RIVER SCENE.-CHILD OVERBOARD.

lines and bamboos that they have stretched across to bear them. One woman is up to her elbows scrubbing away at the clothes; another is busily employed at her needle; while her neighbour is ironing with equal industry. Do you see the one with her baby at her back, cooking the dinner? No lack of children; some are tied with a string, lest they should tip over the gunwale; some have paddles in their hands, young Columbus's, beginning betimes to learn to row, that they may make longer voyages; and dozens have painted blocks of

26

SUBJECTS FOR THOUGHT.

wood, resembling gourds, fastened to their necks to keep them afloat, should they, by any accident, fall into the water. What with the island, the town, the villages, the plantations, the pagodas, the river, the ships, the war junks, the mat-sailed boats, the seamen, the women and the children, if you have not enough to occupy and amuse you, it is high time for you to make the best of your way back again to the white cliffs of Albion, which you ought never to have left. But I hope better things! I hope that you are gazing around you with interest and wonder. Think for a moment you are within a dozen miles of Canton, and beyond

The great wall of China, an emblem of war,
Over mountain and valley is stretching afar.
It was surely worth while to cross over the seas
For a moment to gaze on the long-tailed Chinese ;-
The narrow-chinned, small-footed women, and then
The pale yellow cheeks of those grave-looking men.
You have seen, on a fan or a tea-chest, no doubt,
Their figures, 'mid gardens and temples drawn out;
Well the pictures, and sober-faced people so odd,
Are as like one another, as peas in a pod.

Could we look on the natives, what groups should we see
Manufacturing vermilion, or sorting their tea,

Or using their chop sticks with features profound,
With their rice-paper paintings, and porcelain around.
The sleek-headed Emperor, sun, moon, and star,
Of the Celestial Empire, is shining afar;

But not knowing how, while we roam at our ease,
To make sense of a score of his senseless decrees,

WHAMPOA REACH.

We must leave the hard task, to find out what he means,
To his supple-jack, low-cringing, proud mandarins,
Who crawl on all fours, as in duty they're bound,
And solemnly bump their bald heads on the ground.

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There! you have sailed some fifteen or sixteen thousand miles; you have weathered a storm at sea; you have seen a little of the wide world; you have gazed on Chinese people, as well as on their ships, houses, villages, and towns, and may now as well finish your voyage by dropping your anchor in Whampoa Reach, and dreaming of Old England.

Who that sails the world around,
Does not yearn for British ground?
Distant lonely lands there be
Clothed with beauty, fair to see ;
But the fairest spot on earth
Is the land that gave me birth;
Wheresoe'er my bark may roam,
England! England is

my home!

CHAPTER IV.

THE PEOPLE OF CHINA.

The People described.— Chinamen.— China-women.— Small Feet.-Dress.-A dandy Mandarin.-Food.-Residences. -Character of the Chinese.-Anecdote of Chinese gratitude.

As I shall offer you "points and pickings" of most things connected with the Chinese, so it may be as well to say something here, in few words, about the people, that you may not be altogether ignorant of their appearance and character. That was an odd thought which I met with the other day" The Chinese nation is so ancient that I cannot bring myself to think there are any young people in it. The very children appear to me as though they only pretended to be young ;" and yet, odd as the thought is, something very like it has often occurred to my own mind.

The Chinese are, perhaps, in size equal to Europeans, with their knees a little more apart than is consistent with graceful motion. I question whether many Chinese porters would not match in muscular strength any that could be brought to compare with them. The hair of the

THE PEOPLE DESCRIBED.

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"Celestials" is black and coarse; and their heads are broader behind, and narrower before, than ours. Some persons reason from this that their intellect can never, under the most favourable circumstances, equal that of Europeans. All I shall say on this point is, that if we have advantages over the African, the Indian, and the Chinese, we are bound to surpass them in wisdom, benevolence, and virtue.

The foreheads of the Chinese are narrow, their faces somewhat broad, and their eyes and other features small; so that they have a vacant, unintellectual expression, which their high cheek-bones, their shaven heads, and their plaited tails, by no means relieve. I never look on the unenlightened face of a fat Chinese without thinking of a large house with little windows. The higher classes have very long nails, especially on the left hand.

The Chinese women, as they value a white skin, make use of paint, which rather increases than lessens the want of intelligence in their faces, except when their countenances are lighted up with a smile. They have delicate hands, gracefully arched eyebrows, and regular and oval features, but their eyes seem oddly set; their noses are somewhat flat, and their faces sadly lack power of expression. Many ladies remove their eyebrows, and substitute a delicately curved pencil line. The practice of "killing the foot," or of firmly compressing it in childhood, is a sad one; hardly, how