I must pick out for you a few Chinese maxims, or wise sayings, but not many; for I will not weary you, even with wisdom, if I can help it :

"A bird can roost but on one branch, and a mouse can drink no more than its fill from a river.” This comes to much the same as our old saying, Enough is as good as a feast." Perhaps you may like the Chinese saying best.

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"Who swallows quick can chew but little." Ay, and he that learns too hastily has no time for reflection, and is not at all likely to become wise.

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Eggs are close things, but the chicks come out at last." The meaning of this saying is,-secret as murder is, it will out one time or another.

"You cannot strip two skins off one cow." We say, "What can you have of a cat but her skin ?" And both these old saws or sayings mean, that extortion itself cannot take more from you than you have got.

"It is not good to add feet to a snake;" no, nor to gild the sun, nor to paint the rainbow, nor to add to anything that is in itself perfect.

"He wins a cat and loses a cow." So does every man who, in going to law, wins his cause, and loses his money.

"An oil-jar can be used again for nothing but oil." The Chinese mean by this, that a man must follow that to which he was bred. This is more the case in China than it is in England.

"All that a fish drinks goes out at the gills.” And

THE DECEITFULNESS OF MAN'S HEART. 187

all that a waster gets he soon spends. This saying of the fish is to my mind an excellent one; what think you?

Yes;

"The man in boots does not know the man in shoes." A man in his official, or full dress, wears boots in China; so that the meaning of the maxim is, a great man is no companion for a little one. "That which touches vermilion is red." and he that handles pitch will dirty his fingers. Bad company will soon put a mark on him who keeps it. Never let bad company put its mark upon you.

"Fish dwell in the deep waters, and eagles in the sides of heaven: the one, though high, may be reached with the arrow, and the other, though low, be taken with the hook; but the heart of man at a foot's distance cannot be known." I hardly know words that could set the deceitfulness of man's

may

heart in a stronger light than this saying does.

CHAPTER XX.

PROVINCES, PEKIN, AND A FEW OF THE WONDERS OF CHINA.

Provinces.-Islands.- Rivers.-Cities.- Pekin.-Streets.— Crowds of People.-Imperial Palace.-Edifices.-Courts, Gardens, Parks, Gates, Galleries, Battlements, Pillars and Pavilions.-Great Hall of Audience, Baths and Pleasure Houses, Lions and Dragons. - Nankin.- Great Wall. Triumphal Arches.-Bridges.-Pagodas.-Bells.

HAD I no other occupation than that of describing China, and had you the time and inclination to attend to my descriptions, hardly do I know when we should come to an end; but my narration must be brief. My "points and pickings" must occupy as little space as possible.

The northern provinces Pe-che-lee, Shan-tung, and Shan-see have very extensive plains, and in winter the climate is very severe. In Pe-che-lee are many large cities, such as Pao-ting-fou, Tiensing-fou, and Pekin, the capital of the empire. On this latter city I must dwell a little; but first let me mention the other provinces.

Kiang-nan, Tche-kiang, Kiang-see, Honan, and Hou-quang are the central provinces. The famous

city of Nankin is in Kiang-nan. When it was the capital of the empire it was called "The Southern Court." We must not altogether pass this city by. Honan lies in the heart of China, between the two great rivers Hoang-ho and Yangtse-kiang; the Celestials call it "The Flower of the Middle," for it is considered to be "The Garden of China."

The southern provinces are Quang-tung, which is also called Kwong-tung, or Canton, Fokien, and Quang-see. I have already spoken of the city of Canton, and there are other great cities of the south, such as Fochan, Tchao-king-fou, Chaotcheou-fou and Nan-yong-fou, of which I might speak, but time will not allow it.

The western provinces bordering on Tartary are those of Shen-see, Se-tchuen, Koei-tcheou, and Yun-nan. This part of China is more mountainous than any other, and here, in the recesses of the "Everlasting Hills" reside the Meao-tsze, the Lolos, and other independent tribes in almost a savage state.

The islands of China are numerous, though many of them are of little note. Among the most considerable are Hai-nan, which is more than fifty leagues in length, and Formosa, east of Fokien, which is still larger, being two hundred and fifty miles long, and eighty broad. The people of Formosa differ much from the Chinese. The other islands lie for the most part in groups, such

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THE IMPERIAL CANAL.

as the Ladrones, famous for pirates, the Piscadores and the Tchu-sans, or Chusans.

The empire of China has noble rivers and canals. TheFirst-born of Ocean," the Yang-tse-kiang, which rises in Thibet, passes through the very heart of the empire, and falls into the Yellow Sea, its banks being adorned with many a goodly city. Even now can I fancy myself gliding in a sanpan along this princely stream.

Northern China boasts the Hoang-ho, or Yellow River, while the Si-kiang waters the south, flowing into the Chinese Sea. For commerce and irrigation these rivers are of great importance. Our largest English river, the Thames, is, as it were, but a brook compared with the Yang-tsekiang, though the latter is greatly surpassed by the giant rivers of America.

"The mighty flood rolls onward far and wide,

And keels unnumber'd cleave the flowing tide."

Perhaps you never heard of a canal that occupied thirty thousand men forty years in its formation. It is said that this was the case with the Imperial Canal, which is seven hundred miles long. If you wish to go from Pekin to Canton, along this canal you must go. Nothing could be better planned than this body of water, for as the rivers of China unite together the eastern and western parts of the country, so this and other canals unite the north and south.