ETHNOLOGY OF THE PRESENT DAY. 221 



the locking up of the seals, because the coffers, in which the official seals 

 of every authority are kept, are then closed with many ceremonies. This 

 celebration continues for a month, during which one festival follows close 

 upon another. The last days of the year, especially, are celebrated with 

 great pomp, and congratulations and presents are offered. 



Tlie festival of lanterns falls in the middle of the first month, com- 

 mencing on the evening of the thirteenth day, and continuing until the 

 seventeenth, during which time all China is illuminated. Fireworks, in the 

 manufacture of which the Chinese display their great skill in the pyro- 

 technic art, are added to the universal illumination of the streets and 

 interiors of buildings by means of gorgeous lanterns. 



On the fifth day of the fifth month, a great festival takes place, which is 

 celebrated on the water, and consists of games, banquets, and aquatic com- 

 bats in dra2;on boats. 



The principal diversions are plays, puppet shows, and sleight-of-hand 

 performances. There are no stationary theatres in China, except in 

 Peking, where there are six in one street, and in a few other great cities ; 

 even the court being satisfied with itinerant companies. {PL 24, fig. 2, 

 Chinese theatre.) The pieces are commonly taken from Chinese history, 

 and the dialogue is generally maintained in a kind of recitative. No atten- 

 tion is paid to regularity, nor to unity of place and time. Female parts are 

 played by eunuchs. Ghosts, animals, ghastly scenes of bodily punishment, 

 &c , are usually not wanting in the scenes. Pantomimes are also performed. 

 The conjurors execute very surprising tricks ; and the feats of the rope- 

 dancers, jugglers (fig. 1), and caperers, are said to excel those of the most 

 skilful Europeans. The puppet manager, under a curtain of blue and white 

 stuff, which reaches to the ankles, plays a kind of comedy with his little 

 figures. A small box upon his head represents the theatre. Other puppet 

 theatres are seen, however, the player standing beside the box, upon which 

 the figures are placed and moved by means of strings, the orchestra consist- 

 ing of a single performer, blowing a bamboo flute, with one foot beating 

 a kettle-drum, and with the other striking cymbals {pi. 25, fig. 1). The 

 homes also {pi. 22, fig. 5), a species of mendicant monks, priests of Fo, 

 are frequently obliged to have recourse to sleight-of-hand tricks, in order 

 to obtain beggarly alms. They go from door to door, and sing a kind 

 of monotonous song, accompanied by feeble blows upon a hollow pyriform 

 piece of wood. 



In conclusion, we will make a brief statement in regard to the Tibetans 

 and Coreans, whom we have named among the people of China. 



The Tibetans, or Thibetans, are the inhabitants of the high, cold table- 

 land of the interior of Asia, bounded on the south by the Himmalaya, and 

 on the north by the mountain chain of Kuen-lin, and watered by the Indus 

 and the Yaru-zangbo-tshu. They call themselves Bod-gshi and Bod-ha, 

 and their country Bod. Besides the region mentioned above, the Tibet- 

 ans inhabit the southern valleys of the south-eastern Himmalaya, in the 

 province Bhotan, or Bootan. Under the name of Bootiyahs, they live 

 also in the Himmalaya of Nepaul, and in the British part of the same 



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