, and
when they arrived and opened the chair, the bride was found dead from
suffocation. The other accident occurred through the chair catching
fire while it was passing through some narrow street under an archway.
The bearers became frightened, put down their burden, and ran away,
leaving the poor bride locked up inside to be burnt to death.

From the chair shop we went to the embroiderers, to see them at work.
Their productions are exquisite, and it is a pity that better
specimens are not seen in England. The process of lacquer-making, too,
is very interesting. We had, however, to go from house to house to
witness it, as only one portion of the process is carried on at
each--from the gradual coating of the roughest wood with three
coatings of varnish, until it is finally ornamented with delicate
designs, and polished ready for sale. In appearance, price, and length
of wear there is a vast difference.

The next thing to see was the weaving of silk, which is done in the
most primitive manner. One man throws the shuttle, while another forms
the pattern by jumping on the top of the loom and raising a certain
number of threads, in order to allow the shuttle to pass beneath them.

Then came a visit to the Temple of Longevity, a large Buddhist temple,
with a monastic establishment of about ninety priests attached to it.
It contains three shrines with large figures, but nothing specially
interesting. There is a large pond in the midst of the garden, covered
with duckweed, and full of beautiful gold and silver fish of many
kinds. The Chinese certainly excel in producing gold and silver and
red fish; they are the pets of every household, and are of all
colours, some being striped and spotted, and boasting any number of
tails from one to five.

Outside the temple stands the Jadestone Market, where incredible
quantities of this valuable stone change hands before ten o'clock
every morning, both in its rough and its polished state. The stalls
are the simplest wooden stands, and the appearance of the vendors is
poor in the extreme. The contents of the stalls, however, are worth
from 500_l_. to l,000_l_. (not dollars), and there are hundreds of
these stalls, besides an entire jadestone street which we afterwards
visited. We saw several of the shops, and asked the prices, as we
wished to take home a small specimen; but they had no good carved
cups, which were what we wanted, and for what they had they asked an
enormous price. Jad