ss must, therefore, have been an advertisement of
their shame.

"A curious musical instrument was brought--somewhat like a
dulcimer--on which two of the girls played in succession, singing
in a high, monotonous way.

"From here we went to the first place visited the night previous,
on the opposite corner of the same block. There was quite an
excitement here when we came in. Two men and two girls were
playing on native instruments--one of the men on a sort of fiddle,
and the other on a rude guitar; the girls, one striking, in sharp
staccato fashion, a wooden perforated bowl inverted on a standard
or post, and the other a kind of cymbal; they were singing in the
same shrill, monotonous way we had heard before. We counted eight
girls here. There was a piece of unpainted tin or zinc, about
eight by twelve inches, set upon the table toward one end, with
a list of fifty names on it, and a Chinese man, who talked fair
English, explained it thus: 'These are the names of singing and
dancing girls who come here; a man looks over the list and calls
for a girl to sing or dance; then he chooses his girl.'

"We then went to a third place on the same side of the street.
Here there was a wild confusion as we reached the top of the
second flight of stairs and entered the front room, and several
young girls were hustled out through the other door and into the
little back rooms, and the list of girls' names was hurried out
of sight. The Chinese men were evidently much frightened. A bold
little girl, very smartly dressed, was put forward, who answered
our questions in a loud, brazen manner. One of our party asking
her if she could sing, she thought the statement was made that she
was not 'sixteen' (the age under which girls are supposed to be
'protected' from going into prostitution by British rule), and
shouted, 'I am _seventeen_.' We stayed only a few minutes, but
were informed that they provided opium and intoxicating liquors
here."

We told our hostess one day that we desired jinrikshas that we might
be conveyed to the Protectorate to interview the Chief Inspector,
having heard that he desired an interview. As we were leaving the
house she detained us a moment to say, timidly: "Ladies, do pardon me,
but I feel I must caution you that that man has a very violent temper,
and it will not do in case you see a