principal
article of export. The doctor says that tea-drinking promotes the
temperance of the people more than any other influence. Alcoholic
liquors are distilled from rice and millet.

"From the twelfth century B.C. the literature of the nation abounds in
temperance lectures, warning the people against the injury of strong
drinks; but tea has done vastly more to prevent their use than anything
else. As a people at home the Chinese make little use of liquors, though
that is not always the case with those who live in New York. They do not
sit down to tea as we do, but keep it at hand at all times, and treat
their visitors with it. Tea is written in the vernacular of the natives
_ch'a_. When it was first imported into England it was called _t'ay_;
but those who gave it the name were doubtless Irishmen, and they still
stick to it.

"There is no doubt that silk was first produced in China; and silk,
linen, and cotton form the clothing of the people. A ceremony like that
with the plough is performed by the emperor over the silkworms and
mulberry-trees, whose leaves are the food of the worm. From before the
twenty-third century B.C., the care of the silkworm, and the spinning
and weaving of the thread from the cocoon, has been the particular labor
of the women. The mulberry-tree grows everywhere in the country, and
silk is manufactured in greater or less quantities in every province.

"The cotton-plant has been propagated in China; and the cloth is largely
used there, though not equal in finish to the imported article, but is
heavier and more lasting in wear. Nankeen comes from Nanking. There are
no fireplaces in the houses; and the people keep warm, if they can, by
increasing their clothing. Woollen goods are not manufactured to any
great extent.

"I will not describe the pagodas, pavilions, bridges, and palaces; for
you will see them for yourselves. The streets of the cities in the south
and some in the north are no better than mere lanes; and the crowds of
people hustling through them fill them about full, and make you think
the place is vastly more populous than it really is. As a set-off to
this idea, you will wonder what has become of the women, for you rarely
meet any of them.

"The streets are paved with stone slabs, badly drained, and abounding in
bad odors, and you are not likely to enjoy your walks through them; but
they have magnificent names, which you will not read at the corners,
such as the street of B