come to this room, look at the play for a while and then take her
siesta. She could certainly sleep soundly, for the din and noise did
not disturb her in the least. If any of my readers have ever been to a
Chinese theatre, they can well imagine how difficult it would be to woo
the God of Sleep in such a pandemonium.

As soon as we were in this bedroom the play commenced. It was a
religious play called "The Empress of Heaven's Party or Feast to all
the Buddhist Priests to eat her famous peaches and drink her best wine."
This party or feast is given on the third day of the third moon of each
year.

The first act opens with a Buddhist Priest, dressed in a yellow coat
robe with a red scarf draped over his left shoulder, descending in a
cloud from Heaven to invite all the priests to this party. I was very
much surprised to see this actor apparently suspended in the air and
actually floating on this cloud, which was made of cotton. The clever
way in which they moved the scenery, etc., was most interesting, and
before the play was finished I concluded that any theatre manager could
well take lessons from these people; and it was all done without the
slightest bit of machinery.

As this Buddhist Priest was descending, a large pagoda began to slowly
rise from the center of the stage in which was a buddha singing and
holding an incense burner in front of him. Then four other smaller
pagodas slowly rose from the four corners of the stage, each containing
a buddha the same as the first. When the first Buddhist Priest had
descended, the five buddhas came out of the pagodas, which immediately
disappeared, and walked about the stage, still singing. Gradually from
the wing came numbers of buddhas singing until the stage was full, and
they all formed into a ring. Then I saw a large lotus flower, made of
pink silk, and two large green leaves appearing from the bottom of the
stage, and as it rose the petals and leaves gradually opened and I saw a
beautiful lady buddha (Goddess of Mercy) dressed all in white silk, with
a white hood on her head, standing in the center of this flower. As the
leaves opened I saw a girl and a boy in the center of them. When the
petals of the lotus flower were wide open this lady buddha began to
gradually ascend herself, and as she ascended, the petals closed until
she seemed to be standing on a lotus bud. The girl standing in the
leaf on the Goddess' right side held a bottle made of jade and a willow
branc