Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/346

270 along the road at a cost not of 25 cash, but of 5 cash a-box!

The New Year was, to my annoyance, still being celebrated, and I was kept awake half the night by a discordant fanfare on horns, gongs, and drums. As usual, these serenaders selected a position immediately outside the hovel in which I was housed, under the mistaken idea that they were contributing to the pleasures of my existence, and with the ever-present hope that cash would be forthcoming by way of return for this service. It is no use trying to explain to a Chinese that you would prefer to go to sleep: he would simply ask you why, if that is the case, you do not do so? If you endeavour to explain to him that the reason why you do not do so is because of the noise he is making, he simply cannot understand you. The reason, of course, is that no combination of clanging and jarring discords has as yet been discovered which is capable of preventing the Chinese from sleeping when he feels disposed to, and his mind is consequently incapable of grasping the idea that any one can be so constituted as to be