Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/793

Rh hang in tiers overhead serve to exclude those

and at the same time to prevent the intrusion of fresh air. The shops, separated from one another by thick walls of solid brick, never rise beyond two storeys, and many of them obtain light during the day by means of apertures in the roof.

Unglazed, they lie open to the street, exposing a heterogeneous display of commodities and a blaze of Oriental colour calculated to attract the attention of the most casual passer-by. In not a few instances the representatives of one particular trade or craft are found clustered together, but butchers' shops, stocked with a variety of dubious delicacies, from which even the rat is not excluded, appear to be scattered with a generous hand throughout the length and breadth of the city. For the benefit of the tourist there are innumerable curio shops containing jewellery, jade, China ware, lacquer ware, feather work, brass work, carved ivory, and stone, blackwood, silk goods, and a hundred and one things. The method of lacquering is kept so close a secret by those engaged in the trade that the craftsmen of one town are unable to employ the colours used by those of another. Exceptional interest attaches to the feather work by reason of its beauty and its scarceness. There are, in fact, only two shops at which it can be seen. Minute particles of brightly hued birds' plumage are mounted on pins, brooches, and other articles of jewellery producing an effect like that of the brightest enamel. So trying is this work to the eyes of the operators that after some years it produces total blindness.

To the archæologist Canton is a city of irresistible charm, for it contains more than one hundred pagodas, temples, halls, and other religious edifices. Near the west gate of the old city stand two pagodas—one, rising to a height of 160 feet, was erected by Arabian voyagers a thousand years ago; the other, an octagonal pagoda of nine storeys, 170 feet high, was built thirteen hundred years ago. There is also a large five-storeyed pagoda in the extreme north of the city that was first constructed in 1368, as a "palladium" against the evil influences which are supposed to flow from that quarter. From the top storey extensive and picturesque views may be obtained of the surrounding country, including the White Cloud Mountains. Detachments of soldiers were quartered here during the occupation of Canton by the British and French troops. On the city wall, which runs close by, are still to be seen the British guns, now spiked and covered with rust, which were mounted in position after the capture of the city. A striking contrast to these old outstanding features of the city is furnished by the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the French Mission. This outward and visible sign of a war which is being waged with much earnestness throughout China at the present day is built entirely of dressed granite and has two lofty towers surmounted by spires. The catholicity of spirit of the Chinese in religious matters is evidenced in the Temple of Five Hundred Genii, which contains five hundred large gilded images of saints of various nationalities and including John the Baptist and Marco Polo. The followers of Buddha have erected many temples. Chief amongst these are the Honam Temple, on the opposite side of the river, containing images of Buddha and his eighteen apostles; the Temple of Longevity with a colossal figure of Buddha in a recumbent position; and the Tartar City Temple, with three effigies of Buddha, each some twenty feet in height. In the temple of the Five Genii are to be seen an image of the supreme deity of the Taoist faith, five stones representing five supernatural rams, from which Canton derived its soubriquet of the "City of Rams," a rock in the shape of a gigantic foot which is declared by the priests to be an impress left by Buddha, and an enormous bell which was struck by a cannon ball from one of the British ships in the bombardment of 1857. Tradition says that when the bell was cast and placed in its present position some two hundred years ago a prophecy was uttered foretelling calamity to Canton whenever it should give forth sound. The Temple of Horrors is apparently designed to strike terror into the heart of the evildoer, for it contains representations in statuary of the tortures supposed to be employed in the various compartments of hell. For the peace of mind of any one who is not content to wait until his enemy meets with a due reward in one or other of these compartments hereafter, there are temples in which untold calamities may be called down upon the head of the living merely by writing his name on a scrap of paper and suspending this in a specified position, much in the same way that bodies were wasted away in mediæval England with the aid of waxen figures. For the convenience of those who seek to gain the blessing of the departed there is a City of the Dead in which bodies may be deposited until such time as the soothsayer shall discover a "lucky" spot for their interment. In the case of wealthy families it sometimes happens that the site is not selected for years. In the meantime prayers for the repose of the dead are recited by the priests—in some cases for forty consecutive days. The family pride of the Chinese is shown in numerous ancestral temples, one of the finest of which is that belonging to the Chan family. As a specimen of Chinese architecture the Chin Chew Club is worthy of inspection. The old water clock, which was damaged in the last British attack on Canton, is an interesting relic of the past. It consists of three cylindrical vessels ranged one above another. The time is indicated on