titled to know, and the truth I am resolved to know. And I think that you might have paid me the compliment of coming for my advice before."

Finding her in this state of mind, and being unable to deny the justice of her claim, Sir Roland was fain at last to make a virtue of necessity, while he marvelled (as so many have done) at the craft of people in spying things, and espying them always wrongly.

From Temple Bar.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS IN CHINA.

II.*

THERE is scarcely to be found in history so curious a contrast of civilized manners and customs as between the Chinese and the European.

But

In Europe itself nation differs from nation rather by shades and degrees than by contrast. The French affect onions, "Is that all?" said Lady Valeria, after the Spanish garlic, and the Welshmen listening carefully; "I thought there leeks; offspring of the same family dif must have been something a little better fering only in pungency. Other nations, than that to justify you in making it such such as Arabs, Turks, Persians, &c., &c., a mystery. Nothing but a dusty old offer no similitude in their habits, and document, and a strange-looking packet, have little in common with ours. or case like a squab! However, I do the Chinese run in a sort of parallel of not blame you, my dear Roland, for mak-violent opposites. As an example, the ing so small a discovery. The old European has decided that ministers of astrologer appears to me to have grown a little childish. Now, as I keep to the old-fashioned hours, I will ask you to ring the bell for my tea, and while it is being prepared you can fetch me the case itself and the document to examine."

"To be sure, my dear mother, if you will only promise to obey the commands of the document."

"Roland, I have lived too long ever to promise anything. You shall read me these orders, and then I can judge."

"I will make no fuss about such a trifle," he answered, with a pleasant smile; "of course you will do what is honourable."

religion should wear a costume, and that it should be black. Chinese also agree that their priests shall wear a distinctive habit, but it must be bright yellow. Europeans signify their mourning for their dead by putting on black raiments; Chinese lament their ancestors by donning garments of white. The offices of chamber-maid, cook, laundress, dressmaker, and, in fact, all servants' labour where we employ women, are fulfilled by men; whereas sailors are for the most part women; and almost everything else might be traced as following the rule of contrariety. In nothing is this more exemplified than in the ceremonials attending death and burial. Like ourselves, the Chinese make the one mighty fact of death of stringent importance, but the inevitable act of dying they regard as of little moment. The consequent funeral operations outvie our own absurdities in that line to a pitch which, to our mind, approaches lunacy; and, pluming ourselves greatly upon our superior calightenment, we are apt to overlook that it is little more than contrast. They believe, like Christians, in the resurrection of the

Surely men, although they deny so ferociously this impeachment, are open at times to at least a little side-eddy of curiosity; Sir Roland, no doubt, was desirous to know what were the contents of that old case, which Alice had taken for a "dirty cushion," as it lay at the back of the cupboard in the wall; while his honour would not allow him comfortably to disobey the testator's wish. At the same time he felt, every now and then, that to treat such a matter in a serious light was a proof of superstition, or even childish-body, and they hold that belief in so deness, on his part. And now, if his mother should so regard it, he was not at all sure that he ought to take the unpleasant course of opposing her.

termined a manner that they absolutely take more precautions for the preservation of the body when dead than when alive; and the money and care lavished upon the inanimate clay, bones, or dust, is frequently the result of the deprivation of the living. Many a Chinese will expend his last farthing and go supperless to his mat rather than not light the evening joss-candle upon his little altar in honour of his defunct relatives. In the

* LIVING AGE, No. 1562.

method of the ceremonial of dying they | under the superstitious fear of the evil differ in toto from us. Whereas we feel which would attend him had such an it incumbent to surround a death-bed event taken place. Fortunately, the old with weeping friends and relatives, law-woman was brought in alive, and with yers, doctors, and parson, the Chinese care recovered, I believe. most ruthlessly abandon their dying, determinedly thrust them from their beds, drag them from their houses into the nearest open space they can find, where they have to expire alone as best they may, friends and neighbours keeping discreetly aloof until the last breath has been drawn. Thus an invalid can scarcely obtain admission into any house for fear he might die before he could be ejected again. Women in the hour of their direst need are often driven to some outside shed or back slum alone. No wonder that dead babes are so often found.

A curious and comical incident occurred at a European friend's where I was stopping. Hearing that there was a poor old sick woman living out in the forest alone, my friend hired a man and wagon to have her brought into the town, where she could be attended to. The driver declared he knew the place and the old woman well, and set out with his wagon well lined with paddi-straw. Evening brought the return of the vehicle. but no invalid therein.

"Why, where is the old woman?" exclaimed my friend, angrily. "These confounded Coolies are such idiots. Where is the old woman?"

"Yah, master," exclaimed the driver, holding up his hands deprecatingly. "Old piecee woman! muchee sick! wantshee makee die!"

"Very likely; but that was exactly the reason I sent you to bring her in."

"Ha yah!" screamed the Chinaman, in utter despair at such an argument. "Wantshee makee die in my wagon! no can do, putshee on the road; makee die there; can do."

66

Why, you brute!" cried my friend, "give me the whip," and he jumped into the wagon and drove off, leaving the owner wringing his hands and his tail in anguish. And a Chinaman's sorrow is of the most ludicrous kind. He bellows, and blubbers, and contorts himself, making the most grotesque grimaces, which rather affect the risible than the lachrymal sympathies. Our driver's tribulation arose from the idea that should the old woman chance to die in his cart it would be forever ruined and polluted, and it was his only means of livelihood; nevertheless, he would have sacrificed it

The dying old woman and the bereaved Coolie were merely a threatened and small calamity in comparison with the dismay and discomfiture in our establishment which took place when the cook died. Old Aapong was a most trustworthy and careful servant, and could cook a very fair European dinner. My only prejudice against him arose from a suspicion-nay, a conviction that he killed the fowls by scalding them to death. It is customary to kill several chickens in every establishment each day for currie, &c., and it would be a lengthy operation to pluck the birds, so that they are supposed to be strangled, and then dipped into boiling water until the feathers drop off. But my impression is that the strangling is considered a work of supererogation, as the boiling water would assuredly kill them, and the Chinaman no doubt reasons like the Irishman, and thinks, "What is the good of killing him twice?" On this particular morning Aapong came into the parlour to take some orders about game which he was to purchase from the boats coming from the north of China. He was a wary old purveyor, and always kept on the right side of extravagance. Sometimes game was very dear, and at others very cheap, and he had repeatedly put the question, "How much mississee give for game?" and I had left it to his discretion. Barely time had elapsed for him to have reached his kitchen when our door was violently flung open, and in tumbled half a dozen servants screaming with terrified gestures, "Mississee! mississee! Aapong have makee die in the cook-house!" I sprang to my feet and ran across the yard into the kitchen. There, stretched on his back, lay poor Aapong, motionless as in sleep. I thought he was in a fit, and called for the servants to help to raise him and administer to his revival. Not one moved an inch, or by abuse or entreaty could be induced to come near him. They stood resolutely aloof, deprecating with voice and long spider-like fingers my meddling with the corpse, and lamenting that he had not got out into the yard to die instead of dropping down in the kitchen. The calamity appeared to be, not his death, but his demise in the cook-house. In spite of my utmost unassisted efforts there came no motion

news had flown like wildfire. They scampered off in the opposite direction, or declared they were engaged. A few of the servants lingered out of respect for my presence, much wondering what spell bound me to stay near the dead while they were being drawn irresistibly

does not arise from fear of death or the awe which this inscrutable phase of history inspires in us. The Chinese are almost indifferent to the phenomenon of dissolution, and frequently compass their own end when life becomes wearisome. A wife sometimes elects to follow her husband on the starlit road of death; and parents will destroy their offspring in times of famine and great distress rather than allow them to suffer. Still more remarkable is the custom of selling their lives in order that they may purchase the superior advantage of obsequies, which are considered to insure the body in safety for the future resurrection.

in the body, no quiver of the eyelids, no lieved them extremely, as they all repulsation through the veins; the vital solved to rush out of the house directly spark had indeed fled, and Aapong was my back was turned, and leave Aapong gathered to his ancestors. He had left in solitary possession. One suggested behind him a scene of confusion, muddle, that he should immediately go and search and dismay indescribable. The scene for the nearest relative, without whom was powerfully serio-comic. Like all the funeral ceremonies could not comChinese affairs, it was a jumble of the mence; others begged off on various horrible and the absurd. The sublime or pretexts. It was in vain I sent out to the pathetic are never prominent. There hire Coolies to come and remove the lay the corpse, with nothing of the awe-body to a more suitable position. The someness of death about it, just with the expression upon his funny square face which it wore a few minutes ago when he was inquiring what he should pay for the game. Around were the whole household assembled, expressing in their quaint grotesque manner their disappointment and astonishment, and discovering in the opposite direction. This feeling with wonderful fertility the various complications and misfortunes of the case. Who was to move the body? suggested one. What a pity he had not stepped into the yard, said another. Who was to cook the dinner? It was a sad thing he had not waited to die until after dinner! Here the cook's boy stole away and hid himself, lest he should be required to go into the kitchen to prepare the dinner in the same room with the dead cook. Who was to get his coffin? and they lamented his want of prudence in not procuring his own coffin, as many Chinese do. Who was his nearest relative? They discussed that point with great vehemence, jerking and twisting of their bodies, and digging the air with their long fork-like A wealthy man condemned to death nails. It seemed to me it would be quite will arrange with his gaoler to buy him a dangerous to go within reach of them. substitute for a certain sum of money to If he was interfered with by any one, be spent upon the poor wretch's interthey said, except his nearest relative, he ment and preservation of his body. would certainly haunt that audacious in- Should he have parents, so much is truder, and perhaps torment him during usually paid to them in compensation for the rest of his life. The servants, one their son's life. Chinamen invariably and all, entreated, conjured me not to help to support their parents; filial retouch him; and I believe they resolved spect and devotion is the great Chinese never to set foot in that kitchen again. virtue and religious precept, in which At this period of affairs the cook's boy they rarely fail. Regarding death as inhaving, I presume, peeped from his hid- evitable, he makes the best of a bad baring, beheld his new badjou thrown over gain, and cunningly and comically gets the face of the deceased. I had wished paid for dying. The wholesale destructo cover the face, and this cloth_had fal- tion of life in this country is greatly the len first to my hand. He uttered a yowl result of indifference. Hence the maswhich startled us all, and went into hys- sacre of Europeans, so terrible to us, terical lamentations. It was no relief seems to them a matter of little moment, that I took it off again. The article was and they cannot comprehend why we ruined, and must be burnt. But still should make such a fuss about it. They above all rose the pressing difficulty regard our indignant protestation very about the dinner- for whatever hap-much as we might treat our irate neighpens, English people must dine. Finally, bour whose dog we had shot.

I cancelled their obligation on that point "Well, well, be pacified; if it was such by saying we would dine out, which re- a favourite, I am sorry, but it is only a

dog, and there are plenty more. How stalks at harvest time, appalling to Euromuch do you want to be paid for it?" pean ideas. I must confess to a nervous "You English think so much of a life," shuddering when I stood upon the exeargues the Chinese; "have you not cution ground at Canton - - a narrow lane plenty of people at home?” Nor do or potter's field-where so many hunthey in the least estimate the devotion of dreds had been butchered per diem durthe Sisters of Charity, who go about ing weeks together, the executioner reseeking to save souls by the preserva- quiring the aid of two smiths to sharpen tion of infant life. If the child has been his swords, for many of the wretched born under an evil star as they think, and victims were not allowed to be destroyed is doomed to misery through bodily ail- at one fell swoop, but sentenced to be ment or stress of circumstances, they "hacked to pieces" by twenty to fifty think that the sooner death comes to their blows. I was informed by a European relief the better. In cases of mere want who had travelled much and seen most of of food the Chinese woman will bring her the frightful side of life, that witnessing babe and lay it at the door of the Sisters' Chinese executions was more than his hospital, as in any other country, know- iron nerves could stand; and in some of ing it will be taken in and cared for. The the details which he was narrating I was wanton destruction of infants I believe to obliged to beg him to desist. And yet be greatly exaggerated and misunder- he said there was nothing solemn about stood, and even where the destruction of it, and the spectators looked on amused. life has been an ascertained fact it would It was the horrible and the grotesque appear to be less the effect of cruelty combined. than of the small account made of death To return from this digression to our -failing to regard that event as a calam- own special dilemma. We reached home ity or the worst of misfortunes as we do. just in time to see the servants who had to I particularly noticed that Chinese wo-be in attendance make a precipitous rush men were as fond of their children as any in at the gate; and subsequently, when I other mothers, and were remarkable for signified my intention of retiring to rest, their tenderness and patience as nurses. they accomplished quite as hasty an exit, In the lower classes it is quite common so that I knew that I was alone in the to see a woman toiling with a baby tied place with poor Aapong. As I passed up on to her back, and it is the regular cus- to my room I looked out at the open vetom to nurse the child very much longer randah; the moon was shining brightly, as than in Europe-two years or more; a Chinese moon seems to feel it incumbut with their peculiar notions about bent upon her to shine, for she is regudeath they prefer to lose the child rather larly fêted and made much of; but now than see it suffer. Death in China is her beams fell full upon the cook-house, awarded as the punishment for the most which is always divided from the main trivial offences, and frequently for none building by a square or yard, and in that at all, except being in somebody's way. detachment all the domestics have their A story was told to me as a fact, that dur- rooms. But not a living individual was ing the visit of one of our royal princes a within. The silvery light fell on the livid, theft was committed of a chain or watch quaint face of Aapong, still bearing the belonging to the royal guest. The un- inquirendo expression of "How much fortunate attendant was caught with the missessee give for the game?" I could property upon him, and, without further not turn my gaze away from its anxious ceremony, his head was chopped off. questioning, and I felt that sleep was out The mandarin in attendance immediately of the possible until dawn, when the serannounced the tidings to the prince as a vants would come stealing in. The follittle delicate attention, showing how de-lowing day a sufficiently near relative apvoted he was in his service. To his astonishment the Prince expressed his great regret that the man's head had been taken off. "Your Highness," cried the obsequious mandarin, bowing to the ground, "it shall be immediately put on again!" so little did he understand that the regret was for the life taken, and not the severed head.

peared, a coffin was brought, and our excook, duly inducted into all the wearables he possessed, including six badjous and unmentionables, was placed, or I should say, crammed therein. All his valuables and property were put along with him, but his purse being considered too scanty, a number of paper coins, made to represent real ones, an innocent forgery upon In times of insurrection or famine the the next world, were added, so as to make mowing down of human life is like corn- a handsome display of wealth, just as a

form and size. Whilst, on the one hand, our tombs, graves, monuments, &c., are formed in angles, squares, and oblongs, the Chinese last resting-places are built in curves, semi-circles, horse-shoes. Whilst we usually consider that eight feet by four of earth is enough for any one when he is dead, the Chinese needs a freehold of an acre or two for his post-mortem habitation, which is built into a series of round yards, horse-shoe chambers, according to his rank and wealth.

lady supplements her real diamonds with paste. Chinese pickled ducks, a living white cock, tea, and samshoo were taken out to the grave. A number of howlers and wailers were brought in, but in consideration for my feelings they constrained their lamentations and praise of Aapong to a sotto voce until they got to some distance. Our last difficulty arose as to the manner of getting defunct out of the house, as it is considered most inauspicious to bring a corpse through a doorway, and when a person dies in a A stranger finding himself outside house it is usual to erect a scaffolding Canton walls, and following one of the outside the window, from whence the pathways, for there are no roads, as there coffin slides down. Unfortunately, all is nothing but Coolie traffic, would be the windows of the servants' quarters were perfectly mystified as to the probable upon the yard, from whence there was no use of the six or eight miles of buildexit except through the house. We nat-ings which he sees glittering white in urally objected to allow the drawing-room the sunshine on the side of the mounwindows to be made the medium of tain. They could scarcely be fortificatransit of Aapong into the regions of bliss, therefore with an infinity of precautions he was carried out via the door. We had much difficulty in procuring a new cook to occupy his place, and then only by sacrificing the kitchen and turning it into a lumber room. No great matter, for the Chinese cook over a few embers in small earthenware pots, each dish having a little fire of its own. The cook sets up his apparatus anywhere in a few minutes. Even this compromise did not satisfy the cook's boy, who laboured under the painful conviction that Aapong, having been taken out by the door, would assuredly, on some moonlight night, be seen re-entering by it, and having just received his wages he absconded, abandoning the defiled badjou, and was heard of no more. Not less contrasting with ours are their mortuary processions and mausoleums. The former, like all Chinese marches, are a heterogeneous gathering of incongruous objects. Ragged, semi-clad Coolies staggering along without order or precision, bearing the most singular burdens; the dead person with the white fowl fluttering ahead, trays with baked meats, perhaps a whole pig, and ducks, heaps of paper money in baskets, clothes, shoes, both real and made of paper, trays of cakes, umbrellas, fans, &c. The friends, carried in chairs, wrapped in white cloths, only their eyes and nose appearing, look like so many corpses going to their own funerals; and it would be too tedious to enumerate the objects which do go to a Chinese interment. The general effect is comic rather than solemn, lively rather than sad, disorderly rather than methodical. Their sepultures differ from ours in

tions, for they are the wrong way about; neither could they be houses, for they present the remarkable difference that Chinese houses are all outside and no inside; these are all inside and no outside, being built on the slope of the hill. The masonry is very solid, and a great deal of marble is used, so that the general effect is very curious. Whilst we are fond of shrouding our graveyards with weeping willow, cypress, and the crape-like tilentia, and selecting damp, shady spots, the Celestials are most fastidious in their choice of a locale. It must be a bright sunny site, where no shadow ever falls, which rises up so as to catch the first kiss of Aurora, and the breath of some zephyr blowing from a certain quarter. They have a regular professional testor, diviner, or seer, whose business it is to search out these specially favoured spots for a dead Chinaman's abode. When any great mandarin is to be the occupant, months frequently elapse before a sufficiently salubrious position can be fixed upon. We often used to meet these species of wizards wandering over the hills, or standing stock-still until some inspiration visited them, or probing the earth with a wand like mineral-seekers for ore. One of the most striking and interesting parts of this lugubrious subject is the death cities inhabited by the dead only. They are usually situated a few miles from the living ones, and have no parallel that I know of anywhere. I shall essay to convey an idea of the one outside of Canton, which I visited in company of a friend thoroughly versed in Chinese matters. We set out in chairs, or rather oblong boxes with a seat,