KASHMIR TO CHINA 221 



new sights, and the Chinamen also on the broad grin 

 at seeing such a rara avis in their country as Thomas, 

 with his sarong, tortoise-shell comb, and "psyche 

 knot." I fear he must have been seriously embar- 

 rassed, for whenever we stopped he was at once 

 surrounded by an admiring circle, who grinned and 

 discussed him quite as we should discuss a remark- 

 able new specimen at the Zoo. 



There are no streets in Canton, but the city is 

 transected by thousands of narrow alley-ways never 

 more than ten feet wide, and through these a dense 

 crowd is constantly passing, so that it was all our 

 chair-coolies could do to make a passage. From the 

 buildings on both sides innumerable signs, reading 

 up and down, are suspended like the flies above a 

 stage, so thick as almost to shut out whatever light 

 manages to permeate into the narrow space beneath. 

 The whole great city appears to be composed of 

 shops, nothing but shops, and most of these deal 

 in the various articles of Chinese food, so that as 

 one passes along in his chair one is constantly 

 brought into unpleasant proximity with extraordi- 

 nary messes, from the insides of pigs to birds' nests 

 and skinned rats, displayed on shelves or hung from 

 hooks at the sides of the alleys. Basketfuls of live 

 pigs slung on a pole between two coolies are much 

 in evidence, the Chinamen singing in time to their 



