WATER-CLOCK TOWER. 297 



quantity of curiously-shaped bronzes ; here we were 

 very suspiciously eyed by tlie officials, and my guide 

 recommended us to beat a I'etreat. 



A few streets oflP, the latter showed me the old water- 

 clock tower, where by a simple contrivance water is made 

 to trickle down from a height of about twenty feet, 

 through small apertures of half a dozen buckets placed 

 one above the other into a cask below, which latter is 

 provided with a floating measure introduced in a vertical 

 position like a foot rule, by which the gentle flow is regu- 

 lated, dividing the day into twenty-four hours, the hour 

 into minutes, and so on, each bucket having its own 

 duty to perform. The same system has been in exist- 

 ence in China for centuries, or, as the guardian of the 

 place gravely informed me, from the commencement of 

 her historical period, which is variably given as between 

 the 23rd and 30th century, B.C. ; but we are not bound 

 to believe everything a Celestial tells us, for there is no 

 better dissembler or liar in existence. Chinamen will 

 rarely admit that modern institutions can possibly be 

 an improvement upon those of their ancestors, — they 

 are the most conservative people in the world, and they 

 greatly relish telling foreigners not only about the 

 good old time, as our grandmothers are wont to do, 

 but about a time that preceded the very existence of 

 European nations. I wonder what they would say if 



