Then All The Crowd Is In Costume, And Such
Costume!
The prevailing color for the robe is bright blue.
Even the
coolies put on such a one when not working, and all above the coolies
wear them in rich, ribbed silk, lined with silk of a darker shade. Over
this a sleeveless jacket of rich dark blue or puce brocade, plain or
quilted, is worn; the trousers, of which little is seen, being of
brocade or satin. The stockings are white, and the shoes, which are on
thick, white, canoe-shaped soles, are of black satin. The cap, which is
always worn, and quite on the back of the head, is of black satin, and
the pigtail, or plait of hair and purse silk mixed, hangs down nearly
to the bottom of the robe. Then the most splendid furs are worn, and
any number of quilted silk and brocade garments, one above another. And
these big, prosperous-looking men, who are so richly dressed, are only
the shopkeepers and the lower class of merchants. The mandarins and the
rich merchants seldom put their feet to the ground.
The shops just now are filled with all sorts of brilliant and enticing
things in anticipation of the great festival of the New Year, which
begins on the 21st. At the New Year they are all closed, and the rich
merchants vie with each other in keeping them so; those whose shops are
closed the longest, sometimes even for two months, gaining a great
reputation for wealth thereby. Streets are given up to shops of one
kind. Thus there is the "Jade-Stone Street," entirely given up to the
making and sale of jade-stone jewelry, which is very costly, a single
bracelet of the finest stone and workmanship costing 600 pounds. There
is a whole street devoted to the sale of coffins; several in which
nothing is sold but furniture, from common folding tables up to the
costliest settees, bedsteads, and chairs of massive ebony carving;
chinaware streets, book and engraving streets, streets of silk shops,
streets of workers in brass, silver, and gold, who perform their
delicate manipulations before your eyes; streets of second-hand
clothing, where gorgeous embroideries in silk and gold can be bought
for almost nothing; and so on, every street blazing with colors,
splendid with costume, and abounding with wealth and variety.
We went to a "dog and cat restaurant," where a number of richly dressed
men were eating of savory dishes made from the flesh of these animals.
There are thousands of butchers' and fishmongers' shops in Canton. At
the former there are always hundreds of split and salted ducks hanging
on lines, and pigs of various sizes roasted whole, or sold in joints
raw; and kids and buffalo beef, and numbers of dogs and cats, which,
though skinned, have the tails on to show what they are. I had some of
the gelatinous "birds'-nest" soup, without knowing what it was. It is
excellent; but as these nests are brought from Sumatra and are very
costly, it is only a luxury of the rich. The fish shops and stalls are
legion, but the fish looks sickening, as it is always cut into slices
and covered with blood. The boiled chrysalis of a species of silkworm
is exposed for sale as a great delicacy, and so are certain kinds of
hairless, fleshy caterpillars.
In our peregrinations we came upon a Yamun, with its vestibule hung
with scarlet, the marriage color as well as the official color. Within
the door the "wedding garments" were hanging for the wedding guests,
scarlet silk crepe, richly embroidered. Some time later the bridal
procession swept through the streets, adding a new glory to the color
and movement. First marched a troop of men in scarlet, carrying scarlet
banners, each one emblazoned with the literary degrees of the bride's
father and grandfather. Then came ten heavily gilded, carved, and
decorated pavilions, containing the marriage presents, borne on poles
on the shoulders of servants; and after them the bride, carried in a
locked palanquin to the bridegroom's house, completely shrouded, the
palanquin one mass of decoration in gold and blue enamel, the carving
fully six inches deep; and the procession was closed by a crowd of men
in scarlet, carrying the bridegroom's literary degrees, with banners,
and instruments of music. It is the China of a thousand years ago,
unaltered by foreign contact.
There are many beggars, and a "Beggars' Square," and the beggars have a
"king," and a regular guild, with an entrance fee of 1 pound. The
shopkeepers are obliged by law to give them a certain sum, and on the
occasion of a marriage or any other festivity, the giver sends a fee to
the "king," on the understanding that he keeps his lieges from
bothering the guests. They make a fearful noise with their two gongs.
There is one on the Shameen bridge who has a callosity like a horn on
his forehead, with which he strikes the pavement and produces an
audible thump.
After the cleanliness, beauty, and good repair of the Japanese temples,
those of Canton impress me as being very repulsive. In Japan the people
preserve their temples for their exquisite beauty, and there are a
great many sincere Buddhists; but China is irreligious; a nation of
atheists or agnostics, or slaves of impious superstitions. In an
extended tramp among temples I have not seen a single male worshiper or
a thing to please the eye. The Confucian temples, to which mandarinism
resorts on certain days to bow before the Confucian tablets, are now
closed, and their courts are overgrown with weeds. The Buddhist temples
are hideous, both outside and inside, built of a crumbling red brick,
with very dirty brick floors, and the idols are frightful and tawdry.
We went to several which have large monasteries attached to them, with
great untidy gardens, with ponds for sacred fish and sacred tortoises,
and houses for sacred pigs, whose sacredness is shown by their
monstrous obesity.
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