1832.] 
CHINESE PRIESTS. 
349 
We next visited the Jos-pigs, ten or twelve in number, the 
most gouty squeaks, perhaps, the whole empire could produce. 
These were mostly presents from devotees, and supported by the 
church, and fed most enormously. They had become so fat that 
many of them could not rise, and seemed to breathe with difficulty ; 
some were so old that their faces were covered with immense 
wrinkles, and blotches of fat. They are never eaten, and of 
course die a natural death. During the past year there had been 
a great mortality among them, and many are said to have died of 
dropsy and liver complaint ! 
From this disgusting spectacle our curious visiters passed to the 
cells, where were several priests partaking of their scanty meal of 
rice and vegetables, their religion not allowing them to indulge in 
the use of meat. The cells are narrow, low, dirty little habita- 
tions, ranged along on one side of the building. 
Interspersed throughout the garden are numerous small and 
neat little buildings, one of which was pointed out as being ap- 
propriated to women who came to pray for offspring ; and in ' 
another were the urns containing the ashes of the priests, who 
are always burned after death. One had been burned only the 
day before ; and our officers were permitted to raise the cover of 
the jar that contained his ashes. There were about sixty urns in 
the building. At the end of each year these urns were emptied 
of their contents into a vault beneath the building, and the jars 
reserved for the same purpose during the coming year. The 
garden, in which these small buildings are arranged, has but little 
to recommend it ; there are, however, a number of large and shady 
trees, whose branches are thronged with birds, which, if not held 
sacred like the /os-pig-s, are nevertheless secure from molestation, 
or being put to death. Add to these a duck-pond, a few flowers 
and vegetables, and you have a picture of the garden. The trees 
are mostly willows, whose branches hung down to the ground. 
On returning to the river, they passed through the great bazar, 
or market-place. Here was to be seen a sample of all the 
country produce, and in general requiring no particular descrip- 
tion ; there were, however, some articles exposed for sale, which, 
to an American palate, were not very inviting. In neat little par- 
cels was to be seen the large grub-worm, preserved in sugar and 
nicely dried. The first salmon brought in the spring to the Boston 
