58 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap. IV. 
were rolling lazily along the sides of the hills which 
surround the plain on which the city of Tinghae is built ; 
the Chinese, who are generally early risers, were already 
proceeding to their daily labours ; and although the 
greater part of the labouring population are very poor, 
yet they seem contented and happy. Walking through 
the city, and out at the north gate, I passed through 
some rice -fields, the first crop of which had been just 
planted, and a five minutes' walk brought me to the poor 
man's cottage. He received me with Chinese politeness ; 
asked me to sit down, and offered me tea and his pipe, 
two things always at hand in a Chinese house, and per- 
fectly indispensable. Having civilly declined his offer, I 
asked permission to examine his hatching-house, to which 
he immediately led the way. 
The Chinese cottages generally are wretched buildings 
of mud and stone, with damp earthen floors, scarcely fit 
for cattle to sleep in, and remind one of what Scottish 
cottages were a few years ago, but which now, happily, 
are among the things that were. My new friend's cottage 
was no exception to the general rule ; bad-fitting, loose, 
creaking doors, paper windows, dirty and torn ; ducks? 
geese, fowls, dogs, and pigs in the house and at the 
doors, and apparently having equal rights with their 
masters. Then there were children, grandchildren, and, 
for aught that I know, great-grandchildren, all together, 
forming a most motley group, which, with their shaved 
heads, long tails, and strange costume, would have made 
a capital subject for the pencil of Cruikshank. 
The hatching-house was built at the side of the 
cottage, and was a kind of long shed, with mud walls. 
