oors to all the rooms; to some
there are only curtains. Curtains are used instead of doors in many hot
countries, because of their coolness; but the furniture of the Chinese
rooms is quite different from the furniture of Turkish and Persian rooms.
The Chinese sit on chairs as we do, and have high tables like ours: and
they sleep on bedsteads, yet their beds are not like ours, for instead of
a mattrass there is nothing but a mat.

Instead of pictures, the Chinese adorn their rooms with painted lanterns,
and with pieces of white satin, on which sentences are written: they have
also book-cases and china jars. But they have no fire-places, for they
never need a fire to keep themselves warm: the sun shining in at the
south windows makes the rooms tolerably warm in winter; and in summer the
weather is very hot. The Chinese in winter put on one coat over the other
till they feel warm enough. In the north of China it is so cold in winter
that the place where the bed stands (which is a recess in the wall) is
heated by a furnace underneath, and the whole family sit there all day
crowded together.

The Chinese houses have not so many stories as ours; in the towns there
is one floor above the ground floor, but in the country there are no
rooms up stairs.

It would amuse you to see a Chinese country house. There is not one large
house, but a number of small buildings like summer-houses, and long
galleries running from one to another. One of these summer-houses is in
the middle of a pond, with a bridge leading to it. In the pond there are
gold and silver fish; for these beautiful fishes often kept in glass
bowls in England, came first from China. By the sides of the garden walls
large cages are placed; in one may be seen some gold and silver
pheasants, in another a splendid peacock; in another a gentle stork, and
in another an elegant little deer. There is often a grove of
mulberry-trees in the garden, and in the midst of the grove houses made
of bamboo, for rearing silk-worms. It is the delight of the ladies to
feed these curious worms. None but very quiet people are fit to take care
of them, for a loud noise would kill them. Gold and silver fish also
cannot bear much noise.

In every large house in China there is a room called the Hall of
Ancestors. There the family worship their dead parents and grand-parents,
and great-grand-parents, and those who lived still further back. There
are no images to be seen in the Hall of Ancesto