ANCIENT JOSS-HOUSE. 
283 
or curly, a clirysaiitlieimim be dwarfed or gigantic, 
a tree be reduced to a tiny shrub. As to the foliage 
of plants, we all know the spotted and variegated 
leaves brought home by Veitch and Fortune. 
On emerging uj)ou the sandy shore again, my 
attention was attracted by a dozen women beating- 
out and winnowing their stores of wheat, which 
they did in a very ingenious way. Noticing huge 
flights of steps under wide-spread umbrageous fir 
and other trees, I ascended them, and came to an 
ancient joss-house, where were idols more hideous 
than the most horrid forms which the mind, con- 
ceives in nightmare. 
