t bare, their grief
insupportable, so that an attendant is at hand to sustain each mourner
howling at the wheels of the hearse. An orchestra heads the procession;
the air is flooded with paper prayers that are cast hither at you to
appease the troubled spirit. They are on their way to the cemetery among
the hills toward the sea, where the funeral rites are observed as
rigorously as they are on Asian soil.

We are still unrefreshed and sorely in need of rest. Overhead swing huge
balloon lanterns and tufts of gold flecked scarlet streamers,--a sight
that maketh the palate of the hungry Asiatic to water; for within this
house may be had all the delicacies of the season, ranging from the
confections of the fond suckling to funeral bake-meats. Legends wrought
in tinsel decorate the walls. Here is a shrine with a vermilion-faced
god and a native lamp, and stalks of such hopelessly artificial flowers
as fortunately are unknown in nature. Saffron silks flutter their
fringes in the steams of nameless cookery--for all this is but the
kitchen, and the beginning of the end we aim at.

A spiral staircase winds like a corkscrew from floor to floor; we ascend
by easy stages, through various grades of hunger, from the economic
appetite on the first floor, where the plebian stomach is stayed with
tea and lentils, even to the very house-top, where are administered
comforting syrups and a _menu_ that is sweetened throughout its length
with the twang of lutes, the clash of cymbals, and the throb of the
shark-skin drum.

Servants slip to and fro in sandals, offering edible birds'-nests,
sharks' fins, and _beche de mer_,--or are these unfamiliar dishes
snatched from some other kingdom? At any rate, they are native to the
strange people who have a little world of their own in our midst, and
who could, if they chose, declare their independence to-morrow.

We see everywhere the component parts of a civilization separate and
distinct from our own. They have their exits and their entrances; their
religious life and burial; their imports, exports, diversions,
tribunals, punishments. They are all under the surveillance of the six
companies, the great six-headed supreme authority. They have laws within
our laws that to us are sealed volumes. Why should they not? Fifty years
ago there were scarcely a dozen Chinese in America. In 1851, inclusive,
not more than 4,000 had arrived; but the next year brought 18,000,
seized with the lust of gold. The i