ClfotticU IttiwtHitg SIthrarg 3ti;ata, l&tm {attt CHARLES WILLIAM WASON COLLECTION CHINA AND THE CHINESE THE GIFT OF CHARLES WILLIAM WASON CLASS OF 1876 1918 Cornell University Library G 480.W68 Sunny ands and seas :a voyage In the SS 3 1924 023 562 204 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/cletails/cu31924023562204 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS A VOYAGE m THE SS. 'CEYLON.' "gsUi mk knns a iik W'^\\i\&' '^mx INDIA— THK STEAITS SETTLEMENTS-MANILA— CHIIJA—JAPAN- THE SANDWICH ISLANDS— AND CALIFOBNLA. By HUGH WILKINSON, , OF Lincoln's inn. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. LONDON : JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1 • M ■ 1883. irii.-./. A . ^/ . I 5«Iiirate these £ioies TO MT FRIEND AND TRAVELLING COMPANION, ALBERT WOOD, Esq., OF BODLONDEB, CONWAY ; TO WHOSE AGREEABLE AND INTELLIGENT COMPANIONSHIP I OWE SO MUCH OF THE PLEASURE OF MY TOUR, AND TO WHOSE ACCURATE OBSERVATION AND NOTES I AM INDEBTED FOE MUCH THAT MAY BE FOUND OP INTEREST IN THE FOLLOWING PAGES. PEEFACE. The story of the book is soon told. My friend and I left England on the 5th of December, 1881, to join the Ceylon in Egjrpt ; and having spent a short time on our way in that glorious, and now more than ever interesting land, we joined our feUow-passengers at the port of Suez. At Bombay, instead of proceeding with the ship to Ceylon, Madras, and Calcutta, we crossed the peninsula of Hindustan, and visited some of its most remarkable cities, rejoining the ship at Calcutta. After a short stay in Penang, Singapore, and Johore, we sailed to Manila, and afterwards to Hongkong, Canton, and thence to the three principal ports of Japan, passing through its beautiful and world-re- nowned Inland Sea. After spending nine days in the Sandwich Islands, we sailed, to San Francisco, visiting the Yosemite Valley; and afterwards travelHng by ,Ogden, Chicago, and Niagara, through Canada, and then to New York, we landed in England on the 5th of May, 1882, exactly six months from the day of our departure. vi PREFACE. Ocean -yachting is certainly an excellent idea. Besides affording the luxury of travelling, it enables one to see much more in less time, and at a smaller expense, than going by the ordinary modes, which too often combine the wasting of time in places of com- paratively little interest, with all the uncertainty of finding accommodation on the steamer when it arrives. . Moreover, it opens out to the traveller places which cannot be reached by any direct line of steamers, and obviates all risk and annoyance with regard to luggage and sending home one's purchases. A further comfort, is that of knowing that our home is always near, to which we can return if we find (as is generally the case) that the hotels on shore are uncomfortable. In turning our letters into a book, it may be reasonably expected that we should wish to be heard in defence of its publication, if not in our justifica- tion. We know that much has been already written, describing the lands and seas we have traversed, for it is a well-beaten track, and one which would create no interest in the Geographical Society. The circum- stances of travel, however, greatly differ, and we hope these notes of our tour may be interesting to those who may purpose making a similar one, as well as to others who never seem to tire of hearing an old story, even from inexperienced lips. Our letters, describing what we saw in the other half of the world, found a favourable reception among PREFACE. a large circle of friends : and we therefore hope that in extending this circle, we may not be thought too presuming. Having neither theories to support, nor prejudices to overcome, we frequently seemed to be travelling to be disillusioned ; and though we were disappointed with much that we saw, the interest and enjoyment we derived from other and unexpected sources — ^but chiefly that never-tiring one, the study of mankind — more than compensated us. If these voyages are to become fashionable, travellers will see the world as we saw it, though each with his own eyes. We learnt and unlearnt a great deal, both as to what we did see, and what we had expected to see. Our ideas of facts which books had taught us, and the unquestioned facts which we ourselves observed, were often most divergent ; and it is to record some of these that the following pages have been written. Our object is simply to give an idea, however faint, of those things which most impress the ordinary eye in so short a glimpse of the world as we enjoyed, and to protest against many of the numerous books of travel — generally those most read — which cause the 'globe- trotter ' so much disappointment. We claim, however, the indulgence of our readers if our ideas have been either too strongly or presumptu- ously expressed, and we would ask that they be only accepted as ' first impressions,' which the generahty of ordinarily cultivated travellers cannot help deriving. PREFACE. As a sketch has many pleasing qualities which the more finished picture has long since lost, this must be our apology for its incompleteness, and the want of a deeper thought; for our scenes were continually changing, and our journeys very rapid. This is our only apology for allowing the- following pages to go before the public ; and for hoping that, as the new year comes round with all the dubious blessings of a new crop of books, these notes of a most interesting and enjoyable tour may find a not unwelcome place among them. CONTENTS. CHAPTEE I. THE THRESHOLD OP THE EAST. . PAGE Arnval at Alexandria. — First Impressions. — Arabs and Bedouins. — Suez. — Block in Canal. — Mosquitoes.— We embark. — Perfect Weather. — Christmas Day. — ^Perim. — Burial at Sea. — The Southern Cross.— First Fraud ex- posed. — The Ceylon I CHAPTEE II. THE CRADLE OF BRITISH INDIA. Bombay. — ^Natives. — Fish and Fruit Markets. — Jugglers. — Malabar Hill. — Towers of Silence. — Vultures. — The Governor's Band - - - - 11 CHAPTEE III. A GLIMPSE OP OLD INDIA. A NATIVE STATE. Journey to Jeypore. — ^Varieties of Animal Life. — Arrival at Dak Bungalow. — Sacred Cows and Brahmin Bulls, — Fine Streets. — Amber. — Sacred Alligators. — Temple of Goddess Kali. — Eival Scavengers. — Public Gardens. — Native Cricket. — Native Jeweller. — First Symptoms of the Curio Mania. — The Prison. — Laws of the State of Jeypore as regards Women. — Coiners and Warders 17 CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. THE EOME OF ASIA. PAOE Leave Jeypore for Delhi. — Its present Size compared with that of its Greatest Days. — The Pearl Mosque. — Palace of the Moghuls. — Tomb of Humaioon, Scene of Hodson's Capture of the Sons of the King of Delhi. — Kootub Column. — Reflections on the Past. — Bathing Tank. — Cashmere Gate. — Assault by H.M. 52nd Foot. — Capture of Delhi. — Obsequious Natives. — Ohjets de Luxe. — Indian Crows. — Chandn Chouk.— An Honest Thermometer. — Native Funerals. — Leave for Agra - - 30 CHAPTER V. THE WHITE BLOSSOM OF INDIA ; AND LUCKNOW, THE CITY OF SOKROWFOL AND PROUD EECOLLECTIONS. Journey to Agra. — Beautiful Scenery. — The Taj. — Its Beauties. — Fort, Palace, and Mosque. — A Novel Tug-of- War. — River Tortoises. — A Sad Incident relieved by a homely one.— Parakeets and Squirrels. — A Beautiful Juggler. — Mongoose and Snake Encounter.— Arrival at Lucknow.— The Well. — The Residency.— Graves of Noble Men - - 43 CHAPTER VL THE HOLY CITY OF THE HINDUS. Benares. — Pilgrims. —The Sacred Ganges.— Buddha. — Mosque of Emperor Aurungzebe. — Pilgrims purging themselves of their Sins. — Indian Classic Models. — Burn- ing Ghaut. — Well-to-do Priests. — Practices stopped by our Government.— Temples and Idols.— Fakirs. — Disap- pointment at Age of Buildings. — Streets. — Brahmin Bulls.— A Terrible Fright. — Jackals.— A Martyr. — Monkey Temple.— A Further Link for Darwin 61 CHAPTER VII. 'THE DITCH.' Calcutta. — Great Disappointment at the ' City of Palaces.' —The Maidan.— Botanical Gardens.— The High Court. —Visit to a Hindu Gentleman.— Tyranny of Caste.— CONTENTS. Chiefs, Eajahs, and foor.— Happier Future in Store. — Excursion up the River.— More burning. Ghauts. — Un- dignified and hasty Retrfeat. — Yisit to a Country House. — Government House. — Investiture of the Nawab of Bahawulpur. — The Ceremonies. — Regret at Inabihty to visit the Himalayas. — Architecture. — General Remarks. — Picturesqueness. — The Hooghly - - 77 CHAPTER VIII. OUE POSSESSIONS IN FUETHEE INDIA. Voyage to Penang.— Snakes. — Porpoises. — Flying-fish. — How we spend our Time at Sea. — A Novel Answer and a Good Excuse. — Our first Disagreement on Board. — Unanimity against the obstinate Crowd. — Penang. — First Sight of Junks. — Marvellous Vegetation. — Waterfall. — First Tropical Shower ? — An Irascible Landlady; — AGood Example. — Our Sportsmen. — Down the Straits to Singa- pore. — Divers, — Mosquitoes. — A ' Dutch Wife.' — A Glorious Victory.^ — Fish and Fruit Markets. — Chinese Servants. — Malay and Hindu Theatres. — Government House. — Invitation from the Maharajah of Johore. — Jinrickishaws. — TiflSn on Board. — The Maharajah and our Guests. — Leave for Manila. — Introduced to the North-East Monsoon. — Fish Spawn or Seaweed ? — Entrance to the Bay of Manila. — Unnecessary Precau- tions.— Red Tapeism - 94 CHAPTER IX. A EBLIC or A ONCE GKEAT EMPIEE. Manila.— Hospitality.— Earthquakes.— 'Peiia.' — A Spanish Race Meeting. — A Row ! — Welchers again. — Spanish Ignorance on Racing Matters. — A Quiet Day. — Trip up the River. — Scenery. — Native Boats. — A Cock-fight. — A Disgusting Spectacle. — A Boa Constrictor. — Lizards. — Acquaintance with a Native Caterpillar. — A Paradise for Botanists. — Visit to a Cigar Manufactory.— Fish- weirs. — Plain Evidence of Earthquakes. — A Convenient Instrument.— Government of Manila - - 117 CONTENTS. CHAPTEE X. THE LAND OF THE CELESTIALS. (AN ENGLISH CITY.) Arrival at Hongkong. — Disagreeable Passage. — Great PAOE Change of Climate. — Chinese Dexterity. — ' Happy Valley.' — Cemetery. — Eace-course. — ' Pidgen English.' — Leave for Canton. — A True Incident. — ' John,' and the letter ' r.' — Sampans. — Crackers. — Joss-papers. — Baby Eowers - - 130 CHAPTEE XI. THE LAND OP THE CELESTIALS (continued). (A NATIVE CITY.) Narrow Alleys. — Shops. — Appearance and Dress of Natives. — Frightful Odours. — Gambling. — A Chinese Garden. — Native Employments. — Outside the City Walls. — The Prison. — Execution Ground. — Chinese Characteristics. — Examination Hall. — Sharp Attack of Curio Malady. — Water-clock. — Temple of the Five Hundred Wise Men. — The Heathen Chinee and the Missionary. — The Biter Bit. — ' Susan,' her Dress, Boat, and Power of Conversa- tion.— The Flower Boats.^An Opium Den. — A Chop- stick Dinner. — Our Menu. — Typhoons and their EfEect. — Back to Hongkong. — Duck-boats and Ducks — ' Eough ' on the last one. — Leave for Japan 143 CHAPTEE Xn. THE LAND OP THE EISING SUN. NAGASAKI. KOBE. KIOTO. Dirty Weather. — Change of Temperature. — ^Nagasaki, — First View of Japan. — Contrast with China. — Japanese Customs and Characteristics. — Dandies. — A neat and wonderful Cultivation. — Our Coolies and their Prayers. — Japanese Streets, Shops, and Dress. — A Comparison not in our Favour. — Coaling. — Inland Sea. — Koh6. — Public Baths. — Journey by Rail to Kioto.— Scenery. — The 'Western Capital.' — Buddhist Temple.— Japanese Art. — Visit to the Theatre. — 'Saki.' — Actors and their Attendants. — Street Scene during a Fire. — Our Hotel. — Inconveniences of Shifting Walls - - 163 CONTENTS. CHAPTEE XIII. THE LAND OF THE RISING SUN. PAGE Endurance of Jinrickisliaw Coolies. — Their Short Lives. — The Japanese ' Big Paul.' — Scenery on the Road to Nara.— Tea-house. — ' Tiffin.' — Dai-Butzu. — A Primitive Hostelry. — Japanese Servants. — Dinner. — Cuttle-fish. — Native Candles. — Curios. — Midnight Visits. — Our Ablu- tions. — The Eoad to Osaka. — Unbidden Guests. — A Remedy. — Fish. — A Bicycle. — Osaka, the Venice of Japan.— The Mint.— The Castle.— The Fast Young Man of Japan. — Back to the Ceylon, — Curio Dealers and their Failings .... .183 CHAPTER XIV. THE LAND OF THE EISINGt SUN. — YOKOHAMA. First View of Fusi Yama. — Letter Race round the World. — Tokio (Yeddo). — Temple of Shiba. — Along the ' Tokaido ' to Kamakura. — Dai Butzu. — Immortality for 2s. 8d. — Along the Shore of the Pacific. — Enormous Crabs and Octopi. — Manner of expressing Pleasure and Esteem. — Opinions on Japanese Character. — De Bosco's Confessions. — Japanese Toilet.— Nature versus Art. — The Revenue. — Evils of Western Civilization. — A National Religion ' Wanted !'— Criticisms on Art.— Its Past and Probable Future - .- - 202 CHAPTER XV. HAEA-KIRI. Description of Hara-Kiri.— Account by an Eye-witness. —General Remarks - - - 219 CHAPTER XVI. ON THE PACIFIC. — OUK VOYAGE TO THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. Good-bye to Japan. — A Sou'-sou'- wester. — We lose an old Friend. — From East to West. — Three Sundays in Nine Days! — Portuguese Men-of-war. — Capture of Two Cape -hens, not 'Capons.' — Loss of the Screw of our Log.— Sandwich Islands visible.— Arrival at Honolulu - 230 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVII. THE SANDWICH ISLANDS— HONOLULU— THE HAPPY HUNTING-GROUNDS OP THE MISSIONARY. PAGE Another Fraud exposed. — Great Disappointment. — Con- flicting Opinions on the Islands. — West of Ireland vcisuh the Sandwich Islands. — The Town, its Streets and Houses. — The Vegetation. — Visit to a Whaler. — A Fruit- less Search after Shells and Coral. — The View from the Punch Bowl. — The Pali.- — Missionary Laws. — Present Native Population compared with that of former Years. — Programme of Honolulu Amusements. — Dinner at the Hotel. — The Fruit, etc. — Our New Passengers. — The King's Band 239 CHAPTER XVIII. SANDWICH ISLANDS.— HILO. The Leper Settlement. — Hawaii. — An Extinct Crater. — The way Hilo was saved from Destruction. — The Erup- tions of 1859 and 1868. — Our Start for the Crater of Kilauea. — The Boad to the Half-way House. — A Tropical Forest. — A really Civilized Native. — Difficulties on the Road to the Volcano-House. —A long and anxious Ride in the Dark. — Our welcome Arrival - 255 CHAPTER XIX. THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. — HILO II. View from the Volcano House. — Our Landlord at Breakfast. — Our poor Pack Animals. — Departure of all the Pilgrims but Six. — Our Plans. — An Enjoyable Dinner. — Start for the Crater. — What we saw there. — The Return to Hilo. ^Our Party separates. — Adventures of Two of them. — Leave for San Francisco. — The New World in Sight. — Adieu to the Ceylon - - 268 CHAPTER XX. THE NEW WORLD— CALIEORNIA. San Francisco.— Its Peculiarities. — The Chinese. — Our First Meal on Shore.— The Palace Hotel.— Our Break- fast.— Start for the Yosemito Valley.— Railway Travel- CONTENTS. I'AOJi ling. — Tho Stage. — Villainous Eoada.— A Flower Eegion. — Gold Mining. — Mariposa. — Eevolver Carrying. — Im- pudent Girls. — Indians. — Snow. — Pine Forests. — Cones. — ' Clarke's Hotel.'— Monster Trees.— Fires in the Forest. —The Yosemite Valley - - 287 CHAPTEK XXI. THE YOSEMITE VALLEY. Our Descent into the Valley.— Tho Bridal Veil.— The River of Mercy. — The Three Brothers. — The Yosemite Fall. — Cloud's Eest.— The Half Dome,— Mirror Lake. — Union Point. — Heartless Desertion. — His last Ascent. — Leave for the Big Trees. — Through the Forest again. — The Grizzly Giant.— Tho Father of the Forest.— Through the Snow. — Moonlight in the Forest. — American Jealousy. — We leave for Madeira. — Indians. — San Fran- cisco again. — The Climate - - - 307 CONCLUSION - - - - 320 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS.'^ CHAPTER I. THE THRESHOLD OF THE EAST. Arrival at Alexandria. — First Impressions. — Arabs and Bedouins. — Suez. — Block in Canal. — Mosquitoes. — We embark. — Per- fect Weather. — Christmas Day.— Perim. — Burial at Sea. — The Southern Cross. — First Fraud exposed. — The Ceyloii. Hotel Suez, Suez, Dec. 20, 1881. We arrived at Suez on the evening of tlie 19t]i of December, after spending many glorious days in Alexandria and Cairo, having seen all their world- famed sights, and having ridden for the first time through groves of the date pahn, by the side of Nile lakes, through old Memphis, on to the Lybian desert,' where we saw the wondrous tombs of the sacred buUs, hewn thousands of years ago from the solid rock deep beneath the glaring desert sand, then on to the Sphinx, ' and the great -Pyramid of Cheops, and into its centre chamber, victimized by the extortionate rabble of Arabs clamouring for backsheesh, as so 1 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. many of our race have been victimized before, ai to whicli, like us, they had also to submit. We h seen the grand old Pyramids the day before from t citadel in Cairo in the distance, through the shimmi ing haze across the dazzling desert, looking li phantoms far away in the tremulous air; but tl which startles one more than aU these things, familiar to us in image all our Uves, is entering 1 glorious East for the first time — that first day in or existence which can never die, for it is the awaken: to a new life, a new world, illumined by a new s such as our cold mist-covered country can never s a sun which pours its rich light upon a nat entirely new and strange to one. It is here, the first time, that we see in their own homes dusky feUow-creatures ; the silent, stately pahns, -fl their fruit-laden crests, those symbols of an East world ; the clustering bananas under their huge gr leaves ; the entrancing light and colour ; the ri coloured oranges hanging from the trees; the gorge flowers, growing in greatest profusion and perfect] the kites, those scavengers of the East, which are s ing about everjrwhere ; and the narrow streets ful swarthy Arabs, Turks, Ethiopians, and Nubians, bla; in costumes from loose folds of dazzling white, to tl of the richest and most varied colours. This is but a tithe of what one sees and wonder and which gives one's life a zest and intensity w increases every step one gets farther away J Europe ; a land, where in winter one can bask chmate Uke an endless summer's afternoon, an ALEXANDRIA TO SUEZ. again among- the swallows and butterflies, and this, too, in less than a week from London, and at a time when our intolerable winter and its deathly gloom he so heavy over our country. A railway journey of five hours brings us to Cairo, having passed along Nile lakes, the haimts of in- numerable wild-fowl, through cotton-fields, which from the train look precisely like vast fields of Marshal Neil rose bushes, both in growth and fohage, and with great numbers of pale-yeRow blossoms hanging from the bushes. We also pass through sugar-cane fields, and other vigorously growing crops. We see the stately indolent-looking camels, the Bedouin tents and Arab villages, the railway stations infested with their ragged crowds, the deep sunsets steeping the landscape in a flood of mighty colour, and the rich afterglows softening all things with a russet veil, even human hearts and passions. Another journey of eight hours from Cairo, most of it being over arid sand, generally level as water as far as we could see, and we are here. In Suez there is Httle to do in the way of sight- seeing, but there is much to occupy the eye. About the hotel are beautifully draped Arabs in folds of loose white flimsy cotton, many of them having faces stamped with great haughtiness and character: the women, too, with their rich, deep-coloured skins, have often fine straight-featured faces, and are sometimes very pretty — all being splendidly erect, from their habit of carrying their burdens so much on their heads. They sit in groups at their doors with their children, 1—2 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. surrounded by legions of flies, the little children's faces, near their eyes especially, being covered with black patches of them, which they seem either too indolent to brush away, or else have given up the ineffectual struggle with them in despair. On arriving here we found there was a block in the canal, thirty steamers besides ours waiting to pass through. It may be a day or two before the Ceylon will arrive, so for the present we are high and very dry here in the sand. There are many nice people in the hotel waiting for their ships to go off to new and dis- tant homes in the East, so we are all, in one sense, in the same boat ; and our misfortune in being obliged to wait in so dreary a place as this has tended to link us together in ties nearer than those of mere acquaint- ances. Opposite the hotel, as far as the eye can reach, there is naught but sand and water to gaze upon, the latter looking crisp and fresh, for a stiff breeze is whitening the tops of the blue waves, and giving a most enjoyable freshness to the air. The courtyard of the hotel is quite a little oasis in this blinding desert of sand, and the eye gratefully lingers upon the green-leaved palms and other tropical shrubs with which it is filled. After dinner we are treated to stories illustrative of the ferocity of the mosquitoes, from which it appears that they will rip up the beds and pull them aU over the room in their rage, if they are unable to get at one through the curtains. But the most wonderful instance of their bloodthirstiness was that recounted by our WE' EMBARK. landlord, who, having tethered one of his cows over- night to a tree, in the morning found only its mangled skin on the ground, and on happening to look up saw a huge mosquito on a bough actually picking its teeth with one of the horns of its victim, and watching him closely with an eye that nearly scorched him ! Deo. 21, 1881. We had a great downpour of rain last night, it being the first that has fallen here for ten months ; ' the streets this morning are, in consequence, most filthy, and the air muggy and hot. There is very great excitement amongst us all, for we hear the block in the canal is removed, and that the Ceylon wUl be through in about an hour. We can see a crowd of ships away in the distance over the sand, steaming slowly through the canal, which is about three- quarters of a mile off. The Ceylon has just come in sight, so we must be off to meet her. She is to be easily distinguished from the others by her hght dove- colour. S.S. Ceylon, near Bombay. We joined our home for the next few months about three miles from the hotel, in the Gulf of Suez, after bidding hurried adieus to our friends, and the same evening we steamed away for Bombay. Every day since we left we have had hot, cloudless, and breezy days, and all along the Red Sea have been occasionally in sight of land. The morning after we started we saw Mount Sinai, and low and perfectly barren mountains on both sides of us, briUiant in pink and purple, with hard and SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. ragged, outlines against the clear, warm sky. The sea was, AUah be praised ! as cahn as tranquillity itself, and everyone was consequently very happy, very hot, and not a few very thirsty. On Christmas Day it was nearly 90° in the cabins, and unclouded over- head. It is Yule-tide nevertheless, and roast beef, plum-pudding, and the usual festivities had to be gone through, even in this Red Sea heat. The next day we saw the coast-line again, looking very beautiful — sky, land, and sea all blending harmoniously together in most tender colour, and low down on the sea Mocha, from whence we are told the celebrated coffee of that name never comes. There is much languor on board ; the continued calmness of the sea astonishes us, but we are told that any time from November to April the sea is almost always like a pond, the sky cloudless, and the voyage a delight to all. In passing through the Red Sea one always hears from some of the nautical men on board the great dangers of being wrecked on the sterile shores on either side of us, and the almost certainty of all falling victims to either the wild beasts, the murderous tribes of natives, or, worse than all, a slow death from starvation. With small exception the parched desert sand and rock, which give out again the fierce heat of the sun, are all the comfort that relentless Nature here affords, and shipwrecked crews have gone through the most terrible struggles for hfe from both the cruelty of Nature and man before they have been welcomed by the relieving hand of civilization. Six days after leaving Suez we were out of the Red PERIM. Sea and past the little British island of Perim wMcli commands it. It is a barren island, without a trace of vegetation upon it that we could see, and is garrisoned by a British officer and a company of sepoys, who are relieved every three months from Aden, upon which they are dependent not only for their provisions, but even for their water ; so it is a veritable penal settlement. The story of our occupation of Perim is a strange one ; and if it be true it is stranger still, for it discloses conduct about which perhaps the less said the better. Not many years since a French admiral called at Aden, and accepting the hospitality of the English officers, his wine-loosened tongue acquainted them of his intention of proceeding next morning to hoist the French flag on the island at the mouth of the Eed Sea, it being at that time ' Nobody's land.' The idea struck the British as being so good, that they sent on a fast steamer that same night with a handful of troops to get possession of the island before the French arrived. When the latter did arrive, they found they had been forestalled and betrayed by their smiling, hospitable hosts, and, chagrined, they had to withdraw and satisfy themselves with the land on the other side of the straits, which here are about a nule broad, but which they were soon compelled to evacuate on account of the high death-fate amongst their troops. An amusing story is told of this island. The lieutenant in command of the company comprising the garrison there, on the expiration of his three months' command, applied to his colonel at Aden for an ex- SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. tension, saying lie would like to continue his arduous duties as commander-ia-cLief of the island. This was readily granted, his brother officers merely remarking, that he must be either mad or suifering from delirium tremens or sunstroke. The second three months over ; so proud was this young officer of his command, that a third and fourth extension was applied for, and, like the second, granted. Unfortunately for this festive and sportive subaltern, the colonel of his regiment obtained sick-leave, and, happening to walk into the ' Bag' one day, found the vice-governor of Perim calmly eating his lunch. It appears that this lieutenant, naturally preferring the gaieties and attractions of London to the barren desolation of Perim, had signed beforehand, and given to his sergeant, aU requisite states and forms, leaving them to be filled in as occasion required, and had taken the first steamer for the more enjoyable pleasures of the metropolis ! What happened to this young and zealous officer we do not know, but we think he should at least have got his step for his con- summate coolness. In the afternoon of the 27th, one of those sad and tragic incidents took place before which aU are forced to bow, and which pierce all to the heart. Death Imows neither times nor seasons for his unwelcome visits; without warning he swooped down in silent flight upon us, in terrible mockery in the peace and joy of this summer sea, and carried off in her sleep the only child-treasure of her desolate father. The solemn hush of death lay heavy on our ship, and our Httle world was changed to stone. BURIAL AT SEA. In the glowing calm of the following afternoon, the placid waters of the Arabian Sea received the dearest charge a fond father could give it ; and after lingering near the hallowed spot for a short time, we steamed slowly on our way for Bombay. The funeral-service, which was attended by all on board, was most im- pressive, and the scene a most dreadful and painful one. We saw flying-fish for the first time on Christmas Day ; they scuttle away from the ship in flocks, no doubt looking upon us as some huge devouring monster; they generally fly about 100 yards close over the water, looking very much like quails from their straight flight. One came on board last night, a little fellow hke a pilchard, with long wing-like fins. We have also seen bonitos bounding over the water, chasing them for long distances. It is difficult to believe we have bqen eleven days at sea from Suez ; the weather is so heavenly that we nearly sleep away time in a delightful languor, only now and again playing perhaps a lazy game at quoits, so the days fly quickly past. After dinner our ex- cellent little band of twelve plays to us, and occasion- ally couples are seen gently dancing under the soft moonhght: over any flirting of which some of our amorous pilgrims nmy have been guilty we wiU draw a veil. Many of us sleep on deck, for our cabins are now very close. The Southern Cross we have been seeing for some nights in splendid brilliancy; it is a very great disappomtment, being simply four stars like this SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. * * * and about the same distance apart as our Great Bear stars are from one another. A word about our ship. She belonged formerly to the P. and O. Company, but was sold by them on account of her not being able to carry freight, having been constructed only for the accommodation of passengers. She is a splendid sea boat ; is very strongly buUt ; has high bulwarks like an old frigate, and is barque-rigged. We both intend travelling across India instead of going round with the ship. We shall miss seeing Ceylon, but then we shall have more than three weeks in India, and shall see Jeypore, Delhi, Agra, Lucknow and Benares, and try to get up to Darjeeling, from which we shall see the Himalayas and peaks over 29,000 feet high, the highest land in the world. CHAPTER II. THE CRADLE OF BRITISH INDIA Bombay. — Natives. — Fish and Fruit Markets. — Jugglers. — Malabar Hill. — Towers of Silence. — Vultures. — The Gover- nor's Band. Watson's Hotel, Bombay, January 5th. Here we are in this India — so fuU of the picturesque, so fuU of glorious light and rich and varied colour, so brimful of artistic feeling in everything — the streets glowing and palpitating under a steady blazing sun, so relentless and wearying to residents, so grate- ful to the poor smoke-begrimed sunless Londoner. Ah ! how I wish you could see these crowded streets under this flood of sunlight — streets teeming with all the different castes and races of India, turbans of all shapes and sizes, the different-coloured costumes, the lithe, nimble, almost naked forms of the lower orders, so miserably poor in physique,- such thin bony legs and arms, so like sticks in their thinness, and all so solemn and serious, and so noiseless as they glide along. It is indeed entering a new world — a regenera- tion — where everything has to be learnt again, and SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. has to be seew to be learnt — -where everything, down to the humblest detail, has for one a new, powerful and absorbing interest. We landed early this morning, and we find it so baking hot, notwithstanding that this is the ' cold weather,' that our thinnest clothes feel like winter ones, and we are obliged to provide ourselves with others — simple brown-hoUand suits. The new part of Bombay is quite splendid ; our hotel being sur- rounded by magnificent buildings, pubhc offices, all new. They are as fine blocks of buildings as one can see anywhere, and are much favoured in being sur- rounded by beautiful and well-kept gardens. We drive through the city ; the old parts of which are far more picturesque and interesting than anything to be seen in Egypt. The people seem almost skin and bone ; the men often have fine features, and some of the women are pretty, and many have forms of great beauty. The type of face is new to us, and I dare say we cannot yet understand it. We feel dazed at the newness and variety of things. We go through the fish-market, said to be the finest in the world, where there is a great busy, smelling crowd of nearly naked natives. The sable women, heavily bangled, both on their ankles and wrists, large rings through their ears and on their toes, and a metal button through their noses, carry on their trade amidst apparent great excitement and much shouting. There are here aU sorts of fish, quite new to us, and from four to five feet in length, down to innumerable Httle ones of an inch or two long, and FRUITS. 13 nearly transparent. We also notice huge prawns, five or six inches long, like small lobsters. In the fruit-market, to which we next go, we are over- whelmed by the perfume of rich and mellow fruits, in aU the variety which this fierce sun calls forth. Oranges and bananas, mangoes, pomegranates, and other fruity luxuries we see, and some we try ; but I have long heard of the Indian banana, and I 'salaam,' con- quered at once by her soft and witching charms. One's first introduction to the mango is not generally a very pleasing one, and ours was no exception. It is a kidney-shaped fruit, three or four inches long, with a tough, leathery skin and a yellow, fibrous, but juicy- pulp, in the centre of which is a stone, to which the stringy flesh adheres. It has a strong flavour of tow, turpentine and musk, and reminds one a little un- pleasantly of cats; and yet it is considered one of the finest fruits of the earth ! From the balcony of our hotel we have just been watching some jugglers in the road. They have shown some very, wonderful sleight of hand, but their great mango-trick we detected at once. This trick naturally takes some minutes to do ; for, from a pan of soil which is covered with a cloth, first they show the mango sprouting, then after a short interval, a shrub, a foot high, is uncovered ; then, after another interval, a bushy young mango tree two or three feet high. While they endeavoured to attract our attention to their other tricks, a number of natives, confederates of course, crowded in front of where the mango-trick was preparing, manifesting the greatest interest in the 14 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. other tricks that were going on. Another confederate managed then to get the different-sized trees under the covering, and to plant them ; but the illusion was destroyed by our seeing him do it. Jan. 6iA.— Another cloudless, stiU and baking day. A thick rich sunlight on the dusty roads, which seems quale palpable, it is so intense; sleepy old palm-trees, with their sharp-cut shadows on the ground, and dense foliage-trees giving a deep and grateful shade, into which, however, it is not always easy to get. What the temperatiu-e is in the sun, I don't know, but I see it is 86° m the shade. Many of the large trees here are ablaze in splendid-coloured blossoms, and the flowers in the gardens are superb. They grow with all the gentle ease and luxuriance of our weeds at home. This afternoon we drove round the Malabar HiU, from which there is a beautiful view of the city beneath, just across the green tops of a forest of high palms. The sea, too, looked calm, peaceful, and beautiful ; and near where the tiny waves are rippling indolently to the beach, we see where the Hindoos are burning their dead, their fires burning brightly aU night long. We went to the ' Towers of Silence,' where the Parsees leave their dead ; round white low towers, without ornamentation of any sort, about twenty yards in diameter, and about twenty feet high. They are in a large inclosure — a perfectly kept garden on the Malabar HiU, full of beautiful tropical flowers, shrubs, and palms. It was horrible to think of TO WERS OF SILENCE. 1 5 E what is daily enacted in so peaceful and beauti- ful a spot. "We saw the vultures sitting in a row all round the top of one of these towers, lazily cleaning their beaks, no doubt just after a savoury dish of fat Parsee. They looked, from their rather insolent indifference of us, as if they thought they belonged to a higher order of creation, regarding us as a conquered race, as we do the Indians. As they are never molested by man, and as they are the only living things which gorge themselves off human flesh with impunity, there may be said to be some colour for their insolently apathetic looks. Perhaps it is that their famiharity with our species breeds contempt. The oldest tower is a little over 200 years old, and one of them, apart from the others, is used only for criminals, whose bones are not allowed to mingle with those of the just. We hadn't 'the melancholy pleasure ' (as the imdertakers say) of seeing a funeral, but we were told that, immediately after the body is placed inside the tower, the vultures swoop down in large numbers, and in less than half an hour only bones are left. When the vultures have had their feast, the carrion crows, which have all along been waiting behind their masters at a respectful distance for the crumbs, rush in, and not only pick the bones clean, but polish them. Some days afterwards these are deposited in a weU in the centre of the tower, to the companionship of those of generations of their caste who have gone before. There are a large number of Parsees here. They 2 i6 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. are a very intelligent race, very loyal to our rule, and are the most advanced of all the Indians, haviag little of caste prejudice ; occupying with their ladies a social position unknown to other Indians, and endeavouring to adopt the best features of our European civihza- tion. In the evening we heard the Governor's band, a most excellent one, and well led. There was nearly a fuU moon shining, and a great number of people were enjoying the music and the dehciously cool evening after a bhstering day. We heard much nice music, including a new waltz by Waldteufel, 'Toujours Fiddle,' a soft dreamy waltz which seems very popular. Music must be the food of love, for we were enraptured with everything, and especially with the solemn splendour of these Eastern nights, so vast, so quiet and still, so full of peace and rest. Music never sounded sweeter ; and it was being torn back to earth when it ceased, and the cares of the day came stealing upon us again with the thought of bed, mosquitoes, and other earthly discomforts. CHAPTER III. A GLIMPSE OF OLD INDLi. — A NATIVE STATE. Journey to Jeypore. — Varieties of Animal Life. — Arrival at Dak Bungalow. — Sacred Oows-and Brahmin Bulls. — Fine Streets. — ^Amber. — Sacred Alligators. — Temple of Goddess Kali. — Rival Scavengers. — Public Gardens. — ^Native Crickets — Native Jeweller. — First Symptoms of the Curio Mania. — The Prison. — Laws of the State of Jejrpore as regards Women. — Coiners and Warders. Dak Bungalow, Jeypore, January 10th, 1882. We hired to-day a traveUing-servant, called 'Fer- nandez/ at sometliing less tlian £1 a week, out of wMch he has to keep himself, and to attend us during our stay in India ; we bought cotton quilts and pillows, not only for the railway-tra,velling at nights, which are very cold, but also for the Dak Bungalows, which do not provide bed-clothing of any sort. Dak Bungalows are Government quarters for travel- lers, and we hear that they are often unprovided even with cooking utensils as weU as bedding. For the long railway-journeys we have also to take a provision- basket, for it is seldom that refreshments can be got at the stations on the line. 2—2 l8 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. We tear ourselves away from Bombay, where we have found all so interesting, and at five p.m. we are in the train for Jeypore, in a most comfortable saloon carriage. All the first-class carriages in India are saloon carriages, with lavatories, and a good supply of fresh water. For half a rupee we buy a large bunch of delicious Httle bananas, and a basket holding nearly three dozen luscious Mandarin oranges. We soon pass away from the town, and get among the broad waving crops, which look thick and heavy, and which have a great and pleasing variety of fine and deep colour. There is the densest of palm-forests outside Bombay ; the slender graceful stems and the cloud of feathery foliage, deep and gloomy — a majestic silence against a deep-toned evening sky — a few gorgeous bars of gold in a sky fast talking its flight to the lands of the West, in an unrivalled blend- ing and harmony of richest though quiet colour : a glow and tone such as no eye at home can ever see. When we have watched the varied landscape fade gently away, and have seen the day to its end — and how short these twilights are ! — we are joined by a friend who has accepted our invitation to dine in our carriage with us. We are not without our home luxuries here, testified by a freely passing champagne bottle and ice ad lihitwm. i The travelliag is very slow : we think disgracefully so ; but yet it seems quite in harmony with the feel- ing of repose there is in everything. In the night we pass through Baroda, and the next morning awake up at Ahmedabad, where we get breakfast after a A ZOOLOGICAL GARDEN. 19 comfortable night in the excellent beds which are fitted up in the carriage. We change trains here, getting on a narrow-gauge line. The morning is shiveringly cold ; but immediately the life-giving sun is up, we are thawed and happy agaia In our carriage the thermometer before sunrise was only 42°, whereas at midday it is 84°. After leaving Ahmedabad we are made conscious of the immense amount of animal life with which the country teems. On either side of the line, for 100 nules from Ahmedabad, are countless birds, in the greatest variety ; and troops of big monkeys, which jump and scamper about in the most grotesque and laughable way, jumping over one another, scrambling up trees tiU the branches sway again and again to breaking point. In the little acacia trees, close to the line, we see quantities of the long loosely- woven nests of the weaver-birds in the shape of a big bottle. We see foxes, peacocks, storks, and waders of many varieties ; swallows, kingfishers, kites, and buzzard-hawks ; parakeets in thousands ; and an immense grey bird called the Sarus, which stands as high as a soldier, with many other birds quite new to us. In fact, the country is like a huge Zoological Garden ; this being so because no shooting is allowed in the State. Ah! what pictures we see going through this country of the sun, over fertile plains hidden in rich waving crops, through rice, cotton, and sugar-cane fields, glowing in this flood of golden sunUght ! On our right, on a platform erected on four high slender SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. poles, covered witli dazzling golden leaves of ■ the Indian corn, stands an Indian girl ; her graceful, flaw- ing figure, cutting the fierce Hght, unhampered but with scantiest garments at her hips, with sling in hand ready to hurl at any intruders amongst her crops. What light and shade ! Her sable self and platform, and their shadows in strong relief against a sea of gold ! What pigment, what painter, without fire on his palette, could even suggest this living blaze of Ught ? We see many similar models while passing through these glowing scenes. We see great fields of castor- oil plants — one might almost caU them trees, they are so large, and so handsome with their large and many-pointed leaves. Soon the landscape changes, and we go amongst hills covered with low forest trees, and high, thick, dead grass ; then, past undulating hills, with granite showing through the thin soil in huge boulders, and here and there bursting forth into mountains of rock. One more night in the train — one more viciously cold morning, and with a sun which again sails up unclouded in all his oriental splendour, we arrived here after a journey full of interest and with little fatigue. The line has not been open more than a year, and the native life through which we passed is stiU of the most primitive and picturesque character; one tribe, many of whom we saw, still having their bowg and arrows. After reaching the Dak Bungalow— there are no hotels here— and getting rid of the dust of this JEYPORE. 21 long journey in a delicious bath, we went into the city, said to be the finest and most interesting of the modem cities of India, having a population of about 100,000. It is about two miles square, surrounded by high walls with lofty towers and fine gate- ways, aU being of spotless white, relieved with lines of pink in poor and stiff design ; the Maharajah's palace and entire city being coloured in the same way, giving one the idea of its being buUt of white and pink cardboard. The effect is dazzling, Uke the sun shining on snow — the streets and all but the people in glaring white ; these unconsciously artful people putting brilliant colour in the scene by their different-coloured and beautiful costumes. Seldom do we nptice people dressed alike. We see many elephants and camels ; and in the streets the sacred cows wandering about at will, and apparently picking up what they want from either the street or the stalls of the natives. The main streets of the city are very wide, clean, and weU-kept ; the principal ones being forty yards wide — nearly as wide again as our Regent Street. We also see extraordinary little carriages; their tops being dome-shaped, hke the end of an egg, with red curtains hanging from them. These are drawn by huge Brahmin bulls. In the Maharajah's stables there are . about 300 Arab horses, many of them splendid animals, and each horse having its own attendant, who showed himself most proud of his charge, and most anxious to win our approbation. Jan. lOi^.— We started at 6.30 this morning for SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. Amber, the old deserted native city of Jeypore, having first obtained the necessary permission from our political officer. Amber is about five miles from the new city, and is beautifully situated by the side of a lake, and in- the midst of hiUs. In the lake we saw alligators, which are sacred, until they become too OXEN AND CAET. fond of the lean humankind here, when they are chased and killed ; the bangles, anklets, nose and toe-rings, found inside, being returned to their late proprietors' sorrowing famihes. The latter part of the way we performed on elephants, which the kindly Maharajah supphes to Enghsh visitors who are properly introduced. They climbed the hiU above the lake, on a pinnacle of which the old ruined palace stands, much of it being built of white marble. On this we saw splendid white marble carving, very chaste and beautiful in design, and lattice-work of the same material — astonishingly rich and exquisite work, fuU of delicate finish and great beauty. TEMPLE DESECRATION. 23 Three generations ago, and all here was as busy as an ant's-nest ; but the reigning house left then, and took with them all the population, about 100,000, to the new city. The old city is now all in dirt and ruins, but it still holds about 5,000 inhabitants. There are monkeys skipping about the trees, and squirrels too; and green parakeets, with long tails, chasing one another, and screaming shrilly all the while. Within the palace we went into the temple, where a goat is still offered up daily to the Goddess Kali. We were happily too late to see the slaughter, but we saw the sickening evidences of it, as well as the repulsive- looking and multiform goddess wrapped up in fine cloths. This 'Kali,' who has many other names, is the consort of Siva, the destroyer in the Hindoo Trinity — ^the elements being the 'creator,' the 'supporter,' and the 'destroyer.' These poor people, in their gross superstition, but with some worldly wisdom, devote apparently all their religious attentions to appeasing the anger of the god of destruction. Siva's wife has been much displeased and disgusted ever since the daily human sacrifice has been discontinued ; but they say the boys in the neighbourhood wear a far less anxious expression on their faces now than they used to do. Much to our annoyance and disgust, the Eastern quiet of this temple was desecrated (if our straight-laced Christian friends will allow the word) by a party of Anglo-Indian Goths, whose noisy swagger, interrupting the devotions of the natives, was on a par o 24 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. with the conduct of their dogs,^ which, uncontrolled by their masters, ran about appropriating everything they could find, even Hcking up the blood of the sacrifice ! Our guide tells us there is splendid tiger-shooting on the hills near here. Going through the main square of the city this morning, we saw many thousands of pigeons, in a perfectly compact mass on the ground, being appa- rently the same bird as our blue rock. AU were very busy with what is thrown down for them every morn- ing and evening. In the afternoon, in another street, we saw the kites on the ground in about the same numbers. Through- out the East these splendid birds divide the scavenger- ing with the jackals ; but I fear the latter get little more than well-polished bones, and as varied and indigestible an assortment of articles as find their way into the basket of a chiffonier from the Paris gutters, for they don't show up till night, when all the fun is over, and then have to content themselves with fighting and tearing one another over an old horse- cloth, and in keeping a weary humanity awake and tearing their hair over their discordant waitings. The kites betray no fear of man, and they will often swoop past one's head, nearly brushing one with their long and powerful wings if they want anjrthing near on the ground. It was a strange sight, particularly to an Englishman, to see these kindly natives trying to avoid disturbing either pigeons or kites, and we couldn't help comparing the different state of things at home, where, with few exceptions, our boys would PUBLIC GARDENS. 25 only have been satisfied when they had thrown the entire street of stones at them. When we were contemplating the view from one of the ruined terraces of the old Palace at Amber, and watching a pigeon sunning itself on a ledge quite close to us, and in all blissful ignorance of danger, one of these kites in a grand sweep carried it off as if it had been a fly, so neatly and quietly, without even disturbing its friends sitting close alongside, or giving it time to complain of its gross rudeness. The PubHc Gardens here are really superb, being most beautifully and tastefully laid out, with a wealth of roses and other flowers in fuU bloom around us. Here again we hefir soft and sweet music, played by the Maharajah's band, under the leadership of an ex- cellent master ; and again we have ' Toujours Fiddle.' What a fascination and enchantment attend such beautiful spots. A calm stiQ evening ; an air laden with, the scent of fragrant flowers, and all still so new and strange to us. Hard by on what would have been a creditable lawn even at home, cricket was going on, played entirely by young Indians, students from the college here. Their costumes did not quite accord with the noble game. Seeing us watching them, one came to us, and in excellent English pressed us to join them, sajdng he was sure we could teach them something. We doubt- less could, have done this, as their form was anything but English, but being much out of practice, we took the wise and patriotic course of not disgracing our country by an exhibition of play which might, and 26 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. probably would, have ended in disaster with the first well-pitched straight ball. There seem to be no mosquitoes here, for neither of us has been at all troubled by them. In Bombay it was very different, De Bosco being terribly bitten by them, a quantity of them getting through a tiny hole in his gauze curtains, and nearly pulling him out of bed. I have not been bitten by anything up to the present, which is much to say and to be thankful for. Wishing to see some of the native jewellery here, our guide takes us from the main street down narrow dirty alleys, through courts, and a perfect labyrinth of filthy passages, up a rickety narrow staircase into a little room in which one .can barely stand erect, and where we are received by a salaaming merchant, who takes his valuables from his little boxes one by one with the most tender care. We try to get up a little enthusiasm over these rude and primitive-looking ornaments, but we find it most diffi- cult, excepting with a very few of them. Our guide, who is also our friend, and who seems very desirous of preventing our being imposed upon, wishes us to see the wares of other jewellers and to compare prices. Before getting to the next shop we hear high and angry words between our guide and a native whom we have not noticed before. Immediately afterwards our little fellow springs at the other, who, however, after a moment of indecision and wavering, bolts, unable to face the assault. An. exciting though short race ensues ; we see our mentor dehver two or three kicks and punches, and the other has vanished, ' not dead,. CURIO MALADY— PRISON. 27 but gone before.' Our little bero, exulting in victory, tells us this other savage was trying to get to the other shops first to get his commission, as well as warning them not to abate their extortionate prices. De Bosco here showed the first symptoms of the curio malady, and was tempted to buy one or two fine pieces of gold work at one of these latter shops, one being a heavy necklace which was adorning the neck of the young merchant, a fine swarthy, handsome- featured young Indian, with large soft eyes, a necklace which weighed down nearly forty of our sovereigns. Whatever lady is fated to wear so great a weight when we get home will have to sacrifice much comfort to appearances, but no doubt one will be found with- out any. difficulty to do it. We visited the Prison, the governor of it being English. Everything in it was irreproachably neat, clean, and orderly, and the three hundred prisoners seemed more than contented with their lot. No heavy work is done here, the heaviest being the grinding of wheat, which being always done outside by women, is considered degrading work for men. So they dislike this, and kick a Uttle at it. Excellent rugs and carpets are made here, a few of which we have purchased. They have a great talent for copying old Indian and Persian carpets, of which the Maha- rajah has many of great value. Some years ago an English-speaking Jew borrowed one of these from the Maharajah, ostensibly for the laudable purpose of copying its great beauty. This aesthetic Hebrew felt so keenly the charms of this i 28 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. quite too superlatively utter carpet that lie wafted himself away with it, and after divers mesne assign- ments and acts not in ' the law/ it has found a resting- place, we hear, in South Kensington, our Government having purchased it for a fabulous sum ! There are very few women here, for these poor meek and humbled slaves seldom offend against any laws. Most of these had been long ago deserted by their husbands, and then, for a miserable food and shelter, had found at last a home in the mud-hovel of some other Indian. Their husbands hearing of this, perhaps some years after, would charge them with adultery, and notwithstanding their wives' utterly helpless condition and their own infamous desertion, the poor women are sent to prison for long periods ! Such are the laws of this Native State of Jeypore, and such the lot of the poor Indian woman, against whom the glittering gates of mercy are for ever shut, and whose silent Hfe of suffering excites no pity. Oppressed and dishonoured from her birth, treated as an animal, * imwooed, unwon,' having heard no soft words; of love, having given no trembling, welcome answer. She is simply given and taken. While we were in the prison a gang of coiners were brought in, aU chained. We watched the operation of taking off their chains and replacing them with the prison ones. They seemed rather contented than otherwise with what was going on, and showed as much interest in the chains being hammered on them as if they were being put on some one else. We saw very few warders about, and I am sure an PRISONERS AND THEIR WARDERS. 29 English prison-bird would get out or in just as he pleased, commit a robbery, and be- in his place again before he was missed. The guards at the gates cer- tainly did have old flint-and-steel Brown Besses, but then they were useless, for there were no flints in the hammers ; it reminded one of the Irishman in the sedan chair with the bottom out^ who said if it 'hadn't been for the honour of the thing he might as well have walked.' CHAPTER IV. THE EOME OF ASIA. Leave Jeypore for Delhi. — Its present Size compared with that of its greatest Days. — The Pearl Mosque.— Palace of the Moghuls. — Tomb of Humaioon, Scene of Hodson's Capture of the Sons of the King of Delhi. — Kootub Column. — Ee- fiections on the Past. — Bathing Tank. — Cashmere Gate. — Assault by H.M. 52nd Foot.— Capture of Delhi.— Obse- quious Natives. — Ohjets de Luxe. — Indian Crows. — Chandni Chouk. — An honest Thermometer. — Native Funerals. — Leave for Agra. Delhi, January 13th. We left Jeypore by tlie 6.30 p.m. train on the lOtli, and reached here at 11.30 the following morning. We found our quilts and pillows very useful, for it was very cold in the early morning. What we saw of the country during the night was as flat as a billiard table. At all the numerous stations at which the traia stops there are crowds of natives, as docile and tractable as sheep, and all huddling close together like them, yet showing a great deal of escitement amongst themselves. These are all pilgrims on their way to different places, and many of them very far-off places. Our hotel — Northbrook — though the best in Delhi, is a very indifferent one, and the city is dis- appdinting. It strikes us as being poorer, dirtier, and DELHI. 31 having less ' go ' about it, than any of the others we have seen. It is now only the shadow of the mighty city it once was — a city which during its splendour covered a space nearly twenty miles in length, but which at the present time is not more than seven or eight miles in circumference. It has been conquered and reconquered over and over again, and many past Delhis have extended over the land far beyond its present limits. The Persians were the last to rob and despoil it, and this was in its most glorious and wealthy epoch, when, accompanied by a great mas- sacre of its inhabitants, they carried off loot to the value of £100,000,000 sterling. The sluggish and muddy old Jumna runs along- side the cily, which is surrounded by the flattest of flat country, but still a green one, and this stretches away till it is lost in the heat and haze of the distance. I wiU not enter into details of aU we have seen here. The Pearl Mosque, a fairy-like wonder in marble, worked by the patient labour of slaves, is perfect in Oriental feeling. It is fihgree work appUed to marble, and how white the marble remains in this climate ! and how different from ours, covered with thick filth and greasy soot. The Jama Musjid, the finest and most superb mosque in India, with its three shining cupolas, is built chiefly of a red stone, much of it being inlaid with white marble. In its character it is very simple and impressive. Another marvel is the Palace of the Moghuls, also built of whitest marble, inlaid with richest mosaic work of jasper, lapis-lazuh, agate, garnet, and many other 3 32 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. beautiful stones. In this palace, amongst other marvels of barbaric wealth and splendour, was the world-famed peacock throne, but aU went in this last Persian con- quest. Outside the waUs of the present Delhi for nearly eleven miles, we pass through a level country and an awful scene of desolation: the remains of bygone Delhis and their greatness. We see the immense tomb of Humaioon, its dome rising high into the sky * We had seen so many tombs to-day and felt so weary, that we thought of saying a last good-bye to one another and taking to the two best ones we could iind. We now approach the great Kootub column, which is one of the wonders of India, being the highest as well as the most richly carved column in the world. It, too, is built of red stone and white marble, with texts from the Koran most beautifully traced on it ; but from the fact of its being a simple column of great height, it is impossible to be fasci- nated by any great idea of beauty in it — but still, people rave about it. From its top we look over these, eternal flats on a scene of desolation and ruin. We can understand now, and feel, the vast and limitless past of India, its glory and. its shame, its splendour and its decay. We can read now the chain' of its history, woven in tradition, superstition, tyranny, slavery, and war. We can see ^ This is the tomb in which, during the Mutiny, the two sons of the King of Delhi were arrested by Hodspn, and, while on their way back to the city under his charge, were most un- warrantably killed by him. The tomb is seen immediately on the left of the Kootub Column in the illustration. THE KOOTUB COLUMN. 33 a little now what it aU means. The home of a savage vanity, of ferocity and weakness, the home of bar- baric splendour and a squalid poverty, of glittering pageants and bowing crowds, the careless, sensuous. THE KOOTDB COLUMN. toiling millions, the massacres and wars— the jewels and dross for which the nations of the world have striven ! There is a large and deep brick tank hard by, the 3—2 34 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. water in whicli, far beneath us, looks green and stag- nant. Here are a lot of naked men and boys, wlio get on to tbe rounded dome of a mosque overlooking tbe water ; with a run and a jump they are in mid air ; another moment and down, down they go at an awful and increasing velocity a distance of seventy feet below. We hold our breath, but not for long, for with a ' whish ' they have met the water and disappeared ; a second or two more and they reappear and make for the steps of the tank. The action for aU the world is like that of the gannet, when from a height he beholds his prey, closes his wings, and cleaves the water hke a dart, except that the bird enters head- first, and the human diver feet-first. One or two who made the jump were quite little boys. It was an interesting sight, and the 'divers' moneys we gave them were ' well ' earned. Outside Delhi we were shown where our assaults were made upon it during those awful times of the Mutiny, and which 70,000 rebels held, unable to face the 7000 troops with which we held them in check out- side. What times of terrible trial, endurance, hardship, and heroism those were, and what noble and splendid characters they revealed ! Our guide here was an old Irishman, with brogue fresh from the bogs, broken down in health, gasping for breath from asthma. He shfcwed us the Cashmere Gate where, when the assault was determined on in that ever-to-be-remembered September in 1857, 'The explosion party, consisting of Lieutenants Home and Salkeld, of the Bengal Engineers, three sergeants of same corps. Burgess, ThE CAPTURE OF DELHI. 35 Cajmichael, and Smith., and a few native sappers, in the face of a very hot fire, crossed in succession the precarious timbers of the battered bridge. Lieutenant Home first lodged the powder-bags, each weighing twenty-four pounds, at the foot of the gate, which had been closed in panic by the enemy. He then jumped into the ditch along with Bugler Hawthorne, of the 52nd Foot, who was to sound the call for the column to advance. Lieutenant Salkeld placed the next bags, and in arranging the fuse was mprt aUy wounded, fall- ing into the ditch below. Serjeants Burgessand Car- michael, in endeavouring to do the same, shared his fate and fell below. Sergeant Smith, more fortunate, after stooping to ignite the fuse with a lucifer, and warned that it was already alight by the upward flash of the portfire in his face, jumped into the ditch, and was saved. The next moment there was a loud crash ; and the massive gate, through the wicket of which the enemy kept firing, was shattered with a tremendous explosion, and the 52nd Foot, which had watched for this signal, not hearing the bugle-caU, but seeing the rising smoke aloft, dashed over the bridge and entered the city. The Victoria Cross was conferred upon Lieutenants Home and Salkeld, and also on Bugler Hawthorne and Sergeant Smith immediately after.' Our fellows knew fuU well what this assault meant ; death stared all in the face, and almost 8,11 the first who rushed in met it — hut not all. That day Delhi was taken, after months of patient toil and sufiering ; but only with a loss of 1,200 of bur officers and men. 36 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. Our own guide was himself ia the storming-party, and before reaching the moat was knocked ' insiusible ' by' a rifle-ball ; but this didn't stop him, for ' very few were in before him.' He took us to the different spots where our batteries were posted — always nearer and nearer to the walls — told us how they smashed and crumpled up the thick wall yonder, and how, when this, last battery was unmasked, the rebel shot tore through the air all round them, and where this and that noble life gushed out, their last thoughts speed- ing away to the peaceful home in the West, far away over the waters. There can be no disappointment in this, for life can but be freely and nobly given up to one's country. This was given or ready to be given by all, even by the few faithful Indian troops, who stood by us in that dark hour of trial ; but we did feel disappointed at the Cashmere Gate itself, built as it was of stucco and bricks, and not so high or important as photographs had led us to. expect. How courteous and respectful these poor gentle Indians are ! how- cringing even ! and how humiliat- ing it is to be the subject of salaams so unmanly and servile, and a submission so abject ! Subjects, all of us, of the same Queen! What volumes their de- meanour speaks of the vast gulf between us — a gulf fed with the waters of unsympathy and indifference, as well as ignorance of the feelings of the people, and a gulf which WAist ere long either widen or narrow, and which with gentleness and love wiU vanish, but which with indifference, neglect, and injustice, will THE CASHMERE GATE. 37 become an ocean, in whose righteous storms our rule may pass away ! Not only are the natives so obsequious, but the police everywhere throughout our line of travel salute ^^ us, as if we were military officers of distinction. When at Bombay we first noticed this custom, which cer- tainly doesn't obtrude itseK much upon one's notice 38 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. at home, we turned round to see what important person was the subject of so much fuss, but there was no one. I think at the particular moment each thpught it must have been himself whose martial A NATIVE POLICEMAN. appearance called forth this mistaken salute ; the next moment he was sure of it, and wondered that he hadn't found it out before ; but after this we noticed all the policemen doing the same thing. Oh, how we felt drawn to those swarthy men, and thought we SPARROWS AND CROWS. 39 never had seen such smart and intelligent-looking fello-ws, and that their pay (whatever it was) was a pittance for such patient merit ! The principal street here is full of shops of a most seductive nature, especially to ladies. There are jewellers' shops full of ancient and modern jewellery, (said to he far the best in India), cashmere shawls, em- broidery work, and inlaid metal work. De Bosco has bought a quantity more jewellery here. The old mer- chants in these shops, which are all open to the street, are a study. I saw one old shrivelled-up fossil sitting cross-legged behind a number of open trays, full of dif- ferent sorts of grain, with his eyes lazily opening and shutting like those of a tortoise, a perfect cloud of our common sparrows being about him, like so many flies, and helping themselves from his baskets. I saw con- sciousness return to his eyes, and then, after watching them for a moment or two, he slowly, but with what he might consider great energy, brushed them away with his hands in the most pleading though helpless way — they of course returning immediately he had relapsed into his former state of semi-consciousness. The impudence of the sparrows is great, but not to be compared with that of the crows, which become quite too transcendently utter, after the first novelty is gone ; they are wherever they are not wanted to be, particularly if there is anything to eat or steal. They are gifted with a large amount of reason, and it is their great delight to get into people's rooms, parti- cularly into the room where is some invalid lady who can't well move ; they then proceed in the most 40 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. boisterous way to rip and tear and steal, in open defiance of her and her feeble endeavours to get rid of them. They bully without pity, and are the cause of much profanity. We went to a little shop in the main street, the Chandni Chouk, to get some old gold coins. Here there was another wrinkled and shriveUed-up old mummy, with a hide so ridged and furrowed that we had to look a long time before we could find in which crack his eyes were ; an old sinner, our guide told us, who was worth his millions of rupees. His body was quite ready to bury ; yet there he was, still at it, ' the ruling passion, strong in death.' He was weighing some sUver bars when we attracted his attention. He looked a hundred years old at least, and his body, as if it had been dead since he was a middle-aged man, as an American would say, 'kind of dried up hke, since then.' His wrinkles, when they opened, were much lighter than the rest of his skin because they so seldom saw the light. He evidently suspected our intentions, and with the greatest reluctance let us see one old coin at a time. Some he wouldn't let us see at all. He pretended not to know what the common bank-notes of the country were; at all events, he wouldn't take them in payment. The Government notes of India were nothing to him. He didn't recog- nise our rule at aU, was quite independent of us, and impatiently demanded silver rupees. Yes, they were ' good enough.' He evidently hated our race and rule, and turned from us with an unmistakable grunt as soon as he was paid his money. AN HONEST THERMOMETER. 41 Yesterday here was very cold and unpleasant, and we were literally sliivering in our ulsters all day long. It was impossible to believe that a thermometer, which we bought in Bombay, was not deceiving us when it showed a temperature of 62°. De Bosco, without that rare judgment he displays on most occasions, testily hit it against the table, as he said, ' to make it go down, to some at aU events reasonable temperature.' We thought it would have gone to nearly freezing-point ; but no, it had a rectitude which refused to flatter! One harder blow than the rest, and its proud heart cracks, its life-blood spilt on the floor ; its thin thread of Hfe is gone, its spirit fled ! — scorniug to flatter, it died a martyr to unassailable truth ; slaughtered like the dog Gelert, in the fuU merit of a great action. Within five minutes of that cruel murder, some unseen hand and unheard voice led us to where were many similar thermometers, their silent fingers aU pointing reprovingly to 62°. Its blood was not altogether spilt in vain, for it has taught our hasty hands forbearance, and our fallible and passionate minds caution and control ! We have seen several native funerals. The body, which is as thin as a wafer, and seems to have shrunk nearly away to nothing, is carried on a bier by natives, who hurry along the streets at a run. The bodies we saw were being taken to the Jumna, into whose yellow waters they were to be thrown. They were covered with bright red cloths, and had fresh flowers strewn over them. ■ This afternoon wi leave for Agra, the city of the 42 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. Taj, the glory and the pride of India ! We have long had visions of it, and we have delighted to conjure up its image, unsubstantial, towering silently in the sky like a mass of golden evening cloud, which flings back to the setting sun its lavish colours, and in soft mur- muring answers of gold bids farewell to the god of day ! Our hearts beat quicker as we think that by to- morrow we shall have actually seen it ! It is like the first nieeting with the beauteous woman who is, you know, to enslave one by her soft witchery and resist- less charms. May we be not disappointed ! CHAPTER V. THE WHITE BLOSSOM OF INDIA; AND LUCKNOW, THE CITY OF SORROWFUL AND PROUD RECOLLECTIONS. Journey to Agra. — Beautiful Scenery. — The Taj. — Its Beauties. — Fort, Palace, and Mosque. — A novel Tug-of-War. — River Tortoises. — A sad Incident relieved by a homely one. — Parakeets and Squirrels. — A beautiful Juggler. — Mongoose and Snake Encounter. — Arrival at Lucknow. — The Well. — The Residency. — Graves of noble Men. ' And so sepulchred in such pomp dost lie. That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.' Laurie and Staten's Hotel, Agra, January 13th, 1882. We arrived here last niglit at 8.30, having left Delhi bx the afternoon. The railway travelling was again very slow. This may be owing to the lines being un- protected ; where there is any protection, it is generally by banks of aloes or cactus. The scenery was again as flat as possible, and we passed through dry mud flats, covered with knobs of dry short grass and by mud villages, nearly hidden in deep foliage. Can happiness or contentment be known in those simple homesteads ? Generally speaking, the land looked weU irrigated and astonishingly fertile, with fine crops of sugar-cane, wheat, and barley, and great fields of mustard, gorgeous in its yellow flowers. Here and there we saw Indians, unclothed, working at the 44 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. crops. Of course we always have the steady blazing sun, unclouded in his course from earliest morn tiU it sinks exhausted from a nature which it has parched with its biting heat. The travelling is very dusty, but one has to put up with it, and, after a certain amount, it matters not whether it is an inch deep in the carriage or only a quarter ; and then these saloon carriages have lavatories attached, which are a great comfort. The railway stations all along the line are very interesting, for, besides the native hfe in them, the flowers are most gorgeous. The BougaiuviUea and Hibiscus are ablaze m red bloom ; and, amongst other things, we notice that instead of the old station beU, they have a piece of railway rail, about three feet long, suspended by a piece of wire ; this, when hit, clangs in a very effective way, and is sounded always before the traia starts. We find this hotel the most comfortable one we have yet been in, in India ; but they are all poor, and one has to put up with much discomfort. We take our own beddiag — that is to say, our quilts and piUows — sheets one may dream of, but on them, certainly not. For ten months in the year bedding is unnecessary, on account of the heat ; but now it is very necessary, and the traveller himself has to provide it. All the hotels are infested by jewellers and other native tradesmen, who think nothuig of waiting aU day long on the chance of doing business with us. The hotels, hke the bungalows, are only one story high, and, coolness being a most important object, they are constructed with deep verandas aU round, and having fine reed blinds instead of windows. One of our rooms in AGRA. THE TAJ. 45 Delhi had nineteen separate and distinct entrances ' out ' of it, each one accessible from the street, and as far as either security to life or property is con- cerned, one might as weU sleep on the turnpike-road ! In the bedrooms of the hotel we notice a request, often seen before, and which naturally excites our blood to boiling-heat. It is actually a request 'not to strike the seryants,' but to report to the pro- prietor any misconduct, etc. It is simply insulting to any but a low ruffianly coward to have to read this ; but the savage, uncontrollable beast who degrades himself so low as to knock the poor meek people about, deserves himself a taste of the cat. Agra, January 16th, 1882. We have seen the Taj, the most beautiful tomb on earth, the most ethereal-looking buUding in the world, built to a stainless woman, in stainless, everlasting marble. There is a feeHng of the most sublime peace and rest in its towering domes of pearly white ; and it is so beautiful that one submits at once to the soft chains and gentle bondage which silently steal over one ; criticism being as idle and out of place as the microscope would be out of place near it. Before its soft majesty and almost supernatural sublimity there is no place but for admiration. It is difficult to believe that it belongs to earth, and that one is not dreaming — it is so lovely, so white and pure, dazzhng like driven snow in this long reign of sun. Is the world behind us with its rough ways, its tears and wearisome burdens ? And are these the shining gleaming portals of a celestial home and heavenly rest? 46 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. Spellbound and in silence we look upon it, dazed, for we now know that in beauty and grandeur it is tbe most stupendous result of man's dreaming that the world can show, and the most perfect suggestion on earth of those ' mansions not made with hands.' It testifies more to his power over the unseen and of his ability to seize upon the infinity of spiritual beauty, than any sight on earth. It seems unsub- stantial as a vision ; yet a vision ' sensible to feeling as to sight,' and from whose snowy bosom there comes, floating on the downy wings of sUence, a message of gentle peace, a solemn harmony which makes aU nature round it drowsy. If stones ever breathed forth sermons, these spotless ones of the Taj do. One can neither describe its splendours nor one's sensations as one silently beholds it. Every part of it, inside and out, is wrought with the most consummate art, and carved as stone was never carved before, and its interior inlaid most richly with precious stones in exquisitely beautiful devices : Kajputana furnished the marble and red sandstone, diamonds _and .jaspers came from the Punjaub, cornelians and agates from Thibet, coral from Arabia,^ sapphires and lapis-lazuli from Ceylon. It reposes on the banks of the Jumna, in a large and beautiful garden full of Eastern flowers, bright-foliaged trees, and sombre cypresses — every- thing to make the wondrous white of the marble more vivid. It was buUt by Shah Jehan, in honour of his favourite wife, not much more than two hundred years ago, costing nearly £3,000,000, and is said to have taken 20,000 men seventeen years to complete. It first bursts upon our astonished eyes as we pass THE TAJ. 47 under a splendid arch of dark red stone ; a fitting frame for what we see farther on ; an avenue of dark cypresses and other trees appears before us, and down its centre a long white marble tank with rows of foun- tains in it. At the end of this avenue of mingling fohage is seen the majestic entrance of the Taj, and its centre dome of pearly white, rising high into the blue sky, and aU reflected in the water at our feet. If India had nothing else, this alone would be worth making a pilgrimage to, from any part of the world. Walking at the side of this tank we come to the terraces of white marble on which the Taj rests, and a world of white is before us. The majestic doorway confronts us, set round with texts from the Koran, in Persian characters. Entering with awe and reverence this shrine of art, we find ourselves in a soft opal light, which seems as palpable as the white marble, which gives it life, seems impalpable. We see the polished walls of fleckless marble rise high, ending in a superb vaulted dome; and before us, on a platform in the centre of the flooring, rests the tomb, inlaid in exquisite mosaic. AU is the subhmest type of beauty one can see, and nothing can the world show to wondering eyes so beautiful After tarrying long we leave the interior, drunk with its beauty. We have seen where hes the woman who has received a more glorious sepulture than has fallen to the lot of any human being before in the world, and more glorious than perhaps any will have hereafter, and a building, which by its surpassing loveliness wUl guard 4—2 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. her remains to all time. It stands there also a monu- ment of what the world could once do for its dead. On leaving the interior, our guide wished us to see the view from the terrace at the top, to which we now climbed by winding stairs. From this terrace, from which rises the topmost dome, we had an un- broken view over the flat but smiling country, as far as the soft palpitating light of distance would allow us. We saw the quiet old Junma dragging its weary course along, till it was lost in the distance; where, far away over these vast plains, its yellow waters shall mingle with those of the Ganges, and in a turbid flood go down to the ocean together, polluted with festering corpses and with the filth of millions. This topmost dome is inhabited by countless thou- sands of bats, which we disturbed on entering. The inside was perfectly black with them flying round and round, and the odour from them the most per- fectly offensive you can imagine. It had one point, which some might regard as a blessing — ^viz., its novelty ; but we didn't so regard it, having as far back as Egypt ceased the attempt to classify the infinite varieties of smell we met with after leaving Europe. In the fort at Agra there is also a perfect mosque and palace, the former being a quadrangle of superbly carved white marble, with a flooring of from eighty to one hundred yards square, aU pure, stainless, and snow-white ! From the palace there is a splendid view of the Taj, two miles away, lying at the side of the river. With this in sight, one can hardly get up any interest for beauties which elsewhere would not A PARADISE FOR ARTISTS. 49 only excite the greatest attention, but which would be sufficient to attract' people from all parts of the world to see and to wonder at. The old city of Agra is of great interest, as weU as the drive through its narrow streets, choked up with people. The shops are aU open to the street, each being about the size of a cell, and merchants are sitting in them cross-legged, with all their wares ex- posed for sale. In the upper floor of these houses and in the balconies we saw a great many women and girls. In fact, the streets and houses were thronged with life in all its varied phases. Oh, these deepening simsets and their afterglows, how splendid they are ! and the stiU breathless even- ing air, how solemn it is ! What a reign of rest is here both night and day, and how different from the continuous chiUing and discomforting winds of Eng- land, so hindering to outdoor pleasures, and so destruc- tive to the higher contemplation of nature. Here a great tranquillity and rest he heavy on the earth, and harmony and tone give a swing and unity to nature, from whose pictures all insidious violence is kept by an unseen and skilful hand. Why do not some from our hordes of artists, who jostle and tread on one another at home, come to this new and unrivalled field, so fuU of poetic feeling, and abounding in a wealth of romantic and mythical sentiment ? On our way yesterday to the river, a httle below the Taj, our attention was riveted to a grand subject fit for a large picture. There was the broad river coursing and eddying along between its shores of sand, and so SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. coming from tlie far distance ; two miles away faintly rose the massive fort and city of Agra ; in the middle distance, on our left, rose the majestic Taj with her pearly domes, ethereal as a cloud, glowing in the shirmnering heat. On our right, on a sandbank in the river, was the nearly picked skeleton of a Hindu, with vultures still tearing flesh from it. In the foreground was a knot of native girls, washing their superbly- coloured garments on stones at the river-side, some of them bathing, and their unconcealed figures flowing with lines of great beauty. On all this the rich sun- light fell. One of the great difiiculties would be to determine how much to suppress of all these incidents and details. We were sitting sketching by the river, where it has eaten away the bank so that it forms a steep wall of earth about thirty feet high, and just opposite to this skeleton upon which the vultures were so hard at work. These repulsive-looking creatures excited our ire. We felt a feUow-feeliug for our fast-disappearing brother ; every moment there was less and less of him for us to love ; but when they at last deliberately selected sides, and had a ' tug of war ' over his remains, the ' best out of three pulls ' to decide, we gave up our work and looked on. At the third puU the ' rope ' broke, and then followed a rough-and-tumble in the sand for it, for, in vulture gastronomy, it evidently was an entree{l) most rechercM. In the short scuflle which took place we were unable to see which won the greater portion of the prize ; but both were satisfied for the time, for each took a walk round, FUTILE STONE-THROWING. _ 51 gulping down all the while most vigorously. When we saw them going at it again, our British instincts rose strong within us, and we delivered a quick fire of stones into their midst, but, of course, none hitting them — they never do. How many piles of stones bigger than the Pyramids have been thrown by human beings for every object hit ! In the shallow water by this sand-bank we counted eleven immense river-tortoises with their heads just out of the water, enjojring a morning siesta. Though they were as big as cart-wheels, we hadn't better luck with them. They seemed very lazy and quite indifferent to stone- throwing, except when the fire was very hot; they would then disappear, and, when our attentions ceased, they returned. Our last endeavour to slay something was just before leaving, when we saw stalking about in the water, thirty yards away, a huge adjutant bird, dressed in light grey, with a small head and huge beak, Uke a pair of garden- shears, a long bald neck, and standing, I should guess, fully five feet high. The expression on its face as it ' caught us, red-handed, in the act of throwing at him, was most comical. It made two or three long hops and jumps, and then got on the wing, unscathed ! These, and it seems everything else in India, are sacred, including even crocodiles ! The Hindus kill nothing, and never even think of doing so ! ~yi~ What a number of wells there are throughout the land, and how picturesque they are ! — how replete in art, and how soul-satisfying to an artist in all their surroundings ! There is a sense of deep and quiet 52 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. drowsiness in everything, and on all is the stamp of an unnatural and joyless dignity. Life cannot be all laughter, but here there is none, and even cheerful- ness has long since fled from a land which has never known it. Lethargy seems to have spread her pestife- rous wings over all nature, for the leaves stand stiU on the trees, and the air itself is silent and heavy. How true that ' drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags !' but how, when all nature seems in so deep a rest, can man but follow in its sleepy steps ? In this case, too, the proverb was a httle too timid, for we only noticed one rag, a,nd sometimes not even that ! In Jeypore is a lai'ge well which we frequently passed. It is in the middle of a dusty road, arched over with shading trees, and the ever-present dusky men and maidens and oxen at it, seem half at rest as they slowly fill their pitchers with the precious fluid, and exchange the greetings of the day. There are here studies, or rather ready-made pictures, which one might paint for ever ! Last evening, as I sat at sundown on a terrace of the Taj, overlooking a courtyard belonging to a wretched native hovel, and absorbed with the beauty of aU around me, I was distracted at hearing the most piteous waflings. Immediately afterwards a poor Indian girl emerged from the hovel, evidently in the greatest distress, and weeping most bitterly, followed by three Indians, one of whom carried a brass pot fuU. of water. The girl, as well as she could between her tears, was speaking in the most beseeching way ; but she was only answered by rough handling, vehe- A PAINFUL INCIDENT. 53 ment gesticulations, and loud talking by the men. Was this poor girl ill ? I wondered ; and was this a native medicine-man ? or was it some proceeding con- nected with their miserable religion ? The ruffian with OOMINO PROM THE WELL. the water, now filling his hand with it, dashed it in her face with as much force as if he were trying to dash it through her, the poor girl, naked to the waist, trembling as well as crying violently. One of the 54 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. other men now brought out some straw, which was placed near the girl's feet and lighted, whilst she was bent over it so as to catch as much smoke as was possible. She now began to cry worse than ever, and sneeze and cough and choke, while more water was dashed over her. When the straw was all burnt, and the water had been all thrown at her, the third man placed over her a dry blanket, and the poor thing was then allowed to get back to her miserable den. What it all meant I cannot guess, but the incident fiUed me with much sadness. In the morning we watched for some time the much more pleasant incident of a young Indian mother playing with her httle baby, just in the same way as our mothers do at home ; both of them were as fuU of joy and love and laughter as any mother and infant one could find anywhere. It was a touch of that nature which makes us all kin. The great elements of human feeling are everywhere the same, in every land and in every breast. The parakeets here are in great numbers ; they are very green, and have very red bills and legs and very red eyes. They are very inquisitive too ; immediately one sits down they come about in numbers, and, after as close an inspection as they dare to make they circle round and scream with as much alarm as if one were a new sort of hawk. The little grey squirrels, too, are in great numbers everywhere ; they are very funny and pretty, and so tame that we have actually touched them with our sticks while pass- ing them in the streets. They are great thieves too. NATIVE SERVILITY. 5S I saw three of them, very quietly and with great sly- ness, creep down into a horse's nose-bag, which was hung on a small tree. I crept up, trying to catch them ; but they were all out of the bag in an instant, and immediately put the tree between me and them, and though I could hear them scampering round as I ran round after them, do what I could they were always on the opposite side, and the most I could see of any of them was the occasional tip of a tail. Wherever we go we have these noble-looking kites. They are all about the hotel now, sitting as thickly in some of the trees as the rooks do at home. Wherever we look we can always see them either soaring above or on the look-out from some trees, or very busy on the ground. I was much struck yesterday at a little Indian lad who carried the painting materials to the Taj. On my giving him some money for his trouble he first covered his face with his hands, unable to look up undazzled at so lustrous and divine a creation as myself, and then he made several deep 'salaams' nearly to the ground ; all being done with the greatest ceremony, and with a servihty as humiliating to me to be the object of as it was for him to accord. Hill's Hotel, Lucknow. January 17th, 1882. Our last day in Agra we spent in ' loitering about ' and taking a last look at the glorious Taj. In the morning at the hotel we watched a troop of jugglers, who had come to give us a taste of their skill, con- S6 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. spicuous amongst them being a mother and her child, a sbft-eyed, pretty daughter of Eve of . about seven- teen, who won more hearts by her soft, pleasing ways and languishing looks, than she startled our eyes with the wonderful feats of her art. Their jugglery is without doubt very wonderful, but it is an art prac- tised from remote ages and handed down from parents to children, so that it becomes an hereditary gift. One trick which struck us the most was the mixing up of three yellow, red, and blue powders, in a httle cup of water. When they were all three well mixed, the girl drank the mess off, and then washed it all down with a cup of ordinary drinking water. Presently she blew the three powders from her mouth into separate papers, each dry and unmixed with the others. Another wonderful thing we saw was a fight be- tween a mongoose and a snake. The mongoose is like a grey ferret (but twice or three times the size) ; and, in sporting parlance, having ' sparred for an opening ' (the snake all the time trying to seize the. mongoose with the kindly object of crushing it), it got, the snake near the head, which we saw and heard crunched in its mouth. The snake then lay apparently lifeless and bloody on its back, and after a short in- terval, during which the snake shows no signs of life, the juggler touched it once or twice with a wand, when it soon began to revive, and after a few more passes was as lively as ever ! Many other wonderful things they did, but the girl herself was still the most attractive feature of the LUCKNOW. 57 show, her pleasing appearance being only marred by her having the usual blood-red mouth, from chewing the betel-nut, as almost all the people here do. A, silver bangle was presented to her and placed on her wrist by one of our friends, who was greatly touched by her charms ; but, hke her white sisters in the'West, she was unsatisfied, and pointed with pleadiag eyes to her other pretty arm, on which was — nothing ! Whether her coaxing led to anything we knew not, for overcome with sadness at so much beauty having so much of unloveUness behind it, we left, seeking the consolation of ' tin gonics.'* We left Agra at 6.15 last night, reaching Luck- now at 7.30 this morning, and have worked hard to-day in seeing the city, which seems more modern and with less of Indian character about it, than the native portions of the other cities we have seen. The many palaces, courts, and squares here look very white and briUiant in the sun, but there is a superficial, Brummagem look about them which we cannot get over, after having just come from the Taj ; but it will always be hallowed in the memories of aU by the sufferings and heroism of the small band of our be- sieged coimtrymen — and countrywomen too ! — who fought the hordes of rebel sepoys, and repelled for weeks and weeks their desperate assaults. We went to the different points of attack made on the rebel positions by our reheving columns, and saw the places which were so stubbornly fought for, and aU of which were saddened by being the spot where fell * Gin tonics, viz. gin and tonic water. 58 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. the bearer of some never-to-be-forgotten name ; where blood flowed in streams like water, where rebels were butchered by our frenzied soldiers to the numbers of thousands, fighting to the last man in an enclosure from which escape was impossible. We were led from one spot to another, from one building to another, aU in ruins and torn and shattered by- shot and shell. Having just read a detailed account of the relief of Lucknow on the Ceylon, it made everything appear very vividly before us. We could picture these court- yards in those terrible times, fuU of wreck of smashed brickwork, mixed with fragments of bloody clothing, rotting human bodies, and broken weapons. The shouts and yeUs of our soldiers, who were at their swift work with the bayonet, the sharp shriek, the quivering body, the sweltering heat of the sun on all ; the corridors round the courtyard full of maddened sepoys fighting to the death, neither expecting nor wanting mercy, the air thick with stench of putrefying bodies and smoke and dust, the rattling of musketry, the deep patches of thickening crimson blood, the torn bodies with outstretched, stiffened hmbs, as if death had come upon them while they were in the act of dancing. We see a well in which after this struggle hundreds upon hundreds of sepoy bodies were thrown — the rotten, the dead, and the dying, topsy-turvy; but gorged, it couldn't take them all, so the rest were sprinkled over with earth in the corner of the en- closure yonder, their clenched hands and rigid limbs THE RESIDENCY AND CHURCHYARD. 59 starting from the thin covering of earth, like charred and gnarled roots of trees. We go through nules of desolation .and shattered buildings, and at last approach the Residency, which was so closely and hotly invested by the mutineers. The buildings here are all marked, as if they had had small-pox, and badly too ; in many places the bullet- marks are actually confluent, being in large blotches : and we see the great holes and gaps made by the crashing shells and round-shot through the remnants of riddled and ruined walls. The httle churchyard here is overflowing with the graves of those who fell during those terrible weeks, and amongst them are the graves, too, of many of our countrjrwomen ! We have paid our homage to-day to many graves, and have read, in simply recording words, the names of many whose names will never clie. Amongst them those of Sir Henry Lawrence, Sir Henry Havelock, and Major Banks. Touchingly simple is the inscription on one tomb — that of Sir Henry Lawrence — ' who tried to do his duty.' We also saw the grave of the ever-memorable Hodson — he who killed with his own hand the King of Delhi's sons ! We have seen many native funerals here. One sees a httle crowd of these almost naked wretches running along the streets, two of them carrying the corpse, which is shrivelled up to nothing. There is a bright red cloth over it, and the usual flowers. We were told, it was being taken to the river. As they run along the streets with it they make the weirdest sounds imaginable, sounds which one can neither call singing. 6o SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. crying, nor ■ intoning, yet having a great deal of all three about them. We have given up eating fish in India ; a nasty idea crossed our minds some time ago, and siuce then we cannot disassociate them from the incident of the lady's husband and the eels in the ' Ingoldsby Legends.' HAIB-OUTTIHG. CHAPTER VI. THE HOLY CITY OF TH£ HINDUS. Benares. — Pilgrims. — The sacred Ganges. — Buddha. — Mosque of Emperor Aurungzebe. — Pilgrims purging themselves of their Sins. — Indian classic Models. — Burning Ghaut. — ^Well- to-do Priests. — Practices stopped by our Government. — Temples and Idols.— Fakirs. — Disappointment at Age of Buildings. — Streets. — Brahmin Bulls.— ^A terrible Fright. — Jackals. — ^A Martyr. — ^Monkey Temple. — A further Link for Darwin. Clarke's Hotel, Benares, January 19th, 1882. We arrived here in this sacred city yesterday, after an eleven hours' journey from Lucknow, through a perfectly flat but marvellously fertile country aR the way ; splendid crops of cereals, mustard, and castor- oil, and large mango trees, being dotted aU about the country. The stations were, as usual, crowded with pilgruns going to various sacred places. It seems to us, that almost the whole passenger traffic is composed of these poor and nearly naked people ; a loose cloth thrown over their shoulders, a turban, a cloth about their loins, and the never-absent brass pot for water, called the ' lotah,* seem to comprise the whole of their luggage. 5 62 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. The women have a little more clothing, and, in addi- tion, huge nose-rings and ear-rings, and metal bangles half-way from their wrists to their elbows, not forget- ting huge toe-rings and big heavy anklets. They carry their whole wardrobe about with .them, the most important feature of which is the number of metal rings and bangles, ear, toe, and nose-rings and anklets. They are a poor, unciviHzed, and degraded people, a whole family living together, in one small mud room, which constitutes the house, with a bit of ragged thatch on it. The native quarters of the towns are almost always simple rows of mud rooms ; but in cities like Jeypore, Agra, and Lucknow, the streets are gene- rally very narrow, far too narrow for vehicles of any sort, and the houses are very high and the rooms like pigeon-boxes. In the railway stations the natives are treated like flocks of sheep; they are driven into their third-class carriages; they are penned in closely to- gether ; and, like sheep, they submit uncomplainingly, always looking as if they expected blows, to which they would bow in their meek and spiritless way, if they were inflicted ; but we have never seen one struck. On the other hand, we have never heard one spoken to gently; the never-to-be-mistaken note of kmdness we have never heard. It is all very sad ! Our people never try to gain their love, nor do they even try to tmderstand them. It is too big and hopeless a task for our insensitive countrymen to tackle, having, as we well know, all their sympathies centred in England. At aH the stations, immediately the train stops, we NATIVES AND PILGRIMS. 63 hear a chorus of voices crying ' Pane, pane ' (pro- nounced ' pamee '), and then we see as many naked, nearly fleshless arms, both of men and women, as can possibly be thrust out of the windows, holding their ,_^i^^ A WATER-CABBIEB. little brass pots for water, which a native official fills either from a skin or from a large earthenware jar. Then follows a drinking, rinsing of mouths, and a - washing of hands. This goes on at every station. The 5—2 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. third-class fare is less than a farthing per mUe — a great boon to these poor pilgrims. With the rismg sun we were away this morning to the Ganges, to see the pilgrims bathing in its most holy waters. This surely must always be one of the great sights of the world ! ' Away we go through the dusty streets and under the dust-laden trees ; the few Hindus we see standing about do not seem to feel the sharp air nearly as keenly as we do, though they are practically naked. AU nature is being illumined with a soft rosy light. We soon reach the city, and then see the pilgrims streaming down to the river in thousands ; others we meet returning, with dripping hair and looking very cold, with light drapery of the most entrancing colours loosely thrown about them. Many of these we see now going down to the river have no doubt come from homes away in the remotest parts of India. What a strength of faith is here, and how wildly their hearts are now throbbing! for have they not been waiting and longing for this day aU their lives^ and at last it has come ! They have come with others, who every day in crowds keep pouring into this sacred city, to become purified by bathing in its sacred waters. We are told that out of a population of 300,000, half of them are pilgrims, ever shifting ! Benares is said to be the oldest known habitation of man in the world, and time and tradition have sanctified the city in the Hindu mind, down even to its very dust ! It has ever been the head-quarters of his religion, even before the great reformer Buddha came amongst them, BUDDHISM. 6s 660 years before our Christian era, wlien he found a form of worship, a religion woven up with caste, the most monstrous superstition and grovelling idolatry, all evolved out of the sobbing cries of an early humanity to something external to itself. All this he broke down, destroying caste, setting aside the priesthood, abolishing sacrifice and empty forms, appealing only to man's intellect and conscience, and setting up his great principle of absorption into the Deity instead of the heaven of our own religion. That religion now numbers more followers than any other in the world ; but though Benares was its cradle, from which it spread all over India, and then eastward even to Japan, it has been expelled from the land which gave it birth ; and Brahminism, with its disgusting practices, has once more resumed its reign. The city is alive with people streaming either &om the city or to it. What faces and forms we see, and what different phases of life amongst these crowds ! We leave our carriage as we near the river, and then descend the crowded flight of steps along its banks. Our guide tells us to-day is a great festival. We make our way through the dense crowd, not one single man in which evinces the slightest interest in our presence, or appears even to notice us ! Here and there some fine-featured girl, who stays our admiration, may perhaps look a second time, but immediately after- wards all interest fades from her eye. What a strange trait this is in the Eastern character. One notices it everywhere. Arrived at where the steps are washed by the river, 66 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. we take boat and are rowed up stream. "We see the city stretching along its bank for miles ; flights of high steps line the river, and at the top of them rise, heavenward, temples, palaces, and towers in the greatest confusion ; and, in its midst, the superb mosque erected by the Emperor Aurungzebe in the seventeenth century, with its two minarets towering into the sky. The steps down to the river look just like the grand stand on a racecourse ; thronged with a crowd of people of all ages, down to even little children, pressing into its waters, as far as they can get. Kich and poor, well, ill, and dying, are either in the water or are waiting their turn on the steps to get into it to wash away their sins, to pray, and to throw in innumerable garlands of little yeUow flowers. Every conceivable kind of coloured drapery is here, and in folds as beautiful as if nature herself had with her soft hand arranged it. The morning sun was now well up, and brilKantly shining over the river (a third of a male broad), and flooding all we looked on in a golden Hght. Floating down on the broad bosom of this great river, we gaze bewildered at these multitudes at their devotions, wash- ing and drinking and throwing in their flowers as offerings to the sacred goddess whose water it is. The drapery of the women on the steps is of beau- tifully toned colours, dyed in simple but lovely hues, and aU different. With what eager gluttony we drink in this scene at every pore of our thirsty bodies ; what a luxurious feast for everyone who can see, even as a mere animal! but to those who have the gift of SCENE ON THE HOLY RIVER. 67 seeing a little more, for those who have searched for light and have felt its dawn, it was a distraction and an orgie ! All are bathing and washing, and wet clinging drapery clings like skin to rounded limbs, and figures, occasionally more divine than those one sees ill sacred pictures — for these live and breathe. We have seen to-day many forms which nearly rival any of the classic models of Europe. Some remain in the water for hours together, and are wrapped in deepest thought and religious contemplation, all seeming most earnest in their devotions. Even the sparkling-eyed little children, like black Cupids, wade into the water and mutter their Uttle prayers in the most solemn way. We float down almost amongst them. We might be invisible, for we attract no notice ; some wandering eye lights on us for an instant, but for no longer ! ■ We pass close to a burning ghaut, where the fire still Ues smouldering, having done its work ; the ashes of the burnt one have now only to be thrown into the holy river, down which bloated corpses are continually passing. Fancy, if you can, bathing in such water ! and when you have done fancying that, imagine the possibility of drinking it, as they actually do ! We saw one big body^with two grey crows sitting on it going down the stream together, the crows pulling and tearing away at it greedily. No doubt the fish have their fingers in the same pie, so we never touch the latter in any form. Philosophy may scornfully deride us for this, but we have the approval of the soft-eyed maiden, Sentiment. 68 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. Here and there, dotted about amongst the crowd on the steps, are immense umbrellas, made of matting and nearly flat ; imder these are the priests. They look for all the world like fat betting-men under their um- brellas at a racecourse; and they must rake in the money fast, for they seem very busy. It is work which seems to suit them, for they are (hke many of their brethren all over the world) very comfortably fat and oily. When the people have iinished their devotions in the river, they go to one of these priests, and have painted on their foreheads a small spot of a sticky- looking substance (colour according to caste), for which they have to pay through the nose ! Our Government has put a stop to practices which used formerly to be rife here, practices which were encouraged by the priests, and which had the fuU approval of their barbarous religion. From aU parts of India pilgrims used to come here and drown them- selves in the river. They would be tied between two large earthenware pots, and would then wade out into deep water, being kept afloat by the empty jars. These they gradually filled with water, tiU they sank with them from the gaze of the approving multitude on the banks. Other practices here which have been stopped by us were the burying alive of lepers, and the burn- ing of widows with their dead husbands, or the pleasing alternative of being buried alive ! Cases occasionally occur even now of fanatics, from excess of rehgious zeal, burying themselves ahve and pro- curing without the sKghtest difficulty the services of IDOLS AND OBJECTS OF DEVOTION. 69 every man, woman, and child in their village to help them to achieve their purpose. On leaving the boat we walked into a few of the temples (there being nearly five thousand of them in Benares). In these we saw the repulsive-looking idols covered with rice and flowers, and dripping with sacred water, all thrown on by persons coming from the river. The temples were crowded with worshippers, and the floors considerably over the soles of our boots with slush of water, rice, and trampled flowers, and the heat and smeU most unpleasant. Little niches in the walls of the streets have each their hideous idols, and they too are deluged with water, rice, and flowers. Everything here is worshipped, even pebbles from the river, the city's dust, its cows and Brahmin bulls and fakirs! We went to one temple, sacred to the Brahmin bulls, in which were many of huge size, fat, content, and greasy, garlanded with flowers, eating aU day long, and having no desire to change their lot, only praying for a long hfe, not only for themselves, but also for the church which has done so much for them. What a time these bulls must have ! We thought we saw the eyehd of one sleek old fellow droop a little as he looked at us ; the next moment, thinking we could be trusted, he gave us a most tremendous and unmistakable wink, full of deepest slyness and expressing volumes. One of the wells to which we went — the Well of Knowledge — the water of which the pilgrims drink, is nearly fiUed up with flowers which worshippers 70 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. have thrown in as offerings. The smell from these rotting and rotten flpwers is absolutely choking in its offensiveness, and the slush about it is nearly ankle-deep ! All we have seen to-day, . excepting from the picturesque point of view, is pitiful and disgusting in the extreme. We have seen here, as elsewhere in India, many ' fakirs ' — our guide calls them ' holy men,' but ' black- guards ' in the next breath. They live in poverty, hoping they will be compensated hereafter for their present privations ; but it is said they indulge privately in the grossest licentiousness, and that they assume a sanctimonious appearance only to impose on the very credulous, chiefly of the other sex. They go about almost naked, and cover themselves with ashes and paint their bodies. They never wash, and it is said they sometimes adopt attitudes in which they remain for fifty years, besides many other displays of self-penance. One wretch we heard of who had held his arm aloft for years, with hand so rigidly clenched that his finger-nails grew out through the back of his hand ! Benares being one of the oldest, if not the oldest city ia the world, we had expected to find here build- ings of the very greatest antiquity ; but with one ex- ception none of them are older than the beginning of the seventeenth century. We were shown some sup- posed Buddhist temples, a httle distance from the city, and supposed to be older than the Christian era, but they had no interest for us, because nothing re- liable is known of them. BRAHMIN UULLa. 7' They build so badly, their materials being gene- raEy bad plaster and little thin,, dark-red bricks, that it either crumbles away in three or four hundred years, or is demoUshed sooner by the destroying hand of man. Besides this, cities change their sites, as the rivers in these endless flats change their course. The present bed of the Ganges is part of the old site of Benares, and we can see where huge masses of archi- tecture have fallen into the river, and where much more is ready to follow. We spend a long time in the narrow little streets of the city, the houses on both sides towering up eight or ten stories high, and crammed fuU of little rooms, after the manner of a pigeon-cote. Some of the streets are so narrow as to suggest their likeness to rabbit-runs; no wheeled vehicle could pass down them ; even these sacred Brahmin bulls would stick were they to attempt the feat, so they content them- selves with wandering about the broader streets, few of which are over six or seven feet wide, with all the dignity of the Grand Moghul, getting out of the way of no one, and receiving a deal of homage and more of room from all, wherever they go. They are perfectly harmless, except when on© ignores their presence, and has one's corns trodden, on by a hoof which seems as if it were worked by hydraulic pressure; this wUl teach anyone manners, and assures them plenty of room on a subsequent occasion, even if one has to flatten one's self against the waU to do it. The lazy old brutes evidently think they ' flatter ' anything they tread on ; 72 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. SO do we, and we ' git ' accordingly, as they say over the water. "We had a terrible fright here last night, but, happily, are both stiU alive to teU the tale. Our hotel is a little way out of the town, and in the dead of night we were startled from our sleep by the most piercing shrieks and waihngs, apparently close at hand. Simultaneously we called to one another, and simultaneously we gasped out, ' Good heavens ! what was that ?' Murder or mutiny must be at its bloody work again, and there is nothing between us and it, but a gossamer-like reed blind. Oh for my trusty revolver now! which foohshly I had left at the bottom of a trunk on board, thinking I should not be likely to want it. How I cursed myfoUy! Howl swore I would be strapped to it, if ever the light of another day blessed us ! There they are, those piteous shrieks again, and nearer stiU ; doubtless another poor victim going in agony to his long home ! What a terrible suspense this is 1 then came the quickly- following thoughts of how terrible it is to die so young, so far from home ! how useless a life, how much better in the future if we. were only spared this time ! All these thoughts were stopped, as weU as my straightening hair, which was by this time nearly erect, by De Bosco turning over, and , in a perfect storm of muttering I only caught one word I recog- nised; it was that whi6h came last, viz., 'Jackals I' Yes ; they were close to the hotel, and from the noise they made I should guess there must have been at least Seventeen thousand , of them, for they make a THE ANGLO-INDIAN ON INDIA. 73 screaming noise most disproportionate to their size, a noise between that wliich cats would make were they as big as cows and the shrieks of tortured women. Every ten minutes till dawn did they awaken us in this way, and every ten minutes did De Bosco as regularly make use of language which he never learned on his mother's knee. We met here a very pleasant Anglo-Indian member of the Church Militant, going on his way rejoicing to England after a very long residence in India. In the course of conversation we said how interesting we had foimd India, as weE as the manners and customs of the natives, their picturesqueness, and so forth, and ending in a rhapsody at the glorious weather. He was now fairly worked up, and looking at us with a face fuU of the most sublime tenderness and pity, he said in a way which carried conviction with it : ' Live here for only one year, and then come and talk to me of India ; the country is only fit for natives and salamanders.' ' But surely,' said we, ' the manners and customs of the people are very interesting and picturesque ?' He simply replied : ' Their manners ! they have none ; and their customs are beastly ;' and he added : ' When I get home I will never allow the word " India " to be mentioned in my house, excepting it be always coupled with that of " pension." ' He posed rather as a martyr, but his jovial face and boisterous spirits seemed absurdly incongruous with the position he had assumed, and we felt he 74 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. could have acted more successfully the rdle of a Friar Tuck or any Mark Tapley character. Amongst other strange temples in Benares is the ' Monkey Temple,' a temple dedicated as usual to our old friend ' Siva/ the god of destruction. This temple is a red building, and its architecture most fantastic, with much of nearly full-relief carving about it. It is surrounded, as well as crammed, in every con- ceivable place and in every conceivable position, with monkeys of all sizes, shapes, colours, lengths of tail, expression of face; general viciousness being deeply intrenched in aU their sinful faces.' Before going , into the temple, we buy trays full of pop-corn and native sweets of some of the priests who accompany us; but before we could get into the temple the first tray was torn out of the priest's hand by an old sinner who stole up from behind, and in another moment there was a stampede of monkeys to the spot, enabling us to get into the temple and feed a few of the better-behaved ones in comparative peace. In one of the courtyards of the temple we saw one lying dead, and were told that if anyone attempted to touch it he would be torn to pieces by aU the others, and that it was only at night that it could be safely removed. One old patriarch came behind De Bosco as we were walking round, and tried to bite his leg in the most vicious way ; but his British calf of iron was too massive, broad, and tight, and the old cannibal was literally unable to get a hold of any- thing excepting trousers, which it bit through. He couldn't understand it! His face skewed he was ' AL FRESCO' LIFE. 75 baffled, and that he had never met a calf like that before; but having weU considered the question for about half a minute from aU different points of view, he thought he would like to try again, and quietly- strolling up with that object, he was received with a kick which helped him the next instant to a distance of twenty-five yards away, high up on a ledge of the roof, from which he kept up a continual chattering at us until we left. The weather each day is perfectly glorious, and I have not been bitten once since I left England by mosquito or any other living thing. This is rather extraordinary, for I am awfully punished by gnats and midges at home. These natives seem to do nearly everything out of doors. "We see them in the early morning sitting on their heels 'brushing' their teeth with their bare fingers, and some of them cooking. They also do all their shaving in the streets. In the heat and lazy time of the day, they comb and otherwise examine 6 76 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. each other's heads in much the same way as monkeys do ; and doubtless looking for the same things, though they don't seem as clever in catching them as their quicker-fingered ancestors. It seemed to us yet another link in the chain of evidence supporting the Dar- winian theory. CHAPTER VII. 'THE DITCH. Calcutta. — Great Disappointment at the 'City of Palaces.' — The Maidan.— Botanical Gardens.^The High Court. — Visit to a Hindu Gentleman. — Tyranny of Caste. — Chiefs, Rajas, and Poor. — Happier Future in Store. — Excursion up the River. — More burning Ghauts. — Undignified and hasty Re- treat. — Visit to a country House. — Government House. — Investiture of the Nawab of Bahawulpur. — The Ceremonies. — Regret at Inability to visit the Himalayas. — Architecture. — General Remarks. — Picturesqueness. — The Hoogly. Great Eastern Hotel, Calcutta, January 27, 1882. We arrived here on the 22nd, after a twenty hours' journey from Benares. The railway station there is three or four miles away from the city, on the opposite side of the river. The morning was again glorious, with a thin mist veiling everything, and foretelling another baking day. We crossed the river by its long narrow bridge of boats , and many a time did we look back upon the sensuous city, half-veiled in the thin rosy mist, rising hke a phantom from the broad and dirty river which swirled along at its feet. While crossing the river, we saw several fish as large as porpoises, and roUing about in a similar manner on 6—2 78 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. the top of the water; their food must be rich and good, for they are fat and lazy. For the last time here we see death in aU its swollen hideousness, float- ing down with the ever busy crows upon it. We again travelled through a perfectly flat country, but green with crops aU the way. At all the stations we were able to get dehcious oranges and bananas, which we never tire of We have offered numberless different thiugs to the natives to eat, and even to the little children, but they all refuse, their religion prevent- ing their accepting anything we have touched, excepting money, and the quantity they are willing to take of this more than makes up for everything else they refuse. For some inscrutable reason, this place is called the ' City of Palaces.' Those who come here, either by land or water, instantly perceive they are the victims of a cruel joke; cruel, because they have to travel 6,000 miles before discovering it. 'Tis hard to be obhged to travel in order to disprove nearly all one has implicity believed since one's earliest childhood, but so it is — and to an extent which is simply astonish- ing. How this place could have earned an appellation so exceedingly wide of the mark is nothing more nor less than astounding ! It must have been either a joke perpetrated in some drunken orgie, or else satire of the most mahcious and venomous description ; but whichever it was, there will assuredly be a bitter reckoning some day for those who took its true name in vain, viz. ' The Ditch,' as aU honest men know it by. A SHAMEFUL FRAVD. 79 We are getting accustomed to this sort of thing now, and the joke is getting played out, for it has so often occurred before; formerly we used to set our teeth and swear a revenge, but after a score or two of similar instances we became calmer, and now only significantly look at one another with faces full of pity for our erring brethren. Setting out from home full of bubbling joy, we begin to compare books and words with facts, and disappointment after dis- appointment meets us. The sad truth flashes upon us that in seeing the world as it is, we travel to be ' disillusioned,' and our interest and pleasure are mainly derived from quite unexpected sources. The innate malice of mankind in the shape of books of travel and guide-books has hit us hard enough, goodness knows ! but when we find ourselves belonging to the same race which not only tolerates Calcutta being called the ' City of Palaces,' but actually perpetuates the deceit, we feel too simple and childlike to Hve longer among them, and are even glad that we are so soon to leave and seek a new nationaUty in a more honest race, possibly that of the heathen Chinee ! If Calcutta is to be called anything but plain Calcutta, let it be ' The Ditch,' in the name of honestj-. Its smells are a disgrace to it : they are abominable even in the best portions of the city, and worse in this respect than any of the native towns we have been in. The native portions of the city are far less interesting than any of the other towns we have seen, and the people dirtier, and from their constant contact with 8o SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. Europeans, they seem to have lost a great deal of their native character, and to have got nothing in its place. There is nothing to do in the town and nothing to see; no shade anywhere, and an hotel with as much discom- fort, bustle and noise as there is in a large railway station. Between the river and the front of the city is a park, almost treeless, called the Maidan : this is the Rotten Eow of Calcutta ; and here, in crowds of car- riages which are driven round in the late afternoon, we see many bonny Enghsh girls with the same rosy cheeks they have at home, as weU as the blackest of Indians : the wealthier of the latter seem to be suc- cessful in outdoing the Europeans in the elegance and size of their equipages, and not only must they sit higher than we do, but their turbaned servants also, who stand behind, towering above those of the EngHsh residents. The Botanical Gardens, a Uttle way down the river, are most extensive, and full of the wonders of a tropical vegetation growing in the most exuberant way. There is here the celebrated banyan-tree, which measures 300 yards, round the tips of its branches. In the High Court here I found myself at once amongst a number of barrister friends, many of them being Hindus, whom I had known while they were qualifying for the Bar in London. The building is a very fine one, and in the centre having an oblong quadrangle filled with the vivid colours of many tropical plants and bright with sunshine. Never did THE TYRANNY OF CASTE. 8i the precincts of law look less dingy or more attrac- tive ! I heard many stories of the immense fees raked in by barristers here during those long wrangling suits, which the rich natives seem to revel in so much. In one suit in the country the fees were so enormous and heavy that the lucky barrister had Hterally to carry away in a cart the sacks of silver rupees with which he was paid. We were invited to the house of a Hindu gentle- man having one of the first practices at the bar here, a house furnished in English style throughout, and standing in a large garden full of palms, roses and other flowers. The drawing-room, which had no doubt been vacated by the ladies of the family in order that we might see it, was precisely like a London one, even down to its open fireplace. It was impossible to see the ladies, for ' caste' insists upon their being shut up and screened from gaze ; but though we could not see them, they showed their kindly womanly feeling by making for us with their own hands some most delicious sweetmeats. _ Nor were we more successful in seeing the wife and children of our friend Mr. Kishori ; although at one time it was nearly arranged that we should have an interview, but at the last moment he seemed to quail before the enormity of what he was doing, and it feU through. As an instance of the awful tyranny of caste, he told us he had never even seen his younger brother's wife, though Uving within a stone's-throw of him, because it was contrary to the Indian custom. He also told us that his aged mother. §2 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. left a widow twenty-two years ago, had never been out- side her house since ; that she had never spoken to any living soul out of it ; that she fasts entirely for twenty- four hours, twice in each month, not even wetting her lips with water; that she has no enjoyments — sees no one while she lives nor while she dies — ^never tastes animal food — is not even allowed to wear orna- ments ! These are a few of the pleasing alternatives to being burned alive on the funeral pjrre of her husband. Indian women are crueUy oppressed from their birth; down-trodden to the position of mere animals by a tyrant custom, the inheritance of a dark past ; obedient and even cringing to the stronger animal, for they have had aU spirit crushed out of them ever since their country was peopled. Violence they are not subjected to, as many of our Enghsh wives are, nor are they kicked about with hob-nailed boots. Brutal savagery is not a sin of the poor Hindu. However bad his other ones may be, he acts up to an Indian proverb, so gentle that other nations might well feel envious of India for possessing it, ' Strike not even with a blossom a wife, however guilty.' We have heard violence as well as other infamies laid to the charge of the chiefs and rajahs, but not to the poor; the former seem to be a great curse upon their country, knowing neither pity nor forbearance, justice nor mercy ; who practise openly before their people every depravity, and whose whole Hves are an outrage on elementary morals; in their bloated grossness knowing only dishonour, falsehood and superstition, and being ignorant of any other use UP THE HOOGLY. 83 their power should be put to than the gratification of their filthy lust. For the higher class of the people there seems at last to be the dawn of a happier future, for now there are not only societies existing for educating the women, but the children are receiving hberal educa- tions throughout the length and breadth of the land, and are not in all cases — notably in that of Mr. Kishori's children — ^betrothed in their infancy : one of the curses of the land ! We accompanied our friend Mr. Kishori on an ex- cursion up the river, which is here over half a mile broad, and crowded with shipping and native boats of the most extraordinary shapes imaginable. On our way up we came across a number of women bathing, amongst whom were some old hags, their skin on their shrivelled-up bodies being not in wrinkles, but abso- lutely in folds. We stopped at a burning ghaut, a plain open building on the river, in which three bodies were frizzling away. Three other corpses were lying on the ground, having just been brought in ; one of a tall, weU-nourished Hindu, and having died only one hour before, was consequently stUl warm ! We saw the pjTe built up, small wood being first placed on the ground, and over this logs about five feet long, with other logs of about three feet long being laid crosswise. The pjrre was built up in this way to about three feet high ; the still limp, naked body was then pulled on the top, the legs being bent at the knees and packed with the feet against the thighs, as only a Hindu's legs could be 84 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. bent; lie was tlien covered with logs to another two feet. While we were contemplating these preparations Mr. Kishori, perfectly horrified, turned to us and whispered : ' Fancy, my old mother wiU be treated, like this one of these days ! It must be done', but isn't it hor- rible ?' Immediately after this he thought fit to ask of what these people had died. When he was told, he turned to us with a scared face and gasped out, ' Cholera.' We had immediately seen enough, and our curiosity to see more was fully satisfied. I won't say that any of us left that buUding with a haste unbecoming the dignity and courage of Britons ; I simply state as a fact, that I personally found it more convenient to fall down a long flight of stone steps to our boat than to walk down them. I certainly reached our boat quicker that way than my friends did by walking down in the more usual and dignified way. The next two miles of our journey up river was pursued in absolute sUence, each occupied with his own thoughts. What we had seen was most ghastly, terrible and shocking, and in none but a barbarous country could cremation exist in this form. When we got away from the city we passed many pleasant-looking houses, with their gardens running down to the river, and fuU of fine palm-trees and a rich and splendid vegetation ; but none of the gardens were kept as they should be, according to our ideas of neatness. THE ' ORDER ' OF THE STAR OF INDIA. 85 Our destination was the country house of a Hindu gentleman, standing in a large garden full of graceful palms, banana and mango trees. We were brought green but full-grown cocoa-nuts, just gathered from the trees; a native servant pd,red the thick rind away, and then with a chopper cut away the top of the shell, which was full of beautiful milk as clear as water, and which we found deliciously cool and .re- freshing. In the garden we noticed almost all our home- flowers, the names of which the gardener knew, though unable to speak any other English. We were given some very tastefully-arranged bouquets here, and after a pleasant rest drove to the hotel, a distance of six miles, through mud villages and past jute manu- factories and through a low, swampy country covered thickly with trees and jungle. In the villages we passed through, we saw much kite-flying going on, a pastime in which both yoimg and old seemed equally eager. A 'feature' which the kites lacked were ' tails.' In the evening we attended at Government House the ceremony of the investiture of His Highness Rukn- ud-Daula, Nasrat Jang, Hafiz-ul-MuIk, Mukhhs-ud- Daula, Nawab Sadik Muhammad Khan Bahadur, Nawab of Bahawulpur, etc., etc., with the honourable in- signia of the First Class of the most exalted Order of the Star of India. This took place in the throne-room, the Viceroy being clothed in gorgeous apparel on a dais at the end of the room, which was crowded, excepting a 86 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. passage through the suite of rooms up to the dai's, with brUliant dresses and rich uniforms and many native chiefs in a blaze of costume and precious stones, some of which were of enormous size. There were the usual processions of maces and spears, knights and banners, and reverences to the Viceroy. Soon after two junior knights withdrew in order to conduct his Highness the. Nawab into the presence of the Viceroy. We then hear the clanging trumpets speaking forth a grand march, and then come more processions of spears and maces, and his Highness makes his appearance under his furled banner, borne by an officer, and looking a most pitiable object of terror ; lastly come pages and attend- ants, and " alarums and excursions." As his Highness . approaches the dais a guard of honour presents arms, and all rise from their seats. His Highness, who can hardly stagger along from either the effects of the enormous turban he wears or something else, which he might have thought necessary to take to sustain him through the trying ordeal, looks very iU at ease ; he is conducted trembling to the dai's, where, to make him feel more at home and cooler, he is clothed in the mantle of the Order and a riband and badge. He then endeavours to make a; reverence to the Viceroy, who returns the gracious act by investing him with the collar of the Order, and admonishes him in the follow- ing words : ' In the name of the Queen and Empress of India, and by her Majesty's command, I hereby invest you with the honourable insignia of the Star of India, of which most exalted Order her Majesty has been A VICEREGAL RECEPTION. 87 graciously pleased to appoint you to be a KnigM Grand Commander.' He then makes another reverence; his huge turban is rapidly sinking over his face, and there seems to be a general collapse supervening, when in the nick of time he is led, to a seat, his banner being unfurled and arms again presented, and his full titles proclaimed aloud by the secretary of the Order. There were investitures of minor Orders after this, but none of them attended with so much splendid ceremony. At times grotesque mistakes were made, and in backing out of the throne-room there was manifested a great tendency to back amongst the audience and spectators, which naturally gave rise to some commotion. The one great effect of the cere- monial seemed to be the reduction of the chief objects of it to a state of terror pretty nearly bordering on un- consciousness. At a reception held afterwards, we had ample time to study the magnificent dresses and turbans of some of the natives, many of them laden with enormous and glittering gems, but the bright and beautiful peach-blossom complexions of our ladies outshone all their jewels in loveliness. We had heard that after a short residence here our English girls wither on the stalk, and that the roses leave their cheeks to make way for the pale and sickly lily ; but no complexions, either in town or country at home, could have been more radiant and rosy than were a great many we saw here. SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. We have been sadly disappointed with many things in India, and regret that we have not suiEcient time to see the Himalayas from Darjeehng, a sight which everyone says, and which we also believe, is magni- ficent. From Darjeeling, which is itself several thousand feet up, can be seen the grandest peaks in the world, viz., Kinchinginga, 28,156 feet, and Mount Everest, which is 29,002 feet, the highest land in the world. But aftef numerous delays, the Ceylon leaves to- morrow, and we have consequently been simply kill- ing time, and fretting for the last four or five days, during which time, had we known it, we might have been in the Himalayas. Generally speaking, India seems to have little between the highest and finest mountains in the world, and the flattest of flat land — all our joumey- ings being over the latter, which forms almost the entirety of the country. This is one thing we did not know before. Another is the miserable, cringing, shrivelled-up, and poverty-stricken humanity, with its grossly superstitious and childish religion, fuU of mysticism, and the disgusting forms of idolatry, and the filth and smells connected with it. Another thing — with a few notable exceptions — are the buildings and ruLQS from which we had expected so much, few of them being as much as 300 years old, though the cities we have been through are the oldest in India. No doubt there are here and there, at wide intervals, old Buddhist temples, and other remains of an antiquity so great that no one can even dare to guess THE BRIGHT SIDE OF INDIA. 89 their chronology ; but as events, even a few centuries back, are lost in the obscurity of fable, they must E^lways lack, that which lends to everything so great an interest and enchantment, viz., historical association. The most remarkable feature in connection with their architecture is the impression, which is forced upon one, of the patient labour which has been bestowed on it, and the rich, exquisite and dehcate finish which is its result; in this they perhaps outrival even the most perfect productions of Europe. Their elaborate marble lattice-work, carved with astonishing dehcacy and beauty, and which forms so prominent a feature in all their great buildings, is, without doubt, unrivalled in the world. The bright side of the picture is, at this time of the year, a climate for weeks and weeks like an unclouded EngHsh summer's day ; a sunUght, intense, rich and meUow, and more glorious than the eyes of the Western world have ever looked upon — so different from the pale thin light we get in our chUl and foggy clime, which looks more like the moonhght than sunlight ! The day, from the first streaks of its tenderest light tiU the soft night again hushes aU to rest, is as a song of praise. Darkness flies before its joyous light to the far-off west, and now the golden path of day is ablaze with glory as He comes again to shower his blessings on thankless man ! In orient majesty he sails into the air — no thievish clouds are here to intercept the gifts he scatters on his course ; his gold lingers on the smiling waving crops, and they, with all nature, have drunk to their full his ripening breath. 90 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. His course is now nigh run, and he floods the landscape with his last and deepest glories, and scatters in his wake the lingering watch-fires in the sky, to check the hastening gloom; and as they wane, the night steals on, and once more all is wrapt in solemn rest. Then how picturesque, too, is all around us — the entrancing colours of the costumes, the beautiful birds, the flowers, the fruits, the novelty of all nature ! Our memory lingers over the snowy masses of the Taj, and other splendid tombs and mosques, seeming to melt away in the tremulous air; the magnificent effects of light and shade, and the pictures constantly forcing themselves upon us, wherever we go — wherever we look — the romantic traditions and the indolent sensuous feeling, which enriches everything, and the stamp of a past which still lives in the present, and which overwhelms all in its vastness. All this must convey a deep and lasting impression upon all. For artists who can paint sunlight and figures, India has a field simply unrivalled ; it abounds in mystical and imaginative tradition, and it has never yet been painted ! — its picturesqueness consequently is to the people of England as a rolled scroll. Those who feel the sea's motion need fear nothing for any time from November to April — the Eastern seas may be said to be always cahn, generally absolutely unruffled, and the voyage, which is seven- teen or eighteen days by Brindisi, is, for the worst of sailors, thoroughly enjoyable. Cloudless skies, soft balmy breezes, a blue and rippling sea, are what one THE HOOGHLV— PILOTS. gi eiyoys, instead of an English winter with an atmosphere of fog and smuts, leaden skies and rain, with an occasional glimpse of a sickly sun, which neither gives us cheerfulness nor warmth. Our ship is anchored in the middle of the river, opposite the fort, and surrounded by a great deal of shipping and the usual low-lying country. The fogs at night, both on the river and on shore, are very bad, and everything in the morning is drippiag wet ; even in the hotel it makes our clothes very clammy and uncomfortable to put on. The kites are in great numbers on the ship, having quite taken possession of our rigging ; when kitchen-refuse is thrown overboard, there is the greatest activity amongst them, and with- out in the least stopping themselves in their grand swoop, they -carry off their prize from the water in their talons. At night the mosquitoes are most troublesome, many of our pilgrims being sorely (or, to speak more accurately, ' itchingly ') bitten by them ; they and the jackalls, which seem to scavenger aH the towns in India, and whose hideous howling and crying is heard throughout the night even here, in the centre of the city, claim the night as their own. S.S. Ceylm, Mouth of the Hooghly, Jan. 28, 1882. We left Calcutta early this morning, and have now reached the mouth of the dirty old river, about 200 miles down. The navigation is very difficult, as the waters are so tortuous and shallow, and the current and channel so swift and changing; consequently it takes 7 92 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. , many years befor& one can become an efficient pilot here, but the prize is worth waiting for, for these Hooghly pilots are most important men, judging from their pay, their swagger and their dress. No doubt they deserve to be weU paid, for their work is most anxious, as the same channel can never be reUed upon for more than a short time, on account of the sands, which are ever shifting. Lucky is the traveller who can get down this river without having to hsten to their history, and without having their lives from their earliest childhood laid bare before him by some one on board. To-day has been very hot, and we have not been able to have our usual baths, on account of the river- water being filthier, if possible, than the Thames at London Bridge. Some one on board said it looked ' as dry as it was wet,' for it was so thick with dirt. It provided, however, the most enormous prawns for our tiffin-table to-day; many of them must have been from eight to ten inches long. We are told, and repeat it for what it is worth, that at Madras prawns have been caught weighing over 2 lbs. each. The river, soon after leaving Calcutta, becomes gradually wider and wider, till at last the low land, fringed with its pahns and other trees, can only just be seen in the hazy distance on either side of the ship. Our pilot is now leaving, and we have a five days' sail before us to Penang. This is the last that we shall see of India — the home of the sun. As it fades over the water, in the gloom of night, the visions of its glorious mosques and palaces FAREWELL TO INDIA I 93 and tombs, its vast and sensuous past, its bygone glory, its glittering -wealtli and squalid poverty, pass like phantoms tbrougb the memory, and for the last time we recall those appropriate lines : ' Eternal summer gilds them yet, But all except their sun is set.' May it not be so ! 7—2 CHAPTER VIII. OUE POSSESSIONS IN FURTHER INDIA. Voyage to Penang. — Snakes. — Porpoises. — Flying-fish. — How we spend our Time at Sea. — A novel Answer and a good Excuse. — Our first Disagreement on Board. — Unanimity against the obstinate Crowd. — Penang. — First Sight of Junks. — Marvellous Vegetation. — Waterfall. — First Tropical Shower ? — An irascible Landlady. — A good Example. — Oar Sportsmen. — Down the Straits to Singapore. — Divers, — Mosquitoes. — A ' Dutch Wife.' — A Glorious Victory. — Fish and Fruit Markets. — Chinese Servants. — Malay and Hindu Theatres. — Grovernment House. — Invitation from the Maha- rajah of Johore. — Jinrickishaws. — Tiifin on Board. — The Maharajah and our Guests. — Leave for Manila. — Introduced to the North-East Monsoon. — Fish Spawn or Seaweed ? Entrance to the Bay of Manila. — Unnecessary Precautions. —Red Tapeism. S.S. Ceylon, Feb. 2, 1882. We are now nearing Penang, and as it is just possible to catch a homeward-bound mail, we will send you a few lines. The weather is again the most wonderful thing to have to record. Unruffled tranquillity since leaving Calcutta, calm clear skies, a glorious sun, a gentle breeze, and a feeliag of eternal summer about the air. Yesterday, in the evening, it was a little too DOLCE FAR NIENTE. 95 hot, being 90° in the cabins, but still it did not feel very- oppressive. You can know nothing of these seas ; they are so unlike ours. At this time of the year gentle northerly breezes blow for weeks and weeks as regularly as each day comes round, and the seas are either glassy, or have a little ripple in which a Thames canoe would be perfectly safe. The old ship is consequently without perceptible motion, although gliding along, with all our cabin ports wide open, at about twelve miles an hour ; and happiness is hardly the word for the state of bliss one is in — one is at peace with all the world, blesses it, and rolls one's eyes about in gratitude and rehgious ecstasy. That is as near our state as possible. We can do nothing but wander about, constantly look- ing at sky and water, and thinking of London slush and fog. It is difficult to read, or even talk, for the attempt to do either destroys one's languid, dreamy consciousness. Occasionally we see old turtles with their heads out of the water quietly dreaming away their lives, and possibly of their eating "fat and greasy" aldermen. We also see snakes, striped ones, lying on the top of the water; porpoises, too, have been playing under our bows and keeping just in front for a mile or two. Flying-fish are always scuttling away from the ship, sometimes getting up in flocks and flying close over the water for four or five hundred yards. Our day begins about seven, when there is the usual rush for the baths, of which there are five ; and though the water is nearly tepid, it is still a great dehght.' Then breakfast at nine, then smoking and 96 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. lolling about tiH one ; then ' tiffin ' (called in olden times 'luncheon'), then more loUing and smoking; then watching the splendours of the setting sun, its fading' glories, and the approaching night, with aU its tenderness and peace. After dinner at six we are again on deck, and cigars are smoked to the music of our band, which is reaUy an excellent one. We are having a fine old moon up aloft, which infuses everyone, down to even our leather-skinned sailors, with a kind of Billingsgate poetry. AU canvas is set, and we are steaming as well, so we have got over a deal of sea in the last five days. After the music is over we have a game at whist, and drink light, big drinks till about twelve. One day glides into another so quickly and pleasantly, that no one seems to care when we arrive at Penang. We are now rapidly losing the North Star, and as we have been meeting the sun since we left England, we are now almost six hours before you ; so when we are retiring to our cabins at twelve, you are thinking about dressing for dinner. The ship is very dehght- fully empty, and many of us have two cabins, which together are enough for anyone's wants. One or two of the pilgrims don't talk so much as they might do with their feUow-passengers ; and an intimate friend of theirs on board being asked by a lady why this was, is said to have repHed, ' Well, you see, they are only going as far as San Francisco.' This, for some time afterwards, was the answer to nearly everything. ' Will you take a Httle more pine ?' UNANIMITY AGAINST THE OBSTINATE CROWD. 97 ' No, thank you, I haven't time ; I'm getting off at 'Frisco.' We are now passing some islands about five miles away, thickly wooded to the sea, and see the old palms against the sky-line. The sea aU the way down here has been a most lovely blue — a whitish sort of blue, not a deep clear one ; but here we are getting into shallower water, and the colour is getting a sort of oUve-green, You can't think how glad we were to get away from Calcutta, with its clammy heat and fearful smeUs. It has been suggested to leave out Shanghai from our tour, and to spend the four extra days to which we would be entitled in Japan. Before this could be done it was necessary that there should be absolute unanimity amongst the passengers. All but one soli- tary individual agreed — one it would be thought the last on board to thwart the wishes of the other thirty- five, and as Ae no doubt thought, 'obstinate,' passengers. Grand and important in his isolation, he refused, and it was only after a considerable time that a compro- mise was arranged by which two of the four days are to be added to our stay in Hongkong, and the re- maining two in Japan ! The grand opportunity was therefore missed of his taking the ship, passengers and crew for a five days' cruise on his own account, and to a place where few of us wanted to go. By far the most interesting of Chinese towns is Canton, and that we shall see by running up the river to it from Hongkong. Shanghai is simply a modern European town, with a flat country aU roimd, very 98 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. pleasant society, and good shooting in the neighbour- hood, and we should have to fight every inch of the way there through a heavy head sea and a cold N.E. wind. There are many more high islands on our port- beam about five miles off. Penang, Feb. 4. We arrived here a little before midnight on the 2nd, and early this morning found our ship anchored in glassy water, in a beautiful harbour, opposite this clean, low-lying town, looking very white in the morn- ing sun, with hazy, pearly hills rising to a height of 2,500 feet behind it. There are many strange-looking ships in the harbour, and one or two Chinese junks, the first we have seen ! How difficult it is iu looking towards the town to give an impression of the beautiful tone of colour that one sees, beyond saying that it is ' opalesque.' What language on earth has words which wiU describe any but the rawest and primitive colours ? and how power- less one is, except by a combination of vague words, to even suggest the more subtle colours with which Nature clothes all her objects, particularly when dis- tance allows her atmosphere to step in and to veil aU with her mystery and poetry ! Here sky, water, and land are aU in different degrees and strengths of opal colour, with a flash of a warm, creamy white Ught, where the town is. Alongside our ship is a host of native boats of the rudest make, full of bananas, pomeloes, pine-apples, and other rich-coloured fruits. TROPICAL VEGRTATION. 99 Malays and Hindus are in the boats, and they are very naked, and very black, and very quiet and lazy. As soon as we get ashore we find ourselves in a land more tropical than anything we have seen before, more so even than the West Indies. Penang is a small island close to the mainland, and thickly wooded at the water's edge with cocoa-nut palms ; farther on with aU sorts of tropical vegetation growing densely and luxuriantly to the top of the island, about 2,500 feet high. It is like a conservatory or a botanical garden on an extravagant scale — a luxu- riance of vegetation marvellous. To the tops of the hiUs is the densest foliage imaginable, palm-trees of almost every different variety, some of them with leaves fully twenty-five feet long. Amongst the now-familiar cocoa-nut palms, bamboo and banana-trees, we notice the traveller's pahn, spreading its flat leaves, and look- ing like a gigantic fan. Flitting about almost every- where are butterflies as large as small bats, and having a similar flight. The tender Httle sensitive plant, as well as our hot-house flowers and orchids, are all around us — and an intense tropical sunlight in which we revel. It is the winter here which ' unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing soil,' for flowers are everywhere. We notice in full bloom the ixora, hibiscus, aUamanda, lantana, plumbago, eucharis, lihes, and such ferns ! Amongst others the Adiantum lohgis- simum, with fronds many feet long. We are close on the equator now, and life has been gradually getting serious for many for some days back, but I like it. Everj^hing is new, so imagine one's SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. delight — sky, sea, tropical vegetation, men and women, animal and vegetable life of nearly every kind, new ! We drove to a most beautiful waterfall at Penang, through splendid groves of cocoa-nut palms in full bearing. The, milk from the cocoa-nuts when green, and before the inside has well formed, is delicious ; one cuts through the green rind, and when the inside is reached the milk rushes out Hke spring water from the earth. There is about a tumbler and a half id each nut. Beneath these groves of cocoa- nut trees are pretty little palm-thatched houses on pUes, dotted about here and there, looking very picturesque. Almost all the trees were new to us, niany of them having, huge leaves — nutmegs, sago palms, bread-fruit, etc. At the waterfall we had a fine view over the island and the blue hills of the mainland far away over the sea. We noticed many large trees having red flowers of the shape and size of our magnolia, and little birds flitting from flower to flower. It is useless to try to give an idea of the full meaning of a tropical country, beyond saying that one is tremendously im- pressed with the prodigahty, vigour and ascendancy of all growing things. We are among the heathen Chinee here, they being three tp four of the population, the rest being KHngs, Malays, and Hindus. The Chinamen's heads are all. shaven, except the small spot where the pigtail springs from. They all do their toilet here in the streets, as they also do throughout India, showing their human forms divine as nearly unadorned as possible. The A GRUMBLER PUNISHED. black little cupids' seldom have a wardrobe extending beyond a nose-ring. The sea is still like a sheet of glass, it seems as if it were in a perpetual sleep, and one almost forgets that it is the raging beast we know at home. The heat yesterday was very great, but while we are steam- ing along at sea, we get as much air as we like, through the cabin port-hole, with the aid of windsails. The sky during our stay has been generally without clouds, but we had a great storm of rain yesterday, though lasting only ten minutes, when it again became clear. As a proof of how it can rain here, a resident told us that twenty-six inches of rain often falls in the twenty-four hours ! At one of the hotels, at which we took 'tiffin,' was an enormously stout proprietress of undoubted Dutch creation; with us she was most affable and attentive, but not long since a well-meaning and ingenuous youth took occasion to remark meekly upon the toughness of the beef he was vainly trying to eat, when, without time for either explanation or apology, she boxed his ears well and bundled him out of the hotel neck and crop, amidst a torrent of the most awful language. His hat and stick, in his hurry to get out, he left behind, and when night came on, had to send a native to remove them surreptitiously. We have to-day a cloudy sky. Neither animal nor vegetable life could exist in places so near the line, but for the dense clpuds which a beneficent nature furnishes to keep off the fierce rays of the sun ; nothing could exist in this heat unless evaporation proceeded on the SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. largest scale. The clouds so formed are driven upward by tlie streams of cooler air rushing in from both sides, condensation then takes place, and rain falls very often, though up to the present time we have seen rain cer- tainly not more than three times since leaving England. Old Gimlet's wish that his ' too, too ' solid flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew is realized here, for all flesh must do it with 87° to 90° in the cabins, and 104° often enough in the summer. In Penang, as throughout India, all the natives ' salaam' to one in passing along the streets, policemen and soldiers aU saluting, as they do to officers, so there is some humility in belonging to the superior race., Approaching a crowd to watch a passing sight, a clear lane is made for one, and at a shop all natives retire till one leaves ; they are not quite so cringing here, as they were in India, but stiU they are more than respectful. The Hindus have a small, often a large, spot of paint on their foreheads of difierent colours, showing the caste to which they belong, and many of the women and girls disfigure themselves very much by paint being smudged over their faces, and bangles, nose, toe, ear and ankle rings ad lib., these being the first necessity of life with them. We are told there is very good shooting near here ; some of our pilgrims knowing this, and wishing to get the cream of it before it was disturbed by anyone else from the ship, quietly made their own arrangements, generally in couples, and started in the early dawn for the ground where the big game was supposed to lie so thickly. We didn't hear the number that met at the SINGAPORE. 103 favourite spot, nor the number that were nearly shot by the noted carelessness of one of the guns, a reputation which had been earned in a now far-off land. The day ended happUy for man and beast, and nothing was shot this day bigger than a Hnnet, which, sitting on a bough fifteen yards away, fell to the deadly accuracy and long range of the choke-bore. This was the bag, and though small, was better than having it fiUed, and a little to spare, at one shot, as one of Dickens' great sporting characters came so near accomplishing. H8tel de I'Europe, Singapore, Feb. 7, 1882. We got in yesterday at 3 p.m., the approach to the harbour being through clusters of low-lying islands covered with all the tropical vegetation we had seen at Penang; the trees not only growing down to the water's edge, but actually growing out of the water for a long distance from the shore ; these are the celebrated Mangrove Swamps. Before being anchored at the wharf, three mUes from the town, we had the home letters brought us by a man in the pilot boat, and in- troduced by a friend as, ' Here's a policeman wants you.' The fright was soon got over as we saw the letters, which were the only registered ones sent on board, the bag for the Ceylon arriving soon after. Before our anchorage was selected, up paddled about a dozen httle thin and frail canoes, scooped out of a log of wood, with two boys in each clamouring for money, which, when thrown into the water, they dived after and brought up before it had got to the bottom; as quick and clever as seals, and apparently as much at home 104 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. in the water. They were in their canoes again in an instant, mastering without the least difficulty the wonderful balance required in getting in, and grinning and dripping with their canoes half-fuU of water, and asking (as 'Moses' says the girlsdo when theyare kissed) for 'more.' They splashed the water out of their canoes vdth their feet, which they moved as quickly as if they were beating up eggs with a whisk. We came on to the town in a launch through a fine harbour filled with shipping, Chinese junks and all sorts of curiously- shaped craft and boats. Singapore is not nearly so fine as Penang, being much flatter and not nearly so profusely wooded, and is far too civilized to please us. The town is only separated from the harbour by a tine road running from one end of it to the other. On one side are good houses, hotels, and lawn-tennis grounds, and on the other is the surf beating in, sounding very pleasant and cool ; but the latter it isn't, for the temperature of the water is between 82° and 85°, as shown by our last baths on board. De Bosco is at present trying to kill the mosquitoes, which have got inside his curtains round his bed ; he says there are so many inside, that it would be. far less trouble to ' shut them in ' and sleep on the sofa ! They seem to make straight for the curtains, in which they either discover or eat a Kttle hole, through which they then swarm, and, taking up their various positions inside, cheerfully and patiently wait for their victim, The temperature in the room is now (11 p.m.) only 82°, but it is a moist heat which makes it unplea- sant. There are several lizards on the walls of the A 'DUTCH WIFE.' 105 room : they are harmless little creatures to every- thing but flies and other insects, which they stalk and pounce upon in the most wonderful way. Last night we had a deluge of rain, and to-day two tremendous tropical showers ; it rains here without exception nearly every day, and it is nearly the same climate and temperature the whole year round, and days and nights are of equal length. It is very steamy and hot, making one feel flabby and limp, and not giving one's clothes a chance of drying day or night. Some Frenchman somewhere says, that this tropical heat is so great that clothes of any sort are insup- portable. ' I make von bundle of dem, upon which I seat myself, and in a short time they are wringing wet.' In the hotels about these melting regions, what is called a 'Dutch wife' is always provided for one's nightly comfort. Don't be alarmed, it isn't what you are thinking of. My bedfeUow and I very soon quarrelled, and, after a short but stormy acquaintance, I remained sole partner of the bed. A ' Dutch wife' is an elongated bolster which one places between one's two ankles and one's wrists for as much coolness as is possible ; but if mine had been aUve she couldn't have been more worrying. She seemed to be most awfully in the way, and as I could get no peace with her in bed, and as she was rapidly getting me out of it, I thought it better to bring matters to a crisis by a tussle and stand-up fight, which was ended in my favour by a vigorous kick, which sent her bang through the mosquito-curtains to the other side of the room. This was my first, and will be my last, experience of a Dutch io6 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. wife. The same tiling went on in the other room to the war-cry of ' Bachelorhood or death.' Talking of Dutch wives reminds me that we haven't had any butter since we left Europe. We would give almost the price of a king's ransom for some good brown bread and Devonshire butter. "We had once or twice in India butter made from buffalo milk, but didn't care much for it; we could easily do without it, and after the first trial did so. The stuff on the Geylon is like half- melted train oil. For vegetation, winter and summer are the same ; when the leaves think they have been on long enough they fall off ; and when fruit takes it into its head to appear and ripen, it does so. What a privilege to have seen it all ! ' The ear is near the eye,' but the difference between hearing and seeing is the difference between being dead and living. The great initial fault of the Ceylon is that we are torn away from these splendid places before we have done much more than see their ports, causing as great a feeKng of regret in leaving so much unseen, as we derived pleasure from seeing what little we did. We have only time to wonder at and admire the marvellous vegetation. We want to see more, so that we may remember more of such a paradise. Our friends on shore, too, we are not able to see much of; and though we get many invitations, are unable either to accept them, or to offer any hospitality in return. Kegrets, short meetings, and long partings pierce us all to the heart, and seem to make up a deal of this life. Pine-apples are grown here in rows. FISH AND FRUIT MARKETS. 107 and froHi a distance resemble fields of potatoes. Yesterday we inspected the markets, which were very interesting, the fish-market especially so, with all its quaint and many-coloured fish. There were the usual very large prawns, eight or ten inches long, and a thin misshapen fish which looked for all the world like the tin fish at a pantomime at home ; another fish, just like an old maid we have in our county, and quite as good-looking in the face ; you have seen the fish in the Aquaria at home, nearly round, and about the size and shape of a football. "We also saw many cuttle-fish, and little fish like whitebait; immense cockles, some very repulsive-looking king crabs, and some smaU black ones ; a quantity of sea-snails of a most brilliant red colour, and very Uvely. Nothing new to us in the fruit-market. We are told that neither the mangosteen nor durian are yet ripe; of course we are very much distressed at this, but wo have oranges, bananas and pine-apples to console our- selves with. Amongst the vegetables there are many we have never seen before, but recognise a great many, including lettuces, onions, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and the bright scarlet chillies. The oranges all about these regions never change the colour of their skins, which are the same bright green colour, even when perfectly ripe. The Chinamen, who are far superior to the other brown races here, are quietly elbowing them out of everything; they seem to be ubiquitous. It is so strange to see them at their grub, with their little basins close to their mouths in one hand, and their 8 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. chopsticks, whicli they so daintily and cleverly use, in the other. All the servants in the hotel are China- men, and half a dozen of them have come into our rooms this morning on the pretence of doing one thing or another. They are all cast in the same mould, and are consequently exactly alike. We are only able to tell it isn't the same fellow by the slight THE TIUVELLEH S PAL31. diversity in his dress, and knowing that the same person would not be such a fool as to keep coming in half a dozen times to do what he might have done at once. The Chinaman is spoken of as being the best of servants, and is always addressed ' boy.' Wo went to a Malay theatre in the evening, but it was so stupid and incomprehensible to us that we went to another one, a Hindu theatre, Avhich was (piite as bad, everything being to us so absolutely INVITATION TO A BALL. log without any meaning, that they appeared to be a pack of lunatics. We called upon the Governor, Sir F. Weld, who very kindly drove us round all the places of interest in a four-in-hand. Government House is splendidly situated on the top of a high hill, having fine views on all sides. During our drive we saw a mass of flowers : ixora, lantana, euphorbia, hibiscus, plumbago, bleeding-heart, and immense ferns, besides smaller ones of all sorts ; piaes, and indigo, and vanilla. The hibiscus makes everything ablaze here. StiU, we Uke Penang better, for there is more nature there, and still some of the old virgin forest. We have seen here the Traveller's Palm, the most wonderful of aU its species, a sketch of which appears on the previous page. It has the peculiar property of collecting the dew and rain into capacious reservoirs at the base of the leaf, which, when pierced with a knife, releases the water, which spurts out in a clear fountain. This afternoon we leave for Johore, the Maharajah having most kindly invited the passengers to a banquet, and afterwards to a ball, and to spend the following day there before leaving for Manila. He is always particularly hospitable to English people. His palace is about twenty miles from here, and is the great show- place of the district. He keeps a splendid stud of horses, plays cricket, and has just had the sailor princes from the Bacchante for his guests. S.S. Ceylon, off Manila. Feb. 17, 1882. We posted letters in Singapore just before we left 8—2 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. on the 8th, and went to the luxury of registering them. We had a great deal of drenching rain while there, which made the heat very moist and clammy, and enervated us all so much that we were quite glad to he away again. -At 2.30 on the 8th, we steamed away from Singapore for Johore, and after a very pleasant five hom-s' rim anchored ahout a himdred yards from the shore, and quite close to the palace. We had the usual crowd of people bustling ahout the Ceylon before leaving, and the business done just as we were moving away was at a most furious rate ; prices dropping to about half at the last-r-jeweUery, shells, Malacca canes, etc., going very cheap. We were followed by our old friends, the men and boys of all ages, in their fleet of tiny canoes, about fourteen inches wide, hewn out of trees, diving after the coin thrown in, until we left them all behind. We were close to land all the way to Johore; nothing to be seen but overcrowded vegetation to the water's edge,- a clear sky and calm sea — and enough too, for it was very lovely. After dropping anchor, we were landed by the Maharajah's steam launches, and were afterwards received very cordially by him at the entrance to a large reception-room, at the end of a flight of marble steps, over which was hung a full- length and very good portrait of Mr. Gladstone. The entire furnishing of all the rooms we saw was per- fectly new, and from England — the walls being hung all round with portraits, generally life-size, of our royal family. Johore itself is a long straggling place, built on the ENTERTAINMENT AT yOHORE. margin of the straits. Its houses are almost all built on piles, and are thatched with the palm-leaf. Most of the shopkeepers are Chinese, and there is a large gambling-house opening on to the main street, always full of Chinamen. The Malays we have met up to the present are all most pohte, and have the most gentle manners. We saw no murderous creases, nor did we see any of them running ' amuck ' and stabbing NATIVE HOUSES. at all 'they meet, as one is given to understand they so often do. The Maharajah is a very courtly hospitable man of about fifty, very loyal to our Queen, very generous, and very progressive, and very much liked by aU. I was going to say 'the upper ten' of Johore were there to meet us; but there are only eleven or twelve Europeans in Johore altogether, and these were there with about twenty men, members of the Maharajah's family and suite. Our band played during the banquet, which began sA. 8.30 and ended at 11.30, when we were aU ' crowded ' with an English dinner SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. and the usual good wines. What we most liked in this sumptuous repast was paU de foies gras, and afterwards, at dessert, mangosteens. I had seen and tasted my first mangosteen while en route for Johore, being whispered into a friend's cabin, and shown in silence, as one would be shown any emotional scene which tells -without words its own tale, a basketful of this most delicious and spiritual-looking fruit, about the size of a small orange, with a shiny and deep claret-coloured rind. In the centre of this soft pulpy red skin, which is about half an inch thick, he, as in a bed of rich red velvet, five segments of a creamy white colour, which fade away in the mouth more like a fragrant odour than anything having substance, leaving, instead of a stone, a kernel like a iilbert, and a flavour, the reminiscence of a peach and the finest of melting pears. It is the epitome of aU gastronomical delights, meeting in the subtlest harmony upon the palate ! — a fragrant fleeting poem. Liking them is no acquired taste. I believe a large supply of this fruit would do people more spiritual good than all the ministers of every known religion in the world are able to do. With a bountiful supply of mangosteens, there would be neither gaols nor clergy- men, for there would be no sin of any sort. I had the honour of taking down to dinner one of the half- dozen young ladies in the place, and we were all very glad when the Maharajah rose, and the dancing began ; very glad indeed many were, for they danced away to a big billiard-room, still leaving about a dozen ladies to the importunate attentions of more than thirty THE MAHARAJAH TO LUNCHEON. 113 insatiable dancing men. After relays of pine-apples, ices and drink, and at a nod from our kindly host, we were dismissed at two to our ship and home, after a cordial hand-shaking, and seeing some of the young ladies in their jinrickishaws (a cross between a tiny hansom cab and a perambulator), with a man to draw it along instead of any other beast ! Everyone was of course invited off to the Ceylon to tifSn next day, and everyone came ! the Maharajah bringing his JINMOKISHAW. own viands and servants, to a,void the possibility of eating anything forbidden by his religion, for he is a strict Mahometan. Before leaving, his Highness made a present to every lady on board, and some more presents, which of course fell to the lot of the most forward and pushing: not the first instance I have noticed of the Christian precept, 'The first shall be last and the last,' etc., being uninteUigible from a purely mundane point of view. After tiffin we had a little dance, and at 2.30 the Maharajah left us, amidst 114 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. rounds of cheers, the band playing ' For he's a jolly good fellow,' which he seemed greatly to appreciate. After this we bade adieu to our other guests, amidst cheering, ' Auld lang syne,' and aU the other courtesies, which were kept, up long after our guests had landed, pocket-handkerchiefs being waved from windows till we could see them no longer. We were aU sorry to leave a place where we met with so much kindly hospitahty. As Johore faded away, sorrow at leaving it took its place ; some felt it more keenly than others, not on account only of the charming maidens left behind, who so softly bade us adieu, but because, as we cleared the land and headed N.E. for Manila, we found ourselves in the teeth of the ' expected ' N.E. monsoon, with a nasty head sea, which lasted for five days and nights ; and since then a long heavy swell, which turned one person on board nearly inside out, leaving him as flat and lifeless as a piece of rolled-out dough. We have done almost 10,000 miles by water, and this is the first really unpleasant sea we have had since crossing from Dover to Calais. Since leaving Johore, we have had the same glorious weather over- head, but the air is not nearly so oppressive or moist. The whole five days and nights many were on deck, only going down for washing, dressing and meals ; the ports being closed, one's cabin was Uke an oven, and nothing living could exist long in such a stifling heat. Sleep- ing on deck is no hardship in this climate, as the thermometer is always — day and night — between 85' and 80°, but feeling nothing like so high. Perfect GLORIOUS WEATHER WITH HEAD SEA. iiS mghts, starlit and beautiful, and a glowing dawn unchequered by clouds. These clear skies, instead of being monotonous, as the foggy old croakers in England declare tbey are, become each day an increasing wonder, and are enjoyed with an increasing thankful- ness as- each new day breaks in its serene splendour. The head wind and sea we had for the first five days after leaving Johore threw us back very much. ■ Some days we only do 140 knots, instead of 250, as we do in fair weather ; so by the time we get in, we shall have taken eight days to do the 1,271 miles. The sole representatives of life off the Ceylon since we left Johore have been flying-fish; but we have passed through miles and miles of a reddish sub- stance floating on the top of the water, which was generally supposed to be fish-spawn. But on catching some of it in a glass and examining it under a magnifying glass, it had the appearance of the finest hay seed, and De Bosco pronounced it to be dis- integrated or decomposed sea-weed. We have also several times passed sea-weed looking just Uke the ' Gulf weed.' There are more impossible things in heaven and earth daily happening than that we shall stay a month or two in the Sandwich Islands. They have always been the dream of our lives, and we have just had the great deUght of reading Miss Bird's book on them, as well as what Lady Brassey says of them in her ' Voyage in the Sunbeam.' ' If there be an elysium on earth,' we feel it is there ! For the last hour we have been passing high land 1 1 6 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. on both I sides of us, the entrance to the splendid bay of Manila ; and for the first time for a week there is something to look at besides flying-fish, of which we have seen great numbers. There are a great number of ships beating in, many of which are English. On pur right, twenty miles away, is some very high land, densely wooded ; and fringing the top are some enormously high trees, their boles rising to a great height before any branches leave them. About us are a number of Yankee-built clipper ships, taking in cargoes of sugar and hemp. As soon as we come to an anchor we are boarded by the Spanish authorities, whose red-tapeism is of the most aggravating cha- racter ; they make us declare all the firearms we have on board, and take possession of our ship by putting on board two diminutive soldiers apparently of the human kind, though very much like gorillas in the face, and armed Avith old muskets. These ' thmgs ' are to remain on board till we leave. After the authorities are given wine and cigarettes they become a httle thawed, and having satisfied themselves that we have neither come to seize the island, nor spread amongst them any devastating disease, these animated bits of scum in gold lace leave the ship after a grand swagger round, and we are at last allowed to leave for the shore. The two lucky Philippines who are left have a very easy berth of it, for they do absolutely nothing but sleep and snore in our deck chairs, and were certainly never so well fed in their lives. CHAPTER IX. A RELIC OF A ONCE GREAT EMPIRE. Manila. — Hospitality. — Earthquakes. — 'Pena.' — A Spanish Race Meeting. — A Row I — ^Welchers again. — Spanish Ignorance on Racing Matters. — A Quiet Day. — Trip up the River. — Scenery. — Native Boats. — A Cock-fight. — A Disgusting Spectacle. — A Boa Constrictor. — Lizards. — Acquaintance with a Native Caterpillar. — A Paradise for Botanists. — Visit to a Cigar Manufactory. — Fish-weirs. — Plain Evidence of Earthquakes. — A Convenient Instrument. — Government of Manila. S.S. Ceylon, Manila, Feb. 20, 1882. We have had a most enjoyable, jolly time here, and are very sorry to leave so soon. The two great national phenomena are the hospitality of the Enghsh and the earthquakes. I place the phenomenon of their hospitality first, because although there have been forty- two distinct shocks of earthquake in the last three months, their hospitality is absolutely unbounded, and their generosity, from its excess, has become a positive sin. They err on the side of too freely giving, and they have not the benefit of a clergyman on the island to teU them of their sin ! Going amongst them Avas like going amongst one's own family after a long 1 1 8 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. absence. They made us free of their club ; they gave us tifHns, dinners, and cigars ad nauseam. River trips, steam launches at our disposal, photographs of the place, a box at the opera, which we couldn't take away, and some boxes of cigars which we were forced to accept, and which we did take away, besides a great deal of valuable business time ; and lastly a wonder- fully worked hat of fibre. It was a continual battle with them who should have us, and who should' do the most for us. Manila is the capital of Luzon, an island of 60,000 square miles, belonging to Spain, and the town as seen from our ship is on a very low-lying plain, backed by blue mountains about ten miles away, Avith a muddy river running through its centre. The streets are good, with clean new-looking houses, a great many of which have to be rebuUt every few years on account of the earthquakes ; and guess if you can what all the houses have instead of glass for their Httle lat- tice-windows — a flake of transparent shell — mother-of- pearl, which breaks the glare outside, and sheds a soft opal Hght through the house— so there is poetry in the world still ! Another nice idea is a gauze-hke fabric which they make from the fibre of the pine-apple, and which is called pena — pronounced ' peenia.' They make very beautiful dresses and pocket-handkerchiefs from it. We bought several of the former, and De Bosco many other things, including a tiny pocket- handkerchief, for which alone he gave over £9. Don't think the dresses cost us a proportionately large price, though the finest ones here cost considerably THE RACE-COVRSE. 119 over £100. The men of Manila wear jackets of pena, through which you can- see their dusky skins as plainly as if they were only clothed in simple righteousness. The races were going on at the time we got there, so we bustled off the ship, and three of us crammed into, a Httle two-wheeled vehicle, about half the size of a small dogcart, and drawn by a little rat of a pony. At home this trap wouldn't have got credit for carrying one of us, but we managed to get there without accident of any kind. "We went into the enclosure, and on the grand stand, where we found ourselves amongst Spanish and English and a crowd of the better class of the natives, who seem to be a cross between the Malays and Japanese. Whenever in the East we speak of English you must read Scotch, for they are as twenty to one of us. Throw a stick out of the window, and you'U hit at least six Scotchmen. The native ladies were dressed in very brUHant- coloured silks and satins and pena shawls. Nearly all of the old mothers of families on the grand stand were smoking big cheroots ! Many of the Spanish ladies were very nice-looking, and also the half-castes, called 'Mestizos,' their head-decorations being, I think, the prettiest of any I have anywhere seen. The racing was carried on by Manila horses, small, thick-set Httle fellows, as game as bantam-cocks; and the company present was a most enthusiastic one, especially outside the enclosure, where were numerous SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. free lights amongst the Chinese, in which their women also took a prominent part. Such a row ! Umbrellas clattering on each other's heads, pig-tails flying about like streamers, followed by a heap of Chinamen on the ground, in which the principal objects seen. were legs and arms, umbrellas, pig-tails, shppers and shoes, aU working at a most furious rate. All this was about a dollar bet ! They are the biggest gamblers and cheats possible, but this was only the old threadbare home race-course incident of the 'welcher' again. The brotherhood of blackguards is all over the world. There is ' no one so utterly desolate but some heart, though unknown, responds unto his own,' even if one has to find it among the Chinese. " Great dissatisfaction was expressed by our country- men here at the utter ignorance of racing matters dis- played by the Spanish people ; they are most jealous, too, of any English interference. Neither age nor sex makes the slightest difierence, all untried horses being handicapped the same a month before the race is nm, and this in defiance of the protests of those who know anything about such matters. The result was a procession, no two horses being together, and the race won in a canter by one of the new horses, as Avas well known would be the case. After a very pleasant afternoon, and many loving cups of champagne, we dined with some of our newly-made acquaintances at the delightful club here, where we had an excellent dimier, and at about midnight were sent back to our ship with visions of enormous Manila cigars and much champagne. The next day we spent SCENERY UP THE RIVER. in the same way, ' only more so.' The pace was too great, and next day being Sunday, and there being more than one 'Maniller' on board, we all determined to spend a very quiet day, which we commenced well by a trip up the muddy httle river in a steam lamich, to the house of our hospitable acting consul, Mr. Honey. All the way there was the richest of verdure on the banks, and at the sides of the sluggish river were masses of slender round rushes, which looked pre- cisely similar to the dark green waving ones we have in parts of the Thames. Here and there feathery bamboos shoot up from the bank in a thick clump of light graceful stems, and spreading aloft into a cloud of willowy-hke foliage, throw a grateful shade on the water ; and banana trees with their huge leaves, half hiding the native huts, which are built on piles four or five feet high, and which seemingly are made of nothing but palm-leaves, their sides and high slanting roofs being thickly covered with them. We pass a great many native boats, simply hewn out of trees, and only just broad enough to sit in, though of great length, which the natives propel with their paddles at a very fair pace. It is impossible to upset them on account of an outrigged bamboo pole, which runs the length of the boat, and about a foot from it, on the top of the water. At the end of the boat is a bamboo covering, under which one has to crawl and sit, miserably cramped up, like a trussed fowl, until the destination is reached. Feeling keenly the want of intellectual and elevating enjoyment, we took a carriage after tiffin in the blazing SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS: tropical sun and along dusty roads, to see the Sunday afternoon pastime of the natives, cock-fighting. When- ever the dust gave us a few yards' view, we were almost certain to see a native with his fighting-cock under his arm. The birds we saw did not strike us as being very well bred, but what was deficient in this respect was more than counterbalanced by the education these misguided creatures have received from their owners, who for months previous to a match train them to what is either victory or death. It is a most dis- gusting institution, for apart from its cruelty, it is only a means to gambling. There are many fighting-rings in Manila ; the one we were taken to had formerly been used for bull- fights, and is a building capable of containing several thousand spectators. When we entered, there were probably three or four thousand excited gamblers, all most intent on the proceedings, women as well as men, and aU smoking. We were at once conducted to what may be termed the ' saddling-ground,' a platform raised in the old arena for the use of the ' select.' Chairs being provided for us in the front, we waited a few minutes for the next match. The din in the settling of bets on the one just concluded, to- gether with the great heat and smeU from this excited crowd, was most revolting : the noise was Uke that of several Derby betting-rings, combined with cock- crowing ten times noisier than that of the noisiest poultry-show. Two birds with their owners are now selected from some hundreds to make up the next fight, and are brought to the platform. The details of COCK-FIGHTING. 123 the way in which these poor birds are goaded to fighting is too disgusting to mention. In this case, as in most others, those who mjaAe the battles were not the ones to fight them. The fighting was as bad as bad could be, but still not so disgusting as the goading process beforehand. AVhen the cocks were worked up to fightiag pitch, the sheaths were removed from the swords attached to their spurs. , This was the signal that the match was to be fought and for the, spectators to make their bets, which was loudly and quickly done. At the same time the proprietor of the ring and master of the ceremonies, a wealthy Chinaman, removes the cap from one of the men, which was necessary in order to distinguish him from his opponent, for the owners and their birds are so much ahke, that were this not done much confusion would arise in the settlement of the bets. The combatants are now placed opposite each other, in quite the orthodox way, their lance-hke swords keep- ing back the crowd, who exhibit the greatest dread of them. The fight commences, the birds rising in the air and striking with hghtning-speed ; one comes down heavily to the ground and turns to run, but only for a few steps — he has received his death- blow, and soon expires. We remained for about half an hour after this, and must have seen half a dozen of these slaughters, one only varjong from the rest from the fact of the cock refusing to fight and running away, costing his backers their bets, who then mobbed the wretched bird, and in their rage plucked it alive. We had seen more than we wanted, and were 9 124 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. glad to get into the open air. Outside, we saw several of the dead gladiators plucked and exposed for sale ; we examined one, whicli had received a thrust com- pletely through its breast-bone, a terrible stab, which must have caused instant death. After one more dinner at the club, we finished the -evening at the opera ; and afterwards drove to our- ship's boat in the calm, clear starlit night, seeing a number of beautiful fire-flies on our way. At the quay, one of our party,- supporting himself by a friendly post, recoiled from it with a cry of ' By Jove, there's a snake on this post !' and there, sure enough, coiled round the top, .was a huge boa-constrictor as thick as one's arm and at least fifteen feet long, when we afterwards saw it dead and stretched out. They are quite harmless, and are allowed to live in the houses, where they catch the rats between the ceihngs and floors ; only now and again some bloodthirsty old reprobate taking a child, which, however, ceases to be missed soon after the occurrence. One of the boas, caught not long since up the country, measured, we were told in all serious- ness, thirty-five feet long, and it is now being ex- hibited ahve. The sea here is alive with snakes, thousands swimming round the ship as she lies at anchor; one, a brown-striped fellow about four feet long, we caught with a line. A curiosity in the fauna of the country is a flying lizard, and also another huge one which grows to seven feet long. We saw neither, but I made the ac- quaintadice of a harmless-looking little hairy cater- AN ABORIGINE. I2S pillar which crawled over my neck, causing an itching and smarting which lasted four or five days. ONE OV THE ABOEIGINES. We are very sorry we are not able to see the in- terior of the island, which we hear on all sides is very 9—2 126 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. .fine, as well as some of the aborigiiles, who are de- cidedly very ugly ; a sketch of one of whom appears on the previous page. In many parts there is a dense primeval forest, piled up in masses of suffocating vegetation and monster trees ; there is also capital sporting, and the island abounds in objects of natural history and rare plants of the orchid species. There is no crack nor crevice in these East Indian Islands which has not been carefully searched by orchid-hunters and students of natural history ; the most painstaking and insatiable of all explorers, Mr. Wallace, alone bringing back in good condition to this country no less than 125,660 specimens of natural history, all collected in six years in the East Indian Archipelago. De Bosco was greatly tempted to buy three sticks of Phalsenopsis Schil- leriana and other sorts having terrible sounding names, which a native was carrying, and for which he only asked four dollars, though worth ten times that at home ; but fearing they never could survive their long joUmey on the Geylon, De Bosco very wisely resisted buying them. We visited a Government cigar manufactory, giving work to nearly 5,000 women. It was a most curious sight to see these women and girls packed closely together at long low tables, all hard at work making cigars, with their variously-coloured and superfluous garments hanging on the walls. We afterwards saw them aU file out at their dinner-hour, each one having her dress searched for stolen tobacco by a number of old women stationed for that purpose near EVIDENCES OF EARTHQUAKES. 127 the archway. Among the many hundreds of girls who filed past us, not one pretty one, according to European ideas of beauty, did we see. The Government mono- poly of cigar-manufacture ceases this year, from which the greatest good to all people concerned is expected. We noticed here, as well as at Penang, what are called fish- weirs or mazes, huge wooden enclosures into which the fish swim, and out of which they don't. They extend for miles away from land, and look from a distance like the commencement of big harbour works. Every ten yards in Manila bears evidence of earthquakes. The houses are constructed so as to give to them, and to bend and sway about to a con- siderable extent ; but notwithstanding this, cracked walls, roofless houses, heaps of rubbish where houses once stopd, are seen everywhere. The club has been very much shaken about, and the walls cracked in all directions, having precisely the appearance of ' crackle china.' The inhabitants have not even yet begim to put up a great number of buildings which were completely crumpled up during the last severe shock They are always on the look-out for earthquakes, and as there have been forty-two distinct shocks in the last three months, they are not disappointed for any great length of time. We saw at a friend's house a delicate in- strument for tracing the vibrations of the earth, on a plate of sand, and which at the outset of a shock, sets an electric bell going, enabling all to clear out and contemplate the degree of destruction which ensues at a safe distance. What a jolly exciting place 128 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. to live in ! and how full of interest life there must always be ! Clocks and all ornaments, wardrobes, heavy furniture of all sorts, have to be screwed to the ^s::.- :^^>^s^' JOHN syiAiN.^i THE CATHEDRAL TOWEP. wall to prevent them flying about the room.^and if not crushing you, breaking themselves. We feel con- siderably hurt at our friends not having treated us to SPANISH RULE. iig at least a small shock (the only possible kindness and attention they have overlooked), and I fear we shall leave without experiencing this new sensation. During the more severe epidemics of earthquakes, the people camp out in the streets. On the preceding page is a rough sketch of the Cathedral tower, which, having withstood the shocks of centuries, succumbed to the last one. The Spanish administration of Manila they say is disgraceful, and the Governor nothing more nor less than a robber. Our friends here will not even let us post our letters, for fear that they should be destroyed for the sake of the stamps. CHAPTER X. THE LAND OF THE CELESTIALS. (an ENGLISH CITY.) Arrival at Hongkong. — Disagreeable Passage. — Great Change of Climate. — Chinese Dexterity. — ' Happy Valley.' — Cemetery. — Race-course. — ' Pidgen English.' — Leave for Canton. — A True Incident. — ' John,' and the letter ' r." — Sampans. — Crackers. — Joss-papers. — Baby Rowers. Hongkong, March 1, 1882. We arrived here on tlie 24tli of February at 8 a.m., after a most miserable, cold and stormy voyage of over three days, which is officially reported as follows : ' The British steam.er Ceylon reports encountered heavy N.E. monsoon, with high sea throughout.' This sea is said to be nearly the worst sea in the world, and the voyage from Manila one of the most trying one can undergo. We had a great deal of crockery broken, as well as many bottles in the surgery ; the loss of the former we felt a good deal, but the latter only evoked a smile as they crashed down; and though they did their worst by making an atrocious smeU through the ship, we were content so long as they could do no HONGKONG. 131 further harm. The waves all the way over were of a beautiful and deep blue colour, and very grand, but the rolling was most aggravating, though only one person on board was ill — ^myself. In Manila the weather was excessively hot, the lightest possible clothing being only just bearable ; but one day after leaving there were ulsters on deck, a cold north-easter blowing, and a thermometer nearly 25° lower. As we neared the coast of China in the early morning, we saw the junks in great numbers tossing about on the crisp, dark-blue waves, and some nine or ten miles away in the distance rose the untimbered hills, looking soft, rosy and filmy in the morning sun. Near the land we found the weather again dehght- ful, and since our arrival we have had hot simny days and cool nights, so we are now out of all the great heat imtil we get to the Sandwich Islands. Hong- kong looks a charming place from the ship, a clean, white, well-built town, situated on the side of a steep hill of 1,800 feet, and having a perfectly sheltered and fine harbour. On aU sides are hiUs, appearing from the ship to be covered with only coarse grass, but with plantations of small fir-trees about the town. There is a great deal of shipping in the harbour, and thousands of junks and ' sampans.' The Ceylon was surrounded by a great many of the latter as soon as we anchored, selling all sorts of things, the chief feature being pretty Httle birds in very deUcately made wooden cages, many of which were bought at a dollar apiece. The decks, too, were immediately crowded with China- men, and all was bustle, so we made . for the shore as 132 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. soon as possible, and were soon seated in those extra- ordinary institutions, ' jinrickisliaws,' to see the town. Fancy the novel and humiliating feeling of being drawn about by a man in the shafts of a light little vehicle, something between a perambulator and a hansom cab ! Yet these, and the chairs slung on long bamboo poles in which one is carried, are the only means of locomotion here, besides one's legs. In the afternoon we went in our 'jinrickishaws' to the races, which, very fortunately for us, were going on at the time in the 'Happy Valley.' We spent here a very pleasant and interesting afternoon, wan- dering amongst the native pig-tailed crowd opposite the grand stand, and seeing them all either gambling as if their lives depended on it, or cooking and eating the most indescribable messes. We noticed many trays full of Httle shiny, brown balls, looking very sticky and nasty, and not appearing more appetizing to us on account of their composition being unknown. Amongst the. crowd were many rings of Chinamen playing with extraordinary dexterity a game of shuttlecock, using instead of a battledore the side of their heels, and sending the shuttlecock high into the air to one another. One serious-looking old Celestial was particularly clever at it, allowing the shuttlecock to fall behind him, and nearly reach the ground before he would raise his foot, when with a sharp kick he sent it flying high into the air to the other side of the ring. The ' Happy Valley ' is most beautiful. Sur- rounded on three sides by hills planted with fir-trees. PIDGEN ENGLISH. 133 and on the other by the blue waters of the harbour ; and the racecourse is as pretty as any we have ever seen. The cemetery, too, on the side of the fir- planted hiU overlooking the course, is the most peace- ful-looking and lovely spot imaginable; a beautiful garden laid out in terraces, winding paths, and full of flowering shrubs and trees ; but alas ! with so many tablets, monuments, and sad inscriptions on them as to make even one's short visit there a rather, melan- choly one. We had on this day our first taste of ' Pidgen English.' It is in this extraordinary tongue of hybrid growth that commercial and domestic transactions are almost exclusively carried on ; the merchant buys his tea or silk in ' Pidgen English,' orders his dinner, bullies his boy, and communicates with his servants in the same tongue. We were accompanied by a friend, a resident, to the business house of his partner, whom we wished to see, and the following dialogue took place between our friend and the Chinaman in attendance, who, though he is seventy years old, is still called ' boy :' ' Boy, taipan have got — no have got ?' ' Yes, no got.' ' What side go ?' 'No have talkee; my thinkee go Misser Lobat Semithy that house.' 'Oh, Mr. Eobert Smith's! Go topside my room, catchee chitbook. Show one piecee coolie chop-chop take chit go pay taipan, and must wantee coolie man — man bring answer. Savey ?' 134 SUNNY LANVS AND SEAS. ' Savey.' 'Then you show All Sun, compradore, my too muchee chin-chin he come this side.' Translation of the above dialogue : ' Boy, is the head of the house within, or not ?' ' He is not within.' ' Where has he gone ?' ' He did not say ; I think he has gone to Mr. Robert Smith's.' ' Oh, Mr. Robert Smith's ! Go to my room upstairs and fetch my chitbook. Tell a coolie to take this note as quickly as he can to the chief, and wait for an answer. Do you understand ?' ' I understand.' ' Then teU Ah Sun, the compradore, I shall be much obliged if he will come to me.' The coolie then hurries away, and does not return tiU the chitbook has been signed by the ' taipan ' in token of receipt of the note or chit. At eight o'clock the momiag after we arrived we left by the Yckang for Canton, there being little to detain one in Hongkong (besides its pleasant and hospitable society) with Canton so near, it being only seventy or eighty miles up the Pearl river. This, steamer and the one we came back in, the Powan, are splendid saloon steamers on the American pattern and system, the officers are most agreeable, and the cuisine simply perfect ! A first-class hotel could not exceed them in comfort. Canton is only seven hours UP THE PEARL RIVER TO CANTON. 135 up the river — we wislied it had heen seventy instead — the scenery ' all the way up the broad river was unique, though we thought not very fine, for it is generally speaking very flat, with low-lying cultivated fields stretching for miles on either side, and with blue hUls rising in the distance. We pass a great many junks with huge mat sails, many of which seem to drift about in the most Hstless and objectless way, while others are propelled by two enormous oars, having six men to each. All the junks are mounted with cannon, and doubtless many, if not aU, of them are pirates when the opportunity occurs. These steamers have been fired sA and boarded, and our own is fuUy prepared for all emer- gencies in this line, there being ranged in stands in the saloon twenty or thirty Winchester repeating rifles, which are loaded, the captain told us, ' invari- ably on leaving port;' these are intended not only against outside attack, but also to be used against the Chinamen with whom these steamers are crowded between decks, in the event of their rising. The following is a slightly abbreviated account of one of these piratical outrages which happened a few years ago to Mr. Walter WiUiam Munday, on this river : ' I embarked on board the Spark, on the 22nd of August, to proceed on business to Macao. We left Canton at half-past seven in the morning, and were due at Macao between four and five the same after- noon. The Spark is a paddle-wheeled steamer, the lower deck being confined exclusively to Chinese pas- sengers, and having a winding staircase near the stern 136 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. leading to the quarter-deck, ■which was for Europeans. There were a great many native passengers, but I had the misfortune to be the only European. The crew consisted of about twenty men, Chinese and Portu- guese half-casts. The captain, poor Brady, was an American, and although an utter stranger to him previous to our journey, it has seldom been my good fortune to have a nicer or more amiable companion. ' We had a caj)ital run to Whampoa, where we arrived at about nine o'clock, and breakfasted. The Canton steamer to Hongkong, and the return steamer from Hongkong, ought to have passed us soon after leaving Whampoa, but from some reason they were delayed, and did not pass us till after twelve o'clock, which obliged the pirates to put off their attack. The river here, where the outrage was perpetrated, is about one mile across, i ' So far the trip had been most delightful ; nothing had occurred to awaken any suspicion. I was still as wedded to the humdrum existence and safety of Eng- lish life as if I were but taking a trip in the British Channel, and so little thinking of any peril, that I dozed over my cigar and book under the awning, for- ward. I must have slept here some time, as I certainly .awoke with a start; it may have been a noise, it may have been instinct of danger which roused me. Which it reaUy was I am unable to tell ; but I immedi- ately perceived a man rushing up the gangway towards me with a knife in his hand and a gash across his fore- head. Surprised and only half-awake, my first thought was that he was a madman, and I rushed out to pro- A TERRIBLE ADVENTURE. 137 cure help to seize him. In attempting, however, to do so, I was met by two other men, who attacked me with knives. Quickly seeing my mistake, I rushed past them -and ran on in search of weapons, endeavouring to find out what it all meant, and to see if any resist- ance was being made. I now strove to reach the passengers' gangway to see what the Chinese were doing. In attempting this I had to run the gauntlet of several of the pirates, who wounded me in many places. Two of them here seized me, tearing my watch off, and were going to cut my fingers off for my rings, when, by a desperate effort, I managed to break loose from them. It was. then that I saw the Chinese passengers sitting below, looking as unconcerned as possible. ' I then rushed to the stem, where I saw the poor purser holding on by his hands to the side of the ship, preparing to jump overboard, and a pirate cutting at him. Here also the chief mate was batthng. most courageously with one arm, while with the other he attempted to loosen a buoy. I tried to join him, but my wounds were beginning to tell on my strength, and numbers easily drove me off. With no hope left I endeavoured to retrace my steps, but was immediately attacked by two or three fresh arrivals. I here managed to get within striking distance of one, whom I succeeded in knocking down ; but the success cost me dear, as his companions wounded me at the same moment desperately in the left side. How they let me retire I cannot imagine; how I was able is equally difficult for me to explain. 138 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. ' But I was again attacked by two others, armed with, capstan-hars, who successively knocked me down with these weapons. I rolled out of their way, and for a time was left in peace. I staggered to the wheel- house, but had to support myself on an umbrella which I picked up. I was now almost insensible, and leaned against the window. On looking down into the cap- tain's cabin,! saw poor Brady lying stretched out on the lloor, with his Uttle dog staring moumf uUy into his face. ' This sign of fidehty consoled me somewhat, even then, and indeed my sole wish now was centred in the hope of my being able to last long enough to get some chance of revenge by the arrival of assistance. After leaning here for ten or fifteen minutes, I feU on the deck from exhaustion and loss of blood. ' A few minutes after this the pirates, who had been plunderiug the ship, returned on deck, battened down the hatchways, and proceeded to count their booty close by me. They continually passed over me, step- ping on and kicking me. On receiving my wound in the side, I, luckily for myself, had sufficient presence of mind to shove my handkerchief and fingers into the aperture to staunch the blood. The pirates, either imagining I was trying to conceal something, or in brutal sport, tore my hand several times from the wound. The agony I thus endured I can never forget. How I prayed for unconsciousness ! One of them motioned me to throw myself overboard, and even pretended to do it, lifting me up in his arms. Another, whom I imagined to be the chief, as he swaggered about in my hat, with a revolver and cutlass THE 'SPARK' OUTRAGE. 139 at his belt, brandishing his sword, pretended to draw it across my throat several times, to the evident delight of all his comrades. For what reason he did not carry his performance into practice I cannot possibly conceive. ' I was lying on the deck for six hours with these feUows close to me, but not for one instant did I lose consciousness. A junk then came alongside, when the steamer was stopped for the first time. The plunder was transferred to the junk, and they all hastened on board her after spiking and breaking the hehn. Im- mediately after their leaving, the crew came on deck, and, rigging a helm in the stem, commenced working the ship. A Chinese merchant, procuring assistance, carried me to the saloon, placed me on a sofa, and covered me with a table-cloth to keep the cold from my wounds. ' All on board were so overcome that they had to be kept at their work by a copious supply of brandy. 'We were delayed some time in Macao harbour before we were allowed to land, a regiment of soldiers being drawn i^p to receive us on the quay, and no Chinaman was allowed to leave before he was searched and his name and address were taken. When I recall the whole event, it seems like a hideous dream. It is only when I look at the proofs on my body of its horrible reality that I awake to a full sense of all my danger, and a feeling of thankfulness for my miraculous escape drives every other thought away.' The ' boys ' who wait upon us during dinner have 10 I40 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. one very amusing feature ■which is common to all Chinamen ; it is their inability -to pronounce the letter 'r.' One of the dishes in one of the most ex- cellent and well-served dinners we have had so far round the world is ' shrimp curry/ and this the poor fellows can't pronounce; they do their 'level best,' but it is an effort which only emphasizes their failure, for it always comes out the same, viz., ' shlimp cuUy.' Another splendid ' cully ' we had was ' flog cuUy,' a favourite dish of the captain's. This was handed round as ' Uce-bud cuUy ' (rice-bird curry) by the captain's orders, for he said no one would touch it if it were handed round undisguised in its true name. About half-way up to Canton we pass some enormous granite rocks 300 feet high, and having all the appearance of gigantic boulders, also some forts which we knocked to pieces prior to our occu- pation of Canton. We took them from the rear. The Chinamen said it was not fair, as they were only intended to be' attacked from the front. Soon after this we pass a great number of junks, and the ' sam- pans ' (small covered-in boats) are seen in hundreds ; at Canton they, are in tens of thousands, over 300,000 people living in them. We hear that many never leave their boats till they die, and that children are bom, grow up, and become grandfathers on them, and that these three generations Uve together on board ; so you may fancy how they are packed. These boats are continually letting off crackers in thousands, so you may possibly imagine the scene. CRACKERS— yOSS PAPERS. 141 It is the commencement of the Chinese new year, and these are their propitiations to the evil spirits. They let off their batteries of them at all hours of the day and night ; in the dead of night, just under the stern of our steamer, a salvo goes off which makes one nearly jump out of one's skin with fright ! This is answered by another boat, and then, in noise, a perfect naval war begins. Another noise that we have all night is that made by the watchmen, who beat alter- nately a gong and a drum with a hard stick. This is to let the evil-disposed, as far as five miles away, know when they are coming ; in fact, there is no hour during night or day when there is any quiet or peace. These little boats are covered at the stern with oblong pieces of deep yellow sacred paper, with splodges of gold on them, called 'joss-papers.' These papers are supposed to have a poultice-hke quality of drawing the evil spirits out of their boats. In the papers are little' slits, through which the evil spirits are supposed to escape ! As we get into Canton one confused forest of bamboo masts, ropes, flags, and boats becomes visible, incessantly moving, and every- where is bustle and noise. There are large junks out in the river with their mat. sails, each with a dozen or fifteen old cannon very prominently displayed over their decks ; but the dense mass of boats that we see are the sampans, worked by the women and girls. You See mothers working their oars with little babies bound StraddleTlegged across their backs asleep, their little heads nearly wagging off. They manage their boats wonderfully, and notwithstanding the mass of 142 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. them and the strong current running, collisions seldom occur. The entire family lives on board, and even little children about four years old help to row. When we were alongside the wharf we landed, and got into chairs slung on two long bamboo poles, carried by three men, and found ourselves at once in the maze of the city and among its million and a half of inhabitants. CHAPTER XL THE LAND OF THE CELESTIALS (continued). (a native city.) Narrow Alleys. — Shops. — Appearance and Dress, of Natives. — Frightful Odours. — Gambling. — A Chinese Garden. — Native Emplojrments. — Outside the City Walls. — The Prison. — Execution Ground. — Chinese Characteristics. — Examina- tion Hall. — Sharp Attack of Curio Malady. — Water-clock. — Temple of the Five Hundred Wise Men. — The Heathen Chinee and the Missionary. — The Biter Bit. — ' Susan,' her Dress, Boat, and Power of Conversation. — The Flower Boats. — An Opium Den. — A Chopstick Dinner. — Our Menu. — Typhoons and their Effect. — Back to Hong- kong. — Duck-boats and Ducks — ' Bough ' on the last one.— Leave for Japan. What we see in this most Wonderful of cities, must surely be the greatest astonishment in our lives ! The city is a purely Chinese one; no European to be seen, no English-speaking person among its dense throngs of people, and nothing European even ex- posed for sale, except a few boxes of Swedish matches and some empty beer-bottles. To give you an idea of the city is next to impossible; but if I can sketch one street, or rather aUey, it will be enough, for all are the same, and equally astonishing down to the 144 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. minutest detail. The alleys are so narrow, that no wheeled vehicle can go along them, and the only- way of getting about, except by walking, is by chair ; and these are so rarely used that in a long day through these narrow alleys and their countless multi- tudes of people we only met one or two of them. The long curb-like granite-stones of the pavement are like glass, pohshed by the ceaseless traffic of the naked feet that trot over them. TJie feeling of con- finement, the oppression, and fearful smells, are nearly overpowering. The scene everywhere is as busy as an ant-hill; and our coolies, not content with their burdens, jog along either continually shouting to warn the crowd to clear a way for us, or grunt the un- pleasing and monotonous tune of hun, ha. The open shops on either side of us are narrow, squeezed up, and full of people, aU at their various occupations. Women we very seldom see, for they are confined to the houses, and are quite excluded from general society. Every shop has its niche in the wall with its little idol inside, and a brass joss-pot with sticks of incense continually burning. We can't see what the houses are built of, for they are literally covered with stained wood, signs, and hieroglyphics, and varnished like a dark Japanese tray. The streets or alleys are crammed full of Chinamen hurrying past, each one looking as serious as if his life depended upon the particular work in hand : aU with long pigtails, and their heads shaven, excepting at the back where the tail springs from. Some wear blue cotton frocks down to below their FEARFUL SMELLS. '45 knees,liaving a very dirty and greasy appearance.arising from the rooted aversion of their proprietors to cold water ; others have bare backs, while the richer people wear silk. Our coolies have their pigtails coiled up looking like chignons. Now another awful smell meets us, which makes us hold our breath to suffocation-point. They are so frequent, that it makes on"e feel quite faint. What must they be during the hotter weather ? and yet they say there is no fever ! Beggars there are many of in these crowded ways, and they are importunate beyond aU conception; there are also many lepers. Here comes an old Chinaman with the hugest imaginable spectacles, not with invisible rims, but good wholesome stout ones of tortoise-sheU, half an inch wide ; these soon become so common as to cease to create wonder. Looking for a moment from the surging crowd, as 146 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. far as the eye can reach down the narrow way are seen thousands of hanging signs, each Httle shop having four, varying in size from five to ten feet long, and about a foot broad. These are occasionally of different colours, but ■ almost always red, with Chinese writing on them. Sometimes they are golden with red letters. These signs hang down to about eight feet of the pavement. The effect is most extra- ordinary ; besides these signs, all of which hang across the street, each shop has three large lanterns, one large round one in the centre, and one on either side, between four to five feet long. These seem to be made of transparent paper and fine bamboo, and varnished over, as is everything else. There were also innumerable lanterns in the shape of fish, or rather caricatures of them, two and three feet long. The overhanging roofs of the houses almost meet at the top, and where they do not, rush-matting is thrown across to keep out the sunlight, and prevent the choice odours from escaping and being wasted on the desert air. There seems to be an immense amount of cook- ing and eating going on. We are continually pass- ing eating-shops, raw and cooked meat all hanging up together. Eoast ducks and geese; numberless dried rats, owls, and snakes; roast pigs cut down the middle, simply into two pieces, and looking very brown and tempting ; liver, gullets, taUs, besides other most untempting food. These shops are often opposite one another, making it quite a matter of difiiculty to prevent rubbing against the meat on one side or the other as we are carried along. Dreadful smeUs abound. EATABLES— GAMBLING. 147 Tliere are a great number of fish-shops ; big carp up to five and six pounds, and what look to me like chub gasping ia low flat tubs, in water barely cover- ing them ; others lying on stalls split in two, with their clean white flesh smeared all over in blood: this latter is to evidence their freshness, and is invari- ably done here. I see also a curious mottled fish, like a stumpy eel, of which they seem very fond ; in fact, everything that can be eaten — everythiiig but stones, iron, wood, and such things — is eaten. The vegetables are quite as strange as everythiug else that meets the eye ; and though none are Uke ours, one can now and again detect their equivalent. Wherever there is space for it there is gambling going on. We watched for some time a little boy, certainly not ' more than seven', risking his money on the hazard of the die. We noticed, too, that he won nearly every time. They wiU toss double or quits for anything — for an old dried rat, or a shthery-lookiag lot of white stuff", I hope made of flour,, but I fear not. I didn't see any cats or dogs hanging up; and on inquiring of our guide the reason, was told that they are not kiUed during the New- Year festivities. We meet people with their little open baskets with a few shces of raw carp, and little heaps of different vegetables — a Httle dinner fit to go iuto a doll's house, and an appropriate one for such a people. Everything without exception is as strange as the Chiuaman is himseK, nothing bearing hardly more than a semblance to our home equivalent. Their fires give out no smoke; their cooking is done in the 148 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. open. Things are so strange, one expects to see ' fire frore, and cold perform the effect of fire.' Where we use black, they use white, and so with nearly all things ; everything being the very opposite to what it is with us. Things seem upside down, and you doubt whether you are not dreaming as you are carried along. They are just the same now as they were 5,000 years ago, and the children seem to know as little, and as much, and to be as independent as the men. We went into a garden where are hundreds of trees dwarfed and trained into all manner of shapes — men and women, ships, boots, bird-cages, dogs, etc. In tanks we saw many gold-fish, which they have succeeded in breeding with five tails apiece. They tame wild- ducks, teal, and geese, and make them breed, and train cormorants to do their fishing for , them. Crackers are now going off, banging all over the place ; these, and a sort of bagpipe music, are nearly deafen- ing. We pass down a long street, the shops being full of jade-stone, prized so much by Chinese of aU ranks. It is very costly even here ; each shop having jewellery in this doubtfully pretty stone, representing a large amount of money. We also see them cutting the stone, and millers grinding their corn, as they used to do a thousand years ago ; silk-weavers, opium-smoking houses, and head-shaving places, ad lib. Wherever we go we have a crowd following us — a good-tempered and harmless people they seem, who always return our ' chin-chin ' salutation with great good humour. THE prison; 149 We have now got to the old city walls, very broad and high, having a good road at the top, with a capital view over the city, which is a vast plain of roofs, with here and there a taU, narrow, fire-proof house — generally a pawnbroker's — rising high above the rest. AU along the roofs of the houses are rows of big earthenware jars full of water, to be used in case of fire. Here we see an old pig — apug-dog sortof pig — with nineteen httle ones. What a treat it is to breathe freely again the fresh air, and see the open sky ! But our time is very valuable ; so after a little quiet and rest, we again dive down to our chairs and the narrow alleys, and to a reeking mortality, and off we go to the prison. More stifling smeUs, more filth, and we find our- selves peering between thick wooden bars into a dim dungeon, where are about a dozen poor dirty wretches with their heads thrust through planks of wood about three feet square, .called ' cangues.' With these ^on they can get no rest, are not able to lie down, nor can they feed themselves. They are entirely dependent on charity for their food, which often enough they don't get, and we hear that many die of starvation. We are surrounded by people holding out their hands and demanding money — whether they are warders or prisoners we cannot tell — getting between us and the door, which they closed ; so we have to push our way through them, and are very glad when we get out. If a prisoner escapes, another member of his family is imprisoned until he is found. We are followed by a mob to where the instruments of torture are. These are mostly lying idle during the 150 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. New- Year festivities. Serious crimes nearly always meet with, death. The more ordinary punishments are the hastinado, blows on the face with thick leathern soles, iron-cages where the prisoner must remain in a crouching attitude, with big iron balls fastened to the feet. One man is waiting to have his head cut off, and apparently he doesn't care a button. From here we go to the execution-ground, and instead of its being shunned, defiled as it is by the atrocities committed there, within its walls is a gambhng-shed in fuU swing surrounded by crowds of people. It is a common potter's yard, with pottery lying drying all over it. Up against a wall is a rude cross upon which they crucify; and near it, on the ground, is the blood of some poor wretch who had his head cut off a few days ago. The body is returned to his family, the head being kept in a jar against the wall. There are many similar jars, and big tubs, full ' of heads. We looked into one to see if it was a true bill, and found it was — a very true one. I don't think ordinary executions concern anyone (excepting the people immediately interested), for they are so common, and life is so abundant. It is only when some death out of the common is being perpetrated upon some poor victim, that the people think it worth looking at. A fellow crucified, and cut into four pieces while alive, is barely sensational ; but three months ago, a woman who was guilty of what our divorce-courts take cognizance of, was, after a short imprisonment, flogged to death in the streets. This, I suppose, would EX AM IN A TION PL A CE. 151 be sensational enough, thougli their pity is never moved. Cruelty, falsehood, trickery, vice, and mutual distrust seem to be their chief national characteristics. From the execution-ground we went to the great examination-place, where examinations are held every third year to qualify for their Civil Service. Ten acres of land, covered with rows of brick boxes, like sentry-boxes', a small oil-lamp, seat, and bed are pro- vided, and the candidate has to remaia there for three days and nights, writing, upon subjects given him, after he has got into his box ! No chance of cribbing here. If he tries it, off goes his head. Out of 10,600 who competed on the last occasion, only 82 passed ! Most of the Ceylon pilgrims who went to Canton were attacked by the curio malady in its most virulent form ; and to see the spoils of the day exhibited in the evening was most laughable — one giving in one shop three dollars for what in another was bought for one. We spent the other two days we had in looking through the shops, in sketching, and seeing the great water-clock of Canton ; nothing more ingenious in this than water dropping through a succession of tubs into one at the bottom, the depth of water in the latter showing the time. These Chinamen are a great fraud, and they stand unrivalled in the world in every branch of the art of cheating, and their abhorrent disregard of truth would stagger even Ananias himself The only thing that the 'Western devils,' as they call Europeans, can make better than themselves are clocks, or rather 1 52 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. watches, for I fancy they are satisfied with their one water-clock. Nothing else can we make as weU as they, and they don't want even our watches ; they say they can do without them now as well as they did 5,000 years ago. They want neither our watches, clocks, nor railways ; only ' get out, and leave us alone,' is what they say. They claim to have invented the com- pass and the art of priating ; and ' gunpowder, they say, they discovered and used long before it was known of in Europe. Besides this, they think that they are quite at the head of the musical world, though to us their music is destitute of both science and system, taste and refinement, but this can also be said of the native music we have everyTvhere heard throughout the East — no semblance of an air which one can detect, and no beginning and no ending in their song. We saw their best temples, but they are all the same, and we are dreadfully tired of them. There is one temple which they call th6 Temple of the Five Hundred Wise Men — 500 life-size gilt images of ordinary men, one of them being the embodiment of the principle of Holloway's piUs, which medicine they think worthy of such an apotheosis. Each of these idols is supposed to have some special influence with the Good and the Evil One. We also went through the Temple of Horrors, showing the punishments in store for male- factors. Oasts of figures, coloured to the life, being boiled ahve in a tub of scalding oil, others between planks being sawn in two lengthwise; all a ghastly piece of realism — ^bah ! it's all disgusting and horrible. THE HEA THEN CHINEE. 153 We heard here a story of a zealous young American missionary, who gave a silver dollar to every convert he made to Christianity. One day he had great suc- ill Tiii'iijiMrii' CANAL STKEET (CANTON). cess, making no fewer than seventeen converts. On the arrival of another would-be ' proselyte,' he dis- covered he had been the victim of the intriguino- 11 r54 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. heathen, and that it had all along been the same man, who had presented himself in different garbs. Amongst many of their curious ways we noticed a boy sitting at the side of a house opposite to a tub- ful of some liquid which he caused to slowly circulate by striking the tub every second or two with the side of his foot. We thought this rather a roundabout way of effecting his purpose, but we were not sure of it, for in Canton one may be excused for having doubts on the simplest problems of life. Life is here a nightmare in which all is upside-down, and where everything is done exactly as it should not be done. Pagodas there are many of We went up a five- storied one from which we had a good view over the hiUs and far away towards Pekin. The thousands of little mounds we see on the sides of the hills are their graves, which are never molested. The walls of the houses near the river are covered from top to bottom with orange and red coloured advertisements, quite outdoiag any attempts at mural decoration of the same kind at home. One night, after dinner, ' Susan,' our guide, took us down the river in her sampan to the Flower-boats, but before proceeding, Susan must be introduced, for she is a great character. Like all other women who Uve upon the river she enjoys the opprobrious epithet of ' water-hen,' for they are all looked upon with con- tempt by the shore people. Her dress is an indigo- blue cotton blouse and wide trousers, reaching to a httle below the knees ; her feet and legs are bare ; her hair, which is hard, shiny and smooth, is fashioned A VISIT TO A FLOWER-BOAT. 155 after the likeness of an ordinary teapot, with a good stout handle to it, warranted neither to break nor come off. She is ubiquitous ; she is also short and dumpy in stature, and besides being very plain- featured, with fat, red cheeks, she has one eye Uke a poached Qgg, the other being small and sparkhng with great humour. She has her own boat, in which she lives, her little cabin in it being quite neat with photographs, tinsel and other trumpery. She sculls along her boat with one oar most dexterously, talking to one very volubly all the while and as famiharly and SUSAN S LOAT, reely as if she were an old and intimate friend of tlie same sex. At night, her duties of guide she doesn't consider at an end till she has seen one into bed on the steamer, where she talks over the events of the day and the programme for the morrow in sen- tences of the most fantastic construction — words mutilated to such an extent as to be only just on the boundary-line of a word one has heard before, and nothing at aU but a shapeless sound ! She is quite an untutored child of nature; and lack- ing both tact and the statesmanlike quahty of conceal- 11—2 156 SVNNV LANDS AND SEAS. ing her thoughts by language, she obstinately insisted that a hght-hearted, frolicsome lad from the Ceylon was inebriated, constantly saying to him, ' My thinkee you tipsee ;' boisterous spirits being so little understood by these solemn people ! Well, away we went to the Flower-boats — viz. plea- sure-boats — ^which are large, well-Hghted house-boats, and prettily decorated. These are all together, makLag quite a floating street, enabling one to walk from one to the other and observe the people at their diversions. Girls with their cheeks and lips painted a brUhant pink — no timidity or half-measures here, for it was well splodged on — ^blackened eyebrows, and their hair done as Susan's was, in the teapot style. They do it up once a fortnight, and sleep with pillows of wood so modelled as to prevent the artistic design from being damaged. I don't know a bit whether we were intruding or not, but the gay Lotharios who were with them inside gladly allowed Us to see all that was going on, and we had much laughing and fun together. The girls were constantly rouging and pencilling their eyebrows and admiring themselves in Httle look- ing-glasses, and between the intervals of their dis- cordant singing, they smoked big-bowled pipes with the tiniest pinch of tobacco in them. Yes, I too am an opium-smoker ! the rubicon being passed on this occasion — one of my newly-made Celestial friends prepared my first smoke for me as follows : He first took the pipe, which has a stem about the thickness of a flute, the bowl being a little way from, the end. He then put a piece of wire like a A CHINESE DINNER. 157 knitting-needle into a little cup containing the treacly- looking opium, tiU he had as much on it as would half cover a threepenny-piece ; he then twirled it round over the flame of a little lamp tUl it began to bubble and frizzle. ■ He now placed it on the flat-topped bowl of the pipe, which had a hole in its centre about the size of a pin's head, and the needle on being with- drawn left a little hole through the piece of opium, now the size of a pea, for the heat has hardened it. He now held it over the flame while I drew several long whiffs, only six, and it was exhausted. I now ex- pected the trance state to supervene, but, as it came not, I had another pipe ; but ' still I was not happy,' so I laid myself down, as all opium-smokers do, with my head on a cushion, and took my third and last pipe — the largest of all. I was now confident I should soon be a spirit floating through unknown worlds in transcendent bliss; but I was doomed to disappointment, as usual, and after being weary of waiting for what I felt would never come, I abandoned the cherished hope, absolutely unable to detect even the shghtest effect, either pleasant or otherwise ; though the little taste there was, was not unpleasant. One of these Flower-boats was a restaurant, so we adjourned to it and had a Chinese dinner. We com- menced the repast by eating the seeds of the water- melon ; after that we went to a little side-table on which were candied ginger and water-melon, and bamboo-shoots and the other candied things we have at home — ^pneor two candied vegetables and sugar-cane, all on tiny little porcelain dishes. From there Ave 158 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. went to the dinner-table, on wHcli were twenty-five little porcelain basins fuU of some unknown messes. In front of us were tiny little bowls containing wine made from rice called ' Samshu,' and soy to be used as sauce wben required. One of our party, soon after we bad begun, drank tbe sauce by mistake, and left the table soon after, hors de combat. We were also armed with chop-sticks and a httle china bowl not bigger than a tea-cup. We were supposed to help ourselves ad libitum from all the little dishes in the centre of the table, digging into them with our chop-sticks. I saw very little even of tasting, no eating — ^we aU ' passed.' Everything that came to the table was cut into tiny square pieces, now beyond all recognition, whatever it once was. Every dish I tasted had a taste I had never tasted before. After eagerly looking over aU the dishes for something I recognised, I at last discovered some prawns in a sort of gravy. With my chop-sticks I made for a long time unavailing efforts to secure one ; but at last I got a little into the way of using them, and secured my prize : couldn't eat it — some unknown pungent taste instead of our delicate prawn. I hadn't the courage to taste more than a few of these dishes. There were dishes that looked Hke cocks-combs cut into squares, but I afterwards heard they were something even worse. There was a dish of boiled conch, also cut into small squares ; black-fish, green eggs (very old ones), pork and ducks' gizzards, little bits of boned fowl on a slithery green-looking weed, and bits of liver, and many other fearful things. After our eyes had had their fill of these delicacies, many THE MENU. 1 59 courses were brouglit on in succession, and very few being removed, so that at the end of the dinner we bad, I should say, close on forty of these httle bowls on the table. Tea without mUk or sugar was served after nearly every course. There was neither bread nor salt nor pepper. About the middle of the dinner we had birds'-nest soup, and it had one great advantage over the other things — it was almost without flavour of any sort; a thin, watery, whitish soup, with strings of a gelatinous substance in it, a Httle hke vermicelli. It is thought a great luxury, and is consequently very expensive. We had neither cat nor dog' nor rat. I don't know why we hadn't the latter; the two former were enjoying a close time during these happy days of festivities. Everything we tasted was abomin- able ; but these fellows like everything, preferring of course the things that to us are most distasteful. What they do with the ordinary parts that we eat of animals is an enigma ; we never even saw them. The viscera of animals, rats and mice, monkeys and snakes, sea-slugs, sUk-worms, etc., unhatched ducks and chickens, we have often seen exposed for sale. Sir John Bowring says that they seem to like, food in its early stages of putrefaction : rotten eggs are by no means condemned to perdition, and fish is more acceptable when.it has a. strong fragrance and flavour to give to their rice. They take neither milk, cream nor butter. Had we had more time we should have had a better dinner, and I was very anxious to have seen a great dish of theirs, viz. ' tipsy shrimps.' These are brought on in a little china bowl into which wine has i6o SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. been poured a short time before. When the cover is removed the shrimps jump out of the basin, and an experienced Chinaman catches them with his chop- sticks before they reach the table, and then eats them. The following Tnenu is considered a little better than an ordinary Chinese dinner of the better class. I give the courses in their order : 1. Sea-slugs ; 11. Pork minced so small 2. Stewed pork and bamboo as to represent bread- shoots ; crumbs J 3. Bird's-nest soup ; 12. Basin of rice : 4. Black-fish ; 13. Melon-seeds ; 5. Hashed dog ; 14. Betel-nuts wrapped up in 6. Stewed black cat ; green leaves ; 7. Fried rat ; 15. Tipsy-shrimps ; 8. Macaroni soup ; 16. Soups of various kinds — 9. Salt-fish ; and so it goes on for 10. Salted eggs ; over thirty courses. Canton has been subjected to typhoons as terrific in their effects as the severest earthquakes. We were, shown the ravages caused by one which had burst upon it like a thunder-clap a short time previously, and which was soon over. A streak of wind only a few yards wide had torn through everything with the force of lightning ; trees would be half stripped of leaves and branches, the other half un- touched ; others would be torn up by the roots and hurled along like a battering-ram. We saw heavy curb-stones, each weighing from two to three hundred- weight, which had been blown several yards from their positions. Houses along its narrow course were literally levelled to the ground, while others were only unroofed. The rush of wind is so terrific in its 'ROUGH' ON THE LAST ONE. i6i strength that it seems impossible that any masonry can -withstand it. Even wrought iron lamp-posts are bent double and twisted into the most extraordinary shapes, while aU vegetation is instantly withered. We left Canton at 5 p.m. on the 28th February. On oiu- way down, just at sundown we saw a large drove of ducks going to their home in an old junk on the river. There must have been two or three hundred of them. At a w'ell-understood whistle from their master on board they waddle, waddle, waddle, and race as hard as they can, all in one solid mass, each striving to be first, at all events not to he the last. We saw them pushing and struggling with all their might to get in. It was no use ; one was bound to be ' the last in,' and this one got a good sound whacking with a whip. This is done all over the place. However far they may be from their home, directly they hear the whistle, a perfect rush and stampede follows, and the last poor bird is nearly beaten to death. We hear these ducks are all hatched artificially and brought up by hand, and that . they are only let out of the junks for a short time to feed on the slime and slugs with which the muddy banks of the river and the adjoining fields are so rich. We were back again in Hongkong on the first of this month, and spent the rest of our time in visiting and shopping, and being carried in chairs, by four men, to the top of the mountain above the town, where we saw great quantities of azalea growing wild and in bloom, and from which we had a splendid view of the town and harbour. On our way home, we i62 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. noticed a method (as far as we are aware, peculiar to the Chinese) of transplanting large trees. The trunks and boughs are wrapped round thickly with straw, which being kept constantly wet, nourishes the tree until new roots of sufficient strength are formed. Hongkong, with great consideration and kindness, made the pilgrims free of the club, a kindness we all very much appreciated. We were to have left on the 2nd of March at 2 p.m., but were delayed by fog until daybreak on the 3rd. We have seen many opium-dens — an indescribable though sickly odour pervades them all. The room is devoid of furniture, the walls being surrounded with wooden benches, three feet from the floor, and covered with fine matting, on- which lie many forms, sleeping the sleep of bliss which is bought at the terrible price of a slow death and a soddened miser- able hfe. When the pipe is prepared as I described before, Johnny lights it and inhales long and deep, till his eyes begin to close, and the state of stupe- faction comes creeping over him ; his pipe now drops from his clutch, and he is far away in realms of ecstasy and peace. HEADS OF IDOLS. CHAPTER XII. THE LAND OF THE RISING SUN. NAGASAKI. KOBE. KIOTO. Dirty Weather. — Change of Temperature.— Nagasaki. — First View of Japan. — Contrast with China. — Japanese Customs and Characteristics. — Dandies. — A neat and wonderful Cultivation. — Our Coolies and their Prayers. — Japanese Streets, Shops, and Dress. — A Comparison not in our Favour.— Coaling.— Inland Sea.— Kob6.— Public Baths. — Journey by Eail to Kioto. — Scenery. — The 'Western Capital.' — Buddhist Temple.— Japanese Art. — Visit to the Theatre. — 'Saki.' — Actors and their Attendants. — " Street Scene during a Fire. — Our Hotel. — Inconveniences of Shifting Walls. Nagasaki, Japan, March 11, 1882. 8 hr. 40 min. in front of our home time. Since we left Hongkong at daybreak on the 3rd, we have had the most vile weather imaginable. A very cold north-easter against us all the way, with high seas, cloudy, stormy sides, and for two days a gale in our teeth, and not once a glinipse of the sim. Since the Ceylon left Southampton, nearly five months ago, she has persistently had either head-winds, or else no wind at aU, with exceptions amounting altogether to at most one week ! 1 64 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. We have all had more than enough of the China Seas. Directly we left, the change of temperature was so great that thick winter-clothing had to be resorted to — all sitting about on deck being at an end — awnings down, and muffled up, shivering forms, with blue noses, hurrying along the deck in the pinching cold for exercise and warmth. For two days on our way up north, we kept in sight of the Chinese coast, resembling very much the west coast of Scotland, and seeing a great many coasting-junks beating about. Since then we have been fighting our way up here, and making the slowest progress possible through the head-seas and strong winds. One even- ing our steering-gear broke, and we rolled about terribly and helplessly in the trough of the sea, during the hour it was being patched up. The waves were no doubt splendid from an aesthetic point of view, but they were entirely unappreciated. I felt dismally we could have better studied their varying forms and colours from the shore, but the feeling for these things was gone, though unfortunately only in one sense ; and ' Gush ' and his inseparable twin-brother ' Comfort ' having fled the ship, the huge waves and hollows raced wildly past, more felt than seen. One of our sails blew away, and the same person was ill again, nearly aU the way. What the sailors caU 'Cape hens' have kept us company for some days, quartering our wake for food ; flying without once flapping their wings, and in grace- ful motions like those of a finished skater. They have immensely long and thin wings of nearly the OUR FIRST VIEW OF JAPAN. 165 same width througliout. They never seem to tire, for they follow us night and day. When we awoke on the morning of the 10th, we were in calm lovely weather, with a soft and warm sun shining, and the coast of Japan well within sight. It was a great delight to us all after the previous un- pleasant and stormy week. Soon we were steaming between high hills, wooded or cultivated to the water, and with pretty islands dotted here and there about the coast. It struck us as being not unhke Dart- mouth, but it is generally hkened to a Norway fiord. The view of the town as we lay at anchor, as in a lake, was very pretty. Soft blue hills were on all sides of us, rising from the sparkling water, a genial sun, and an air Ught and invigorating as possible. There were many ships in the harbour as well as junks, a few of the former, which were being built entirely by the Japanese, being on the stocks. Everything here seems to be going ahead at a great pace ; it being an important place of call for steamers for the purpose of coaling with the cheap and nasty native coal from Jakashima. It is difficult to account for the feeling, but after China it felt quite hke nearing home again, our getting" to Japan. Had we to return to-morrow, we should feel we had been fully compensated had we seen nothing else. Everything here is so quaint, pictv/resque, and pleasing — ^no filth like there was in China. A clear bright air, clean quaint little streets, which are all pavement, little houses of wood, of - one story high, and a happy, light-hearted, and more than i66 SUNNY LAJ^PS AMD SEAS. . friendly people. They are most cordial and polite ; not taught, but bred so by nature. !£■ Buckle's ' food; chmate, and aspect of nature ' theory is right (as I suppose it is), the three are here in their most valuable combination, for the result is a happy, light-hearted, and kite-flying people. They eat chiefly rice, indulge little in ' hot and rebellious liquors,' and are without- those physical infirmities which so many of our race suffer from ; not only those self-made ones, but also those kind legacies bequeathed by a glorious ' three-' " bottle' ancestry. They are happy as children, and are far superior in physique to the Chinamen, the girls being very nice, amiable, and attractive, with fair skins, rosy cheeks, good figures, pretty faces, and fine teeth, though one very nasty and disgusting custom is that in which engaged and married women indulge, of making their teeth black as jet, which makes them look most repulsive. It is a most in- terestmg country for everyone, naturally, socially, politically, and historically. , On landing we were immediately surrounded by jinrickishaws on all sides, and the way the men pull them about is as wonderful as is their endurance- The, European costumes were most odd-looking. I fancy all who can afford to wear them do; and a young swell here swaggers about in a seal-skin cap, a dress-coat, and a pair of light trousers, and any amount' of what is called ' cuff.' The town is without imposing buildings of any kind; but its cleanliness and general appearance are most, pleasing, as well as the daintiness, smalhiess, and la NA TIVE DE VOTIONS. 1 67 quaintness of everything. The population is about 80,00.0. So far as is possible, every inch of the hills surrounding the town is cultivated like a garden, neatness and order prevaihng everywhere. The hiUs are terraced , out with the big stones got from the soil, making them into step's or terraces; from a distance they look as straight and regular as if they had been ruled out with a measure. To-day we walked to the top of the highest of these hills, through terraces of cultivated land, cut up into little plots, most of them being only a few yards square, and covered with different crops and vegetables, upon which the little Japanese were occasionally hard at work. The path was so steep, that it was mostly cut into irregular steps ; and at intervals along it were little one-storied houses of wood, and standing in their doorways to look at us as we passed were the quaint little mothers with their black almond-shaped eyes, and their little children, all merry, bright, and glad- some, as is everything about them in this happy, , beautiful-looking spot. In one sense these people are doubtless as poor as ' church mice,' but they seem to to be as rich as Crcesus in that which constitutes life's real wealth. Farther up the hill, and beyond its cul- tivation, we passed through quantities of wild camellia shrubs, rhododendrons, and long yellow rank grass. Our jinrickishaw men accompanied us up the hill, half-way up which is a little wooden temple, to the door of which they went, and clapped their hands as loudly as they could to awaken the god and call his at- tention to them. They then threw some money into 12—2 i68 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. a large wooden receptacle, like a pig-trough, which stood before the idol, muttered a very short prayer bowed several times very low, then rang a bell, which hung above them, to aw;aken the god, lest he should have gone to sleep ia the meanwhile, and forgotten who it was that was to be accredited with the offering, after which they followed us, merrier, if possible, than before. From the top of the hill we had a fine view of the harbour and town, and over a sea, white like molten silver, with scattered islands nestling in its peaceful bosom, and inland, over a mountainous and beautifully pine-timbered country. The crispness and freshness of the air are most exhilarating. On descending, we wander through the little streets with their quaint little wooden houses' and shops all open to the street, and having instead of windows thin sliding-screens made of lightest wood, paper being substituted for glass. The primal in- genuousness and simplicity of everything we see is dehghtful ; and we shall ever remerdber Nagasaki with acutest pleasure as being our first introduction to it all. A large proportion of the shops are curio shops, full of beautiful lacquer-work, bronzes, and Japanese; ware. In other shops we see pheasants of many different varieties and colours, with tails fully five feet long, also many sorts of gaudy-coloured ducks. They are celebrated here for their fine working in tortoise-shell, and a great many little models of both jinrickishaws and sampans made from it find their way on board. The streets are full of A GOOD EXAMPLE. 169 these good-natured people, and though it is their early spring, the men, whose occupations are active, wear very Httle clothing — generally only a short blue- cotton frock, with large white hieroglyphics encircled with a white ring on the back, and very tightly fitting trousers of the same material. Head-dress of any kind seems to be rare, but the men occasionally wear a blue handkerchief on their heads, which they tie under the chin. Our jinrickishaw men are almost naked, their legs being entirely so. Little girls and boys, the latter with shaved heads, toddle about the streets with infants of nearly the same age strapped, or rather wrapped, to their backs. The more elderly girls and women — bless them ! — seem nicely-made little things, and many of the younger ones are very pretty. Though they smile most winningly upon us and welcome us with their black, sleepy-looking eyes, we pass on ; for we act up to a Japanese proverb which says, 'Beware of beautiful women as you would of red pepper.' A remarkable trait in their character, that one cannot help noticing, is that all seem so kind and loving to one another ! A httle dot of a child came near being knocked over by one of our jinrickishaws, which was being pulled so fast that it was with the greatest difficulty it could be stopped without knocking the little fellow down. Our coolie patted him on the head as tenderly as if he had been his own child, and without the shadow of an angry look at the trouble to which he had been put. It was impossible to help^ comparing him with one of our too often 170 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. brutal cabmen or carters at home, wbo with an oath and a slash of the whip would have sent the little fellow away screaming ; and yet this is the country to which English and American missionaries come to teach them our civilization and what we are in the West — how good we are — how gentle — how loving, clean and sober — how exalted are our methods of hfe — how high our aims ! Is it not wiser to teach men how to live before teaching them how to die ? The latter plan has been tried long enough ; and of its fallacy the records of the world are unhappily by this time fuU enough ! It would be far more pertinent, and less impertinent, were they to send missionaries from Japan to England and America, to teach us what is the grand potent which makes them so happy, so sober, so clean, and so kind and loving to one another. When one thinks of our East End and the stupendous depths of degrada- tion to which whole masses of our people at our very doors have sunk, and whose deplorable condition, both spiritually and bodily, so loudly calls for help, it seems at least odd that missionaries should be sent to a people who seem to need it far less than the multitudes of our people at home. Until our own festering sores are cured, should not every missionary be recalled, and every farthing of the money which now leaves England for missionary purposes be applied to wipe out our own deep national disgrace ? Our coaling here was done from lighters, several hundred hands of both sexes being employed ; and being closely arranged in two lines on a ' way ' from THE INLAND SEA. 171 the ship to the lighter, a never-ceasing stream of the smallest baskets, full and empty, passed up and down. In this way 700 tons of Japanese coal were quickly got on board. At their dinner-hour in the afternoon they all knocked oif work, and fell to upon boiled rice in boxes which seemed to hold nearly as much as their coal-baskets. Many curios were bought here by our pilgrims, many heavy packing-cases coming on board a little before our departure for Hiogo and Kobd in the Inland Sea ; the former being the native, the latter the European town, and adjoining one another. Kobe (Hiogo), Japan, March 14, 1882. On Sunday the 12th, at 2 a.m., we left Nagasaki for this town, the most important one in the Inland Sea, and one of those which were unwillingly thrown open to commerce by the Japanese in 1863. Our passage this day, skirting the northern coast, was a very rough one, until we entered the world-renowned Inland Sea, where we anchored for the greater part of the night, so timing our departure in the early morning that we should pass through the finest scenery during the daylight. The only thing that marred our enjoyment in this beautiful lake-Uke sea was the intense cold. We are in early spring here, and the snow stiU lies deep on the tops of the mountains^ which rise abruptly from the coast. It is difficult to understand how it could be so cold when we are so far South — being now in about the same latitude as Madeira. 172 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. We should have been here two months later to see the Inland Sea at its best, when a splendour of fohage and vegetation would have made it a paradise ; as it was, parts of it were superb. The sea, a winding one of 500 miles long, is in many places thickly studded with islands ; the channels are consequently frequently very intricate, and the currents swirl through them like a miU-race, making the navigation very dangerous. Islands and shore are covered with pine-trees and brushwood; and here and there greenest sward and cultivated land slope in fine lines to the water's edge. In every sheltered bay villages lie snugly ; and junks, marvellous in their elaborate construction, and fleets of fishing boats, add great life to the beauty of the scene. At the loveliest part of this sea are snow- capped mountains, rising ruggedly from the coast to a height of 5,000 or 6,000 feet ; and splendid were the rosy lights and pearly shadows of evening upon them as we steamed too fastly by. Many times to-day we could have thrown a stone across the water, while at others the sea opened out to a width of twenty or thirty miles. More beautiful waters than these for yachting it would be impossible to find. When we awoke this morning we found ourselves anchored a short distance from the town ; and on reaching the deck, were gladdened by a perfectly calm and heavenly morning, a warm sun and blue sky. The water is like an opal mirror, and beyond lies the town, with hills behind it of a delicate purple colour. On landing we drove through the town in jinricki- THE PUBLIC BATHS. 173 shaws, there being no horses anywhere, all the work being done apparently by men. Curio, basket and other shops full of beautiful things are innumerable ; fish-shops, too, are common, in which we notice a great many dried brown trout from five to six pounds each, which come from the large lake of Biwa, above Kioto. We paid here a flying visit to the public baths, which are great institutions throughout the country ; for the people are by inclination, as well as by their religion, most scrupulously clean. The bath was about ten feet square, the water very hot, and 'reach- ing to about their chests when standing in it. In this bath these simple happy Japanese people of both sexes were bathing together, without a scrap of clothing on them, and with all the innocence of simple animals. Apparently they know not what ' indelicacy ' means ; for while we were taking this hurried glance, a graceful nymph of about sixteen summers left the water, and actually stood beside us smiling. Did she blush and run away ? No. Did we ? Yes. The veil that was wanting there, must be drawn here. It was a strange sight, filling us with many reflections. The occupants of the bath greeted us with smiles, and they were evidently pleased and flattered at our having paid them a visit. How incongruous such things are in a land where they have now the greatest of all civilizers, viz., railways and telegraphs ! March \h, 1882. The great, places of interest near Hiogo are the 174 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. native towns of Kioto, Nara, and Osaka. To see them we were obliged to procure special passports through our consul, stating the objects of our travel, for they are beyond our treaty limits. Having procured them, we start with a native guide for Kioto, about fifty miles distant, on an English made small-gauge rail- way; all the rolUng-stock and locomotives are English, but the railway is worked entirely by Japanese officials. The entire distance to Kioto, the rail runs along a plain of an average width of about eight miles, be- tween loAv and seemingly uncultivated mountains, covered here with patches of dark pine-trees of a bluish tint, and there with warm-coloured granite rocks. This plain is cultivated the whole way with the most scrupulous attention and care, and is in appearance like one of our market-gardens at home. The land is splendidly irrigated, as is the case every- where here. The rivers and streams which run through these plains bring down a vast amount of sand and other solid matter from the mountains, which in course of time would choke their beds and cause them to overflow. To prevent this they are banked up, causing them to run at a considerably higher level than the land through which they pass, making them look like railway embankments. • Does one not see in this the aiding hand of Provi- dence, and how man, in endeavouring to keep nature from aggressing, has unconsciously discovered a most powerful ally ? The land is partitioned into small level plots, and AGRICULTURE. • 175 being below the level of the streams, they can be irrigated to heart's content, the most abundant crops in spring and autumn being the result. There are neither hedges nor fences, nor is there any grass- land. Sheep we never see, the grass in Japan not suiting them, and oxen, which are chiefly reared and fattened for European use, are all staU-fed ; the quiet- looking landscape is consequently without those flocks which give so great a charm to our home pastoral scenes. The natives are now at work on crops all vividly green and corresponding to those of our summer; these will be harvested while it is yet spring, for the heat comes quickly and with great and increasing strides ; when they are cleared, the semi-tropical crops, such as rice, take their place, and are in their turn gathered in the autumn. There are no roads for purely agri- cultural purposes, only narrow, well-worn foot-paths ; and we very rarely see any beasts of burden except ' man,' who carries or drags all produce, and who also serves as post-horses in pulling the jinrickishaws. In the neighbourhood of all the villages are large camelHa trees and acres of smaller ones, all in full blossom. The morning is keen and frosty, and the country wears a wintry aspect — :all trees but the evergreens being leafless ; but the many camellia trees, the tall, feathery bamboos and pines, which we see, prevent the landscape from looking naked. As the early Sim scatters its grateful warmth and hght over the landscape, our home skylarks rise with song mto the 176 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. air. These and a few old crows are the only birds we see. There were a great many natives travelling, all the stations along our route being full of them. At 9 a.m. we reached Kioto, the ' Western Capital,' which boasts a population of 225,000 of the happiest race on earth ! Kioto being the terminus, there was a large crowd filling the station, which was further augmented by the ' output ' of our train ; so it took us some little time before we could extricate ourselves from the throng and get outside the station. Here we took jinrickishaws (the hire of each being about three shil- lings for the DAY !), and went through the little streets of the town, buying a number of beautiful articles from the many curio-shops we passed, and being utterly bewildered by all the countless objects which arrest the attention on every side. We have visited to-day several Buddhist temples, and amongst them that of Nishi-Hon-gwan-ji, said to be the largest in Japan ; at all events the finest we have yet seen. The architecture of all is substantially the same in character : built almost entirely of wood, unpainted and imvarnished, with great beams and cross-beams, with much nearly full-relief carving, and very large, exaggerated, overhanging roofs, turned up at the edges ; the general effect of the whole being a rather pronounced grey colour. There must be very large trees in the country, for some of these beams are of immense size. Before we enter the sacred precincts we have to take off our boots, and cold as ice to the feet is the JAPANESE ART. 177 line white rush matting. The decoration inside is so rich,' the light so subdued, and the now dull ground on which the beautiful and simple designs are painted gives so splendid a richness and luminousness to the interior, that one feels like an incongruous figure in an otherwise splendid picture. Of course storks, peacocks, chrysanthemums, delicate sprays of bamboo, with its sharp, wiUow-like leaves, plum and other blossoms and fruits, are all exquisitely worked, and in execution are perfect. The more important designs here, and the large paintings on the panels of the various rooms, are by far the finest work we have yet seen in the country, it being the work of a higher order, of an art more serious and thoughtful than that one usually sees, which has so much of caricature and of the grotesque in it. For love and earnestness shown in their work, in depth, richness of tone and colour, and in the patient completion of detail — always graceful — this work may not unreasonably be said to approximate to even that of the Venetian school. Their facts of form are wonderful, and only- to be attained by a long, simple-hearted, and reverent study of nature. It is far removed from being merely imitative work, for it has become, as all work must become when humbly and lovingly carried out, idealized and suggestive ! The most disappointing feature is their painting of the human form, which, so far as we have yet observed, seems to lack all knowledge of correct drawing and anatomy, though it is always rich in vigorous but exaggerated action. 178 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. Inside the temple, kneeling opposite to the idol of Buddha, was a long row of priests intoning at an immense pace, all keeping perfect time and making a noise exactly like the monotonous, sing-song tune that forces itself so unpleasantly upon one's ears in the clatter of an express railway train. Within the curtilage of this temple are the curious little ponds, islands, bridges and winding paths that one sees so constantly in their pictures, mapped out like a park in miniature, on the scale of about a yard to the mile. Leaving here, we are again hurried through the streets in our jinrickishaws. We see more temples, and also their local industrial and art exhibitions — an institution which we notice in all their towns. The temptations of the curio-shops are too strong for us to withstand ; and we frequently stop to admire the splendid bronzes, lacquer-work, porcelain and inlaid metal-work, of which my friend of course buys more than any two men could carry. The beauty of the innumerable things in these shops is amazing — their bronzes are enough to craze one — and the true ring of a beautiful and deep art runs through nearly every- thing ; but a simple sprig of cherry," peach, or plum blossom — a spray of the dehcate bamboo most ex- quisitely graceful and perfect in finish — are the chief and most charming characteristics of their happy ornamentation. After a very hard day we get back, tired to death, to the hotel, which is just outside the town, on a beautifully wooded mountain. The old city lies OUR VISIT TO A THEATRE. 179 beneath us in the valley, and the pine-clad hUls on both sides of it are very beautiful in the thin rising mists of evening. After dinner, consisting of soup, trout, fillet of beef, tea and extras, we go to the theatre, which is a large, dimly-lighted, barn-like place, the whole floor of which is partitioned off into squares of about four feet — ^Uke a chess-board. For a few cents we procure one of these rush matted squares ; the thin wooden board between it and the next being not quite a foot high. Sandals, clogs, and other ' trotter gear,' are left outside the theatre in long rows. We ask ourselves whether it is possible for any single pair to find again its right owner ? All sit on the fine rush-matted floor, but, as we are ' foreign barbarians,' they bring us broken down stools, and also accommodate us with a charcoal fire in a large open bronze vessel. The floor is so crowded with people that we find it very difficult to prevent rubbing shoulders with the young and pretty sleepy-eyed Japanese girls in the next boxes, who are constantly using tiny handglasses to see whether their elaborately-got-up faces and hair are in perfect trim, and who are incessantly touching up their lips, eyebrows and lashes with red and black paint. Of qualities such as modesty, womanly reserve or shyness, we have not yet been able to discover one solitary instance ; but kindness, politeness, gentle- ness and pleasing graceful manners, we notice every- where — rowdyism and vulgarity, such as we under- stand them among our lower orders, are unknown ! All the little divisions are full of these easy-going, happy 13—2 i8o SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. people ; tlie girls as well as the others smoking their tiny little pipes, and many drinking a spirit, made from rice, called 'saki,' from bowls not much larger than a thimble. The piece we saw began two days before, and we were told by our guide that it would be finished in about six weeks ! The play begins each morning at seven, and goes on till five in the afternoon, when there is an interval of an hour, commencing again at six, and going on again till mid- night. There are naturally relays of actors to do all this, numbering in all from sixty to seventy. We were unable to make head or tail of what was going on — indeed it was impossible to believe that anyone could — but notwithstanding this, we were very much amused at some parts of the performance, which we were well able to understand and appreciate. For instance, the prompter was on the stage making himself small behind the players, reading their parts for them, they repeating after him. The lighting, too, was decidedly unique; each actor having his own attendant, whose business it was to follow his master about on all fours, with a lighted candle at the end of a stick, like a long fishing-rod. This corresponded to the limelight which is sometimes thrown upon our actors. The clever way in which they manipulated themselves along the stage, and always managed to keep their actor well illuminated, secured to them the greatest approbation we could bestow on any part of the per- formance. On our way to the theatre, we saw the glare of a fire in the distance (a by no means uncommon A FIRE. l8i occurrence in these wooden towns), and the streets through which we passed were swarming with people .. :. ■'. ■i.iUi-'it' ^ilili i;:■l|l;l'^v^'M^';■l •, ;, .]-'-'■.. ^?:i;.S'ii!ii»*H2::;ii.fi;,.- - A NATIVE. with paper lanterns, all running most excitedly to it. The whole scene was alive with men and dancing 1 S2 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. lights, shouting and bustle. In the middle of a knot of men was carried a smaU oblong box with a pump in it — this was doubtless meant for a fire-engine ; then more men with buckets rushed by, then another baby pump — ^lanterns dancing about everywhere ! The fire was too far away to tempt us to see it closer. It turned out to be not serious, for on our return from the theatre all was quiet. Our hotel is tolerably comfortable, considering it is built of wood, and as lightly and thinly as a fiddle. The sides of the rooms are merely a number of the thinnest movable wooden slides, which one can push aside with one's little finger, and walk into one's neighbours' rooms, or other people walk into yours, which is more unpleasant. Three friends invaded mine from sides which I had imagined perfectly secure — this state of things induces a creepy-crawly feeling : for if one cannot find somethiug immovable to put one's back against, where would be the courage of even the strongest ? Besides the thinness of the partitions admitting of conversations being carried on with friends three or four rooms away, the hotel seems to be like a colossal double bass in its acoustic pro- perties, and a whisper or a creaking bed can be heard in the furthest part of the house. CHAPTER XIII. THE LAND OF THE RISING SUN. Endurance of Jinrickishaw Coolies. — Their Short Lives. — The Japanese ' Big Paul.' — Scenery on the Boad to Nara.— Tea-house. — ' Tiffin.'— Dai-Butzu. — A Primitive Hostelry. — Japanese Servants. — Dinner. — Cuttle-fish. — Native Candles . — Curios. — Midnight Visits. — Our Ablutions . — The Boad to Osaka. — Unbidden Guests. — A Bemedy. — Fish.— A Bicycle. — Osaka, the Venice of Japan.— The Mint. — The Castle. — The Fast Young Man of Japan.— Back to the Ceylon. — Curio Dealers and their Failings. March 16, 1882. This morning at eight we started in jinrickislia-vvs for the ancient city of Nara (thirty miles distant), and if by chance the eye of an athlete happens to hght upon these Unes, let him mark them. I had two little Japanese coolies for my team, the more bulky De Bosco, three ; but besides ourselves to pull, they had our heavy ulsters, rugs, and weighty Gladstone- bags. One of my men was in the shafts, the other in front, tandem-Uke ; and they accompHshed the thirty • mUes, including stoppages, with the greatest ease in just under the six hours, and the next day ran with us another thirty miles from Nara to Osaka in the 1 84 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. same time, pulling up a great deal fresher than we did at the end of both journeys ! They run the whole way, uphill and down, excepting when really steep ; and they seemed to regard it as a slur upon their strength when we occasionally insisted on getting out and waUsing up the hills. Their bare legs, which one has ample time to study during these long rides, are in muscular development perfectly astonishing, and not to be matched out of Japan. They wear only thin rush soles on their naked feet, and have but very scant clothing ; they are short, sturdy, but splendidly made young fellows, who, however, pay a very dear price for their fine but ephemeral physique, for they die very young from heart, lung, and other chest diseases. They are very joUy fellows, and while ruiming, keep up a nearly incessant talking and laughing. Their hves are so short that we hear the Government is considering the whole question, with a view of stopping not only this insti- tution, which has been in existence for about twenty- five years, but also the larger one of men doing what, elsewhere in the world, is performed by beasts of burden. It is in the ordinary course of business of these men to do, day after day — ^if they are lucky enough to get the job — fifty miles in ten hours ! The fare for each jinrickishaw and two men for the sixty miles, and with which they were more than satisfied, was a sum equal to about 15s. of our Enghsh money ■ Before we started on our journey, we visited the biggest beU in Japan, weighing over seventy-four tons ; it is hung so low in the little open temple on ON THE ROAD TO NARA. 185 the hillside above our hotel, that one can barely walk under it. Our route lies through one of the richest of all the tea districts in Japan. In places, this plant even makes the hedges at the side of the road ! From our jinricki- shaws, it looks precisely like a privet bush, and the plants are generally about two feet high. We notice our common wild maidenhair fern between the stones of the walls, and pear and other fmit-trees trained on bamboo- poles, with vegetables growing underneath ; every inch of ground being utilized. The plum-trees are in full blossom. Farther on, we go through splendid bamboo plantations, about thirty feet high, which at a distance look very much like our fir woods in spring, when they are clothed in fresh and tender green. These planta- tions are a source of great revenue to their proprietors, for as a nation the Japanese would collapse without the bamboo; they not only make nearly everything they require from it, but even go to the length of eat- ing its young shoots ! This latter the Chinese also do. Leaving these plantations, we go through plains highly cultivated and vividly green with new vegetables ; the old paddy-fields looking like our stubble-fields. The only birds we see are again a few sky-larks, singing just as they do at home, and now and then a solitary old crow. This absence of birds is very striking. We expected to see a great many storks and cranes, for they play so prominent a part in Japanese art, but we have seen none. At 10.30 a.m. we enter a little village, and stopfer three minutes at a tea-house (which answers to our village i86 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. inn). Here we have the tiniest cups of tea brought us, of course without either milk or sugar. The women who hand it to us are as proud of showing their jet- black teeth as our girls at home are of concealing their wedding-rings ! Leaving~here, we pass for a long way through old rice-fields, and from the stubble they would appear to be planted close together in little bunches or clumps of about twenty, each clump being about a foot from the other. These paddy-fields are all as flat as a billiard-table, and are about an inch under water. We are going through a plain, about eight miles across, with beautiful blue and pine-clad mountains on both sides. At 11.30 we stop in a village for ' tifiin.' We were obliged to bring our own provisions, for no meat nor other European food is to be got till we reach Osaka. This is our second stoppage. The irreproachably clean house in which we are, has neither chairs, tables, nor other furniture ; so we have to sit on the matting, so spotlessly clean that custom and etiquette compel us to take off our boots. We have paper napkins given us, and tea again in the usual little bowls. The children, who everywhere flock to gaze wonderingly upon us, look generally very un- healthy, with scabby heads and faces, and pocket-hand- kerchiefs (of the largest possible size) are invariably most sadly required. Why do not some of our philan- thropic societies provide them ? After ' tifiin,' we pass through the same scenery, till we get to the historic and ancient capital of Nara, with its 21,000 in- habitants ; through the streets of yrhich we are taken with a great dash by our coolies, for their work fSfr the THE DAI BUTZb. 187 day is now nearly over. Before we go to our hotel or tea-house, which stands on the side of the hill over- looking the city, we pay a visit to the temple near it, the sanctuary of the greatest brazen image in the world — the Dai Butzu or the Great Buddha — which is fifty-three feet high, and weighs over 1,000,000 pounds. The temple and its surrounding buildings are built almost entirely of wood ; and though the temple was destroyed some centuries since, in some of the terrible civil wars of that time, the other buildings escaped, and stand now as they were ten centuries ago. The colossal image has been unfortunate enough on more than one occasion to lose its head, and suffer other damage from fire, but it has always been re- instated, and is now as it always has been and will be, the wonder of aU observers ! After remaining here some time, we walked through the local exhibition adjoining it, being much pleased with the specimens of native manufacture we saw. These exhibitions must do much towards stimulating the natives to a more competitive spirit. After our long journey, and the labours of the pre- ceding'days, we are not a little glad of the prospect of a comfortable hotel and a good rest; but on arriving at the hxiUl, it turns out to be only a thin framework house of wood, with sliding screens of thinnest wood and paper for walls. Of course there is no upper story— there never is ! The furnishing of the place could certainly have cost but little; nor can it be said to be in accordance with our ideas of comfort. There are no chairs, nor tables ; neither i88 SUNNY 7.ANDS AND SSAS. beds, waslistands, chests of drawers, basins, nor look- ing-glasses encumbered the rooms ; the only movable things besides the shifting walls of the establishment being a small sprig of almond blossom, and the jar in which it rests, and the beautifully white matting on the floor, which one can see stretching along in one unbroken sheet through the house. The decoration of the rooms, too, is quite in keeping with the absence of furniture, commencing, as well as ending, with a scrawl of plum-blossom on some of its unvarnished cedar-coloured panels. Voilcb tout ! We were escorted to these' rooms (being led by the hand) by two, not blushing nor even modest, damsels, with jet-black teeth ; while they try on our ' ulsters,' and examine our rugs, nearly laughing their ribs out all the while, we enjoy from our rooms the tender beauty of the view, across a wooded and lovely valley, far beneath us, and stretching away to low mountains in the distance. After a little rest, and the invariable httle cups of tea, we go through a grove of cryptomerias — a land of cypress — the largest trees we have ever seen, and as . far as we can remember from photographs, being very much hke the immense pines of California. Many of them are more than ten feet in diameter, and shoot fifty or sixty feet into the air before the first linibs leave them. From these hang gigantic wistarias, coihng through the air like enormous serpents, half as thick as one's body. Under these huge trees grow dark-leaved camellias and other evergreens; and we go, along the pretty winding paths until we come to, of course, a temple. Surrounding it, and almost sup- OUR HOTEL AND DINNER. 189 porting one anbtlier, they are so close together, are thousands of grey, stone lanterns five or six feet high, extending for a considerable distance from the temple down the different paths through the wood, their effect against the dark green camellias and other ever- greens being most weird and ghostlike. The hillside, on which is our little tea-house, is very liberally covered with large pine-trees and long dead grass, and here and there amongst it we see sacred deer, belonging to the temple, and quite tame. At sundown we repair to our little sanctuary, whence we look upon the last of the day, our spirits sinking with the sun, for we have before us the prospect of a cheer- less, comfortless night, the only thing to remind us of home, and taking away a Uttle from the feeling of isolation, being some pheasants crowing aU about us — not quite the same as our pheasants crow, but stiU quite near enough to it to proclaim at once their identity. Our black-teethed beauties now bring in tallow candles with hollow paper wicks, which want snuffing hadh) every two minutes, and a tin of water into which to put the snuffs. We now slide on two whole sides of the room, and await the cooking of some steaks we brought with us from Kioto. A table and what go for chairs have been procured somewhere, as well as paper napkins. Our own knives and forks, mustard, salt, and pepper, furnish the table. Our first dish is an uneatable, salt, and high-smelling fish, and after some cuttle-fish, which we both partake of (and I have no doubt lie when we say we like it — I candidly 14 1 90 SUNNY LANDS AND SSAS. admit I do, for one !), of course we have the usual little bowls of tea brought on, but we ' pass,' and drink our own brandy and water, which is good enough. We are attended to by one of the young women, who very much hkes our diet, and who helps herself to our dinner, depositing with the most innocent grace her leavings on our respective plates whUe we are still eating from them. All this time, and at regular intervals of two minutes, our dips are snuffed, making, of course, a most shocking smell. These candles considerately give us timely notice of their wanting snuffing by becoming dimmer and dimmer till at last they threaten to go out altogether, their Hght at the best of times being only equal to that of one of our wax vestas. After dinner a curio-dealer brings up from the town a large number of little ornaments (inlaid work in bronze) which used to embellish the sword-handles and scabbards of the Daimios, or pro- vincial princes, and all of which my friend buys for a few pounds. March 17, 1882. After the curio-dealer left last night, there was nothing to do excepting to go to bed and endeavour to escape the forlorn and cheerless situation by sleep. Our lowly beds were now brought in and laid upon the floor — ^beiag naught but thin straw mattresses, with thick , quilts to take the place of sheets and blankets. "We heard a great deal of tittering going on outside, and doubtless a large number of people were enjoying something very much ; but as we guessed we were the subject of their mirth, we did not feel further FAIR, BUT UNBIDDEN GUESTS! 19 1 interested, and being exceedingly tired, I fell almost immediately asleep, not moving once till morning. My friend told me that ladies and gentlemen of the country came constantly into our rooms during the night — he supposed from curiosity — and that he i fill A DAIMIO. was not able to sleep much in consequence. Early in the morning, after a wash in the open air, both at one small bowl, with the luxury of a paper towel apiece, and a light breakfast of rice, flavoured with about two pounds of steak, we inspect our 'horses,' now at their breakfast, consisting of about four 14—2 192 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. breakfast-cups of plain boiled rice, a small piece of fish, and some boiled vegetable looking like spinach. Our wonder is that it is only on this that they are going to pull us another thirty miles to Osaka ! Just now one of De Bosco's team had his heel rather badly cut in ' skylarking ' with his friends, and a conference is held between theiii as to whether he should start — a doubt which is soon settled in the affirmative, for he does start, and in the chorus of talking and laughing that ensues no doubt forgets his hurt. They are as ' fresh as paint,' and off we go, about 7.30, through pines of immense size, groves of camellia, giant camphor-wood, and other trees un- Imown to us. There are a few tame deer about the road ; the air is deliciously crisp and light, and the day is again most beautiful. We drive through one end of the town, and soon find ourselves in the open country again, and going along a high embankment, evidently having some- thing to do with irrigation. We continue along the same plain as yesterday, with the same blue hills and paddy-fields on either side of us, which here are two or three inches deep in water. We meet a good many Japanese iilong the road in jinrickishaws, some with Osaka-made umbrellas, after the pattern of one of our ' old ga;mps,' which make them feel immense swells ; but more have the large flat paper ones, which are far prettier, and not so absurdly out of place. On both sides neatness and order prevail in the fields, the patches adjoining one another and being marked out like a market garden. Growing here we chiefly A WONDERFUL CULTIVATION. 193 notice turnips, beans, and corn. The land is ploughed by oxen on the plains, and by men on the steeps of the hills, to the very last foot capable of cultivation. All the land belongs to the Crown, and unless the farmer 194 SUNNY LANDS AND SJpAS. cultivate it with the greatest care and attention, it is taken from him. We now pass through a little village, many shops being full of dried trout and salmon — the fish a-nd ' old-curiosity shops ' seeming to share the business between them. How long will these fellows go on without a stop ? They have now been running up and down hill and along the ' straight ' for an hour and three-quarters, without a single rest. Soon after this we get to another village, and at last stop at a tea-house (1 hour 50 minutes from the start). After a short rest, some sips of tea, and a little fun with the pretty girls, who seem to be always present in these houses, we are off again, and soon are winding amongst hiUs. Here some very long-tailed pheasants fly across the road in front of us. Tea is growing close up to the road, a bushy and compact little plant, about two feet high, and farther up the hills, and to their extreme tops, trees Hke the Scotch fir. By-the-bye, is it generally known that the tea-plant is a kind of camellia ? Our next stop is at 11.5 in another village, where we are to take our ' tiffin,' and where we get more unasked- for smiles from the young ladies, who show as much dehght in seeing us as if it were the end of all their earthly desires ! We have great fun with them, while amidst great laughter they help us to unpack, as well as to demolish our ' tiffin.' They seem to appreciate cold teal and tongue very much, even more than we like, for the supply is not unlimited, and we are very hungry ; but we have our revenge, for they don't like ' SWEET sixteen: I9S ' mustard ' much. It. is an uncommon event, nowa- days, to see the effects of a dose of this, administered for the first time in her life to an almond-eyed beauty of sixteen or seventeen. (Advice to travellers. — Don't try this experiment till you have finished your meal !) While we are at our lunch, some fishmongers come in with basketfuls of fish, slung at the ends of a springy pole (the way they carry so much both in Japan and China). The most odd-looking fish amongst them is a black lumpy fellow, with a deal of brilliant colour about his gills ; the other fish seem to be red (sea) bream, gurnards, grey mullet, squids, and enormous cockles. During the time we have been inspecting the fish, a crowd has collected round ns, and regard us with all the curiosity of dumb animals. If these people have changed from what they were centuries ago, what must they have been then ? This is an ever-recurring thought, as we pass through the villages, and notice the primitive natures and customs of the people. Directly we arrived at this tea-house, our men went to a well in the courtyard, and washed and ' groomed ' themselves just as if they had been horses, and only taking, by way of refreshment, a little tea. After cordial salutations, and many ' sionaras '* to the young ladies, we leave ; and after passing across a fine river in a ferry, and going through very similar scenery to what we have seen so much of to-day, we reach the outskirts of the important city of Osaka. We rub our eyes before we are able to believe * Farewells. igS SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. them, but it is nevertheless true — a native positively on an old ' bone-shaker ' bicycle ! the only one we have seen in the country. During these two days we have only seen one real horse, and it was one that should have .been instantly stuffed, for it took us some time before we recognised its species, on account of its having short hind-legs like a hyeena, and a long shaggy mane like that of a lion. In the villages we have come through, and occasionally in hand-carts along the roads, we have seen boxes with ' Devoe's brilliant oil for Japan ' printed on them in large letters ; this being the only evidence of a world beyond Japan. For the last hour we have been having a "strong wind against us, which, with a soft sandy road, makes it very hard for our men, one of whom has now to cast off a worn-out shoe, and per- form the rest of the journey with one of his feet naked. Notwithstanding all these drawbacks, they deposit us at our hotel at 1.30 p.m., just six hours after leaving Nara, apparently Httle fatigued with their exertions. Osaka is the second city in Japan, and boasts a population of 270,000. . There are more of . those hetes noires to the weary traveller in the shape of temples to be seen. As long ago as when we were in India we laid down a rule that we would only see one temple in each city to which we went. Sometimes we relaxed this rule, and then we found that we had generally wasted the entire day in seeing either them or tombs ! As soon as either of the words ' temple ' or ' tomb ' is now uttered, we immediately feel so done up and tired that we both fall down in the road, as if OSAKA— THE MINT AND CASTLE. 197 shot, and instantly go to sleep. But notwitlistanding this we consented, at the most earnest wish of our guide, ' to do ' one in Osaka, and we walked through it at the rate of ' five miles an hour easy,' without the aid of Mr. Walkenphast. After a moment's rest we go to the Mint, which used to be at Hohgkoilg,' and which was bought from us by the Japanese. It is an immense estabhshment, and seems capable of coining all the money the world wants, and certainly more than poor Httle Japan will ever require. Little boy soldiers with Snider rifles guarded its gates, and after presenting passports and visiting-cards we were ad- mitted. English officials at first used to be here, but the Japanese having learned from them all that they could teach, they now do without them. Leaving here, we go to the old castle with its deep moats and noble walls, constructed of stones of immense size, some being perfectly colossal — great blocks of granite ten yards long by five yards high ! On our way we see Uttle knots of girls, either toddling along with their peculiar shuffling gait, or else stand- ing about the streets, the sun-bom blood glowing in their inviting cheeks, and who fascinate us with their smiles. They are dressed in their quaintly pretty way, with short waists and big sashes tied behind, as big as a small pillow, their invariably black haiir brushed on to the top of the head and stiffened with gum, and with two long pins as long as skewers stuck through. The men are busy, and being neither pic- turesque nor pleasing hke the women, are not noticed. Osaka (at the head of a bay in the Inland Sea) is 1 98 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. ^called the Venice of Japan, on account of its many canals and bridges, it being built on no fewer than thirteen rivers. "We had to present passports and visiting-cards again before we could get into the castle, where there are more boy soldiers. They are quite lilliputian. We dined at a Japanese hotel, carried on with great A YOUNG BLOOD AT HOME. pretensions in the Enghsh style. As Enghsh is the Court language here, the menu was of course in Enghsh, but the cooking was very much Japanese. Fancy being in any pairt of the world where England is everything, and where she is imitated even down to her cookery ! Young bloods of the town swagger in, and it was the funniest thing in the world to hear them order their dinner in Enghsh, raising their A DEGENERATING TASTE. 199 voices in order to let us hear 'Soupe, chickem, cotelets,' and so on. They then go round the room and admire a modem and disgusting French clock, and some Enghsh racing-prints hanging on the waUs, as well as the ugly English wall-paper. Fancy in this country, where Kioto and modem Satsuma ware (as beautiful as our cream Wedgwood) are both as cheap as dirt, they should take the trouble to get over from England our commonest, ugliest, and cheapest dinner-service, with a blue stripe round the edge ! It made one shudder. Even in the country, common and offensively red wooUen blankets have found their way, which, when cold, the men who are degraded enough to touch them throw over their shoulders. These have come, no doubt, from Manchester ; and similar things, redolent of lowest EngUsh taste, which one would be ashamed to let even a savage see, are ruining these artistic people at the most furious rate ! WeU, to return to our young roues. They sipped their ' Bass beer ' (their extravagance not running to wine), and handled their English knives and forks — though one must admit they went into their mouths indiscriminately — as if they had been accustomed to them from their infancy. And these are the young men who would probably feed with chop-sticks out of the common bowl at home, and be content to sit on the floor to do it. Human nature seems to be suh- stantially the same thing here as elsewhere ! We caught the 8 p.m. train baok to Hiogo and Kobe, reaching the ship at 9.30, astonished and SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. immensely pleased with all we had seen during our short trip into the interior of Japan. We heard that some big purchases had been made here by some of our pilgrims, lacquey-work cabinets and curios, representing a great deal of money, coming A YOUNG DANDY. on board, we fear but a poor equivalent for what was given for them. March 18, 1882. Mr. Hughes, the leading merchant of Hiogo, and to whom we were fortunate enough to have a letter of introduction, took us round the town and into some of the curio-shops where our Ceylon friends had been. Cabinets which he had been offered, before the Ceylon IMPRACTICABLE TRADESPEOPLE. 201 arrived, they now asked twice and three times the price for. Some Satsuma china De Bosco bought he was first asked 270 dollars for; but on his offering 150 and Mr. Hughes- telling the people we were leaving immediately in the Ceylon, the offer was reluctantly, and with a much-injured air, accepted. Mr. Hughes further told us it would take many weeks before they would recover their senses, and trade again as reasonable beings. After the Wanderer had been there, they were just the same, and a mere boy, the guide of a well-loiown and lavish Liverpool gentleman, was paid nearly a thousand dollars' commis- sion from the different shops at which his master had made his purchases. CHAPTER XIV. fHE LAND OF THE RISING STJN. — YOKOHAMA. First View of Fusi Yama. — Letter Eace round the World. — Tokio (Yeddo).— Temple of Shiba.— Along the ' Tokaido ' to Kamakura. — Dai Butzu. — Immortality for 2s. 8d. — Along the Shore of the Pacific. — Enormous Crabs and Octopi. — Manner of expressing Pleasure and Esteem. — Opinions on Japanese Character. — Do Bosco's Confessions. — Japanese Toilet. — Nature versus Art. — The Revenue. — Evils of Western Civilization. — A National Religion ' Wanted !' — Criticisms on Art. — Its Past and Probable Future. S.S. Ceylon, Yokohama, March 20, 1882. 9 hr. 18 m. earlier than home time. We left K6h6 at 1 a.m. yesterday, and having had a fair wind, we have come along very weU, arriving to- day soon after noon. All yesterday was very rough, and the same person was again iU, all the day. This morning, however, was calm and beautiful, and we have had a glorious, but all too short a steam up the bay. The great isolated mountain of Fusi Yama (a magni- ficent extinct volcano of over 12,000 feet high) has been a most impressive sight for a long time, and for hours before any other land was visible, its snow-covered '% "■ ,"811 1 - I ! 1|!m 'VIE. 'r^MV"^ r ■■) III fir: h M 'i A LETTER-RACE HOME. 203 peak towered reMgent in the morning sun, above the pLled-up masses of morning mist wMch veiled its base. Excepting for the regularity of its lines it would have been thought a cloud by all who saw it now for the first time ; for it seemed to belong to the white and imsubstantial mist which, hke a wall, rose along the distance of the ocean. It is in the shape of a cone, perfectly regular, with a flat top ; and there being no high land near it, one can understand how deeply it must force itself into the native mind, and con- sequently into native art, thus becoming a great natural object of veneration and worship to aU. The harbour here is crowded with shipping of all sorts, from the grand ocean-going steamers across the Pacific to San Francisco, and those . going to England by the Suez Canal, down to junks and other iimumer- able native crafts and boats. From our ship, Yoko- hama, with the exception of being whiter and cleaner, looks hke any ordinary Enghsh port. A long line of white houses, hotels, and the club, extend along the shore-; and away on the left, on a hill called 'The Bluff ' (the only rising-ground near), are many pleasant- looking residences belonging to the Europeans. Last week we sent letters ' ma Brindisi ;' and these we are sending ' viA America,' in order to see which AvHl win in their great race home in opposite direc- tions round the world.* Yokohama is far more Europeanized than any other * These letters, oddly, were delivered in Loudon fhe same day, about five weeks afterwards ! the route through America being thus a week quicker than that through the East. 1.5 204 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. seaport town in Japan we have seen ; and the streets and people show strongly the effects of the European contact in having lost, in great measure, their interest- ing and charming quaintness. Life seems far more active here ; and the unrestful ways of our civiliza- tion and keen business habits have infected these careless, sleepy people beyond what one could have imagined possible. Friends here have most kindly procured us the run of the club during our stay ; and for . the next few nights we are to enjoy good English beds, a luxury which we have not known for nearly four months. Yokohama, March 21, 1882. Poets may sing of ' beds of roses,' but we wouldn't have changed ours of last night for them. It seemed a positive sin to go to sleep in them, for they were such a luxury while consciousness remained. Imagine, therefore, our self-denial in catching the eight o'clock train this morning for Tokio (formerly Yeddo), the capital of the empire, and only an hour's journey from Yokohama. On arriving there, jinrickishaws took us round the town, about one-eighth of which is occupied by rivers, canals, and the moat of the castle. We went through our one temple here — the Temple of Shiba — where we saw the tombs of many of the Tycoons, and much fine carving, as weU as gold lacquer-work : the same thing we have done fifty times before, and stale now, whether they are Tycoon's tombs or any other ' coon's ' tombs. It was a bitterly cold day, and having to take off our rOKIO. 205 boots before entering the temple, we got very chilled, and our feet like ice ; consequently we felt more tlian ever inclined to leave this and every other heathen temple alone and for ever. We went through the exhibition and different curio- shops, and saw the castle and its moat nearly covered with last year's lotus leaves, and flowers still on the water. It is this sacred flower out of which, accord- ing to the Buddhist cosmogony, blossomed the world. In the open water swam hundreds of wild-fowl, ap- parently quite tame, for no one molests them. It turned in the afternoon to heavy rain, so we were glad to get an early train back. By way of shelter from the rain our jinrickishaw men, who took us home, put on long bristling rush capes, giving them very much the appearance of porcupines, and on their heads large rain-proof ' mushroom ' hats. After a capital diimer at the club and a pleasant, cosy evening, we went to our more cosy couches, tired of a- cheerless and rainy day. Yokohama, March. 23, 1882. Yesterday was very stormy, with heavy rain, up- setting aU our arrangements for the day, and prevent- ing our leaving the club till the afternoon, when, the weather - clearing, we went to the Bluff, where we enjoyed the neither exciting nor novel treat of hear- ing our band play, being compensated, however, by meeting some dehghtful Yokohama friends. It turned out deliciously fine and warm, and the air was full of strange sounds which came from the innumerable 15—2 2o6 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. kites the people were flying, •wh.icli, besides being large and oblong in shape, made incessantly a great twanging noise, like a very loud Jew's harp. To-day we had a very interesting morning at the pottery and Cloisonnd manufactories. There, as every- where else, the workmen all sat at their work on the clean matted floor, with a pot of burning charcoal immediately under theix noses. I don't know whether it kills them, but I think it should do so, and some proof in support of this is, that they all seem very weakly and puny. The rest of this day we spent in making purchases, in studying the primitive manners of the people, and in the evening dining with English ladies — the greatest pleasure the world has to give to travellers in a far-off land, though not a little tinged with paia to those who, not being enabled to enjoy a "closer tie, have to content themselves with looking ' into happi- ness through another man's eyes.' March 24, 1882. At 8 a.m. this morning we went for a fifteen-miles drive from Yokohama to Kamakura, in order to see the Dai Butzu, the great bronze image of Buddha. We had a carriage and pair, and drove for nearly aU the way along the main road of Japan, called the ' Tokaido,' which was as soft, but not nearly so level, as a newly ploughed-up field — a road made of rich virgin soil, and with holes so deep in it that they ceased to be ruts, and became pits, and requiring a great deal of care to steer clear of them. A MOMENTARY INDISCRETION. 207 We stopped two or three times for tea on the road, and were subjected to the same (may I say ' pleasing ' ?) familiarities by the various young ladies, as we had experienced everywhere else. One stroked my beauti- fully clean-shaven chin, while the conscious Adonis chawtled and blushed again. The fair nymph, pointing to her shaven eyebrows, laughed at her ingenuity in having discovered that we had the same method of embellishing our faces. At tiffin, at Kartasi, we had the pleasure of being waited on by four other pretty damsels, whose only troubles were that they could not do enough for us. How they pohshed off our grub ! How the tongue, chicken, lobster, beef, and a whole loaf disappeared before their fond attentions ! They were so charming that I couldn't get my friend away from the place ; and I regret very much to have to state that his last act here was to invite the entire establishment to accompany him ; but on a reproving smile from me, he saw the momentary error into which he hM fallen, and immediately desisted. From here our journey was a very pretty one, lead- ing us between hills, pitched about as one sees them in Devonshire, but covered with pines and long bamboo-grass, six feet high. In the valleys, between the hills, were rich crops ; and from the ditches and hedgerows camellia-trees and bushes were growing in splendid profusion. Most of the roads about here are very pretty, being skirted with grand old pines, their weird branches meeting across the road. They are occasionally, but very rarely, to be seen growing in 2o8 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. the same fantastic way at home. They are very picturesque ; and their general ccJntour and anatomy must have entered deeply into the soul of the Japanese artists, for their shapes epitomize so much of their work. Dai Butzu, this splendidly modelled brazen image, though not quite so large as his confrere at Nara, is in finish and expression far superior. It sits upon its haunches out in the open country ; and was buUt by a great bronze-caster, at the desire of the Shogun Yoritomo, in the year 1252. The length of the face is eight and a half feet, the circumference of the thumb three and a half, while its whole height is fifty feet. A subscription is being raised for the purpose of building a temple over it ; but we refused to contribute because we hked the figure far -better as it is — in the open air and amongst trees in a beauti- fully wooded and peaceful vaUey. For one paltry Yen (about 2s. 8d.) we could have had our names in- scribed by the priests on long ' tallies,' and placed on a hoarding, the size of a house-side, to hang amongst those of hundreds of our feUow-men ; but though the temptation was great of so easily purchasing ' immor- tahty ' for our names, we were able to resist it. Near the figure were two great ugly idols — janitors — twelve feet high, which (Hke many others we have seen) were covered all over with httle pellets of white paper, which the natives have spat on them. The higher the wet pellet sticks on the idol, the luckier will be the man who makes the shot, and the longer lived. Though the rest of the body was covered with these A BULVS EYE! 209 DAI BUTZU. pellets, there were very few on the head. Our first shot, fired by my friend, was a 'bull,' landing and SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. sticking fast on his nether lip, to the grfeat astonish- ment of our guide, elevation and direction both being perfect. My first round was high to the right, going over his head ; the second shot, being only an outer, taking effect on his ' chest.' Leaving Dai Butzu, we went through Kamakura, the site of another ancient capital of Japan, which is near the sea. Here were half a dozen fine Buddhist temples in perfect condition, which we did %oi trouble. After leaving them, our road led us along the un- trodden shore of the vast Pacific. The surf here was very fine, huge oily rollers break- ing in great splendour and noise two hundred yards from the shore. The sea beyond was quite cahn, there being no wind. We noticed a great many wild fowl, just beyond the breakers, and on the sandy beach much sea-weed, apparently of the .same sorts that we find on our home shores ; there were also shells, but not worth picking up, as none were perfect. We wallced opposite to the island of Inoshima (a smaU pine and temple-covered island, a quarter of a mile away from the mainland), and watched the men in their queer- looking boats, fishing beyond the surf in the glassy ocean. We afterwards saw some of their catches, , amongst which were many red-fleshed fish, like small . porpoises, but finer and more delicate in form ; also coarse-scaled brown fish, hke bream in shape, but very much larger — as well as the homely mackerel. We had to hurry away, for it was getting late, and we were many miles from home. All about the villages and in the lanes wild camellias floiirished in a blaze COLOSSAL CRABS. of splendid red flo-wers. At Kamakura, where they were in the greatest numbers, the trees were often fifty feet high, and we saw little children gathering the blossoms in armfuls from the hedges, just as our children at home pick the may in spring. Later on in the year, the flowers Hterally carpet the soil in the greatest variety and splendour, for nature has lavished them upon this country more prodigally than upon any other on earth. While we were in Yokohama we worked hard to see some of the enormous crabs of which we had been given the most awe-inspiring accounts long before we got to Japan, but we were fated to be un- fortunate. Not even a skeleton of one was to be seen in Yokohama, though we could have seen one in the museum at Tokio, had we known of its existence, while we were there. The largest actually seen by our friend Mr. D , of Yokohama, measured over seven- teen feet from tip to tip of its claws. This is not a very large one for them, for we heard that they have been caught considerably over twenty feet from one ex- tremity to the' other; and story-books and legends make great capital out of their bloodthirstiness, as well as that of the octopus, which assumes gigantic size, and is said sometimes to pull down boatfuls of panic-stricken fishermen. Mr. D , a resident at Yokohama, who joined the Ceylon there, told us that he himself had seen an octopus which could with difficulty be got into a hogshead-barrel (I don't mean through the bung-hole, but when one end was knocked out). SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. One of the most curious of all tlie ways of these strange people is that of the men, who, when ad- dressed, always bow very low several times, and wash their hands vigorously with invisible soap, making all the time the most extraordinary noise with their mouths, by opening their lips wide apart, and drawing in their breath through their teeth. This is expressive of deep pleasure and esteem. The first time we heard these strange noises we were much alarmed, thinking the poor man was ill, and going to die almost im- mediately ; but afterwards it became so common, as well as ' catching,' that we not only found ourselves constantly imitating them, but also noticed many others of the pilgrims doing the same thing. One of the old residents here told us much about the inner character of the people, for whom he had (in common with all 'those who know them well) a far from exalted opinion. Naturally the ideas one receives during a short sojourn amongst them can be but the merest ' surface ' impressions ; and we are quite aware that a longer stay amongst them would undoubtedly make us alter our opinions in many respects. From our friends here we always hear the same story, viz., that their greatest sins are licentiousness and untruthfulness ; the latter is with them no sin, the former only after marriage. There is no word for ' virtue ' in their language. There is no romance, nor love, nor courtship, as we understand them ; the women are almost invariably so frail, and so obedient, that no winning is necessary. 'Tis enough for the swain to say, 'You shall be my wife;' and NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 213. like happy slaves they obey, much obliged for any notice and kindness. Of the wild throb of being wooed, or of the ecstatic glory of being won, they consequently know nothing; neither have the men ever experienced the rapture of the murmuriilg assent, told in tearful, broken accents by their loved ' ones (which De Bosco teUs me is so delightful). Both men and women have gentle and affectionate natures, and are very kind to animals, as well as to one another, but they have very little feeling. The suffering of another they can contemplate without emotion, like our philosophers at home; and no sight which would horrify us moves them at all. In manners every woman is a lady, and every man a gentleman. They are Hke children — they lie like them, too ; but every sin, like those committed by a child, seems to have a deal of innocence in it. They don't lie with the same amount of sin as our people do, for, lying being no sin with them, it seems innocent to do it. It becomes a way of expressing ideas ; and people talk and lie to one another like fiends, each knowing that the other is doing it. In business they do the same, and they are entirely without honour. It is Hke a game of chess — the same old moves on the board, which are well known to all — for lying is a national pastime in which all are expert. They are also without sincerity, and personal gain overrides everything. Shyness and shame are unknown in the land ; and though it ought constantly to be met with, no 'blush of maiden shame ' has ever yet been seen. There h^ng no shame, there is little secrecy of any sort. In hot weather 214 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. men and women go about the country unclothed, with the exception of a large straw hat on the head ; and girls powder and paint openly, sitting in the street with their powder, rouge and cosmetics, and de- corate themselves at a httle hand-glass of smallest dimensions, talking all the time to the passers-by. Their lips they dye a brilliant crimson, and too often powder, beyond all reason, their pretty chubby little cheeks, and make their eyebrows darker and more defined with a black and sticky-looking substance. The majority of the young women, however, neglect powder and such things, and then they are often very fascinating, for they have dainty, charming, and winning little ways. Their hands and feet are in- variably small, and their necks and shoulders generally beautifully modelled, so the eye often revels in rare delights. We are told on all sides that our most popular books on the country are most untrustworthy. Not only that of a celebrated naval constructor, but also that of a talented authoress who is said to have derived her ideas largely through missionary sources, and to be gifted with an eye which sees everything in glow- ing, prismatic hues, and with a mind which has the fatal gift of a great and euphonious power of ex- pression, too often riding triumphant over so petty a detail as CLCcuracy. The revenue of Japan amounts to only about £7,000,000, two-thirds being derived from the land, all of which belongs to the Government. The other taxes are less than two shilUngs per head of the A RELIGION WANTED. 215 entire population ! This poverty accounts for many shortcomings which do not affect the tourist, besides the bad roads we have so often travelled upon, and which must shock everyone's sensibilities considerably. A great deal is expended upon the army and navy, which might with more propriety be applied to remedy this and other failings ; but in this neglect they are only following in the steps of civilized Europe. Talking of their navy, we hear that though they have many creditable ships, the Chinese are far more powerful, and have gone ahead of them in the many other reforms which both countries have alike insti- tuted, but which have been effected by the Chinese, if not secretly, at all events without the same amount of 'fuss.' As a proof of the impetuosity with which the Japanese have swallowed Western civilization in its entirety, the Government, not long ago, appointed a commission to inquire, into and report upon its different creeds, with the view of their adoption of one as a ' State rehgion ' in the place of ' Buddhism,' which they have long tolerated only as a makeshift. What religion they will choose is as yet undecided, though they teU us in the boldest way that as ' Mercy is the mirror of the Creator,' they could not tolerate, even as a makeshift, ours, which, they say, amongst other tenets shocking to their senses, is so mahgnant in its cruelty as to consign all unbelievers in it to eternal punishment. In the meantime they are happy, and in some respects better than the average of other nations, without really believing in any religion at all. 2i6 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. The happy evidences everywhere met with of a deep and widespread art-instinct in the country have been to us one of the most pleasant incidents. of our visit. We cannot, however, restrain the ever-recurring thought, that the ' simple truth, miscalled simplicity,' ' of their art-impulses is fast becommg tainted by the impatient demand the world manifests for all it pro- duces, as well as that never-ceasing craving for novelty, which acts so detrimentally upon true art. The effects of this upon a simple people like the Japanese must be especially disastrous. The future is being darkly foreshadowed even now in the production of a large amount of trash, which is gratefully and reverently swallowed by the world ; work which lacks the Alpha and Omega of the best Japanese art, for it' is without that refinement of execution and finish, which patient loving toil and endless unfettered time alone can give. The finest examples we saw of their painting were those in the temples at Kioto, and though we are fat from asserting that they have not much in the country which is better, these seemed to us to have many qualities, from a decorative point of view, of the highest excellence. If they ever possessed grada- tions of light and shade, there were certainly none observable now; but for rich harmonies of fine colour, and intense luminosity, they would hang creditably with many of the pictures of the old masters, so many of which, too, have lost all the light and shade they once had, and now remain merely works of decoration. REMARKS ON JAPANESE ART. 217 Of the lighter pictorial work which we have seen in such abundance in all the towns, it may be said to be purely ' decorative/ and viewed from even a Japanese standpoint very ' conventional.' It is almost always 6f the same character, being generally very grotesque, and havinsf little in it that fails to excite a smile in the observer — a not very noble end of art ! Their compo- sition is quaint and fantastic, the only law, or even method, that they seem to follow, being that it should be so. One cannot help analyzing the reason of their pic- tures being so much liked ; for what is there to admire in them apart from the splendid harmony and tender- ness of colour (which is of a temper and quahty un- known to any other nation of the earth), a great facihty of execution, and a happy suggestive incom- pleteness which kindles and leads the imagination? Stripped of these great charms, what is there in their painting, or rather what is there not in it ? There cer- tainly is not correct drawing, except in aU those things which may be placed in the category of ' still life '; there certainly is not even the attempt to get nature's light and shade ! There is not any perspective, and .there is not correct composition, according to Euro- pean ideas, methods, or teaching. In their painting of the human figure there is invariably the most contented, sportive disregard both of truth of drawing and anatomy ; but in the place of these there is an exuberance of the most playful and grotesque action. Is it not this quality which is responsible for the high place they occupy in the world's estimation ? 2i8 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. For does not the human mind, in a sneaking, half- ashamed way, revel in quaintnesses, and abandon itself to the fascinations of that which is droll and strange ? Their lacquer and bronze-work, their inlaying in metal, their porcelain and other- work, is a constant source of delight, sometimes verging on distraction ; but the really finest of these are now very rarely met with in the shops, so keen and close has been the search for them. The effect of E,uropean tuition, or even their pre- sent close contact without the tuition, will in time, we believe, be to destroy the spirit and identity of the old art, for as the art of a nation is the expression of its people, so when the Japanese cease to be the simple race they now are, will their art lose its old features, and become an impure, bastard art, levelled down to the vulgarity of the common world, and the require- ments of commerce, the sole ethics of which are the imelevating ones of ' demand and supply.' CHAPTER XV. HABA-KIRl. Description of Hara-Kiri. — Account by an Eye-witness. ~ General Bemarks. As the most meagre notice of Japan would be incom- plete without a few words on perhaps the most re- markable of all customs upon earth, viz. Hara-Kiri, or the practice of suicide by disembowelling, we give the following abbreviated description of it, with its attending ceremonies, for which we are indebted to Mr. Mitford's excellent little work, entitled ' Tales of Old Japan.' His own somewhat minute account is taken from a rare Japanese manuscript. Hara-Kiri is of great antiquity, being first instituted as far back as the fourteenth century. It is a cere- mony accompanied with great formalities, adopted by the Samurai or military class, who, having committed some crime, which does not deprive them of the pri- vileges of their rank, either at the command of their superiors, or of their own free will, put themselves to death. The etiquette observed on these occasions is very strict and punctilious ; public censors, who must 16 220 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. be men who have distinguislaed themselves in the art of war, being appointed as witnesses, to see that every- thing is carried out according to rule. In old days this ceremony used to be performed in a temple or shrine, which in some cases was hired for the occasion ; but in modem times it generally takes place in the palace or garden of the Daimio, or terri- torial noble to whose charge the condemned man is entrusted, the former being used for the higher ranks — Daimios and other retainers of the Shogun — the latter for officers of lower rank. In modem times, too, it is the more usual practice to cut off the criminal's head as he is reaching forward to take the dirk which is offered him, without even attempting to disembowel himself, but formerly a man used actually to rip himself up, without any attendants or witnesses. Even now, if the criminal urgently requests to be allowed to disembowel himself, his wish may, according to circumstances, be granted ; but in that case great care is taken to lose no time in striking off the head after he has given himself the stab. There are three rules for the time of cutting off the head : the first, when the dirk is laid on the tray ; the second, when the victim looks at the left side of his belly before inserting the dirk ; the third is when he inserts it. It is thought very disgraceful for a Japanese noble- man to look upon death by Hara-Kiri as a pollution to his palace. For example, in the beginning of the eighteenth century seventeen of the retainers of a certain Daimio, having performed Hara-Kiri in the THE PLACE OF CEREMONY. garden of a palace in Yedo, the people of the palace called upon the priests to come and purify it. The lord of the palace hearing this, ordered the garden to be left as it was, thinking that no place could be polluted by the blood of a Samurai who had died by his own hand. This act was highly commended by the people. In all the necessary details, as regards the arrangement of the place of execution, the witnesses are consulted ; and it is considered a great breach of decorum if any of the retainers of the prince, to whose care the prisoner is consigned for execution, make any mis- takes in the proper rites to be observed. In modem times the place of Hara-Kiri is eighteen feet square, the condemned man being in the centre, in most cases facing the witnesses, who are seated twelve to eighteen feet from him. If the execution takes place in the palace, a white cotton cloth or quilt is laid down on the matting, covered over with two red rugs sewn together ; two white paper screens are also provided, behind which are concealed the dirk on a tray, a bucket for the head when cut of, an incense- burner, a pail of water, and a basin. If the execution has to be performed in the garden, the same arrange- ments are made; and a white curtain (white being used in Japan and China for mourning) is erected, enclosing a place of the requisite dimensions. If it takes place in the night-time, the necessary candles — one at each corner — are provided, excessive illumina- tion being indecorous. On a man being condemned by. the Government to 16—2 Sl/NNY LANDS AND SEAS. disembowel himself, the censors appointed to see that all necessary arrangements are carried out present themselves to the prince to whose pare the prisoner is entrusted ; and who, on receiving them, asks if he ought to attend in person, and whether the relatives wish to receive the remains of the condemned. They are then shown the preparations made by the prince ; and the prisoner is informed that all is ready. He changes his dress, and, accompanied by his ' seconds,' three in number — chief, assistant, and inferior — is escorted to the place of execution. After the chief censor has read the sentence, he immediately leaves the palace ; and the prisoner, having again changed his clothes, is presented by the assisting 'second' with a dirk (nine and a half inches long) on a tray"; and, on the victim leaning forward to take this, his head is struck off by the chief ' second.' The third, or inferior 'second,' then lifts the head by the top- knot, places it on some thick paper containing a bag of rice, bran, and ashes, laid on the pahn of his hand, and carries it to the censor for identification. If the head be bald, it is carried round on a stiletto, stuck through the left ear. When a common man is executed, he is bound with cords, and so made to -take his place ; but a Samurai wears his dress of ceremony, is presented with a dagger, and dies in the manner described above. After the. identification of the head, the prince is thanked for the trouble to which he has been put. Incense is brought out, the corpse hidden by a white screen, and the witnesses leave. DESCRIPTION BY AN E YE- WITNESS. 223 The sword used on these occasions should be that of the criminal ; from whom the second should ask it in some such terms as the following: 'As I am to have the honour of acting as your second, I would fain borrow your sword for the occasion. It may be some consolation to you to perish by your own sword, with which you are so familiar ;' or else one should be borrowed from his lord ; but in no case should the second use-his own. Mr. Mitford also describes an execution by Hara- Kiri, which he was sent officially to witness : ' The condemned man was Tald Zenzaburo, an officer of the Bizen, who gave the order to fire upon the foreign settlement at Hiogo, in the month of February, 1868. Up to that time no foreigner had witnessed such an execution, which was rather looked upon as a traveller's fable. ' The ceremony, which was ordered by the Mikado himself, took place at 10.30 at night in the Temple of Seifukugi, the headquarters of the Satsuma troops at Hiogo. A witness was sent from each of the foreign legations, making seven in aU. ' We were conducted to the temple by officers of the Princes of Satsuma and Choshiu. Although the ceremony was to be conducted in the most private manner, the casual remarks which we overheard in the streets, and from the crowd lining the principal entrance to the temple, showed that it was a matter of no httle interest to the public. 'The courtyard of the temple presented a most picturesque' sight. It was crowded with soldiers, 224 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. standing about in knots round large fires, which threw a dim flickering light over the heavy eaves and quaint gable-ends of the sacred building. We were shown into an inner room, where we were to wait until the preparation for the ceremony was completed. In the next room to us were the high Japanese officers. ' After a long interval, which seemed doubly long from the silence which prevailed, the provisional Governor of Hiogo came in, took down our names, and informed us that seven sheriffs, or witnesses, would attend on the part of the Japanese, two on behalf of the Mikado, two from each of the two infantry regiments at Hiogo, and a representative from the criminal's clan. We were then asked if we desired to put any questions to the prisoner, to which we rephed in the negative. ' A further delay then ensued, after which we were invited to follow the Japanese witnesses into the main haU of the temple, where the ceremony was to be performed. ' It was an imposing scene. A large hall, with a high roof, supported by dark pillars of wood. From the ceihng hung a profusion of those huge gilt lamps and ornaments peculiar to Buddhist temples. In front of the high altar, where the floor, covered with beautiful white mats, is raised some three or four inches from the ground, was laid a rug of scarlet felt. Tall candles, placed at regular intervals, gave out a dim mysterious light, just sufficient to let all the pro- ceedings be seen. The seven Japanese took their AN EXECUTION. 225 places on the left of tlie raised floor; the seven foreigners on the right. No other person was present. After an interval of a few minutes of anxious sus- pense, Taki Zenzabur6, a stalwart man, thirty-two years of age, with a noble air, walked into the hall, attired in his dress of ceremony, with the peculiar hempen-cloth wings which are worn on great oc- casions, accompanied by a Kaishalcu and three officers. ' The word Kaishalcu, it should be observed, is one to which our word executioner is no equivalent term. The office is that of a gentleman. In many cases it is performed by a kinsman or friend of the con- demned ; the relation between them being rather that of principal and second, than that of victim and executioner. In this instance the Kaishalcu was a pupil of Taki Zenzabur6, and was selected by the friends of the latter from among their own number for his skiU in swordsmanship. ' With the Kaishalcu on his left hand, Taki Zenza- bur6 advanced slowly towards the Japanese witnesses, and the two bowed before them ; then drawing near to the foreigners, they saluted us in the same way, perhaps with even more deference. In each case the salutation was ceremoniously returned. Slowly, and with great dignity, the condemned man mounted the raised floor, prostrated himself before the high altar twice, and seated himself in Japanese fashion* on the * That is, with his knees and toes touching the ground, and his body resting on his heels. In this position, which is one of respect, he remained until death. 226 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. felt carpet, witli his back to tlie -high altar, the Kaishahv, crouching on his left-hand &iA.q, 'One of the three attendant officers then came forward, bearing a stand of the kind used in temples for offerings, on which, wrapped in paper, lay the short sword or dirk of the Japanese, nine and a half inches in length, with a point and edge as sharp as a razor's. This he handed, prostrating himself, to the condemned man, who received it reverently, raising it to his head with both hands, and placed it in front of him. ' After another profound obeisance, Tald Zenzabur6, in a voice which betrayed just so much emotion and hesitation as might be expected from a man who is making a painful confession, but with no other sign of either in his face or manner, spoke as follows : ' " I, and I alone, unwarrantably gave the order to fire on the foreigners at Kobd, and again as they tried to escape. For this crime I disembowel myself; and I beg you, who are present, to do me the honour of witnessing the act." ' Bowing once more, the speaker allowed his upper garments to slip down to his girdle, remaining naked to the waist. Carefully, according to custom, he tucked his sleeves under his knees to prevent himself falling backwards ; for a noble Japanese should die falling forwards. Deliberately, with a steady hand, he took the dirk that lay before him ; he looked at it wistfully, almost affectionately. For a moment he seemed to collect his thoughts for the last time ; and then, stabbing himself deeply below the waist on the AN EXECUTION. 227 left-hand side, he drew the dirk slowly across to the right side, and, turning it in the wound, gave a slight cut upwards. ' During this sickeningly painful operation he never moved a muscle of his face. When he drew out the dirk, he leaned forward, and stretched out his neck. An expression of pain for the first time crossed his face, but he uttered no sound. At that moment the Kaishahu, who, still crouching by his side, had been keenly watching his every movement, sprang to his feet, poised his sword for a second in the air — theire was a flash, a heavy, ugly thud, a crashing fall — with one blow the head had been severed from the body. A dead silence followed, broken only by the hideous noise of the blood throbbing out of the inert heap before us, which but a moment before had been a brave and chivalrous man. ' It was horrible. The Kaishaku made a low bow, wiped his sword with a piece of paper, which he had ready for the purpose, and retired from the raised floor ; and the stained dirk was solemnly borne away, a bloody proof of the execution. ' The two representatives of the Mikado then left their places, and, crossing over to where the foreign witnesses sat, called us to witness that the sentence of death upon Taki Zenzaburo had been faithfully carried out. The ceremony being at an end, we left the temple.' There are many stories on record of extraordinary determination being displayed in the Hara-Kiri. One 228 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. of a young fellow, only twenty years old, who, not content with giving himself the one necessary cut, slashed himself thrice horizontally, and twice vertically. Then he stabbed himself in the throat, until the dirk protruded on the other side, with its sharp edge to the' front; setting his teeth in one supreme effort,, he drove the knife forward with both hands through his throat, and fell dead. In the year 1869 a motion was brought forward in the Japanese Parliament advocating the abolition of the practice of Hara-Kiri. Two hundred members out of a house of two hundred and nine voted against the motion, which was supported by only three speakers, six members not voting on either side. In this debate the Hara-Kiri was called ' the very shrine of the Japanese national spirit, and the embodiment in practice of devotion to principle ;' ' a great ornament to the empire ;' ' a pillar of the constitution ;' ' a valuable institution, tending to the honour of the nobles, and based on a compassionate feeling towards the official caste ;' ' a pillar of religion, and a spur to virtue.' It is a significant fact that the proposer of this motion, who on more than one occasion rendered himself conspicuous by his advocacy of "Western civili- zation, was murdered not long after this debate took place. The punctilious and ceremonious character of the Japanese people seems in some way to explain the existence of this extraordinarj- practice of Hara-Kiri; for among nations not possessing so high a code of honour it could not find a place. HEROIC DEVOTION. 229 Heroism, chivalry, and devotion, mwsi exist in a land where a certain prince being compelled to per- form Hara-Kiri upon himself, for cutting at another with his sword who had insulted him, forty-seven of his retainers, after years of patient waiting and watch- ing, in order to achieve their purpose without possi- bility of failure, attacked the house of the insulting nobleman and kiUed him, immediately afterwards per- forming Hara-Kiri on themselves, thus anticipating what they knew they would be ordered to do by the State, but perfectly satisfied in having avenged their dead lord. This is a piece of heroism and devotion hardly to be matched in the world ; and even now the Japanese pay these faithful servants almost divine honours. Although this happened at the beginning of the eighteenth century, as recently as 1868 a man, after praying before the tombs of the forty-seven, performed Hara-Kiri, considering it the most honourable place wherein to put an end to his existence. The practice certainly shows heroic disdain of death, considerable courage, and strict discipline to the customs of the country. For a man to execute himself for having done that which outraged his country's laws, shows, that whatever may have been his moral guilt or justification, he never meant to try and shirk the legal consequences of his act. This is almost ennobling guilt ! Would that our own male- factors could see it in the same light ; and by following the practice of these simple people, do unto themselves (in private) what they so generously did unto others ! CHAPTER XVI. , ON THE PACIFIC. — QUE VOYAGE TO THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. Good-bye to Japan. — A Sou-sou wester. — We lose an old Friend. — From East to "West.— Three Sundays in Nine Days ! — Por- tuguese Men-of-war. — Capture of Two Cape-hens, not ' Capons.' — Loss of the Screw of our Log.— Sandwich Islands visible. — Arrival at Honolulu. March 25, 1882. A BRIGHT soft and lovely morning this, our last one in the land of the Rising Sun. How it pains us to leave ! Our visit has been little but a fleeting glimpse of a sun- beam happiness, unknown to any other people as it is to these. The sun seems to shine brighter, while all nature is overflowing with a greater happiness, as the knowledge comes upon us that the last hour when we shall leave this land of lightest joy draws so near ! We are all under its seductive spell, and some are even deserting the ship, resistless against the conquering fascinations of the country 1 It pierces all to the heart to have to.Jeave so soon places so full of enchantment ; but our tour is little else than a yachting one — a skurry round the world, and seemingly nearly always on the sea. A SOU-SOU WESTER. We made our last purchases this morning, and at noon went on board with friends. There was the usual busy crowd to get rid of before we started for the other hemisphere. Natives with all sorts of things to sell ; from swords and daggers, to vases, cabinets, dwarf trees, etc. It was most amusing to see how cheap nmo everything was ; all going for an old song. At 2 p.m. the screw began to go round, and we were once more off; this time on the longest voyage of our tour. It was a lovely afternoon, with bright sun and a calm and glassy sea. Fusi Yama, fifty miles away, was more like the soft memory of a mountain than a reahty, with its coat of piiiky coloured snow softly standing out against th^ empyrean blue. 332 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. Twelve miles down the bay, a few visitors who had lunched on board left in a steam launch; and soon after, the last of Eastern lands faded away, and we headed for Honolulu (distant 3,500 miles) and the lands of the 'new world,' across the wastes of the great Pacific. Our first night at sea passed uneventfully in peace, but the morrow broke stormily, with a strong wind from the S.S.W., which increased to a gale with heavy sea before noon. At 4 p.m. our maintopsail (320 yards of canvas) split into shivers, most of it being blown right away. We were on deck at the time, with ' toshes ' on, watching the huge seas roar past us and then the gulfs voiding along in their wake ; veritable hills and valleys, as if water were imitating a rolling landscape. For a moment it looks as if some mountain sea which races to us would sweep us away like a chip. For a moment it peers high above our bulwarks, the next and it has died away under our counter, surging forward in a seething, hissing mass of white foam. We were obliged to hang on to the bulwarks, for she rolled most unmercifully. Soon after this we nearly had a boat carried away by a heavy sea. There was little dinner for anyone to-night, and none for me ; a big sea had washed it all out of the galley ; and ducks and fowls, cutlets, potatoes, beans, etc., mixed with sea water, soup, sauces and gravy, were swimming about the deck. Later on the sea became worse, and at midnight the gale reached its height. At 1 a.m. a heavy sea struck us, and with a wrench and a crash, which is felt throughout the ship, our useful little AFTER THE STORM. 233 Steam launcli is gone. All the afternoon and evening the water was pouring down the galley stairs amid- ships, and flooding the main deck. While I was well enough, I was baling out the water from my cabin, where it was three or four inches deep, with a dust-pan ! Though there was no danger, it was a miserable night. Seas smashing against us, making the whole ship shiver, shake and creak from stem to stem ; water washing about the deck below, and every- thing more or less wet in the cabins ; a great heat, for we were under hatches, rolling heavily, and broken crockery and glass shivering down at intervals through the ship ; a combination of heat and fearful noises (as well as a great discomfort) not to be likened to any- thing earthly. Luckily, this gale was in our favour, and we made a fair run in the twenty-four hours. The first-officer and a middy were nearly washed over- board ; the latter, it is said, owing his life entirely to the good tailoring of the captain's coat-tails. And so this is the dreamy, languid summer sea — the rest eternal of aU the oceans ! Bah ! would that the senti- mental drivellers had been here ! it would soon have taken all the gush out of them ! March 27th. Few got much sleep last night; this morning at day-break the gale had gone, leaving only a strong breeze and a fast-declining sea ; our little windows are not now so constantly as they were under the huge waves, which for the time plunged our cabins innearly total darkness. To-day on deck has been spent in clearing away the remnants of the old topsail and in getting up another in its place. * 234 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. Sunday, April 2nd, 1882. Since last Tuesday we have had bright sunny days, fine nights and light winds, and the vast wastes of this mighty ocean have been gently swelling and receding, as if reposing after its exertions of last Sunday. • Our days have been lazily spent in reading and loafing ; one day being enlivened by seeing whales spouting' in the distance. Yesterday we had numbers of the beautiful little ' bo's'n ' birds flying about the ship ; they are quite white, a Uttle larger than pigeons, and have for tails apparently only one long brilliant red' feather. Our old friends the Cape-hens are continually follow- ing us day and night ; they are very tame, and have the most easy, graceful, and elegant flight, circling round and round the ship without the least apparent effort. At 4 p.m. we were on the meridian (180° longitude), and about 1,400 miles from Honolulu, exactly twelve hours in front of home time ;- so we have entered the ' far west' and are now ' homeward bound.' Were we not to alter our calendar, we should, by the time we get back to England, be a whole day in advance. For example, your 1st of June would be our 2nd ; so we shall have had one more sunrise and sunset than you -, in fact, have lived a day longer. This is in con- sequence of our going east round the world and meet- ing the sun all the time. Were we to go west round the world, we should be racing the sun, and then have to erase a day. To-morrow is consequently a dies non not to be found in the calendar, and, out of respect to our pilgrim parson, we are making it another Sunday ! CAPTURE OF CAPE-HENS. 23S Of course the above explanation is only written for the dear children. The second April the 2nd— the second Sunday. We shall have had three Sundays in nine days ! This morning, like yesterday, is again perfect — a hot, lazy day, Avith a calm, bright sea. We are now eleven and a half hours behind your time, and every mile we travel diminishes the difference there is between us in time. We have been sailing for a long time through whole fleets of Portuguese men-of-war, which are a species of nautilus, as weU as through sea-weed, on which we dis- covered numerous little crabs. The former sail about the ocean, quite independently, with their own little sails, which consist of a membrane spread between two of their arms, their other six arms or legs being thrown out for rowing or steering purposes. A number of these curious little things were caught in a landing-net from one of the ports, giving us ample opportunity of examining them. April 4th, Tuesday. To-day the persistent efforts of our indefatigable sportsman were rewarded by two Cape-hens, which he caught with hooks baited with pieces of fat pork, attached to a long running line. Being hooked by the bill, they gave fair play in the air before they consented to come on deck, when for the first time we became aware of their immense size. One measured 7 feet 1 inch from tip to tip of its wings (which have four joints, including the shoulder-joint), the other measured 7 feet 6 inches. After examining 17 236 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. them they were let go on deck, every part of which they inspected with the most approving air, waddhng along, escorted by a large number of our pilgrims. Being unable to rise from the deck unassisted, on account of the great length of their wings, they were aided to roam again in their glorious freedom SANDWICH ISLANDS IN SIGHT. 237 over the. imused wastes of this boundless ocean, wliich. ■would seem to be their own domain ; for though we have been eleven days at sea, we have seen nothing but them and the ' bo's'n ' birds, besides a few fish. We have had our patent brass log, which is about a foot long and trails after us, measuring the number of miles we go, bitten off, it is supposed, by a shark. Its revolving at great rapidity in the water, as well as shining, would no doubt entice a shark as readily as an ordinary spoon-bait does our fish at home. The rope was severed where it was doubled, just above the brass swivel, and as if cut with a knife. The weather is again getting very warm, the tem- perature in the cabins being over 80°, and we have been having splendid moonlight nights, with a calm sea, and one or two fine sunsets — though the sad con- fession must be made with regard to the latter, that though we expected them to have unfolded to us many new splendours and glories in the glowing chmes through which we have passed, those we have seen have been undeniably very disappointing, and cer- tainly not so fine as those about our home coasts. The finest sunsets, as weU as the most unhomelike in their character, were those we saw in the Indian seas ; the others we could see anywhere. April 8th. Great excitement on board this morning, for the Sandwich Islands are in sight ! At 8 a.m. Oahu, pro- nounced 'Warhoo,' is distinctly visible about thirty miles off. How we have longed and longed for this 17—2 238 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. day, the realized dream of all our dreamings ! Eight away in the distance, there it is, looking just like any other land, not better, and not worse. We can't see that we are in another world yet ; we can't see that it is a bright blossom in a summer sea yet, nor even ' like a water-lily on the swelling ocean ' ! What we can see is the surf breaking pure and white on the far-off shore. We can see the straggling town, at the foot of high, green hills, with a beautiful blue sea between us ; and ' Diamond Head,' a dead crater, with its crest cut sharp off, rising on our right from the sea. Soon afterwards we can make out churches and missionary houses; and now a small boat makes its way to us, and soon after comes alongside, and a pilot, a veritable old Captain Cook, boards us and showers down an armful of welcome newspapers for hungry and devouring minds. In a short time we have passed the coral-reefs outside, and are in smooth water close to the town of Honolulu at 4 p.m. Our fifteen days' voyage is now over, during which we have not seen a sail, nor any sign of humanity since we left Japan, CHAPTER XVII. THE SANDWICH ISLANDS — HONOLULU — THE HAPPT HUNTING-GROUNDS OF THE MISSIONARY. Another Fraud exposed. — Great Disappointment. — Conflict- ing Opinions on the Islands. — West of Ireland vej-sus the Sandwich Islands. — The Town, its Streets and Houses. — The Vegetation. — Visit to a Whaler. — A Fruitless Search after Shells and Coral. — The View from the Punch Bowl.— The Pali.— Missionary Laws. — Present Native Population compared with that of former years. — Programme of Hono- lulu Amusements. — Dinner at the Hotel. — The Fruit, etc. — Our New Passengers. — The King's Band. ' Naught so good but strain'd from that fair usoj Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse : Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied.' _ Honolulu, April 12th, 1882. 10 hr. 32 min. behind our home time. Disappointment and disgust are weak words with which to express our feelings after having first 7'ead of and then having seen this overrated and- priest-ridden spot. After fifteen days at sea, one can easily under- stand that almost any land would be welcomed with delight, and any beauties that it might possess would be magnified — perhaps a little pardonably. But not- withstanding this, the cruel blow has been felt keenly by all on board. It is so plain a matter that all are of 240 SUNNY LANDS AND SEAS. tie same mind, and amongst the masses of ordinarily cultivated tourists it is equally impossible there could be any substantial diversity of opinion. I am not pre- pared to say that if one had read nothing of these islands one would have been so much disappointed ; but it seems that the further away the land is, the greater is the rubbish written about it, for there is the less fear of exposure. On board we hear none but very uncomplimentary remarks on what the most generally-read book-writers have said of Honolulu, > but especially of Miss Bird and her poetically-written but misleading book. As a description of what is as plain as the sun at noonday (out of England) it is unrecognisable, and, as an old resident in Honolulu told us, 'has had the effect of making everyone coming here extremely disappointed with everything excepting the glorious cHmate.'* To Miss Bird it may be a 'bright blossom in a summer sea,' or 'a dream world, pure and lovely, where balmy zephyrs stir the dreamy blue.' It may be all that has been written of it by the other writers, to them. It may be the most beautiful spot they have seen on earth — if so, one can understand their effusion. It seems to be a sad necessity that nearly all of the very few people who possess even a spark of poetry * This gentleman, ■who has resided here for thirteen years, writes to me as follows : ' I have only heard one opinion ex- pressed amongst the residents