CARNIVALS IN MANY LANDS 235 



on condition that no water should be thrown as I 

 emerged, to which they assented gleefully. But I 

 ought to have been prepared for this new proof of 

 female perfidy ; for scarcely had I let go, still looking 

 up at the pretty, flushed faces above me, when down 

 came a great bucketful of water, absolutely deluging 

 me from head to foot, whilst roars and shrieks of 

 delight accompanied this treacherous act ! 



This was too much, really. Hastily filling my 

 pockets and hands with globos y squirts, and powders 

 from a boy who stood by, I rushed up the staircase, 

 and without ceremony penetrated into the room above. 

 Here an indescribable melee ensued, in which all became 

 soaked, torn, and covered with flour, to say nothing of 

 the furniture. ' Stupid ! ' they said when I reproached 

 them. ' If you had been a Peruvian instead of an 

 Englishman, you would have known better than to 

 believe a woman's promise at carnival-time ! ' Hot 

 punch was brought in as a preventive against taking 

 cold ; and the ladies kindly insisting on having my 

 clothes dried and brushed, I changed them, being 

 obliged, on account of there not being any gentle- 

 man's garments available, to dress myself in one of 

 their frocks, in which guise I had perforce to pass 

 the rest of the evening in their company." 



Captain Gambler in the course of his naval duties 

 visited China, and he had the good fortune to witness 

 a marvellous exhibition by a Chinese conjurer. Although 

 it is somewhat outside the range of this chapter, his 

 account of the performance is too good to be omitted * : 

 "At a village some ten miles outside Foochow I saw 

 a conjurer a Mongolian from the extreme west of 

 1 See Bibliography, 9. 



