Peeps Into China Part 12

After a short, but pleasant, stay at Macao, the Grahams went on to Canton.

"The last place but one," Sybil could not help whispering to Leonard on board. "When we next arrive--" she went on, but tears starting into her eyes seemed to drown the rest of the sentence. However, as some very happy weeks had yet to be pa.s.sed at Canton, neither she nor we must antic.i.p.ate. A long visit of two months was to be spent here at the residence of a personal friend of Mr. Graham, the English consul of the place.

A servant was stationed on the steps leading round to the Consulate, or Yamen, to await the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Graham and their children.

This house was situated on a height, and occupied the site of an ancient palace. It consisted of a suite of buildings, surrounded on one side by a pretty garden, and on the other by a park, in which deer grazed. Both Sybil and Leonard thought the deer very pretty; and quite near to the Yamen was a paG.o.da of nine storeys, which the Emperor Wong-Ti, who reigned about the middle of the sixteenth century, is supposed first to have constructed.

"How little," Sybil and Leonard said to one another, "we ever thought, when we examined our little ornamental paG.o.das at home, that we should ever live quite near to a real one!"

A story relating to this paG.o.da, being told to Leonard, interested him a good deal.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ENGLISH CONSULATE AT CANTON.]

In 1859 some English sailors climbed up the old building, which was then in so tottering a condition that it was a really perilous ascent, and when they reached the top the Chinese were dreadfully angry, for two reasons: first, because they looked upon it as sacrilege; and secondly, because from the height the sailors could look down upon their houses, and the Chinese dislike very much indeed to be overlooked, especially by "barbarians."

The consul and Leonard were soon very good friends, and the elder friend very kindly did not weary of answering questions put to him by the little boy.

"Why is your house called a yamen?"

"This word means the same as does consulate, the official residence of the consul."

"What are you here for?"

The consul smiled. "To protect your interests and those, commercial and otherwise, of every English citizen resident here."

"Who is that Jui-Lin of whom you have a picture? and is he alive now?"

"He died a few years ago, and was viceroy of Canton. He made so good a governor that those provinces over which he ruled generally prospered under his administration. It is in a great measure through his influence that peaceable relations have, for some time, been established between China and foreign countries. The Emperor Tau-Kw.a.n.g, who came to the throne in 1820, thought so well of him that he made him one of his ministers. Later he became general of the Tartar garrison at Canton, and soon after he was made viceroy. He established order in a very troublesome district, where he made the clan villagers at last acknowledge some authority, and so put the people and their property in much greater security."

[Ill.u.s.tration: JUI-LIN, LATE VICEROY OF CANTON.]

Leonard said Canton was the place for him, for here he saw ships and fishing to perfection. In Canton alone, the consul told him, it was estimated that 300,000 persons had their homes on the water. One Canton boat-woman, in whose pa.s.senger-boat they travelled, said that her husband went on sh.o.r.e during the day to work, whilst she looked after the pa.s.sengers; but he seemed to be rather an exception, for most of the boat population never went on sh.o.r.e at all, and as people on land go to market to buy vegetables and other food, so everything in this line, that they required, was brought, by boat, to them. Then, besides boats, there were floating islands, on which people lived, and these consisted of rafts of bamboos fastened together, with a thick bed of vegetable soil covering the rafts. Here the owners set up houses, cultivated rice-fields, and kept tame cattle and hogs. Swallows and pigeons here built their nests in pretty surrounding gardens. Sails were put up on the houses, and oars were often used to propel the islands along. Women worked them frequently, with their babies fastened to their backs; and little boys and girls would here also play together, having smaller brothers and sisters thus attached to them. These floating islands, Sybil and Leonard were told, were to be seen on almost all Chinese lakes. Many floating houses were moored to one another.

Sometimes the boat population made such a noise. They seemed a good-natured set of people, but every now and then they quarrelled, and this was done very noisily. Then if a storm came on, they would call out with fear. Those people who lived in river streets, where their houses were close against the river, often complained of the noise that they heard during the night. The boat population are often looked down upon by the Chinese who live on land, and may not go in for the literary examinations.

There were very many fishing villages about, and nothing made Leonard happier than to be taken to one or another of them; he was so fond of boats of all kinds. Fishing-boats in China had to obtain a license from Government. Some of these sailed two and two abreast, at a distance, from one another, of about three hundred feet, when a net was stretched from ship to ship to enclose the fish. Names cut in the boats had generally reference to good fortune. The name on one, which Leonard had interpreted for him, was "Good Success."

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHINESE BOAT-WOMAN.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A FISHING VILLAGE ON THE CANTON RIVER.]

In fishing as well as in other villages men go about hawking things for sale, and carrying them, by ship, from one village to another. In the bows of fishing vessels are large pairs of shears, which can be either raised or lowered. A large dip-net, fastened to the shears, is drawn up after remaining some time in the water, when the fish it contains are emptied into a little hole in the middle of the ship, like a large cistern, into which fresh water flows. The fishermen anchor their boats, and then lower their dip-nets into the water by means of these shears, which are made of bamboo, and attached to wooden platforms, resting on posts. Huts are sometimes erected near the dip-nets, so that the fishermen can shelter themselves from the hot sun. A great deal of fishing with birds called cormorants is also carried on in China, when one man will, perhaps, take out a hundred birds to fish for him, fastening something to their throats to prevent them from swallowing the fish when caught. As they return with them, they are given a little piece that they can swallow.

After young fish are caught, they are fed with paste in the tanks, or wells, into which they are put, and when they grow older little ponds are made for them.

Sybil and Leonard were taken very often on the Canton river in all kinds of boats, both large and small. In the stern of very many was an altar, concealed generally behind a sliding door, but which, night and morning, was drawn aside to admit the altar to view, and display the images of household G.o.ds that were upon it.

Here were also small ancestral tablets, which were regularly worshipped, and offerings of fruit and flowers were constantly offered to the guardian G.o.d of the boat and the tablets when they were worshipped.

Tien-How, Queen of Heaven, also called Ma-chu, and other names, is much worshipped by sailors, but each boat has its special guardian G.o.d.

Incense is burnt night and morning at the bow of the boat. The Grahams very often travelled in a small ship called a sampan, which had a mat roofing over the centre, and was driven forward, very frequently by women, with two oars and a scull.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHINESE FISHING.]

"I have seen just the sort of thing for you to sketch, mother," Sybil said one day. Like her mother, she greatly admired what was beautiful, and now, with her fellow-excursionists, the consul, her father, and brother, returned home, from a ramble, very tired; "a dear little paG.o.da, seven storeys high, very near to the banks of the river, with mountains at the back and trees near to it, and a little village in the distance; and on the opposite side of the river we saw two men and a boy: the boy seemed to have a kite, but we thought it belonged to one of the men, and he was just carrying it for him."

Mrs. Graham sometimes did not feel equal to long expeditions, of which her children never grew tired, so then she would remain at home, or walk through the pretty gardens and park.

The Canton, Chu-kiang, or Pearl River, has a great many names and branches. The great western branch is called Kan-kiang, the northern branch Pe-kiang, or Pearl River, and the eastern one Tong-kiang. On the western branch the children found themselves surrounded by lovely mountain scenery. From Canton to Whampoa it was called the Pearl River; from Whampoa to Bocca Tigris, or Tiger's Mouth, Foo-mon; and beyond Shek-moon towards Canton, the Covetous River. The pa.s.sage to Macao was the Wild Goose River. It was some time before Sybil and Leonard could understand anything at all about these divisions.

One day, on the Pearl River, they came to a very pretty spot, where the water was almost entirely land-locked by high ranges of hills, and here they asked to be allowed to remain stationary, for a little while, to look about them.

Another day they went very far indeed with their father and mother, crossing the Fatchan River, where Leonard heard, with interest, that Commodore Keppel engaged in a memorable battle in 1857. The river divides the town of Fatchan into two equal parts. Then again they went so far that they could not even think of returning home the same day, and stayed the night on the road to a village called Wong-tong, which was very countrified and pretty.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PAG.o.dA ON THE BANKS OF THE CANTON RIVER.]

And once more they went--father, mother, and all--to a place quite different from anything that they had yet seen, which was the village of Polo-Hang. Here they found themselves in the midst of vast plains, on the outskirts of which were to be seen lovely-looking hills of limestone and rows of wonderfully-shaped mountains. Standing on one of these mountains, they had a capital view of the Temple of Polo-Hang and its surroundings, consisting of bare fields traversed by ca.n.a.ls; and, at the foot of the mountains of thickets of bamboo, whose light, feathery branches swayed gently to and fro. Bamboo was very largely cultivated here, and Sybil thought it such a fairy-like growth. Must not this scene have been very lovely? Sybil was so glad that her mother had come to see it. Then other hills appeared, covered with trees, and dotted here and there with temples.

"Where _did_ they all come from?" Leonard asked.

Mr. Graham was looking very serious. This was a scene calculated to leave a deep impression upon the beholders.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ON THE CANTON RIVER]

"From the hand of G.o.d," he said very quietly.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VILLAGE OF POLO-HANG IN CANTON.]

A week later, Sybil wrote again to her friend.

"_Canton, January, 1881._

"MY DEAREST LILY,--We saw such a strange sight yesterday; and we could not help liking to see it, although, of course, it was very dreadful. We went inside a Buddhist temple at Canton. These temples are often called joss-houses; this one was the Temple of Five Hundred G.o.ds. Fancy five hundred G.o.ds! and these idols were all there, arranged in different lines. They all seemed to look different, and some were dreadfully ugly. I saw beards on a few of their faces. In the part of the temple where, in a church, our altar would be, there was a terrible-looking thing: I suppose a very special G.o.d.

"We saw one of the priests. He had his beads in one hand, and a fan in the other. Some of the priests are men who have committed great crimes, and have escaped to a monastery and had their heads shaved, so as not to be caught and punished.

"Some of the idols were as large as if they were alive, and they had their arms in all sorts of different positions. Some held beads, and a few wore crowns; I think they were disciples of Buddha. The buildings of the temple, and the houses of the priests, were surrounded by lakes and gardens.

"We have been able to get you a picture of part of the inside of the temple, so I send it to you; but Leonard says that he thinks as you'll have the picture (and he considers it a very good one) that you ought to know that this temple is said to have been founded about 520 years A.D., and to have been rebuilt in 1755. Fancy people wasting prayers before these images! Isn't it a pity that they don't know better? There are more than 120 temples, or joss-houses, in Canton.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE TEMPLE OF THE FIVE HUNDRED G.o.dS, CANTON.]

"The Chinese never eat with knives and forks, but with chop-sticks. These are generally small square pieces of bamboo, as large as a penholder, which they hold between the thumb and first finger of the right hand. I can't eat with them at all, nor can mother; and the other day, when she went out to lunch with some Chinese ladies, they sent for a knife and fork for her.

"Chinese ladies in Canton never seem to be with their husbands in public, and they never walk in the streets with them. Some of them think us such barbarous people because we are so different from what they are.

"The Chinese have such a funny way of paying formal visits, that I think I must tell you about it. They often go in sedan-chairs. Officers of the highest rank may have eight bearers, people of less rank have four, and ordinary people two. The state sedan-chair of an official is covered with green cloth, and the fringe on the roof and window-curtains has to be green too. So much seems to go by rank in China. For the first three ranks, the tips of poles may be of bra.s.s, in the form of a dragon's head; the fourth and fifth rank would have a lion's head. On the top of these chairs is a ball of tin. Leonard and I can tell the chairs very well now. Private gentlemen have blue cloth, and the ends of their poles are tipped with plain bra.s.s.