has a separate table, and 24 dishes in succession. No knives are used, but two small pointed sticks, which the rich ornament with ivory. The entertainment ends with tea, after which, and a short interval of amusement in another room or a garden, there is a desert of sweetmeats and fruits.

681. Food and Wine. The Chinese eat rice in the southern provinces, but wheat in the northern. The affluent eat flesh of various kinds, and fish. They drink tea, but prefer bohea or souchong, and never use the green teas. A weak tea made in the morning is the common drink for the day, as cider and beer are with us. To save fuel, which is scarce and purchased by weight, the vessels in which water is heated are made as thin almost as paper. The wines of China are made of rice, which is steeped 20 or 30 days in water, in which other ingredients are thrown. The water is then boiled, and a fermentation takes place, which throws up a scum, under which is a very pure liquor, which is put into glazed vessels. From the remaining lees is distilled a spirit of an excellent quality.

682. Festivals. Several public festivals are annually celebrated in China. Among others is that in which the emperor sets an example of tilling the ground, to encourage the first and principal employment of men. The same day is celebrated by the governors of the provinces. In the morning, the governor of every city proceeds from his palace, with 'a numerous retinue, and crowned with flowers. His chair is surrounded with litters covered with silk carpets, the streets are hung with carpets, triumphal arches are erected at certain distances, lanterns are displayed, and the houses illuminated. The figure of a cow, made of baked earth, with gilt horns, is carried in procession, followed by laborers with imple ments of husbandry, and a child with one foot shod, the other bare, representing labor and diligence. The pro cession is closed by comedians and people in masks. The governor proceeds to the eastern gate, and returns ; the cow is broke in pieces, and with her many earthen calves, distributed to the people, and the ceremony con⭑ cludes with an oration in praise of agriculture.

683. Magnificence of the Viceroys. When a viceroy quits his palace, he is attended with a train in robes of ceremony, carried in a chair elegantly gilt, borne upon the shoulders of eight domestics, and preceded by guards, with two drummers beating copper basons to give notice of his approach. Eight other attendants carry standards of wood varnished, on which are inscribed his titles of honor. After these come 14 flags, with the figures of a dragon, a phenix, a tiger, &c. symbols of his office. Six officers follow, with an instrument like a shovel, on which are inscribed the qualities of the mandarin himself; two others bear a large umbrella of yellow silk, and its cover. The guards are preceded by two archers on horseback, followed by others with hooks fixed to long poles, ornamented with four tufts of silk. To these succeed files of soldiers armed with weapons of various kinds. The march of the emperor is still more pompous, and his procession closes with 4000 mandarins in train.

684. Tombs. The tombs of the Chinese are at a distance from a city or town, and usually surrounded by pines or cypresses. The coffins of the poor are placed

under a shade, and covered with thatch, or inclosed in a small building. The tombs of the rich are in shape like a horse-shoe, whitened and finished with great taste. Those of mandarins are still more magnificent. A vault is constructed, over which is raised a pyramid of earth about 12 feet high, on which is laid a durable plaster. In front is placed a large long table of white marble, on which is a censer with two vases and two candlesticks of exquisit workmanship. Around the whole are arranged figures of officers, soldiers, saddled horses, camels, lions, and other animals, which produce a striking effect. It is a sacred duty of the descendants and relations of the deceased to visit his tomb once or twice in a year. At this time they pluck the weeds and bushes from around the tomb, and renew their expressions of grief.

685. Funeral Ceremonies. In a few moments after a person dies, his body is dressed in his richest attire, adorned with the badges of his dignity, and placed in a coffin. The Chinese have a great passion for sumptuous

coffins, insomuch that the rich will expend a thousand crowns for one; the poor will give all they are worth, nay, the son will sell himself to buy a coffin for his father. Sometimes a valuable coffin is purchased twenty. years before it is wanted, in which case it stands in the house as a piece of choice furniture. Before a corpse

is laid in a coffin, some lime is sprinkled upon the bottom, and the head is laid on a pillow, to which is added a quantity of cotton to keep it steady. In this state the body remains from 3 to 7 days, exposed to the view of friends in the hall of ceremony, which is hung with white, interspersed with pieces of black or violet colored silk. The visiters, when they enter the hall, salute the deceased, and prostrate themselves; the salute is returned by the sons, who come from behind a curtain, where also are females concealed, who occasionally utter plaintive cries. The procession to the grave is composed of men carrying pasteboard figures of slaves, lions, tigers, and the like, or carrying standards with flags, or censers filled with perfumes. The coffin is covered with a canopy, and preceded by musicians. When the coffin is deposited, the attendants are sumptuously entertained; and if the deceased was a grandee, some of his relations remain at the tomb a month or two, in suitable apartments, and every day renew their lamentations.

686. Language. The Chinese language is very ancient and singular. It does not, like other languages, consist of words composed of letters, but of certain sounds represented by characters. The primary or radical words are a few hundreds only, but the sound of each is varied, by peculiar accents or modulations, to express different ideas, and the characters to represent them are multiplied to at least 80,000. The learning of this language is, therefore, a work of immense labor and difficulty. Thus the word tchu, pronounced with a clear tone of voice, signifies master or lord; pronounced in a uniform tone by lengthening u, it signifies hog; pronounced with a light rapid tone, it signifies kitchen ; and with a strong voice depressed at the close, it signifies a pillar.

The Chinese words are all monosyllables, and

what is remarkable, the names are changed to express accidental or slight circumstances. Thus a cow has a new name every time she has a calf, and an ox fed for sacrifice has a different name when he is led to the altar.

687. Paper and Ink, The Chinese primitively wrote with a style upon pieces of bamboo. As an improvement, they introduced the use of cloth and silk stuffs, which are still used to write the praises of the dead on. The present kind of paper first began to be known about 100 years before the christian era. Many substances are now used for paper, as the bamboo, the reed, the cotton shrub, the bark of certain plants, hemp, wheat and rice straw, and other materials. Their paper is very fine, soft and smooth, but subject to injury by moisture and worms. It is often made in sheets of 30 and 40 feet long. The Chinese ink is very durable, or rather indelible, but the manner of making it is a secret. Insted of pens made of quills, the Chinese use pencils made of rabbit's fur, and very soft.

688. Manner of Printing Printing in China is an ancient art, but very different from ours. Insted of movable types, which, with their number of characters, would be inconvenient, the characters for a particular work are all engraved upon blocks of wood, and every page has a separate block. The manner of doing this is, to take a leaf of the manuscript, lay it on the wood, and trace the characters on the wood with a graver, then carve out the characters in relief. This renders printing a slow process, but it has the advantage of perfect correctness. No press is used in printing, as the paper will not bear the pressure, but the paper is laid on the blocks, and pressed slightly with a brush. A gazett is printed daily at the capital, under the orders of the em peror, who suffers no falsehood or idle conjectures to be circulated, to injure private characters, or disturb gov

ernment.

689. Music.

Music also is an ancient art in China, but is not as accurately understood as in Europe. The Chinese have a few characters to represent the principal sounds, but not to express the more minute divisions and

modulations of sounds. The instruments of music are made of skins, baked earth, silk, wood, the bamboo, or gourds. The drum was formerly made of baked earth, covered at the ends with a skin, but wood is now used.. Most of the musical instruments are in shape likę a barrel, but some are cylindrical. The Chinese have also a species of stone, which is cut in different shapes, to render it musical. Bells, made of copper and tin, are also used in China, and some of them are of prodigious size.

690. Education. In China the education of youth is enjoined with great strictness, and numerous schools are provided to teach them the most useful arts and branches of knowledge. Children are taught reading, writing, numbers, music, and especially morality. The first books put into their hands consists of short moral precepts in rhyme; then a treatise containing the doctrins of Confucius, the characters of which they must learn by heart, at the same time they are learning to form them with a pencil. The children of the poor are instructed in the occupation of their parents. The females are taught to be modest, silent and reserved. Great care is taken to prevent the corruption of morals, and all books and paintings of an immoral tendency are prohibited under severe penalties.

691. Chief Towns. Pekin. The metropolis of China and the residence of the emperor is Pekin, in the 40th degree of north latitude, and about 50 miles from the great wall. Its inhabitants are estimated, by different authors, at two and three millions. The walls are high, and 12 horsemen may ride abreast upon them. The streets are wide, strait, and thronged with passengers and carriages of various kinds, not to mention crowds of people who are collected about jugglers and ballad singers; but no females appear in the streets. Soldiers patrole the streets with a sword and whip to chastise disturbers of the peace. The houses are of one story, but the shops are well filled with wares, and delight the eye by their neatness. The imperial palace, consisting of a variety of elegant edifices, spread over a great extent of

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