362 CHINA. 



no doubt, the profusion of illustration, especially in Japanese 

 books. 



I paid the usual visit to Canton from Hong Kong. On the 

 passage of the river the tall pagoda of Whampoa is passed. 

 Pagodas, as is well known, are erected as sanitary precautions 

 for the benefit of the cities near which they are built. They 

 represent sharp-peaked mountains, and are intended to preserve 

 the balance of exhalations of the several elements, according 

 to the laws of the mysterious science of Fung Shui, and thus 

 avert pestilence and other ills. 



The pagoda interested me, because on every one of the series 

 of balconies or ledges encircling it at successive heights, a 

 large variety of plants had established themselves, and were 

 flourishing ; in some instances there were bushes of consider- 

 able size. The pagoda stands isolated, and the seeds of all 

 these plants must have been carried up by birds or by the wind. 

 I was told that the Chinese considered it lucky that plants 

 should thus settle on the building. 



The strangest sight in Canton is certainly the water-clock, 

 where a constant attendant watches the sinking of the index 

 attached to the float, as the water slowly runs out ; and when 

 an hour is reached, hangs out a board with the hour written 

 upon it on the city wall, and sounds the time on a gong. 



The small houses on the ferry-boats on the Canton River, 

 which are the homes of the families which get their living by 

 means of them, are decorated all over inside with prints from 

 illustrated European newspapers, many of them of considerable 

 antiquity. It was amusing to find oneself confronted with 

 " the Funeral of the Late Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington." 

 Pedlars and dealers of all kinds ply their trade in the boat-towns 

 in small boats, with which they traverse the lanes and alleys of 

 water. From one of these pedlars I bought some jewellery, 

 used by the boat population, in which pieces of Kingfishers' 

 feathers are set in a gilt backing, so as to imitate, in appearance, 

 very closely, fine blue enamel. The play of colours on the 

 feathers thus mounted is extremely effective, and the jewellery 

 is very pretty. 



One of the places ordinarily visited in Canton by tourists 

 is commonly called the Temple of Horrors. Here the future 

 punishments of the wicked are set forth in a series of groups 

 of modelled figures, representing all horrible tortures con- 

 ceivable in process of execution. In one of these a man is 

 about to be pounded by demons upon an anvil, but is rescued 

 by the Goddess of Mercy {Qiinn Yin), who, standing on a hill- 

 side at some distance, is represented as letting down a cushion 

 at the end of a string, so that the cushion is interposed between 



