s at the sides, with open fronts, while on a plinth rested
coffins of different styles; the bodies within were awaiting burial.
Flowers were scattered here and there, and I believe fruit, food, and
offerings of various kinds also.

We next visited the place of execution, which was ghastly with its
associations, and the executioner swung the large instrument around, as
the guide explained the process of decapitating heads. But fortunately
for our nerves the place then contained only long rows of jars from a
pottery near by.

The Nambo Prison proved to be a wooden affair, gates and all, but the
poor unkept, unwashed victims who glared at us through the bars looked
too sickly and emaciated to offer any resistance, even had they a mind
to escape.

[Illustration: _Temple of the Five Genii at Canton_]

By far the most interesting place we visited was the Temple of the Five
Hundred Genii, with large brass gods seated on opposite sides of a long
hall,--the Temple of the Five Genii, and the ancestral temple of a
certain royal family of China. We first entered a large enclosure, then
a goodly-sized audience room, and next the temple proper. The three
walls of this room (as I remember them) were fitted up like an immense
cabinet, with rows of drawers, each supposed to contain some document
relating to that particular ancestor. There was one upright vacant space
which the guide said would be filled when that branch of the family
died.

We were here without a "Murray," as in Java and Siam, so we graciously
accepted such information as our most intelligent guide could give us,
who, by the way, was the original guide of Canton, two sons now
following in his footsteps, for the father in his later years rarely
accompanies parties. He is a gentleman, affable, well dressed in Chinese
brocade, and less unresponsive than are most Chinese; it was indeed a
pleasure to be "conducted" by him.

The Hall of Examination is open to the public only once in three years,
when students of high-school grade are examined for entrance to a
university course, eighty-seven of the applicants being chosen. The hall
has, on three sides, little box-like slates about six by eight feet,
furnished with only a plank on which the student must sit and sleep. He
is shut in there for three days, food being given him on entering for
the entire time. This torture is repeated three times, so that nine days
of purgatory have to be endured before the goal is reached.