details of this singular 
 ceremony, we must acknowledge that a religious 
 feeling has prompted the nation at large to ask 
 a blessing upon the plough and all arable lands 
 of the country. It is of great antiquity, having 
 been observed by the Chinese for several centu- 
 ries. On our way to rejoin our boat we met a 
 strange procession of thirty or forty men dressed 
 in long white sackcloth garments, with white 
 bandages, like nightcaps, round their heads. 
 They were walking in Indian file along a narrow 
 bank. We conjectured that they were going to 
 the " City of the Dead " to remove the remains of 
 a departed relative to a newly-made tomb in one 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 369 
 
 of the neiglibouring cemeteries. Still, these 
 mourners must have been near of kin to the 
 deceased, as sackcloth garments are only worn 
 ty those immediately related to the departed one. 
 Friends attending a funeral wear a strip of white 
 cloth only round their foreheads. 
 
 LETTEE XXXVIII. 
 
 Canton, April 6tli, 1878. 
 
 My dear Mother, 
 
 We are anxious to make several excursions 
 up the river before the weather becomes too warm 
 for us to enjoy them, so we arranged yesterday to 
 go up the river as far as Meou-Yu-Tau, a dis- 
 tance of twenty-five miles from Canton. We were 
 obliged to wait until eleven o'clock a.m., when the 
 tide turned in our favour. We engaged a slipper 
 boat with four strong men in it, and as Henry was 
 anxious for us to see as much as possible of the 
 country, we had the mat roof taken off; the 
 boat thus became nothing more than a kind of 
 raft. Most fortunately we had a lovely day for 
 our excursion, the sun shining fiercely only at 
 intervals. On going up the river we soon lost all 
 trace of the city of Canton, and were in the midst 
 of very pretty scenery. The Pearl Eiver is noble in 
 its width, and the branch of it on which we were 
 
 2 B 
 
370 FOUKTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 travelliBg bends constantly; the effect in many- 
 parts was like lake scenery. The chains of 
 mountains were beautiful, that of the White 
 Cloud Mountains, the favourite resort of all 
 Europeans living in Canton, being on the right as 
 we passed up the river. In front of us there was 
 another chain, called by the Chinese " The Three 
 Chignons," from the fact that each of its three 
 peaks is supposed to resemble a Chinese lady's 
 coiffure. We passed a great number of wheat 
 fields, also some rice lands. The small beds of 
 the seedlings ready to be transplanted into larger 
 fields, were brilliantly green in colour. There were 
 many herds of buffaloes on the banks of the river 
 belonging to the various farms we passed. Many 
 of the farmers must be rich men, to judge by the 
 large herds of buffaloes kept on their farms. 
 In many cases these animals were ploughing the 
 land. The country was beautiful through which 
 we passed, with mountains in the distance, paddy 
 and wheat fields, and beautiful groves of bamboo 
 and other trees in the foreground ; and then, to 
 g,dd to the charm of the scene, there were many 
 and various shaped boats on the river. Several 
 passenger boats passed us, with their large 
 butterfly-wing shaped sails spread, crowded with 
 passengers .who were going to their native 
 villages to worship the tombs. On the hills were 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 371 
 
 groups of Chinese engaged in religious worship at 
 the various graves. The last hour of our jour- 
 ney we made very slow progress, as the tide had 
 turned against us. Our men got out of the boat 
 and went on to the left-hand bank of the river 
 to tow us. Poor men, they had hard work, and 
 were obliged occasionally to take to- swimming, 
 as th^re were so many gaps in the bank, caused by 
 the tributary streams flowing into the main river. 
 This must, one would think, have been injurious 
 to them, considering the state of intense heat they 
 were in from towing the boat. They were very 
 cheerful, and did not grumble once during their 
 hard day's work. At last we came in sight of our 
 destination, a literary pagoda,* but it was still 
 some long way off, and it took us an hour longer 
 to reach it. The river had become very narrow, 
 and the scenery around was lovely. We were 
 now at the foot of the Chignon Mountains, and 
 passed quite near to several picturesque villages, 
 each one having its large ancestral hall and 
 tutelary temple. We went close to one village, 
 
 * These literary pagodas abound on the banks of the rivers 
 and creeks around Canton. They are supposed to resemble a 
 Chinese pencil in form — hence their name. They are built 
 either in three or five storeys, very rarely in storeys of an even 
 number. They are often beautifully ornamented with porcelain 
 frescoes and arabesques. They differ from the lai-ger pagodas 
 somewhat in form, and have no projecting verandahs. 
 
 2 B 2 
 
372 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 the men pulling towards it, in order to avoid the 
 strong current in the middle of the stream. The 
 inhabitants ran out of their houses and clustered 
 on the banks of the river to stare at us. I was 
 much struck with the pretty picture a ferry-boat 
 made, with its landing-place, on the opposite side 
 of the river. Men and women, with their large 
 picturesque hats, were waiting there for the 
 ferry-boat. This landing-place was covered over 
 by a stone roof, evidently erected by some one 
 as a work of merit to shelter wayfarers when 
 waiting to cross the ferry. I saw, also, several 
 sampans drawn up on the bank of the river 
 near to this village. The children of the boats 
 were playing round the only homes they knew, 
 and were apparently enjoying their run ashore. 
 Shortly after this we arrived at the point where we 
 intended to lunch. It was now three o'clock in 
 the afternoon. The scene before us was so lovely 
 that I expressed a wish to remain a week at this 
 place, but you will see that I soon had reason to 
 change my mind. 
 
 There are three literary pagodas in sight at 
 this point, and it was at the foot of the first that 
 we arranged to have our luncheon. We got out 
 of our boat and took up our position with our 
 faces turned to the river, our backs resting against 
 the side of the hill. Close to us there was a 
 
374 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 beautiful herd of oxen with faces much re- 
 sembling Alderney cattle. The peculiar humps, 
 however, which they had on their shoulders 
 made them most unlike European oxen. There 
 was a ferry at this place, and whilst the coolie 
 was preparing our luncheon, we were much inter- 
 ested at watching the men who were endeavouring 
 to make the oxen swim across the river. At last, 
 as the creatures could not be induced to go alone, 
 they tied three of them together, and a man taking 
 the end of the rope in his hand entered the ferry- 
 boat. Another man tied three more oxen together, 
 and holding the rope in his hand also got into the 
 boat. The animals were now compelled to take to 
 the water, and we saw them swim across the 
 river, which is tolerably deep and wide at this 
 point, their heads only being visible out of the 
 water. When our coolie had prepared everything, 
 we sat down to our luncheon with good appetites, 
 making up our minds to explore the hill and the 
 pagoda after we had refreshed ourselves. Whilst 
 we were lunching, a man who had crossed in 
 the returning ferry-boat, came up and spoke to 
 Henry. He was quite civil in manner, and drank 
 a cup of tea which was handed to him. He 
 then left and went on to a village which was not 
 more than a quarter of a mile from us. We con- 
 tinued our luncheon in perfect tranquillity of mind. 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 375 
 
 our dog Ah-Pa frisking about us. In a short time 
 three men came up from the village and stood 
 close to us, eyeing the spoons, and everything we 
 had with us. They were much struck with our 
 bamboo chairs, which they said were good. My 
 back was turned to them, and so I did not at 
 first see their ill-favoured countenances, nor the 
 looks which, as Henry told me afterwards, they 
 cast on my onyx earrings and rings, which I un- 
 fortunately wore that day. Possibly they may 
 have thought them of great value. But I must 
 give you a description of these three villainous- 
 looking men, whom, on turning round, I was 
 surprised to see. One of them was in such rags 
 that his clothes would scarcely hang on him ; the 
 second was a most evil-looking man of twenty or 
 less, and the third looked like a ticket-of-leave 
 man. They cast longing eyes at the food, as 
 if they were ravenous. Our coolie ordered them 
 away, but, from his voice, we could see he was 
 much afraid of them. Indeed, he told Henry that 
 he was quite sure they were thieves. The three 
 men then moved a hundred yards or so towards 
 the village, but they stopped and watched us, our 
 coolie S'haking with fear as he packed up the 
 forks, spoons, etc., as quickly as he could. We 
 (Henry, Minnie, and I) then ascended the hill, leav- 
 ing these three wretched-looking men whispering 
 
376 POUETBEN MOSTTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 together below. We were charmed with the 
 exquisite view as we went higher and higher. 
 We could see four or five separate chains of 
 mountains, and pretty valleys, with the river 
 winding its course amongst them. The pagoda 
 we visited is a four storeyed one, but each 
 division of it is so deep that the pagoda is high. 
 
 We went on from the pagoda to the brow of the 
 hill and looked down upon the village with its 
 covered market-place, from which, no doubt, the 
 pretty oxen had been driven, Minnie and I 
 gathered charming wild flowers, one of which was 
 a lovely blue in colour, resembling our Forget-me- 
 not, and another was a red clustered flower, having a 
 sweet scent. Having enjoyed the view, we pre- 
 pared to descend the hill, as we felt that we must 
 soon start on our homeward journey. We had 
 walked on about five minutes, when we heard low 
 voices approaching, and immediately after saw 
 some men stealthily creeping up the side of the 
 hill. To my horror, I recognised the evil-looking 
 fellows who had spoken to us below, and soon 
 saw that these three men had gathered reinforce- 
 ments. First, three came in sight, then another 
 three, and still lower on the hill was one man 
 alone. From, the arrangement of the men, and 
 their stopping immediately upon seeing us, and 
 turning towards us, it was evident that they were 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 377 
 
 bent upon mischief, and we felt sure that they in- 
 tended to attack us. Henry said, " You and Minnie 
 go on in front of me, they mean to do us harm." 
 I must confess that my knees trembled under me, 
 and I dreaded going down the steep hill towards 
 these ruffianly-looking fellows. They arranged 
 themselves in order of attack as we passed near 
 them, and one man, the foremost one, had his 
 hands behind his back with something shining in 
 them, I looked and thought it was a knife, but 
 afterwards I came to the conclusion that it was a 
 light-coloured stick, and that the sun shining 
 brightly on it, gave it the appearance of steel. 
 Another of the men held a thick stick in his hand 
 which had a large knob at the end. The young 
 villainous-looking man held a small basket, 
 probably containing stones, which he must have 
 brought from the village, whilst we were ascending 
 the hill, as he had nothing in his hand when we 
 first saw him. Henry having placed himself 
 between us and the robbers, called to us to move 
 slowly on, and not to show fear, but this was an 
 injunction not easy to follow, as I was in terror 
 lest the men should spring upon Henry and stab 
 him in the back. One hears that these Chinese will 
 hesitate at nothing, will risk everything for a few 
 dollars. We walked on, two of the party quaking 
 as, I believe, neither of us had quaked before in 
 
378 POUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 our lives. Henry maintained a firm, dauntless 
 manner, walking leisurely, and helping Minnie 
 and m^, as we arrived at the sharpest part of the 
 hill. He tept his hand in his buttoned-up coat, 
 and I believe that these men feared to attack, 
 thinking that he carried fire-arms, as the Chinese 
 have an idea that all foreigners carry weapons. I 
 felt as if seven tigers were watching us, ready to 
 spring upon us. At one moment, one of the men 
 made a shrill scream and pushed one of the others 
 towards Henry. Henry knew that this noise is 
 generally a signal of attack, and said calmly, 
 " They are upon us." I looked towards the boat in 
 an agony of fear, to see whether we might rely 
 upon help from our coolie and the boatmen. But, 
 alas ! the broad-shouldered young coolie stood on 
 the bank, his back turned towards us, and the boat- 
 men were in their boat, ready to start if any mis- 
 chief should befall us. The seven robbers turned 
 their faces towards us as we slowly descended 
 the hill. What prevented their attacking us I 
 cannot say, but, on talking it over afterwards, we 
 came to the conclusion that they had intended 
 to attack us at the top of the hill, out of sight 
 of our boatmen, not having anticipated our speedy 
 return from the hill. They may have counted 
 upon waylaying us in the pagoda. Henry's calm, 
 deliberate, attitude saved us from what, I believe. 
 
FOTJETBEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 379 
 
 wbuld have been certain disaster, as an unarmed 
 man, and two defenceless women could have had 
 ■ no chance against these seven villains. I never 
 shall forget my feeling of relief as we stepped into 
 the boat, and at once pushed off from the shore. 
 
 The boatmen, on our reaching the boat, said at 
 once to Henry that we had had a narrow escape 
 from the hands of bad men, that they had expected 
 to see an attack made upon us, feeling assured 
 that the seven men meant mischief, as they saw 
 them creep up the hill. The boatmen went on to 
 say (with how much truth you can imagine) that 
 they had intended to come to our assistance in 
 case of need. As there was a distance of at least 
 ten minutes from the boat to the hill, and they 
 had not moved from their boat when we were in 
 such grievous peril, we felt that their words were 
 not deserving of much credit. Our coolie had evi- 
 dently turned his back, so, in case of disaster, he 
 might say he had seen nothing of it, knew nothing 
 about it. As we pushed off from the shore, the 
 seven men were standing on the side of the hill, 
 looking like vultures disappointed of their prey. 
 We now started on our homeward journey, our faces ' 
 being turned towards most charming scenery. It 
 was not, however, so lovely as the view had been 
 up the river, and I must also add, that I did not 
 feel in so happy a state of mind as before, to enjoy 
 
380 FOTJETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 the country scenes through which we returned. 
 The sun too, soon began to show signs of going 
 down, and all became grey. As we neared the 
 village of Wong-Sha, a long narrow boat, without 
 a light showing from any part of her (a bad sign 
 this, as all boats, excepting those containing 
 men of ill-repute, carry lights after sunset), 
 bore down upon us, and as it came alongside 
 of us, we saw that three or four men were in 
 it. It was a snake-boat, and Henry and the 
 boatmen exclaimed simultaneously that they were 
 thankful that we had not met with it in a more 
 remote part of the river. Fortunately we were 
 in a measure protected by our nearness to Wong- 
 Sha. It occurred to us also that these pirates 
 wished to have nothing to do with Europeans, 
 as they sheered off on seeing us. We reached 
 home at half-past eight p.m., very tired and worn 
 out by the fatigues and excitements we had passed 
 through during the day. 
 
 LETTEE XXXIX. 
 
 Oakton, April lOth, 1878. 
 
 My dear Mother. 
 
 The day before yesterday we went into the 
 city and reinspected many branches of Chinese 
 
POUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 381 
 
 industry. I was much interested in my visit to 
 the dye-works, where I saw the process of dyeing 
 cotton cloths, and had it fully explained to me. 
 In the inner division of the factory, several large 
 vats stood filled with blue dye for printing 
 the blue cotton so much used by the Chinese, or 
 with a prune-coloured dye also used for dyeing 
 cotton stuffs. The blue dye is composed of indigo, 
 water, native wine, and lime. The prune dye is 
 produced by tanning bark, which is brought in 
 large quantities from Siam. The process of dye- 
 ing these cloths is repeated fourteen times, if the 
 colour is to be a dark blue, but four times only, if 
 the colour is to be a light shade of blue. The 
 cotton cloth is then ready to be calendered. I 
 was much amused in watching the primitive 
 means used by the workmen to moisten the fabric 
 before placing it under the stone rollers which are 
 used by the calenderers. They take mouthfuls 
 of water from the spouts of teapots, and then 
 squirt the water from their mouths over the cloth. 
 It is astonishing how much water these men, by 
 practice, can take into their mouths at one time. 
 The calendering is performed by men standing 
 on large granite stones, which they move up and 
 down by their naked feet, the cotton cloth being 
 placed on wooden rollers underneath these stones. 
 On leaving the dye-works we went on to a tobacco 
 
382 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 ■manufactory. Here we saw women emplo3'ed in 
 the upper rooms of the factory, in picking the 
 fibres from the tobacco leaves. They worked most 
 rapidly, and did not leave off as they gazed in 
 surprise upon us. Below, men were engaged in 
 spreading the leaves, which had been prepared by 
 the women, on a wooden platform and trampling 
 them under their naked feet. They sprinkled 
 the leaves occasionally with oil, and then threw 
 a red-coloured powder over them to give them 
 a red colour. The tobacco leaves were then 
 gathered together, and pressed by means of flat 
 boards placed under a large wooden beam. This 
 pressure reduces them into the form of large cakes. 
 Workmen were employed in another part of the 
 factory in cutting these compressed leaves into 
 small particles, and others were weighing certain 
 quantities, and making them up into packets. 
 These packets were then placed in ovens, heated 
 by charcoal, for the purpose of being dried. On 
 being removed from the ovens they were ready 
 to be sold wholesale or retail to customers. In 
 passing through Cheung-Lok street, we entered 
 some small shops to inspect specimens of wood- 
 carving. Some which were richly carved were 
 intended for temple decorations or for the orna- 
 mentation of private houses. The devices in 
 many instances were very strange. The street 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 383 
 
 occupied by lapidaries, who are engaged in ciittiDg 
 jadestone, was the next place at which we made a 
 halt. We went into three or four of these work- 
 shops, and I was much amused by the cool manner 
 ill which Henry took out jadestone thumb-rings, 
 bracelets, or whatever was in the machines, and 
 showed them to me. The workmen laughed and 
 nodded, and, knowing Henry so well from his 
 constant visits to their workshops, they stopped or 
 went on with their work as he directed. The 
 cutting of the large blocks of jadestone is done 
 by means of wire saws, which are made in the 
 form of bows having strings of plaited steel wire. 
 The sawyers stand on each side of the block of 
 jadestone, and pull the wire saw backwards and 
 forwards in a horizontal direction. They drop 
 emery powder mixed with water on the part of 
 the stone they are cutting. When the blocks of 
 jadestone liave been divided into pieces, they are 
 handed on to other lapidaries who form them 
 into ornaments by small circular saws. The jade- 
 stone varies much in colour, from white to light 
 and dark green. Having watched the lapidaries 
 for some time, we went on to the Ch'uung-Shau- 
 Tsze, a monastery in which the Buddha of lon- 
 gevity is worshipped. He is represented as a 
 very fat, merry-looking old man. Portraits of him 
 are often to be seen in shops where pictures are 
 
384 FOUBTBEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 sold, and little bronze and porcelain images of him 
 are for sale in the curiosity shops. There is a pretty- 
 landscape garden attached to this monastery, and, 
 in a nursery garden belonging to it, we saw large 
 earthenware yessels filled with gold fish. There 
 were square troughs containing many of these 
 brilliant creatures in all stages of growth, from 
 spawn up to the fully-grown fish. This Chinese 
 golden carp has a very long tail divided in the 
 centre, with two drooping fans on each side. Its 
 eyes are peculiarly prominent. It is indigenous 
 to the country. We afterwards inspected some 
 carvings in mother-of-pearl, which were beauti- 
 fully executed. The carving is deep and rich. 
 This is surprising, as the instruments used by the 
 workmen are of a most primitive kind. We 
 also visited some of the shops where silk-weaving . 
 was going on. As you enter the Chow Ch'uung- 
 Tuung street, you hear the sound of shuttles being 
 thrown rapidly from one side of the looms to thb 
 other. This street is the very centre of the silk- 
 weaving district of the city of Canton. The loom 
 used for plain weaving differs little from that which 
 is employed in England, but the frames in use here 
 for fancy silks are most dissimilar to those used 
 in England for the same purpose, and are most 
 primitive in form. The draw-boy sits above the 
 frame, and pulls the strings by which he brings 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 385 
 
 down the warp-thread through which the shuttle 
 has to pass to form the pattern. I saw many 
 beautiful webs of silk being made, and I was 
 struck by some of the colours, which were lovely 
 in shade. 
 
 We were now quite close to one of the water 
 streets. I do not remember whether I have 
 described these water lanes to you, in a former 
 letter. They are most curious, and remind all 
 European travellers of the water streets of Venice, 
 only here you have no palaces, but ordinary 
 houses on each side of them. As I stood in an 
 open doorway, looking down one of these water 
 streets, namely that which is called, in Chinese, 
 Sai-Hoi, I could imagine that there must be a 
 great resemblance. The inhabitants of the houses 
 step out of their doors into boats, when they want 
 to go from their homes, A very large water-gate, 
 through which boats pass within and without the 
 walls of the city, stands at the end of this water 
 street. Leaving this place, we went through 
 the street called Chong-Uen-Fong, famous for its 
 beautiful embroidery. We entered into many of 
 the open shops where men and boys were working 
 beautiful patterns on silk or satin in frames. 
 I saw most lovely pieces of embroidery in hand, 
 some of which were intended for large ancestral, 
 or longevity banners, and others as coverings 
 
 2 c 
 
386 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 for altars. In some cases the embroidery was 
 for mandarins' dresses or ladies' tunics. The 
 shading of colours was most charming, and I 
 thought the flowers and butterflies introduced 
 into the patterns were exquisitely worked. The 
 pattern is sketched in white chalk, on the silk 
 or satin before the embroidery is begun. I am 
 much ill lore with this rich work, and also with 
 the beautiful fringes made by the Chinese. The 
 embroidery varies very much in quality, a fact 
 you do not observe so much at first, but as the 
 eye becomes educated, you can detect the different 
 qualities at once. We paid a most interesting 
 visit to the shop of a gold-beater in this street. 
 In this shop two men were beating out gold into 
 extremely fine sheets. The gold was placed 
 between pieces of black paper, and several of 
 them being so arranged, they were covered over 
 with thick white pasteboard, then placed on a 
 block of unpolished marble. The men who sat 
 on each side of the block proceeded to beat the 
 packets of gold with extremely heavy hammers, 
 and whilst they were so employed streams of 
 perspiration fell from their naked shoulders. I 
 was amused at seeing two boys who stood behind 
 the.-e workmen, and fanned them without ceasing, 
 i^ome shops iu this neighbourhood, in which horn 
 lanterns are made and exposed for sale, much 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 387 
 
 pleased me. I wish you could see these lanterns, 
 which are manufactured by a singular process, and 
 are made in most varied shapes and sizes. Many of 
 them are beautifully painted, and framed in black 
 carved wood. I cannot tell you all I saw in these 
 interesting streets, but I may mention the work 
 ia kingfisher's feathers which we examined, and 
 the beautiful feather fans made from the plumage 
 of many a lovely bird. As fans are such necessary 
 articles for use in this country, the supply is most 
 varied, and the prices asked for them ranges from 
 a few cash to many dollars. The carving in 
 ivory too, by means of very primitive instruments, 
 came under our notice. I saw an elephant's 
 tusk which was being exquisitely carved. It had 
 been some months under the workman's hands, and 
 was still far from completion. It was to be offered 
 for sale at a very high price. We now felt in 
 need of some refreshment, and therefore went 
 into a large tea-saloon. I was very tired with 
 my morning's work, but I had enjoyed it most 
 thoroughly. It was intensely interesting to see 
 the industries which are carried on at the pre- 
 sent moment in this country in a precisely simi- 
 lar manner as they were in ages past, and I felt 
 while inspecting them as if I had been removed 
 into centuries long since gone by. And now I 
 must give you a description of the tea-saloon 
 
 2 c 2 
 
388 rOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 into which we entered in search of refreshments. 
 It, as is the rule with all these tea-saloons, of 
 which there are very many in Canton, consists of 
 two or three storeys, in each of which small tables 
 are placed with chairs arranged around them. 
 These saloons are very grand, being richly orna- 
 mented with carver] wood-work, and all the ar- 
 rangements in them are beautifully clean. In 
 fact they are infinitely superior in all particulars 
 to public-houses in Europe, tlie place of which 
 they supply in China. There is a furnace in eacli 
 storey which supplies boiling water for the tea, 
 the only beverage consumed in these saloons. On 
 taking our seats in the upper room, round one of 
 ihe small tables, a lacquerware box, divided into 
 compartments and containing cakes of various 
 kinds and many preserved fruits, was placed 
 before us ; cups of tea, too, were handed to us. 
 You cannot help being struck with the republican 
 spirit which is shown in this conservative country 
 in many particulars. In these saloons rich and 
 poor occupy the same room; a man in silk at 
 one table, a man in cotton clothes at another. In 
 Canton you do not see any Chinese women in 
 these saloons. We much enjoyed our tea-cakes, 
 preserved cherries, ginger, plums, and kum-kwats. 
 When we had finished our repast, we called 
 one of the waiting-men to us, for the purpose 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 389 
 
 of paying our bill. And now I saw the method 
 they adopt for charging. The waiter took up the 
 lacquerware box, and counted how many cakes 
 and fruits remained in it, he knowing the number 
 of each which it contnined previous to its having 
 been placed before us. As we were passing out 
 of the room, this waiter called out the sum we 
 were indebted, to an accountant, who sat behind a 
 little counter at the door. And here we paid a 
 trifling sum, so it seemed to me, for our luncheon. 
 On going downstairs Henry took me into the 
 large kitchen, at the back of the building, where 
 several cooks were occupied in making cakes of 
 different kinds, and from the piles and piles of 
 little cakes just ready for use, one felt how much 
 these places of refreshment must be' resorted to 
 by the Chinese. How incalculable would be the 
 advantages to the English people, if similar re- 
 freshment-rooms were established in England; 
 where neither wine nor spirits would tempt the 
 poor man to drink away his hardly-earned wages. 
 When we arrived at the door of the tea-saloon, 
 we found the street was much crowded, and, on 
 asking the reason, were told that the procession 
 of Paak-tai was about to pass down the street. 
 We, therefore, took up our station at the door 
 of the tea-saloon to see it go by. As you will 
 be sure to remember my long description of a 
 
390 FOUETEBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 similar procession last year, I need not say much 
 about this one, only that it differed in some 
 particulars from the first I had seen. It was 
 not on so large a scale, but the umbrellas, 
 banners, etc., carried in it were new, and con- 
 sequently Tery bright. One of its features I 
 had not observed in the procession of last year. 
 Various scenes were represented by children 
 and young people, who were grouped on port- 
 able platforms. I saw, in one of these set 
 pieces, a fortune-teller represented, with a lady 
 consulting him. In another two ladies were 
 playing cards. In one group the actors (children) 
 were seated in a boat. A garden scene, with a 
 group of people sitting in it, was prettily ar- 
 ranged. The girls composing some of these 
 groups were immensely rouged, and wore beauti- 
 fully embroidered silk costumes. The little boys 
 wore beards, or long moustaches, and slanting 
 eyebrows were gummed on to their foreheads. 
 
 After the procession had passed, we paid a 
 hurried visit to the Kwoh-Laan, or fruit market.* 
 
 * In this market, -whioh is one of great extent, there is for 
 sale, at all seasons of the year, an almost countless variety of 
 fruits. Of the fruits which, at stated times, are here exposed 
 for sale, we may enumerate the orange, citron, pummelo, apple, 
 rose-apple, custard-apple, pine-apple, pear, carambola, quince; 
 guava, loquat, pomegranate, pumpkin, plantain, apricot, peach, 
 plum, persimmon, grape, mango, melon, mulberry, lichi, 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON, 391 
 
 There is always a great variety of fruit exposed 
 for sale in this, the Covent Garden of Canton, and 
 I often pass through it to see the fruits, many of 
 .which are strange to me. 
 
 We had a very enjoyable excursion yesterday, 
 some little way up the Fa-ti creek, our intention 
 in starting being to go to a literary pagoda at 
 Nam-Cheang and to take our afternoon tea at the 
 foot of it. But first we paid, in passing, a visit to 
 two or three of the gardens at Fa-ti, It is always 
 a pleasure to me to stroll through these curious 
 gardens. The first impression of them has naturally 
 worn ofi', but their singularity strikes me afresh 
 each time I enter them. It would be impossible 
 to bring them as they are before your imagination, 
 as you have seen nothing of the kind in England. 
 I will try, however, to give you a short description 
 of them. In the first place, the Chinese do not 
 grow their flowers in beds, nor let them spread 
 from one to the other as we do. They grow all 
 their flowers in pots. Kows of them line the 
 paths in these gardens, and I have seen lovely 
 shows of them, including roses, cockscombs, camel- 
 lias, magnolias, chrysanthema, rhododendrons, 
 balsams, azaleas, the narcissus, lotus, etc. As I 
 
 wampee, date, luung-ngaan, arbutus, olive, coeoa-Dut, walnut, 
 chestnut, -watei-ohestnut, and pea-nut, — Vide Archdeacon 
 Gray's ' Walks in the City of Canton.' 
 
392 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 have walked up and down these gardens again 
 and again, I have been amused at seeing numbers 
 and numbers of plants trained over wire shapes 
 into various devices, such as deer, serpents, 
 dolphins, pagodas, birds, fans, boats, flower-baskets, 
 and lastly, and by far the most noticeable and 
 numerous, those which are made to represent 
 Englishmen. The latter are most grotesque. 
 The body, down to the knees, is made in a wire 
 shape with the plant trained and cut over it, 
 marking out the outline. A tall hat covers a 
 composition head, which is invariably represented 
 with red hair and whiskers. High black boots 
 are added below the knees, and composition hands 
 holding a stick complete these strange figures. 
 Sometimes earthenware dogs are represented at 
 the heels of these caricatures. Cantonese dogs 
 never follow their masters, they are not trained 
 to do so, but are regarded as watch-dogs only. 
 It therefore strikes the Chinese in this city 
 as most curious to see Europeans followed by 
 their dogs. A stick, too, is not allowed to be 
 used in China, by any man under seventy years 
 of age, and it is , then used as a staff. And so 
 again the habit of able-bodied Europeans carry- 
 ing walking-sticks is very strange to the eyes of 
 the Cantonese. The dwarf-trees, grown in pots, 
 which these gardens contain in great abundance. 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 393 
 
 are -very singular. Some of them, especially the 
 pear-trees, are of great age, and are not more 
 than from one to two feet high. Many have all 
 the appearance of gnarled oaks in miniature. I 
 do not think, howeyer, they are so wonderful as 
 the dwarf-trees which I saw in Japan. The latter 
 appeared to me as possessing more twisted 
 branches, and as being more compressed in form 
 than those to be found in the Fa-ti gardens. 
 We now re-entered our sampan and went on to 
 Nam-Cheang. The literary pagoda, at the foot of 
 which we took our seats, is a graceful structure 
 and charmingly decorated with porcelain fres- 
 coes. The tea was brought to us by our coolie 
 from the boat, boiling water was soon got ready 
 over a little fire of sticks, and we sipped our tea 
 and gazed upon the strange country in front of 
 us. Having finished our tea we went into a small 
 and dirty temple dedicated to the gods of learning. 
 Such frightful idols they were, with a hideous 
 attendant in effigy standing on each side of the 
 chief altar. We then took a stroll through the 
 small village, followed, as we usually are when 
 passing through country villages, by boys and girls, 
 the latter being very considerably in the minority. 
 The girls, without exception, wore their hair cut 
 in a fringe across their foreheads, and I knew 
 from this that they were not only unmarried, but 
 
394 FOUKTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 unaffianced. A young Chinese girl wears her 
 back hair in a single plait hanging over her 
 shoulders, the front hair is brought over the fore- 
 head, but as soon as she is betrothed, the fringe 
 
 BNMAKBIED VILLAGE GIEL. 
 
 is brushed back and the back hair is dressed a la 
 teapot. 
 
 Followed by an admiring throng of village 
 children, we walked on a little way from Nam- 
 Cheang to inspect a large granite arch raised 
 
rOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 395 
 
 in honour of Lau-laong-Shee, a woman who at- 
 tained to the great age of a hundred years, 
 and who in consequence received this post- 
 humous honour. The arch is high, and two 
 figures are carved in relief on it, which repre- 
 sent old age. Characters, engraved on it, pur- 
 port that it is raised by imperial decree, and 
 give the name of the lady thus honoured. 
 This arch was raised some forty years ago. We 
 were so much vexed the other day, on coming 
 home from one of our excursions, to find that a 
 party of ten Chinese ladies had called upon us, I 
 wish they had given us notice of their intended 
 visit, as I should have liked so much to entertain 
 them, and certainly should have stayed at home 
 to receive them. 
 
 LETTER XL. 
 
 Canton, AprU 12th, 1878.* 
 
 My dear Mother, 
 
 I HASTEN to write to you full particulars 
 of a terrible catastrophe which befell our settle- 
 ment yesterday, and which has destroyed several 
 
 * This letter has been re-written from memory, as the letter 
 written at the time and sent to England describing the whirl- 
 wind, was not returned to my family by the friend to whom it 
 was lent for perusal. 
 
396 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 hundred houses in the western suburb of the city. 
 I so much fear that you and all those who have 
 relations living at Canton must have had a 
 severe shock when the telegraphic news of the 
 whirlwind and the destruction it has caused 
 reached England. If you remember, in one of 
 my letters written last August, I told you that 
 we had had a terrific wind which caused us much 
 alarm, and which destroyed some houses in the 
 city. The sound accompanying this last whirl- 
 wind was precisely similar to that I then de- 
 scribed, only very much louder. But before I 
 begin a description of all that happened when 
 the whirlwind broke upon us, I must tell you 
 what singular weather we had had during the 
 earlier part of the day. About eleven o'clock a 
 terrific thunder-storm came on, which was accom- 
 panied by the most violent tropical rain. After 
 that had ceased we were surprised by a shower of 
 hail, and the hailstones we picked up from the 
 floor of our verandah were in some cases as large 
 as walnuts, and of the nature of ice. This hail- 
 storm quickly passed off, and the weather par- 
 tially cleared up. I was in my bedroom after 
 luncheon, at, I believe, about half-past two, when 
 I was attracted towards the window by a curious 
 rushing sound, and on looking out 1 saw a 
 great cloud of what appeared to be fragments 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 397 
 
 and debris being driven madly up the river. I 
 concluded that the great steamer ' Powan,' which 
 was due from Hong-Kong at that hour, had blown 
 up. Immediately though I was undeceived, as the 
 wind was upon us, and the banyan trees in front 
 of our house were literally bent to the ground by 
 its force. I rushed downstairs to Henry, whom I had 
 left in the library, and as he came out of the room 
 at the same moment, we met in the hall. He said 
 to me and to Minnie, who had followed me down 
 stairs, " Get under the staircase, a typhoon is upon 
 us, and the house may come down ! " He had 
 heard the great rushing noise as he was reading 
 in the library, and also a great amount of firing 
 from the junks on the river, and came to the con- 
 clusion that, unlikely as it appeared to be, an at- 
 tack on the foreign settlement was being made by 
 the Chinese. The full force of the whirlwind came 
 upon the front of our house, and so terrific was it 
 for a iew seconds, that it took away our breath, 
 and it seemed impossible that any masonry could 
 withstand the shock. I was looking on the 
 ground for a minute, when my little friend cried 
 out, " Oh, Mrs. Gray, the house is coming down !" 
 How can I convey to your mind any idea of the 
 alarm this exclamation caused me, but on looking 
 up I saw what had given rise to the little girl's fears. 
 The front door, which is' a very high one, gaped 
 
398 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 wide towards us, and it was only the lock and 
 fastening that prevented it falling inwards. The 
 window above it, which is in the form of a half- 
 circle, fell in, glass, framework, and all, at the 
 same moment. The hall lamp, too, was shivered 
 to atoms. Without experiencing it, you cannot 
 imagine what the fearful pressure of wind is on 
 such an occasion. 
 
 I feared for my little ones in their nursery, and 
 tried to rush upstairs, but in vain. I could not 
 open the door of the dining-room, the pressure of 
 wind was so great upon it, for although it 
 was on the sheltered side of the house, the 
 windows were open. I could not go up the front 
 staircase as the glass was falling upon it from the 
 high window. Directly the glass had fallen and 
 I could pass with safety, I ran uptairs, dreading 
 what might have happened, but I found both my 
 little ones asleep in their amahs' arms, happily un- 
 conscious of the fearful danger they had been in. 
 The amahs, who were blanched with fear, cried 
 out, " Oh, mississi, how bad you look !" The agony 
 of mind and the tension of fear for the few minutes 
 that the whirlwind beat against our house, had 
 told upon me. Our drawing-room, which was on 
 the exposed side of the house to the whirlwind, as 
 it came up the river, was most providentially 
 closed ; I think for the first time since the 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 399 
 
 tvarm weather had set in. The coolie, Mfhose 
 duty it was to open the windows and typhoon 
 shutters, had left very early that morning to go 
 into the country to worship the tombs of his 
 ancestors. The other coolie had neglected to 
 unfasten the windows and blinds, so the room 
 was really barricaded against the wind. 
 
 In the meantime, the shrieks and screams which 
 proceeded from the river were most distressing 
 to hear, and we felt sure that terrible destruction 
 was taking place amongst the boat population. 
 When we had sufficiently recovered, and felt 
 that the danger as concerned burselves had passed, 
 we went on to our verandah, and then stepped 
 on to the Bund. I shall never forget the 
 scene that now presented itself to our view. A 
 quarter of an hour before the whirlwind arose 
 I had looked out from this verandah to see what 
 was the matter, as a great noise was made by some 
 of the boat people. An accident had taken place ; 
 a small boat having been run down by a junk. 
 As I stood there, I noticed how full the river was 
 of craft ; on the right-hand side there was a crowd 
 of small boats, in front a large English steamer 
 at anchor, surrounded by lighters discharging their 
 cargo into her ; a little to the left were two small 
 yachts at anchor, and numerous boats were plying 
 about the river — and now, when I looked again, 
 
400 FOUBTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 all was changed: the small boats were keel 
 upwards, and the unfortunate boatmen were, I 
 saw, crawling from underneath them on to the 
 keels ; one yacht had disappeared, the other still 
 rode at anchor, but her mast lay alongside of her in 
 the river. The steamer alone remained uninjured, 
 but the captain afterwards told us that had the 
 wind struck her midship she would have turned 
 over. Most fortunately the tide was changing at 
 the moment, and she was in the act of turning 
 round, so was struck on the stern by the whirl- 
 wind. The lighters suffered fearfully ; they were all 
 keel upwards, and the poor human beings belong- 
 ing to them, at least those who had not perished, 
 were clinging to the keels. The sound made by 
 these boats crushing against and breaking each 
 other up was most sad to hear. And now began the 
 wailing of those who were already recovering the 
 dead bodies of their dear ones. A fine boy of about 
 nine years old was taken out of the water quite close 
 to the Chaplaincy. The poor father came towards 
 us with his dead child in his arms, his body bent in 
 an agony of grief, and calling upon his son by en- 
 dearing names to come back to him. The mother 
 joined him, and added her wail of agony to his,,and 
 tore her hair in her despair. The father now held 
 the boy by the heels, the head hanging down, in 
 the curious belief that the water would thus flow- 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 401 
 
 from the mouth. He then placed the body on some 
 bricks which the mother had set in order for that 
 purpose, and put his foot^on the chest of the boy 
 to press the water out of the body, but it was all 
 of no avail, the boy was dead. Immediately 
 after this I saw five or six dead children laid side 
 by side on the Bund. The creek at the back of 
 our house was simply a scene of wailing and desola- 
 tion. Hundreds of boats were floating keel upwards, 
 and it seemed wonderful haw some of the large 
 craft had been able to turn over in so small a space. 
 The bridge which spans the creek was much 
 injured, and by the time we reached it, half 
 an hour after the whirlwind had passed, it was 
 crowded by hundreds of Chinese. It seemed as 
 if another catastrophe might take place, by the 
 damaged bridge giving way under the great 
 pressure brought to bear upon it. The scene on 
 the pathway between the river and the houses 
 was most distressing. I saw the American and 
 Chinese doctors busy attending to and binding 
 up the wounds of those who had been injured by 
 the falling houses. The silk rooms belonging to 
 Messrs. Siemssen & Co. had simply collapsed, and 
 some ' Chinese had suffered bruises and cuts in 
 the fall. The police station was a wreck. On 
 the opposite side of the creek, in the Chinese 
 suburb, we saw the pathway of the hurricane 
 
 2 D 
 
402 FOUKTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 traced in the fallen houses. They had simply 
 become a heap of ruins ; and now, as we walked 
 on to the centre green walk of Shameen, we 
 saw the devastation that had been committed 
 on the settlement in those short eleven minutes, 
 during which it is computed the hurricane raged 
 over it. It had swept across the centre of the 
 settlement in that corkscrew movement peculiar 
 to whirlwinds. You could see by the banyan 
 trees, which were torn up by the roots, where 
 the fearful wind had first struck, and the houses 
 immediately in its path looked very wrecks. 
 
 The sides of several of them were blown down. 
 The silk warehouse belonging to Messrs. Arnhold, 
 Karberg, & Co. had fallen as a house made of cards 
 by children falls to pieces, and thirteen Chinese 
 were buried in its ruins. They were taking out 
 the men (twelve of these men were dead when 
 discovered) as we passed by the warehouse. And 
 now the Europeans began to collect, and there was 
 a look of evident relief as friend met friend, and 
 a feeling of thankfulness was in every heart, as 
 it became apparent that not an European was miss- 
 ing, not one injured. It is difficult to convey to 
 you an idea of the devastation that reigned in our 
 settlement. The branches of the trees were strewn 
 about in all directions. One tree was a perfect 
 marvel to everybody. It was one of the largest we 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 403 
 
 had, but every bough had now been stripped off it, 
 and by the rotatory movement of the wind had been 
 piled up on the top of the trunk. An iron lamp- 
 post in front of Messrs. Coare, Lind & Co.'s house, 
 was bent double, and twisted like a corkscrew, 
 and yet the strange caprice of the. wind showed 
 itself by leaving their house comparatively un- 
 injured. Just a few slates were, I believe, 
 blown off the roof. The question was. What 
 now is to become of those whose houses have 
 been rendered uninhabitable ? Where can they 
 stay ? They were eventually divided amongst 
 those whose houses had escaped or comparatively 
 escaped from harm. The houses most injured 
 were those of Messrs. Jardjne, Matheson & Co., 
 A. Gepp & Co., William Pustau & Co. and Arn- 
 hold, Earberg & Co. We heard to-day that the 
 lady living at Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co.'s 
 house had a narrow escape with her children. 
 They were in one of the upper rooms, when the 
 whirlwind came upon the house in its full fury, 
 and before they had reached the door, the side 
 of the house in which the room is situated fell 
 down. They then took refuge in the corner of 
 the upper landing, and from there saw the 
 furniture driven from its position and flying 
 about in all directions. A large screen standing 
 by the staircase was lifted up and thrown over 
 
 2 D 2 
 
404 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 the stairs. In the drawing-room the furniture was 
 simply wrecked, the top of the grand piano was 
 taken off, all the ornaments were scattered about, 
 and most of them broken. Below, a naarble slab 
 was lifted from a table and blown to the other end 
 of a long hall. And yet all the inhabitants of 
 this house escaped without a scratch ! The wind en- 
 tered by the hall door, which was open, and cork- 
 screwed up the house, rendering it uninhabitable, 
 We returned home sore at heart at all the 
 sufferings we had seen. We heard that a 
 Chinese merchant, who was walking down the 
 centre road of Shameen, was killed by a fall- 
 ing brick-bat. We were also told that one of the 
 ladies who had left the British Consulate, but 
 had returned to fetch something from her room, 
 had only just reached the door when a large 
 piece of the roof fell through into the room. No 
 one had had an idea that the roof was injured. 
 Before I left home, I had noticed a most charac- 
 teristic feature in some Chinese carpenters in our 
 own house. We had a few days before this seen 
 a beautifully-carved, black, hard-wood Chinese 
 bedstead in one of the furniture shops, but it was 
 then in yarious pieces. We said we should like to 
 have the bedstead sent us, and put together at our 
 house, so that we could decide if we would purchase 
 it or not. It was accordingly brought to our bouse 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 405 
 
 yesterday morning, and the carpenters set to work 
 to fasten the pieces together, and they were still 
 so employed when the whirlwind began. They 
 left off for a minute or two, standing close to the 
 bedstead, which they had placed in the upper hall. 
 As soon as the fearful rush of wind was oyej-, they 
 re-commenced their work, not even looking out of 
 the window to see what had happened, not ask- 
 ing a question, nor was their serenity apparently 
 disturbed by the heart-rending shrieks and the 
 combined wailing of the sufferers immediately 
 around them. The poor people in the boats, at 
 least those on the wide river, might have tried 
 to save themselves when the first sounds of the 
 whirlwind were heard. In their foolish belief, how- 
 ever, that the mischief was caused by the dragon 
 of the river twisting himself and lashing his tail, 
 the men took out their guns, and fired them off 
 incessantly for the few seconds' reprieve, before 
 the force of the wind reached them, in order to 
 frighten the dragon away from their boats. It 
 was this firing that led Henry to suppose at first 
 that an attack was being made on the foreign 
 settlement by the Chinese. And now came the 
 alarm, namely the loud beating of gongs, to 
 announce that fire had broken out in the city, 
 and on looking we saw the heavens red in two 
 distinct places. The crowd of human beings in the 
 
406 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 Chinese street across the creek was immense. The 
 great gaps, with the heaps of fallen rubbish marked 
 the path of the whirlwind, and now the horror of 
 iire was added to the scene. Before it became 
 dark, we had a notice sent to us, which went the 
 round of all the European houses, to say that the 
 Chinese Viceroy had sent a detachment of soldiers, 
 under the command of a military mandarin, to 
 protect the foreign community. The lamentations 
 and wailings continued all through the night at 
 intervals, but nothing occurred to cause us fresh 
 alarm on the settlement. We have walked round 
 it this morning, and a sad scene it presents. 
 Any one coming to it as a stranger would imagine 
 that the place had been bombarded. A tree 
 broken off close to its roots was thrown over our 
 neighbour's wall, which was much injured. Trees 
 immediately opposite our door have been torn out 
 by the roots from the chunam pavement, and lie 
 on the ground. We have heard of many sad 
 casualties. The Chinese tailor who worked for 
 us was, with two or three others, killed by the 
 falling of his house just across the creek. No 
 one can estimate the number of lives lost yester- 
 day; they say it is some thousands, in fact it 
 is feared that from six to ten thousand have 
 perished. 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 407 
 
 LETTER XLI. 
 
 Canton, April 17th, 187S. 
 
 My dear Mother, 
 
 Last Saturday, and again on the following 
 Monday, Henry and I went into the western 
 suburb, to see for ourselves how far the reports 
 we had heard of the fearful destruction caused 
 by the whirlwind were true. On starting in our 
 sampan, we were conscious at once of a most 
 disagreeable odour arising from the water, and as 
 we pursued our way to the site of the old factories, 
 the smell became more and more offensive, and 
 we felt sure, from its intensity, that some dead 
 bodies must be floating around and about us. I 
 dreaded to look, fearing to see some revolting 
 spectacle. When we entered the western suburb 
 of the city, we noticed that the Chinamen, who 
 were walking about, held pieces of sandal-wood to 
 their noses, or held the ends of their tails under 
 their nostrils. In all the shops of the western 
 suburb sweet-smelling incense was burning. At 
 first we thought that the account given us of the 
 devastation caused by the whirlwind had been ex- 
 aggerated, but as we went on farther and found 
 ourselves in the path that it took, we began to 
 
408 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 realise the extent of the disaster. As we stood up- 
 on the bridge leading from the street called Shap- 
 Ts'at Poo, a sad spectacle presented itself to our 
 eyes. The creek was no longer a flowing stream, 
 but was literally choked up by the debris of the 
 fallen houses. As we went along, we were much 
 struck by the peculiarly sharp line drawn by the 
 whirlwind, for on one side of a very narrow 
 street the houses stood uninjured, and on the 
 other the houses were simply a mass of rubbish, 
 or, if standing, were rendered uninhabitable. In 
 one part of the western suburb we stood with 
 fallen streets around us, just a chaotic mass of 
 bricks and rubbish. On inquiring from men in 
 this immediate neighbourhood, Henry became 
 convinced of what he had previously conjectured, 
 that the loss of human life was not so great as at 
 first computed. In one long street, where all the 
 houses were down, a man told Henry that only 
 eleven persons had been killed. It is certain that 
 the Chinese houses, being built of much lighter 
 material and without the solidity of an European 
 house, do not bring the same wholesale destruc- 
 tion upon their inhabitants when they fall. We 
 then went on to see two large temples which have 
 been shaken to their foundations by the whirlwind. 
 The one is the Tien-Hau-Miu, the other, which 
 immediately joins it, is the Mi-Chau-Miu. At first 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 409 
 
 we were inclined to think they were not utterly 
 ruined, but, on examining them more closely, we 
 found that every pillar that was still standing 
 was shaken and cracked ; the roofs were broken in, 
 the porcelain frescoes most dilapidated, and a mass 
 of bricks and rubble lay on the floor. The only 
 parts that had escaped in either of the temples 
 were, curiously enough, the two high altars ; and 
 the goddess in one, and the god in the other, with 
 their respective attendants, still maintained their 
 positions, although they were much disfigured by 
 the dust. On returning towards home, we went 
 into a street close to Shameen, and here a very 
 sad sight came before our eyes. We saw several 
 plain wooden coffins at the side of this street, with 
 men of the pariah class sitting by them, and wait- 
 ing for corpses which were being dug out of the 
 ruins of the fallen houses. We entered one of 
 the native merchants' hongs, and saw two of the 
 assistants sitting near the entrance, with a jar con- 
 taining burning incense before them. This was a 
 most necessary precaution, as the offensive odour 
 in the shop was overpowering, and the merchants 
 told us that one or two corpses had been already 
 removed from the ruins in the rear of their hong. 
 In our walk of a mile from the landing-stage, 
 and in making the circuit of the district which 
 had suffered in the late catastrophe, we saw 
 
410 FOTJKTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 desolation and ruin. Henry thinks, however, from 
 all he has learnt, that the loss of human life caused 
 by the whirlwind does not probably exceed 
 five thousand. The Chinese benevolent society, 
 the Yeuk-Hong, or Chinese dispensary at Shap- 
 Ts'at Poo, gave four thousand coffins for the inter- 
 ment of those who had perished. The Shun-kum 
 (or Chinese gentry) hare done much to alleviate 
 the sufferings of persons who have sustained in- 
 juries from the falling of their dwellings. They 
 have erected mat sheds in the quadrangles of se- 
 veral of the temples, in which native doctors are 
 stationed to dress the wounds of the suffei-ers, 
 and to give them advice and medicines. During 
 our walk we entered two or three of these 
 temporary dispensaries, and saw many seriously 
 injured people receiving medical care, for which 
 they seemed most grateful. 
 
 LETTER XLII. 
 
 Oantok, April 22Qd, 1878. 
 
 My deae Mother, 
 
 Hbnky learnt from one of his Chinese 
 friends that a very grand funeral was to take place 
 in the western suburb, and that it was to be one of 
 unusual display, as the deceased man had held 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 411 
 
 the high position of viceroy of two of the midland 
 provinces of China. We started early in the 
 morning, leaving home before six o'clock, and 
 walked on to the street called Taai-Luuk-Poo, to 
 a house belonging to the family Loo, of which 
 the deceased man was a member. He had died 
 seven weeks before, at the ripe age of ninety-sis 
 years. A large crowd had assembled in the street 
 and around the door of the house of mourning, but 
 they immediately made way for us to pass through. 
 In the porch we were received most courteously by 
 the attendants and invited to go into the house. 
 We now passed into the inner hall, in which 
 the lai'ge coffin was placed behind a screen under 
 the ancestral altar. Four sons of the deceased 
 came forward, bowed themselves to the ground, 
 and did the kau-tau at our feet, in acknowledg- 
 ment of our visit of condolence. These men wore 
 long sackcloth dresses and low-crowned caps also 
 made in sackcloth, from which hung little cotton 
 balls suspended on threads of cotton. These 
 caps gave a very singular appearance to their 
 wearers. The sons of the deceased then handed 
 us cups of tea, and the conductor of ceremonies 
 gave each of us a little present of lucky money, 
 half a dollar in value, wrapped up in white paper. 
 A similar present of money is given at all Chinese 
 funerals to the friends who are present, but it 
 
412 POUETBEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 varies in value according to the rank or fortune 
 of the deceased person. Boiled rice was also 
 presented to us, but we did not eat it, as it was 
 regarded as an offering from the spirit of the 
 deceased. This rice is boiled the night before by 
 the sons of the family, attired in sackcloth, who 
 cook it in the court-yard of the house, themselves 
 adding fuel to the fire as required. When this rice 
 is boiled it is called " old man's rice," and is offered 
 to the spirit of the departed one. This custom is 
 observed only when the deceased person has died 
 full of years. On the day of the funeral this rice 
 is divided amongst the guests. The ladies of the 
 family were screened from our view by the altar, 
 and the surroundings of the-cofSn, but we could 
 see the edges of their sackcloth garments, and 
 occasionally we caught a glimpse of some of them 
 either sitting or kneeling on the ground. At 
 this moment a passage was made through the 
 crowd of friends and retainers, and a mandarin 
 of high rank, in full dress, wearing a peacock's 
 feather in his hat, advanced, prostrated himself 
 before the altar, and worshipped the spirit of the 
 deceased. The master of ceremonies regulated 
 the worship as the mandarin knelt and did the 
 kau-tau. A picture of the deceased, well painted, 
 hung over the altar. Very many long em- 
 broidered banners in bright and varied colours, 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 413 
 
 containing words of sympathy, adorned the walls 
 of the outer and inner halls. On the withdrawal 
 of the mandarin, eight Buddhist priests advanced 
 into the inner hall and took up their positions, 
 four on each side of the altar, on which stood 
 a tablet bearing the name of the deceased, and 
 offerings of food, fruit, flowers, and a cup of tea. 
 Chopsticks were also placed on the altar. The 
 priests, one of them beating a tom-tom and leading 
 the chanting of the prayers, informed the spirit of 
 the departed that they were about to remove his 
 body to the tomb prepared for it, begging the 
 spirit to be so good as to accompany it without 
 causing trouble to the family. The Chinese 
 entertain great fears that the soul of a dead man 
 may not wish to leave the house on the day 
 appointed for the funeral, and they strive to 
 cajole it to do so. After the Buddhist priests 
 had retired, eight Tauist priests came into the 
 hall and rendered a similar act of worship to 
 the spirit of the deceased. 
 
 After these ceremonies were over, the howling 
 for the dead commenced on the part of the mourn- 
 ing women, and the chief mourners, the four sons of 
 the deceased. The time having now arrived for the 
 coffin to be removed from the house, a curious 
 scene occurred. All the members of the family, 
 attendants, etc., fled from the hall in all directions, 
 
414 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 as the Ng-tsok (a pariah class whose duty it is to 
 carry corpses to the grave) were in the act of raising 
 the coffin on their shoulders. This panic arose from 
 dread lest the soothsayer whom they had consulted 
 should have failed in choosing a lucky day for 
 the burial of the deceased, in which case his 
 spirit would be so angry as to desire to afflict any 
 members of the family, who were present at that 
 moment, with some griveous sickness. 
 
 We now left the house, as we wished to obtain 
 a good position in the street through which the 
 funeral procession was to pass. All forms and 
 ceremonies observed at a Chinese funeral are 
 strictly in accordance with the rank and position 
 of the dead person, artd in this case the arrange- 
 ments were on a most unusually grand scale. We 
 walked down the street some little way, and then 
 entered a shop at the invitation of its owner, who 
 at once recognised Henry as an old friend. It was 
 fortunate we did so, as there was a long delay 
 before the procession started from the house of 
 mourning. Our kind friend gave us seats, and 
 on hearing we should like to take tea, he made 
 some for us. Henry as usual whiled away the 
 time by entering into conversation with all 
 around him. We noticed that the head assistant 
 in the shop looked very sad and remained silent, 
 and when the conversation turned on the subject 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 415 
 
 of the late whirlwind, he looked still sadder. 
 The master of the shop told Henry that the 
 young man's wife had perished in a house 
 close by, which had been blown down by the 
 whirlwind. At last musical sounds and beating 
 of gongs announced that the funeral proces- 
 sion had started from the house of mourning, 
 and our host kindly placed at his door a long form 
 upon which we stood, and so were enabled to look 
 over the heads of the assembled crowd. The first 
 thing that appeared in sight after two gong 
 bearers, was a long bamboo catafalque, which was 
 intended to be placed over the coffin at the tomb. 
 It was trimmed with bright-coloured fringe and 
 narrow ribbons. Following it were two men who 
 carried large lanterns with the name and title 
 of the deceased painted on them. Then came 
 sixteen young musicians, and after them boys 
 bearing flags and paper lanterns on red poles. 
 Men carrying red boards bearing the names 
 and titles of the deceased and his ancestors, 
 also others bearing insignia in various forms, such 
 as battle-axes, sceptres, hands, etc., now passed 
 before us. The Bud J hist priests, who had wor- 
 shipped in the house, walked by two and two 
 abreast. Equerries on ponies were added to the 
 procession, in consequence of the high rank of the 
 deceased. Eight of these equerries passed now 
 
416 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 and eight others nearer the end of the procession. 
 After the eight equerries, the Tauist priests 
 walked past, two and two abreast, preceded and 
 followed by men carrying tables surmounted by 
 canopies, trimmed wholly in yellow silk, a privilege 
 accorded only by the Emperor to men of dis- 
 tinction. These tables, swung on poles, held offer- 
 ings of pigs, ducks, fowls, fruit and flowers. On 
 another table I saw the ofBcial dress, hat, and silk 
 boots of the deceased. A large red umbrella was 
 carried in the procession, besides other bright silk 
 umbrellas. Many friends of the bereaved family 
 walked by, two and two, dressed either in long 
 silk robes, or, if related to the family, in long 
 white cotton coats. A number of soldiers formed 
 part of the procession, in honour of the deceased 
 viceroy. Then came other bands . of music, 
 followed by large paper effigies of gods, attend- 
 ants, etc. And now passed in front of us the 
 chief mourners in their sackcloth dresses, each 
 supported on both sides by attendants, their 
 backs bowed down as if for very grief they 
 could not stand upright. Their eyes and noses 
 were streaming, and the cotton bobs hanging 'from 
 their sackcloth hats dangled in front of their 
 faces, and gave them a really comical effect. 
 The eldest son carried a wooden staff in his handj 
 round which were twined strips of white cotton. 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 417 
 
 In the other hand he bore a bamboo pole with a 
 streamer at the end of it, called the soul-cloth, 
 which is supposed to summon the spirit of the 
 deceased to accompany the body it so recently 
 animated. From where we stood, we could hear 
 the loud wailing of the women who accompanied 
 the coffin for a short distance from the house of 
 mourning. Behind the chief mourners came the 
 second eight equerries, and following them again 
 appeared sixty-four men, who were clad entirely in 
 white, and who paced slowly along, two and two. 
 In their hands, passing from the first to the last 
 and fastened to the coffin, were wide bands of 
 white calico ornamented with huge rosettes made 
 in the same white material. It is supposed (and 
 here one sees another evidence of the original in- 
 tention having become a sham ceremonial only) 
 that these men are drawing the coffin to its 
 last resting-place. The fact really is, that they 
 have not a particle of weight of the burden laid 
 upon them. The huge coffin now came in sight, 
 and we saw that it was covered over by a 
 richly ornamented red pall embroidered in gold 
 thread with patterns of dragons worked on it. 
 Along the top of the coffin was an immensely 
 long pole, red in colour, and much ornamented. 
 At one end of this pole a dragon's head was 
 represented in green and gold, and at the other 
 
 2 E 
 
418 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 end was the tail of the dragon equally gilded 
 and decorated. 
 
 This dragon pole can be placed only above 
 the coffin of a man who has attained the high 
 rank of a viceroy. One feature of the procession 
 which 1 find I have omitted, was the state chair, 
 used by the deceased when living. It now con- 
 tained his portrait, which had been placed on 
 the seat by his sons just before they had left the 
 house of mourning. The lamps were alight inside 
 the chair, and all was arranged as if the great 
 man himself were seated in his chair, instead 
 of being a lifeless corpse borne along upon the 
 shoulders of some dozens of the Ng-tsok or 
 carriers of the dead. The prescribed number of 
 chair bearers, in accordance with the high rank 
 of the deceased, carried the state chair, and the 
 orthodox number of attendants accompanied it. 
 The stage on which the huge coffin rested had 
 a most complicated arrangement of rope about 
 it, by which the Ng-tsok supported the coffin. 
 Paper money was scattered along the streets to 
 appease the hungry ghosts of paupers, who, having 
 died in the streets, have not received the usual 
 offering of food and money from their descendants. 
 The procession closed with some led ponies be- 
 longing to the sons of the deceased man, and by 
 groups of attendants and friends. We had seen 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IK CANTON. 419 
 
 the high official, in whose honour this long pro- 
 cession was made, only some two or three weeks 
 before his death, wlien we were visiting one of 
 the temples, and a Chinese who was present told 
 Henry of his high rank, and said that only he 
 and one other citizen of Canton were living who 
 had attained to the rank of viceroy. No man 
 is ever appointed to this high office in the 
 province of which he is a native. 
 
 Another strict rule is that when a viceroy 
 is appointed to a province, the relations of his 
 wives may not accompany him. The American 
 Consul's wife told me, a few days ago, a touching 
 anecdote about the present viceroy of Canton. He 
 had a favourite wife, one he dearly loved, and, as 
 he himself told the consul, it was she who always 
 superintended his toilet. He said he always went 
 to her, before leaving his yamun on state occasions, 
 to ask for her opinion as to his personal appear- 
 ance. This wife, on coming to Canton, much 
 missed her family, from whom she had been sepa- 
 rated for the first time. She entreated her husband 
 to allow her to send for them, but he told her that 
 it was not possible for him to comply with her 
 request. She urged him again and again with 
 tears to allow her family to come to her, but the 
 viceroy had it not in his power to gratify her wish. 
 Just before we arrived at Canton, in March of last 
 
 2 E 2 
 
420 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 year, the poor woman, not being able to bear the 
 refusal of her wishes, took opium whilst her hus- 
 band was away from home, and on his return he 
 found her dying. In an agony of grief he sent for 
 the Missionary Doctor, and offered him any sum 
 of money, if he could restore his beloved wife, but 
 it was too late, and she died a few minutes after 
 the doctor arrived. The viceroy is in great distress 
 at having no children ; he has married three wives, 
 but is still childless. He consulted some geoman- 
 cers on the subject, and they advised him to build 
 a pagoda in the grounds of his yamun, promising 
 him a son when it was completed. The pagoda 
 was raised, but the viceroy's desire was not 
 gratified, and, on asking the geomancers for the 
 cause, they said they had ascertained that the 
 pagoda had been placed on an unlucky spot of 
 ground, that it must be taken down, and rebuilt 
 in another part of the garden. This pagoda is 
 now in course of reconstruction. 
 
 LETTER XLIII. 
 
 Canton, April 29th, 1878. 
 My dear Mother, 
 
 We have endeavoured several times to go 
 
 up a tidal creek which intersects the island of 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 421 
 
 Honam, and to make a circuit, returning home 
 by the broad river, but we have been again and 
 again foiled in our attempts, owing to the low- 
 ness of the tides. We made up our minds to 
 make another effort last week, and started to- 
 wards the end of the one tide, to catch the fair 
 tide on the broad river, as we knew if we failed in 
 this it would make the excursion so long that we 
 could not possibly arrive home until night had set 
 in. We started about half-past two p.m., and, going 
 some little way up the creek, stopped about 
 four o'clock at a little Buddhist monastery stand- 
 ing on the left bank. We went in to see it, 
 whilst our boy made tea ready for us. I was 
 much struck, on entering the shrine, to see 
 a monk properly vested kneeling before an 
 altar, and unassisted, reciting the vesper service 
 in a monotone. He was earnest in manner, not 
 disturbed by our appearance, but seemed to be 
 simply engaged in a daily duty, No one else 
 was present, and uot a soul apparently would have 
 known if he had not fulfilled his duty. After w© 
 had enjoyed our tea al fresco, we re-entered our 
 sampan, passing by most picturesque villages, 
 and under bridges so quaint and charming that I 
 longed to sketch them. The tide again unfortu- 
 nately played us false, but this time we had 
 entered the broad river before it turned against 
 
422 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 US. We then made way very slowly, for the 
 adverse tide was very strong, and darkness fell 
 upon us when we were still three or four miles 
 from Shameen. We toiled along by the opposite 
 bank of the river, and had nearly reached 
 Honam, when a black darkness overpowered 
 us, and shut out all from our view. It was 
 evident that a heavy storm was at hand. We 
 heard the busy talk, in a high key, of the boat 
 people in the boats around us, who were evidently 
 seized with fear at the approach of the storm. I 
 felt terrified, for I knew we had to cross the 
 wide river, a dangerous matter in such Egyptian 
 darkness ; and yet we could not reach home 
 without doing so. We already began to strike 
 against, and be struck by, other boats, and as 
 crafts without lights were coming in all directions, 
 without any rule of way on the river, it seemed 
 as if we must meet with some serious accident. 
 When we turned our boat's head to cross the 
 river, it was a most alarming moment. Boats 
 were coming to the right of us, to the left of us, 
 behind us, in our path, and others were anchored 
 in the river. We could only take our chance 
 and strike across to Sliameen. The occasional 
 vivid flashes of lightning seemed only to make 
 the intense darkness more fearful tlian before. 
 When we were nearing the old factories' site, we 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 423 
 
 heard a gi-eat tumult going on ; boats were crash- 
 ing against each other, men and women were 
 screaming loudly, and it was evident that some 
 accident had happened near to the spot. How 
 we escaped without disaster I cannot tell. Every 
 now and then we had such a blow from some 
 boat much larger than our sampan, that we were 
 fairly sent reeling. I cannot tell you how 
 thankful 1 felt when I heard that we were under 
 the shelter of Shameen wall, and never was I 
 better pleased to land than on that night. Our 
 servants at home had become much alarmed 
 about us, as they knew the danger we must have 
 run in the thick darkness of the impending storm. 
 Immediately after we had reached home, the storm 
 burst upon us in all its fury. It was terrific. 
 The thunder shook our house, the lightning illu- 
 minated the rooms, and the rain came down in tor- 
 rents. After a while there was a pause in the 
 tempest, but it lasted only a short time, when tlie 
 storm was renewed in all its fury. Later on, a 
 second lull took place, and then for a third time 
 the thunder shook our house, and seemed to 
 deafen us with its uproar. The calm did not 
 come on until morning dawned. And now I 
 must tell you about an early excursion which we 
 made into the city yesterday morning, to the 
 governor's yamun, to see a most singular cere- 
 
424 FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 mony. At this time, annually, the Emperor 
 makes a gift to all convicts, male and female, 
 confined in prison, awaiting execution under the 
 imperial warrant. This is supposed to exhibit 
 the clemency of the paternal gOTornment. We 
 arrived early at the yamun, but already a dense 
 crowd had assembled in the large quadrangle, 
 and the prisoners were present. They were 
 dressed in new red prison dresses, and had 
 chains round their necks, the ends of which were 
 held by jailors. We found that we had still a 
 long time to wait before the Viceroy and five of 
 the chief ofiScials were expected to arrive, so we 
 looked round for a shelter from the sun, and also 
 from the crowd. We at last asked permission to 
 enter a tower in the outer quadrangle of the 
 yamun, and this request being accorded, we 
 ascended into the smallest, dirtiest, and hottest 
 little room in which I ever sat. On inquiry, 
 Henry discovered that it belonged to the 
 governor's bandsmen. During the next hour 
 I amused myself by looking out of the window 
 and watching the crowd. 
 
 It was a strange, a motley group upon which 
 we gazed. Companies of soldiers were there with 
 their spears, matchlocks, and gay banners ; small 
 stalls, at which light refreshments were sold, stood 
 at frequent intervals, and the men holding them 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 425 
 
 seemed to ply a busy trade. Mandarins of 
 various grades continued to arrive. One scene 
 we saw amused us much. A state chair was ad- 
 vancing slowly along a road to the right hand, 
 another quietly along a road to the left. When, 
 however, the rival chair bearers came in sight 
 of each other, they broke into a run, so that 
 neither chair should arrive at the path leading 
 through the outer quadrangle of the yamun be- 
 fore the other. Having accomplished this, and 
 reaching the opening into the path at the same 
 moment, the chair bearers carried their respective 
 masters into the inner quadrangle side by side, 
 neither of the mandarins thus taking precedence 
 of the other. They were equal in rank. At last, 
 from the sounding of gongs and the shrill blast 
 of musical instruments, we knew that the Viceroy 
 was at hand. The soldiers stood at arms under 
 their banners, in two lines, and the great man 
 passed between them up the outer quadrangle. 
 After he had arrived, the prisoners were taken into 
 the inner quadrangle, accompanied by a strong 
 guard. One, who was too weak (or what was 
 quite possible, too much injured by torture) to 
 walk, was carried up the centre path in a basket. 
 When all had passed in, we went down from our 
 unpleasant but friendly shelter and entered the 
 inner quadrangle of the yamun. We then went 
 
426 FOUBTEBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 into the governor's judgment hall, and saw two red 
 covered tables at the end, and two similar tables 
 on each side of the hall. The Viceroy and the 
 governor now entered, followed by the provincial 
 treasurer, the commissioner of customs, the 
 literary chancellor, and the chief justice. The 
 Viceroy and the governor took their seats at the 
 tables placed at the upper end of the hall, 
 and the other four officials arranged themselves 
 at the side tables. Lesser mandarins and the 
 usual crowd of attendants stood behind each 
 table. The people who were present occupied 
 the sides of the centre path of the quadrangle. 
 And now there was a movement behind us, and 
 on looking round I saw that the prisoners were 
 being led up by jailors in charge of them. They 
 were brought to a stand-still at the wide open 
 entrance of the judgment hall, and about ten at a 
 time were made to kneel in a row, each prisoner 
 being led to his position by his jailor. 
 
 A sad sight were these unhappy prisoners, who 
 looked half-starved, dirty, and utterly woe-begone. 
 Their heads were unshaven, and their front hair 
 and pig-tails were rough and entangled. These 
 poor wretches awoke my sympathy, from the 
 cruelties which had been used towards them, 
 and my blood ran cold as I thought of the 
 fate awaiting them. The jailors behaved with 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 427 
 
 wanton cruelty towards them, jerking them by 
 their chains to make them raise their beads. 
 The class of jailors in China is the worst possible. 
 They take a large share if not. all the money 
 provided by the friends of the prisoners, and 
 towards those who have no friends to help them 
 they exercise the most barbarous cruelty. It 
 is more than probable that they, and not the 
 unhappy prisoners, received the benelSt of the 
 . Emperor's bounty shown on this day. And now as 
 the prisoners kneel down with the greatest difS- 
 culty, their limbs being cramped and nearly use- 
 less, their names are called over, and two small 
 mandarins advance towards them and place in the 
 hands of each large palm fans. I notice with how 
 much difficulty these prisoners hold them, as their 
 wrists are chained together. Into the palm-leaf 
 fan one of the mandarins drops a little loaf, 
 the other mandarin following him places some 
 money on it, and bending down he throws a 
 string of cash round the neck of each of the 
 kneeling criminals. A rain cloak, large and 
 circular in form, made of dried palm leaves, is 
 then given to each jailor for the use of his 
 particular charge. The prisoners perform tlie 
 kau-tau and mutter words of thanks to the 
 Emperor for the presents just received ; and now 
 with a jerk of the chains the jailors encourage 
 
428 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 their miserable proteges to rise, and lead tliem 
 to the farther end of the quadrangle. 
 
 Amongst the third and last set of prisoners 
 who were placed in rows to receive the royal 
 bounty, was a most ill-favoured looking woman, 
 and, on inquiring, Henry learnt that the crime of 
 which she had been convicted was the murder of 
 her mistress's child out of revenge. The fate 
 reserved for this woman is appalling to con- 
 template. She will suffer the ling-chee form of 
 punishment, that is, she will be bound to a cross 
 and be cut into 2)ieces, the coup de grace not 
 being given, in all probability, until fourteen 
 cuts have been inflicted. One of the most 
 terrible features of Chinese criminal law is this, 
 that a prisoner, when condemned to death for 
 some heinous crime, sucli as parricide, matricide, 
 fratricide, the murder of a husband, or the 
 murder of a schoolmaster, etc., is not executed 
 within a given period of time. The imperial 
 sanction must be obtained, that is, the Emperor's 
 vermilion pencil-mark must be affixed to the 
 names of criminals who have been guilty of such 
 crimes, before they can be put to death.* Some- 
 times a prisoner of tJhese classes escapes execution 
 
 * Pirates, burglars, highway robbers, and other such 
 criminals are executed under the warrants of viceroys or 
 governors of provinces, as the case may be. 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 429 
 
 for some years, as the Emperor's vermilion 
 pencil-mark has not been placed against his par- 
 ticular name, and then he is only informed on the 
 morning of the day in which his execution is to 
 take place that his turn has come. I have learnt 
 that one of my amahs is now in mourning for 
 her husband, who has been recently strangled on 
 a cross, on the execution-ground of this city, after 
 eleven years' imprisonment. He exclaimed, when 
 bound to the cross, that he thought it was very 
 hard that, after eleven years' incarceration, he 
 should have to suffer a violent death. This un- 
 fortunate man was half an hour under the execu- 
 tioner's hands. The crime for which he suffered 
 was that of kidnapping young children. One 
 wonders how a man's brain can stand the pressure 
 of daily expectation and uncertainty regarding 
 his sentence being carried out. Possibly some 
 of those whom we saw, yesterday, receiving the 
 imperial presents at the yamun were on the 
 eve of being executed, and I could not help 
 thinking that the royal bounty was a great 
 farce. When the ceremony had been brought to 
 a close, I observed that the prisoners were 
 marched back to prison under a strong escort. 
 
430 FOUETBEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 LETTEE XLIV. 
 
 Canton, May 4th, 1878. 
 My deae Mother, 
 
 Some few days ago we received a large 
 red card of invitation from the abbot elect of the 
 Hai-Chwang-Tsze, or Ocean Banner Monastery 
 at Honam, asking us to be present at his conse- 
 cration.* It was, as you can imagine, an oppor- 
 tunity not to be neglected, and one of which we 
 most gladly availed ourselves. The ceremony of 
 consecration was to take place very early in the 
 morning. We therefore ordered our servants to 
 Lave a sampan in readiness at our landing-steps 
 at two A.M., and to call us some short time before 
 that hour. We rose at half-past one, dressed our- 
 selves, and stealthily creeping by our children's 
 door so as not to wake them at that unseasonable 
 hour, we went downstairs, and passed out on to the 
 Bund. Imagine our annoyance when we found 
 no boat ready for us. Our compradore told us a 
 doubtful tale about two of our servants having 
 gone far to find a boat, and not having yet suc- 
 
 * I have been obliged to use the Christian terms altar, abbot, 
 monk, priest, chaplain, consecration, mattins, vespers, &c„ in 
 describing pagan ceremonies, as no other words convey the 
 meaning of the Chinese terms. 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 431 
 
 ceeded in their endeavours. The fact was, the 
 order had been wholly forgotten. After remain- 
 ing a short time near the landing-steps, and not 
 seeing anything of either of our servants or a 
 boat approaching us, we began to despair of cross- 
 ing the river in time to arrive at the monastery 
 for the ceremony. We perceived a dirty-looking 
 boat at a short distance from the Bund, contain- 
 ing one old man only. Henry hailed him and 
 after much persuasion induced him to paddle his 
 boat near to us, and to listen to our entreaties to 
 take us across the river to Honam. The old man 
 paddled us along very slowly, but we reached the 
 landing-steps in front of the Honam monastery at 
 last. Here Ave saw several private hong boats, 
 which were lighted up by large paper lanterns. 
 They contained many Chinese gentlemen, who, 
 like ourselves, had come to witness the ceremony 
 of consecration. The scene here was most 
 picturesque, and so indeed was the scene on 
 the river, its craft and banks dimly visible in the 
 light of a new moon. We walked on to the 
 monastery, and found its cloisters illuminated by 
 many coloured lanterns each different in design. 
 The effect of these cloisters at this early hour 
 with their "dim religious light" was most im- 
 pressive, and one could well imagine oneself in 
 the cloisters of a Catholic monastery in Europe. 
 
432 FOUETEBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 On arriving at the visitors' hall we were invited 
 into one of the reception rooms, and when we had 
 taken seats, tea was handed to us. We found 
 several Chinese gentlemen assembled in this room, 
 who were smoking long pipes, sipping tea, and 
 chatting with each other. In a short time we 
 were asked to proceed to the chapter-house, 
 where we met the abbot elect surrounded by a 
 number of his friends. He was then wearing 
 a purple robe. In the cloister adjoining the 
 chapter-house I saw a band composed of small 
 boys in handsomely embroidered coats. A band- 
 master was assembling them, and directing their 
 movements. A large number of monks be- 
 longing to the monastery were congregated in 
 the cloister. The abbot elect now rose from 
 the chair in which he had been chatting with his 
 friends, and a long red silk vestment, made in 
 many pieces to represent the robe of poverty, was 
 placed over his shoulders. The procession was 
 then formed to conduct the abbot elect to the 
 various shrines of the monastery. First came the 
 band of small boys playing upon flutes, fifes, and 
 shrill pipes (the latter exactly resembling in 
 sound Scotch bagpipes) ; then came monks walking 
 two abreast, wearing grey cowls, and yellow silk 
 vestments thrown across the left shoulder ; these 
 monks were followed by men bearing large globular 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON 433 
 
 Chinese lanterns on which the name, taken by the 
 abbot upon embracing monastic life, was painted in 
 large characters. The procession was closed by 
 two young priests (really chaplains to the abbot), 
 one of whom carried a crozier in his right hand, 
 and in the other a small tray, on which the abbot's 
 rosary, consisting of plain polished black beads, 
 was laid when he was engaged in prayer. The 
 second young priest held the abbot's rod of ofSce 
 in one hand, and in the other a tray on which 
 was placed a china vase with a small branch of 
 the flowering pear, and a folded letter containing 
 the rules of the monastery. These young priests 
 immediately preceded the abbot elect, who was 
 short and fat, and looked an old man of seventy 
 years or more. We followed close behind him, 
 and were thus able to see the details of the 
 ceremonies which took place. I cannot convey 
 to you an idea of the strange and solemn coup 
 d'oeil the procession made, as it wound its way 
 slowly down the long and dimly-lighted cloisters. 
 The first halt it made was at a shrine to the left 
 of the large quadrangle, dedicated to the god 
 Wei-to. Here the abbot elect prostrated him- 
 self before an altar and performed the kau-tau, a 
 salvo of fire-crackers being let off as he rose from 
 his knees. He then, headed by the procession, 
 crossed over to a shrine at the right-hand side of 
 
 2 F 
 
434 FOUETEBN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 the quadrangle, dedicated to Kwan-tai, the god 
 of war, and worshipped at his altar. Kwan-tai and 
 Wei-to are regarded as the guardians of monastic 
 institutions. The procession afterwards passed 
 into the large shrine called Tai-Hung-Poo-Tien, 
 which contains colossal gilded figures of the 
 three Buddhas. The three large altars in this 
 shrine were covered with offerings of fruit and 
 flowers. The abbot elect stood before the centre 
 altar, and one of his chaplains unfolded a square of 
 silk which he carried over his arm, and which I 
 now discovered to be a kneeling-mat. A band of 
 red silk, sewn on to the white silk ground of this 
 mat, looked strangely like an ecclesiastical device. 
 Before the abbot elect knelt, he removed the 
 rosary from his neck, and handing it to the 
 chaplain by his side, it was placed on the tray. 
 He and his two chaplains now knelt before the 
 altar, and one of the latter lighting a joss-stick 
 passed it to the abbot elect, who elevated it 
 three times, and then gave it to his second 
 chaplain to place in the incense-burner standing 
 upon the altar. This was done three times, a 
 fresh joss-stick being lighted and placed in the 
 incense-burner, on each occasion, with the utmost 
 solemnity, and in silence. The letter was now 
 taken from the tray, unfolded and handed to the 
 abbot elect by the one chaplain, read aloud by 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 435 
 
 the old man as he knelt before the altar, then 
 passed on to the second chaplain, who re-folded 
 it, and replaced it on the tray. The kau-tau 
 having been performed by the abbot elect, the 
 three rose from their knees, the rosary was re- 
 placed round the neck of the abbot elect by 
 the one chaplain, the prayer mat was folded 
 up by the other, and the procession left the 
 shrine. It proceeded then to a shrine containing 
 large images of three abbots who founded this 
 monastery and were the first to preside over it. 
 . Before these idols a very long altar had been 
 placed which was overflowing with offerings of 
 fruits and flowers. Here the same religious 
 service was gone through in all its details as at 
 the shrine of the three Buddhas. The abbot 
 elect did the kau-tau before the images of the 
 three abbots, and prayed that the mantles of 
 these his sainted predecessors in office might fall 
 upon him. The next halt the procession made 
 was in the large kitchen, in which there is an 
 altar dedicated to the genius who presides over 
 the vegetable diet of Buddhist monks, and before 
 which the same religious ceremony was performed. 
 On leaving the kitchen, the abbot elect and his 
 suite moved on to a large dormitory, and there 
 worshipped an idol representing the guardian of 
 dormitories. 
 
 2 p 2 
 
436 POUETBEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 Thence the procession returned to the chapter- 
 house, and I was surprised to find that the floor 
 of it was covered with an European carpet. At 
 the end of this hall a raised throne was placed, and 
 behind it hung a large piece of scarlet embroidery 
 on which a Balun was represented in gold. A 
 table and altar stood in front of the throne, the 
 latter being covered with red satin, richly em- 
 broidered; an incense-burner was upon it, and, 
 as is always the case, t contained powdered in- 
 cense in which worshippers place lighted joss- 
 sticks. A large glass, framed in carved black wood, 
 stood at the end of the hall. These high glasses, 
 which resemble our cheval glasses, are placed 
 in Buddhist monasteries as emblems of purity. 
 Proceeding up the hall the abbot elect prostrated 
 himself before the small altar, and, having per- 
 formed the kau-tau to the throne, rose and placed 
 three lighted joss-sticks in the incense-burner. 
 He then stood at the right-hand corner of the 
 table, and listened to the rules of the order, which 
 were read aloud to him by one of the monks. 
 We were standing close to the table, and so had 
 the coujp d'oeil of the brilliantly lighted hall, 
 with rows of monks arranged on each side of 
 it. The abbot elect now moved towards the 
 throne, attended by his two chaplains, and 
 stood in front of it. He took up a brown hair 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 437 
 
 switch, and whisked it to the right, then to 
 the left, and over his head and shoulders. This 
 signified that all evil was removed far from him. 
 He was now conducted to the throne by his two 
 chaplains, who spread his silk vestment over 
 the back of it as he took his seat. All the 
 monks advanced, and did the kau-tan to their 
 new abbot. On their retiring, some mandarins 
 in full costume walked up the hall, and, having 
 placed joss-sticks in the incense-burner, prostrated 
 themselves before the abbot. The ceremonial 
 of installation was now over, and the abbot, 
 accompanied by his attendants, passed into his 
 private suite of rooms. He afterwards held a 
 levee. The first to attend it were the monks of 
 the monastery and those who had come from 
 other monasteries to assist at the ceremony. As 
 each monk advanced, he made a movement as 
 if he would kneel, but the abbot, taking him by 
 the hatid, prevented him doing so, whereupon the 
 monk placed his head first on one shoulder and 
 then on the other of the abbot. After all the 
 monks had paid their respects to the old man, 
 several mandarins in full dress came into the 
 room to congratulate him. And here we noticed 
 a piece of priestly arrogance. When these man- 
 darins prepared to kneel to do him homage, 
 the abbot did not attempt to prevent their 
 
438 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 kneeling before him, but received their obeis- 
 ance with a benign smile. After the levee was 
 over, the abbot retired to another apartment 
 and took off his red vestment. He only rested, 
 however, for a few moments, and then the 
 poor old man began to make his return visits 
 to the monks, trudging along the dimly-lighted 
 cloisters, knocking at the door of each cell, and 
 saluting its inmate. I pitied him cordially, for 
 he looked unequal to the fatiguing duties im- 
 posed upon him, and I noticed that when he 
 knelt to perform the numerous kau-taus at the 
 various shrines, he seemed to have much difSculty 
 in rising from his knees. The office of abbot of 
 a Buddhist monastery lasts only three years. The 
 retiring abbot, however, can be re-elected. We 
 now left the Honam Monastery, intending to 
 return to it in a few hours' time, as we had 
 been invited by the abbot to luncheon, and 
 we also wished to see the monks partake of a 
 banquet, in honour of the occasioD, in the large 
 refectory. We took a boat called by the Chi- 
 nese a wang-shuee-too, or ferry-boat, and crossed 
 the river to the Chaplaincy, where we arrived 
 at seven a.m. 
 
 A little before eleven o'clock, we called our 
 sampan and re-crossed the river to the monastery. 
 On arriving, Henry again offered the abbot his 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 439 
 
 congratulations, and received a hearty welcome 
 from him in return. As we passed by several 
 rooms constituting the suite set apart for the abbot, 
 we saw tables with luncheons laid out on them. 
 Chinese gentlemen were sitting round them, and 
 partaking of the abbot's hospitality. We were 
 ushered by our host into one of these apartments, 
 and invited to seat ourselves at a small round table. 
 Upon our doing so, vegetable soups of various 
 kinds were handed to us. The abbot walked up 
 and down the room, coming to our table occasion- 
 ally to press us to partake more freely of his 
 hospitality. He did not, I noticed, sit down to 
 eat with any of his guests. After we had finished 
 our luncheon, we passed on to a large reception 
 hall, in which the monks were assembling for 
 dinner, to the sound of a wooden tom-tom, a 
 method usually adopted for calling monks to 
 religious services and meals. The monks now 
 began to file out of the hall, walking two and 
 two abreast, and we hastened to the refectory, so 
 that we might see them enter and assemble there. 
 The refectory, called by the Chinese Tchi-Tong, is 
 an immense hall having an altar at the upper eiid of 
 it. Eight long narrow tables go down the length 
 of this hall, four on each side. Benches are placed 
 on one side of the tables only, that is, on the left 
 of the tables on the left side of the refectory, and 
 
440 POUKTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 on the right of the tables on the other side of 
 the refectory. In this manner the whole of the 
 monks when at their meals face the centre of the 
 room, and so can be seen by the abbot, who sits 
 by himself at a small table at the lower end of 
 the hall. A basin full of rice, and a plate con- 
 taining green vegetables were placed, with chop- 
 sticks, for each monk. When all the monks had 
 entered the refectory, and were standing in their 
 places at the tables, the abbot, preceded by a 
 band of music, arrived, and went to the small 
 table at the end of the hall, his chaplains 
 standing on each side of him. A grace was now 
 chanted by the monks. Whilst all were still 
 standing, one of the chaplains handed a basin 
 to the abbot, who filled it with rice, and ele- 
 vating it, blessed it. The chaplain then took 
 the basin out of the refectory, and emptied the 
 rice, as food for the birds of the air, on a tripod 
 standing in thecourtyard. 
 
 The monks now seated themselves, and the 
 repast began, and I must say that all who were 
 present did ample justice to it, having their basins 
 replenished again and again by lay brothers, who 
 carried rice round the tables in large pails. The 
 abbot took but a scanty meal, just tasting the rice 
 and vegetables placed before him. This meal was, 
 as far as he was concerned, a form only, as he dined 
 
FOUETBEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 441 
 
 in private afterwards. The party of monks was 
 unusually large, and must have numbered more 
 than three hundred, as monks from other mo- 
 nasteries were partaking of the hospitality of the 
 Hai-Chwang-Tsze on this occasion. In the refec- 
 tory I noticed several large boards which were 
 hung against the walls, and I learned that they 
 contained sayings from the Buddhist classics. As 
 silence is pbserved at all meals, it is considered 
 that the monks can be edified by reading and medi- 
 tating upon these good precepts as they silently 
 eat their food. The abbot now rose from the table, 
 and, preceded by the musicians, was conducted 
 back to his private apartments. We then saun- 
 tered leisurely through the quadrangles of the 
 monastery to the landing-stage to rejoin our sam- 
 pan. This monastery possesses much to interest 
 a visitor, and I am never tired of going over it. 
 One of the objects of interest, and which I was 
 surprised beyond measure to find here, is the 
 Shue-Kuuk, or printing-office, in which Buddhist 
 liturgies for the use of monasteries are printed, 
 I have seen the process used in printing, and will 
 try to describe it to you. A block covered with 
 Chinese characters, cut in relief, is smeared over 
 with Indian ink. A sheet of paper is then placed 
 over it, which, on being closely pressed, adheres 
 to the block, and receives the impression of the 
 
442 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 characters. It is then removed. The sheets that 
 I have seen printed off have heen very clear. The 
 Chinese claim to be the inventors of the art of 
 printing, and with justice, as they have known 
 and practised it for many centuries. The funeral 
 pyre in the gardens of the monastery is another 
 object of great interest. We went to see it the 
 other day, and I then had an evidence of the 
 extreme fear that the Chinese entertain of ghosts. 
 One of our waiting-boys, Ahee by name,''was with 
 us in the garden, but nothing Henry said could 
 induce him to go near the funeral pyre, or the 
 hut containing cinerary urns, or the ossuaries. 
 Indeed, he candidly acknowledged that he was 
 afraid of the spirits of the deceased monks. The 
 pyre is built of brick, and looks like a small 
 tower as you approach it. The open doorway is 
 wide enough only to admit the cremation chair, 
 in which the corpse of a dead brother is placed 
 and carried to the pyre. The chair with its 
 human contents is then placed in the pyre on four 
 stones, and faggots are piled up round it. After 
 some prayers have been chanted by the assembled 
 monks for the repose of the departed one's soul, 
 the senior monk takes a lighted torch and sets fire 
 to the faggots. At intervals small pieces of sandal 
 wood are cast into the flames. When the human 
 ashes have become cold they are collected, placed 
 
FOURTEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 443 
 
 in a cinerary urn, and deposited in a hut built 
 near to the pyre for jthe purpose. Here the 
 cinerary urns remain until the third month of the 
 year, when their contents are emptied into red 
 bags and thrown into a large ossuary, which also 
 stands near the funeral pyre. Another large 
 ossuary, which I haye seen in these gardens, 
 has been closed, as it has received its full comple- 
 ment of human ashes, viz., the ashes of 4948 
 monks, and more than this a Buddhist is not 
 allowed to deposit in one ossuary. At Henry's re- 
 quest, the monk who accompanied us the other day 
 opened the door of the room in which cremation 
 chairs are kept ready for use, and so I not only 
 saw them, but had the whole method of their use 
 explained to me. From this ghastly subject I 
 must turn to one that will amuse you. In a stye 
 built close to the quadrangle of this monastery I 
 saw several large fat pigs, which are regarded as 
 sacred, having been offered to Buddha by votaries. 
 A wooden board is placed on the wall of the stye, 
 and on it are written characters, requesting visitors 
 not to beat or disturb these sacred pigs. It goes 
 on further to state, that should any one do so in 
 spite of this warning, an all-seeing eye will take 
 note of it, and that the offender will be punished 
 on the day of account. Near the stye is a poultry 
 yard, in which I was amused at seeing a number of 
 
444 FOUETEEN MONTHS IN CANTON. 
 
 cocks, ducks, and geese, whicli are also regarded as 
 sacred, having been offered to Buddha by votaries 
 as thank-offerings for mercies received. It is 
 regarded as a work of merit by the followers of 
 Buddha to save life, and so they buy sheep, goats, 
 pigs, fowls, ducks, geese, and pigeons at the 
 markets, and place them in these harbours of 
 refuge, leaving with the monks a sum of money 
 to provide food for them. Male birds only are 
 presented to Buddha, as they are regarded as 
 more acceptable offerings than the female birds. 
 A large fish-pond in these gardens is stocked by 
 fish, which have also been brought to the monas- 
 tery as votive offerings. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 LOKDOK : PEIHTED BY TVILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STKEET 
 AUD CHARING GUOi:S.