man no like." Why should I wish to know anything further than
that some articles would be agreeable to "Englis man's" palate, and
others would not? This must be enough to regulate my purchases. But I
shall always wish I knew how those chickens were fattened and what the
vivid yellow cakes were made of.

[Next our traveller looks into the shop of Ty Wing & Co., where
nothing appears but darkness, dust and cobwebs, and two Chinese
women eating something unknown with chopsticks; that of Chick
Kee, a druggist, with feathers and banners without and nothing
but old dried roots visible within; and of Tuck Wo, a
restaurant-keeper, where nothing is visible that she has the
courage to taste.]

Moo, On & Co. come next. Their shop is full, crowded full,--bags,
bundles, casks, shelves, piles, bunches of utterly nondescript articles.
It sounds like an absurd exaggeration, but it is literally true, that
the only articles in his shop which I ever saw before are bottles. There
are a few of those; but the purpose, use, or meaning of every other
article is utterly unknown to me. There are things that look like games,
like toys, like lamps, like idols, like utensils of lost trades, like
relics of lost tribes, like--well, like a pawnbroker's stock, just
brought from some other world. That comes nearest to it.

Moo, On & Co. have apparently gone back for more. Nobody is in the
shop; the door is wide open. I wait and wait, hoping that some one
will come along who can speak English, and of whom I may ask what this
extraordinary show means. Timidly I touch a fluttering bit, which hangs
outside. It is not paper; it is not cloth; it is not woollen, silk, nor
straw; it is not leather; it is not cobweb; it is not alive; it is not
dead; it crisps and curls at my touch; it waves backward, though no air
blows it. A sort of horror seizes me. It may be a piece of an ancestor
of Moo's doing ghostly duty at his shop door. I hasten on and half fancy
that it is behind me, as I halt before Dr. Li Po Tai's door. His
promises to cure, diplomas, and so forth, are printed in gay-colored
strips of labels on each side. Six bright balloons swing overhead; and
peacocks' feathers are stuck into the balloons. I have heard that Dr. Li
Po Tai is a learned man, and works cures. His balloons are certainly
very brilliant....

Then comes a corner stand, with glass cases of candy. Almond candy, with
grains of rice thick on the top; litt