they learn to obey their keeper's call quickly the last duck is always
whipped. I am told it is most ridiculous to see the hurry of the last
half-dozen birds of a flock of some thousands of ducks. I was most
anxious to see them, but it is not the right time of year now. The
young ducks are only just beginning to hatch, and the old ones are not
numerous, and are mostly laying.

There was no time to go and see the temple of Honan, for we were more
anxious to avail ourselves of a chance of visiting some interesting
places in the Chinese city. We went through a street, consisting
entirely of fruiterers' shops, to which the name of Kwohlaorn, or
fruit-market, is applied. In this market, which is of great extent,
there is for sale at all seasons of the year an almost countless
variety of fruit.

A silkworm establishment was pointed out to us in the distance, but we
did not go over it, as we had seen many before, and it is not the best
season of the year. The silkworms are most carefully tended, the
people who look after them being obliged to change their clothes
before entering the rooms where they are kept, and to perform all
sorts of superstitious ceremonies at every stage of the insect's
growth. No one at all ailing or deformed is allowed to approach a
building where they are kept. The worms are supposed to be very
nervous, and are guarded from everything that can possibly frighten
them, as well as from all changes of temperature or disturbances of
the atmosphere. Thunder and lightning they are supposed specially to
dread, and great pains are taken to shelter them by artificial means,
and keep them from all knowledge of the storm.

The next place we visited was a bird's-nest-soup-shop street, where we
went into one of the best and most extensive establishments. There
were three or four well-dressed assistants behind the counter, all
busily occupied in sorting and packing birds' nests. Some of the best
were as white as snow, and were worth two dollars each, while a light
brown one was worth only one dollar, and the black dirty ones, full of
feathers and moss, could be purchased at the rate of a quarter dollar.

Certainly the Chinese seem an exception to the rule laid down by some
writers, that no people can flourish who do not rest every seventh
day. In many ways they are an abnormal people, one striking point in
their condition being the state of dirt and filth in which they not
only exist, but increase and multiply. T