362 Voyage of the Novara. 



sole income, as every tradesman must give tlie Comprador a 

 per-centage upon everything, even tlie most insignificant 

 article that enters the house, and this custom even extends 

 to any purchases made by a Chinese in the warehouses of the 

 foreign merchant. 



Another ''public character," whom one frequently meets 

 in the lower parts of the city in the public streets of the 

 Chinese quarter, is the '' soothsayer." On a small table 

 before him stands an open draught-board with a number of 

 squares, on which are inscribed a variety of proverbs and 

 oracular sayings. In each square is a grain of rice, and 

 quite close to tlie board is a bird-cage with a tame canary. 

 Presently some good-humoui'ed gaping rustic comes up, who 

 wishes to learn his destiny, upon which the soothsayer 

 suffers the canary to hop out of his cage upon one of the 

 squares, and pick up a grain of rice ad libitum. The sen- 

 tences and interpretations, which are inscribed on each square 

 from which the canary snaps up his food serve for a reply 

 and decision to the curious questioner, who hands over a 

 small Jionorariu7n. The apparatus is simple and ingenious, 

 but the proverbs are excessively silly, and recall much less the 

 land of Confucius than the dream-books of certain countries 

 standing high in European civilization. 



The stores which seem most to attract the attention of a 

 stranger are the '' Curiosity-shops," in which are heaped up 

 those innumerable articles of Chinese industry and Cliinese 

 taste which are so characteristic of the country and its 



