Page:Ling-Nam; or, Interior views of southern China, including explorations in the hitherto untraversed island of Hainan (IA cu31924023225307).pdf/56

 52 Ling-Nam.

those so employing them. Before leaving the western suburbs we take a hurried look into the Wa-lam-tsz, “Flower Forest Monastery,” a Buddhist institution of wealth and note, where in one hall are five hundred large gilded images, representing disciples of Buddha who have been deified. Not far from this we are shown the ruins of one still more notéd, the Temple of Longevity, which was destroyed a few years ago by an infuriated mob, excited to violence, it is said, by the immoral practices of the monks in charge.

In this vicinity, too, we find a native hospital and benevolent institution, called into existence as the rival of the missionary hospital, lt doing a good work for the suffering, extending its charities to many points in the interior, where relief is given to people suffering from famine or flood, while it supplies coffins for all who die in indigent circumstances.

In the western suburbs are the residences of many wealthy people, to which the stranger from other lands with a card of introduction may be admitted. The comfort of these houses is not evident, the only difference between them and the homes of the poorer people being in the material of which they are built, the general arrangements being much the same. Straight-backed chairs, with marble seats, stiffly arranged against the walls, sofas, and divans, whose hard polished surfaces glitter in elegance, but offer no ease, abound; beds, elaborately carved and adorned with silk and satin hang- ings profusely embroidered, but with only mats and porcelain pillows laid on the smooth hoards, are not suggestive either of down or roses. Crossing the river on