SIGHTS IN CANTON.

Otago Witness, Issue 2302, 14 April 1898, Page 49

SIGHTS IN CANTON.

The progressive commercial enterprise of the Briton is strikingly seen in the development of the once barren island of Hong Kong. To an equal degree, is the intense conservatism of , the Chinese exhibited in the chief city of the southern, part of the great Celestial Empire. There are Europeans'afr Canton, but they live in a settlement outside the native city. Their influence, like their place of abode, is merely.upon the outermost edge of the community. Our ideals of civilisation have not- touched the people. They are to-day as they have been for centuries past. They sneer at our institutions, and consider themselves in every way superior to the white- " barbarian." Casual visitors so tha crowded city visit the various pcxni-3 o? interest by means of sedan chairs. They vs accompanied by a native guide, who conscientiously goes through a lDrig catalogue of things,- wonderful or horrible, in Engli&h which is fluently spoken, but imperfectly understood by those to whom it is addressed. The guide is very attentive to those ia his care, very polite in his manners, and often possessed of a fair amount of humour.

It is said that Admiral Freraantle once visited Canton with several ladies. When the steamer anchored off the city, the guides, sis is their custom, boarded her at once. The admiral and his friends chose their guide, and prepared to follow him. The admiral was aboul to descend the ladder and get into a native " sampan," when tha guide gently pushed him back, saying, "Ladies first." " Oh, that doesn'c matter," said the admiral. " I'm an old man." " Ole man I " said the guide, "ole man all more ought to know muchee better."

The streets of .the city are o! a pattern of immemorial antiquity. None are mere than 10ft wide. The houses lean inwards from the base, and almost meet ovarheaid, shutting out all but the narrowest strip of daylight. Sign-boards are hung perpendicularly outside every house. They are elaborately carved and giily decorated with abundance of gold lea£ and scarlet or black lacquer. The mystic-looking symbols inform r,he curious thafc one particular .shop is " Prospered by Heaven," 'another has "Never-end-ing Good Lack," while yet another is " The Market of Golden Profits"— the eaid profits, be it known, going into the pocket of the dealer. , . . Amongst the mo3fc interesting sights of this fninehanggb'e rify.are ths pawnshop?. They are often, great .sqqare, solid granite structures, which look more'like old "border keeps than the residences of accoinodating "uncles."* The pawnshopsfulfil a double purpose. It advances, money at an interest varying from 20 to 36 psr cent., and it stores in safety within its massive walls those articles q£ fineryand adornment which are only required at special times w?d seasons. On the flat roofs of these citadels are piles of stone?, and jars of vitriol, ready to repel any attack that may be made by thieves, whose methods of plunder are less refined than those of the pawnbroker.

Ia the jade-stone market we meet with the Ohintse parallel to the western diamond. The best stones are very valuable, and are brought from Tarkiptan, tha only placs Jn the world where mines of this stone are worked. Every well-to-do Chinaman wear* a ring, brooch, or bracelet of jade, and the poor, who are unable to purchase the real article, wear ornaments of glass, which ara coloured ia imitation of the more sx^ pensive jade. Shaggy dogs with coalblack tongues are disposed of in another market. Fried rat and boiled frog, not to mention fricasseed puppy,' tempt the hungry into the native restaurant. The local " medicine man," adhering to the prescriptions of his ancestors', makes pills and potions of which the chief ingredients are wax, deers' horns, petijfied bones, petrified cmbß, SBake3, scales of the armadillo, tigers' boEes, and lime. When the medicines do not cure, they kill, aud whether the patient lives or du>s, ha does so knowing that at any rate no hated foreigner has had anything to do with the strength or quality of his medical diet.

Some elementary methods of measuring tima are to. be seen' in the Temple Tower. Candles that burn at uniform rates mark in lessening inches the flight of the hourp, and, intentionally or otherwise, symbolise in the dying of the flame the passage of human life. The re is also a water-clock, composed of four copper buckets. Slowly, drop by drop, the water passes from one to the other. In the lowest one a float carries a rod that indicates the time. When a full hour has passed away, the watchman places outside the tower a big white board, on which is painted in large black characters the time of day. Every 12 hours the water is transferred from the tower to the upper bucket, and once in three months a fresh supply is allowed.

The temples that are shown to the traveller are very numerous, but except in a few instances they are extremely uninteresting, and one pays to enter and to leave with a monotonous regularity that is not calculated to awaken or stimulate any excessive outburst of religious sentiment. There is the Temple of the Five Hundred Genii, where 500 images, of rude workmanship and ugly countenance, sit in -silent, solemn conclave round the sides of a large but dusty building. One of them, in European costume of ludicrous character, represents Marco Polo. In all his travels this ancient wanderer surely never reached so strange a resting place.

. . . The Temple of Horrors, unlike the celebrated Chamber of Horrora in a popular London resort;, may be visited by the nervous without any fear of subsequent nightmare. To the western eye the exhibition ia ludicrous ; to the western mind it is revolting. Round the sides of the principal courtyard are placed a series of carved and painted tableaux representing the terrible tortures inflicted upon the lost in the Buddhist hell. The models are so curiously made and placed that they call forth only smiles, though had

they been executed with any approach fo' realism a more revolting spectacle could scarcely have been conceived. In frojil; of the " horrors " sit fortune-tellers, gamblers* dentists, pastry-cooks, quacks, and pedlarsj who are all busily engaged in attending to> the worldly wants of the worshippers. Thai dealers in incense sticks and printed prayef papers are in great request. Those who ara fond of uninviting spectacles make their way to the execution ground. This is surrounded by shogs where pottery ia made. When not required for executions the ground is used for drying pottery. Unfortunately it is only too frequently occupied by the officers who administer the death penalty. Ten to twenty criminals often meet their fate at the same time. , The average number of executions is 300 each yea.r. In 1855 no less than 50,000 rebels were beheaded on this ground. The wooden crosses that lean against the walls are used in the execution of females and criminals of the worst kind. These offenders are first fastened to the crosses aSd then cut in pieces. If not so executed they are strangled.— From "Three Oriental Cities," by Ernest Young, in the Eureka Magazine. x