CHAPTER V.

A TRIP INLAND.

Leave Shanghae for a Trip up the Canals-Our Boat-Swimming-Banks of the CanalMilitary Stations-Temples-Graves-Villages-Dress of Chinese-Town of Kwunsan-Grain Junks-Comparison of Chinese and American Governments-This part of China once Submerged-Cormorants-Approach to Soo-Chow-The City-"Foreign Devils"-Grand Canal-Heat-Hills near Soo-Chow-View of Ty-hao-Mandarin's Tomb-Tyhao-Chinese River Thieves-Their Honesty.

HAVING spent about two weeks, as above described, in the foreign settlement of Shanghae, I became anxious to see a little more of the country, than I had had the opportunity of observing in the walks and sails which we occasionally took in the afternoon. It fortunately happened that an English gentleman, whose acquaintance I had formed in Shanghae was about to go up the canals, for a ten-day excursion in his boat, and he kindly invited me to bear him company.

We started on the afternoon of the eleventh of July, and proceeded up the canal until about ten o'clock, when we anchored, and all hands turned in except one man, left awake to guard against robbers. Our boat was a regular Chinese junkshaped craft, square in the bow and stern. Her mast could be lowered when not required, and she sailed remarkably well before the wind, under her one sail of mats; but on the wind, her flat bottom prevented her from doing much. When there was no wind, we put two or three men ashore, and let them tow us by a rope made fast to the mast head. The man who remained on board assisted by sculling with one of those long, heavy, permanent sculls, with which all Chinese canal boats are furnished, and which act at once to propel and to steer the vessel. Our boat's crew consisted of three or four sailors and a mate, who also acted as cook and servant. The length of the boat was about twenty-five feet. Of this, about twelve

feet in the waist was occupied by the cabin, which was what is termed half-poop, with windows in the sides. Low lockers which held wine, beer, &c., ran on each side the whole length of the apartment, and served as settees by day and couches by night. The remaining space was occupied by the table. There was, altogether, much more room than one had a right to expect on a boat of the size, and we had in her a most agreeable home during the trip. Of course we had to take wine, beer, coffee, bacon, butter, sugar, and such delicacies with us; but we found, wherever we went, an ample supply of eggs, fowls, fish, and a few other substantials.

On waking on the morning of the second day, we found ourselves, in a flat, but very pretty country, with numerous large trees, and a village on the side of the canal a little way ahead. We at once jumped into the canal, which was tolerably clean, and swam on ahead of the boat, which had been towing slowly since day broke. As we swam past the village before mentioned, the inhabitants espied us, and rushed down in a crowd to the water's edge. They were surprised by three things-first, by the sight of our white, and in their eyes, leprous-looking skins, since outside barbarians rarely go up this canal, and still more rarely expose their heads as we were doing, to the full force of the sun's rays; Secondly, by the fact of our swimming at all, as the inland Chinese are rarely adepts in the natatory art; Thirdly, and this would be the most marvellous feature of the case in a Chinaman's eyes, that we should voluntarily make the exertion to swim, when we could go so much more easily, in our boat. Having astonished the innocent natives, by swimming on our backs, treading water, turning summersaults, and other equally undignified performances, we terminated the exhibition with the fearful hurrah, which is so peculiar a characteristic of the foreign white-skinned and red-haired devil, and soon afterwards reëntered our boat for breakfast.

The banks of the canals in China, are mostly so high, that, from a boat like ours, the fields on each side are quite invisible the view from our cabin windows being generally remarkably similar to that which regales the eyes of railway

travellers, when passing through deep cuttings. We used, however, for some hours each day, to go ashore, and walk on the towing path, from which we could see the canal and country round. The features of the country during the first day were remarkably tame, but the large number of boats on the canal, and foot passengers on the tow-path, relieved the monotony. The levée is raised on each side several feet above the general level of the land, and is commonly about two hundred feet broad. It is not cultivated, but covered with graves. Beyond were cultivated fields, generally of rice, and carefully irrigated by water raised from the canal, and conducted in channels, continually subdividing to every inch of soil that required watering. Every quarter of a mile at least, the levée was interrupted to give passage to the waters of a tributary canal; some large and intended for traffic, some small and used only for irrigating purposes. At such points the tow-path is continued by a stone bridge, passing over the subordinate canal; but these bridges, like most other public works which I saw in China, seemed to be generally in bad repair. We also passed frequently, military stations-wooden houses about thirty feet square, and generally out of order and deserted, either from the troops having been called up country to oppose the rebels, or from the military mandarin's finding it profitable to draw the money for their support from the imperial treasury, without going to the expense of keeping them up. Joss-houses, as foreigners call the Boodhist temples, were also of frequent occurrence on the levées, but no care seemed to be taken of them, and, in many instances, they were used either as workshops, or as storehouses for grain or agricultural implements. Their shape and internal arrangements were the same as I have before described, when speaking of similar buildings in Shanghae.

The graves which I have before said cover the levées, seem here to merit a description. When a Chinese dies, his body, protected from offensive decomposition by quick-lime and similar substances, is encased in numerous coffins, the outer one being as magnificent a specimen of the joiner's art as the relatives can afford. Thus encased, the corpse is either kept

in the house, or deposited in the open air with a slight arched covering of bamboo and mats. At the end of a year, if the family can bear the expense, the coffin is covered in with stone or stuccoed brick work, or is sometimes buried in the earth, a headstone being erected to mark the spot. The headstone is generally of the shape usual in our cemeteries, or else is a mere square pillar of unhewn granite, with the name roughly carved upon it. In many instances, however, the people are too poor to erect a tomb, however simple, and the coffin with its contents is then allowed to go to decay, the body being generally devoured by rats. When this consummation is complete, the dutiful survivors collect whatever bones and other remnants of mortality can be discovered, and enclosing them in a small earthen vessel, protect them by some permanent covering. These cinerary urns are known among foreigners by the irreverent name of "potted ancestors." The Chinese, like the Hindoos, attach an exaggerated importance to funeral honours, though they do not, like the latter, believe them to have any bearing on their future happiness. M. Huc says, what I understood to be strictly true, that a Chinaman when sick unto death, will often deny himself the expensive luxuries of a physician and medicines, preferring to reserve the money to buy a coffin, and pay for the post-mortem indulgence of a stone tomb.

It often struck me as singular, that so thoroughly utilitarian a people as the Flowery Nation, who are so loath to allow the least waste of any thing that can be turned to account, and tax so unremittingly the productive energies of every inch of soil, should be willing to give up so much good ground to the dead who are of no use to any one; but I suppose that there are none of us poor mortals without our little inconsistencies, and that a contempt for this mortal coil, such as was for many years witnessed in the condition of Washington's last resting place, can only come with a very high degree of civilization.

Every mile or so, along the line of the canal, we passed villages or hamlets, either commercial or agricultural. In the former case, the houses were built in a long row on each bank; in the latter,

they were commonly situated a little way back in the country, and frequently sheltered and adorned by fine large trees. The Chinese peasant is generally a free-holder, and allows the shades of no tree to interfere with the patch of ground which bas come down to him, diminished in size by continued testa. mentary subdivision. For this same reason the cultivators live in villages, choosing for their location, a comparatively unproductive spot, and being thus enabled doubly to economize ground, and moreover to enjoy the shade of trees. On the banks of the canal which is nearest a village, there are always several irrigating machines, which raise the water to the level of the embankment, from which it flows in channels to every part of the land owned by the villagers. These machines consist of an endless chain, travelling round a wheel below the level of the water in the canal, and moved by a light windlass on the bank, being the same in principal as the Yankee “chain pump." The ascending part of the chain, passes through a water-tight tube, up which it carries the water, forced into the tube and retained there by projections from the chain like the box of a steam-piston. The windlass is generally near the ground, and moved by the feet like a treadmill. Each machine requires one or two men or women to work it, and a slight shed protects the workmen from the sun. The country people seem a hard-working, economical, but light-hearted and cheerful people. Their houses, in the villages, however small, are generally of stone and thatched, and appear comfortable, while · the universal order and neatness which everywhere meet the eye, show that however contracted may be their means, there is.not among them the same wretchedness as there is among the ryuts of India, or the lowest classes in Europe. The dress of those natives, whom we saw working in the fields, consisted of a very broad but short species of trowsers for both sexes, the upper part of the body being covered by a jacket reaching to the middle, but rather longer in the case of women. This is the dress of the lower classes throughout China, in whatever occupation engaged. The material is generally coarse cotton, frequently dyed black. The head is protected during labouring hours in the open fields, by a hat of basket-work, resting