1-. I; i. : THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL • THE Band of the Iigtail; ^ts IJcojjU mxb Customs, FROM A BOY'S POINT OF VIEW. /V>^ BENJAMIN CLARKE, BDITOB OP "KIND WOBDS," AUTHOR OP " POUKCEFOBD HALL," BTC. KTC. bonbon : SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION, 56, OLD BAILEY. . „~ r PB1NTED BT J. AKD W. RIDBB, BABTHOLOMEW CLOSB. CHAPTER I. Chakley makes his Bow CHAPTER II. Uaiki>KE88ING 16 CHAPTER III. Match-making 32 CHAPTER IV. ierok's Wedding 16 CHAPTER V Concerning Eating 60 CHAPTER VI. Concerning Drinkinu 76 Vlll CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. The Cup that Cheers, and the Drug thvt Debases . 93 CHAPTER VIII. Natural Productions 112 CHAPTER IX. Education 123 CHAPTER X. Amusements 144 CHAPTER XL Treatment of 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 ! and as 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, 2 THE LAND. OF THE PIGTAIL. and now a clerk h{ 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 all listen. The fact was that Charley had always been noted for his story-telling, 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 inquired 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 telling 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. What do you say, now ? 1 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, _inal, or smart. Couldn't charge 'em anything, I suppose, not if 'twas 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 out bills. No, of course, that won't do, for Eobson would get the pull, and they would say, let him pay for John Chinaman 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 examination. Well, then, on the whole I think I'll do the magnanimous, and throw my meetings open to the town and neigh- bourhood 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 conformed to one of the latter. CHARLEY MAKES HIS BOW. O 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 " Tlie temple of ejeedted wisdom and priceless information, opened for tlie western barbarians, by Mandarin Char-Li- Kr urn- 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 greatest 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 of Chinese workmanship, and the manuscript from which he was going to read. Various were the remarks made 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 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. is to take ' two doses.' " This solution found favour with some ; but others decided it was a Latin motto, and there were several quite able to translate it into English. Mr. Tozer was appealed to, and most readily gave his 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 degrading 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 to 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 CHARLEY MAKES HIS BOW. 7 its natural production — tea, that we first became acquainted with it. It may in a sense, therefore, be said to teach us a good deal of valuable information. This explanation I offer to the more intellectual and sober- minded portion of my hearers ; to the younger 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 of " 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 very 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 accoTd a kindly welcome and a patient perusal to what he has to say. Bowing to his audience, Charley thus began : — " My worthy father ! whose liberal ' stumping up ' — Ion, 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, perhaps, 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 they 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 their 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 T was at school about a great wall of China, and for some time I was under the delusion that it was some gigantic bit of pottery. I knew the men wore pigtails, and heard once of a man who had his tied so tight he could not wink; I w r as told the feet of the women turned up more than their noses; and of course I knew that tea came from China. But there my knowledge ended. " I was fortunate enough to have for a captain a man w r ho 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 civilized nation on the face of the earth — older even than Egypt. " 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 an isolated 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 steered her ships thereby, with needles pointing to the south, before England — now the mistress of the seas — 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 CHARLEY 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 all our advancement and with all our advantages and superiority, may yet learn something from the ' Land Of the Pigtail.' " I shall not be 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 still 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 else at home : like his cousin Jonathan, he thinks that 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 — ' Eeally 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 discover 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. 13 but for the sake of my dear old companions, 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 learn- ing from the Chinese ; but our mutual friend, Mr. Tozer, will, 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 hew he made quite little scientific lectures out of our kite-flying, or top-spin- ning ; and I 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 him here 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 form 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, and which will give you correct impressions of some of the inhabitants of this wonderful land. "As to the extent of the land — 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 CHARLEY 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 remarks 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 'logical 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. '• Xow 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." Chapter ii. AIE fashionably cut, 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 silk. ^ " It often happens that the natural cue is not long- enough to suit the taste of the wearer ; he then has it lengthened by other hair being added, till, in some cases, the pigtail almost touches the ground. I must HAIRDRESSING. 17 be 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 lind 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 neve^r 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 Refuse 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 OF 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 ? 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. " Well, 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. HAIRDRESSING. 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- Now the Chinese turn everything to account; they waste nothing. ■ In this matter of refuse hair, how different our practice ! our ladies, / am told, make up their combings into little hair pills, and burn them at 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 ab 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 has HAIRDRESSING. 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 vnthout 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 that 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 now 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 a 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 you. 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. HAIRDRESS1NG. 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, but out of consideration for what is on the paper. ■ Now, you must know that the Chinese are a most reverent nation. I am not 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 suggest 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, HAIRDRESSIXG. 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 OF PAPER SCRAPS. ing, as loud as his impassive nature will allow, ' King .' which means, not that the man has a bad cold and began to say something, but was prevented by sneezing, but ' Revere 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, will become honoured and wealthy, and his children and grandchildren will 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 lettered paper to kindle a fire has ten demerits, and he will have itching sores. " ' He who in anger throws down on the ground any lettered paper has five demerits, and he will lose his intelligence.'" HAIRDRESSING. 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 judge: ' 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 hint in which 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 writings 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 shoes worn by men. HAIKDRESSING. 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 OF 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 under 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- HAIRDRESSING. 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 : but they are in the 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 Nature." Chapter hi. match-makin g. ATCH-MAKING, marriage, and matrimony, are subjects of which a young man might well fight 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 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 voung man then consult a fortune-teller, and if his re- • As in the initial letter at the Lead of this chapter. 36 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAJL. 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 the 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 of that \ E > wer 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 goos-mon-chick's dad bite I's leg for, then ? ' " 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 chow-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 whenever 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 them down the throat of the birds to increase their weight ; and they will blow out stale fish with a reed until 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 THE POULTRY-SELLER. measures. The seller has a steelyard, of course favour- ing himself; and sometimes the buyer brings with him a steelyard inclining to his side; and the squabbles imputes, and clamouring and abuse that go on must be seen and heard to be believed. " I heard once of a man who went into a dfame's shop 72 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. for half an ounce of tobacco, but the 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 the fowl as given by the market-man, who has to give the beam a gentle tilt to make the other end go down. u 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 clone the other. "In the presence, of some representatives of English trade, I suppose I must not say anything about adulte- ration and false labels, and 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 constitute 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 1 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, CONCERNING 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, till 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 the 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 silk. He could not wait till 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 hand down into the case, he was horrified to find that 9 filled with rubbish, shavings, and sawdust. And so with every case. Poor man, how he took it to heart ! ]!<• knew }w was a ruined man ; that he could not repay 74 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. his employers ; that he would have to leave his 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 something queer in his 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 was asked by a shoemaker what the captain was going to do with a large leather bag 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 Captain 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 and 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, cormoraut 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 swallowing. As soon as he sees that the cormorant has made a cap- ture, he paddles his raft over to the spot, and by means nsiIIXQ 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 witli 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. CONCERNING DRINKING. F course one cannot eat much anywhere without wanting to drink, and especially in a 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 taken 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 chin aware cups. " I need not say this mild, unintoxicating liquor does CONCERNING DRINKING. 77 not suit the English, and so they drink a spirit distilled from the no-me wine, which is called sam shoo, and which is really intoxicating. " The Chinese, to their praise be it spoken, are a most temperate people. You may walk through their largest cities, and live there for weeks, without seeing a drunken person ; whilst they have not, as we have, an abimdant supply of good water ; so that they are driven 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 well-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 cloth soaked in warm water over his face 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 CARRIERS. water-carriers, who bring a poor substitute from 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. CONCERNING DMXKING. 7\) " 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 it easily 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 iina are Englishmen. They feel the thirst and ide 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 waited on ; you knock again and, for want of something better to dc you take up the tea pot on the counter, and help your- self to a cup of tea. Should the cunning little eye oi 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 will meet with a tea and cake stall, at which you may quench your thirst and have some tempting confectionery for next to nothing, as the say- TEA. 83 ing is. You may miss the milk 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 ; and 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- elosed 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 round 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-teller has TEA. 85 to pile od the agony very considerably to remove the 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 will 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 all 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, All, 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 shrubs 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 till 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 l Three years' Wanderings in the Northern Provinces of China/ who noted down the colouring matter, which was a mixture of Prussian blue and gypsum, burnt together till they formed a fine 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 m 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, 1 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, nourishing 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, hills, where it is produced ; Congou, Kung-foo, meaning labour, because the leaves are subjected to frequent rubbings." p HAPTER YII, THE CUP THAT CHEERS, 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 exceed a thousand millions 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. For 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 sittings, 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 TKA. 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 abont 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 black 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- which they possess. The roasting of the leaves N almost as soon as they are picked, and their being dried Off quickly alter the rolling, account for their colour, tell us, also for the effect which l ii 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 filling 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 ; drink it, ,and the animal spirits will 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 CHE 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 year 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 consumption 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 o 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 tl, 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. st 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 revenue from the vice and misery of my people.' But his son, Hien Fung } who smoked opium before he came to the throne in 1851, yielded, after his defeat in 1858, to the demands of England, France, 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 all 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 this 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 ; fyr 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 ouly is the habit very easily acquired, but when once acquired, it is almost impossible to give 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. 11 1 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 much 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 rilling 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 jolly 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 of Mine to show what an obstacle this opium traflic is to the spread of the gospel. Many 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 best intentions towards their race, say, ' What is your religion worth ? Your countrymen brirjg us in one hand the drug that AN OPIUM SMOKER 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. But your gains were at stake, and you cared not for our bodies or our souls. Now, with the other hand, you bring us opium. 109 your gospel, which you tell 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 Rev. 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 ttoem a destructive poison with the one hand, and a saving religion with the other/ " The Rev. J. R. Wolfe, of the Church Missionary Society, writing to its committee, says : ' There is, how- « -iiu tiling which the Chinese people dislike, and which has tended more than anything 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 thiug 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 ones. 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. • 111 and grandfathers : they have mixed with Englishmen for centuries now, but they see but little in them worth copying, voting them barbarians 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." afi Chapter yiii. natural productions. F 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 ; 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 skilful 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 will 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 h 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 PRODUCTIONS. 115 rising one above 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 will 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 ad 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 tntal 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 :• than the shaft, and by walking or stepping 116 THE LAND OF 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. ft 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, in both senses. More than eight million pounds *Doolittle's "Social Life of the Chinese." NATURAL PRODUCTIONS. 117 of silk are exported yearly. The Chinese grow their own mulberry trees, and have their own silkworms ; and in this latter respect are far better off than the silk- growers of France 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 WOBK. pan, rilled 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. " Kumour 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 v&iy 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- NATURAL PRODUCTIONS. 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 oftener, 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." F HAPTER IX, EDUCATION. 3 EW nations have given so 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 jL^ . 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 will announce itself 124 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. as 'the shop of heaven-sent luck/ which being 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 ill- 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 line 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 Caesar 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, — 1 Multiplication's my vexation ; Division's quite as had ; The Rule of Three does puzzle me, 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 for hours to learn lessons from books made up of a sort of compound of Black stone's Commentaries/ Milton's * Paradise Lost,' Shakepeare, and Menial and Moral Philosophys. " You must know that Confucius, the great Chinese philosopher, was born B.C. 651. 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 the Chinese as the Bible is to us. He was, no donbt, a wonderfully wise and good man, but fancy his 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 coining 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 should 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 KASTBB 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 officials assist at the examination, so that the event is one that creates great excitement in the I part of the examination hull there are K 130 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. nearly ten thousand apartments, or cells, for the separate use of the competitors. Each cell is a little higher than a man's head, three feet wide, three 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 bed ! 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 and 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 when these are finished, and EDUCATION. 131 the competitors have 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 i miner 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 themselves. Their 3 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 to sing, — 1 1 thank 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 about 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 deal more is done for children in China when they are at an age not to appreciate it. When 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 — bring presents of rice, cakes, fruits, and vermicelli. These are tied roilnd him with red tape ; and 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 act as a kind of charm ; the gold and silver denoting wealth, and the cord an emblem of authority. ' Bless the baby ! ' you say ; ' how does EDUCATION. 133 lie 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 honour 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. ut 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 in life. I don't see the connection myself, perhaps some of you do. 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 ir discoveries by centuries ! It is only within the last few years that we have begun to take charcoal ; and »al biscuits are a very modern, and gritty invention. 134 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. Then some dogs' and cats' hairs are also placed, to keep the animals in the neighbourhood from barking and THE ROLL OF 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 are nothing to those 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 reminds 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 thrown at it. " But if there is one kind of bark which the Chinese are anxious 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 youngsters 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 if anything connected witli soap never came them than outside their bedroom door. not all. On the little fellow's bed 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 to 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 ! " you will say. A thank-offering 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 superstitious 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 very 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 unsuspecting boy m ly 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-slab, 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 scholar. " Xow, 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, indul 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 still more unfortunate child has a miserable time of it. It is considered a great misfortune to have a girl, and when that is the case, even with the best disposed parents, a disfnal 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, because 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 marry, 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 marrying a girl in any other class would be a much more expensive affair. " In Canton, the Roman Catholics have a mission which interests itself in the rescue of castaway children. The Sisters of Charity have an infant 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 body 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 presently umarkable 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, I thought rather long- winded, I must l another matter, and that is one in which the Chinese b» tie. We have seen how unlike we are in most tilings ; 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 the 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 ; then observe the same anxiety to get his finger clean by sucking it. If, however, the man at the shop has so carefully filled the jar as to leave no treacle tricklings, the urchin's finger is dipped boldly into the tempting article, and applied to the mouth ; and if the pinafore does not tell the tale, the youngster's mouth often will. " 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 his 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 well-known sound, and one identified as belonging to this stall ; and at the sound of it the youngsters of the neighbourhood draw near ; those who BARLEY-SUGAK 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 buy seen approaching is one of the former class, holds his coin in his hand; his youthful character may ed 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 BOY GOING TO SCHOOL. 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 the}- shall have two pies, or none at all for their money. " I suppose one of the greatest evils that could happen to a boy is a love of gambling ; for, whether one loses or wins, one is never satisfied. 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 PTER X. f USEMENTS " jL\\w/n\yjj\ OW natural it seems to connect barley-sugar with toothache! 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 sweetstuff being- crunched — for boys won't 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- FUNCH AND JUDY. AMUSEMENTS. 145 venience follows, they do not hearken unto 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 think that this 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 head without one's feeling it, so successfully performed by schoolboys,. Bad 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 the thump on the head. I should quite expect that the Chinese would 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 somewhere else, who went to a dentist and had a tooth extracted, which came out very easily 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 Chekeang, 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 countrymen. In fact, a medical man out there col- lected some fine specimens of these worms, and had FEMALE DENTIST. them 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 worms 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 lie 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, l Che gnaw gong, che gnaw gong.' I at once called to the servant, ' Ask her to come in.' The first to be operated upon was one of our teachers, suffering from an inflamed eye; 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.' 1 Can you cure him V '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 the 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, perhaps, imparts, 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 I pugnaciously, when the good lady attempted, B 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. had 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 head, 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 ; but 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 would 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 small one into the air, and then scrambling for it when it falls to the ground. They are expert at shuttlecock, which they keep up with their feet. But violent exercise is dis- AMUSEMENTS. 151 couraged 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 are 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 respect to his body to turn his head so rapidly. As in trades, so 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 1*0*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 carpet 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, vrj} THE PUPPET SHOWMAN. cutting off his legs and arms. He then covers up the mutilated 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 melon-seed in a flower-pot filled with earth, after a while, on lifting up the blanket, there is seen a large melon 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 Yet, after a short time spent in waiting, and on removing the blanket, there will be seen the lad who had apparently been killed 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 un- wieldy article, and drawing attention to his performance by making a noise with a clapper, somewhat resembling the bones used by negro melodists. 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 knack of overturning them. AMUSEMENTS. 155 11 But even adult Chinese have some recreations, which, if not very exciting, are harmless. They are very clever both in making, and in flying kites ; they seem to have quite a mild passion for this pastime. One can scarcely imagine the sober-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 ' Tour Round the World/ thus describes the pastime : — " ' The old men, those grown-up children in China, make their appearance, proudly holding the string of an immense 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 winged dragon, eagle, or mandarin ; 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 yEolian 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 drunkenness. 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 when 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 well as for social enjoyment. Household gods are worshipped, as well as those in the AMUSEMENTS. 157 temples, but the chief observances are purely social. All debts are 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 furniture, and frighten 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 their 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 158 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 will come through the opening at the bottom of the lantern, to admit of the candle being lit. The bamboo frame is very pliable, and is drawn up after the manner of our umbrellas, so that when not used the lantern may be folded up. "You may see a lantern-seller 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, such as an individual would carry with him then. The larger and more elaborate ones are sold in shops. They are used on all 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 loth larger and more splendid ones are seen. The draught of air 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 written on 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-CHAIR. 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 all 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 Beauvoir'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 entangle 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 the day, I had seemed to hear sonorous waves of harmony pass through 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 ASolian 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, M 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 soothe some savage breasts, but it has power also to keep 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 drilled 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 ball. A chisel with its point bent at right angles, is made 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, and so on, the external ball beimj finished last of all." HAPTER XI. 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 any 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 desultory 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, will not he 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 parents, 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 les autres, as the French would say; or he might be exposed in the wooden can/jue, 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 undutiful, he might be publicly whipped to death. You may guess from this that the worst crime any one could commit, short of killing the Emperor, 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 of 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 office 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 accountable to this extent for the conduct of his pupils to the end of their days, I imagine he would raise his terms, so as to make his school a very ' select establishment for young gentlemen.' " A son never 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. u One would think that this might be a reason why the Chinese made no 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 A TREATMENT OF PARENTS. 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 obscure and humble 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 well-to-do farmer recently, in the west of England, declined to support his mother, on the ground that he was an 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 property from an uncle. In coming into this 168 THE LAND OF 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; and he 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. u A more righteous or appropriate retribution never overtook a sinner. "But to return to China. 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. " Filial piety is also expected from girls 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 says the woman 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 solemnly and impressively as that noisy instrument will allow ; then comes a sedan-chair, bearing a tablet with the name of the departed on it, which will be put up in the hall, 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 p lanks, 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 will 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 bamboo, and THE UMBRELLA MAKER. 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 coffin under one of these umbrellas carries a round tray, bearing cups of tea and TREATMENT OF PARENTS. 173 wine, with 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 coffins are not put under- ground, but on the ground ; and after the time for mourning, a few spadesful of earth 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 playing 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 PIGTAIL. do not seem to have any great fear, or dread of death. In some houses there are rooms which are set apart for coffins, 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 will put in motion all 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 respect 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 CRIMINALS. 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 houses of the friends of suspected persons, and put them to torture to extract from them the whereabouts of those who are wanted. Kather clumsy, not to speak of the injustice of such proceedings. "The Chinese are good counterfeiters. Foreign dollars have some of the middle taken out and filled up with baser metal, 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 tins description of currency was first used by the Chinese in the ninth century. If some of you look at your histories — most of you who are at Mr. Tozer's need not do that, as you have every tiling 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 counterfoil, 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. !N"ow 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 TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS. 177 prescribed is seldom more than 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. 1 man is carried to the place of execu- tion in ;t 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 mutilated. 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 quite 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 subjected. 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 the gold beaters of Soochow have it, among other old customs, that 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 lie 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 murder from the gold-beater and rushed off for a magistrate. When this officer 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 OF 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 all 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 TREATMENT 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, still 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 w T retched 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 am 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 PIGTAIL. 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, leaving 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 J of medicine. ^^^J^h " 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 DIVINER. 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 had 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 very 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 box, 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 pitched 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 all 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, 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 youngsters in other lands, they have more THE SUGARED 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 disgraceful. 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 it THE BEGGAR RATE. 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 S 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. Well 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 bis o 194 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. experience at one place : — ' It was a custom with 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 their applications ; indeed, it was a most difficult 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 j and on his return he found the old beggar in his usual place, and he offered him his usual alms. Judge of his astonishment 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 or seven 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 tilling 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 — " ' lie that fights and runs away Will live to fight another day.' "In Lor-1 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 well 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 resented. 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 trot u Tartar.' SUNDRY OCCUPATIONS. 197 " ' Bring 'en along with you/ replied his friend. " ■ I can't/ returned Jack. " * Well, then, come along without 'en/ shouted back his friend. " r 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 officials 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 thank 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 MAN D AKIN. a few facts that occur to me that I have not mentioned. " The wages of the lower orders are small, but then SUNDRY 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 I I P H 1 il li T32S& 1 MUCKLAYEHS. about the great wall 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 will 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, but 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 in 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 desultory 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 will 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 will do for them ; in fact, it would ft 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 all 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 had attended to 200,000 patients. Other societies have medical missions, which also seem to have 206 THE LAND OF THE PIGTAIL. been appreciated. The Chinese do see that as regards medical skill 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. Recent 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 superstition. 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 COMPARISON. 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 1 righteousness exalteth a nation ' ? " J. AHI> W. BIOIS, FKIKTIBS, LOKDOM. THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY WILL INCREASE TO 50 CENTS ON THE FOURTH DAY AND TO $1.00 ON THE SEVENTH DAY OVERDUE. MAR 19 It &W 2 | i 2l0cf48E H 2Dec'52ffi. W2 inc . Ub2 t| i J|]Nl71QPft « UTSKt JUN 2 2 1987 ! *. YB 2£9?9 U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES ■HIIIIIIIII C00327722S flJoS: H ^ UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UBRARY