240 
CRUISE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
he needs no support from anybody. Europeans often 
complain of want of work, but a Chinaman never 
does ; he always manages to find something to do ; 
consequently, beggars are but seldom met with 
amongst them. 
All Chinamen can read, write, and cipher with 
facility. It is a curious sight to see book-keepers 
in the stores tallying up their accounts on a 
machine like a gridiron, with buttons strung on 
its bars, the different rows representing units, tens, 
hundreds, and thousands. With all the shopkeepers 
the value of the slightest article purchased is calcu- 
lated in this way in dollars and cents with great 
rapidity. The studs are pushed about from place 
to place as fast as a musical performer’s fingers travel 
over the keys of a piano. 
The theatres, or (as they English it) the sing-song 
houses, are amongst their principal amusements, 
and exhibit the peculiar traits and character of these 
strange people. Being possessed of a language which 
may be termed the very music of speech, from 
its capabilities of modulation, gieat things might be 
expected ; but the vocal music seemed to us of an 
extraordinary character, little resembling any de- 
scription of sounds with which we were at all 
familiar. Pitched in the highest falsetto tone, the 
voice of the singer flies from note to note in the most 
singular maimer, producing a very unearthly noise, 
which has no relation to any conceivable progression 
