CHINESE SALUTATION. 
85 
for their arrival, my attention was attracted by several Mandarins 
sitting along the bank of the river, smoking their pipes. Whethe 
they were indulging in a morning habit, or whether they were officers 
who had been superintending the departure of the Embassy, I could 
not learn. They were of high rank, and received from a number of 
Chinese who had occasion to pass them numerous and profound salu- 
tations. These were always very ludicrous, and often very servile. 
Where the difference of rank was small, the inferior contented him- 
self with a slight curtsey, and the usual chin-chin, which is performed 
by clasping the hands, and moving them quickly two or three times 
up and down before the breast ; but where it was great, he made a 
succession of what might be called running curtseys ; moving rapidly 
towards his superior, he performed as many genuflexions as possible 
in a given time. These were sometimes so low, that I was surprised 
how he could keep his legs whilst making them. A great number of 
peasants were at this time carrying into the city, or depositing on 
stalls in its vicinity, a great variety of vegetables, and large masses 
of ice ; who, although they passed close to the Mandarins, did not 
salute them. In China, a salutation from an inferior, to one very 
much his superior, is considered a mark of impudent familiarity, and 
subjects the former to the paternal punishment of the bamboo. 
The thickness of the ice which I here saw sufficiently testified the 
severity of the cold which must prevail in these parts during the 
winter. Two large lumps, about the size of an oyster-barrel, fastened 
to shallow baskets, and suspended from the end of a bamboo sup- 
ported across the shoulders of the bearer, were carrying about in 
all directions. No people understand better, or use more, the refresh- 
ing qualities of ice during hot weather, than the Chinese. Every poor 
fruiterer whom we met with in the environs of towns or cities in the 
north of China, either vended masses of it at the lowest price, or used 
it for cooling his articles of sale. Nothing was more common in the 
precincts of Tien-sing and Tong-Tchow, than to see Chinese sucking 
fragments of it, or carrying it about in their hands. The steward of 
the Embassy was supplied with it in profusion, for cooling wine. 
