Chap. VIII. IMPORTANCE OF THE BAMBOO. 



157 



bamboo is applied in China. Indeed it would be 

 nearly as difficult to say what it is not used for as 

 what it is. It is in universal demand, in the houses 

 and in the fields, on water and on land, in peace and 

 in war. Through life the Chinaman is almost de- 

 pendent upon it for his support, nor does it leave 

 him until it carries him to his last resting-place on the 

 hill-side, and even then, in company with the cypress, 

 juniper, and pine, it waves over and marks his tomb. 



At the time of the last war, when the Emperor of 

 China, very considerately no doubt, wanted to con- 

 quer the English by withholding the usual supplies 

 of tea and rhubarb, without which, he supposed, they 

 could not continue to exist for any length of time, we 

 might have returned the compliment, had it been pos- 

 sible for us to have destroyed all his bamboos. With 

 all deference to the opinion of his celestial Majesty, 

 the English might have survived the loss of tea and 

 rhubarb, but we cannot conceive the Chinese existing 

 as a nation, or indeed at all, without the bamboo. 



When I had reached my old rooms in the priest s 

 house, I found two of my Shanghae friends — Mr. 

 Bowman and Dr. Kirk — domiciled there. The 

 Doctor had been trying to astonish and instruct the 

 priests by showing them a siphon, and by emptying 

 one of their troughs with it ; but it is difficult to asto- 

 nish a Chinaman, or to convince him that there is 

 anything he does not understand ! The man looked 

 on in silence for a second or two, and then, with a 

 \ triumphant smile on his countenance, pointed to his 

 bamboo tubes, which are here used for conveying 



