262 



KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



capricious convolutions and bifurcations, 

 may supply a conception of the bodies. 



All the reasonings of anthropology are at 

 fault as to the aspect of these creatures. 

 Upon the>r bluish-tinted crania, phrenology 

 would tind bumps hitherto undiscovered, and 

 so prominent as to resemble the bosses on 

 the shields of the Circassian warriors. Their 

 eyes incline towards the temples as if drawn 

 by a string; the cheek bones are extrava- 

 gantly prominent ; the profile of the nose is 

 depressed, or flattened into a trefoil; the 

 mouth is twisted into indescribable contor- 

 tions. Their complexion is no less strange 

 than their form. Shades of rancid butter, of 

 tarnished ivory, of smoky varnish, of dried 

 herrings, that belong to no known color, — 

 and through these wrinkles, and crowsfeet, 

 and bumps, and deviations, and angles, shines 

 out a sort of mischievous, mocking intelli- 

 gence. There is the wit of a monkey 

 mimicking mankind, and with the most ludi- 

 crously-comical efforts keeping himself from 

 hanging on to the branches by the tail. 



The fire-screens, and the fans, and the 

 images, and the josses, spoke truth. "What we 

 took for the amusing caprices of an art mis- 

 taken in its aim, seeking ideal ugliness — were 

 only portraits, faithful as the daguerreotype: 

 and only fancy — there exist three hundred 

 millions of fantoccini of the same style, who 

 look at each other without laughing! Sin- 

 gular race ! at once childish and decrepid, 

 which, before the Deluge, had discovered all 

 the inventions of civilised Europe — the com- 

 pass, gunpowder, printing, Artesian wells, gas 

 — and which has not advanced one step from 

 the first day ! Childishly serious, and gravely 

 foolish ; full of cold depravation and petty 

 passions ; learned, yet ignorant ; basting 

 dead dogs with melted fat, and shark's tins, 

 caterpillars, the edible swallow's- nest, with 

 the oil of the Ricinus or castor-oil plant — 

 lisping, like an infant in long-clothes, a mono- 

 syllabic language ! 



The salutations over, the assistants retire, 

 and the performances commence. A boy 

 about twelve years of age advances, bows to 

 the public, and shows a broad round face, 

 something like an apple in which one had 

 inserted pips for eyes. His mouth resembles 

 a slit, traced with the point of a knife. His 

 ears stand out from his head like the handles 

 of a jug ; his lips look like locomotive carrots. 

 Everything in this absurd figure laughs ; the 

 eye, the nose, the cheeks, the lips, the skin — 

 all luigh. But it is a Chinese laugh, per- 

 fectly distinct from the idea we attach to the 

 word. 



It might be the laugh of a facetious pump- 

 kin, holding its sides at the jokes of a melon 

 at a soiree of cucurbitaceous plants. With 

 his hands, or claws, his feet, or whatever 

 may represent them, this grotesque creature 



throws up and down three copper balls. 

 They follow, cross, seek, and avoid each 

 other, as if in obedience to a magnetic at- 

 traction. Between the balls, as though to 

 refresh them, the young juggler plays a fan 

 with dazzling rapidity. Many have seen, 

 during the discharge of fireworks, the green, 

 red, bhi3 globes, colored by zinc, copper, or 

 iron filings, gently playing against the dark 

 sky. These enchanted balls succeed each 

 other in the same manner Sometimes the 

 hand accompanies them in their ascension ; 

 and they then seem to adhere to the palm 

 which contains them. After this follows a 

 series of vaults, performed with inc edible 

 precision and suppleness. The child walks 

 on his head, on his nose, on his cheek, and 

 turns a complete somersault. All this while 

 he holds a cup between his teeth, also plates 

 under his arms and between his knees, 

 without breaking this fragile incumbrance. 

 All is done without effort, without hesitation, 

 with the most amusing air of playful good • 

 humor. 



This over, two Chinese appear, bearing a 

 bamboo on their shoulders, like the hammals 

 or porters of Constantinople. If any one 

 were to say that a man could raise himself 

 up by the hair, you would look incredulous, 

 and maintain it was an impossibility. Tt is 

 not the less a fact. Every one knows that 

 the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire shave 

 their heads, with the exception of retaining 

 a plaited tail. One of the men sits down 

 cross-legged, throws the tail over the bam- 

 boo, catches the end of it, and raises himself 

 up like a bucket from a well. He thus lowers 

 and raises himself several times, by means of 

 the natural rope secured to the top of his 

 head. Is it not an unimaginable idea — per- 

 fectly local and perfectly impossible to any 

 — but a Chinaman ? 



The game of the lasso was much admired. 

 It is performed with a cord and a saucer 

 full of w r ater, which the juggler moves in 

 every direction, describing the most graceful 

 arabesques, and making the cord twine itself 

 round his neck without spilling a drop of the 

 water. Another draws from his mouth slips 

 of colored paper, as interminable as the 

 torrent of words from a chatterer ; but unlike 

 these, they go into his mouth again, to re- 

 appear in the shape of fireworks. This trick 

 is extremely curious, and is performed with 

 admirable dexterity. The whole man appears 

 to separate into filaments ; and in the midst 

 of them, he plays like a cat in a skein of 

 silk — running, jumping, dancing, but en- 

 tangling nothing. 



The double somersaults (when the chest 

 of the assistant serves as a spring-board from 

 which to rebound a second time) surpass all 

 previous feats of the kind. The throwing of 

 poignards in the air, and catching them, cup 



