hem to produce very choice goods in these lines of art. The
shops being all open in front, the entire contents can be seen by the
passers-by. Many of these passages are covered over at the top by
matting, which effectually excludes the sun, and, indeed, much other
light, so that they often have a sombre and dreary appearance.

It was interesting to watch the operation of the primitive hand-loom in
which is woven the favorite Canton silk. The fabric is beautiful and
expensive, being sold by the pound in place of by the yard, as with us.
Men and boys only engage in silk weaving. Women assume the heavier and
more exposed branches of labor, and of out-door-life, besides lugging
their infants. Some of the lofty and utterly useless pagodas, which are
over twelve hundred years old, are quite unique in architecture and
ornamentation. One was visited which was nine stories high, measuring
in a vertical line about two hundred feet. Observing a woman at one of
the shrines fanning an idol, the guide was asked for an explanation. He
said that the woman would presently take this fan home with which to fan
some sick person, and from this process would hope for miraculous
intervention in behalf of the suffering one. "And do you believe there
is any efficacy in such a proceeding?" we asked. "You would call it the
result of credulity and imagination," was his intelligent reply, "but I
have seen some wonderful cures brought about after this manner. Do not
people, who call themselves Christians, believe in prayer?" "Most
certainly," we replied. "Well," continued the guide, "this is simply
Chinese prayer." After this explanation, the queer proceeding of fanning
an idol seamed less strange. That was certainly a good answer,--calling
it Chinese prayer.

Undoubtedly our type of features is repulsive to the average Chinaman,
certainly his is very much so to us. One looked in vain among the smooth
chins, shaved heads, and almond eyes of the crowd for signs of
intelligence and manliness. There are no tokens of humor or cheerfulness
to be seen, but in its place there is plenty of cunning, slyness, and
deceit, if there is any truth in physiognomy. The men look like women
and the women like children, except that their features are so hard and
forbidding. The better classes wear a supercilious expression of
features that makes the toes of one's boots tingle; and yet in all the
shops there is a cringing assiduity to get all the silver and pennies
fro