Page:Inside Canton.djvu/73

72 an inscription, which I translate thus: "You who enter, say a friendly word to the god, that he may not forget to make my fortune."

The counter, placed either on the right or left of the entrance, though more frequently on the left, stretches quite to the back of the shop, where it forms a right angle, and is continued, facing the door, up to the wall. This arrangement isolates the purchaser, and separates him completely from the trader. Behind the latter, in pigeon holes, kept very neat, and on charming shelves, are ranged the articles in which he deals: ironmongery, drugs, or stuffs. The part reserved for customers is only remarkable for the fine inscriptions which line the wall, and a row of elegant chairs. The inscriptions are commercial sayings, equivalent to "Credit is dead," or very ingenious puffs. Somebody translated me one of them, relating to a kind of Pâte Regnauld, and which is called at Pekin, paste of ass's skin! A certain French doctor is not the only person who has rivals in China; there is also a whole host of Giraudeau-de-Saint-Gervaises, whose prospectuses are displayed on the walls of the druggists' shops. Who will say, after this, that the civilisation of this country does not resemble ours!

The portion of the shop which faces the door is that which the Chinese ornament with most care. The centre of this space is frequently occupied, in the case of the druggists, by a handsome nickel urn,