Page:Ports of the world - Canton (1920).djvu/44



Western point of view. In fact, the Chinese idea of propriety is often the American and European idea of impropriety, and vice versa. Witness the custom of laughing and talking while at worship: the burying of the dead with an accompaniment of wild outbursts of deafening music, and the practice of eating cockroaches in honey and snakes in broth. Canton is indeed a most unbelievable city, where the yawning, sleepy-eyed traveler finds himself yawning and sleepy-eyed no longer, but as wide-eyed as the small boy at a circus.

The Chinese in Canton as a rule seldom take the question of worship in the temples as seriously as they might, and many of the buildings have fallen into disrepair, the courtyards and ponds being filled with rubbish and the interiors of the temples being furnished with shabby, soiled fixtures—all in striking contrast with the dignity and neatness of American churches.

Few natives visit the temples. Most of those who do place food and burn prayer papers and punk on the altars. The prayer paper, it seems, is supposed to take the place of spoken prayers, and the natives have considerable faith in the