Page:Inside Canton.djvu/63

62 covered with rags, or dressed in rattan mats; hawkers, itinerant barbers, dentists, restaurateurs and dealers in sweetmeats. In the midst of these plebeians moved mandarins carried in their massive chairs by four robust young fellows; rich merchants and young literary men, comfortably installed in their chairs of light bamboo. At times certain portable cells strongly excited my curiosity; they were veiled from all eyes, and presented so discreet a physiognomy that I presumed they contained the joys of the interior apartments. I was not mistaken. They were young women going out to pay visits. They were usually accompanied by one or two duennas, who walked between the shafts of the palanquin, hiding their faces with their fans.

Everyone went on peaceably and in good order, without too much jostling; but something came to throw the crowd into confusion, and that was long files of porters, who, covered only by a broad hat and a pair of trousers, carried, balanced at the two extremities of a pole, bales of goods, and traversed the compact mass at a trot, holloaing out for the way to be cleared, and resolutely knocking over whoever did not promptly get on one side on hearing the "Lay! lay! lay!" which is the "look out" of the country. Though I particularly mention the "lay, lay" of the porters, it must not be concluded that the other supernumeraries of this scene were dumb; every trader, on the contrary, utters his