Page:Inside Canton.djvu/24

Rh City; but the mysterious veil was not lifted for me that night. I could see nothing except some spherical globes at the tops of the masts, whose opaque light reminded me of those great phosphorescent Medusas which, in tropical regions, are seen rolling in the midst of the azure waters of the ocean. My travelling companions told me that we were in one of the poorest suburbs of the floating city. The laborious inhabitants of these agitated abodes were already asleep: all was silent around us, except that confused murmur which proceeds at night from the bosom of great towns, and which reached us through the distance. Occasionally, too, the sound of various stringed instruments was heard in the midst of this general hum.