marble tops, and marble-seated chairs, placed around the sides. of the room, and the walls were entirely bare. At one end of the room was a divan, covered with matting, and furnished with two small hard Chinese pillows and a little lamp. The divan was for opium smoking, and the arrangement was precisely that of the similar divans which exist in every shop in Canton. After partaking of some delightful tea, I was asked to try a pipe of opium, an offer which I was glad to accept, as I wished to make a trial of the fascinations of this drug. I shall first describe the Chinese manner of making tea, and then the opium smoking.

The tea is put into a shallow cup, and boiling water poured on. The saucer, which is not nearly so broad as ours, but deeper, is then put as a cover over the cup, and the tea is allowed to "draw." When the decoction is strong enough, the cup is raised to the lips and the saucer slightly tilted on the edge, so as to retain the tea leaves, but allow the pure tea to pass into the mouth. Sometimes the tea is made in a pot, but what I have described is considered the best plan. In no case, however, is the pot, or cup, ever filled the second time with water, and a Chinese would shudder at the idea of letting the tea "simmer" on the fire.

Opium is not generally indulged in by a man alone. The effect of the drug is to excite the imagination and spirits to such an extent, that a companion is a sort of necessity to perfect enjoyment. The two companions who propose to indulge in a pipe, recline on a divan, supporting the body on the elbow, and resting the legs on a stool. Between them is a lamp, and two little pots of a decoction of opium, as thick as molasses. The opium pipe is generally made of some reed, and is a hollow tube about eighteen inches long with a bore of an inch or more. At one end is an ivory mouth-piece, and the other end is closed. Two thirds of the way down it, is a hole in which fits a hollow earthen bulb, with an interior capacity of about a cubic inch. There is a small aperture of the size of a pin's head in the top of this bulb. The opium smoker, thus reclining, and turned toward his companion, dips a steel instrument, like a square knitting-needle in

the solution of opium. A drop adheres to the needle, and is then held in the flame of the lamp, where it effervesces and shrinks into a pasty coating. The needle is then again dipped into the opium, and the process repeated until a small pill is formed on the end of the needle, which is then passed through the little hole on the earthen bulb, and withdrawn with a twist, leaving the pill on the surface of the bulb, over the aperture. The pill is now held in the flame of the lamp, the smoker at the same time inhaling the fumes, which pass into the bulb, and thence into the body of the pipe and the lungs. Each opium pill will furnish three or four full inspirations, and the smoke is retained in the lungs as long as possible. The preparation of the pill takes three or four minutes, and the smoking not more than one or two. It is said that an habitual smoker finds the quantity of opium necessary to intoxicate him, continually increasing up to a certain point; after which the necessary amount becomes less and less until, in some cases, where the system has become very much debilitated by continual indulgence in this habit, a single pipe will produce full intoxication. A European, too, is much less easily affected than a Chinese. I smoked on this occasion, five or six pipes, which did not produce the least mental effect; they entirely removed, however, the great fatigue and exhaustion which I had felt from my long walk in the sun. From what I heard in China, I should imagine that opium smoking does not produce those universally deleterious effects which are commonly attributed to it here and in Europe. Like alcoholic beverages, or any other stimulant, it is very susceptible of abuse; but I should fancy that the victims of over-indulgence in this drug, are not relatively more numerous than drunkards are among those nations where habitual stimulants are of an alcoholic nature. The opium is all smuggled into the country by foreigners, who keep three or four opium store-ships at a place called Cum-Sing-Moon, on a branch of the Canton River, which leads to Macao. When the drug has been once introduced into the Empire, it is conveyed throughout the country with the knowledge of the officials, to whom it pays black mail at at every customs' station.

A class of very fast boats is employed to run the drug from the store ships to Canton. These boats are numerously manned by desperate fellows to whom high pay is given. Their great speed generally enables them to avoid the imperial revenue boats and the pirates, but they are sometimes overtaken and fearful fights and loss of life are the result.

We passed about half an hour at Mingqua's after the conclusion of the religious ceremony. My friend conversing in Chinese with our entertainer. In the course of conversation, he happened to remark that he was a Master of Arts, and I, a Bachelor, upon hearing which the whole company arose, and made us a respectful salutation. It is well known that the Chinese have similar academic degrees, which are conferred on all who can pass the government examinations. The graduates form the body from which mandarins are chosen, and are looked upon in China with great respect.

On our way back to the factories we stopped at a temple which contained, in a vast chamber, over a hundred idols, about four feet high, made of stone and gilded. They were arranged on a shelf along the wall, and no two of them had the same dress or expression.

After leaving the temple of a hundred gods we passed through what is known as the beggars' square, where those mendicants who become too old or infirm to exercise their profession, are taken by their friends to die. They are generally laid on a piece of matting, and protected from the sun by a temporary shelter. They perish of starvation, if not by disease. There were three or four wretched beings there, when I visited the square. They seemed more than half dead, and one man, to whom I threw a quarter of a dollar, did not pick it up.

We stopped, before reaching home, at another private house, the general arrangement of which was like that of Mingqua's establishment. The family, however, had, in this case, gone into the country, and we were shewn all over the house by the children's tutor, a skinny old graduate, with immense horn spectacles. The rooms were all small, bare and cheerless; the only exceptions being the women's quarters,

which were smaller, barer, and more cheerless. One or two apartments had been arranged as a kind of green-house, with artificial rocks, stunted trees, growing bushes trained to form bird-cages for canaries, and others of those distortions of nature in which the Chinese take so much pleasure.

I made one or two other excursions among the suburbs of Canton, with Mr. Gray, who was well acquainted with all that there was to see, and very kindly acted as pilot.

On one occasion, we went into a Chinese eating-house, a dirty, noisy hole, but we were very hungry and thirsty, and ventured on a pomegranate and some tea. The establishment was crowded with guests, who removed their shirts for greater coolness, as the Chinese do in the house. We found the smell of the Chinese dishes, which are cooked with rancid oil, by no means appetising. Of course this afforded a splendid opportunity for witnessing the practical management of chopsticks. The method of using these puzzling substitutes for knives and forks is, after all, very simple, but can hardly be described in writing. Both sticks are held by one hand, and the dextrous Chinaman rapidly picks out, by their means, the choice morsels of meat which are brought to him already cut up, and mostly made into ragouts. When dining with a friend, if disposed to be very polite, he will, with his own sticks, extract a choice morsel from the dish, and place it in the mouth of his companion.

Besides this large chow-chow (eating) house, we went into several smaller establishments, where the usual bill of fare was increased by the addition of rat-grills and dog-stew. In the back division of one of these latter restaurants I saw a dozen or two puppies in little coops, being fattened for the table.

I visited several public opium shops. They were mostly dirty rooms up-stairs, very dirty, and the resort of the lower classes only. The higher classes prefer to enjoy this luxury, in a room set apart for the purpose, in their own houses. The atmosphere of these places was foul and heavy with opium smoke. It is a strange peculiarity of opium that its taste and smell are disagreeable to all, and the smell of its

smoke particularly offensive, and yet the taste of the latter is delightful, and no harsher to the delicate air-passages of the lungs than the purest air. These public opium-shops have a room up-stairs, whither their customers are conveyed when dead-drunk, and left to lie, closely packed on the floor, until they have slept off the effects of the drug.

I went one day with Mr. Gray to visit the Gardens of Howqua, situated a few miles up the river. We went in a large boat. The river off Canton is completely filled with craft of all sorts, leaving only a very narrow passage. In this channel the tide very often runs with prodigious force, and, as collisions often take place, it frequently happens that a small boat goes to pieces. I have several times seen such accidents, the boat breaking completely up, and the passengers floating in the water. Dozens of boats would at once put off from the shore, and pick up every stick of the boat, but it rarely happened that they attempted to save life, until they had got all they could of the wreck. It is really incredible how little attention is paid in these countries to human life. I have seen several people drowned from such accidents as I have described above, and I have heard a ship-captain say, that he had seen a boat row by a drowning man, within an oar's length, without stopping to render him assistance.

Most persons know that there is an immense population living in boats, moored off the city of Canton. These boats are not often more than twenty feet long, and generally about six feet wide. They are entirely covered by a house, in which the whole family sleep and live, taking their meals on the little deck at the bow of the boat. At the stern of these, as of all Chinese boats, there is an idol, which is propitiated by burning joss-sticks. The Chinese boats which were used by foreigners for going off to the shipping, or down the river, were usually of larger size, and propelled by oars. A woman was generally the commander, and worked the large scull at the stern. It was in one of these latter boats that we went up the river to Howqua's Garden. On the way, we passed several flat, unsheltered scows, floating in the stream, and containing lepers. These miserable beings are, in this coun