first moon, crowds repair to the different temples in their best attire, kindred and acquaintance meet, and visits are paid universally to offer the compliments of the season. A man on this day hardly knows his own domestics, so finely are they attired; and on all sides along the streets may be seen the bowings and half-kneelings, with the affected efforts to prevent them, which constitute a part of Chinese ceremonies of courtesy.

The large red tickets of congratulation which they send to each other on this occasion have a wood-cut, representing the three principal felicities in Chinese estimation, namely, male offspring, official employment, (or promotion,) and long life. These are indicated by the figures of a child, a mandarin, and an aged figure accompanied by a stork, the emblem of longevity. For the space of the three first days it would be reckoned unlucky, if not criminal, to perform any work beyond what is required by the daily exigencies of life, and many defer their occupations for about twenty days. At every house the visitor is received with ready cups of tea, and with the betel, as used in India and the Eastern islands. That nothing may interrupt the general festivity, the termination of the previous year is occupied in settling all outstanding money-accounts, and the discredit is so great of not being able to pay up at that period, that many will borrow, at a ruinous rate, of Peter, in order to satisfy the demands of Paul. It being the custom to kill great numbers of capons previous to the new year, an unhappy debtor, who cannot arrange with his creditors at that period, is said, in derision, to have "a capon's destiny."

The new year is the principal period for exchanging presents among friends. These commonly consist of delicacies, as rare fruits, sweetmeats, fine tea, and occasionally of silk stuffs for dresses, and ornaments of various kinds. These are accompanied by a list inscribed on a red ticket, which it is customary to return by the bearer, with this inscription, "received with thanks." The compliment is immediately to be returned by presents of the same kind, and in the same manner, the servants who convey them always receiving a reward. It is an unpardonable insult to send

back a batch of these new-year's gifts, though, if they are deemed too liberal, a selection may be made, and the rest returned, with this note beside them on the ticket, "The pearls are declined." The better kinds of fruits, tea, and other articles used on these occasions are for the same reason styled "ceremonial, or present goods."

The

The first full moon of the new year is the Feast of Lanterns, being a display of ingenuity and taste in the construction and mechanism of an infinite variety of lanterns made of silk, varnish, horn, paper, and glass, some of them supplied with moving figures of men galloping on horseback, fighting, or performing various feats, together with numerous representations of beasts, birds, and other living creatures, the whole in full motion. moving principle in these is the same with that of the smoke jack, being a horizontal wheel turned by the draft of air created by the heat of the lamp. The circular motion is communicated in various directions by fine threads attached to the moving figures. The general effect is extremely good; though, as objects of real use, the Chinese lamps labour under the disadvantage of giving but a poor light, which arises in part from the opacity of the materials, and the superfluity of ornament, but principally from the badness of the lamp itself, which is simply a cotton wick immersed in a cup of oil; and they have no way of increasing the light except by adding to the number of wicks. They seem to admire our Argand lamps, but seldom them, except in compliment to European guests: and, even when received as presents, they may frequently be seen laid by in a dusty corner.

use

The fireworks of the Chinese are sometimes ingenious and entertaining, rather, however, on account of the variety of moving figures which they exhibit, than the brilliancy or skill of the pyrotechny, which is inferior to our own. Their best thing of the kind is what Europeans call a drum, from its being a cylindrical case, in which is contained a multitude of figures folded into a small space, and so contrived as to drop in succession on strings, and remain suspended in motion, during the explosion of the various fireworks contained within the cylinder. They like

wise contrive to make paper figures of boats to float and move upon the water, by means of a stream of fire issuing from the stern. Their rockets are bad, but blue lights they manufacture sufficiently well for the use of European ships.

In their diversions, the Chinese have much of that childish character which distinguishes other Asiatics. Science, as an amusement, may be said to be entirely wanting to them, and the intellect cannot be unbended from the pursuits of business by the rational conversation or occupations which distinguish the superior portions of European society. The mind under a despotism has few of those calls for exertion, among the bulk of the people, which in free states give it manly strength and vigour. Bearing no part in public transactions, and living in uninterrupted peace, the uniform insipidity of their existence is relieved by any, even the most frivolous and puerile, amusements. This feature, as well as the very striking contrariety of Chinese customs, in comparison with our own, are given with sufficient correctness in the following passages from a little work printed at Macao, which are inserted here, divested of some of the buffoonery of the original:

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On inquiring of the boatman in which

direction Macao lay, I was answered, in the west-north, the wind, as I was informed, being east-south. We do not say so in Europe, thought I; but imagine my surprise when, in explaining the utility of the compass, the boatman added, that the needle pointed to the south! Desirous to change the subject, I remarked that I concluded he was about to proceed to some high festival, or merry-making, as his dress was completely white. He told me, with a look of much dejection, that his only brother had died the week before, and that he was in the deepest mourning for him. On my landing, the first object that attracted my attention was a military mandarin, who wore an embroidered petticoat, with a string of beads round his neck, and who besides carried a fan; and it was with some dismay I observed him mount on the right side of his horse. I was surrounded by natives, all of whom had the hair shaven from the fore part of the head, while a portion of them permitted it to grow on their faces. On my way to the house prepared for my reception, I saw two Chinese boys discussing with much earnestness who should be the possessor of an orange. They debated the point with a vast variety of gesture, and at length, without venturing to fight about it, sat down and divided the orange

equally between them...... At that moment my attention was drawn by several old Chinese, some of whom had grey beards, and nearly all of them huge goggling spectacles. A few were chirruping and chuckling to singing-birds, which they carried in bamboo cages, or perched on a stick: others were catching flies to feed the birds: the remainder of the party seemed to be delightedly employed in flying paper kites, while a group of boys were gravely looking on, and regarding these innocent occupations of their seniors with the most serious and gratified attention. . . I was resolute in my determination to persevere, and the next morning found me provided with a Chinese master, who happily understood English. I was fully prepared to be told that I was about to study a language without an alphabet, but was somewhat astonished, on his opening the Chinese volume, to find him begin at what I had all my life previously considered the end of the book. He read the date of the publication- The fifth year, tenth month, twenty-third day.'"We arrange our dates differently,' I observed; and begged that he would speak of their ceremonials. He commenced by saying, "When you receive a distinguished guest, do not fail to place him on your left hand, for that is the seat of honour; and be cautious not to uncover the head, as it would be an unbecoming act of familiarity.'

Hardly prepared for this blow to my established notions, I requested he would discourse of their philosophy. He re-opened the volume, and read with becoming gravity, 'The most learned men are decidedly of opinion that the seat of the human understanding is the stomach.' I seized the volume in despair, and rushed from the apartment."

A festival much honoured by the Chinese, and indicative of their ancient regard for agriculture, is that which takes place when the sun reaches the 15o of Aquarius. The Governor of every capital city issues in state towards the eastern gate, to "meet the spring," which is represented by a procession bearing a huge clay figure of the buffalo, called by the Chinese "water bullock," (from its propensity for muddy shallows,) which is always

1 They place it in the heart.

used to drag their ploughs through the flooded rice-grounds. The train is attended by litters, on which are borne children fancifully dressed, and decorated with flowers, representing mythological personages; and the whole is accompanied by a band of musicians. When they have reached the Governor's house, he delivers a discourse in his capacity of Priest of Spring, recommending the care of husbandry; and, after he has struck the clay buffalo thrice with a whip, the people fall upon it with stones, and break in pieces the image, whose hollow inside is filled with a multitude of smaller images in clay, for which they scramble. This ceremony bears some resemblance to the procession of the bull Apis in ancient Egypt, which was connected in like manner with the labours of agriculture, and the hopes of an abundant

season.

The Emperor himself, at about the same period of the year, honours the profession of husbandry by going through the ceremony of holding the plough. Accompanied by some Princes of the blood, and a selection of the principal ministers, he proceeds to a field set apart for the purpose, in the enclosure which surrounds the Temple of the Earth, where everything has been duly prepared by regular husbandmen in attendance. After certain sacrifices, consisting of grain which has been preserved from the produce of the same field, the Emperor ploughs a few furrows, after which he is followed by the Princes and ministers in order. The "five sorts of grain" are then sown, and, when the Emperor has viewed the completion of the work by the husbandmen present, the field is committed to the charge of an officer, whose business it is to collect and store the produce for sacrifices.

The same countenance and example which the Emperor affords in person to the production of the principal materials of food, is given by the Empress to the cultivation of the mulberry and the rearing of silkworms, the sources whence they derive their chief substance for clothing, and the care of which for the most part comes under the female department. In the ninth moon, the Empress proceeds with her principal ladies to sacrifice at the altar of the inventor of the silk manufacture; and when that ceremony is con

cluded, they collect a quantity of the mulberry-leaves, which are devoted to the nourishment of the imperial depôt of silkworms. Various other processes connected with the same business are gone through, as heating the cocoons in water, winding off the filament, &c.; and so the ceremony concludes. Of the sixteen "Sacred edicts" addressed to the people, the fourth relates exclusively to the two foregoing subjects." Attend (it is said) to your farms and mulberry-trees, that you may have sufficient food and clothing;" and they are reminded that, although only four of the provinces (all of them cut by the 30th parallel of latitude) produce silk in perfection, yet there are the equally useful materials, elsewhere, of hemp and cotton. "Thus different are the sources whence clothing is procured; but the duty of perparing it, as exemplified in the cultivation of the mulberry-tree, is one and the same." One of the Emperors of the present dynasty caused a work to be published expressly in illustration of the two great departments of native industry. It is styled Keng-che Too, "Illustrations of Husbandry and Weaving," and consists of numerous wood-cuts, representing the various processes in the production of rice and silk, with letter-press descriptions. The great preference which the rulers of China give to such kinds of industry over the pursuits of commerce, but especially

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foreign commerce, would seem to be dictated by a sentiment analogous to that which is conveyed in four of Goldsmith's lines:"That trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay, As ocean sweeps the labour'd mole away; While self-dependent states can time defy, As rocks resist the billows and the sky.' The principal public festivals of China that remain to be noticed are not numerous. fifth day of the fifth moon, which usually occurs in June, is celebrated in a way which cannot fail to excite the attention of a visitor to Canton. Very long, narrow boats, built for the purpose, are manned by forty to sixty, and sometimes eighty men with paddles, who keep time to the beat of a gong, with which one of the crew stands up in the boat. These race against each other on the rivers with great heat and emulation, and accidents frequently occur from the upsetting or breaking of the " dragon-boats," as they are called from their great length. This constitutes one of the few athletic diversions of the Chinese.

On the first day of the seventh moon, or some time in the month of August, they have a festival for the benefit of their departed relatives in the world of spirits. It is not a domestic, celebration, however, but a public one: large mat houses are erected, ornamented with lanterns and chandeliers, in which are placed images of the infernal deities, including Yen Wang, the Chinese Pluto. Priests of the