Peeps Into China Part 13

[Ill.u.s.tration: AN OFFICIAL'S PALANQUIN.]

"Father says when an official calls upon another official in Peking, his servant sends in his visiting card. The official who is being called upon then sends out to know how his visitor is dressed, and if he hears that it is in full costume, he dresses himself in the same way, and then goes to the entrance of the house, and asks his visitor to get out of his carriage or chair, and come in. As they pa.s.s through a door of the gate, the gentleman, to whom the house belongs asks the visitor to go first, but he always says 'No' until he has been asked three times, and then he walks first to the reception-hall, when the two stop again, and ask one another to go first. When they have come into the hall, father says, they kneel down, and knock their heads on the ground six times. This is performing the kow-tow. When they get up from this performance, the host arranges a chair for the other, and asks him to sit down, but he must not do this even till he has bowed again. I am sure I should forget when I had to make all these bows, and should be sure to do them at the wrong times.

"After they have had a little talk, a servant is told to make some tea. I suppose the host would then say 'Yam-cha' to the other, for this means 'Drink tea.' Before either gentleman drinks, both bow again, and soon afterwards the visitor gets up, and says, 'I want to take my leave.' They walk together to the grand entrance, but at every door-way the visitor has to bow, and ask his friend not to come any farther, although of course he must go, or it would not be polite. And then he stands at the entrance door till the carriage has driven off. The Chinese do bow so often, and little children have to do it too.

"The consul told Leonard that when school-boys go to see their masters, they have to arrange the chair-cus.h.i.+ons for their masters and themselves.

The boy has to stand outside the visitor's hall till his master comes, and when he has been asked to go in, he gives him for a present a tael of silver, about 2s. 8d., which he holds up with both his hands. Then he looks towards the north, kneels, and knocks his head twice upon the ground, when the master bows. The boy asks how his teacher's parents are, who also asks after the boy's. He then invites his little guest to sit down; but every time the boy is asked a question by his teacher he has to stand up to answer it.

When he leaves, he goes to the entrance door by himself. At school, the boys have to make a bow to the schoolmaster whenever they go in and out of the room.

"You asked me in your letter if people have very many servants in China. Some have a very great number. Ordinary Chinese gentlemen might have a porter, two or three footmen, coolies for house-work, sedan-chair bearers, and a cook. Women servants are often bought by their masters. A rich man will have sometimes twenty or thirty slaves.

People called 'go-betweens' generally buy them for the masters. We have very few servants of our own now, as we are on a visit. Mother's maid shows dear little Chu what to do. Female slaves attend upon the ladies and children, and we have often seen them carrying their mistresses with small feet. It does look so funny. In good families, father says, they are very well treated, but some maid-of-all-work slaves often run away because they are so unhappy.

"Children are sometimes stolen to be slaves.

Great-grandsons of slaves can buy their freedom. I am so glad I have my little Chu, because she cannot be bought or sold now: father made that agreement. I should not know nearly so much about the servants and slaves if I had not wanted to know what might have become of little Chu if we had not had her. Sometimes servants stand in the streets to be hired.

"In a suburb of Canton, in a street called the Taiping Kai, we saw one morning a number of bricklayers, journeymen, and carpenters, waiting to be hired. The carpenters stand in a line on one side, and bricklayers on the other. Father said they had been there since five o'clock.

"Another day we saw men carrying baskets, in which they were collecting every bit of paper they could find about the streets, which had been written upon. The Chinese have such respect for every little piece of paper, on which have been any Chinese characters, that they will not allow any parcels even to be wrapped up in them. When all these sc.r.a.ps have been collected, they are burnt in a furnace, and the ashes are put into baskets, carried in procession, and emptied into a stream.

Slips of paper are pasted on walls, telling people to reverence lettered paper. Chinese characters are called 'eyes of the sage;' and some people think that if they are irreverent to the paper, they are so to the sages who invented them, and they will perhaps, for a punishment, be born blind in the next world.

"Men become famous in China when they write very beautifully. They write with a brush and Indian ink. Father's teacher says there are three styles of writing Chinese characters, and that the literature of China is the first in Asia. A Chinaman writes from right to left, and all the writing consists of signs or characters. I cannot think how Chinese people understand either their writing or their conversation. One word will mean a number of things, and you know which word they mean by the sound of the voice and the stress on the word. Leonard asked the teacher one day what soldier was in Chinese, and he said, 'ping;' but he also told him that 'ping' meant ice, pancake, and other words too. 'Fu' is father, and 'Mu'

mother. They think we have no written language.

"Canton is entered by twelve outer, and four inner, gates. The name means 'City of Perfection.'

Leonard and I are now going for a walk, with father, to the Street of Apothecaries, and to-morrow we are to see a bridal procession.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WAITING TO BE HIRED.]

"There are such a number of narrow streets in Canton, and religious wors.h.i.+p is carried on in the open streets, in front of shrines; and before the shops lighted sticks, called 'joss-sticks,' are put at dawn and sunset. The natives live in the narrow streets. Those in the European settlement, where we are, are larger.

"The ports, which are open to foreign commerce, have European parts where the European inhabitants live.

"Always your affectionate "SYBIL GRAHAM."

[Ill.u.s.tration: A CHINESE WRITER ]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CHAPTER X.

A BRIDE AND BRIDEGROOM.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

THE Street of Apothecaries was no exception to the general rule that Sybil had laid down. It also was very narrow, and, like many other streets in Canton, was so covered over at the top that in walking through it the sun did not burn too fiercely, neither did the rain fall upon the pa.s.sers-by.

The shops opened right upon the street, which was very gay indeed with sign-boards. Just in front of the shops were granite counters, on which goods were shown to purchasers.

Many of the sign-boards rested on granite pedestals. On one side of each shop was a little altar, dedicated to the G.o.d of wealth, or the G.o.d supposed to preside over the special trade carried on within. Every heathen Chinese merchant and shopkeeper has some little spot set apart for this wors.h.i.+p, although all the shops have not an altar, but many only a piece of red paper pasted upon a wall, on which the characters meaning "G.o.d of wealth" are written, and before which incense and candles are burnt. Every day, as soon as the shop is opened, wors.h.i.+p is paid to this divinity.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE STREET OF APOTHECARIES, CANTON.]

The counters and shelves inside these hongs were very handsome. The accountant's desk was at the end of the hong, and here again the red colour was not absent, for the scales and weights of the shop were covered with cloth of that hue.

Beggars (some miserably and scantily dressed) are very numerous in China, people making quite a profession of begging, when they visit shops in companies, and there make a great disturbance until they receive what they demand. These beggars are often governed by a head-man, who was really first appointed to rule over them by the mandarin, to save himself trouble. A head-man will sometimes make an agreement with a hong proprietor, that if he will pay a sum of money down beggars shall not molest him; and when he agrees to this, a notice on red paper, stating the arrangement made, is hung up in the shop, after which any native beggar applying for aid can be shown this, turned out of the hong, and upon refusing to go, he can be beaten. But unless such an arrangement has been made, beggars may neither be beaten nor turned out of a shop, whatever annoyance they may offer, unless they steal, or break some other law. Therefore it is that poor shop-keepers feel themselves bound to pay money in order to avoid such annoyance.

When the head-man is paid a sum of money, he is supposed to divide it amongst his band.

"I never heard such a shame!" Leonard exclaimed, when he saw one of these beggars very troublesome in the Street of Apothecaries, and heard the law with regard to them. "I wish I were a mandarin. I'd very soon put a stop to poor shop-keepers being so persecuted."

[Ill.u.s.tration: A BEGGAR.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BRIDESMAIDS]

That evening both Sybil and Leonard, feeling tired, went very early to bed, as they wanted to be up in very good time in the morning, so as to see the whole of the bridal procession, for the bridegroom sends very early indeed in the morning for his bride. The bridal-chair which he sends for her is often painted red. The one which the Grahams saw was of this colour, and over the door were also strips of red paper. Before the bride took her seat in the sedan, which was brought into the reception-room of her home for her, she having eaten nothing that morning, and having kow-towed very often to her parents, they covered her head and face with a thick veil, so that she could not be seen. The floor, from her room to the sedan, was covered with red carpet. When in the sedan, four bread-cakes were tossed into the air by one of the bridesmaids as an omen of good fortune. In front of the procession two men carried large lighted lanterns, having the family name of the bridegroom, cut in red paper, and pasted on them. Then came two men bearing the family name of the bride, who were, however, only to go part of the way. Other men followed, some carrying a large red umbrella, others torches, and again some playing a band of music. Near the bridal-chair brothers or friends of the bride walked. Half-way between the two houses the friends of the bridegroom met the bride, and as they approached the procession stopped.

The children were very much interested in watching what happened next.

The bride's friends brought out a large red card, on which was written the bride's family name, and the other party produced a similar one, bearing that of the bridegroom. These were exchanged with bows. The two men at the head of the procession then walked, with their lanterns, between the sedan-chair and the lantern-bearers, who carried the bride's family name, and returned to their places in front, when the bride's party turned round and went back to her father's house, carrying home her family name, she being supposed to have now taken that of her husband. Even her brothers went back also, and then the band played a very lively air whilst the rest of the procession took her on.

Fireworks were let off along the road, and a great many outside the bridegroom's door when the bride arrived. Her bridesmaids, who have to keep with her throughout the day, accompanied the procession.

As the sedan-chair was taken into the reception-room, the torch-bearers and musicians stayed near the door, and where it was put down the floor was again covered with red carpet. The bridegroom then came and knocked at the bridal door, but a married woman and a little boy, holding a mirror, asked the bride to get out. Her bridesmaids helped her to alight. The mirror was supposed to ward off evil influences.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BRIDE AND BRIDEGROOM.]

Sometimes, much for the same purpose, a bride is carried over a charcoal fire on a servant's back, but this was not done on this occasion. All this time the bride's face was hidden by her veil. She was then taken into a room, where the bridegroom was waiting for her, and here they sat down together for a few minutes, without speaking a word. Sometimes the bridegroom sits on a high stool, while the bride throws herself down before him, to show that she considers man superior to woman.

He then went into the reception-room, where he waited for his bride to come to wors.h.i.+p his ancestral tablets with him. A table was put in front of the room, on which were two lighted candles and lighted incense. Two goblets, chop-sticks, white sugar-c.o.c.ks, and other things were on the table, when the bride and bridegroom both knelt four times, bowing their heads towards the earth. This was called "wors.h.i.+pping heaven and earth."

The ancestral tablets were on tables at the back, on which were also lighted candles and incense. Turning round towards the tablets, they wors.h.i.+pped them eight times, and then facing one another, they knelt four times.

Wedding wine was now drunk, and the bride and bridegroom ate a small piece from the same sugar-c.o.c.k, which was to make them agree.

The thick veil was now taken off the bride, but her face was still partly hidden by strings of pearl hanging from a bridal coronet.

It often happens that the bridegroom now sees his bride for the first time, the two fathers having perhaps planned the marriage, asked a fortune-teller's advice, sent go-betweens to make all the necessary arrangements, chosen a lucky day, without the bride or bridegroom having a voice in the matter. This was the case with the young couple, a great part of whose wedding ceremony Sybil and Leonard had witnessed. Both Chinese boys and girls marry sometimes when they are sixteen years of age; these were very little older.

Many other ceremonies had to take place, such as kneeling very often before the bridegroom's parents, when at last it was time for the bride's heavy outer garments to be taken off, together with her head-dress, so that her hair could be well arranged; but she was not allowed to eat anything at all at the wedding dinner. Indeed, on her wedding-day, she is hardly expected to touch food at all.

Many people came in to see her, and on this day she must be quite natural, and wear no rouge at all. She has to stand up quietly to be looked at, blessed, and have remarks made upon her appearance. Presents are sent to the bridegroom's family. For three days the bride's parents send her food, as she may not, during that time, eat what her husband provides. In some districts of the province of Canton the bride leaves her husband, and goes home again for a time after she is married, but after marriage she is generally considered to belong almost entirely to her husband's family, in a wing of whose house she lives with him, and to whose parents she is supposed to help him to be filial. On many other days the ancestral tablets have to be wors.h.i.+pped by the bride and bridegroom, and amongst other G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses, those of the kitchen have adoration paid to them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AT A CHINESE FARM.]

"_Canton, February, 1881._

"MY DEAREST LILY.--Father took us to a lovely farm the other day" (Sybil wrote in another letter), "where we saw a little donkey, who was so well cared for that he seemed like one of the family.