312 EAMBLES OP A NATUEALIST. [Cs. XIX. 



of musketry, which lasts ten minutes or a quarteu* of an 

 hour. The bundle of crackers is suspended from a pole out 

 of a window, and burns from below upwards ; and as soon 

 as one string shows signs of dying out another is loaded, so 

 that the rattle goes on for an hour, or longer if caprice 

 desire it. Another mode, of which they are very fond, is 

 that of packing the crackers in a paper parcel, which is 

 lighted at one corner and thrown into the street, when they 

 explode like the firework kno-wn as jack-in-the-box. I have 

 seen dozens of these packets thrown one after another by an 

 invisible hand into a back yard, where they sputtered and 

 smoked otherwise unseen, noise being all that is desired. 

 It is the Chinese mode of expressing joy ; and it is also an 

 expression of congratulation when a wedding takes place, or 

 a birthday ; and it is the common custom in Hong Kong to 

 burn crackers when a European is leaving the colony, 

 either temporarily or permanently, in which case the mem- 

 bers of the household make a demonstration in front of the 

 house as the traveller quits it. So, also, whenever a ship 

 leaves the harbour homeward bound, the bumboat alongside 

 chin-chins with abundance of crackers and smoke, thus ex- 

 pressing their acknowledgment for past favours, and their 

 good wishes for a prosperous voyage. 



The Chinese new year is a universal holiday. Not only 

 are all the shops and places of business entirely closed that 

 day, but for a week or ten days, or even a fortnight, business 

 is more or less suspended, each one taking as long a holiday 

 as his means wUl allow ; and during this time they super- 

 stitiously refuse to do any business, even on advantageous 

 terms. Every house was decorated with little rectangular 

 pieces of perforated gilt paper over the door, and a little 

 niche in the entrance was similarly adorned and lighted 



