Chinese Procession in Melbourne.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 157, 19 June 1886, Page 4

Chinese Procession in Melbourne.

The following description of the Chinese procession, ■which was organised in Melbourne on Tuesda} 7 , in connection with the Women's Hospital Bazaar, is given by the " .Age :"— "The procecgion comprised between 400 and 500 member?, and was intended to represent a bodyguard of the Empernr, being composed of various grades of the Chinese official system in certain pro portions according to regulated scale. There were noblemen, great generate, mandarins of the red, blue and yellow button, bishops, priests, and deacons, bearing ugly-looking idols in grotesquely decorated palanquins, javelin men, and other soldiers, with murderous instruments like halberts, of a horribly complicated combined axe and pitchforlk construction. Then there were queer olive-coloured, almond eyed boys and girls, carrying lanternsand Mikado fans ; gorgeously armed horsemen, Mongolian musicians, comical Chinese jackanapes, who were poaturing as jesterg and exciting the risibility of the crowd, generally forming a fantastic olla podrida of barbwcally eplendid functionaries, creative of wonderment and interest to the mind, as well as affording a brilliant ocular spectacle. The costumes and accessories, which are valued at between £7,000 and £8,000, were of the richest description, being composed of the most beautiful bilks and satins in all the colours of the chromatic scale. Some of the flowing garments of the high dignitaries, and most of the pennants and banner?, were ornamented with peculiarly eccentric embroidery, displaying a wealth of gold, silver, and strange aitietic portraiture of natural and imaginative objects, There were the usual scraggy -necked eagles, with extended wings, balancing themselves on one leg, and performing other remarkable feats ; dragone, with wide open mouths, chasing ferocious-looking griffins, with the apparent object of biting off their tails ; and hungry looking fish, with staring eyes, engaged in round dance 3. In fact, the brilliant toeas worn by the mandarins of exalted rank included samples of Dearly all the peculiar creatures which are found in the archives of the Hsralds' College. 0