220 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



A day or two after reaching Hongkong we took 

 the night boat, the Kinshan, up the river to Canton, 

 in order to spend a day in that ancient and famous 

 city of the Celestials. Of the impressions received, 

 about ninety per cent, I should say, were communi- 

 cated through the organ of smell, and on these I shall 

 not dilate more than to remark that so choice and 

 variegated a selection of odors it had not previously 

 been my fortune to meet. (Needless to remark I use 

 the word "fortune" more from the point of view of 

 the globe-trotter looking for novel experience than 

 from that of the aesthete.) The remaining portion of 

 our impressions I shall try to describe, for in the 

 cities of no other country in the world, I suppose, 

 will you find more upside-down and remarkable cus- 

 toms than in China where the native greeting a 

 friend in the street shakes his own hand, where your 

 enemy smiles when he is most angry with you, where 

 the women restrain the growth of their feet till 

 walking becomes difficult, and where, indeed, the 

 customs and manners of one of the oldest civiliza- 

 tions of the world possess for the visitor the great- 

 est interest and attraction. 



We started from the steamer in the morning, all in 

 chairs supported by three coolies each, Ah Cum, our 

 guide, leading, with D., myself, and Thomas follow- 

 ing in single file Thomas on the broad grin at the 



