32 Eastern Reminiscences. 



dark wood, which, he believed, came from Singapore. There 

 are shops for the sale of jadestone and other ornaments ; jade 

 is very highly valued by the Chinese, and is a very hard 

 semi-transparent stone, of a dark green colour. While speak- 

 ing of ornaments, it might be interesting to his audience to 

 state that on 6th May, 1850, the late Mr. Getty, an old and 

 valued member of the Society, read an interesting paper on 

 certain seals found in Ireland, and supposed to be of Chinese 

 manufacture. Mr. Fortune, in his account of the Chinese, 

 says : — " There cannot be the slightest doubt that these seals 

 have lain in bogs and rivers of Ireland for many ages. The 

 peculiar white or cream coloured porcelain of which they are 

 composed has not been made in China for several hundred 

 years. They are very rare in China at the present day." There 

 are also in Canton shops for ivory carving and amber work. 

 The most beautiful sort of work to be seen in the Canton shops 

 is the embroidery. There are numerous coffin shops, for the 

 undertaking business is not done in the retired fashion ob- 

 taining in this country. A Chinese coffin is a very ponderous 

 affair, and apparently more ornamental than useful. It is 

 formed of trunks of trees, eighteen inches in diameter, cut in 

 two, and chamfered at the edge, and the flat part slightly hol- 

 lowed out. Four of these slabs joined at the edges go to form 

 the coffin, and two square pieces of wood fill up the ends. 

 There are numerous eating-houses, some of which supply only 

 the flesh of cats and dogs. One restaurant is known by the 

 name of Whoon-Hang-Kau-Maau-Yunk-Poo, which means the 

 sign of the dog, cat, flesh eating-house. Nearly all burdens are 

 carried on the shoulder suspended at the end of a bamboo pole, 

 and, if possible, the article is divided in two, and a part put on 

 each end. The temples of Can ion are not wonderful either for 

 size or beauty. The temple of the 500 genii is well known. A 

 geni means a very wise man. Among these 500 worthies is an 

 effigy of the old Venetian traveller, Marco Polo. Another 

 temple visited was that of the five genii and the five rams. It 

 was from these five rams that the city took its name. The paper 

 concluded with a brief statement of the legend of the five rams 



