318 EAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. [Oh. XIX. 



anxious to raise the wind, the beggars seize the opportunity 

 of the general good-humour and festivity to endeavour to do 

 the same by appealing to the compassion, or if that fails, to 

 the risibility of their countrymen. A ragged beggar here is 

 a sight, for there can be no doubt about his rags ; but one 

 feels a difficulty in accounting for the manner in which such 

 a heterogeneous mass of tatters is held together. Their 

 filth, too, is extreme, and they swarm with vermin. Some 

 have their faces painted like a clown in a pantomime, and 

 make grimaces and attempts at jokes, which I, for one, 

 could not appreciate ; others were dressed in women's 

 clothes, and smirked and taUted falsetto to the amusement 

 of the passers by ; some carried a monkey, like an Italian 

 organ-grinder, and sung a Chinese ditty ; while others abso- 

 lutely howled and writhed about as if they were suffering 

 agonies ; but as the dodge was well known and understood, 

 no very Hvely sympathy was exhibited, though they pro- 

 bably earned their proportion of cash. But the most 

 common method of exciting compassion was to go from door 

 to door with hair unkempt, and dirty rags hanging from a 

 dirtier person ; while streams of clotted blood trickled down 

 the face as though from a gash in the forehead. But I 

 looked at several such objects narrowly, and became con- 

 vinced that no such gash existed; but that the butcher's 

 shop had afforded the gore, which was innocent of ever 

 having flowed in any other veius than those of a pig or a 

 sheep. 



Such are some of the scene^ which inaugurate the 

 Chinese new year, in which much more character is seen 

 than during the hum-drum round of every-day life. They 

 have many other festivals, and are fond of holidays ; and 

 each festival has its special characteristics, but this one I 



