Page:Inside Canton.djvu/74

Rh and, in that of other tradesmen, by the most striking stuffs, and the most precious vases. About four inches above this display is an altar consecrated to some tutelary genius, or to the paternal lares; styled by foreigners the altar of ancestors. The little chapel is, in some sort, surrounded by a kind of wood lace; the solid parts of these specimens of carved work are gilt and varnished in different colours; red drapery is seen behind the openings, and little figures dressed in silk, and arranged upon kinds of obelisks, are half concealed under tinsel pinking and artificial flowers, similar to those which Hoffman saw blooming in the gardens of his dreams.

The head of the establishment is seated gravely behind his counter, at the spot nearest the entrance. If he is a druggist, and happens to be old, he wears an enormous pair of tortoise-shell barnacles, the lenses of which, made of rock crystal, are as big as the bottom of a glass. This optical apparatus is kept on the nose by two strings, each having at the end a small weight of jade or lead hanging behind the ear like the pear-shaped ear-drops of a fine lady of former times; the strings replace the branches of our spectacles. From the place where he is seated, the master keeps an eye on the shopmen, smiles at his customers, talks to them while they are being served, and writes his letters. The abacus with