Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/394

302 value. I have always had the greatest admiration for this beautiful work.

The temple of the five hundred genii has rows of Buddhas, including Marco Polo, the famous Italian traveller. It is said to have been founded 500 A.D., and the temple and courts are large. Amongst its " treasures " are a white marble pagoda given by the Emperor Kien Lung, and an ordinary-looking blue and white porcelain jar of priceless worth, given by " a rich man."

We had our kodaks, entered the temples with our hats on and smoking cigarettes, as both Ah Cum John and the interested crowd accompanying us insisted we should do so. Naturally we would never have done so otherwise. It was a friendly, amused, and interested crowd. What was most curious was that, when we entered a shop to buy things, strong bars were placed across the entrance to keep the crowd out. But the cameras and our purchases were left lying in our chairs outside, for no one would touch them! I should have said that we had no money with us. Ah Cum John paid everything, and we settled with him on our return to the hotel.

Chinamen, like most Eastern races, enjoy a joke, and I had entirely got the right side of my two coolies by proposing, when we once stopped for a rest, they should get inside the chair and that I should carry them. This seemed to them too funny for words, and they kept relating it to bystanders, who also seemed to think it excruciatingly funny. Get people amused and they are very ready to do anything for you.

We bargained for embroideries in a shop, and had a most animated time with a very portly old Chinaman who evidently enjoyed the bargaining; and soon he was in high good humour too. I insisted I must take his photograph; he was