Page:Ports of the world - Canton (1920).djvu/43



ROBABLY the most notable temple of the 400 or more in the city is the Temple of the Five Hundred Gods, or Wa Tam Tsz, in the western suburbs, where natives have worshiped beyond the memory of the most wrinkled coolie in the streets of Canton. The temple is fashioned after the approved style of architecture in China, with roofs and cornices which appear to be strangely warped by the weather, but which, of course, are formed that way by the builders.

There are numbers of idols in the Temple of the Five Hundred Gods, many of them arranged in prim rows along the walls, most of them with hands complacently folded; some with oriental faces, others with countenances which would be countenanced by few nations; some with beards, others with smooth jowls; some grave and dignified, others smiling enigmatically with their stone lips; all clad in flowing robes of stone.

Devotees, while visiting the temple, purchase lighted punk sticks from the priests and place the sticks in front of the idols, laughing and talking all the while, apparently never aware of their sacrilegious conduct—sacrilegious from the