Cuap. XIX. 
OP GAMBLING. 
plentiful and well-stocked. One dnbbed “ Fortnum 
and Mason ” was famous for all sorts of preserves, 
dried fruits, cakes, and buns. Doctors’ shops were 
numerous, and one famous physician had a stand 
in the street ornamented with a drawing repre- 
senting the common diseases of the country which 
he professed to cure. Street hawkers were numer- 
ous, bawling out the names and prices of their 
wares in tones which could scarcely be called 
musical. Sellers of fruit — pears, apples, dates* (so 
called), chesnuts, walnuts — and of cooked locusts, 
&c., were met at every step of the way. The 
natives, old and young, are most inveterate gam- 
blers, and gamble for almost everything which they 
wish to procure from the hawkers. The hawker 
is invariably provided with a hollow bamboo tube 
in which are placed a number of little sticks 
marked at the lower end after the manner of dice. 
He rattles them in the tube, and the customer, 
having first put down his stake, draws out three 
and carefully examines the marks on their lower 
ends. If be is lucky he may get three or' four 
times the value of his stake, and he takes his choice 
of the good things which are lotted and priced on 
the vendor’s table. Of course in China, as in other 
countries, the table has the chance in its favour, 
and so the hawker gets a living ; but the propen- 
sity to gamble is strong in the minds of the 
Chinese, and they would rather lose their money 
• This is the fruit of a 
