346 



TEA DISTRICTS OF CHINA. 



Chap. XX. 



looked very beautiful and inviting, both upon the 

 trees and also as it lay crowded in the little baskets. 



On my return from the Yang-mae plantations I 

 spent some time in the old city of Ting-hae. All 

 marks of English possession had entirely disap- 

 peared, Tailors, shoemakers, and other tradesmen, 

 with their quaint English names and signboards, so 

 amusing in former days, were now nowhere to be 

 seen. Everything was purely Chinese, and no one, 

 unacquainted with the history of the place, would 

 have suspected that it had been in the hands of the 

 English a year or two before. 



After staying for a few days at Chusan I went 

 onward to another of the islands named Poo-too. 

 This is commonly called by foreigners the "Wor- 

 shipping Island," and is inhabited by the priests of 

 Buddha and their followers. I had two objects in 

 visiting it at this time ; the first was on account of 

 my health, which was getting affected by the excessive 

 heat of the weather, and the second was to obtain a 

 copy of some inscriptions which I had observed on a 

 former occasion. 



When I landed I walked over the hill in the 

 direction of one of the principal temples, which had 

 been built in a little valley or glen between the hills. 

 On the roadside, by the way, I came to the stones on 

 which the inscriptions had been carved. There were 

 two of them 5 they looked like little grave-stones, 

 and, as usual in such cases, each had a small place 

 near its base for burning incense. 



The characters upon them were not Chinese, and 



