Cuar. X.] DEVOTION OF THE PRIESTS. 175 
although rather curiously concocted, being half 
Chinese and half English, the exercise and fresh air 
of the mountains gave me a keen appetite. The 
difficulties of the chopsticks were soon got over, and 
I was able to manage them nearly as well as the 
Chinese themselves. The priests and their friends 
filled the chairs, which are always placed down the 
sides of a Chinese hall, each man with his pipe in 
his mouth and his cup of tea by his side. With all 
deference to my host and his friends, I was obliged 
to request the smoking to be stopped, as it was dis- 
agreeable to me while at dinner; in other respects, I 
believe I was “polite” enough. I shall never forget 
how inexpressibly lonely I felt the first night after 
the departure of my friends. The Chinese one by 
one dropt off to their homes or to bed, and at last 
my host himself gave several unequivocal yawns, 
which reminded me that it was time to retire for 
the night. My bed-room was upstairs, and to get 
to it I had to pass through a small temple, such as I 
have already noticed, dedicated to Tein-how, or the 
“Queen of Heaven,” and crowded with other idols. 
Incense was burning on the altar in front of the 
idols; a solitary lamp shed a dim light over the 
objects in the room, and a kind of solemn stillness 
seemed to pervade the whole place. In the room 
below, and also in one in an adjoining house, I 
could hear the priests engaged in their devotional 
exercises, in that singing tone which is peculiar to 
them. Then the sounds of the gong fell upon my 
ears; and, at intervals, a single solemn toll of the 
