156 



TEA DISTRICTS OF CHINA. 



Chap. VIII. 



gardens ; pillows are made of the shavings ; a kind 

 of rush cloak for wet weather is made from the leaves, 

 and is called a So-e 9 or " garment of leaves." On the 

 water it is used in making sails and covers for boats, 

 for fishing-rods and fish-baskets, fishing-stakes and 

 buoys; catamarans are rude boats, or rather floats, 

 formed of a few logs of bamboo lashed firmly together. 

 In agriculture the bamboo is used in making aque- 

 ducts for conveying water to the land ; it forms part 

 of the celebrated water-wheel, as well as of the plough, 

 the harrow, and other implements of husbandry. Ex- 

 cellent water-pipes are made of it for conveying 

 springs from the hills, to supply houses and temples 

 in the valleys with pure water. Its roots are often 

 cut into the most grotesque figures, and its stems 

 finely carved into ornaments for the curious, or into 

 incense-burners for the temples. The Ning-po furni- 

 ture, the most beautiful in China, is often inlaid with 

 figures of people, houses, temples, and pagodas in 

 bamboo, which form most correct and striking pic- 

 tures of China and the Chinese. The young shoots 

 are boiled and eaten, and sweetmeats are also made 

 of them. A substance found in the joints, called 

 tabasheer, is used in medicine. In the manufacture 

 of tea it helps to form the rolling-tables, drying- 

 baskets, and sieves-, and last, though not least, the 

 celebrated chop-sticks — the most important articles in 

 domestic use — are made of it. 



However incredulous the reader may be, I must 

 still carry him a step further, and tell him that I have 



not enumerated one-half of the uses to which the 



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