At 1 A.M., Every House Being Decorated And Illuminated, The
Chinese Men Began To Make Their New Year's Calls, And At Six The Din
Began Again.
After breakfast the Governor drove out in state to visit
the leading Chinese merchants, with whom he is on
Terms of the most
cordial amity, and at each house was offered two dishes of cakes,
twelve dishes of candied and preserved fruits, mandarin tea (the price
of this luxury is from 25s. to 45s. a pound), and champagne from the
finest Rhenish vineyards! At eleven all the Chinese children came forth
in carriages shaped like boats, turned up at both ends, painted red and
yellow, and with white-fringed canopies over them. These were drawn by
servants, and in the case of the wealthy, a train of servants
accompanied each carriage. It was a sight worthy of a fabled age. The
wealth of the East in all its gorgeousness was poured out upon these
dignified and solemn infants, who wore coronals of gold and diamonds,
stuffs of cloth of gold brocade, and satin sewn with pearls, and whose
cloth-of-gold shoes flashed with diamonds!
During the morning four children of a rich Chinese merchant, attended
by a train of Chinese and Malay servants, came to see Mrs. Shaw. There
were a boy and girl of five and six years old, and two younger
children. A literal description of their appearance reads like fiction.
The girl wore a yellow petticoat of treble satin (mandarin yellow) with
broad box plaits in front and behind, exquisitely embroidered with
flowers in shades of blue silk, with narrow box plaits between, with a
trail of blue silk flowers on each.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 165 of 437
Words from 45072 to 45354
of 120530
