Page:Ports of the world - Canton (1920).djvu/37

CANTON that would he considered sacrilegious in an occidental country.

It appears that a funeral of a prominent merchant of Canton is taking place. As the procession comes into view the populace cranes its necks in morbid curiosity, not hesitating to make critical remarks about the appearance of the coffin, the price which must have been paid for it. and so on.

Ahead of the bier marches a Chinese band, the members playing on all sorts of alleged musical instruments, whose value is evidently determined by the noises produced through frenzied manipulation of the keys, slides, and strings. Several of the bandsmen are pounding on metal drums whose "music" suggests the din in a boiler factory, and every now and then the advance guard reluctantly abandons its playing on the instruments to let forth blood-curdling screeches, which send shivers frolicking up the backs of the bystanders.

Several coolies come next in the procession, staggering under the weight of great loads of flowers, whose fragrance drowns, for a moment, the odor of sewage

flowing down the middle of the street. Following the "flower coolies" are others bearing platform affairs on which are arranged trays of food, principal among them being one which supports a whole roast pig, fat and brown. One American