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CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE WASON 
 
 CHINESE 
 COLLECTION 
 
Cornell University Library 
 
 DS 721.C61 
 
 The land of the pigtail :its peoole and 
 
 3 1924 023 560 539 
 

THE 
 
 LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
A Cornell University 
 9 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023560539 
 

 THE 
 
 Mm OF THE flGTAIL, 
 
 Jis '^toi^k nvcii Customs, 
 
 FROM A BOY'S POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 BENJAMIN CLARKE, 
 
 BDITOB OF "KIND WORDS," AUTHOB OP "POUWCEFORD HALL," ETC. ETC. 
 
 '§on'iian : 
 SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION, 
 
 66, OLD BAILET. 
 
LOlfDOlf : 
 FBini'i:s Br j, akb w. bidsb, 
 
 BABTHOLOUEW CLOSB. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 Charley makes his Bo-w • . . . . 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Hairdressdtg . . . . . 16 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Match-making . .32 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 An Empebob's Wedding 46 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 CoNCEBNiNa Eating .... . . 60 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CONOEBNING DeINKINO 76 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER Vir. 
 
 The Cup that Cheers, and the Drug thit Debases . 93 
 
 ( CHAPTER VIII. 
 Natural Productions 112 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Education . . 123 
 
 "CHAPTER X. 
 
 Amusements . . . . ... 144 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Treatment op Parents and Criminals . . . 163 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 Sundry Occupations 185 
 
THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 Chapter^ i. 
 
 charley makes his bow. 
 
 OW do you do, old fellow ? Got 
 back safe and sound, eh ? 
 I'm so glad to see you ! " - 
 
 " Yes, thanks ; safe enough, 
 thank God ! andas for sound, 
 have knocked about a bit ; 
 rigging somewhat worn, 
 stores exhausted, and cargo 
 all disposed of. Glad to 
 come home again to re-fit, I -can tell you ! " 
 
 This was Charley Cromwell's brief description of 
 himself and his circumstances, on his return from a 
 voyage to China. 
 
 His friend was Stephen Willis, a former schoolfellow, 
 
 B 
 
2 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 and now a clerk in a merchant's office in the native 
 town of both the lads. Charley's career had been one 
 of much interest to the Brillmouth boys, for he was the 
 first from his school, of the present generation, who had 
 gone to sea ; and, moreover, he was a favourite with 
 most of the pupils of Mr. Tozer's " Select Academy 
 for- Young Gentlemen." 
 
 It had been known for some time past that Charley 
 was expected home, and a daily application at Mr. 
 Cromwell's was at length rewarded with the intelligence 
 that he would arrive in a day or two. 
 
 Great expectations were raised concerning his return, 
 for though none of the boys expected -presents, they all 
 hoped he would bring home with him some curiosities 
 which they might inspect, and they were quite sure he 
 would have some fine long yarns to tell, to which they 
 might aU listen. 
 
 The fact was that Charley had always been noted for 
 his story-telliag, and latterly he had. secured Mr. Tozer's 
 approbation for the manner in which he wrote his themes. 
 Scraps from some, of his letters had been repeated to 
 the boys, but he had always apologized for his short 
 epistles, on, the ground that he was keeping a log, which 
 would more fully describe all he had seen. 
 
 Steve Willis was the first to see him : Charley was 
 standing at his father's, door, looking out for the man 
 who was bringing up some of his baggage. 
 
CHARLEY MAKES HIS BOW. 3 
 
 He inq[mred after Mr. Tozer and all his old school- 
 fellows, and was well pleased to hear that his arrival 
 was a subject of so much interest. 
 
 " They're dying to see you, some of 'em," said Steve ; 
 "when will it be convenient for your Celestial Majesty 
 to hold a levee ? It's holiday-time now, I , dare say 
 you may remember ; so name the time; and then 'twill 
 save a deal of bother teUing us your yarns altogether, 
 and not having to go over the ground ever so many 
 times." 
 
 "All right, I am agreeable. Not a bad idea! I might 
 enlighten the inhabitants of Brillmouth'on the subject 
 of this vast eastern land. Wha't do you say, now ? 
 ' Chats about China,' — no, that won't do. Old Barber 
 will be thinking I'm going in for pottery. ' Facts from 
 the Flowery Land,' — ^no, that's a little too flowery ; and, 
 besides, facts are always dry, or, at least, people who 
 deal most in facts are. I have it — ' The Land of the 
 Pigtail,' everybody will know what that means, and it 
 won't commit me to too much. They won't expect a 
 history of the empire from the remotest ages ; or an 
 inquiry- into the earliest forms of' civilization; or a 
 treatise on the Chinese language, with especial reference 
 to its bearing on Telagu ; in fact, they won't be led away 
 by a high-sounding title into expecting anything clever, 
 or original, or smart. Couldn't charge 'em anything, I 
 suppose, not if Jtwas stated that the profits would go 
 
4 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 towards bringing over a live Chinee to stand in Eobson's 
 shop, or at the door on market days to give put bills. 
 No, of course, that won't do, for Eobson would get the 
 ipuU, and they would say, let him pay for John Chinaraan 
 himself. I'm afraid the public would not respond 
 heartily enough, else I should be very happy to found a 
 Chinese scholarship at our school. Ah ! now that would 
 be a poser, for Mr. Tozer to conduct the exan^ination. 
 Welljthen-, on the whole I think I'll do the magnanimous, 
 and throw my meetings open to the town and neigh- 
 bouAood generally, and to Tozer's boys past and present 
 particularly." 
 
 The result of this long rigmarole was, that Charley 
 gave Steve carte-blanche to ask any of the boys to 
 spend the following evening at his father's house, to 
 hear something about the celestial empire. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Cromwell also asked some adult friends, so that 
 there was quite a party assembled to meet Charley, and 
 to listen to what he had to say. 
 
 The friends were supposed to have had tea, but as 
 they assembled they were handed a cup of hot tea 
 without milk or sugar, served in small'cups, as used by 
 the Chinese. 
 
 This was supposed to be a fit preparation for listening to 
 any remarks on those singular people, for, as Charley said, 
 it, would help them the better to understand their man- 
 ners and customs if they conformM to one of the latter. 
 
CHAELEY MAKES HIS BOW. 5 
 
 Meanwhile Charley had been getting the back 
 drawing-room ready ; but at present nothing was seen, 
 as a curtain was suspended at the folding- doors, in the- 
 middle of which was fastened a paper with a number of 
 Indian-ink marks, purporting to be Chinese characters, 
 which, on interrogation, Charley declared meant " The 
 temple of exalted wisdom and priceless information, 
 opened for the western larharians, hy Mandarin Char-Li- 
 Krwthr-well" 
 
 When the curtain was drawn aside the back drawing- 
 room appeared fitted up with the ' curiosities which 
 Charley had brought home, and which need not here be 
 enumerated. On a table near which he stood, and on 
 the walls behind the audience, were rice-paper diagrams 
 by native artists, some of which are reproduced in these- 
 pages. But the object of grea,test curiosity and interest, 
 was a large tea-chest on the table, on which were 
 inscribed in large English capitals,- " TU DOCES." 
 
 Charley gave the audience plenty of time to surmise 
 what this meant, as he drew from the chest several 
 articles qf Chinese workmanship, and the manuscript 
 from which he was going to read. 
 
 Various were the remarks paade as to the meaning of 
 the inscription. 
 
 " You may be sure it's some of Charley's foolery," 
 said one ; " I believe he means that the chest is a sort 
 of medicine bottle on a large scale, and that the direction 
 
o 
 
 6 THE LAND OP THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 is to take 'two doses.'" This solution found favour 
 with some ; but others decided it was a Latin motto, 
 and therp were several quite able to translate it into 
 English. Mr. Tozer was appealed to, and most readily 
 gave%is opinion. "There can be no doubt," said he, 
 " that as it stands it means ' Thou teachest ; ' and as I 
 never heard of any one taking liberties with classic 
 literature, or degpading the noble language to any 
 boyish jokes^, I must translate it literally, and then 
 inquire what application it can have on the present 
 occasion." 
 
 'Whilst Mr. Tozer was clearing his throat, or rather 
 taking some little time to consider what tp say next, 
 Mr. Cromwell suggested that , Charley had intended a 
 special compliment to his master, whom he expected, as 
 though he would take this way of indicating how much 
 the worthy schoolmaster taught his pupils generally, 
 and him in particular. This , solution was flattering to 
 Mr. Tozer, but it was not considered altogether satis- 
 factory ; whilst Charley's friends who knew him best 
 declared it was far too mild an explanation. 
 
 But however various were the surmises of the 
 audience, all of them were agreed in their anxiety to 
 know what the mysterious words meant. 
 
 "I will then explain," said Charley': "this box," 
 pointing to the one that bore the two Latin words, " may 
 be said to represent the land of China to us, as it is from 
 
CHAKLEY MAKES HIS BOW. 7 
 
 its natural production — tea, that we first tecame 
 acquainted witli it. It may in a sense, therefor^, be 
 said to tmch us a good deal of valuable information. 
 This explanation I offer to the more intellectual and sober- 
 minded portion of my hearers; to the yoimger ones I 
 would merely say that the Latin phrase is to be translated 
 simply, and applied naturally to the article on which 
 it is inscribed, ' tu doces,' — thou tea chest." 
 
 Cries qf " too bad ! — horrid [ — shameful ! " &c., met 
 this announcement, but they were drowned in the 
 laughter which the boys raised, not only at the joke 
 itself, but also on account of the beautiful way in which 
 their \rery clever master was " caught napping." 
 
 This little incident was well received by. the boys, for 
 the further reason that it gave them some assurance 
 that the lecture, or whatever Charley chose to call it, 
 would not be very dry. It may be taken also as an 
 assurance to our readers that Charley will try to in- 
 terest them, and will not overload them with facts and 
 figures. 
 
 This incident helped to put Charley at his ease with 
 his hearers, perhaps it may help the readers to accord 
 a kindly welcome' and a patienfperusal to what'he has 
 to say. 
 
 Bowing to his audience, Charley thus began: — 
 
 " My worthy father ! whose liberal ' stumping u"f ' — 
 I beg pardon, I mean, whose liberal supplies— procured 
 
8 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 the outfit, which. I need not enumerate, as I am sure 
 I should make the mouths of some of Mr. Tozer's boys 
 water, who might not be satisfied until they had bothered 
 their parents to, furnish them with the like. My dear 
 mother ! whose loving care and generous thoughtfulness 
 sent me to sea with as complete a rig as ever a youngster 
 took on board ship. 
 
 " My respected schoolmaster ! whose careful training 
 and judicious caning prepared my mind to receive in- 
 struction, and taught me to keep my eyes open. My 
 old schoolfellows and bosom friends ! though I have 
 not printed your initials there in Indian ink and gun- 
 powder, — I must ask the kind forbearance of all of you 
 whilst I, in rather a rough-and-ready fashion, try and 
 give you some idea of a country and a people about 
 which, p^rhaps, you don't know as much as I do. I am 
 sure it will be quite a pleasing sensation to tell Mr. 
 Tozer anything he does not know ; and as for the boys, 
 I'm sure they're fearfully ignorant about this subject, 
 that is, if Ihey are not wiser than I was before I went 
 to China. 
 
 " Just look at the geographies : why, they knock off 
 this land and its hundreds of millions of people as if 
 they were not worth knowing anything about. They 
 give you a string of Chinese towns, with some attempt 
 at tileir population ; but not a word to interest you, nor 
 to make you wish to know more. I heard something when 
 
CHARLEY MAKES HIS BOW. , 9 
 
 I was at school about a great wg,!! of China, and for some 
 time I was under the delusion that it was some gigantic 
 bit of pottery-j I knew the men wore pigtails, and 
 heard once of a man who had his tied so tight he could 
 not wink; I was told the feet of the women turned 
 up more than their noses; and of course I knew 
 that tea came from Chiaa. But there my knowledge 
 elided. 
 
 " I was fortunate enough to have for a captain a man 
 who was every inch a sailor, and one whose mind was 
 not altogether absorbed in his' professional duties. . He 
 had a famous library in his cabin, to which we all had 
 access, and he was full of information about all the 
 places and peoples we came across. As he saw I was 
 interested in China, he often used to walk up and down 
 the deck with me, and tell me much that he knew. For 
 many things that I may say, I am indebted to him ; 
 and if the boys think sometimes I am coming it rather 
 strong, or talking a little grand, let them remember that 
 I may be speaking somewhat as the captain spoke, and 
 sometimes using as near as possible his words, which I 
 put down in my log, as soon after they were spoken as 
 possible. - 
 
 "China is the very oldest civUized nation on the face 
 of the earth — older even than Egjrpt. 
 
 " It is almost incredible to think that, whilst we are 
 reading the books of Moses, there was a people even 
 
10 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 more advanced than the Egyptians in the arts of civi- 
 lized life. 
 
 •' Then the Chinese are so impassive in character, and 
 so little disposed to change, that they have remained 
 pretty much the same for centuries. If the Chinese 
 nation had been included in any part of the Bible, I 
 dare say we should now find some manners and customs 
 existing as they then did. 
 
 " They are a wonderful people, too, when we consider 
 that they have been anisolated nation, and have learned 
 but little from other countries. Esteeming every other 
 nation as barbarian, they have never had any desire 
 to profit by the inventions and discoveries of others ; so 
 that whilst they are now far behind many countries, 
 they were far in advance of them once, and that, too, 
 through their own native intelligence and skill. China 
 made for herself paper and gunpowder, when our fore- 
 fathers were half savages. She invented printing long 
 before England ever dreamed of the art ; she made a 
 mariner's compass, and steere'd her ships thereby, with 
 needles pointing to the south, before England — now the 
 mistress of the seias — ever sent one of her sons to sea, 
 or owned a craft more seaworthy than a washing-tub. 
 
 " The Chinese possessed^ a considerable knowledge of 
 
 • astronomy, and took their Ski Hi observations when the 
 
 inhabitants of this island knew nothing about heavenly 
 
 bodies, and precious little about their own. The Chinese 
 
CHAKLEY MAKES HIS BOW. 11 
 
 worked skilfully with tools when our ancestors were 
 only able to wield their instruments of war, or the 
 rudest implements of husbandry. The Chinaman was 
 an "artist, and knew the use of brush and colour, when 
 the Celt or the Saxon never dreamed of representing 
 his^ ideas except in rude speech, or ruder actions. 
 
 " However far ahead we may be at the present day, 
 we must see that the Chinese have some claim to our 
 respect; and even now we, with aU our advancement 
 and with all our advantages and superiority, may yet 
 learn something from the ' Land of the PigtaQ.' 
 
 " I shaE not ba very happy, perhaps, in drawing the 
 lessons to be learned ; but I am serious when I say 
 there are such lessons to be learned, and that whilst the 
 effect on my own mind of all that I have seen and heard 
 of China is to make me more than ever grateful that I 
 am an Englishman — ah ! well, getting on that way, let 
 me say — I have stiU learned many things which we 
 should all of us be the better for considering. I am 
 afraid John Bull travels with a determination not to see 
 anything "that contrasts- favourably with something els^e 
 at home : like his cousin Jonathan, he tMnksthat every- 
 thing at home ' whips creation.' 
 
 " It is quite a proverb that most Englishmen take too 
 much baggage with them ; but whatever they , may 
 leave behind,- they generally take a pretty big notion 
 that they won't see anything worth their copying. They 
 
12 tHE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 are ready with their praise sometimes ; oftener with 
 their patronage — ' Eerily very creditable for . those 
 fellows/ — but they seldom see anything really worthy 
 of their imitation, or of their taking to heart. I know 
 quite well that the Chinaman has this feeling, too, in 
 even a larger share : he thinks all travellers barbarians, 
 and from the fact that he remains so unchanged after 
 contact with other nations, shows that he sees but little 
 to imitate in them. But we condemn this feeling in 
 them ; is there not something like it in refusing to take 
 a lesson, or learn a lesson, or dis^cover a truth, wherever 
 we may find one ? 
 
 " An apple is an apple, and we' schoolboys used to 
 judge of its quality, and care but little where it came 
 from. 
 
 " A young chawbacon might offer it, or one of our 
 companions not over clean or tidy in his personal 
 arrangements, or it might be by the road-side, or in a 
 ditch; but not one of us would refuse it on that 
 account. A diamond is a diamond, and is valuable as 
 such, however poorly it may be set. If we are offered 
 it we take the jewel, and if we care not for the setting, 
 we discard that, and get the stone re-set. A good 
 thought, a clever idea, an example worth following, a 
 lesson worth^ learning, is valuable, apart from its 
 surroundings. 
 
 " You will think this rather tall talk for one like me ; 
 
CHARLEY MAKES HIS BOW. I'd 
 
 but for the sake of my dear old conxpanions, and their 
 companions whom I don't know, I do hope they won't 
 grow up with that pig-headed notion that there is 
 nothing worth learning out of England. 
 
 " I may be awkward in showing what is worth learur 
 ing from the Chinese ; but our mutual friend, Mr. Tozer, 
 wiU, I am sure, draw the lesson for us, and bring in the 
 moral at the right place. I am not much of a hand at 
 that sort of thing, and I do not care for those who are 
 always tagging on a lesson to everything. 
 
 " Now it is in Mr. Tozer's line to make everything in- 
 structive. I well remember how he made quite little 
 scientific lectu,res out of our kite-flying, or top-spin- - 
 ning ; and 1 hope, he will so far help us that there may 
 be something solid imparted by our thus meeting to- 
 gether. If, when Gus Green or Fred Dangerfield goes 
 home, he is able to tell his parents anything he has 
 learned, they will think, perhaps, it may be worth while 
 to send himuhere again. 
 
 " I do not intend to interfere with our good 
 master's pupils in their study of geography. They 
 must not suppose because they have heard me, that they 
 need learn nothing more about China in their school 
 books. The fact is, I am going to talk about what you 
 don't find in these useful books ; and when you are 
 more interested in the people you will be more likely 
 to remember what you read about the country. 
 
14 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 "I am not going to say so much about China as 
 about the Chinese. It is more interesting to talk of 
 people than of \places ; you can describe them better, and 
 you can-forin some definite ideas about them. 
 
 "Then, representations of people are more natural 
 and correct than those of places. I shall hope to intro- 
 duce to you various characters drawn by Chinese artists, 
 which will be faithful in their details, aild which will 
 give you correct impressions of some of the inhabitants 
 of this wonderful land. 
 
 "As to the extent of the land-r-say roughly it is 
 twelve hundred miles long, and as many broad ; or 
 more than three times the length of England, and six 
 times as broad. Its population is about three hundred 
 and seventy millions, or about one-third of the entire 
 human race, so that they have some claim to our 
 notice. 
 
 " So much for geographical figures ; now for some of 
 the representative characters. 
 
 "I don't know what order to introduce them in. 
 Boys are not much given to methodical arrangement, 
 and on board ship is not the place to pick it up. We 
 begin life by cramming all our belongings into our 
 trousers pockets, where school requisites, material for 
 games, treasures, and eatables are well assorted. If we 
 want our slate pencil, we must first draw out yards of 
 kite-string, marbles, buttons, knuckle-bones, goodies, or 
 
CHAELEY MAKES HIS BOW. 15 
 
 half-consumed apples, before we come to what we 
 want. 
 
 " So to-night I have no particular order to follow : 
 my reiriarks will be "at random; and, as when making 
 purchases, you must take them as they come. I fear 
 Mr. Tozer will be horrified at the want of what he may 
 call 'logidal sequence;' but I can only plead that I 
 was never logical, and that I never met a Chinaman 
 who was ; still, I'll promise not to make a mumble- 
 jumble of it. I will stick to one thing at a time, and 
 not mix up tea and pigtails, so that you might not 
 know what you were swallowing. 
 
 " Now as I have called this little effort 'The Land 
 of the Pigtail,' I cannot do better than begin with 
 that interesting article ; especially, too, as we are going 
 to speak about the Chinese, we may as well begin with 
 their heads ; for with that perversity and contradiction 
 which distinguish the celestials, their tails come out of 
 their -heads." 
 
? 
 
 HAPTER II, 
 
 AIR fashionably cul;, and 
 brushed by machinery" 
 is a notice you' would 
 never see in China, for 
 the 'simple reason that 
 hair is not, cut at all, but 
 shaven. 
 
 "The whole head is 
 shaven, with the excep- 
 tion of a small patch on 
 the crown, which is allowed to _grow as long as it will. 
 It is braided into a cue, and the ends are made fast with 
 sHk. 
 
 " It often happens th^t the natural cue is not long 
 enough to suit the taste of the wearer ; he then has it 
 lengthened by other hair being added, tiU, in some 
 cases, the pigtail alniost touches the ground. I must 
 
HAIRDRESSING. 17 
 
 Le careful what I say on this matter. I was going 
 to enlarge on the foolish, and, to put it ' mildly, 
 anything but nice idea of wearing other person's hair 
 besides one's own ; but whilst I have been away I 
 find that this barbarous custom has extended to 
 other nations, so that what John Chinaman has 
 been doing for two hundred years our ladies have 
 taken to. 
 
 " I was particularly struck, soon after my arrival, in 
 noticing a friend-of mine — who, when I left, was getting 
 thin as to the hair, — displaying a huge quantity that 
 that I was certain could never have belonged to her. 
 I made a remark, disposed somewhat to beg pardon 
 for daring to suppose it possible ; but I was soon set 
 at ease by being assured that everybody wore false 
 hair. Said I to myself, wouldn't the Chinese laugh 
 to find the English at last adopting one of their 
 customs ? 
 
 " I was glad to find, on inquiry, that if our ladies 
 copy the Chinese in this respect, they do not obtain 
 their false hair in the same manner. 
 
 " There are men called ' Collectors of Eefuse Hair,' 
 who go about buying or begging the combings of the 
 women's hair. The hair of the women is very long 
 and very coarse, something like a pony's tail ; and as 
 the comb goes through the tangled mass a good deal 
 comes away with it. 
 
 c 
 
18 THE LAND 0¥ THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 " This is saved until there is sufficient to sell, when 
 the collector buys it, and sells it to the barber, who 
 makes pigtails with it. What do you think of that 
 for an idea, my friends ? 
 
 " Talk of wearing a little lock of your sweetheart's 
 hair in a trumpery little locket that is kept shut up ; 
 what is that to wearing your sweetheart's hair at the 
 end of your own, and thus making the pigtail an 
 emblem of your heart's true affection, so closely 
 entwined ? 
 
 " Sweet idea, is it not 1 But unfortunately it 
 won't do in China, as they do not have any such 
 weaknesses as courting and love-making, as we shall 
 
 see. 
 
 " The men are not the only ones that wear false 
 hair, for the women fasten on an ornament called the 
 ' butterfly's wing,' which is supposed to be the natural 
 growth of the wearer. 
 
 " When our ladies stick butterflies on their heads, 
 and wear huge chignons, they may be reminded, as 
 we used to be by Dr. Watts, when disposed to think 
 our clothes smart, that the caterpillar and silkworm 
 were rigged out in gay clothing long before. 
 
 "WeU, if the custom itself is an undesirable one, 
 there is this, at least, about it, it is a thrifty one ; 
 and that is a lesson we English have to learn pretty 
 extensively, I think. 
 
HAIRDKESSING, 19 
 
 "I see you are all nodding assent: fathers and 
 mothers are always reproving their children for being 
 wasteful: Mr. Tozer used always to be 'blowing us 
 up' — I beg pardon, I mean gently expostulating 
 with us, on the time and opportunities we lost ; and 
 I know servants are shocking. 
 
 " Ah ! but a good deal of this comes back on those 
 who have gone before us : there can be no doubt 
 about it, we do not make the most of what we have- 
 JSTow the Chinese turn everything to account; they 
 waste nothing. 
 
 " In this matter of refuse hair, how different our 
 practice! our ladies, I am told, make up their 
 combings into little hair pills, and burn them ab the 
 candle, or else throw them away. To be sure, there 
 is no collector to come round for them; the old 
 clothes man would not thank you for them ; they 
 would not be much in the way of the hare and rabbit- 
 skin man ; and so the dustman, perhaps, gets them 
 with other rubbish. 
 
 "The trade of the barber is a very important one, 
 for no one shaves himself, as it would be an operation 
 at once difficult and dangerous. In Canton there are 
 something like seven or eight thousand barbers. Their 
 services are much in request, and it takes but little to 
 set up the stock-in-trade. 
 
 "A razor costs but twopence, and the strop is 
 
20 
 
 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 made of a strip of stout calico. In the south of 
 China the barbers carry their shop with them, and 
 operate in the streets, or in private houses; but in 
 the north they open a little shop, though even there 
 they frequently attend to their customers outside the 
 door. 
 
 " A Chinese gentleman, say every three days, requires 
 the services of the barber, who softens the hair in water. 
 
 THE BARBER. 
 
 and then with the razor, but without any lather, 
 shaves the whole of the top of the head, except the 
 crown, left for the pigtail. 
 
 "If this be all the operation, a payment of three 
 cash, or about one farthing, satisfies the barber; but 
 frequently the cue requires to be replaited, or ha-s 
 
HAIRDEESSING. 21 
 
 to be interwoven with fresh silk, and then more cash 
 are expended. Schoolboys are treated once a week to 
 a shave, and to them there is affixed no pigtail, the 
 short hair on their crowns indicating their youth. 
 
 " When relatives die, the head remains unshaven 
 for a period determined by the closeness of the 
 relationship. Thirteen months' absence from the 
 barber is the period when a parent dies, but long 
 before that time the head presents such a frightful 
 appearance, that other means are resorted to to keep 
 down the stubble. 
 
 "You will observe, worthy sires, who go to some 
 expense over your shaving creams ; and you younger 
 ones, who make a prodigious use of the shaving-brush, 
 that the heads of the Chinese are cleanly shaved 
 without the use of soap. 
 
 "It has just struck me whether the story of the 
 she-bear was a Chinese one. You remember that 
 the great she-bear, walking up the street, looked into 
 the window. 'What! no soap,' said the bear, and 
 she died.. It may have been that the idea of her 
 grizzly beard being shaved without soap was too much 
 for her, and she succumbed. 
 
 " The women, I should say, are their own artists, for 
 they are not shaved. 
 
 "Now the curious part about the pigtail is, that 
 it is not an original custom at all. It was introduced 
 
22 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 from Tartary by the first emperor of tliat country, 
 who seized the throne in 1644, and who imposed this 
 custom of Manchuria, his native country, as a badge of 
 submission. 
 
 " The Chinese had been accustomed to wear long hair 
 over the whole head, and to arrange it in a tuft, or coil. 
 At first, of course, the new style was very distasteful, 
 but gradually it became generally adopted, and n9w it 
 is quite gloried in. 
 
 " The leaders of the rebellion in China make this a.' 
 feature of their opposition, and their followers allow 
 their hair to grow all over the head. They say the pig- 
 tail is a badge of servitude ; and so it is, but it is 
 difficult for those even less indisposed to change than the 
 Chinese to throw^off badges and habits of long standing. 
 
 " I find that most boys are now given to forming 
 collections of one sort or another. Some go in for 
 stamps, and can tell you what it would cost to send a 
 letter from Patagonia to Kamschatka, and what sort of 
 stamp yoa would have to put on ! Others .collect crests, 
 and can tell you what are the arms of everybody, and 
 when and why your particular family added a pepper- 
 castor to their quarterings. Others again, go slightly 
 mad about seals, and spend all their pocket-money in 
 sealing-wax. But allow me to suggest to you an idea 
 new to English boys, and introduce a new collection 
 which perhaps will not find much favour with them. 
 
HAIRDEESSING. 23 
 
 " There is a class of persons in China whose business 
 it is to collect scraps of printed paper, either printed or 
 written on : not to sell to be made into paper again ; 
 not as part of a rag-bone and bottle business, where 
 most money is given for left-off horse-hair, biit out of 
 consideration for what is on the paper. 
 
 " Now, you must know that the Chinese are a most 
 reverent nation. I am hot aware if phrenology is at 
 all studied in China : perhaps not, for their round 
 . shaven heads do not seem to me to be raised up into 
 bumps, or to be depressed into holes. But if their 
 heads are subject to phrenological development — excuse 
 that big phrase, I couldn't help it — I should expect to 
 find the bump of veneration on every Chinaman's head 
 of such a size as to siiggest that he had just had a 
 violent crack from some instrument. 
 
 "Their veneration extends to literature: they say 
 that that is the grand distinction between animals and 
 men. The former may be taught many things, and so, 
 possess something very like reason; but they cannot 
 commit their thoughts to paper. Even the learned 
 pigs, or other highly educated animals for exhibition, 
 are obliged to resort to some bodily sign to convey the 
 information required of them; they must nod their 
 heads, or scrape with their paws, or wag their tails — 
 they cannot write. 
 
 " Then, again, the Chinese have a great reverence for 
 
24 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 those who have committed their thoughts to paper. 
 Chinese characters are called ' the eyes of the sage ;' 
 and there is a proverb, ' If one protects or respects the 
 eyes of the sages, it is just the same as protecting his 
 own eyes from becoming blind.' Those who are dis- 
 respectful towards lettered paper are likened unto blind 
 buffaloes, and will probably be born blind when they 
 come into the world next time. The sin of treating 
 lettered paper with contempt is not only punished on 
 those guilty of it, but the punishment extends to their 
 posterity. 
 
 , " The conduct of the Englishman in this matter quite 
 astonishes the Chinaman, and is the strongest proof 
 given of his barbarism. ' What respect can you have 
 for literature ? ' John Chinaman might say, ' They call 
 you John Bull : I shall call you John blind buffalo. 
 How can you dare to trample on, or wipe up dirt with, 
 or wrap up , parcels with, or light your cigar with, a 
 piece of paper that may have on it the name of your 
 Supreme Being ? ' " 
 
 " It is a fact, for I know Missionaries assert it, that 
 this habit of ours does more to prejudice us in the 
 minds of the Chinese than any other. And they think 
 that neither our Bible nor any other books of ours can 
 be worth much when our countrymen generally pay so 
 little respect to lettered paper. 
 
 " In some towns ' Lettered Paper Societies ' exist. 
 
HAIRDEESSING. 
 
 25 
 
 whose duty is to employ men to collect all fragments 
 of lettered paper. In other places the work is under- 
 taken by those in charge of the principal temples. 
 Waste paper baskets are issued to the inhabitants, or 
 stuck about in different parts of the town, in which are 
 deposited all kinds of waste paper, in fact, a sort of 
 literary dust-bin. 
 
 " The collector goes about from street to street, shout- 
 
 THE COLLECTOR OP PAPEK SCRAPS. 
 
 ing, as loud as his impassive nature will allow, ' King 
 sin sze tsze,' which means, not that the man has a bad 
 cold and began to say something, but was prevented by 
 sneezing, but ' Eevere and spare the printed paper.' 
 
 " In our picture a student has heard the cry, and has 
 come to the door of his house with his basket to hand 
 the contents of it to the collector. 
 
26 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 " When the man's basket is full, he will take it to 
 one of the furnaces erected by the Lettered Paper 
 Societies, or to the temple to which he is attached, and 
 will there burn the paper to ashes. 
 
 " By-and-by, the ashes, which have been carefully 
 kept in earthen vessels, are brought out when a large 
 quantity has been collected, and are carried in proces- 
 sion, attended by the members of the society in their 
 best clothes. The procession is headed by a band, and 
 goes through the town until it comes to the river — 
 where there is one. The ashes are then thrown into 
 the stream, and are floated away into the ocean : but 
 in some cases, so particular are they, that the ashes are 
 placed in a boat and taken some miles to the sea, and 
 there thrown in, for fear that, in any way, these sacred 
 fragments should come into contact with any pollution. 
 " To encourage this reverence, tracts and books are 
 written, promising various kinds of rewards to those 
 who engage in the good work. 
 
 "Here are one or two of the regulations : 
 " ' He who goes about and collects, washes, and burns, lettered paper 
 has 5,000 merits, adds twelve years to his life, wiU become honoured 
 and wealthy, and his children and grandchildren wiU be virtuous and 
 filial. 
 
 " ' He who forbids another to wipe anything dirty with lettered paper 
 has fifteen merits, and will become prosperous and intelligent. 
 
 " ' He who uses letteredpaper to Mndle a fire has ten demerits, and he 
 wiU have itching sores. 
 
 " ' He who in anger throws down on the ground any lettered paper 
 has five demerits, and he will lose his intelligence.' " 
 
HAIKDEESSING. 27 
 
 " It is quite distressing to think what would happen 
 to some of you boys if you were subject to these regu- 
 lations. 
 
 " The number of your demerits would be beyond the 
 power of calculation of the most intelligent Cocker 
 amongst you. You would be raving mad in no time ; 
 you would be covered with the most irritating sores 
 imaginable ; you would be as blind as bats in a week ; 
 your children would be shockingly rude to you, and as 
 for your grandchildren, I shudder to think of the extent 
 to which their unfilial conduct would go. 
 
 "Ah! it is all very well to laugh at the Chinese in 
 this respect, but I am sure Mr. Tozer will agree with 
 me that we have something to learn from it. 
 
 " I once heard of a man who stole a gate from a field, 
 by the road-side, and was detected with it in his 
 possession. When accused of the offence, he pleaded 
 that he only took it away for a joke : whereupon the 
 judge, or magistrate, inquired how far the man was 
 found from the field to which the gate belonged. 
 
 " ' About two miles,' replied the prisoner. 
 
 "'Ah! just so,' said the judg©: 'you must be 
 punished : that was carrying the joke too far.' 
 
 " So with this reverence of the Chinese : it may be 
 carrying it too far ; but there is something in it. 
 
 " I need not, especially as it is holiday-time, and in 
 presence of your master, say anything about dogs'-ears. 
 
28 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 and torn-pages, and wrenched-off covers, and so on : I 
 would rather just drop a liint in whicli we shall agree, 
 as we are none of us implicated in that, as to using 
 good books for wrapping up articles in shops. I must 
 say, if I were an author, I would much rather have my 
 writrags handed over to the collector than that they 
 should ever come to wrap up halfpenny candles, or to 
 inclose sweetstuff. 
 
 " As to the use of parts of the Scriptures for any 
 such purpose, why, young as I am, I would not deal at 
 any shop where such irreverence and contempt were 
 shown. A man who would thus treat the written word 
 might as readily disregard the message it contained ; 
 and if he cared nothing for Him whose book it was, he 
 might be quite as indifferent to the ' abomination ' 
 which ' a false weight ' is declared by it to be. 
 
 " Having spoken of the pig-tail, which distinguishes 
 the Chinese at one extremity, let me say a few. words 
 about a custom peculiar to them which concerns the 
 other extremity — I mean the compressed feet of the 
 woman. 
 
 "To illustrate this part the accompanying picture 
 of 
 
 THE COBBLER 
 
 is introduced. But here he is at work on a man's shoe, 
 engaged in a manner somewhat European. 
 
 "There are various kinds of shoe? worn by men. 
 
HAIEDRESSING. 29 
 
 The cheapest is the straw sandal, worn by ladies, which 
 merely covers the sole of the foot, and is fastened by a 
 band of straw. The better classes have shoes made of 
 silk, satin, velvet, for the tops and sides, and with several 
 layers of felt for the soles. 
 
 THE COBBLER. 
 
 " Except for shoes worn at the rainy season of the 
 year, leather is not worn at all. Children's shoes are 
 made of brown or purple calico, bound with red, with 
 layers of coarse cloth sewn together for the soles. 
 
 " So far so good ; not much to find fault with here : 
 the men's shoes are cheap and are adapted to the 
 climate. How strange, that it is when we approach 
 
30 THE LAND 01" THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 articles for ladies wear that we come upon ugliness and 
 absurdity. 
 
 "The fashion of compressed feet is the one great 
 mark of gentility in China ; and families pride them- 
 selves on the smallness of their women's feet rather 
 than on the greatness of their possessions. 
 
 " The custom, like other absurd ones nearer home, is 
 lost in obscurity. Some say that an infamous empress 
 named Tak-ki, who was born with club-feet, prevailed 
 upon her husband to make a law that the ladies of the 
 court should make their feet like hers : and we know 
 that whatever is done at courts is only too slavishly, 
 and gladly imitated by others. 
 
 " But whether the custom originated in this way or 
 not, it is certain that the appearance of a Chinese lady's 
 feet resembles a club-foot, and is considered very beau- 
 tiful : it is called a golden lily, but why or wherefore is 
 more than I can say. 
 
 " The feet of girls are compressed when about five or 
 six years old. The four smaller toes are fastened down 
 imder the ball of the foot by a strong bandage ; and it 
 requires two or three years before the proper shape is 
 attained. The child walks on the knuckle joints of the 
 toes, until the toes -become part of the foot sole. Then 
 the sole is curved like a bow, the great toe and heel 
 being brought close together, so that the small foot is 
 but a toe and heel. The foot is placed in a short, nar- 
 
HAIRDEESSING. 31 
 
 row shoe, tapering to a point ; and often a block of wood 
 is inserted at the heel, so that the body seems to stand 
 on tiptoe ; and thus the appearance of greater height is 
 gained. 
 
 " The heel extends beyond the heel of the shoe, so 
 that a foot four or five inches long will only have a shoe 
 of three or four inches. I am told that the feet of some 
 women will only measure three inches and a half. 
 
 "Well, what have they got after all this incon- 
 venience and pain ? They cannot walk properly : they 
 cannot carry any weight at all : they are useless and 
 ungainly : hut they are in tlie fashion ! Oh ! that's it : 
 and what is not that worth ? Since I have been away I 
 am sorry to see that our ladies have been playing the 
 fool with their feet; thrusting them into ridiculous 
 boots with high and narrow heels ; and thus throwing 
 their bodies forward, and making a graceful walk and 
 carriage, simply impossible. 
 
 " Of course, in China those who go to work do not 
 conform to this practice, but allow their feet to grow as 
 nature intended they should ; but these are poor igno- 
 rant creatures, who know no better : it is left for the 
 better educated classes in this country, and in China, to 
 improve on Natvire." 
 
Chapter hi. 
 match-makin g. 
 
 ATCH-MAKDsra, marriage, and 
 matrimony, are subjects of 
 which a young man might 
 well iight shy; but no account 
 of China would be complete 
 without some reference to 
 these things, and I am sure 
 the lady portion of my au- 
 dience deserves to have its 
 feelings considered. Still I 
 should have put off the subject till a later period. I 
 was going to try and throw my remarks into something 
 like proper order, but that celestial youngster — I beg 
 his Majesty's pardon, the Emperor of China — has been 
 and gone and done it, as we say in this country. So 
 many have spoken to me about the Emperor's marriage, 
 
MATCH-MAKING. 33 
 
 and have asked me so many questions about it, that I 
 must make this special marriage the occasion of a word 
 or two on this subject in general. 
 
 " I may anticipate any objections on the part of any 
 worthy parents present, that I ought not to fill young 
 people's heads with any silly notions about matrimony, 
 by assuring them that they need not be a bit afraid of 
 their sons and daughters having their mouths made to 
 water by anything I shall say. On the contrary, this 
 institution presents itself to us in such unpleasant 
 aspects, that our first feeling is one of thankfulness 
 that we are not Chinese. 
 
 "It is the most dismal, matter-of-fact, tame, slow, 
 mild, unromantic affair possible, getting married in 
 China. It is not half such a jolly time as getting 
 breeched, or wearing our first long dress, or having a 
 parcel sent to us at school, or a Christmas party, or a 
 picnic, or having a jolly old uncle come to see one, or 
 lots of other things that may happen to us. 
 
 " There is no 'falling in love and telling no one of it ; 
 and trying to meet the young lady at all sorts of odd 
 times ; and being invited to a party where she is ; and 
 making little presents, and tender eyes, and gentle pres- 
 sures — of the hand, nothing further, of course ; and 
 getting awfully fond of the young lady's brothers, and 
 trying to make one's self appear to the family in as 
 favourable a light as possible. There is no Valentine's 
 
 D 
 
34 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 Day, or love-letter writing, or making of presents, or of 
 
 appointments ; no — 
 
 ' Meet me in the lane 
 When the clock strikes nine.* 
 
 There is no bewildering time of engagement, when life 
 is as a summer day ; no ode to the moon, or your lover's 
 eyelashes ; no language-of-flowers business, or pumping 
 up of sentiment generally ; and after marriage there is 
 no long holiday, or honeymoon, no billing and cooing, 
 and turtle-dove life for no end of a time. 
 
 " As I said before, the whole business is dreary and 
 matter-of-fact ; there is no sentiment, no affection, no bliss. 
 
 " Think of it, young ladies, and tell me then if you 
 care to hear any more of a people who can be so horrid. 
 Think of it, young men — boys are out of the question, 
 — and tell me if you can be interested in such a mild 
 set of people. 
 
 " Ah ! but then this young Emperor has got married ; 
 and people are talking about him, and you ' want to 
 know, you know.' 
 
 ■ " It is not even necessary for young people to know 
 each other before they become engaged, or even to see 
 one another. It may be, that in two families that are 
 acquainted there is a young couple of marriageable 
 age ; but it often happens that the young man and 
 young woman are quite unknown to one another. 
 
 " In any case they are not allowed to decide, or even to 
 
MATCH-MAKING. 35 
 
 arrange for themselves. The services of a professional 
 match-maker are always employed. 
 
 " These are women whose business it is to arrange 
 matches between young people. 
 
 " These women belong to a class that was degraded 
 some four centuries ago for revolt; the men are not 
 allowed to follow the ordinary trades, but are shut up 
 to being porters, or pedlars, or actors ; and the women 
 pursue the occupation of match-making. 
 
 " Of course you see the Chinese are thus subject to a 
 tax on matches, and our Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 will be pleased to know that his celebrated motto holds 
 good here, ' Ex luce lucellum,' and that there is profit 
 from a light occupation. 
 
 " These women find out that in a certain street there is 
 a youth 'old enough to marry, or else the friends of the 
 friends of the young man consult them, and request 
 them to supply a bride for him. They then find out a 
 young woman, to whose parents they take a card from 
 the parents of the young man, bearing on it the ancestral 
 name, with the hour, day, month, and year of birth of 
 the candidates of matrimony. The parents of the girl 
 then consult a fortune-teller, and if his opinion is 
 favourable they return a card with similar particulars 
 concerning the young woman. The parents of the 
 young man then consult a fortune-teller, and if his re-. 
 * As in tke initial letter at tlie head of this chapter. 
 
86 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 port is satisfactory the engagement is accepted. To 
 ratify it a paste-board card is exchanged between them, 
 covered with red paper ; the one for the youth bearing 
 on it a figure of a gilt dragon, whilst that of the maiden 
 has a similar likeness of a phoenix. 
 
 " Now the betrothal is binding and legal, and may not 
 be broken, except for grave reasons. It is only fair to 
 say that engagements are very seldom broken ; much 
 less frequently than with us; but then, on the other 
 hand, there is not much credit in keeping an engage- 
 ment one has had no part in making, nor in not wishing 
 to break one when it is a matter of perfect indifference 
 to whom one is engaged. 
 
 ' " When the cards are sent to the girl's family, a present 
 is sent for her of a pair of silver or gold wristlets ; and 
 for her family, various articles of food, as pigs' feet, a 
 pair of fowls, two fish, &c. When they send back to 
 the family to which the boy belongs the engagement 
 card, they send, as a present, some artificial gilt flowers, 
 vermicelli, and bread cakes. 
 
 " Two large threads of red silk and four needles are 
 also exchanged ; and I have no doubt this is an impor- 
 tant part of the transaction. There is some meaning 
 in it, for the Chinese use symbols for everything — now 
 then. Master Charles, I know what you said — yes, and 
 cymbals, too, when marriages take place ; but don't be in 
 a hurry to get to the wedding- — the Chinese never are. 
 
MATCH-MAKING. 
 
 37 
 
 "There is an old story about tlie red thread, but I won't 
 trouble you or myself either with it ; I dare say it means 
 tying the young people together, or something oi that 
 
 ■WEDDING SEETIOE. 
 
 sort. As to the needle, it may serve to suggest that a 
 threaded needle is appropriated, or to be used, and that 
 neither of the young people need keep the eye open for 
 anybody else — but I have not the authority of Confu- 
 cius for this explanation. 
 
 " The next step in the process appears to us a little 
 more sensible ; and I am sure the boys present wiU wish 
 that our own custom were more after the same fashion. 
 
38 
 
 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 " When our young people are engaged, they usually 
 think of making presents to one another. Adolphus, 
 perhaps, buys a gold locket, and has his photograph 
 taken, and inserted inside ; and Clementina, perhaps. 
 
 AVEDDING FEAST. 
 
 has some pleasant surprise for her intended, on his birth- 
 day, in the shape of a green silk necktie with yellow 
 spots. Or, perhaps, the gentleman presents the lady 
 with an engaged ring, and, she in return, purchases a 
 scarf pin, or some other token of affection. But in these 
 cases no one but themselves are at all interested ; the 
 
MATCH-MAKING. 39 
 
 young gentleman does not SQek to propitiate the younger 
 branches of his intended's family; they are not in a 
 state of excitement when they are told he is coming to 
 spend the evening. He has eyes only for his loved one, 
 and presents also ; and the young couple generally 
 make themselves so stupid that they are left to them- 
 selves pretty much to consume the time by spoons-ful. 
 But in China it is different. When the lucky day has 
 been iixed upon, after consulting the fortune-teller, the 
 young man presents the material for the bridal dress, 
 and the wedding cakes to the bride's family. The 
 number of these ' cakes of ceremony ' varies from 
 several score to several hundreds. 'They are round, 
 and about an inch thick, weighing generally about one 
 pound and ten or twelve ounces each, and measure 
 nearly a foot in diameter. They are made out of wheat 
 flour, and contain in the middle some sugar, lard, and 
 small pieces of fat pork, mixed together in a kind of 
 batter, and then cooked ! they are, in fact, a sort of 
 mince pies. There is also sent a sum of money, of 
 greater or less amount, according to previous agree- 
 ment; a quantity of red cloth, or sillc usually not 
 less than five kinds for the use of the bride; five 
 kinds of dried fruits, several kinds of small cakes, 
 a cock and a hen, a gander and a goose. The top 
 one of the various stacks of these wedding-cakes, as 
 they are carried through the streets, has several 
 
40 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 small doll-like figures, made out of wheat flour, each 
 a tew inches high, and fastened upon slips of bam- 
 boo, stuck into it. The famUy of the girl, on receiv- 
 ing these wedding-cakes, proceed to distribute them 
 among the relatives and intimate friends. The small 
 cakes are also distributed in a similar manner. The 
 money sent is generally spent in outfitting the bride.' 
 
 " I am indebted for these particulars to a work on 
 ' Social I;ife of the Chinese,' by Eev.. Justus Doolittle, 
 fourteen years member of the Fuhchau mission of the 
 American board; a work contaiuing a vast amount of 
 interesting details of Chinese life, but unfortunately it 
 is now out of print. 
 
 " I once heard rather a good story about^a German 
 wedding. In some parts it is customary for the guests 
 to bring a jar of wine, and throw the contents into a 
 large cask on arrival. 
 
 " It was the wedding-day of a German Jew, and a 
 number of guests arrived, each with a jar, the contents 
 of which were duly thrown into the cask. When the 
 father of the bridegroom came to draw off the wine, 
 he was surprised to find nothing but water. The fact 
 was, that each guest had imagined that every other 
 would bring wine, and that one jar of water would not 
 be detected. But as they were all Jews, and all sharp 
 ones, they all thought the same ; and so all were found 
 out. 
 
MATCH-MAKING. 41 
 
 "The parents of the bride do not accept all the 
 presents, but only some of them, retaining the male of 
 each animal ; they also, in their turn, make presents, 
 consisting of a pair of red candles, one with a dragon, 
 and the other with a phcenix painted on it, a pair of 
 large pewter candlesticks, two packages of white Chinese 
 vermicelli, a pair of satin boots, a red official cap, and 
 material for a kind of dress-coat, and a large quantity 
 of artificial flowers, made out of velvet, or of pith- 
 paper, generally known as " rice-paper. " 
 
 " The part most interesting to my hearers is, that these 
 joUy cakes are divided amongst the relatives, in such 
 sensible slices as to make the little morsels of wedding- 
 cake doled out in this country quite contemptible. 
 
 "A few days before the wedding the family of the 
 bridegroom makes another present of various articles 
 to the family of the bride ; and some days later the 
 match-maker takes from the family of the bride a red 
 card stating the quantity of furniture which will form 
 her dowry, and when it may be expected to arrive. 
 The furniture is not removed in huge vans, so as to 
 'require no packing,' but is made the subject of a 
 procession; and of course, the more imposing the 
 quantity and quality of furniture the better pleased are 
 the parties concerned. 
 
 " On the day before the wedding, the bride has a 
 gathering of her friends, when she has her hair done 
 
42 THE LAND OJ? THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 up in the style of married women, and tries on her 
 ■wedding garment, to see that everything is in order for 
 the morrow ; and also that her friends may admire her. 
 She then lights incense before the ancestral tablets, and 
 kneels down before and worships her parents, grand- 
 parents, and uncles and aunts, if any are there. 
 
 " The sedan-chair, or wedding carriage, is sent to her 
 house on the same afternoon, attended by a band of 
 music, and men carrying torches, lanterns, and lighted 
 candles, and a large umbrella. The chair is always red; 
 the men who carry it and the musicians have caps with 
 red tassels, for this is the bridal colour. The band are 
 provided with lodgings, to be ready for the wadding. 
 
 " The bride rises early, and having breakfasted, she is 
 adorned for the bridal, the match-maker being in 
 attendance to direct matters. 
 
 " The bride's dress consists of scarlet and embroidered 
 work, a head-dress of gilt tinsel with long threads of 
 pearl beads falling from it over her face. Bells are 
 attached to her — not helles, for her bridesmaids are all 
 married women ; and the little feet — the chief form of 
 beauty — are clad in rich scarlet satin shoes. The face 
 is covered with a white cosmetic, so that she cannot 
 blush, as all well-behaved English brides are supposed, 
 to do ; the lips and centres of the cheek are stained 
 with henna, which gives a redness to these features. 
 
 " Similar costume is used at the bridals of the poor. 
 
MATCH-MAKING. 43 
 
 but with them it is hired for the day. When the time 
 arrives for her to take her seat in the sedan — ascertained 
 by the fortune-teller — the bride's parents throw over 
 her a thick veil, so as to conceal her features. 
 
 "The procession is headed by two men with large 
 lighted lanterns; having the fa,mily name of the bride- 
 groom cut out of red paper, and pasted upon them. 
 Then come two men with similar lanterns, bearing the 
 family name of the bride. Then comes a man with a 
 large red umbrella, then the band, and then the sedan- 
 chair, accompanied by friends of the bride, and also by 
 friends of the bridegroom who have been despatched 
 for that purpose. 
 
 " The house of the groom is ornamented outside with 
 lanterns of various sizes and devices j and when the 
 sedan arrives there, fire-crackers are let off, and the 
 band does its best, or worst. The sedan is carried into 
 the reception-room, and then her female friends help 
 her to alight, when she is conducted to her chamber, 
 where the groom is standing beside the bed. They 
 both seat themselves, and in so doing each tries to sit 
 upon some portion of the dress of the other, as an 
 omen of subjection. After sitting thus in silence for a 
 minute or two, the groom leaves the room and waits the 
 bride's arrival into the reception-room, where together 
 they kneel before a table and worship the five chief 
 objects of veneration, heaven, earth, emperor, parent, and 
 
44 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 teacher. The bride and bridegroom go through a great 
 deal of bowing and kneeling ; they are then presented 
 by female attendants with wine, and with some of the 
 fruits provided, and then the ceremony is over. The 
 bride then retires to her apartment, where she is dressed 
 for dinner, and having got rid of her outer garments 
 and the thick veil, the husband enters, and certainly for 
 the first time that day, and often for the first time in 
 life, sees the features of the wife of his bosom. 
 
 " He must have wonderful faith in the match-maker ! 
 you would think ; he must have worked himself up into 
 a state of great excitement, wondering what she would 
 be like ! you would suppose. But nothing of the kind-; 
 it has been a matter of indifference to him throughout. 
 He did not want to marry, but he was old enough, and 
 so he had to. He had never fallen in love, and so he 
 did not care who his wife was to be. 
 
 " Well, that style of doing things would not suit our 
 notions ; and with marriages begun in that way we can- 
 not expect very much fondness and affection. 
 
 " The bride and bridegroom sit down to dinner alone, 
 in her room ; but the door is left open so that the rela- 
 tives and guests can come and observe the fair lady, and 
 see the gallant gentleman. Eather poor fun that, though, 
 to see the groom with a most unromantic appetite polish- 
 ing off the good things, one after another ; but still 
 worse must it be for the bride, who is not allowed to 
 
MATCH-MAKING. 45 
 
 eat anything at all. Later in the afternoon the guests 
 are all seated to dine, each one having previously made 
 a present of a sum of money to the bridegroom. 
 
 "A marriage thus commenced so miserably, to our 
 mind, for the bride, cannot promise any great amount 
 of happiness ; and whatever truth there may be here in 
 saying that ' marriage is a lottery,' there can be no 
 doubt that it well describes the institution in China. 
 
 
Chapter iy, 
 
 AN emperor's wedding. 
 
 EDDINGS are things 
 we should never hurry 
 over. We have a say- 
 ing, ' Marry in haste' 
 and repent at leisure;' 
 and in the case of a 
 wedding of an emperor 
 of China, which does 
 not happen every day, I am sure you will excuse 
 me if I ask your further attention. You will please to 
 bear in mind what I said about marriages generally ; 
 and you will see that even the bride of an emperor has 
 not a very desirable time of it. 
 
 " This imperial wedding, in October, 1872, was con- 
 sidered to be an event of so much importance that long 
 accounts of it appeared in some of the daily papers at the 
 
AN emperor's wedding. 47 
 
 time, and one, at least, of the illustrated papers sent an 
 artist to China on purpose to furnish sketches. I have 
 not seen the accounts or the sketches of this latter paper, 
 but I read with interest a letter from a correspondent of 
 ' the Daily News ' at Peking, from which I will make 
 some extracts. While showing that the Emperor is 
 subject to some of the usual matrimonial laws, it will 
 tell us of some special incidents in the marriage of an 
 Emperor that are not generally known. In fact, I never 
 read any details of such a marriage, nor have I ever 
 met with any one who witnessed one ; so that I wOI 
 allow this correspondent to tell his own story in his own 
 words ; — 
 
 "Peking, October 13th. 
 " The manner in which the bride was selected for the 
 Emperor of China is worthy of being told. In some 
 points it reminds one of the competitive examination 
 system, which, of course, is Chinese in principle. A 
 Chinese Emperor is not like a European monarch. He 
 acknowledges no other king, or rank of his own kind ; 
 hence there is no prince's daughter who can be asked 
 for his wife. There are princes in China, but they are 
 of the Imperial family, and cannot intermarry. He 
 must take his wife, from the people, and she must be- 
 long to one of the eight banners. It so happens that 
 there are two empresses, the one is called the eastern 
 empress and the other the western. The empress of 
 
48 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 the late emperor is not the mother of the present one ; 
 she had no son. In such a case if one of the other 
 wives has a son she is raised to the Imperial rank, and 
 is called the western empress. When the selection of a 
 bride had to be made these two ladies issued orders to 
 all the chiefs, who had daughters of the desired age, to 
 send them to the palace. One would naturally suppose 
 that such an order would have been obeyed with the 
 greatest of alacrity, and that fluttering hearts would 
 have crowded to the palace in hopes of gaining such a 
 prize, and that such arts as were practised for Cinde- 
 rella's slipper would be largely employed to produce 
 whatever may be considered the legal type of beauty in 
 Peking ; that dress, ornaments, cosmetics, and whatever 
 could add a charm to the young beauties would be 
 freely used. Strange to say, it is the very opposite of 
 all this that takes place. It would seem that families 
 do not like their daughters to become the wife of an 
 emperor, not even to be his empress. A girl is in a 
 sense lost to the family, for she is kept so secluded in 
 the palace that the relatives seldom or never see her ; 
 and it brings the parents and family into a position and 
 prominence which is dangerous in a country like this. 
 So they try every plan to avoid sending their children. 
 Parents allege that they are cripple, or deaf, or blind, 
 and in some cases lameness is imitated, and deformities 
 are artificially produced. To such an extent had it been 
 
AN EMPEEOli'S WEDDING. 49 
 
 carried that orders, it is said, were issued that blind, 
 lame, and deaf were all to be sent to the palace. Some- 
 where about six or seven hundred girls appeared on the 
 day fixed, and they were brought before the eastern and 
 western empresses in batches of ten. The two ladies 
 minutely inspected the girls, spoke to them, and put 
 questions as to their education and such matters as they 
 deemed important. It would be a curious thing to know 
 upon what principle they acted in such a case — whether 
 beauty, good sense, or behaviour and education, or what 
 were considered the most important points. About fifty 
 or sixty young ladies were selected as a result of this 
 first inspection. Their names were taken, and the cba- 
 racter and position of their families were inquired into ; 
 their horoscopes also would be carefully calculated. 
 After this had been done another inspection was gone 
 through, and thirty were separated front the batch; 
 these were then kept in the palace, so that their merits 
 and demerits could be more accurately ascertained. After 
 a short trial the number was reduced to twenty, then to 
 ten, and at last it became a tie of two ; and thus an 
 empress was selected. At the same time four other 
 wives were chosen, and these will form the commence- 
 mentr of the imperial harem. 
 
 "A large palace was built for the elected bride in 
 the northern part of the Tartar city, and here she 
 has resided under the tjare of a number of ladies of 
 
 £ 
 
50 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 the palace, whose duties are to instruct her in all 
 the necessary court etiquette, and she -will be taken 
 from this palace to the great imperial palace on her 
 wedding day. Being a Manchu, she has not got the 
 small feet of the Chinese ladies. It is really supposed 
 that the choice of the bride is the result of her merits, 
 and not any affair of court or family intrigue ; and as 
 an evidence of this, it is stated that the bride's family 
 was partly in disgrace from her grandfather having been 
 sentenced to be beheaded about ten years ago. He was 
 supposed to have suffered this punishment, but he has 
 now turned up, and figures in some of the marriage 
 ceremonies. 
 
 " There is a very curious bit of romance told about the 
 Emperor while this competitive examination was going 
 on for his bride. He had a dream at the time, and he told 
 it to his mother. It was that he had fallen in love with 
 a young lady, and that she was hump-backed. As lame 
 and deformed were all ordered to the palace, a hump- 
 backed girl was really among the number, and the 
 empress took the dream as an omen that this was the 
 one who ought to be his wife. She was one of the 
 first fifty or sixty selected, and medical men were 
 consulted as to the possibility of curing the deformity. 
 After some vain efforts it is said that a farrier, a very 
 strong man, tried by force alone to push in the hump, 
 a,nfl that it ended in the death of the poor girl. 
 
AN empeeoe's wedding. 51 
 
 " The Emperor is said to be seventeen years old, but 
 that means that he is only fifteen. Every Chinaman 
 has the right ,to add an extra year to his age, and the 
 Emperor has the right of adding two years. As yet he 
 is supposed not to have seen his future consort, and 
 will not see her till she arrives at the palace on the day 
 of the marriage. For a lover this would be a very 
 hard condition of things, but imperial love seems to be 
 a very different matter from the ordinary article in 
 common life. One could suppose an ardent youth 
 placed as the imperial bridegroom is situated, and 
 trying to imagine his future wife, that he might form 
 an ideal of her, and something like the feeling of love 
 might exist. This does not seem to be the case; at 
 at least it is hard to suppose it can be from what is 
 reported to be going on. No idea can be formed from 
 this of the private character or feelings of the Emperor. 
 Everything he does, and the conduct of every one 
 about him, is rigidly defined in a book of ceremonies. 
 Every event in the Emperor's life, from his birth to his 
 death, is regulated by this book, which is said to extend 
 to about 200 volumes. In such an ample code there 
 wUl be, no doubt, many volumes devoted to such an 
 important event as the addition of an empress to the 
 imperial dignity, but it is hard to understand how the 
 ■art of love' can be taught by an imperial code, 
 however voluminous. It is hard to imagine what the 
 
52 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 real character of an Emperor of China really is. He 
 is so shut out from all the world that he is called, 
 among many titles, the ' solitary prince,' and he may 
 truly be said to be ' as lonely as a god.' State officials 
 only approach him in a prostrate attitude, and must go 
 through their ceremonies or duties according to the 
 dictates of this book of 200 volumes. Not a remark, 
 not even a v^ord or smile to express or communicate 
 a thought or feeling, can take place ; and he has been so 
 from his cradle. One wonders if a soul so isolated as 
 this from all other souls can possibly have grown and 
 been developed. Can a heart so carefully kept away 
 from contact with all other hearts possibly feel like the 
 rest of mankind ? What he is no one can really find 
 out. A writer wanting to describe such a character 
 cannot get the slightest information. An artist desiring 
 a portrait can only do so by evolving it out of his 
 inner consciousness. Photographers have come to 
 Peking and tried every means, but found all to be 
 hopeless. One photographer offered to leave the 
 camera all arranged, so that his presence would not be 
 required ; but the son of the sun would not even allow 
 the sun this exclusive right of portraiture. It is highly 
 probable that tbere is nothing in the 200 volumes as to 
 how an emperor ought to sit when being photographed, 
 and had he tried to do so, the chances are that he 
 would have looked in two or three directions during 
 
AN eiiperoe's wedding. 53 
 
 the sitting, and the result would not have been a 
 flattering likeness. What an Emperor of China would 
 think, or how. the satellites about him might act, on 
 seeing a lot of smudges as the likeness of him who sits 
 on the dragon throne, it is impossible to say; my 
 opinion is, that it is a lucky thing for the photographer 
 his request was refused. This seclusion of the Emperor 
 has also to be carried out in relation to the Empress, 
 and it results that all the ceremonies of the marriage 
 are hid from the vulgar eye." 
 
 " The marriage of an Emperor of China is an event 
 of no every-day occurrence, but for an account of it 
 to be published by an eye-witness is almost an 
 unheard-of event. 
 
 "The secrecy with which the pageant is observed 
 serves to show how unlike other mortals the Chinese 
 are. Other Eastern monarchs of great possessions 
 and greater individual power 'are wont now arid then 
 to indulge in gorgeous shows and magnificent spectacles ; 
 but they serve the purpose of showing their power 
 and splendour, and of pleasing their people in witness- 
 ing them. But the late marriage procession was kept 
 so private that no one, either native or foreign, was 
 allowed to see it. Thanks, however, to the curiosity 
 and perseverance of Englishmen, who are not even to 
 be baffled by mandates of celestial emperors, we have an 
 account of what occurred on this interesting occasion : — 
 
54 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 " In the dusty streets of Peking a line of route was 
 selected from the bride's housa to the imperial palace. 
 For the centre of the way the path was made even, 
 and sprinkled with new sand to make it yellow — 
 the imperial colour. For about a week before the 
 marriage there was a procession every morning along 
 the whole of this route of what 'the foreigners' 
 here call the bride's trousseau; but, on inquiring 
 further, it is explained that it was the articles 
 sent as presents from all parts of China ; and as 
 these articles are all taken to the quarters in the 
 palace where the Empress will for the future reside, 
 the Scotch word ' plenishing,' which a lady here has 
 applied to them, describes most nearly their real 
 character. Every morning, shortly after daybreak, 
 there has been an extended line of these presents 
 carried along in charge of mandarins, bannermen, 
 police, imperial porters — I don't know the Chinese 
 word for them — in red dresses with white spots. 
 These marriage gifts present a great variety of objects. 
 Some were large cabinets, others small dishes, chairs, 
 goblets, vases, washhand-basin stands, gold and silver 
 articles of all kinds. The smaller things were carried 
 on yellow tables, where the articles had to be secured. 
 They were bound by strips of yellow and red silk, 
 forming a combination of the imperial and nuptial tints. 
 To see these articles of imperial house-furnishing the 
 
AN emperor's wedding. 57 
 
 people of Peking came out in crowds every morning, 
 and lined both sides of the route all the way. One 
 morning the articles to be carried were more precious 
 than the others, so the procession started before day- 
 break, and the sightseers who came were rather disap- 
 pointed. It was explained that this was to prevent any 
 accident from the roughs of Peking making a dash and 
 trying their hand at a game of grab. There was 
 another attraction for the public ; that was the drilling 
 of the men to carry the chair of the Empress, — this was 
 the bridal chair — a most important part of a Chinese 
 wedding. The imperial porters were drilled so as to be 
 able to carry it steadily, and to relieve each other 
 quickly, and it was rumoured that, as a test of the men, 
 a vase filled with water was placed in the chair, to see 
 if they could carry it without spilling. Crowds came 
 to see the chair when it was announced to come out, 
 but at these times it never appeared, and always seemed 
 to take advantage of the public by going through its 
 drill when not expected. 
 
 "This careful drilling for a grand procession would 
 indicate that at least in externals there would be some- 
 thing worth looking at. If an emperor or empress could 
 not be seen, at any rate the glitter of their greatness 
 would be visible to the mass : but one could not but 
 notice that all the streets or openings which led into 
 the line of march were having bamboo frames erected ^ 
 
58 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 and at last curtains of blue cloth and mattings were 
 placed on them to block up the view. On inquiry, it 
 was stated that the plan of those who govern in these 
 matters — and there is a board of rites and ceremonies, 
 with 200 volumes to guide their proceedings — had no 
 intention to let the public see any of the procession. In 
 addition to this a message was sent round to the foreign 
 legations, asking each minister to prohibit his country- 
 men from going out on the line of march on the 15th or 
 16th of October — a request which was laughed at in 
 more ways than one. Such being the plan of the 
 ceremony, one naturally asks for what purpose is a 
 grand state procession got up if no one is to see it ? A 
 few did see it — that I know, but officially no one was 
 supposed to view the line of route. A few dogs got on 
 the ' yellow way,' and no one seemed to disturb them, 
 so they, with the police, alone had the privilege of 
 seeing this imperial pageant. 
 
 * • « * * 
 
 " The procession was Hot very long, but the dresses 
 and appointments were splendid. First came a prince 
 on horseback; then 48 white ponies, with yellow 
 housings, led by men in scarlet ; the band, in scarlet, 
 silent ; 32 banners, 48 fans (big round things), 2 black 
 umbrellas, 2 white ditto, 6 yellow ditto, 6 red ditto, 
 2 blue ditto, 2 embroidered yellow ditto, 192 lanterns 
 (all these things carried by men in scarlet) ; Prince 
 
AN emperok's wedding. 59 
 
 Kung, looking very handsome on horseback, with his 
 four-bearer chair carried beside him ; the chair, yellow 
 and gold, carried by 16 coolies, all in scarlet (with 
 batons), with 16 spare coolies to relieve them (the chair 
 apparently containing the bride) ; about 100 officials on 
 horseback, in their best clothes ; about 200 officials on 
 foot, ditto." 
 
Chapter^ v. 
 
 
 CONCERNING EATING. 
 
 NE of the first things 
 a person has to do in 
 landing on a foreign 
 shore is to look out for 
 something to eat and 
 drink, and especially 
 if he conies off along 
 voyage, and has had 
 little for some time 
 but hard junk, and 
 
 harder biscuits. 
 
 " Fortunately for some of us who had never been to 
 
 China before, some of our shipmates knew all about 
 
 the manner of living, and so we were prepared to know 
 
 ' what to eat, drink, and avoid.' 
 " We did not expect, on landing at Canton, to have 
 
 roast beef and plum pudding, and so we did not order 
 
CONCERNING EATING. 
 
 61 
 
 any ; but ' we just patronized the first itinerant cook- 
 shop we met with. The spirited proprietor had pitched 
 at the corner of a street, and had lit his lanterns, for it 
 was evening; and he was engaged in getting up his 
 charcoal fire by blowing through a bamboo tube. 
 
 THE COOK SHOP. 
 
 Directly we stopped at his stall, he got up and made 
 one or two signs, and spoke two or three words which 
 neither of us understood. But pointing to my own 
 mouth and placing my hand pathetically on the part of 
 the body that wanted filling, I made him understand our 
 wants, for I find, wherever I go, that the fundamental 
 principle as taught us by Mr. Tozer is everywhere 
 understood, — 'that nature abhors a vacuum.' John 
 Chinaman gave what for him would be a decided wink, 
 
62 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 to let US know he understood our cosmopolitan dialect, 
 and then opened two or three of his drawers, and 
 produced a rice- flour dumpling filled with some sweet 
 stuff, and stewed in some sort of sweet sauce. It is no 
 use thinking of going anywhere, even in our own land, 
 if you haven't faith ; and it needed but for John to, say 
 ' Eice,' to obtain an order for some of the dumplings. 
 These were so nice that we thought we might ' go 
 further and fare worse;' so we stuck to these, until we 
 ate so many as to get beyond our calculation. Not 
 beyond John's powers, however ; for when we came to 
 pay the reckoning, he held up ever so many fingers, and 
 demanded threepence of our money, or about ninety 
 cash. It was quite an extravagant outlay, and we were 
 the best customers he had had for some time. This 
 was the best fare his stall supplied ; and the majority of 
 his customers, who would be of the poorer classes, could 
 not afford such dainties. They would have to be content 
 with a bowl of boiled rice, with a salted vegetable, or a 
 slice of green or brown seaweed in it. There is yet a 
 lower kind of food which beggars and the very poor 
 have to put up with, consisting of horrible-looking 
 puddings, which we saw floating about in oil by no 
 means savoury. Dogs and rats are also eaten ; in fact, 
 there is a breed of dogs called ' chow-chow dogs,' which 
 are fed for consumption. 
 
 " I see some of my audience making wry faces, and 
 
CONCERNING EATING. 63 
 
 iawardly saying, 'JSTasty creatures;' and no doubt, 
 from the standpoint, or rather, sitting-point, of our 
 tables, we should think them rather queer. But let me 
 say that Chinese cooking is amongst the best in the 
 world ; and they pride themselves on the perfection to 
 which they have brought the art. ' The art of cooking 
 consists in doing a great deal with a very little; in 
 making a great variety of nice dishes from a few simple 
 materials. With all sorts of poultry, and game, and 
 joints of meat, there is not much credit in serving a 
 grand dinner ; but I ask some of the heads of families 
 who are how honouring me by their presence, whether 
 their powers are not often taxed to produce a tempting 
 dinner for their families from a mutton bone and some 
 cold vegetables ? Why you can reckon up on your 
 fingers the dinners we usually have in England ; and so 
 long as money is no object, and there is no need to make 
 much of what is left from one day to another, it matters 
 but little. 
 
 " Now the Chinese are not only able to present a great 
 variety of dishes, but they are most economical in their 
 cookery, which is more than can be said for English 
 cooks — at least so far as my small experience goes, 
 backed up by what I have heard some of our officers 
 say, who have travelled a great deal. 
 
 " Animal food is not used in joints, but as entries, and 
 so served that knife and fork are not required. From 
 
64 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 amongst their delicacies I may name a few. Bird's.-nest 
 soup — this is eaten with porcelain spoons, and not with 
 the regulation chopsticks, of which more presently ; sea- 
 slugs — ah ! you shrug your shoulders, but they are not 
 unlike fat turtle in taste ; deers' tongues, ducks' tongues ; 
 sharks' iins ; eggs a year old, preserved in clay ; shrimps ; 
 sweetmeats ; garlic and other pickles ; and last, though 
 not least, bamboo root. A Chinese dinner of any pre- 
 tension will consist of from twenty to fortj' courses. -If 
 the party be small, each guest wiU help himself with 
 his chopsticks, and then with these useful articles, 
 which are not unlike two ivory knitting-needles, he will, 
 holding his plate in his hand, whip up the food in a 
 marvellously dexterous manner. 
 
 " The feat is seen to perfection when they are eating 
 rice, which is cooked, not as we too often cook it in a 
 solid sort of dripping mass, but so that each particle is 
 separate from the other. A Chinaman wiU, with his 
 chopsticks held between his finger and thumb, keep up 
 a perfect avalanche of rice particles without dropping 
 one. Ah ! you see me imitate the way in which the 
 bowl is held in one hand and the chopsticks in another ; 
 but I could no more imitate the genuine use of the 
 sticks than I could speak the language; and I have 
 known those who have been resident in China for some 
 considerable time who were quite unable to do it. You 
 would laugh to see them thus eating ; but the way we 
 
CONCERNING EATING. 65 
 
 eat strikes tliem even more forciMy, not witli amuse- 
 ment, but with horror. They say, ' We sit down to our 
 meals as rational beings ; but you English sit down as 
 barbarians, with your knives and forks, hacking and 
 hewing about your great pieces of flesh/ The use of 
 the knife is unknown at table, except so far as one may 
 be necessary to sever any piece of meat in a dish which 
 may require it. What they would say if they saw 
 some of our countrymen doing double duty with the 
 knife, and making it thus supersede the fork, I can- 
 "not imagine. They are not very emotional, and do not 
 faint ; and there is not enough vital power at the 
 end of their pigtails (especially as the tail is of 
 false hair) to make them stand on end. But it is 
 to be hoped, for the credit of our country, that 
 people who put their knives in their mouths neVer 
 leave home. 
 
 " I mentioned just now, among the eatables, bamboo. 
 One might almost say of it, what the man in 'David 
 Copperfield ' said of tobacco, that it was ' meat, drink, 
 washing, and lodging.' To so many uses is it put, that 
 I don't know what the Chinese would do without it. 
 It seems to be almost universally used, like the man's 
 patent medicine that could cure anything incident to 
 humanity, from a corn down to a consumption, and yet 
 was so specifically, as well as generally useful, that he 
 instructed an agent in Canada to add to a list of ita 
 
 F 
 
&6 ' THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 marvellous powers, its ability , to ciire any particular 
 disease incidental to that climate. 
 , " Just, let me give you a list of articles made from thie 
 bamboo — soldiers' hats and shields, umbrellas, soles of 
 shoes, scaffolding-poles, paper,- pencil-holders, brooms, 
 sedan-chairs, pipes, flower-stakes, trelliswork in gardens; 
 pillows are made of the shavings ; a kind of rush cloak 
 for wet weather is made from the leaves ; sails and 
 covers" for boats; fi'shing-rods and baskets, fishing-stakes 
 and buoys; catamarans — rude boats, made of a few 
 logs of it lashed together"; and last, though not least in 
 this catalogue, which is far from a complete one, the 
 important chopsticks. 
 
 " But I was talking of it as an eatable. It is pickled . 
 and eaten as a relish. Now, as you^ know, a bamboo is 
 a cane, so that, when pickled, it is simply pickled cane 
 or walking-stick. I had one bottle given, me, and of 
 course opened it, determined to' like it, though I could 
 not get over the idea that I was munching up walking- 
 stick, so hard was it to masticate ov digest. At last I 
 came upon a piece so hard that I fancied it must be the 
 ferrule of the stick, and there my" experience of the , 
 article stopped. I suppose it had not been in pickle 
 long enough to get soft. 
 
 " The bamboo, however, has a stUl further use in this 
 direction : it is kept as a rod in pickle, especially for 
 Chinese boys, and- which is found not to get soft with 
 
CONCERNING EATING.- 67 
 
 age, but often on the contrary. The application of it is 
 not in front, but behind, and is not at mealtimes at all; 
 though it is very often nothing more than the boy's 
 desert. I have said that, in many particulars, the 
 Chinese are utter barbarians, and far behind our 
 civilisation, and this is a proof which I am sure you will 
 all readUy admit." 
 
 This last remark of Charley's was received with 
 deafening applause by the boys, and with laughter by 
 all, though Mr. Tozer took care, as the boys all looked 
 at "him, to shake his head and declare he did not commit 
 himself to any such sentiment. 
 
 " I have mentioned, I think, that most of the trades 
 • are carried on, not in shops, bxit on stalls, and by 
 itinerant tradesmen. We stopped at the stall of the 
 cookshop man, who is generally to be found at a corner 
 of the street ; but other of our wants had to be sup- 
 plied, and when we wanted fruit or vegetables we 
 stopped the provision-seller. 
 
 " Knowing something of Chinese trickery and sharp 
 practice, we never gave the price first asked, but always 
 shrugged our shoulders and held up our hands in 
 horror at the sum mentioned, at the same time trying 
 to manifest as much indifference as possible whether 
 we made any purchase or not. It was rather amusing^ 
 chaffering with these men, buyer and seller being quite 
 ignorant of each other's language, — though, for that 
 
68 
 
 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 matter, Jolin had the advantage ; for he was able to 
 _ jerk in a few English words, which he imagined must 
 settle the bargain. ' Cheap-ee,' and ' number one,' 
 meaning first-class, were words constantly used. We 
 often had lots of things we did not want, but 
 
 THE PROVISION-SELLER. 
 
 which we got saddled with in consequence of John 
 accepting our offer, which we had fixed so far below 
 what he had asked that we felt sure he would never 
 take it. 
 
CONCEKNING EATING. 69 
 
 " I may say here that the Chinese at CaEiton are most 
 anxious to pick up an English lingo, and to show it off 
 whenever they can. Canton English is made by add- 
 ing final vowels to every word where possible : thus 
 ' talk-ee,' for speak, ' pieceey,' for piece ; sometimes 
 by making a jumble of a word from the French, as 
 ' sayey,' for knew. But the English word most used 
 is ' pigeon,' which is employed for business, or trans- 
 actions in their most extended sense. 
 
 " I was never fortunate in meeting any Chinamen who 
 knew much English, but I have been told that when 
 they are constantly in company with Englishmen they 
 pick it up very quickly. I heard an amusing story of 
 9. servant who wanted to convey to his master the 
 pleasing intelligence that his friend, Mrs. Smith', had 
 just presented her husband with a little girl, and he ' 
 expressed himself thus : — '. Missa Smith one small 
 pieceey cow-child hab got.' 
 
 "I don't call that at all a bad way of making so 
 delicate an announcement. The ' small pieceey ' gives 
 a very good idea of the size of the little wee stranger ; 
 and the ' cow-chUd ' fixes the , gender unmistakably ; 
 and, after all, this mixture of the human species with 
 the lower creation is not confined to foreigners : it is 
 most common in agricultural districts in England. A 
 friend of mine told me of a scene that took place in a 
 farmyard in Wiltshire. A gander, anxious for the 
 
70 'the land of the pigtail. 
 
 welfare of his young family, which waddled after him, 
 nipped a farm-boy by the calf of the leg, for an assault 
 threatened or imagined.' The youngster waited until 
 ^ all the goslings had- gone by except the last, when 
 against this one he let fly his heavily booted foot, and 
 knocked the bird over. A labourer, at some little 
 distance, thus inquired the reason for such a proceed- 
 ing :— 
 
 " ' You great gawkin' fool ! what's kick goos-mon- 
 chick for ? ' 
 
 "To which the boy replied, in injured tones, and 
 rubbing his leg meanwhile, — 
 
 " ' What's goo^mon-chick's dad bite I's leg for, then 1 ' 
 
 "Mr. Fortune, the botanist, tells a story of Canton 
 English which I may repeat'. He was asking a gardener 
 what he put in with his seeds when packing, and was 
 told 'burnt lice.' He meant 'rice,' for the Chinese 
 turn the ' r ' into ' 1.' And on being asked why he 
 used the rice, he replied, ' S'pose me no mixee this seed, 
 worms makee c-how- chow-he.' 
 
 "You will gather that the Chinese delight in bargain- 
 ing '; but our chaffering with them was as nothing com- 
 pared with theirs with one another. They are all dis- 
 posed to cheat whenevei; they can, and as both buyer 
 and seller pursue the same game, you may imagine that 
 it is a case of ' diamond cut diamond.' 
 
 " The men with poultry make up balls of moistened 
 
CONCERNING EATING. 
 
 71 
 
 pollard, and'- thrust tbem down the throat of the birds 
 to increase their weight ; and they will blowout stale 
 fish with a reed untU they appear plump and fresh. 
 
 " Nothing protects the purchaser but his own sharp- - 
 ness. Deceit, and trickery, and adulteration are not 
 recognised ; nor are there any standards of weights and 
 
 THB POULTRY-SELLER. 
 
 measures. The seller has a ste.elyard, of course favour- 
 ing himself; and sometimes the buyer brings with him 
 g, steelyard inclining to his side; and the squabbles 
 and disputes, and clamouring and abuse that go ou 
 must be seen and heard to be believed. 
 
 " I heard once of a man' who went into a dame's shop 
 
72 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 for half an ounce of tobacco, but tbe weight could not 
 be found. A happy thought seized the man, and he 
 put his great thumb into the scale, declaring that it just 
 weighed the half-ounce. I need not say the woman 
 was English, and not Chinese. 
 
 " The man in the picture is not so easily to be taken 
 in : he objects to the weight of theTowl as given by 
 the market-man, who has to give the beam a gentle tilt 
 to make the other end go down. 
 
 " A long wrangle will ensue as to the weight, and then 
 another as to the price ; and eventually the purchase 
 will be made, each congratulating himself that he has 
 done the other. 
 
 "In the presence of some representatives of English 
 trade, I suppose I mxist not say anything about adulte- 
 ration and false labels, apd.'deficient weights and forged 
 trade-marks, or any tricks of trade said to be sometimes, 
 practised by a few disreputable and obscure traders ; 
 but we can say that these cpnstitute the exceptions, 
 -and that when detected they are exposed and denounced, 
 and not justified. 
 
 "The Chinese generally do not show up very favour- 
 ably in their business matters. I soon found that out 
 for myself. You must know that they are very fond of 
 ' chin-chinning ' — that is, of making presents and get- 
 ting others in exchange ; but always taking care to get ' 
 the better of the bargain. When I first went to China, 
 
CONCEENING EATING. 73 
 
 before I landed, one of them made his way on board, 
 came into my cabin, and at once struck up an acquaint- 
 ance. Seeing some old coins on my table, the greedy 
 fellow at once wanted them, though they were no use 
 to him. ' You chin-chin me and I'll chin-chin you,' 
 said he, tiU at last it was arranged that he should take 
 the coins and give me a lot of silk for them. I was 
 told I was ' done,' but I must say I did not expect that 
 I should be unable to get anything at all from him. 
 
 " But about my friend — poor Captain Tucker. He had 
 been engaged for some years in the merchant service, 
 trading with China, had saved some money, and was 
 returning home to retire. With all his money and 
 some borrowed from his employers, he bought a quantity 
 of-floss silk — such as would send your mothers and 
 elder sisters into ecstasies to possess. It is so soft and 
 glossy, and th« colours^are so brilliant, that no country 
 can equal them. Well, the cases were got on board, and 
 during the voyage he kept on thinking what a lot of 
 money he should make by the sale of the sUk. He 
 could not wait tiU he got home without having a look 
 at it, so he went down into the hold and opened one 
 case. There lay the silk on the top, but on putting his 
 Band down into the case, he was horrified to find that 
 it was filled with rubbish, shavings, and sawdust. And 
 so with every case. Poor man, how he took it to heart ! 
 He knew he was a ruined man ; that he could not repay 
 
74 ~ THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 his employers ; tjiat he would have to leave hi? wife and 
 children again, and toil on at sea for many long years. 
 He thought of their disappointment, too, until his brain 
 gave way. The crew observed soniething queer in Jiis 
 manner, and guessed matters weren't all right, but did 
 not think seriously of it till they got to the Cape. Then, 
 when one of the sailors went on shore, he wUs asked by 
 a shoemaker what the captain was going to do with a 
 large leather hag he had bought, not unlike a nosebag 
 for horses. The sailor didn't know, but thought it strange, 
 and made up his mind to watch the captain and find out. 
 Well, that very evening poor Cap'tain Tucker filled the 
 bag with gunpowder, and was about to set fire to it, to 
 blow up the ship, when he was discovered. The crew 
 was spared, the ship was saved, but before they could 
 get to the captain, he had thrown himself out of his 
 cabin window, and was of course drowned. 
 
 " If the Chinese eat the same animals as other nations, 
 they must catch them, or rear them, or prepare them in 
 a way of their own. 
 
 " One of their modes of catching fish is very amusing. 
 The fisherman puts off on the river on a small raft, and 
 has with him three or four cormorants — birds about the 
 size of geese. These he pushes off into the water, and 
 then waits until the birds dive &,nd seize a fish. If the 
 birds are lazy, the man beats the water with a paddle, 
 so that the birds are glad to get out of the reach of the 
 
CONCERNING EATING. 
 
 75 
 
 oar by diving. When the bird catches a fish, cormorant 
 like, he would swallow it if he could ; but his master 
 ' knows that would not pay; and so has put a ring round 
 the bird's neck,^ which prevents him from swallqwing. 
 As soon as he sees that the cormorant has made a cap- 
 ture, he paddles his raft over to the spot, and by means 
 
 PISHINO WITH CORMORANTS. 
 
 of a small net at the end of a pole, he gets possession of 
 the fish. Generally, when the bird gets a fish, he makes 
 for the raft with it ; for he knows he cannot swallow it, 
 and he also knows that his master may, perhaps, reward 
 him with a mouthful of food which he can swallow. 
 
Chapter^ yi. 
 
 ^^ 
 
 ,N^>^ 
 
 CONCERNING DRINKING. 
 
 F course one cannot eat mtich 
 
 L'^ ■* All anywhere without wanting 
 
 ^1^ / ^ to drink, and especially in a 
 
 ft. L^ ^ climate like that of China, 
 
 where one is more disposed 
 
 for liquids than solids. 
 
 "The beverage drunk by 
 the Chinese at their meals is 
 — ah ! there you are wrong,, 
 those of you who thought I was going to say tea. The 
 article that has made China famous everywhere is used 
 very frequently, as we shall presently see, but wine is 
 the drink take^ at meal-times. It is prepared from a 
 fermentation of rice, is very simple in its nature, and not 
 at all injurious in its effects. This no-me wine, as it 
 is called, is served up hot in metal pots and poured into 
 chinaware cups. 
 
 " I need not say this mild, unintoxicating liquoi; does 
 
CONCERNING DKINKING. 77 
 
 not suit" the English, and so they drink a spirit distilled 
 from the no-me wine, which is called saw shoo, and which 
 is really intoxicating. 
 
 " The Chinese, to their praise he it spoken, are a most 
 teraperate people. You may walk -through their largest 
 cities, and live there for weeks, without seeing a 
 drunken nprson ; whilst they have not, as we have, an 
 abundant supply of good water ; so- that they are driveu 
 to drink either wine or tea 
 
 "The water in China is very scarce ; the rain-water 
 
 .which is the only kind fit for drinking, is valuable 
 
 because so scarce, and the weU-water is abominable. 
 
 They never drink cold water by any chance, and they 
 
 are very chary about applying it externally. 
 
 " A Chinaman washes all over only once a year, and 
 then the dogs, from time immemorial, have got the 
 benefit of a similar ablution. This is a new illustration 
 of the old proverb, ' Love me, love my dog.' 
 
 " Think of that Elysium, you youngsters — if there are 
 any here, but of course there are none, — where you can 
 jump out of bed, and dress at once, without messing about 
 with cold water ; where there is no getting the soap 
 pushed in your eye ; no having the face mercilessly 
 scrubbed by any vigorous, strong-handed nurse; no 
 being sent away from the table on account of any 
 brownish appearance of the paws ; no washing all 
 round on Saturday nights in luke warm water. 
 
78 
 
 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 " A Chinaman's ablution consists in rubbing a coarse 
 eloth soaked in warm water over his faqe and neck • 
 and if he has a public bath, he stands in about three or 
 four inches of water only, and shares this with several 
 others. 
 
 " The English miss the clear, fresh, plentiful water of 
 their native land, and are only too glad to patronize the 
 
 THE WATER OARRIEES. 
 
 water-carriers, who bring~a poor substitute froni ponds 
 or rivers. In dry seasons, these men reap a rich 
 harvest. 
 
 " You will notice that each bearer is supplied with a 
 kind of crutch, by using which he is able to adjust" the 
 burden to both shoulders, and not have all >the weight 
 on one. 
 
CONCEKNING DBINKING. 
 
 79 
 
 " I said the Chinese are temperate, but they think 
 highly of any one who can consume a large quantity of 
 wine without becoming intoxicated. They think it in- 
 dicates great mental as well as physical capacity, and 
 they have a reverence for a great drinker. I should 
 think that many of our sailors, and civilians too, who 
 
 CAKES AND TEA. 
 
 are resident there, must be objects of great esteem, and 
 might easUy pass as men of great intellect. 
 
 " It almost makes one ashamed of one's country to 
 think that the only drunken people you meet with 
 in China are Englishmen. They feel the thirst and 
 lassitude which the climate induces, and, instead of 
 
80 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 using those beverages' which the Chinese themselves 
 find most useful and least injurious, they must drink the 
 stronger, and -more intoxicating liquors. 
 
 " John Chinaman drinks tea all day long when he can 
 get it, and, thanks to the public spirit and philanthropy 
 of some of their benefactors, there are free tea-sheds 
 erected in convenient parts of the cities. This is like 
 our idea of free drinking-fountains, which an admirable. 
 and most useful society makes it its business to provide. 
 
 " If you go into a shop, perhaps the owner is in his 
 sitting-room, smoking his opium pipe, or having a 
 snooze. You knock and you are not ■v\?^aited dn ; you . 
 knock again and, for want of something better to do 
 you take up the tea pot On the counter, and help your- 
 self to a cup of tea. Should the cunning little eye of 
 the- spirited proprietor observe you at this, he will make 
 it the excuse to complete.his forty winks, if you have 
 disturbed him. Or, if you visit a friend, you are shown 
 into a sitting-room, and you will have brought you at 
 once a tea-pot and some cups! You do not wait for an 
 invitation, but help yourself, and thus pleasantly fill up 
 the time, and yourself too. When your friend appears, 
 you will go at it again with him. 
 
 " Should you have no friend on whom to call, and you 
 feel thirsty, you wUl meet with a tea and cake stall, at 
 wbich you may quench your thirst and have some 
 temptiag confectionery for next to nothing, as the say-' 
 
a 
 
TEA. 83 
 
 ing is. You may miss the mUk and sugar at first, for 
 neither is used by the Chinese ; but you will soon get to 
 like it. You may suppose that hot tea in hot weather 
 is neither cooling nor refreshing, but experience proves 
 the contrary. Mr. Fortune, whose works on the tea- 
 plant are standard ones, and from whom I shall quote 
 presently, says : ' I do not know anything half so 
 refreshing on a hot summer's day as a cup of tea with- 
 out milk or sugar. It is far better and more refreshing 
 than either wine or beer. It quenches thirst, is a gentle 
 stimulant, and wards off many of the fevers incident to 
 such a climate.' 
 
 " It would be well if our labouring population could 
 be made acquainted with that testimony, and then 
 persuaded to try it for themselves. They would be 
 gainers in health and in pocket, and their wives and 
 families would be enriched. The quantity of beer and 
 cider consumed by our rustics in hay or corn harvest is 
 something almost fabulous ; and the fact that so much 
 is taken shows that such drink neither quenches thirst 
 nor strengthens the system. 
 
 " In Devonshire, where cider is given to the men at 
 harvest-time, each man's portion may be reckoned by 
 the gallon ; for some will drink more quarts than the 
 most confirmed tea-drinker will take cups of that 
 beverage. 
 
 " But tea against beer any day, for stimulus or refresh- 
 
84 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 ment ; aad if hot tea cannot be got, cold tea is better 
 than sour cider, or doctored beer. 
 
 " Tea enters largely into John Chinaman's relaxation. 
 See him at the tea gardens ! The garden is a small in- 
 closed space, with, perhaps, a piece of stagnant water 
 crossed by zigzag bridges, and reminding you of the 
 willow-pattern plate. Little tables are placed about, 
 at which the company sit, drinking tea, smoking, eating 
 almond hardbake, or toffey, or else discussing some fruit. 
 The game of dominoes is played silently and solemnly, 
 and the only excitement or entertainment provided by 
 the proprietor is a professional story-teller, who, seated 
 on an elevated position in the middle of the garden, 
 relates the most wonderful, or horrible, or exciting story 
 he can imagine or remember. When he succeeds in 
 raising any interest, so that the game is discontinued, 
 or the toffey remains on the tongue or in the cheek 
 unsucked, he stops abruptly and sends jround his 
 assistant for his collection, the result of which determines 
 him either to continue the narrative or leave it where it 
 is, and to leave the audience in the dark as to its con- 
 clusion. I dare say our Punch and Judy men who first 
 made the collection at the most thrilling act of that 
 great national drama thought themselves very clever, 
 but they were forestalled by the Chinese long before. 
 He must be a clever man who can raise a Chinaman's 
 interest to any great pitch, and so the story-teUer has 
 
TEA. 85 
 
 to pile on the agony very considerably to remove tlie 
 indifference of his audience. It takes a great deal 
 to raise those almond-eyed, almond-hardbake-eating 
 people ; but we won't find fault with this innocent way 
 of spending an evening. 
 
 "Not only innocent, but inexpensive, for you may have 
 an excellent cup of tea for two cash, which is about the 
 fifteenth part of a penny; but the cheapness of the 
 beverage suggests the plentifulness of the article, and 
 that win lead to a few remarks on the tea-plant. 
 
 " Before, however, we enter on what may prove rather 
 a dry subject to some, let us partake of some of the 
 genuine article as I brought it with me from China, and 
 prepared by that sweet lady of aU the virtues, Mrs. 
 Krum-well. This, at least, will not prove a dry inter- 
 ruption, but rather a moist one." 
 
 At this stage, one of Charley's former companions, 
 whom he had previously rigged up in a mandarin's 
 dress which, he had brought home with him, entered 
 the room with a little tray bearing a number of cups of 
 hot tea, without milk or sugar, which were handed 
 round to the company. Some of the guests quite fancied 
 they might get to like the beverage as the Chinese drink 
 it, but they preferred to use the usual English additions, 
 AU, however, declared the quality of the tea was excel- 
 lent, and then seated themselves to hear something 
 about the cultivation of this world-famed beverage. 
 
86 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 " The tea-plant," resumed Charley, " was not known 
 until the fourth century, and its cultivation did not 
 become extensive until the ninth, when the government 
 recommended its growth to cure some disease incurred 
 by drinking water. Now, as we all know, its cultiva- 
 tion extends over a large tract of country, and is not 
 confined to large growers. Mr. Fortune says that ' The 
 principal tea districts of China, and those which supply 
 the greater portion of the teas exported to Europe and 
 America, lie between the twenty-fifth and thirty-first 
 degrees of north latitude, and the best districts are 
 those between twenty-seven and thirty-one degrees.' 
 Our friends can find out this district on their maps; 
 and perhaps Mr. Tozer will kindly direct the attention 
 of his geography classes to this subject next half. You 
 will notice that these are the hilly districts of China ; 
 for tea requires warm, sloping banks, and will not grow 
 on low, wet' lands. Each small farmer will grow his 
 patch on the hill-side, which finds employment, not 
 only for himself, but for his wife and children. 
 
 " The seeds are sown in early spring, and remain for 
 nine or twelve months, till the shrubs are a foot high, 
 when they are transplanted, and put in rows three or 
 four feet apart. 
 
 " In dry seasons the plants are watered by the women, 
 as shown in the accompanying engraving, which is 
 copied from a painting on rice-paper by a native artist. 
 
TEA. 89 
 
 The shnits produce leaves fit for gathering when two or 
 three years old, but they do not attain their full size for 
 six or seven years ; they bear leaves tiU they are fifteen 
 years old. The average yield per plant is six ounces. 
 There are four gatherings in the year — in April, May, 
 July, and August ; the first gathering is considered the 
 finest flavoured, but the second is the most plentiful. 
 Women and children are largely engaged in picking the 
 leaves, as in our illustration ; and their earnings range 
 from twopence to threepence a day, according to their 
 ability, out of which sum they have to board themselves. 
 
 " You will see, therefore, that even when you have 
 succeeded in cultivating the tea-plant elsewhere than in 
 China, you must take into account the comparative cost 
 of labour before you can successfully compete with the 
 Celestials. 
 
 " Before I say a few words about the preparation of tea 
 for export, I must correct an impression that the green 
 tea and the black tea are the products of a different kind 
 of shrub. They are only subject to a different kind of 
 manipulation, in so far as colour is concerned, but, as a 
 matter of convenience, the preparation of black tea and 
 green tea is kept distinct. 
 
 " The Chinese themselves never drink green tea as we 
 understand it, but they colour it for us, as we, in our 
 superior judgment, attach a higher value to the tea thus 
 prepared. I cannot do better than quote from Mr- 
 
90 
 
 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 Fortune's ' Three years' Wanderings in tlie Northern 
 Provinces of China/ who noted down tihe colouring 
 matter, which was a mixture of Prussian blue and 
 gypsum, burnt together till they formed ajBne powder, 
 
 PICKING TEA. 
 
 which was thus applied to the teas during the last 
 process of roasting : — ' About five minutes before the 
 tea was removed from the pans, the superintendent took 
 a small porcelain spoon, and with it he scattered a 
 
TEA. 91 
 
 portion of the colouring matter over the leaves in each 
 pan. The workmen then turned the leaves rapidly 
 round with both hands, in order that the colour might 
 be equally diffused. During this part of the operation, 
 the hands of the workmen were quite blue. I could not 
 help thinking, that if any green-tea drinkers had been 
 present during the operation, their taste would have 
 been corrected, and, I may be allowed to add, improved. 
 It seems perfectly ridiculous that a civilized people 
 should prefer these dyed teas to those of a natural green. 
 No wonder that the Chinese consider the natives of the 
 West to be a race of ' barbarians.' One day an English 
 gentleman in Shanghae, being in conversation with 
 some Chinese from the green-tea country, asked them 
 what reasons they had for dyeing the tea, and whether 
 it would not be better without undergoing this process. 
 They acknowledged that tea was much better when 
 prepared without having any such ingredients mixed 
 with it, and that they never drank dyed tea themselves, 
 but justly remarked, that as foreigners seemed to prefer 
 having a mixture of Prussian blue and gypsum with 
 their tea, to make it look uniform and pretty, and as. 
 these ingredients were cheap enough, the Chinese had 
 no objection to supply them, especially as such teas 
 always fetched a higher price.' 
 
 " The natural difference between the black and green 
 teas arises from a difference in their preparation after 
 
92 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 the leaves are picked ; but this I must leave for another 
 evening, that I may not be tedious. 
 
 " I may say the names of some of the teas indicate 
 some particulars concerning their growth. Thus, 
 Souchong means little plant ; Hyson, Hi-chun, flourishiag 
 spring, as the leaves are gathered yearly ; — I appeal to 
 Mr. Tapscome, whether his window does not contain 
 a notice of his ' Fine young Hyson ; ' — Pekoe, Pecco, 
 making white hairs, as its young leaves have a down 
 on them ; Bohea, Bu-i, hUls, where it is produced ; 
 Congou, Kung-foo, meaning labour, because the leaves 
 are subjected to frequent rubbings." 
 
Chapter yii. 
 
 the cup that chekrs, and the 
 drug that debases. 
 
 HE cultivation and prepa- 
 ration of the tea-plant 
 afford employment for a 
 great number of persons 
 of both sexes, which fact 
 will become more ap- 
 parent when we are told 
 that the yearly consump- 
 tion of tea by the Chinese 
 exceedathousandmillions 
 of pounds. The consumption in England last year 
 exceeded one hundred and twenty-three millions of 
 pounds ; and perhaps almost half that quantity was con- 
 sumed on the Continent. Eor some interesting particu- 
 lars concerning the preparation of tea for the market, 
 
94 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 I am again indebted to Mr. Fortune, whose second work 
 on the ' Tea Districts of China ' may be fully relied on. 
 
 " The leaves are first spread out thinly on flat bamboo 
 trays, to allow any moisture to dry, and remain thus for 
 one or two hours. Pans are heated over a wood fire, 
 and into them are thrown the leaves, which are kept 
 shaken about with both hands ; after being subject to 
 the heat for about four or five minutes, they become 
 quite moist, and are then taken out and placed 
 upon the rolling-table. Each man at the table makes 
 a ball of as many leaves as he can well hold, which he 
 afterwards rolls upon the table till some of the moisture 
 is got rid of. He also gives the leaves a twist, which 
 is so important a part of the manufacture that each 
 ball of leaves is handed to the head workman for his 
 approval. The leaves are then thrown into a pan over 
 a slow charcoal fire, and kept rapidly moved for about 
 an hour and a half, when they are well dried. Their 
 colour is now a dull green, and will not turn black. 
 Afterwards the tea is passed through siftings, in order 
 to get rid of the dust and other impurities, and is thus 
 divided into twankay, hyson-skin, hyson, young 
 hyson, gunpowder, &c. 
 
 " The teas known as black teas are subjected to a 
 rather different process, by which the leaves remain 
 black instead of green. "When the leaves are picked, 
 they are laid out on the bamboo trays, and are allowed 
 
TEA. 97 
 
 to remain for a long while. They are then tossed about 
 in the air, and thrown into heaps, until it is found they 
 are soft and moist, and smell fragrantly. The leaves 
 are roasted in the pan for about five minutes, and after- 
 wards rolled ; they are then exposed in the open air 
 for about three hours to dry. A second time they are 
 put into the roasting-pan, and a second time they are 
 rolled. 
 
 " The charcoal fires are now got ready. A tubular 
 basket, narrow at the middle and wide at both ends, is 
 placed over the fire. A sieve is dropped into this tube 
 and covered with leaves, which are shaken on it, to 
 about an inch of thickness. After about five or six 
 minutes the leaves are removed and are rolled, and this 
 process of roasting and rolling is often repeated for the 
 fourth time. Then the whole is placed in the baskets, 
 which are set over the charcoal fire, where they remain 
 until the tea is perfectly dry. The Hack colour is 
 brought out, but afterwards improves in appearance. 
 
 " I have been somewhat minute, because I wish you 
 to see that the difference in the manufacture not only 
 accounts for the difference in colour between the black 
 and green tea, but also for the different chemical pro- 
 perties which they possess. The roasting of the leaves 
 almost as soon as they are picked, and their being dried 
 off quickly after the rolling, account for their colour, 
 and, chemists tell us, also for the effect which green 
 
 H 
 
98 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 teas have on some constitutions, to cause headache or 
 sleeplessness. 
 
 " The rice-paper paintings, from which the accom- 
 panying illustrations are copied, represent tea, coloured 
 for the English market ; for the leaves appear of the 
 liveliest hue. 
 
 "A large number of people is employed in preparing 
 the chests for the tea, and in packing it. Plumbers, 
 painters, and carpenters, work at the chests, and produce 
 those cases with their wondrous hieroglyphics. I think 
 they might discover a more refined manner of fiUing the 
 chests than using their naked feet to compress the tea ; 
 but this way has been pursued for hundreds of years, 
 and it has now .become such a time-honoured custom, 
 that it would be wanting in reverence to the memory 
 of their predecessors to alter it. 
 
 " The chests are carried by coolies across the moun- 
 tains, or down to the great tea emporiums, where 
 merchants from all parts resort to purchase tea. The 
 coarser kinds are carried, suspended on bamboos across 
 a coolie's shoulders, but the finer teas are carried in 
 single chests, lashed to two bamboos of about seven feet 
 in length, the other ends of which are fastened together. 
 The coolie carries the chest on his back, and when he 
 wants to rest, he has only to bring the other ends of the 
 bamboos to the ground, when the chest is raised from 
 his shoulders, and may rest against a wall. In this way 
 

TEA. 101 
 
 the tea is never shaken, or bruised, by being bumped on 
 the ground. 
 
 "Thanks to all these operations, and thanks to the 
 commercial spirit of our own countrymen, tea is brought 
 to our tables at a moderate cost. To dwell on its merits 
 would be superfluous ; and we have only to consider for 
 a moment how many hours of our lives are spent whilst 
 partaking of this fragrant beverage, to feel how largely 
 it enters into our social life. We are quite ready to 
 agree with Tungpo, a Chinese author, in his estimate of 
 tea : ' It is an exceedingly useful plant ; cultivate it, 
 and the benefit will be widely spread ; driuk it, and the 
 animal spirits wiU be lively and clear. The chief rulers, 
 dukes, and nobility esteem it ; the lower people, the 
 poor, and the beggarly will not be destitute of it ; all 
 use it daily, and like it.' 
 
 " I have been speaking of that article which we get so 
 abundantly from, China ; and let me now ask, what is 
 that which the Chinese obtain most largely from us ? 
 It is opium, the curse of China. 
 
 " If, when drinking the ' cup which cheers but not 
 inebriates,' we compare the qualities and effects of the 
 tea-plant which we derive from China with those of 
 that other plant, the poppy, which we import there, the 
 comparison is, in every way, in favour of the heathen 
 nation, and against the Christian. 
 
 " I do not pretend to understand the subject in all its 
 
102 
 
 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 bearings ; diplomatists and consular gentlemen may 
 have a great deal to say in favour of the opium traffic 
 that I may not be able to reply to satisfactorily ; and 
 our old friend, the political economist, who always 
 
 PACKING TEA. 
 
 crops up in defence of anything that is wrong, may 
 advance that favourite proposition of his, that it is all a 
 question of supply and demand. Still I cannot shut my 
 eyes,^-not so wide open as they might be, perhaps — 
 
OPIUM. 103 
 
 to these two facts : first, that this habit of opium- 
 smoking is not only debasing and degrading, but that 
 it saps the foundations of national prosperity; and 
 secondly, that they learned the habit and obtained the 
 deadly drug from us. 
 
 " The opium trade does not date back further than the 
 y-ear 1770, when it was imported from India by the 
 East India Company. The pernicious influences arising 
 from the use of opium soon became apparent, and led to 
 the passing of various laws for its suppression or control ; 
 but the consuraption increased so rapidly, and the profits 
 were so great, that the honourable directors of the East 
 India Company cared but little for the ruin of the bodies 
 and souls of the Chinese, so that their coffer s might be 
 enriched. To such an extent was the trade at length 
 developed, that the company derived an annual revenue 
 of five millions sterling. When the company ceased, 
 and India became a colony of the British Crown, the 
 importation of opium continued to form an important 
 item of revenue, which could not be given up. 
 
 " At various times our ministers sought to remove all 
 restrictions on the trade and all enactments that made 
 it legal, solely, of course, for British cupidity and gain ; 
 for it was well known that this drug had proved the 
 greatest curse with which China 'was ever visited. 
 Against such policy, pursued by a Christian nation, let 
 me set over the determination of a heathen emperor. 
 
104 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 Tau Kuang, when, in 1842, Sir Henry Pottinger, the 
 minister of our Queen, sought to legalize the trade in 
 opium, said, ' It is true I cannot prevent the introduc- 
 tion of the flowing poison ; gain-seeking and corrupt 
 men will, for profit and sensuality, defeat my wishes ; 
 but nothing will induce me to derive a reventie from 
 the vice and misery of my people.' But his son, Hien 
 Pung, who smoked opium before he came to the throne 
 in 1851, yielded, after his defeat in 1858, to the 
 demands of England, Trance, and America, and legalized 
 the traffic by imposing an import duty on the drug. 
 The Chinese now cultivate it to a large extent, yet the 
 amount imported from India is yearly on the increase. 
 There, an immense tract of country, six hundred miles 
 long by two hundred broad, is devoted to the growth of 
 poppies, and is entirely under the control and regulation 
 of the Indian Government. No one can grow the 
 poppies unless employed directly by Government, or 
 licensed to do so ; and all must bring the juice obtained 
 therefrom to the factories at Patna and Benares, to be 
 there manufactured into opium. 
 
 " After payment of aU expenses for the year 1867-68, 
 the Indian Government realized a net revenue of up- 
 wards of £7,000,000. 
 
 " It is not a little remarkable that a foreign production 
 should, in so comparatively short a time, have become so 
 popular. There must be something in the climate or 
 
OPIUM. 105 
 
 in the natural temperament of the Chinaman that 
 disposes him to the use of thia drug ; at first it may be 
 taken, perhaps, for heartburn, for which it is an in- 
 fallible remedy ; it is also useful in other complaints ; 
 fur we know that in the form of laudanum it is often 
 prescribed in this country. But whether taken at first 
 medicinally or not, a very short time suffices to insure 
 the habit. Mr. Cobbold, in his ' Pictures of the 
 Chinese,' says, ' A fortnight's use of the drug is suffi- 
 cient to tie the habit like a millstone round the neck, 
 when nothing but almost superhuman effort will avail 
 to cast it off. The gnawing agony of the unsatisfied 
 craving is maddening ; besides which, there is a pros- 
 tration of all physical strength, the eyes are weak and 
 watery, the mouth runs with saliva, the mind itself has 
 become weakened; and, in the presence of all this 
 suffering, there is the certainty of relief a few seconds 
 after the opium-pipe has touched the lips, a relief which 
 lasts perhaps half, perhaps only the third or fourth 
 part of the day, when the same craving comes round 
 again.' 
 
 " Not only is the habit very easily acquired, but when 
 once acquired, it is almost impossible to giye it up. I 
 have shown you some of the effects which follow a 
 delay in its use ; and cases are recorded where utter 
 prostration has followed the postponement by a few 
 minutes of the time for the pipe. Death has even re- 
 
106 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 suited from attempts to give up the habit suddenly and 
 at once ; and in the few instances where the determina- 
 tion to abandon it has been arrived at, the smokers 
 have had to take opium for some time in another form, 
 often opium and camphor pills, gradually lessening the 
 dose. 
 
 "The effects of smoking opium are invariably disturbed 
 sleep, an appetite for dainties only, general emaciation, 
 sallowness, sunken eyes, bloodless cheeks, and a pale, 
 waxy appearance of the skin. The smoker is obliged 
 to increase the dose from time to time, when there 
 follows a corresponding reaction ; and the interval 
 between the doses becomes less and less. Such slaves 
 to the habit do men become, that they are utterly lost 
 to all other considerations ; they will spend half their 
 wages to purchase the drug, then the whole, then they 
 will sell all their goods, and sometimes even their wives 
 and children. 
 
 " I need not stop to moralize, or to attempt to draw 
 any lessons. I merely state facts, though I venture 
 to think they convey their own teaching. 
 
 " I am not sure, though, whether there is not more 
 excuse for this national habit of opium-smoking than 
 there is for ours of drunkenness. Their climate pro- 
 duces great lassitude ; their temperament is of a dull, 
 "sluggish, morbid nature, on which a bad habit would 
 easily fasten ; and, at first, the effects are soothing and 
 
OPIUM. 107 
 
 pleasant. I do not think so mucli can be said for 
 English people and their habit of drunkenness. Then 
 something may be said for the habits of the people ; 
 there is little or no provision made for filling up their 
 leisure time as there is with us. A Chinaman's home 
 is not very attractive, especially if he has been married 
 to a wife for whom he cares but little ; he has no 
 periodical or other attractive literature, no lectures, no 
 evening classes, no singing societies, no tea-meetings, 
 no joUy parties ; and so he goes to the opium-shop. 
 
 " The illustration represents such a shop. Opium is 
 sold in hard balls, which are reduced by heat to the 
 consistency of treacle. There is some over the little 
 charcoal stove, the fire of which the man is fanning ; 
 underneath is a further supply of charcoal. The reclin- 
 ing .figure speaks for himself, or rather his picture does; 
 for he is now smoking his pipe, and would not speak to 
 his dearest friend. A little opium is taken up and 
 dropped into the small aperture on the top of the pipe, 
 which answers the purpose of the bowl, and it is then 
 applied to the flame of a lamp. The smoke is then in- 
 haled until the man becomes unconscious, when he lies 
 on the couch until the effect of the drug is off, and he 
 awakes. 
 
 " After what has been said it will not require any 
 words of mine to show what an obstacle this opium 
 traffic is to the spread of the gospel. IMany of the lower 
 
108 
 
 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 orders imagine that our missionaries are directly in- 
 terested in the sale of opium ; but the more intelligent, 
 who give the missionaries credit for the hest intentions 
 towards their race, say, ' What is your religion worth ? 
 Your countrymen bring us in one hand the drug that 
 
 AST OPICM SMOKEk's DEN. 
 
 debases and kills us. We did not know its use till you 
 brought it : and when we found out its evil effects, we 
 tried to prevent its getting into our country. Biit your 
 gains were at stake, and you cared not for our bodies or 
 our souls. Now, with the other handj you bring us 
 
OPIUM. 109 
 
 your gospel, which you teU us will bless us both in 
 body and soul. You tell us yours is a gospel of love to 
 God and man ; your countrymen can neither love one 
 nor the other ; they only love themselves. Take your 
 gospel to them, for they need to be taught to do to 
 others as they would others should do to them.' 
 
 " Let me just quote a few words from some of our 
 missionaries — men, who have given an earnest of their 
 disinterestedness by giving up all worldly prospects for 
 the sake of benefiting the Chinese, and who, therefore, 
 have a right to speak about any great hindrance to their 
 work. 
 
 " The Eev. Griffith John, of the London Missionary 
 Society, who has been fifteen years in China, writing 
 concerning the people of Szchuen, says : ' Opium is 
 fast eating up the stamina of these sturdy people, and 
 it only requires one or two more decades to convert 
 them into a comparatively imbecile race. Moreover, the 
 opium trade has created a strong prejudice against the 
 missionary and the gospel. The Chinese cannot see 
 how the same people can dispense to them a destructive 
 poison with the one hand, and a saving religion with the 
 other.' 
 
 " The Eev. J. E. Wolfe, of the Church Missionary 
 Society, writing to its committee, says : ' There is, how- 
 ever, one thing which the Chinese people dislike, and 
 which has tended more than anjrthing else to produce 
 
110 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 hatred to foreigners, and cause misery and ruin to 
 multitudes of the Chinese people themselves ; and that 
 one thing is the act of the British Government in com- 
 pelling the Chinese people, at the point of the bayonet, 
 to buy the opium, when they most virtuously and 
 patriotically protested against it. I have invariably 
 found, in my journeys through the country, that this act 
 of the British Government is remembered with deep and 
 lasting hatred by all classes of the people, and is handed 
 down from father to son as one cause why 'the English 
 should be held in everlasting hatred and contempt.' 
 
 " I do not think that we should learn from this that 
 sending the gospel to China is a thankless and hopeless 
 task. Eather should we rejoice when we hear, that in 
 spite of the obstacle which the opium traffic presents, 
 there are many encouraging signs that Christianity is 
 taking some hold on the people ; and I think we should 
 feel that as so many millions are realized from the 
 Chinese through the sale of that which tends to destroy 
 them, we should not grudge even a large outlay, with 
 the view of sending them the gospel to elevate and bless 
 them. 
 
 " What I have said about opium affords another illus- 
 tration how much more readily men pick up evil habits 
 than good otfes. I have shown you that in manufactures, 
 in trade, and commercial and social customs, the Chinese 
 show little disposition to alter the ways of their fathers 
 
OPIUM. Ill 
 
 and grandfathers ; they have mixed with Englishmen 
 for centuries now, but they see hut little in them worth 
 copying, voting them harharians on the whole. But 
 directly a poisonous drug is offered them, they purchase 
 it readily, and soon become enslaved in the habit of 
 smoking it. 
 
 " So it is to some extent with another plant and 
 another narcotic — tobacco. 
 
 " When it was first introduced, the emperor tried to 
 prohibit it ; and afterwards foreign sovereigns and the 
 Pope assisted him in trying to abolish smoking, and to 
 punish the growers. But now it is very commonly 
 smoked, and large tracts of land are devoted to its 
 growth. More than this, the Chinese have even begun 
 to export tobacco, and, from some that has been im- 
 ported here, it is said that they, the Celestials, can culti- 
 vate the weed pretty successfully. By-and-by, perhaps, 
 when we speak of the pig-tail in connection with China, 
 we shall have to distinguish between the queue outside 
 the head, and the -quid inside." 
 
 ^ 
 
Chapter viii. 
 
 natural productions. 
 
 jF the Chinese would only show their 
 willingness to adopt ideas from other 
 nations as readily as they have in the two 
 matters of opium and tobacco, there would 
 be no end to their commercial progress. 
 
 " Constitutionally they are fitted for com- 
 merce j they are precious wide awake, and, 
 as we have seen, are keenly alive to their 
 own interests ; they are capable of -great labour and 
 endurance, and, as a rule, are plodding and persevering ; 
 they are good copyists and skilfiil workmen; and society 
 is not divided and weakened by any rigid rules of caste. 
 Then, geographically, they have plenty of navigable 
 rivers and excellent canals, and a great extent of sea- 
 board. And yet, with all these advantages, they will 
 not make the most of their resources. The coal question 
 
NATURAL PRODUCTIONS. 113 
 
 is one that has brought itself painfully under the notice 
 of English housekeepers lately ; and it has been feared 
 that our coal supply will not last so long as many have 
 supposed. It is stated, on good authority, however, that 
 we have enough to last for three hundred years ; but 
 some have urged that an export duty should be put 
 upon coal, as so much is sent abroad. As England is 
 now a staunch advocate for free trade, this suggestion is 
 not likely to be carried out. We cannot be too thank- 
 ful for our coal-beds, which have conduced so largely to 
 our national prosperity. Twelve thousand miles of coal 
 have sufficed to make Great Britain the greatest work- 
 shop in the world. But what shall we say when we are 
 told that the coal-fields of China coVer an area of up- 
 wards of four hundred thousand square miles^thirty- 
 three times the extent of those of Great Britain ? Yet 
 such is the obstinacy of the Chinese character, that 
 they win not open a single mine, or make use of the 
 coal in any way ; nay, more, the Chinese Government 
 will not consent to the working of the coal-mines by 
 foreigners on their paying a handsome royalty. Some 
 months since, the question was asked in our House of 
 Commons, whether our Government, in connection with 
 others, would not try to negotiate a treaty for the safe 
 investment of capital in mining enterprise, and in 
 making lines of railway. The reply given was, that 
 though our own consuls had confirmed the reports as to 
 
 I 
 
114 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 the extent of the coal-fields, and as to the facilities that 
 existed for working them, the Chinese Government had 
 refused, over and over again, to allow the coal to be 
 worked by foreign enterprise. 
 
 " At the custom-house at Pekin is a gasometer fed by 
 coal brought all the way from "Wales, when there are 
 coal-mines within a few miles of the place. It is only 
 recently that the prejudice against the use of steamers 
 has lessened ; and even now the mandarins will not 
 allow the Chinese merchants to change the build of 
 their junks, or own steam-vessels. 
 
 " I am afraid some of you will think this rather a dry 
 evening ; I saw one of you yawning just now. I take 
 the hint, and will bring this part to a close ; but it is 
 really necessary to say something about the great 
 natural products of the country, and it is rather hard to 
 be lively about coal-fields. Coming up from the bowels 
 of the earth, let me say just a word about three staple 
 productions on the surface. 
 
 " The principal food of the Chinese is rice ; so you may 
 readily suppose that to supply the immense population, 
 numbering three hundred and eighty millions, a pretty 
 considerable extent of land must be under cultivation. 
 The average yield is three thousand three hundred 
 pounds per acre, so that the land must be well worked 
 to yield so much. 
 
 "There are two crops yearly, sown on terraces of land, 
 
NATURAL PEODUCTIONS. 115 
 
 rising one atove the other, for the purpose of being 
 readily irrigated, which is the most important operation 
 in the cultivation. Springs from a high level, having 
 watered the patches on the highest terraces, descend to 
 the lower, and so on to the valleys. When, however, 
 water cannot be thus obtained, pumps are used to draw 
 it up from the lower levels to the higher. These chain- 
 pumps have been in use for centuries, and are so ad- 
 mirably adapted for the purpose, that they are used in 
 some of our dockyards and elsewhere. 
 
 " I have a model of one of these pumps, but it is not 
 now in working order ; I should like you to understand 
 how simple and yet how clever their arrangement is. 
 I always was a poor hand at describing mechanical 
 action, so I wlU. borrow a description of the working of 
 an endless chain-pump. ' One end of the box in which 
 the chain, or rather rope, and its buckets pass, is placed 
 at an angle of forty-five degrees, more or less, with the 
 river, canal, or pond whence water is to be brought 
 upon the neighbouring fields. This box is open on the 
 top and both ends, and made very strong and light, 
 one man carrying the whole apparatus with ease on his 
 shoulders. The chain, with its buckets, passes over a 
 horizontal shaft, which is supported by two perpendicu- 
 lar posts. One or more persons, steadying themselves 
 by leaning upon a horizontal pole four or five feet 
 higher than the shaft, and by walking or stepping 
 
116 THE LAND OY THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 briskly on short radiating arms, cause it to revolve on 
 its axis, bringing up the water, which pours out of the 
 upper end of the box. The faster the men walk or 
 step, the greater the quantity of water pumped up. The 
 water, in little streams, is made to run wherever 
 desired.' * 
 
 " Another staple product is cotton, which grows on 
 plants about two feet high. The plots of ground on 
 which the plants are grown are mostly cultivated by the 
 proprietors. It is quite a patriarchal employment ; 
 the fathers attend to the plants, the children pick the 
 cotton, and the women and children spin, comb, and 
 card it, and make it into cloth' for themselves and for 
 sale. There are two kinds of cloth, white and yellow ; 
 from the latter is made the Nankin cloth, which is very 
 durable. One of my early recollections of boyhood is 
 that of having a Nankin pair of unmentionables, that 
 were always getting soiled, and were always being 
 washed and appearing as good as new. When this 
 cloth is dyed blue it forms the ordinary dress of the 
 labouring class. 
 
 " The third production, which is largely cultivated, is 
 silk. It is inferior to that raised in the south of France, 
 but its supply is very abundant, and some of the 
 colours are very splendid and durable, or we might say 
 fast, ia both senses. More than eight million pounds 
 *Doolittle's "Social Life of the ChiLese.'' 
 
NATURAL PRODUCTIONS. 117 
 
 of silk are exported yearly. The Chinese grow their 
 own mulberry trees, and have their own siUcworms ; and 
 in this latter respect are far better off than the silk- 
 growers of Prance and Italy, who, through being unable 
 now to rear their silkworms, are obliged to procure 
 them yearly from Japan. 
 
 " The Chinese not only get good silk, but they know 
 how to use it. They embroider most beautifully, and 
 their workmanship and the colours of the silk last for 
 many years. I have by me a mandarin's dress of 
 scarlet satin, embroidered in a manner that would make 
 you go into ecstasies. This dress was the property of a 
 sailor before I had it, and how long it was in his posses- 
 sion I know not ; but in spite of its change of owners, 
 and the not very great care taken of it, the material , is 
 still very perfect, and the colours of the silk embroidery 
 are very little faded. I expect this dress once belonged 
 to a mandarin of high rank, for red denotes the first 
 degree of official rank; it also is a symbol of virtue. 
 Yellow is the imperial colour ; purple is for grandsons ; 
 green for the furniture of princesses; blue denotes 
 official rank of the third or fourth degree ; black de- 
 notes 'guilt and vice ; and white, moral purity, and is 
 also worn as mourning. 
 
 "The artists of the needle are mostly men; they make 
 garments for both the sexes. Chinese tailoring is like 
 any other Chinese accomplishment, clever and unique 
 
118 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 One is not measured by a tape, but by a stick placed 
 against the body, and an approximate measurement 
 guessed at. The tailor sits at his table, and not on it, 
 with his legs doubled under him, as ours do ; he there- 
 by avoids the injuries which ours incur. His hot iron 
 is an original affair, being little else than an open sauce- 
 
 TAILOB AT -WOKK. 
 
 pan, filled with burning charcoal to keep it warm. The 
 snake-like scissors are used very dexterously, and no 
 doubt the shape of the handle answers some good 
 purpose. There are no large clothing or tailors' shops, 
 as with us, but the tailor is hired out by the day, as 
 many people here hire dressmakers. 
 
NATURAL PRODUCTIONS, 119 
 
 " Wages generally are low, but those of the tailor are 
 unusually so, because he is always supposed to help 
 himself to some of the material he is working at. As 
 it is taken for granted that he is dishonest, and is 
 paid accordingly, there is no inducement for him to be 
 otherwise. 
 
 " Eumour does say that Chinese tailors are not the 
 only ones fond of 'cabbage;' but without venturing 
 to assert so much of our tradesmen, I may relate an 
 incident that happened some years ago at a country 
 house. The wife of the worthy man who needed some 
 new garments engaged a tailor to come and make up 
 some material she had bought. Now this good woman 
 had heard of the- appropriating propensities of some 
 tailors, and she was determined to give the one she 
 had engaged no opportunity. She sat near him and 
 watched every movement, whilst he made all sorts of 
 excuses to get her from the room for a while. But no ; 
 the lady would not stir ; and the man fancied he 
 knew the reason. Getting desperate at last, he cut 
 off a yard of cloth, and threw it out of the window, 
 saying, ' We always give the first yard to the devil, for 
 luck.' 
 
 " Indignant at this waste, and thrown off her guard, 
 she declared she would not have such an expensive 
 superstition, and at once rushed out into the front to 
 recover the cloth. This was all the man required ; and 
 
120 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 as soon as her back was turned he cut off a consider- 
 able quantity for himself, and hid it away. 
 
 "The Chinese are behind very few nations in the art 
 of dress. By this I do not mean that they vary their 
 fashions so frequently and so completely as we do, nor 
 do they run from one extreme of dress to another ; but 
 they adapt their costume to the season and temperature 
 with more thought than we do. In the cold weather in 
 China — for they have such a state of things — a Chinaman 
 will have his furs or his,heavy cloths, and a pretty con- 
 siderable number of garments he will put on. If you 
 were to- see a well-to-do Chinaman undress, it would 
 remind you of the trick of the conjuror who makes a 
 sixpence disappear, and says it has passed into a box 
 which he rattles ; but he has to take box from within 
 box, until at last he gets to the one containing the coin. 
 Now with us the great-coat is the chief difference 
 between our dress in warm weather and in cold. There 
 is very little variety in the texture of the cloths we 
 wear in summer and in winter. I am not now refer- 
 ring to that happy time of boyhood when we wore brown 
 holland pinafores, with no jacket underneath, and white 
 trousers. 
 
 " You do not catch the Chinese rushing into the ex- 
 tremes of long and short dresses, of wide and narrow 
 sleeves, nor of ample and of scanty skirts ; they leave 
 that for Western barbarians, who allow some men- 
 
NATUEAL PE0DUCTI0N3. 121 
 
 milliners to lead them by the nose, and who arbitrarily 
 set the fashions for their own advantage, without any 
 reference to the laws of taste. 
 
 " Has anybody been wondering where the Chinese get 
 their needles from ? Well, not from England, for they 
 used them, I expect, long before we did, though now 
 they have not so many nor so great a variety of these 
 useful articles. There is an old saying that the Chinese 
 make needles by filing down iron crowbars. Of course 
 this is not true, but it contains this truth, that the 
 Chinese are so persevering that they think no time nor 
 trouble too great to accomplish their end. 
 
 " They have not yet learned to make pins, but use in- 
 stead tapes and fastenings. Now here we may pity 
 them, and wonder what they do without them. Why, 
 with the millions made every day we never have too 
 many, and we are often at a loss for one. It is one of 
 the greatest* problems that puzzles our good mothers, 
 where all the pins can possibly get to. I fancy they 
 must be subject to some special law of gravitation or 
 attraction, and that they are drawn to some magnetic 
 force underground, and out of sight. Of course, this 
 is a subject that does not bother boys much; they 
 dftener, I think, suffer from the presence than from the 
 absence of pins. When buttons come off shirts, or 
 waistcoat strings get broken, for both these catastrophes 
 will happen, although boys are such gentle creatures, it 
 
122 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 is very handy to repair the accident with a pin, but it 
 is not so pleasant to have a pointed reminder of the 
 fact. But these Chinese boys are not like ours ; they 
 are not half so hearty or rough, and their games are of 
 the mildest description. The absence of pins does not 
 bother them ; they have not yet learned, so far as I 
 know, to stick butterflies for natural history collections, 
 nor do they know that exquisite pleasure of eating 
 periwinkles with a pin. But how their mothers get on 
 without pins, gets over me. Well, so do a great many 
 other things ; and one ought never to be surprised at 
 anything these people do, or do not do." 
 
Chapter ix. 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 
 ^ EW nations have given so 
 
 -i.-y< 
 
 much attention to educa- 
 tion as the Chinese. You 
 cannot be long in any Chinese 
 town without being struck 
 with the number of trade 
 announcements, which are 
 usually written by the shop- 
 keepers themselves. In most 
 shops you will see the stick 
 of ink and the brush used for 
 writing, even in very poor thoroughfares ; and instead 
 of employing the local sign-painter to celebrate their 
 wares, they will do it themselves on tablets outside 
 their shops. Some of these announcements combine 
 sentiment and business, prose and poetry, in a some- 
 what amusing manner. One shop wiU announce itself 
 
124 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 as ' the shop of heaven-sent luck/ which 'heing so 
 highly favoured, one would think need not recommend 
 itself; another as 'the tea-shop of celestial principles ;' 
 another as 'the abode of honesty and fair dealing;' 
 another as ' the mutton-shop of morning twilight ; ' 
 though why people should want such substantial fare 
 at so early an hour is not made plain. 
 
 " Now these, in an educational point of view, contrast 
 favourably with the prosaic and often iU-spelled notices 
 in our little shops; but in point of morality I very 
 much prefer our own ; for with all our faults, I do not 
 think we are such inveterate story-tellers. You may 
 see a tablet recording that the shop to which it is affixed 
 is ' good and just, according to heaven ; ' but, as a rule, 
 statements that have to make an appeal for celestial 
 testimony do not proceed from truthful mortals. At 
 Pekin one of those abominable opium-shops is called 
 ' the thrice righteous.' 
 
 " The Chinese have not gone so far in the art of adver- 
 tising as we have, though they do stick up flaring yellow, 
 green, and orange handbills, and they mark their 
 commodities with their names ; but there is one means 
 of notoriety which we have not made, the most of, and 
 that is of calling attention to any physical peculiarity 
 or infirmity of the shopkeeper. With us a shopkeeper 
 with unusually bandy legs, or with a more than ordinary 
 cast in the eye, might be an object of curiosity, and 
 
EDUCATION. 125 
 
 perhaps of ridicule to some of our boys, but the pecu- 
 liarity would not be announced as an inducement to 
 deal with him ; but there you may see ' the steel-shop 
 of the pock-marked Wang/ or ' the-tea shop of the 
 hump-backed Hang.' 
 
 " I was saying how much attention is given to educa- 
 tion. In every village of any size there is a primary school, 
 held in a spare hall or room of some private family, or 
 else in a part of the temple. There is no local tax or 
 Government aid for schools, nor are there many free 
 schools. , Every one, however poor, makes an effort to 
 send his boys to school, and for this reason, that all 
 Government situations are thrown open to competition. 
 
 " Now our Government has only lately adopted this 
 plan, although for some years a system of limited com- 
 petition was tried and found to work successfully. 
 I dare say Mr. Tozer will be preparing some of you 
 for our Government appointments ; and if so, I am 
 sure I hope, for your sake and for his, that you will 
 be successful. But whether that may be your liue in 
 life or not, I am sure you will be interested in knowing 
 something about a system of education that has been 
 in existence for centuries, and which, in spite of its age, 
 is miserably defective. 
 
 " Let us begin with Master John Chinaman. At an 
 early age he is sent to school; and however dreary or 
 Unpleasant any English boys may have found school — 
 
126 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 of course Mr. Tozer's boys are all exceptions, — I should 
 say our school-time was paradise compared with the 
 period that Chinese youngsters pass through. In the 
 first place, they are^ prohibited from playing football, 
 flying kites, playing chess or shuttlecock ; they must 
 not learn any musical instruments, nor must they train 
 birds ; and all these prohibitions lest the mind should 
 be dissipated. Then you say, perhaps, the schoolroom 
 combines amusement with instruction. Let us see. 
 "When he enters the school he can do nothing naturally ; 
 he cannot sit, or walk, or stand without some rules being 
 enforced, and the bow on entering or leaving is quite an 
 important ceremony. They are not taught in classes nor 
 at desks, but each pupil has a little table at which he 
 learns by himself. "What does he learn ? Now listen, 
 you ill-used youngster, who may have often wished that 
 Julius Csesar had been drowned when crossing over to 
 our island, so that he might never have written his 
 Commentaries. Listen, you impatient young arithme- 
 tician, who may have often sung, — 
 
 ' Multiplication's my vexation ; 
 Division's quite as liad ; 
 The Eule of Three does puzzleme, 
 And Practice drives me mad.' 
 
 " The Chinese language is a very hard one to learn, but 
 it is much harder to write. The pupils first learn the 
 sounds of the characters, so as to say them off by heart 
 
EDUCATION. 127 
 
 and after years of study they begin to understand their 
 meaning and use. As for -writing, that takes longer 
 still. They begin to trace the characters with a hair 
 pencil and China ink ; and it is only after years of 
 practice that they can write well. 
 
 " I know education with us is not always made so 
 agreeable as it might be. I know we have many 
 schoolmasters who have mistaken their calling. I 
 know that the routine of some of our schools is not so 
 varied and attractive as it might be made ; but, compared 
 with the Chinese, our boys have a splendid time of it. 
 
 " Their chief exercise is to commit to memory that 
 which they do not understand, and that which is not 
 properly explained to them. They do not learn arith- 
 metic, geography, or any of the natural sciences, but 
 merely the writings of Confucius and Mencius — the 
 Classics, as they are called-. Now with us there are men 
 and women engaged in writing books specially for 
 schools, trying to make them as easy to be understood 
 and as interesting as possible ; but these classics are the 
 books of wisdom of the empire, and were never written 
 for any but adults. Fancy sitting down fbr hours to 
 learn lessons from books made rip of a sort of compound 
 of Blackstone's Commentaries,' Milton's ' Paradise Lost,' 
 Shakspeare, and Mental and Moral PhUosophys. 
 
 " You must know that Confucius, the great Chinese 
 philosopher, was born B.C. 551. He was a public 
 
128 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 teacher of morals, and at one time prime minister of 
 his native country, the little kingdom of Lu. His 
 memory is held in great esteem, and his writings are as 
 sacred to th<; Chinese as the Bible is to us. He was, no 
 doubt, a wonderfully wise and good man, but fancy Ms „ 
 writings, composed so long ago, being the text-book for* 
 schools ! 
 
 " There are thirteen books of classics, most of them 
 the writings of Confucius, and these are all engraved on 
 two hundred stone tablets in the hall of the classics at 
 Pekin. At one time a tyrannical old Emperor tried to 
 destroy all the works of the classics, so now they are 
 preserved on marble, as a safeguard against any such 
 threat or determination. 
 
 " You may find out the whereabouts of a school by 
 the noise coming from it ; for all the pupils read aloud to 
 themselves in committing their tasks to memory, and 
 when ready, they stand with their back to the teacher 
 and repeat their lessons. This is called ' backing the 
 book,' and is done to prevent looking over ; though I 
 fancy few of our boys get the chance, though they do 
 face their masters. 
 
 " If a pupil distinguishes himself at school, he goes on 
 through the different courses of degrees. The system 
 of their competitive literary examinations is most ela- 
 borate, and is conducted with great exactness and 
 precision. I do not pretend to understand it myself. 
 
EDUCATION. 
 
 129 
 
 and if I did, I stould not weary you with a full account 
 of it. There are first examinations before the district 
 magistrates, when two prose essays and one poem have 
 to be written ; then there are examinations before the 
 Prefect in prefectural cities; then before the Literary 
 Chancellors ; at each of these certain degrees conferring 
 
 MASTER AND PUPIL. 
 
 certain privileges are granted. These all lead up to the 
 great competitive examination for posts of honour and 
 emolument, which is held every three years at Pekin. 
 To this thousands of competitors look forward, and tens 
 of thousands of their friends also. There are generally 
 from six to eight thousand competitors, most of them 
 attended by servants, or friends. As many as three or 
 four thousand of&cials assist at the examination, so that 
 the event is one that creates great excitement in the 
 city. In one part of the examination hall there are 
 
130 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 nearly ten thousand apartments, or cells, foT the separate 
 use of the competitors. Each cell is a little higher^thah 
 a man's head, tHree feet ■wide,;bhree and a half feet deep, 
 having no door nor window. The cells are open to the 
 passage, which runs the entire length of them; and this 
 opening lets in air and light, and often wind and rain. 
 A few boards are supplied, which the student may- 
 adjust as seat, desk, or -bed, as he sees fit. A b6d ! you 
 say. Yes, in this cell the competitor lives for nearly 
 nine days. He takes in with him rice,- and coals to cook 
 it, or whatever food he may require. The law supplies 
 a measure of rice and half a pound of meat, but these 
 rations are usually so bad that he generally provides his 
 own. Six or eight hundred men are provided by 
 Government to wait on the competitors. Men are 
 stationed in towers, which command a view of all the 
 cells, as sentinels to watch the competitors. The exa- 
 mination is divided into three. parts, to each of which 
 three days is assigned ; and the whole of which consists 
 of composition, or writing of themes and poems. The 
 subjects are chosen from the Chinese classics. When 
 the competitors have finished their essays a,nd poems, 
 they are allowed to come out of their cells, saluted by 
 the firing of cannons and the music of bands. After 
 being allowed a time for recess, they are locked in again 
 for the second part, when four themes and one poem ■ 
 have to be written ; and wl\en these are finished, and 
 
EDUCATION. ' 131 
 
 the competitors' bave been again let out, and are again 
 locked in, five- other themes and one other poem are 
 assigned. The examination of all these exercises occu- 
 pies a large staff ; for they are all copied out, so that the 
 originals, which might contain some secret mark whereby 
 an examiner who was bribed might identify his ' friend's 
 paper, are not submitted. 
 
 " The posting up of the list with the 'names of the 
 successful candidates, and in their order of merit, is 
 looked forward to anxiously ; and there are men who 
 make a . living by carrying about the names of the 
 most successful on the roll of honour. With the 
 names written on paper, and with a gong, these men 
 go about to proclaim the honoured ones to their friends, 
 or to sell the lists to any who are interested. One "of 
 the four cardinal pleasures, is to "have one's name on 
 the roll of honour ; and • those so distinguished are 
 indeed honoured. A tablet is set up outside their 
 houses, feasts are given in their honour, ceremonies 
 are performed, and presents are made. Besides all 
 which the highest posts under Government are open to 
 those who have so distinguished theinselves, • Their 
 names are in every one's mouth ; and those related to- 
 them, or resident in their neighbourhood, come in for 
 some of the reflected glory. 
 
 " Well, after sticking to an examination like that, I 
 think we should want some considerable amount of 
 
132 THE LAND OF THE -PIGTAIL. 
 
 recreation; and the very thought of such cramming 
 leads one to ask, ' How do the people amuse them- 
 selves?' In this respect, as in others, they are a 
 peculiar people. 
 
 " You will have gathered that the Chinese boy is not 
 the finest institution in the world. I don't suppose 
 any of them were ever taught 1:6 sing, — 
 
 ' I thant the goodness and the grace 
 
 That on my birth have smiled; 
 And placed me in Confucian days, 
 A happy Chinese child.' 
 
 " I think, too, that the more we hear a^out childhood 
 in other lands, or at all events in this, the more grate- 
 fully shall we feel the sentiment of those good old 
 lines of Dr. Watts. 
 
 " A great ^eal more is done for children in China 
 when they are at an age not to appreciate it. Wlien 
 he is three days old, John Chinaman has a. kind of 
 party to which his friends, or, rather the friends of his 
 parents — for he is too young to have any— rbring 
 presents of rice, cakes, fruits, and vermicelli: These 
 are tied round him with red tape ; aitd at the end of 
 the tape hang gold and silver coins. Sometimes toys 
 are also fastened on. These things remain on the baby 
 for fourteen days, to Q.ct as a kind of charm ; the gold 
 and silver denoting wealth, and the cord an eilrblem of 
 authority. ' Bless the baby ! ' you say ; ' how does 
 
EDUCATION. 133 
 
 he manage to turn over in bed with all these things 
 tied to him?' I do not know, I am sure-; I am 
 thankful to say I never had such a party in my honoiir 
 and I don't suppose little John is any the better for it, 
 for I dare say his respected parents eat all the presents 
 that are eatable, and pocket the cash. I know, even in 
 this Christian land, that presents made to youngsters 
 do not always benefit the individuals intended. I 
 know a lady whose very estimable grandmother had a 
 capacious pocket, where money given to her grand- 
 daughter was deposited ; but, unfortunately, her memory 
 was not so ample as her pocket, and so the child, 
 unintentionally I cheerfully admit, was kept out of her 
 possessions. - 
 
 ,' But there are more ceremonies attending little 
 John. Outside his bedroom they hang up the pith of 
 a rush used for candle wicks, to give him success iji life. 
 I -don't see the connection myself, perhaps some of you 
 da. I should have thought the emblem was intended 
 to have more of an intellectual turn, and to have 
 denoted that he was to be pithy in his remarks, and 
 brilliant as farthing candles. in his intellect. Some 
 charcoal is placed outside his door, to make him healthy. 
 Here you are again, you knowing English, anticipated 
 in your discoveries by centuries ! It is only within the 
 -last few years that we have begun to take charcoal ; and 
 charcoal biscuits are a very modern, and gritty invention. 
 
134 THE LAND- OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 iThen same dogs' and cats' haiirs are also placed,, to keep 
 the animals in the neighbourhood from barking and 
 
 THB ROLL OP HONOUR, 
 
 cat-a-wauling, and thereby disturbing his baby-sleep. 
 The question- we are all ready to ask is. Does it answer ? 
 , for I am sure some of us would be glad to try the 
 experiment in our own interest, as well, as in that of 
 the dear children ; for sometimes English, babies are 
 rather disturbing to others. 
 
EDUCATION. 135 ' 
 
 " But there, they ?ire nothing to tho^e other midnight 
 marauders of our peace, especially the cats. I dare say 
 the Chinese cats, like everything else there, partake of. 
 the sluggishness incidental to the climate, for if they 
 were as lively 'and as musically interesting as ours, I 
 am sure the Chinese would have some clever con- 
 trivance by which to capture them, and put an end to 
 their melody. 
 
 " Talking of cats remind^ me of a story which has 
 nothing to do with China, but serves to show how a 
 fertile mind may even. make the music of cats profitable. 
 I read of an American who made quite a good living by 
 tying a cat to his clothes-line at night, and then going 
 out next morning to collect all the hair-brushes, poMa- 
 tum-pots, old boots and slippers, that had been throwji 
 at it. 
 
 '' But if there is one kind of bark which the Chinese 
 are q,nxious to keep away from their children, there is 
 another they bring as close as outside the bedroom door, 
 and that is soap-bark, which they suppose will -make 
 them neat and clean. We know the opinion of our 
 own youilgsters as to the value of -soap, that it is a 
 cleverly contrived torment, in the hands of relentless 
 nurses, for making their eyes smart ; and they would 
 rejoice if anything connected with soap neVer came 
 nearer to them than outside their bedroom door. 
 
 " But this is not all. Ou the little fellow's bedstead 
 
136 THE LAND OF -THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 they hang a pair of trousers upside down, that is, of 
 course, with its legs in the air. This is not suggestive 
 of the inverted position which he will be likely to take 
 up ; for I question if a Chinese boy of ordinary capacity 
 ever thought of standing on his head ; but it is meant 
 ^0 denote that all the evil in the room will run down 
 the legs of the trousers, as a sort of pantaloon-lightning- 
 conductor, and not come near the child. This elegant 
 charm remains in its position for fourteen days, when 
 more presents are sent by friends, who are then invited 
 to. a party. Before the feast they witness a very im-, 
 portant ceremony, — the baby's head is shaved. " What 
 a barbarous custom I " you will say. A thank-ofPering 
 is made to the household gods, and the parents then 
 feel they have given the little stranger a fair start in 
 life. 
 
 "There are many supers'titious rites observed for the 
 benefit of boys that I need not trouble you with ; and 
 there are just two customs of a social rather, than of a 
 religious order which Mr. Doolittle records, which are • 
 not uninteresting. A child is not allowed- to sit down 
 until he is four months old, and then, as he has not vpry 
 clear ideas about the matter, he is assisted by his 
 maternal grandmother providing some soft molasses, 
 which are placed on the chair, and to which the young- 
 ster, adheres as tight as wax. It reminds one of the ' 
 trick which some depraved boys play when they place 
 
EDUCATION. 137 
 
 a piece of cobbler's wax on a form, in order that some 
 Tinsuspecting boy niiy sit upon it, and be stuck. 
 
 " The other custom is observed when the baby is a 
 year old : he is seated on a large bamboo sieve, on 
 which are laid a set of money-scales, a pair of shears, 
 a foot-measure, a brass mirror^ pencil, ink, paper, and- 
 ink-sla-b, one or two books, a silver or a gold ornament, 
 &c. The child,, in his best bib and tucker, is anxiously 
 watched by his parents and friends, to see which article 
 he will first touch; for that will indicate his future 
 employment. If he take up the weights or the gold 
 ornament, he will become a wealthy man ; if he take 
 up the pen or ink, he will be a distinguished sclnolar. 
 
 " Now, as I have told you, I find these two customs 
 recorded in Mr. Doolittle's work, but I look in vain in 
 that, or in any other book, for any sensible description 
 of the games the Chinese boys indulge in ; and you 
 may walk through their cities, and fancy the children 
 are all kept from play as a punishment. You do not 
 see the streets swarming with children at play, as you 
 do here. You run no risk of being tripped up by a 
 long skipping-rope, or of having a tip-cat in your eye, 
 or a shuttlecock against your shirt-front, or a dirty iron 
 hoop against' your light trousers. I cannot tell you 
 what is the most popular game with boys, but I will 
 say something presently about some amusements in 
 which they,, in common with men, indulge. 
 
138 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 " Before we pass to that, however, I must refer to the 
 girls, about whose birth and babyhood there is little, 
 or no fuss made. Indeed, it goes very hard with female 
 babies altogether. When one arrives, it is a cause for 
 sorrow rather than for joy; the unfortunate mother is 
 often treated unkindly, as if she had the arranging of 
 the sex of her children; but the stiU'more unfortunate 
 child has a miserable time of it. It is considered a ■ 
 ■great misfortune to. have a girl, and when that is thp 
 case, even with the best disposed parents, a dismal'kind 
 of life is in store for the unhappy daughter. But in 
 many cases the daughter is got rid of, either by being 
 dropped somewhere, or by being drowned in a tub, of 
 water. In the case of the ^poor, poverty is pleaded as a 
 complete justification ; their parents cannot afford to 
 bring them up, and so they get rid of them. The well- 
 to-do people sometimes are guilty of the same heartless 
 murder, and their excuse is that they have as many 
 children as they want. It is only the "girls who are 
 thus cruelly murdered, becaiise boys are a more valuable 
 article, and will pay to bring up. There are a few 
 native foundling asylums which take care of girls who 
 have been'cast away by their parents, and these are regu- 
 lated with some humanity. The poor little foundlings 
 are kept until they are old enough to mafry, when they 
 are readily betrothed to the poorest class, as the in- 
 tended husbands have to pay only a small sum to the 
 
EDUCATION. 139 
 
 managers of the asylum, whereas , fnarrying a girl 
 in any other class would be a much more expensive 
 affair. , ' , 
 
 " In Canton, the Eoman Catholics have a mission 
 which interests itself in the rescue of castaway children. 
 The Sisters of Charity have an itifant nursery, in which, 
 in one year, they rescued and took care of four thou- 
 sand eight hundred and eighty-three children that had 
 been abandoned. Every morning a bodjf of Christian 
 Chinese women, brought up by the sisters, set out in 
 couples, carrying basket-hods on their backs, to search 
 the lanes and ditches for such of the cast-away infants 
 that have any life left in them. Comment on such 
 atrocious conduct is unnecessary. The mandarins 
 condemn the practice in theory, but no effort is made 
 to stop it or to punish those guilty of it.- It points out 
 in a grim, ghastly way enough how contradictory and 
 anomalous their customs are. We shall see presButly 
 how remarkable the Chinese are for their filial piety, 
 which is expected alike from daughters as well as from 
 sons ; and here we find the parents treat their children 
 in so opposite a manner. 
 
 "I must not leave you with so unpleasant a subject, and, 
 at the risk of being thought rather long-winded, I must 
 refer to another matter, and that is one in which the 
 Chinese boy resembles us. We have seen how unlike 
 we are in most things ; you will like to know there 
 
-140 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 is one bond of brotherhood, and that is their love for 
 sweet -things. 
 
 " Now we may as well confess our weakness ; I am 
 not ashamed to say that if I have not cut all my wisdom- 
 teeth yet, I have not lost my sweet ones. 
 
 "-This is just thfe one touch of nature that makes- all 
 boys kin. You may see the proof of this any day in 
 our streets. Watch that young urchin sent for a pound 
 of treacle; how anxious he is to make the outside of the 
 jar look clean, as he applies his finger to the sluggish 
 avalanche that has begun to descend the side ; Ihen 
 observe the same anxiety, to get his finger clean by , 
 sucking it. If, however, the man at the shop has so 
 carefully fiUed thB jar as to leave no treacle tricklings, 
 the urcEin's finger is dipped boldly into the tempting 
 article, and applied to the mouth ; and if the pinafore 
 does not teU the tale^the youngster's mouth often wiU. 
 
 " The barley-sugar stall is a most popular institution, 
 and as it is to be seen in the open street, it becomes a 
 most attractive one. The Chinese, as you have heard, 
 are capital cooks, and also confectioners. The barley- 
 sugar maker carries hi^ stall with . him in two parts, 
 each of -which is suspended by a hook to one end of ,a 
 pole, which he carries on his shoulder. One part con- 
 tains the apparatus for the manufacture ; the other 
 contains the confection when made. Now if a shop - 
 where these things are arrayed in long glass jars is 
 
EDUCATION. 
 
 141 
 
 attractive to us, what should we say to an open stall 
 where we actually saw the man- twisting and pulling 
 the delicious stuff? it would be quite irresistible, I am 
 sure. The man beats a small gong with a piece of 
 brass, which is a weU-knowh sound, .and one identified 
 as belonging to this stall ; and at the sound of it the 
 youngsters of the neighbourhood draw near ; those who 
 
 EAKLEY-SVQAK STALL. 
 
 have any money to spend, to make an investment, and 
 those who have not, to have the gratification, at least, 
 of looking at the barley-sugar, with a hope, perhaps, 
 that somehow or another -they may be able to pick up a 
 stray bit. 
 
 ."The boy seen approaching is one of the former class, 
 for he holds his coin in his hand; his youthful character 
 may be inferred from the delight manifested by his 
 
142 
 
 THE LAND OF- THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 outstretched hands, and by the little tuft of hair on his 
 head, which is twisted and bound in soft horn, and is 
 ornamented with crimson silk, and to which by and' by 
 the pigtail will be attached^ But strong as his love may 
 be for barley-sugar, there is yet a stronger feeling in his 
 breast, and that is his love for gambling. See, there is 
 
 EOY GOING TO SOITOOI, 
 
 a wheel in front of the stall, and customers may buy 
 the man's wares, or may stake the money and turn the 
 wheel, which will decide whether they get twice as 
 much for their money, or none at all. It is a sort of 
 Chinese ,' double or quits : ' the only thing like it in 
 this country is the custom adopted in London by boys, 
 
EDUCATION. 143 
 
 who, in dealing with the street mutton-pieman, toss him 
 whether they shall have two pies, or none at all for 
 their money. ^ . " 
 
 " I suppose one of the greatest evils that could happeia 
 to a boy is a love of gambling ; for, whether one loses 
 or wins, one is never satisiied. The desire is to play 
 again, either to win back what one has lost, or else to 
 win more. The Chinese are very fond of gambling ; 
 and though there are edicts, against it, and the man- 
 darins profess to prohibit it, there are some quarters 
 of the cities where every house is either a gambling- 
 house, or devoted to the manufacture of materials for 
 
 
Chapter x. 
 am usements. 
 
 OW natural it seems to 
 connect barley-sugar 
 ■with tootkache! We left 
 ^ our friend the barley- 
 sugar man in the street 
 selling his wares, and 
 ■whatever effect they may 
 have on his customers 
 ■we cannot think of a 
 mass of s^weetstuff beittg 
 crunched-— for boys wonH 
 suck their lollipops,, 
 they think it is childish 
 —■without toothache following sooner or later. With 
 boys it is. generally later, and as no present incon- 
 
 PUNOH AND JUDY. 
 
AMUSEMENTS. 145 
 
 venience follows, they do not hearken Xinto those who 
 have cut their wisdom-teeth, and their sweet ones 
 also. 
 
 " I think this, however, just the place to notice a 
 singular branch of Chinese industry, which, so far as I 
 know, has seldom been referred to, except by Archdeacon 
 Cobbold, of Ningpo, in that very readable book of his 
 which I have before had occasion to recommend. I am 
 glad to say I never had toothache in China. A long 
 course of hard biscuit and salt junk keeps a man's teeth 
 in excellent condition when at sea ; and when on land 
 he does not lay in much of a cargo of sweetstuff. I 
 suppose, however, that at the ports there must be such 
 a pain as toothache, and that there must be such people 
 as dentists, though I never heard of them. I should 
 thinlc thattbis would be a peculiarly enticing occupa- 
 tion for a Chinaman, so much satisfaction does he seem 
 to take in the sufferings of others; and I should have 
 expected to hear that he had some very ingenious and 
 uncommon way of getting rid of the teeth ; some very 
 successful cricket-dentistry, whereby the game would 
 be over, and the stumps drawn in no time ; somewhat 
 after the mode of taking a hair from one's liead without 
 one's feeling it, so successfully performed by schoolboys,' 
 and which consists, as you know, in giving the head a 
 not very gentle blow at that precise moment when you 
 pull out the hair, the little twinge accompanying it 
 
 L 
 
-146 , THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 "being quite absorbed in the greater pain occasioned by 
 tlie thump on the head. I should quite expect that the 
 Chinese Avould make a long and painful job of it, and 
 then, charge in proportion to the pain caused ; somewhat . 
 after the expectation of that rustic in our own land or 
 so^newhere else, who went to a dentist and had a tooth 
 extracted, which came out very easiljr indeed. "When 
 the dentist asked him for half a. crown, the man 
 demurred at the excessiveness of the charge, and urged 
 against it the fact that a friend of his. the other day had 
 had one out, and was pulled all round the room, 
 and up a pair of stairs, and down another, and out in 
 the back yard, and was only charged a shilling. 
 
 " "Well, coming back to this singular mode observed by 
 
 Mr. Cobbold in the province of Ghekeang, in the north 
 
 of China. There the dentists are all women, and they 
 
 have a peculiar theory about toothache, and of course 
 
 ^a peculiar practice to get rid of it. 
 
 " They say the origin of all toothache is at the root of 
 the tooth, and is occasioned by worms or maggots 
 secreted there, and_that the only remedy is to get rid of 
 these creatures. These women declare theirs to be an 
 infallible remedy, and they get their living by practising 
 it. I need not say that they get a good many people to 
 believe in them, for in our own country it is astonishing 
 how credulous folks are of the nostrums of quack 
 doctors. But 'in China many English people have 
 
AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 147 
 
 believed in these women, and have declared that here, 
 at all events, the Chinese were wiser than their own 
 countryinen. In fact, a medical man out there col- 
 lected some fine specimens of these worms, and had 
 
 PEMAIE DENTIST. 
 
 theni preserved in spirits of wine, and sent to America 
 as curiosities. 
 
 " It IS certain that many people troubled with tooth- 
 ache have been cured by these women, and it is also true 
 that they always manage to produce some worm^ from 
 
148 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 their patients. The whole' business was very puzzling ^ 
 to Mr. Cobbold and a friend of his, who scarcely be- 
 lieved it, and yet there was good reason for belief. At 
 last one day they settled the matter ; and as we are 
 indebted to our author for the revelation, it is only fair 
 he should tell his own story in his own words : — 
 
 " One day, we were sitting in our rooms, which were 
 opposite each other, when we heard the well-known cry 
 of these women, ' Che gnaw gong, che gnaw gong.' I 
 at once called to the servant, 'Ask her to come in.' 
 The fir^t to be operated upon was one of our teachers, 
 suffering from an inflamed e3/e/ for the same mischievous 
 little worm causes both the teeth to ache, and the eyes 
 to be inflamed. ' This honourable teacher,' we began, 
 'wishes to consult you ; we will be answerable for the 
 reward of your skill. Look at his eye ; do~ you know 
 what causes that inflammation ? ' ' Yes ; it is a worm.' 
 < Can you cure him 1 ' 'I can.' The teacher sat down, ' 
 and the woman, having taken a bright steel pin, about , 
 the size of a- large knitting-needle, from her hair, and 
 having borrowed an ordinary bamboo chopstick from, 
 the cook, proceeded to her business. We watched her 
 narrowly ; we were indeed much interested in the ex- 
 periment, chiefly because we hoped to set at rest our 
 controversy, and also because we had promised her the 
 magnificent sum of threepence per head for all the 
 live-stock she captured. She held one of her sticks. 
 
AMUSEMENTS. 149 
 
 the bamboo one, on tbe corner of the eye, and tapped 
 it lightly with the other, changing occasionally its 
 position. After a few seconds she called our attention 
 with the well-known ' naw ! ' and turning back the 
 eyelid with the steel pin, she took up triumphantly a 
 fat specimen of the tribe, about the size and description 
 of a cheese-maggot." 
 
 "The teacher then sat down to have his teeth operated 
 on. The woman tapped his tooth, and lo ! a worm at 
 once appeared. Mr. Cobbold proceeds :— ' It now came 
 to my turn ; the lady was driving a thriving trade, and 
 an old hollow tooth was not to be resisted; so my friend 
 now took his turn to stand and watch, while I submitted 
 to the bamboo and steel tapping. His eyes were not 
 better than my own ; the ' naw ! - again showed that 
 prey had been taken. My friend, now almost in 
 despair, and with that determination which despair 
 alone, perhalps, impairts, armed himself with a pocket- 
 handkerchief, and with Argus eye watched each time 
 that either of the -sticks was withdrawn, and carefully 
 wiped it; he did this so pertinaciously, sometimes 
 almost pugnaciously, when the good lady attempted, 
 after a series of taps, to introduce the instrument again 
 without being cleansed, that no more maggots would 
 come out, and the quack doctress drew herself up and 
 said, quite authoritatively, 'That gentleman has no 
 more.' The trick was thus discovered ; for the woman 
 
150 . THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 liad cleverly contrived to slip the maggots into the eye, 
 or tooth, at the end of the bamboo;; perhaps she 
 secreted them under her long, finger-nails. The Eng- 
 lishmen were further convinced that she brought the 
 worms with her, for on counting them in the glass, 
 which were to be paid for at threepence per Tiead, it 
 was found that two had been dropped in that were 
 never extracted at all.' 
 
 " Having so recently spoken about the schoolroom, I 
 ought to say something about the playground; biit 
 alas ! I never heard of one in China. The boys are 
 about the most sedate, old-fashioned set of youngsters 
 you will see anywhere. There is no game which may 
 be called a national one, at which they excel. They 
 never heard of cricket, nor saw a football ; and to see 
 an English game of the latter wduld convey to a 
 Chinese boy the impression either that the fellows were 
 , all mad, or had quarrelled and were in a dreadful rage 
 with one another. They don't go in for exertion at all. 
 The climate, to be sure, is not so well adapted as ours 
 for violent exercise ; but they do not go in enthusias- 
 tically for anything. /They do not play in sides,'but 
 singly, each one by himself They have no games of 
 ball, though they are fond of tossing a «mall one into 
 the air, and then scrambling-for it when it falls- to the 
 ground. They are expert at shuttleaock, which they 
 keep up with their feet. But violent exercise is dis- 
 
AMUSEMENTS. 151 
 
 CQuraged by parents and leaders as undignified ; and so 
 recreation in China takes the mildest forms. 
 
 "But the Chinese have their amusements, some of 
 them very similar to our own. 
 
 " Theatres are much frequented at certain " times. 
 There is a stage connected with most of the temples, 
 where historical and other plays are performed: The 
 illustration you have seen of the puppet-show resembles 
 our Punch and Judy, without the green baize covering 
 which serves to hide the performer in our national 
 drama. Another kind of puppet-show consists of 
 moveable heads being placed on little figures, which are 
 made to dance and caper about. The man is sometimes ' 
 , attended by a dog, or a monkey, or by both, which go 
 through a series of performances, and sometimes serve 
 as horses for the puppets. The Chinese af e rather hard 
 up for street music ; the inevitable gong accompanies 
 most exhibitions and many occupations. The idea of 
 economizing labour, and playing two instruments' at 
 once, as a drum and "pipes, would never enter into a 
 Chinaman's mind; and if it did, he would probably 
 think it undignified and wanting in resjiect to his body 
 to turn his head so rapidly. As in trades, s6 in amuse- 
 ments ; most of ■ them are carried on out of doors, 
 without any tent or caravan, as we have. I think 
 there is a mystery about a yellow caravan, shut up from 
 sight, and revealing its marvellous contents in large 
 
lt>2 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 oil paintings on the sides that has an irresistible charm." 
 for English- boys ; they must. pay to see the inside. Of 
 course they will stop in the street whenever they see a 
 number of men with white, or what were once white - 
 perhaps, fleshings peering below a coat, and will take 
 up positions, generally good ones,' when the little bit of 
 icarpet is spread; but they don't give when the cap 
 comes round. 
 
 "In China there are a good 'many street performances 
 of one sort and another, some of which are really 
 very clever. They are very expert at balancing, not 
 themselves, but plates, tops, and other things". A 
 common trick is to balance a plate on a short stick,, 
 which rests on the end of another stick at right angles 
 with it, and which latter~"is held between the teeth. 
 The plate is thus not only balanced, but made to spin 
 round at a great rate. They throw up a number of 
 rings in the air and make them describe all sorts of 
 ingenious evolutions: Swallowing swords, which really 
 go down the throat ; pretending to swallow metal 
 balls which are made to reappear under the skin in 
 different parts of the body, and many feats of jugglery 
 such as. we are familar with, go to make up a street 
 exhibition. Many of the tricks practised by our ^ 
 jugglers are copied from Chinese artists, and some 
 even bear the name of these early professors. Mr. 
 Doolittle mentions one trick very popular with a 
 
AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 153 
 
 Chinese crowd, and one rather above most of our 
 street performers : — ' The juggler pretends to kill his 
 son, and plants a melon-seed. The spectators behold 
 him apparently kill his boy with blows from a sword, 
 
 THE PUPPET SHOWMAN. 
 
 cutting off his legs and arms^ He then covers up the 
 
 ■ piutilated parts under a blanket placed on the ground. 
 
 In a short time the corpse is gone, and is nowhere to be 
 
 found, having seemingly vanished from the place. 
 
154 
 
 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 Having planted the melan-seed in a flower-pot filled 
 ■with earth, after a while, on lifting up the blanket, there 
 is seen a large riielon on the ground. If a spectator 
 expresses a wish that the melon should Vanish also, the 
 blanket is thrown over it. After waiting a little while, 
 or again lifting the covering, the melon is nowhere in 
 sight. Yet, after a short time spent in waiting, and on 
 removing the blanket, there will be 
 seen the lad who had apparently 
 been kUled and mutilated but a 
 little while previously, living and 
 well, without any mark of having 
 been injured." 
 
 " The illustration shows us" a street 
 
 .juggler balancing rather an tin- 
 
 'wieldy article, and drawing attention 
 
 to his performance by making' a 
 
 ) noise with a clapper, somewhat 
 
 resembling the bones used by negro 
 
 inelodists. High-class Chinese, 
 
 such as mandarins, have a profound 
 
 respect for forms, but Chinese 
 
 jugglers and English schoolboys 
 
 have no particular reverence for 
 
 them. The former try to balance 
 
 them, and the latter seem to have a 
 
 BALANCING— A MERE 
 FOKM. 
 
 knack of overturning them. 
 
AMUSEMENTS. 155 
 
 " But even adult Chinese have some recreations, which, 
 if not very exciting, are harmless. They are very- 
 clever hoth in making, and in flying kites ; they seem 
 to have quite a mild passion for this pastime. One can 
 scarcely imagine the soher-sided men giving themselves 
 up to what we consider the amusements of boys. But 
 as they pursue it, it requires something more than 
 boyish skill. The Marquis de Beauvoir, in his ' To,ur 
 Eound the World,' thus describes the pastime : — 
 
 "'The old men, those grown-up children in China, 
 make their appearance, proudly holding the string of 
 an imm.ense kite, which they have just sent up from 
 the waste ground under the walls. They excel in the 
 construction of kites with a spread of eighteen or twenty 
 feet, representing a \v^inged dragon, eagle, or mandarin ; 
 V in painting it, and giving it shape and motion ; in 
 balancing it so_ admirably that it rises steadily without 
 the thousand jerks that ours give, and remains like a 
 star almost directly over the head of the person holding 
 the string ; in adapting to it some almost invisible 
 ^olian apparatus, which imitates with the most horrid 
 noise the song of birds or the human voice ; in guiding , 
 it through poles and streamers into the most crowded 
 streets ; in steadying it across the ropes' of the bewil- 
 dering little flags ; collecting the crowd, and enlivening 
 it with sallies of wit ; and all this — a cardinal point, in 
 their arrangements — without attaching tails to the kites.' 
 
156 , THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. ' ' 
 
 '' In- some parts of China there are festivals which 
 have some slight religious origin, but which are really 
 general holidays, when thirty or forty thousand people 
 will turn out to the hills, and most of them having 
 their kites with them. The kites assume the most 
 curious, -_ and the most varied shapes; all kinds of 
 quadrupeds, fishes, birds, and insects are represented. 
 The air is filled with these paper toys, and no little 
 skill is required to control their movements and 
 prevent confusion of strings. Well, I say a family 
 might spend a holiday- in a worse manner than this ; 
 it takes them out in the country, it does -not separate 
 them, and it is very innocent and inexpensive, and it 
 does not lead to any drunkeiiness. Compare the 
 conduct of such a crowd with that of a similar number 
 of English people turned out for a day's holiday, or 
 rather compare them wlien they are returning home. 
 But there, it is no holiday for some Englishmen unless 
 they can be drinking beer all day. 
 
 '' In the course of the year there are sundry feasts, or 
 festivals, which are observed, and which form occasions 
 for some amount of rejoicing ; but the principal one is 
 connected with the beginning of the year. 
 
 " The New Year's Feast is an event of considerable 
 importance ; it is called ' rounding the year ' and is a 
 time for religious rites as wel,l as for social enjoyment- 
 Household gods a,re worshipped, as well as those in the 
 
AMUSEMENTS. ' 157 
 
 temples, but the chief observances are purely social. 
 All debts ^re paid by the end of the year, and to begin 
 the new year, owing any man anything is considered a 
 great disgrace. Should a debtor not have paid his debt 
 on the last day of the year, the creditor may enter his 
 house, break all his crockery and furniturjj, and frighteii 
 ,his wife and children into fits. Unless the debt be 
 beyond the possibility of payment, the unhappy debtor 
 will make an effort to get rid of so unpleasant a New 
 Year's guest. He has no redress from the law, and no 
 sympathy from his neighbours. The year is ushered 
 in with bonfires, crackers, gongs, and other -noises, and 
 is commemorated by making presents to others, and 
 rigging one's self up in a new suit of clothes. 
 
 " During the first fortnight of the year most of the 
 shops are shut, so that purchases have to be made 
 before the old year closes ; but there is one class of 
 shops which remains open, and these are the lantern- 
 shops. 
 
 " Lanterns are quite an institution in China. You 
 have all seen some specimens of these lanterns, but 
 you have but a poor idea of the variety of .shape, and 
 of the ingenuity of 4iheir construction. The Chinese 
 have no gas, and their streets are not lighted at night, 
 as ours are. As in most other matters they have an 
 original way of supplying their wants. They used to 
 make their windows of oyster-shells scraped down very 
 
15S THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 thin, SO as to admit the light; and they illuminate 
 their paths at night by carrying their lanterns. These 
 " lanterns are made of light bamboo framework, with a 
 thin gauze paper pasted between the ribs. On this 
 paper are painted all sorts of signs and devices, in 
 all sorts of colours. At the bottom a little socket is 
 placed for the candle ; and the wood holding the socket 
 is so made that by turning it round, it wUl come through 
 the opening at the bottom of the lantern, to admit of 
 the candle beings lit. The bamboo frame is very pliable, 
 and is drawn up after the manner of our umbrellaSj so 
 that when not used the lantern may be folded up. 
 
 "You may see a lantern-seUer wending his way through 
 the crowded streets with a pole six or eight feet long on 
 his shoulders, covered with lanterns. These are the 
 ordinary night-lanterns, suph as an individual would 
 carry with him then. The larger and more elaborate 
 ones are sold in shops. They are used on aU sorts of 
 occasions; a, mandarin's house would be illuminated 
 with some splendid ones ; and so would the hall, and' 
 the outside of a welL-to-do bridegroom's house on, the 
 occasion of his. marriage. But for the grandest general 
 display of these things you must wait for the celebrated 
 'Feast of Lanterns' on the 15th of January.- 
 Before this event you will see children playing with 
 their lanterns of curious and pretty shapes, some in 
 the form of rabbits, or birds, or fish; but on the 
 
AMUSEMENTS. 159 
 
 evening of the 15th larger and more splendid ones 
 are seen. The draught of ait caused by the heat of the 
 lighted candles within the lantern makes a large wheel, 
 which is fixed on a pivot, turn round rapidly. To this 
 wheel are fastened , invisible threads of silk, which are 
 fastened to the loose heads, arms, legs, and wings of 
 figures of men, women, children, animals, insects, &c. 
 
 " You will see heads of men nodding, and arms of ' 
 boys lifted, and legs of animals raised, and wings of 
 birds and insects flapping in the most ingenious 
 manner. 
 
 "The large towns on such an occasion present a 
 very brilliant and fairy-like appearance. The streets 
 are crowded with people of all classes, on foot and 
 in sedan-chairs ; for every one goes out to take part 
 in the Feast of Lanterns. What with lanterns carried 
 in the hand, and lanterns adorning the outside of all 
 principal houses, and crowds of, pedestrians, and lots 
 of sedan-chair bearers, and the discharge of crackers 
 and fireworks, and all this going on in narrow streets, 
 you .may have some idea of the brilliancy, and noise, 
 and confusion of the great ' Feast of Lanterns.' / 
 
 " In some cities, on this occasion, a great dragon, some 
 ten or twelve feet long, is carried along on sticks above 
 the heads of the crowd. The dragon is made of bam- 
 boo ribs covered with a transparent cloth ; inside are 
 fixed candles, so that the creature is brightly illumi- 
 
160 
 
 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 nated. The head is made as hideous as possible ; and 
 as the men carry the dragon they move about so as -to 
 imitate the wriggling motion of a real dragon. 
 
 " All classes are interested and amused at this feast ; 
 but for the studious and literate there is special provi- 
 sion made. Various riddles and puzzles are writtenon 
 paper, and then pasted on the sides of lanterns, and 
 hung up on the front of the- houses of those who'com- 
 pose them. The literary men who make them up 
 
 SEDAN-CHAIK. 
 
 indicate what reward will be given to those who guess 
 them— a small parcel of tea, or a bundle of fire-crackers, 
 or a fan, or a pencil ; and as they are found out, the 
 reward is given on the spot. 
 
 " Well you will say, the Chinese are easily amused : 
 
AMUSEMENTS. 161 
 
 SO they are ; but after all I think their festivals will 
 compare with ours for the behaviour and sobriety of 
 the crowds who attend them. At aU events, we must 
 allow that even in their simplest amusements they 
 show an amount of skill and ingenuity that is com- 
 mendable. 
 
 ■ " I was interested in reading, the other day, in the 
 Marquis de Eeauvoir's book, an instance of their 
 ingenuity that I have never met with elsewhere, which 
 will, I dare say, also interest you. He says, — ' Whilst 
 walking amongst some fifty of these white-haired child- 
 ren, we saw a pigeon jentangle his wing in a string 
 and fall at our feet ; at once was explained to me a 
 matter which, for the last three days, I had been trying 
 to fathom. Constantly, during tlie day, I had seemed 
 to hear sonorous waves of harmony pass thrdugh the 
 air, and rise into the higher atmospheric regions ; whence 
 could this harmony come ? The^ more I thought, the 
 more convinced I became that it was a buzzing fixed in 
 my tympanum since the bruises my head had received 
 on the route from Tien-Tsin to Pekin. But the dying 
 pigeon cleared up the mystery; he carried a charming 
 -dlolian harp, light as a soap bubble, and exquisitely 
 made. This little instrument is placed across the root 
 of the bird's tail, and securely fixed to the two centre 
 feathers. The pigeons, as they cleave the air, make 
 this sound with a harsh tremolo, or a plaintive tone,/ 
 
162 THE LAND' OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 according to the rapidity of their flight. I thought at 
 first that this was one of the hundred thousand absurd 
 fancies -which are characteristic of the disciples of Con- 
 fucius ; but I have since learnt that the object of these 
 harps is to preserve the helpless pigeons from tHe talons 
 of the vultures, which circle in flockS" around the battle- 
 ments ' (vol. iii., pp. 54, 55). 
 
 " You see, not only has music charms to soothp some 
 savage breasts, but it has power also takeep off others. 
 The small harps are quite able to keep off the big 
 harpies.' 
 
 " I might here introduce a description of those carved 
 ivory balls which are enclosed within one another; and 
 which have caused some speculation as to how they are 
 made. A piece of ivory, free from cracks, is made round 
 in the lathe, and then driUfed from the surface to the 
 centre with holes. A piece of wood is put as a stop 
 down one hole to -the depth of the inner baU. A chisel 
 with its point bent at right angles, is madte to work 
 all round these holes, one after another, until the inner 
 ball gets loose. The chisel then is placed opposite one 
 of the holes so as to work on the surface of the ball, 
 and effect the carving; the marking-stop is then fixed 
 to the depth of the second ball, a<ad so on, the external 
 ball bein" finished last of all." 
 
TREATMENT OF PARENTS AND 
 CRIMINALS. 
 
 ) HE great virtue in which the 
 Chinese excel, perhaps, all 
 other nations is the respect they 
 bear to their parents. I should 
 say it was their cardinal virtue; 
 they attach more importance to that 
 than to the worship of a«y god. A 
 frequent saying of theirs is, 'While 
 your parents are alive, serve them with proper respect ; 
 when they are dead, bury them with due ceremony.' 
 
 " Now, unlike many of the maxims of the Chinese, 
 which are mere sayings, and which are not acted upon, 
 they do attach a vast amount of importance to the duty 
 of filial piety ; and without attempting to preach, I am 
 sure I may say we may all learn this lesson from the 
 Chinese, if we find no other worth learning. 
 
 " Our elder friends who have honoured us by their 
 
164 THE LAND Of THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 presence, and who have allowed their sons to attend 
 our desultoiy lectures, may forgive a good deal of the 
 nonsense they have listened to, for the sake of having 
 this lesson somewhat impressed upon their children. 
 And Mr. Tozer, too, wUI not be sorry that his pupils, 
 who- are not overcharged with reverence, should have 
 an opportunity of hearing that, in one respect at least, 
 Chinese youths are most commendable. Now I must 
 say we English sons are rather wanting in this respect. 
 Boys are proverbially, irreverent, and, without intending 
 it, they are often disrespectful. At some schools the 
 good old name of ' father ' is never heard, but instead of 
 it ' the governor ' is substituted ; and I once heard of a 
 more than usually irreverent youth, who used to speak 
 of his father as ' the relieving officer.' 
 
 " Now all this is very silly, not to say unfilial. I 
 believe in most cases the fashion is set in. schools by 
 some of the would-be grand and mighty fellows, who 
 think it sounds fine to speak disparagingly of 'their 
 pareiits, and who fancy they are only to be valued as 
 they supply them with pocket-money, and parcels. 
 
 " In China, children are never too old to be obedient 
 and respectful, not even when they leave home and 
 support themselves. A child has always to obey his 
 parents so long as they live ; he cannot choose a trade, 
 nor must he keep his wages without consulting, them. 
 The law is very strict on the subject of filial piety, but, 
 
TREATMENT OF PARENTS. 165 
 
 generally speaking, the parents are not too strict, and 
 the sons are ready to show all proper respect. A father 
 may prosecute his son for want of filial piety, when 
 the boy's maternal uncle would have to appear and 
 give evidence. If the magistrate found the boy guilty, 
 and the father required it, the boy would be publicly, 
 whipped, 'pour encourager Us autres,' as the French 
 would say; or he might be exposed in the wooden 
 cangue, a sort of collar, answering the purpose of our 
 old stocks, with the words 'not filial' written over 
 him. If after this the youth should prove incorrigible, 
 and still continue und,utiful, he might be publicly 
 whipped to death. You may gueSs from this that the 
 worst crime any one could commit, short of killing the 
 Einperor, perhaps, would be parricide ; but you would 
 never guess ,the extent of the punishment which would 
 follow the crime of killing one's father. It is altogether 
 so severe and wide-spreading a punishment that I 
 prefer to give it with some authority, lest some of my 
 younger friends might suppose I was piling on the 
 agony, for the purpose ot impressing them the more 
 forcibly with the importance of filial piety. 
 
 " According to Mr. Doolittle, ' if a son should murder 
 his parent, either father or mother, and be convicted of 
 the crime, he would not only be beheaded, but his body 
 would be mutilated by being cut into small pieces ; his 
 house would be razed to the ground, and the earth 
 
166 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 under it would be dug up for several feet deep; his neigh- 
 bours, living on the right and the left would be severely- 
 punished ; his principal teacher would suffer capital 
 punishment ; the district magistrate of the place would 
 be deprived of his office and disgraced ; the prefect, 
 the governor of the province, and the viceroy, would 
 , be all degraded three degrees in rank.' 
 
 " This, you see, gives an additional responsibility to 
 the ofSce of schoolmaster "in China. I have no doubt 
 Mr. Tozer thinks his position one of sufficient anxiety 
 as it is; and he considers his position -and character to 
 some extent involved in the after conduct of his pupils ; 
 but if he had to be acctfiintable to this extfeut for the 
 conduct of his pupils to the end of their days, I imaginte 
 he would raise his terms, so as to make his school a 
 very ' select establishment for young gentlemen.' 
 
 " A son n^ver gets away from the laws of, filial piety. 
 He must hold no higher rank than his father, but he 
 may ask for promotion to a rank above himself, when 
 his mother would receive a proper title. 
 
 " One would think that this might be a reason why the 
 Chinese made iw great advances in civilization. The 
 feeling that what did for one's father would do for one's 
 self, would. repress energy, and discourage inventive dis- 
 covery, and paralyze industry, whilst I don't think it 
 would necessarily tend to develop filial respect. With 
 us I think it would have the opposite effect. If we felt 
 
TREATMENT OF PAEENTS. 167 
 
 some impulse or prompting to a higher or more extended 
 sphere of labour, I do not think it would increase our 
 respect for our parents to feel that, on their account, we 
 must not encourage it, and that not until their death 
 could we give scope to our energy or talent or skill. 
 Neither do I think that, as a matter of fact, our great 
 men who have risen to eminence from ohscure and 
 humhle parentage have thereby become remarkable for 
 a want of filial love. I know a number of instances to 
 the contrary. I could quote the cases of great men who 
 have risen, whose highest happiness has been to raise 
 their parents in their old age from the anxieties and 
 cares which pressed upon them in their earlier days. 
 I have heard of one case to the contrary which occurred 
 lately, and which you may like to hear of, for the sake 
 of the righteous satisfaction one must feel in knowing 
 that a man who, for mercenary motives, could ever 
 reject his mother should be made to suffer in the very 
 direction which he was so anxious to protect. 
 
 " A weU-to-do farmer recently, in the west of England, 
 declined to support his mother, on the ground that he 
 was ah illegitimate son. Being thus a stranger in blood 
 in the eye of the law, he could not be made to support 
 her, and she became chargeable to the parish. But 
 this plea raised a query in some sharp person's mind. 
 This farmer had, many years before, inherited consider- 
 able pr operty from an uncle. In coming into this 
 
168 THE LAND OP THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 property did he pay three per cent, legacy or succession 
 *duty, which is the rate payable by nephews, or did he 
 pay ten per cent, which is the rate enforced from illegi- 
 timate persons, who are all strangers in blood, and have 
 no legal relationship to any from whom they may inherit 
 property ? As the sharp person surmised^ only the 
 smaller rate of duty had been paid; andhe then made 
 it his business to inform the Government authorities of 
 the true state of the case, who made the farmer pay up 
 the difference of rate, namely, seven per cent., and 
 interest on all this unpaid duty from, the year 1857, 
 when he inherited his property. 
 
 " A more righteous or appropriate retribution never 
 overtook a sinner. 
 
 "But to return to Chiaa. I was saying that a son 
 never gets away from filial laws until the death of his 
 parents, when, indeed, the most sacred laws are binding. 
 A civil mandarin, on hearing of the death .of a parent, 
 must resign his office, tell the Emperor, and ask leave to 
 go home and mourn for three years. The same rule 
 applies to military officers of the three highest ranks. 
 
 " When a mandarin's parent is ill, he goes home and 
 nurses him till he recovers or dies ; and if the parent be 
 infirm, his son has to live with him and take care of 
 him until he dies. 
 
 4 
 
 "Filial piety is also expected from ^irls until they 
 marry, when they become amenable to their husband's 
 
TREATMENT OF PARENTS. 171 
 
 parents. Poor things ! in no respect are the wives 
 in China the better halves ; -woman's mission in China, 
 is sub-mission with a vengeance. The classic saj'-s 
 the wonian has three obeyings : ^ her father before ' 
 .marriage, her husband after marriage, and her son 
 after her husband's death. . As we have seen, the girls 
 are treated with comparative neglect and contempt, 
 and when married, they are often treated as slaves; and 
 yet filial piety is urged on both sexes alike ! 
 
 "The Chinese are not less careful to show their respect 
 at their parents' death. Burial clubs are instituted, into 
 which people pay, and draw out therefrom when their 
 parents die. Part of the pay of soldiers is deducted 
 and set aside for their parents' burial. Our illustration 
 represents the funeral of a parent belonging to the 
 poorer class. The procession is headed by a man beat- 
 ing a gong as sojemnly and impressively as that noisy 
 instrument wiU allow ; then comes a sedan-chair, bearing 
 a tablet with the name of the departed on it, which will 
 be put up in the haU, or passage of the house. Then 
 follows in another sedan some female relative who is 
 too old, or infirm to walk; and then the coffin, made- 
 of thick planks, which contains the corpse, dressed in a 
 good suit of clothes, as if starting on a long journey. 
 The Chinese have no fixed .ideas beyond the grave ; they 
 have a misty idea that if the departed have acted meri- 
 toriously, it wiU be all right with him somewhere. But 
 
172 
 
 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 they think it is their duty to do all they can for the 
 departed ; and if they dress the corpse in a good suit of 
 clothes, they fancy he will, at all events, have a good 
 start in the world he has gone to! , 
 
 "Our friend the umbrella-maker's services are often 
 required.. The article, which he makes of b,amhoo, and 
 
 THE UMBKELLA MAKES,. 
 
 which opens and shuts as easily as our umbrellas, is 
 much larger and even lighter than our ginghams or 
 alpacas.- These umbrellas are used on various occasions' 
 and in different capacities ; they are often insignia of 
 office, and are carried for ceremony as well as for use. 
 
 "The figure following the cofi&n under one of these 
 umbrellas carries a round tray, bearing cups of tea and 
 
TREATMENT OF PARENTS. 173 
 
 wine, witL a bundle of incense and plates of cakes for 
 offering at the tomb. The rest of the followers are 
 relatives ; the females are clad in white, which is always 
 put on for mourning. The ,cof&ns are not put under- 
 ground, but on the ground ; and after the tiine for 
 mourning, a few spadesful of earths are thrown over 
 them. This is repeated year by year, until the grave 
 becomes a mound. Thousands of acres of ground are 
 thus covered ; and so sacred are these fields of the dead 
 considered, that nothing would be allowed to pass over 
 them. Yet so strange and inconsistent are these people, 
 that you may see children pljiying about in these fields, 
 not so overcome with filial considerations as one might 
 expect. The idea is that it would be disrespectful to 
 bury the body underground ; but we fancy we are not 
 wanting in respect to the dead, whilst we consult the 
 health of the living, by consigning our departed where 
 their corruption can neither injure nor offend. On the 
 anniversary of a death the friends hang paper articles on 
 strings in the streets, which articles, consisting as they do 
 of paper clothes and paper furniture, are burnt, with a ' 
 view that they may pass by smoke into the other world, 
 and become serviceable for the departed. At a great 
 feast in April, people visit the tombs and take all sorts 
 of eatables and paper articles, which are burnt with the 
 same benevolent intentions. 
 "Yet, with all their vague notions of immortality, they 
 
-174! THE LAND OF THE PICTAIL. 
 
 do not seem to have any great fear, or dread of death. 
 In some houses there are rooms which are set apart for 
 oo£fins, which are kept quite ready for use.'' 
 
 "Perhaps the most shocking characteristic of the 
 Chinese is their disregard of human life. With us 
 life is held so sacred that the murder of the poorest 
 person wiU put in motion aU the machinery of law 
 and justice to detect the criminal ; and the sudden and 
 unaccounted death of the meanest citizen becomes the 
 subject of a coroner's inquest. But this question may 
 very fairly introduce the still larger one of the Chinese 
 administration of justice^ and the punishment of crime. 
 
 "If our first knowledge of these people came to us by 
 reading of the fespect which, as a nation, they have for 
 their parents," we, might expect that in the matters of 
 administering justice and treatment of criminals they 
 were equally enlightened. But it is not so, and the 
 imperfect and cruel machinery employed serves but to 
 show the strange contrasts that mark these" people. 
 Their , police are rapacious and corrupt ; rapacious in 
 being eager to arrest and imprison victims, with the. 
 hope of being bribed to get their release or their 
 punishment lessened. Nor is this to be wondered at 
 when we know .that they are themselves criminals, 
 promoted to office with the view of being able to 
 detect their former companions ; and ' Set a thief to 
 catch a, thief,' is a proverb that finds its most extensive 
 
TREATMENT OF CBIMINALS. 175 
 
 adoption here. Of course they know the haunts and 
 the names of well-known criminals, and can detect 
 crimes committed by them, but they have an original 
 mode of finding out perpetrators of offences not so 
 well known. They visit the Jiouses of the friends of 
 suspected persons, and put them to torture to extract 
 from them the whereabouts of those who are wanted. 
 Eather clumsy, not to speak of the injustice of such 
 proceedings. 
 
 "The Chinese are good counterfeiters. Foreign 
 doUars have some" of the middle taken out and fiUed 
 up with baserTnetal, the hole being covered so neatly 
 as to often elude detection. But it is in counterfeiting 
 paper money that they are so clever ; and here let me 
 say that this description of currency was first used by 
 the Chinese in the ninth jcentury. If some of you look 
 at your -histories — most of you who are at Mr. Tozer's 
 need not do that, as you have everything of that sort 
 at your fingers' ends, as the boy said one day in winter, 
 when he was asked the Latin for 'cold' — you may 
 guess from the accounts of our ancestors at that time 
 how far off they were wanting any such thing as paper 
 money. Banknotes are issued in China for small sums, 
 and they are protected from being counterfeited by a 
 simple but rather ingenious method. The complete 
 note consists of the part used and a part left on a 
 counterfoil ; it has marks more or less elaborate on the 
 
176 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 left-hand margin torn off from the eounterfoil, which 
 should tally with the marks left thereon. The banker 
 only has to compare the note- with the counterfoil to 
 see" whether it is genuine. Still the public have not 
 this protection, and they are often imposed on by such 
 eminent copyists as there are in China. Now when- 
 the notes of a banking-house are counterfeited, they 
 make every effort to find out the forgers, with a view, 
 you would suppose, of getting them punished. Not at 
 all, but with a view of paying them so much per 
 month not to forge at all, or at least their notes. Some- 
 times" it is not necessary for the banker to take any 
 trouble, for the forger brings him a specimen of a 
 forged note, more or less perfect, when, if it be very- 
 good, he is retained by the banker, not to ply his craft 
 against his establishment. At other times, if forgers 
 think they can make more by circulating the counter- 
 feit notes, they bribe the mandarins to let them alone, 
 in case they are found out. 
 
 " I need say no more to show how corrupt and lax 
 the Chinese are in their prevention of crime, and, from 
 what I have said, -you will not expect their systems of 
 punishment to be the most righteous. There .are 
 several kinds of punishment, increasing in severity. 
 The first is flogging with a flat piece of bamboo, either 
 on the cheeks, or on a part oftener visited by school- 
 masters in our own country. The number of blows 
 
TKEATMENT OF CRIMINALS. 177 
 
 prescribed is seldom more tlian thirty, but often the 
 lictors give more. "When bribed they appear to use 
 great force, but, in reality, their blows are very light. 
 
 " The second punishment is wearing the cangue, or 
 wooden collar, for a period of from one month to three, 
 according to the crime. This collar weighs about thirty 
 pounds, and is fastened on the neck, somewhat as the 
 stocks used to be fastened on the legs of our village 
 offenders. In like manner, the man wearing the cangue 
 is exposed to public view, generally near the scene of 
 his offence, with the nature of his delinquency written 
 over him. His friends may supply him with food. 
 At night he is marched off by the constable, and 
 reproduced next morning. 
 
 "The third kind of punishment is transportation, 
 often inflicted on state criminals, or on anybody whom 
 it may be desirable to get out of the way. It is also 
 awarded to those convicted of gambling, stealing, or 
 manslaughter of a mitigated character. Transportation 
 may sometimes be commuted by payment of a fine, and 
 sometimes by receiving a beating, at the rate of sixty 
 blows for one year, and ten for each half-year. 
 
 " A fourth punishment is banishment for life. Then 
 follow sundry forms of capital punishment, the most 
 common of which is beheading with a sharp sword. 
 The condemned man is carried to the place of execu- 
 tion in a cage, with the description of his offence 
 
 N 
 
178 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 fastened on the top of his head, and a pail by his side 
 to hold the head when cut off. The executioners have 
 to learn their trade, and until they can cut with heavy 
 swords a great bulbous vegetable into thin slices they 
 are unfit for their work. They become so expert that 
 three seconds per head is the time consumed. Execu- 
 tions are seldom carried out singly : there are generally 
 several poor wretches doomed to death. After the 
 executions the bodies are crammed two into one coffin, 
 that the other coffin may be stolen ; and the earth is 
 so saturated with blood that it becomes valuable for 
 manure, and is sold. 
 
 " A more terrible death is ' cutting into small pieces,' 
 when the poor wretch is hacked about in different parts 
 of the body, on the eyebrows, on the cheeks, on the 
 arms and breasts. Then the executioner stabs him in 
 the abdomen, and then cuts off his head. This terrible 
 and most revoltingly cruel punishment is awarded for 
 the worst offences, and parricide. The least ignominious 
 form of capital punishment is by strangulation, for then 
 the body is not mutUated. The cord is first twisted 
 round the feet and pulled tightly, then round the waist, 
 then round the wrists, and finally round the neck. 
 Some criminals, whose friends can afford it, bribe the 
 executioner to fasten it round the neck first, and thus 
 spare the poor wretch a great deal of pain. 
 
 " T have in my possession various pith-paper paint- 
 
TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS. 179 
 
 ings, by native artists, illustrating several modes of 
 torture ; some inflicted to extort confession, and some 
 awarded as punishments. These include kneeling on 
 chains, swinging with hooks fastened in the back, 
 lopping off the ears, &c. ; then there is the water-snake, 
 made of metal and put round the body, and filled with 
 hot water ; flagellation with hooks which tear out the 
 flesh at every stroke ; suspension by one arm and one 
 leg, and by the neck, so that the criminal can only just 
 stand on tiptoe. 
 
 " All travellers agree in describing the Chinese as 
 among the most atrociously cruel towards their criminals 
 of all people, not excepting the most barbarian. But 
 few of our soldiers and sailors were prepared for such 
 scenes as met their gaze after Canton was evacuated in 
 1857. The chief street is called ' the avenue of benevo- 
 lence and love,' and close by were scenes of the most 
 revolting cruelty. 
 
 " When the city was evacuated, and our men distri- 
 buted themselves over it, the first thing some did was 
 to go to the temples or joss-houses, and turn over the 
 idols, thinking the Chinese would have secreted their 
 treasures inside them. But John knew a trick worth 
 two of that; they have much more faith in themselves, 
 and less in their idols than that. Many of our officers 
 and men were anxious to go to the prisons and liberate 
 the unfortunate wretches that were confined there. The 
 
180 THE LAND' OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 most heartrending scenes confronted them. At the 
 bottom of one cell a corpse lay, whose breast had been 
 gnawed and eaten away by rats. The prisoners who 
 were alive were almost skeletons; they had been beaten 
 with bamboos, and thrown into prison with their wounds 
 c[uite raw, to rot away, for the very dreadful crime of 
 attempting to escape. Some had been without food for 
 four days. A child of ten years of age had his legs so 
 cramped with fetters as to be quite paralyzed. Altogether 
 there were about six thousand prisoners thus liberated. 
 A brother-in-law of mine was present at the evacuation, 
 and he has confirmed the accounts which many of the 
 witnesses gave of the cruelty and brutal treatment to 
 which Chinese prisoners were sv^bjected. Nor are they 
 improved now ; for it was only lately that I read from 
 a newspaper published in China the following brutal 
 murder. I quote from the paper ; so that the descrip- 
 tion is not mine at all. 
 
 " The Hongkong Daily Press publishes an account 
 from Soochow of a murder so horrible that, were it not 
 for our late experience of what civilized nations are 
 capable of in moments of excitement, it would be scarcely 
 credible. The crime was the result of a breach of trade 
 custom. It appears according to the correspondent, 
 that th& goldbeaters of Soochow have it, among other 
 old customSjthat a master gold-beater can only engage 
 one apprentice at a time, and this is limited to large 
 
TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS. 181 
 
 shops only. The apprentice is bound for three years, 
 and the master cannot employ another until the expira- 
 tion of that term. A master gold-beater, however, head 
 of the guild, tried to break through the custom by em- 
 ploying a new apprentice before the time of the old 
 one had expired. This the members of the craft resisted. 
 The magistrate before whom the case was brought 
 decided that the master was legally right, but recom- 
 mended, for the sake of peace and quietness, that he 
 would not employ more than one apprentice. This advice 
 he foolishly declined to follow, and being threatened by 
 the workmen, asked assistance fron the Yaman to pro- 
 tect him. The workmen at last invited him to the 
 guildhall to talk matters over. He went, guarded by 
 some Yaman runners. When he arrived at the hall he 
 was dragged in, the doors closed, and the runners were 
 excluded, in spite of all their efforts to gain an entrance. 
 Shortly they heard cries of miirder from the gold-beater 
 and rushed off for a magistrate. When this ofScer 
 arrived he readily gained admittance, and a horrible 
 sight met his view. A man, naked and already dead, 
 was bound to a pillar, covered from head to foot with 
 wounds, caused by the teeth of 120 human beings. 
 The magistrate closed the doors to prevent the culprits 
 from escaping, and asked a little girl, the daughter of 
 the porter, to point out the ringleaders and relate what 
 she saw. They first stripped their victim, and bound 
 
182 THE LAND OJ? THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 him to a pillar. He was then told that he was to be 
 bitten to death for having broken the customs of the 
 craft. He was then set upon and bitten to death by 
 these savages. Moreover the Chinese do not think that 
 the ringleaders will be convicted of murder, as the laws 
 do not provide any punishment for biting a person to 
 death! 
 
 " At the risk of wearying you with sickening details 
 I must quote once more from the Marquis de Beauvoir; 
 for he is the most recent traveller, and his experience 
 will show how essentially brutal and unfeeling the 
 Chinese character is. His account is of Pekin, and he 
 says,— 
 
 . "'On leaving this quarter the horrible begins. We 
 give the rein to our horses, without knowing in what 
 direction we are riding ; we see it too late, for we are 
 in the avenue of executions. Here the dust is laid with 
 blood. We turn away hastily from a group of con- 
 demned men, whose eyes are being bound before a shed, 
 where " Monsieur de Pekin " cuts off heads at one blow 
 of his sword. This officer, the busiest and hardest 
 worked in the empire, is there now in his official 
 capacity. ^ The passers-by do not seem at aU impressed 
 by the sight which makes us fly, but continue their walk 
 quietly. We are told that when there is no official 
 performance under this shed, a common butcher replaces 
 the functionary, and exposes joints of beef and mutton 
 
TKEATMENT OF CRIMINALS. 183 
 
 for sale on the spot wet with human blood.- A little 
 further on we receive ocular demonstration of the fact 
 that the heads of the decapitated are exposed in the 
 open street. On the earth, stUl marked with red stains, 
 we see seven little stands, each supporting a wicker 
 cage ; six men's heads and one woman's, recently cut 
 off, are enclosed in them, with a sentence written on a 
 little bit of paper fastened to the hideous display of 
 bleeding nerves and muscles of the neck ; a strong look 
 of suffering is marked on their ghastly faces, with eyes 
 still open, gaping mouth, and red-stained hair. One of 
 our interpreters reads the cause of execution, " Justice 
 has punished theft." 
 
 '"Burial is long in coming for these mutilated remains, 
 which are destined to serve as an example to evil- 
 doers. If I had not seen it three several times I could 
 not believe in the wretched fate that befalls the head 
 of a criminal ; but on the famous bridge known as the 
 " Beggar's Bridge " — a magnificent erection of marble^ 
 assemble daily to beg for charity several hundred miser- 
 able creatures, half naked, leprous, diseased, and blind. 
 They are in such a state of starvation that they take 
 the decomposing heads from the wicker cages, salt them, 
 and eat them.' (Vol. iii., pp. 56, 57.) 
 
 " I ^m afraid you will think you might have been 
 spared some of these wretched details ; but I have told 
 them with a purpose, and that not with a view of making 
 
184 the' land of the pigta.il. 
 
 you feel at all uncomfortable. I must soon have some- 
 thing to say about China as a field for missionary effort, 
 and I wish, before doing so, to give you some idea of 
 the natural character of the people. It is one principle 
 of the Confucian philosophy to honour the body, as 
 thereby showing filial piety ; for treating it with igno- 
 miny wounds the parents, who are so closely related to 
 it. And yet in their punishments they treat it with 
 the most digusting cruelty and ignominy." 
 
Chapter xii, 
 sundry occupations. 
 
 MUST really be drawing my re- 
 marks to a close ; and yet there is 
 a great deal to be said about this 
 peculiar people. Better, however, 
 that I should discontinue if I have 
 excited any interest, leaviag you 
 with a desire to read more about 
 them for yourselves than give you 
 such a dose that you should sicken 
 of the whole subject. Talking of 
 a dose reminds me of their system 
 of medicine. 
 
 " In the fourth month, men in 
 brick-red garments,, with manacles 
 on as culprits, go in gangs to 
 return thanks to the deities for 
 their recovery from the diseases that have attacked 
 
 A BLIND DIVINEB. 
 
186 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 them during the year. These five deities represent the 
 five elements of which man's body is composed — gold 
 or metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. They believe 
 that if all these elements remain in harmony, the man 
 is in health; but if any one preponderates, antidotes 
 are given. I suppose if a man bad a fever they would 
 consider that fire preponderated, and would administer 
 so many buckets of water to put it out ; or if he had 
 yellow jaundice, that gold preponderated, and they 
 would prescribe a quantity of earth to tone down the 
 colour. They certainly do not let Nature take her 
 course, nor would they think much of homoeopathy with 
 its globules and pilules, for one hundred and fifty pills 
 is a very ordinary prescription. A dose of medicine 
 is about the size of half a pound of moist sugar, and is 
 made up of perhaps twenty separate packets. It is to 
 be hoped, for the sake of Chinese youngsters, that the 
 bolus is not unpleasant, or if it is that they are allowed 
 the same indulgence after medicine as English boys are. 
 It becomes quite an interesting rule of three sum : if 
 one small pill is followed by a spoonful of jam, how 
 many pailfuls of preserve are necessary when one 
 hundred and fifty medicine marbles are taken. With 
 characteristic modesty the Chinese doctors do not 
 charge much for their valuable services ; the lowest fee 
 for a visit is sixty cash, or about twopence ; and the 
 highest one hundred and eighty cash — about sixpence. 
 
SUNDRY OCCUPATIONS. 187 
 
 " This leads one to notice that with all their educa- 
 tion the Chinese have never yet properly studied the 
 constitution of the human frame. Their ideas of 
 anatomy are very crude and confused. Take for in- 
 stance the blind diviner, who seems, nevertheless, wide 
 awake and able to see. Blindness is \&:y common in 
 China, largely resulting from an ignorance of any ,cure 
 when the eye is attacked. Ophthalmia is very prevalent; 
 and one would think that they would learn how to 
 treat so common a disorder. But no, the people are 
 allowed to lose their sight, and then are permitted 
 to shift for themselves. In our country, now attention 
 has been drawn to the helplessness of those who have 
 lost their sight, and there are institutions where the 
 blind are taught trades, at which many of them earn 
 a comfortable living. But in China there is little to 
 do but to take to divining, or fortune-telling; and, 
 fortunately for them, their countrymen believe in that 
 sort of thing. In many families nothing of importance 
 is done without first consulting the blind diviner, or seer. 
 If a son or daughter is to be married, or an important 
 purchase made, or a new business taken, they send for 
 the blind diviner, who is supposed, because he is 
 physically blind, to be mentally far-seeing. No dis- 
 tance into futurity is supposed to be too far for 
 their vision ; and as for seeing into the middle of next 
 week, why, that is a mere trifle. No doubt, their 
 
188 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 deprivation of sight helps the cultivation of other 
 powers, and hence these men are often distinguished 
 for their good memories. Not having anything to 
 distract their attention, they are better able to become 
 absorbed in some mental pursuit. In Japan the records 
 of the country were committed to these men ; but now 
 that the present ruler is so enlightened as to desire to 
 emulate European arts and sciences, he will, no doubt, 
 take care that the history of his country is placed in 
 safer keeping than in the uncertain treasure-house of 
 blind-men's memories. They must think more of tra- 
 dition there than even some religious people do here. 
 
 " There are several methods of divination, or fortune- 
 telling : one is by tossing three coins out of a tortoise- 
 shell boXj and seeing what position they assume ; another 
 is by means of sixty -four pieces of wood, sticks of fate, 
 as they are called, on which are written short sentences. 
 These are put into a box and shaken until one drops 
 out, and the sentence on it furnishes the answer, which 
 is explained by the diviner. Another method is to 
 have sixty-four pieces of paper with verses on them ; 
 these are spread out on the- ground, and a bird, which 
 the diviner carries in a small cage, is released, which 
 hops about and picks up one with his beak. This is 
 the divination. Amusing though absurd, is it not ? I 
 can tell you there is a good deal to amuse one in the 
 streets. Look here now — there is another diviner ; he 
 
SUNDRY OCCUPATIONS. '189 
 
 has pitclied himself at a corner. He can see, for he 
 professes to tell fortunes by inspecting the physiognomy. 
 He has a small crowd round him, and one customer. 
 He looks at his eyes, nose, mouth, ears and cheek-bones, 
 fingers and hands. Then, by consulting some written 
 characters on a piece of cloth, he is able to tell his 
 
 patron's fortune to a ' T.' At aU events, _the patron 
 cannot contradict him then ; and he retires, no doubt 
 quite satisfied, if the predictions have been favourable. 
 " Ah ! here comes a pedlar, with his wares on his back. 
 He sees the little crowd interested in the fortune-telling, 
 so he will move on and not pitch too close. There is 
 
190 
 
 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 only one who manifests any wish to see his stock ; but 
 he is a youngster, and the man perhaps knows that, 
 like many ypungsters in other lands, they have more 
 
 THE SUGAKED SWEET STALL. 
 
 curiosity than cash, and that after turning over every- 
 thing he would buy nothing. Or perhaps he may 
 have nothing suitable for juvenile tastes or require- 
 ments. 
 
 " Never mind, youngster, here is something more in 
 
SUNDRY OCCUPATIONS. 191 
 
 your line. Here is the sugared sweet stall not far off, with 
 a choice variety of tempting comestibles. An awning 
 over the stall protects the wares from the sun, and the 
 watchfulness of the wary proprietor protects them from 
 the cashless urchins to whom they are so tempting. 
 The man places his hand on that part of the body 
 destined to receive eatables, as an indication that his 
 wares would produce a very pleasing sensation in that 
 direction ; or else he places his hand on his heart as an 
 assurance that his sweets are the purest and best. 
 Though I should not believe him the more for this 
 pantomimic action, I should do the Chinese the justice 
 of saying that their confectionery is cheap and good. 
 
 " It would be well if the streets had men of no other 
 occupation than these peripatetic stall-keepers. There 
 are in Chinese cities, as in European, hosts of beggars. 
 In England for some years mendicancy has been a 
 punishable offence ; and for some time past very strenu- 
 ous efforts have been made to put it down. But in 
 China begging is a regular organized trade that has its 
 rules and its leaders, and which is tacitly allowed to 
 exist, although its exactions are most vexatious, not to 
 say disgracefiil. The town is divided into districts, and 
 a rate is levied on each shop of so many cash. The 
 rascals go round in twos or threes, and collect the rate. 
 They enter a shop and demand whatever the levy may 
 be ; if the shopkeeper pays up at once, without any 
 
192 
 
 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 bother, he receives from one of the fraternity a little red 
 ticket, which protects him from further annoyance that 
 day. If a subsequent visit be paid by any others, he 
 has only to hold up this ticket, and the beggars walk 
 away without troubling him. But if he refuse to pay 
 
 THE BEGGAR KATE. 
 
 the rascals make as much noise as they can with casta- 
 nets, striking pieces of brass, turning round copper coins 
 in a china bowl, and other ingenious but deafening 
 devices. 
 
 " The poor shopkeeper has no peace, and can transact 
 no business, for no one would enter his shop when such 
 
SUNDRY OCCUPATIONS. 193 
 
 a din was going on. There are no police to call in ; and 
 the man has not the pluck to turn them out neck and 
 crop. Fancy John Bull submitting to the invasion 
 quietly ! I do not think that you would find many of 
 these red tickets in an Englishman's till. Another large 
 class of beggars consists of those who by infirmity, or 
 sickness, or poverty, are badly off. They have their tale 
 of distress written on a board, just as our beggars do ; 
 and, no doubt, often with as much truthfulness. They 
 sometimes beat their heads against the pavement to 
 excite pity. But in this class, as you may imagine, 
 there are lots of impostors, even among those who are 
 deformed. I have met a gentleman who has seen four 
 beggars crawling about, having lost their legs a little 
 below the knee. They had actually taken off their legs 
 to excite pity and obtain money ; and so good a paying 
 business is this that many attempt it, though most die 
 under the process, which is thus simply described : — 
 They tie a thin piece of string round the calf of the 
 leg, and draw it tighter from time to time, until the 
 bone is sawn completely through. WeU worth while, 
 one would think, to go through so much to become a 
 beggar ! Generally the rogues are as much afraid of pain 
 as they are of work. 
 
 " I find the audacity of these beggars is not confined to 
 the cities, Mr. Fortune, in his journey up the country 
 to the tea districts, met with them, and thus gives his 
 
 
 
194 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 experience at one place : — ' It was a custom witli the 
 boatman every morning to set aside a small portion of 
 rice in a bamboo cup to give to the poor, Hence the 
 beggars were generally successful in theix applications ; 
 . indeed, it was a most difBcult matter to get rid of them 
 otherwise, for they were most importunate, and even 
 troublesome. We were visited by so many that the 
 boatman often complained of his inability to give more 
 than an ounce or two of rice to each, and appealed to 
 them on the subject. But unless the whole of the 
 contents of the bamboo cup was emptied into the basket 
 held out, the mendicants made a great noise, and com- 
 plained that they had been deprived of their due.' 
 
 " Well, we do manage to keep beggars more in their 
 place than most nations do, for not only in China are 
 they audacious, — in Spain, beggars take alms as a 
 matter of course ; I heard of a gentleman who was in 
 the habit of giving a daily dole to a Spaniard on one of 
 the bridges of Granada. Business took the gentleman 
 away for some weeks ; and on his return he found the 
 old beggar in his usual place, and he offered him his 
 usual alms. Judge of his astonishinent when the 
 beggar refused this, and demanded one for every day 
 he had been absent ! 
 
 "The state of things I have been speaking of in 
 China shows a very lax condition of social law. You 
 are disposed to ask, as we sometimes do here, ' Where 
 
SUNDRY OCCUPATIONS. 195 
 
 are the police ? Are there any ? ' Well, there are some 
 who perform police duties, and they are dignified by 
 the name of soldiers ; but they are a miserable lot. 
 
 "There are two armies in China; the Tartar army, 
 which is in possession of the garrison towns, and which 
 numbers under one hundred thousand men ; and the 
 Chinese army, numbering six orseven hundred thousand. 
 It is these latter men who are employed as constables, 
 guards, and collectors of taxes. They are stationed at 
 certain distances along the great high roads to act as 
 post-office officials, and to carry despatches. A wooden 
 building belongs to each party, and certain messages 
 can be signalled from one to another. They employ 
 their leisure in tDling the ground, for which they are 
 fitted ; but as to being soldiers, the idea is ridiculous. 
 Their weapons are lances, spears, javelins, bows, swords, 
 and matchlocks. Some of them are called tigers of 
 war, and are supposed to be a very desperate set of 
 fellows. They wear striped dresses, and carry large 
 shields of basket-work, to frighten their enemies. 
 When a regiment exercises, it performs all sorts of 
 antics, like a set of buffoons. It is quite laughable to 
 read some of the accounts of their engagements with 
 our troops. The Chinese act on the safe principle — 
 
 " ' He that flghta and runs a-way 
 "Will live to fight another day.' 
 
 " In Lord Elgin's Travels there is an account of one 
 
196 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 of our naval captains being attacked suddenly by a lot 
 of these brave fellows, and having to beat a retreat, 
 leaving behind him his hat and his dog. As soon as he 
 could get some marines and sailors he went back, but 
 found the city gate closed. However, the wall was soon 
 scaled, and at sight of our men on the walls, the Chinese 
 fled in all directions. No resistance was offered, and 
 our men were at once masters of the situation. They 
 could not find out the real culprits, so they contented 
 themselves with seizing six of the most respectable in- 
 habitants and marching them off, the crowd being 
 compelled to repeat, as they went along, 'It's very wrong 
 to insult an Englishman, I will never insult an English- 
 man.' The prisoners were liberated in the morning ; 
 the captain's hat was given up, and the dog swam off 
 to the vessel. 
 
 " The Tartars, I should say, are men of different stuff, 
 as we may weU imagine when we remember that so few 
 of them comparatively conquered China, with its teem- 
 ing populations. The term 'catching a Tartar' has its 
 origin in a mistake a Jack Tar made in not discrimina- 
 ting between a Chinese and a Tartar soldier. Jack came 
 across one of the latter, and began taking liberties with 
 him which were reseinted. A scuffle ensued, and at last, 
 finding he had rather more than his match, Jack called 
 out to his mate, who had gone on ahead, ' Hi there ! 
 I've got a Tartar.' 
 
SUNDRY OCCUPATIONS. 197 
 
 " ' Bring 'en along witli you/ replied his friend. 
 
 " ' I can't/ returned Jack. 
 
 " ' Well, then, come along without 'en/ shouted back 
 his friend. 
 
 " ' Ah ! but he won't let me/ was Jack's confession 
 that he had ' caught a Tartar.' 
 
 "No wonder that the native soldiers are such poor 
 sticks when the civil and military authorities are such 
 as they are. 
 
 " The mandarins, who are the Government offiQials and 
 magistrates, are a poor lot. They are particular enough 
 in matters of official etiquette or ceremony, but they 
 show little vigour and determination in doing their best 
 for the welfare of the people. 
 
 " Their places are often positions of great profit, and 
 many are open to bribery. You may easily tell them 
 if you see them, by reason of their gorgeous robes and 
 chains of office ; but as to finding out what good some 
 of them are, that is a rather difficult matter. Great as 
 is their influence, they do not escape punishment, of 
 which there are many kinds. For the gravest offences 
 death is assigned ; and in such cases it is esteemed a 
 great favour if the Emperor sends the culprit a silken 
 cord wherewith to strangle himself. Before doing so, 
 however, he has to tha,nk his Celestial Majesty for his 
 great kindness ; for death by strangulation is so much 
 less disgraceful than by beheading. 
 
198 
 
 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 " I have gone on long enough, I am sure ; and so to 
 bring my remarks to a close, I must just throw together 
 
 A MAXUAKIN. 
 
 a few facte that occur to me that I have not mentioned. 
 " The wages of the lower orders are small, but then 
 
SUNDEY OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 199 
 
 their wants are few, and their living is cheap. Carpenters 
 and masons get from ten-pence to fifteen-pence a day ; 
 and clerks from ten to thirty dollars a month, with 
 board. 
 
 "You would be reminded of our own bricklayers if 
 you saw the Chinese at work; and when you read 
 
 ERICKLAyEHS. 
 
 about the great waU of China — concerning which I do 
 not propose saying a word, as I have chiefly confined 
 my remarks to the people, and have left out descrip- 
 tions of places — you wiU conclude that they know how 
 to build. 
 
 "There is one branch of industry that is rather 
 amusing. 
 
200 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 " The Chinese are very successful in rearing ducks. 
 Early in the spring, ducks'- eggs are hatched by artificial 
 heat in enormous quantities. The French are very 
 clever at this motherly performance, hut the Chinese 
 have been at it for many years. In the hatching-houses 
 as many as one thousand ducks are hatched at once. 
 On the Canton river there are several large duck-boats, 
 where the owners live with their birds. In the morn- 
 ing, planks are placed from the boats to the shore, and 
 then a long procession of ducks waddles single file to 
 land, where they have to board themselves for the day, 
 picking up what they can get ; and as ducks are not 
 very fastidious, they manage to fare pretty well. In 
 the evening the owner gives a signal, on hearing which 
 there is a tremendous commotion among the ducks ; 
 they all set off for the planks, waddling and quacking 
 as well as their feet and throats will allow, and as 
 rapidly as their well-filled bodies will enable them. 
 
 "Wonderful affection for their owner, you surmise. 
 Strong love for home, sweet home, you assume. Wrong, 
 my friend. Great regard for their bodies is the tender 
 instinct that impels them ; for the man stands with a 
 bamboo flapper, which descends with some force on the 
 tail of the unlucky duck that happens to get on to the 
 plank last of all. 
 
 " I sincerely hope that our respected friend Mr. 
 Tozer, who is present, will take no unfair advantage of 
 
NATIVE RELIGIONS. 201 
 
 this piece of information. Boys have feelings far 
 above ducks, and are the most tractable of creatures. 
 
 "No description of China would be complete that 
 did not include some account of the two systems of 
 religion prevalent there ; and yet the subject is so vast, 
 that a traveller resident for a short time can gather but 
 little about it. Thanks, however, to missionaries and 
 others, we have much reliable information on the sub- 
 ject. The Chinese system of morals is very extensive, 
 and mainly commendable. Their literature abounds in 
 proverbial sayings, which, are oftener honoured in the 
 breach than in the observance. To take but half a 
 dozen from a number of others at hand, what could be 
 truer or more sensible than the following ? — 
 
 " ' The sage fears God and forgets man ; the wicked 
 man fears man and forgets God.' 
 
 " ' Modesty is woman's courage.' 
 
 " ' Silence and blushing are the eloquence of woman.' 
 
 " ' Forbearance is a domestic jewel' 
 
 " ' Dig a well before you are thirsty.' 
 
 " ' The pleasure of doing good is the only one that 
 does not wear out.' 
 
 " The Confucian system is the native religion, as we 
 have seen ; and its literature retains a strong hold on 
 the people, Confucianists do not believe in a future 
 state of rewards and punishments ; they say that virtue 
 is rewarded in this life, and vice is punished. 
 
202 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 "The other great system, Buddhism, teaches that 
 there is a future state, in which the wicked will suffer 
 iu each of the ten departments of hell, after which they 
 are born again as men, insects, birds, or beasts, accord- 
 ing to justice. Buddhism is more of a speculation and 
 a profession than a faith. It has a place in the intellect 
 of millions of the Chinese, but it touches their hearts 
 but little. It is a foundation on which any faith may 
 be built. You do not hear of any Buddhist martyrs, or 
 devotees ; they do not trust it as some other more 
 benighted heathen trust their false gods. Their temples 
 are going to decay, and no new ones are built. 
 
 " What may be the bearing of Christianity on these 
 strange, anomalous, and clever people I do not pretend 
 to say, because I know but little. To know the Chinese 
 is to admire their skill, and ingenuity, and patience ; to 
 have read about their ancient civilization is to be inte- 
 rested in them; to think of their heathenism and 
 blindness is to be anxious that the gospel should make 
 its way there; and yet it does not to the extent we 
 could wish. We may be sure that the fault is with 
 those to whom it is taken ; it cannot be that the religion 
 of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, is unadapted 
 for a nation that numbers one-third of the population 
 of the entire globe ; and I am sure the Church in this 
 and other countries has not been unmindful of this vast 
 empire. 
 
THE GOSPEL IN CHINA. 203 
 
 " But this I must leave to abler hands. 
 
 " And now, in thanking you for your attention, and 
 for bearing with my too rambling and desiiltory 
 remarks, I may say of myself that, though I have not 
 been at all times severe and grave, I have never told 
 you other than severe truths concerning these peculiar 
 people. Whether you have been pleased or not, I must 
 leave you to determine ; but I think I may say that 
 my last words wiU be agreeable to you, in which I call 
 upon our respected friend Mr. Tozer to say a few words 
 about the future of China in the light of Christian 
 missions." 
 
 ***** 
 
 Thus appealed to, Mr. Tozer said "After we have 
 been so long entertained, and I will say enlightened 
 by our friend, one would be ungrateful not to do as he 
 wishes, and yet I feel but little need be said. I was 
 much struck with his modesty in not venturing to speak 
 with authority on the subject which he has deputed to 
 me, for we are so accustomed to find that travellers 
 who pay flying visits to places return and write their 
 books, in which they dogmatize on every subject which 
 has come under their superficial notice. No subject 
 suffers more at the hands of these gentlemen than 
 Christianity. Of course I pretend to know but little, 
 but that little is derived from the works of those who 
 are most interested and have studied the subject. 
 
204 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 " It must be confessed, I think, that the success of 
 our Christian missions has been far below what was 
 expected. I think it was not until seven years after 
 Morrison landed at Canton that the first convert was 
 made ; and not until after twenty-eight years that the 
 first church was formed. And even now the number of 
 converts in the whole of China is very small. 
 
 " At first we should say that the success of Buddhism 
 augured well for Christianity, for it has made its way 
 solely by moral power. It was introduced from India 
 about the year 66, as the most suitable religion for the 
 people which emissaries, who were sent everywhere, 
 could discover. It was a religion foreign to the land ; 
 it was denounced by the sovereigns, opposed by all the 
 clever men of that day ; its votaries were persecuted, 
 and yet it has triumphed. 
 
 " But, on the other hand, there are many obstacles to 
 Christianity; first there is the language, which is so 
 difficult to acquire; for, apart from the numberless 
 inflexions and modulations, there are innumerable 
 peculiarities of declensions and conjugations ; and the 
 difference between the written and spoken language is 
 so great. Then there is their intolerable vanity ; all 
 other nations are barbarians, and can teach them nothing. 
 This accounts for their dogged conservatism, that leads 
 them to believe nothing can be improved ; what has 
 done for their fathers wiU do for them ; in fact, it would 
 
THE GOSPEL IN CHINA. 205 
 
 be wanting in respect to them to infer in any way that 
 they were wrong. This filial respect makes it almost 
 impossible for them to give up the worship of their ances- 
 tors, which Christianity of course insists on. Then, 
 as you have heard, their system of morals is so complete, 
 that if you present gospel truth, they have something 
 like it before, and when the difference is pointed out, it 
 does not commend itself to the carnal mind, and so they 
 prefer their own religion. The teachings of Confucius 
 and Mencius have so taken hold upon them, that it 
 would be far easier to preach the gospel to unenlightened 
 savages, than to these civilized heathens, and yet our 
 duty is clear. 
 
 "Well, thank God, brave and clever men are not 
 wanting. "With all the discouragement that our mis- 
 sionaries have encountered, you do not hear one word 
 of giving up. The medical missions have seemed to lay 
 hold of the people ; the London Missionary Society for 
 many years has had one at Shanghai, which has been 
 so popular that crowds have waited aU night in the 
 streets to insure admittance as soon as the doors were 
 open. To each patient a tract or book is given, and those 
 residing in the hospital, till they are recovered, have 
 services held for them. I have heard Dr. Lockhart say 
 that during his twenty years' residence as a medical 
 missionary he bad attended to 200,000 patients. Other 
 societies have medical missions, which also seem to have 
 
206 THE LAUD OF THE PIGTAIL. 
 
 been appreciated. The Chinese do see that as regards 
 medical sldll they have something to learn from the 
 Western barbarians, and they may wish to know some- 
 thing of a religion that leads its followers to such self- 
 denying and useful service for the people of a foreign 
 land. Surely here is ground for encouragement. 
 Eecent treaties have opened up districts of China in 
 which foreigners have never before trodden, and now 
 missionaries penetrate remote towns and villages with 
 the Bible in their hands. Alas ! we have to mourn 
 that of late persecution and bigotry have obstructed the 
 work, and missionaries, and especially native converts, 
 have been attacked ; in fact, one of the latter has died 
 for the new faith — an incident, I will venture to say, 
 unheard of before in China. If the first recorded martyr 
 was a Christian, what may we not hope for from blood 
 thus shed ? 
 
 " No, no ; a country so densely populated, so anciently 
 civilized, must not be given up to error and sup^erstition. 
 We must supply men and money; we must continue in 
 our prayers ; we must take a deeper interest in the 
 heathen world, for which Christ died ; and native helpers 
 must be raised up, for this vast land can never be 
 evangelized by Europeans. 
 
 " Meanwhile, for our encouragement, we may compare 
 this vast kingdom with our happy land, and thank God 
 when we do so. Eemembering all that we have heard 
 
COMPAEISON. 207 
 
 of the ancient civilization of China, of her skill, of her 
 education, of her vast population and resources, as we 
 think of the relative position and importance of this 
 China and England, must we not, in a spirit of humility 
 and with a sense of solemn responsibility, confess that 
 ' righteousness exalteth a nation ' ? " 
 
 J, AND W. BIDBB, FBINTEBS, LONDON.