Page:Through China with a camera.pdf/149

 rheumatic a chill through your blood, you could test the comfort of a block of polished rock in the corner, or try one or two cold glazed porcelain stools. Sundry texts from the sacred classics were hung about the dim walls ; everything was in order and everything scrupulously clean. But at length we discovered, when a number of the monks had joined our party, that the shaven, silent, thoughtful-looking inmates of the cloister could unbend if they chose, and take a natural and ardent interest in the current gossip of Canton. Nay, they conducted us to a snuggery in an inner court, where a table was sumptuously spread, embowered beneath plantain-trees and shaded by their huge waving leaves. Round a lotus-pool, in the centre of this court, ran a paved pathway, and an ornamental railing, draped with the green leaves of a creeping plant. Here we left the monks engaging their venerable abbot in a game at chess, while I took my way to the interior of the shrine to obtain a photo- graph of the central altar. I found a number of people at worship within, making votive offerings to the idols whose aid they sought. Some ladies were there, decked in their finest silks ; and my entrance so startled these fair devotees, that they would have fled but for the intervention of the priests, who gave me a high character, as one in search of knowledge, who had wisely come from an obscure island to view the greatest temple in all Cathay, and to carry pictures of its wonders home. Wending our way back to the river through narrow tortuous streets, and passing third-rate tea establishments, where men mix the fragrant leaves and toss them about with their naked feet, on mats spread out in the sun, we at length embark in one of the many small boats which ply for hire at the jetties. The crew of the little craft consists of three young girls, and these boatwomen are the prettiest and most attractive-looking of their