Sidelights on Chinese Life Part 21

During this peculiar manipulation, the sweet has undergone a remarkable change. From a dark, almost black colour, it has been turned into a golden hue, and from being dense and heavy it is light and flaky, so that when it is cut into lengths for sale, each one looks like a stalact.i.te that might have been taken out of Fingal's Cave. A bite from one of these crumbles at once in the mouth and a crackling sound is heard and a beautiful aroma is perceived, and before one has hardly had time to realize it, the sweet has dissolved.

Another thing that the eager eyes of the little fellows catch amongst the dainties is mola.s.ses candy, made in the orthodox home fas.h.i.+on, but cut into little squares and sold for just one cash apiece, which is about the thousandth part of two s.h.i.+llings. This is cheap and therefore popular, for it will stand a good deal of sucking before it disappears, which is a consideration with the generality of the buyers, for their finances are not usually in a very flouris.h.i.+ng condition.

Besides the above there is real sugar candy, not in sticks, but in lumps as they have come from the sugar refinery. There are also a great variety of sugar-coated combinations that all have their patrons, and as the little knots of purchasers come in from different directions at the well-known call of the peddler, one marks how varied are the tastes of the lads by the way in which they select the articles they like from those laid out so temptingly on the boards that contain his stock.

Another very popular peripatetic merchant is the man who is popularly known as the seller of "sweets and sours." Like the man already described, the people that patronize him the most are the children, though a goodly proportion of his sales is made to persons of all ages. His goods consist entirely of fruits prepared in such tempting and fascinating ways that the general public is ready to put their hands in their pockets at the sound of the little bell that announces the presence of this popular caterer to the public taste.

He has quite an a.s.sortment of all the most popular fruits that are known in Chinese life. He has the arbutus, which at a rough glance appears very much like a strawberry, though it is really essentially different, for it has a large stone, and even when it is fully ripe it has a decidedly tart taste about it. He has these in several distinct forms, so as to meet the wishes of those who vary in their views as to how the fruit should be eaten. Some have been prepared with the slightest dash of sugar, so that the sour and sweet are so nicely adjusted that both can be distinctly perceived as it is slowly eaten by the purchaser. Some, again, have been so deluged with sugar, that the naturally acid flavour has almost vanished, and there remains but a remnant of the old nature left to modify the ultra-sweetness of the sugar. Others, again, have been dried in the sun until nearly all the juice has vanished. They have then been steeped in brine, and the combination of salt and tart that is the result has a fascination for some that one can hardly understand.

All these are strung on thin slips of bamboo in fives, and the buyer holding these in his fingers can slip them off one by one into his mouth without soiling his fingers. Three or four cash is the usual price for this delicacy.

In addition to these, there are plums from the country districts, and luscious-looking peaches and large fat mangoes all drenched in sugar, which has not only preserved them from decaying, but has also added a new flavour to each of them, which is specially attractive to those that favour any particular kind. Again, amongst the collection there is one fruit that always finds a ready market--the dwarf apples that are brought by the steamers and the huge merchant junks from Tientsin and Newchang in the far North of China.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A PEDDLER.

_To face p. 303._]

When they are thoroughly ripe they are rosy cheeked, and resemble the Baldwins that come from America and are sold by the barrowmen in London and in different parts of England, only they are diminutive, for they are only about the fourth of the size of the ordinary English apple. These are crushed flat, and the whole are allowed to lie in sugar until they are entirely permeated with it. They are then strung on the bamboo sticks and are always the chief attractions that the "sweets and sours" man has to offer to the public. As they come from a great distance, and have been rendered more perishable by the long journey they have had to travel, they are a great deal dearer than the other local productions, and so it is only those who have a larger command of money that can afford to purchase them.

This peddler has attractions that never fail to draw around him a group both of old and young, who usually enjoy their purchases on the spot. Some stand and chat with each other as they slowly crush the sweet and toothsome morsel between their teeth. Others, again, of a more meditative turn of mind, take the favourite posture of sitting on their heels, and give the whole force of their minds to the enjoying of the flavours contained in their favourite fruits. The buzz of conversation and the ready wit of the peddler, and the pa.s.sing crowds that would like to join in but have not the time, and the great sun flas.h.i.+ng down his rays upon the scene, all combine to make such gatherings as these very picturesque and very attractive to look upon.

Another well-known peddler who is very popular with the housewives is the cloth-seller. His is a form that is easily recognized, as he daily goes his round up and down the district that use and wont has made him consider to be especially his own. It is very possible, indeed, that he may have bought the right from the man that preceded him, just as with us a doctor purchases a practice and becomes the rightful successor to the man who is retiring.

He is distinguished by the fact that he carries all his stock on one of his shoulders. To carry it anywhere else would seem in the conservative eyes of the Chinese to disqualify him for his profession. As the burden he has to bear is usually over one hundred pounds in weight, it would seem an impossibility for any man unless he were a Sandow to continue day after day and for many hours in each to support such an enormous weight as this.

But the fact is that they do so, and without apparently any very great effort. The men as a rule are small and wiry, and as they move along at a steady trot, without any panting or perspiring, one is apt to imagine that the goods they are carrying are not nearly so heavy as they really are.

In order to cater for the wants of the women of the houses of his district, he has to have with him specimens of every kind of dress goods that they are likely to require, and in addition a liberal supply of the more common stuffs that are worn by the poorer cla.s.ses. These stocks he must have on hand, for he must take advantage of the immediate wants of his clients, and the impression that his eloquence makes upon them at the time, to dispose of his wares. Were he to depend upon their taking to-morrow what he has not ready for them now, he might find that their mood had changed or they were short of cash when he returned with the goods, and so his sales would be lost.

This cloth peddler is really a most advanced man, and a true pioneer in promoting liberal ideas with regard to dress. The Chinese one _beau-ideal_ with regard to that is the blue cotton cloth. Just as bread in England is the staple article of the food of the ma.s.ses, so that in China is the one eternal type of what is considered the proper kind of material with which to clothe the nation. The common people everywhere make that the basis of their dress. The farmers all dress in this distressingly dull-coloured material. The common coolies and workmen of every grade in life, following the national instinct, seldom wear anything else. It is only the well-to-do or the very rich that emerge out of this universal wors.h.i.+p of the blue cotton, and adopt silks or satins as their common wear.

The women, it is true, have a few bright colours in addition to the blue in which they appear when they are fully dressed and on holiday occasions, but for ordinary and common everyday life the blue cotton a.s.serts its mastery, and holds its own against everything else.

Now this peddler is slowly causing a revolution in the ideals of the women at least. In order to advance his business he brings the newest patterns and the most attractive goods that enterprising merchants, both native and foreign, are introducing from the West. He has no large stocks in hand that he must dispose of before he can bring in new and fas.h.i.+onable materials. All that he possesses, or nearly so, he carries with him on his shoulder, and when they are disposed of, he simply goes to the merchant and selects other goods that he has found by experience will catch the eye of the younger women and girls that he meets on his round, and induce them to buy from him.

The great aid that this man gets in his introduction of new ideas amongst the women no doubt is Christianity. This has worked a perfect revolution in family life wherever it has been received. Not only is the condition of the women ameliorated, but their position is distinctly elevated. They are not left to the tender mercies of heathen society to be treated with the indignities to which they are constantly liable. The Church is always behind them to stand out in their defence when any wrong is going to be inflicted on them. A new power has come into the land that demands rights for them that no legislation in the past and no tradition has ever dreamed of asking.

In addition to all this, there are the new methods that a faith in the gospel has developed. The custom that amounts almost to a law in China is that young women shall not be seen on the streets. They must remain indoors till they are married, and afterwards till they are getting on in years. One of the most remarkable features about the streets and roads is the few women that are seen upon them. Elderly women, with perhaps girls under ten, and slave women, are to be met with, but maidens and young married wives are a rare sight either on the public thoroughfares or on the by-ways in the country places.

The morals of China, in spite of the high ideals that have been transmitted by the sages, and that have permeated into every section of the people, are not sufficiently elevated to permit women the freedom that they have in Christian lands. Now Christianity has already begun to work a remarkable change in delivering the women of China from the bondage that an idolatrous system had imposed upon them. Whether young or old they are required to attend church on Sundays. No distinctions are allowed. The young girl of eighteen, that would never be seen out of the doors for years, the newly-married wife, the maiden that has just been betrothed, in common with elderly ladies whose sons and daughters are grown up, and the old grandmothers that travel as they like, all are expected to attend at the regular services, and no dispensation excepting absolute necessity will be given to allow them not to be present.

Sunday at present is the happiest day in the week for the Christian women.

They get out of their narrow, confined houses into the sunlight. They meet large numbers of their own s.e.x in the church. They see new faces and get fresh ideas, and broader views of life. They look at the various styles of dresses, and the result is that on the morrow, when the peddler comes round, he will get orders for new kinds of materials that they would never have dreamed of had they not seen how pretty and becoming they looked on the women they had met in the church.

But listen! there is the blast of a conch sh.e.l.l, blown by a man whose lungs are sound, and who knows how to manipulate it so that he shall produce the greatest volume of noise, and send it echoing along the street. No need to ask who the man is, for every one is perfectly aware that it is the pork peddler who is drawing near, and now every housewife who is preparing dinner begins to count her cash to see if she can afford the luxury of pork to-day.

Pork to a Chinaman is what beef is to an Englishman. Excepting in the ports and in those centres where Europeans congregate, beef is but very rarely seen. In the interior of China, pork shops abound in every city in the Empire, but one would have to look long before he could find a beef shop. By a thoroughly conservative and orthodox Chinese the killing of cattle in order to sell their flesh for food is considered highly immoral.

He would tell you that these animals help in the tilling of the soil, that therefore they are the producers of the food of the nation, and as a matter of grat.i.tude for their services they should be saved from the indignity of being slaughtered for food. That is the way in which an orthodox Confucianist would talk when the question of eating beef might be the subject of conversation.

There are no such metaphysical discussions with regard to the pig, or indeed any other animal that is used for food. Swine have precisely the same animal properties that they have in any other country, and those brought up in this extreme Eastern land might be transported to the cabins of the Irish and they would never discover that a "furriner" had invaded their homes.

As a domestic animal the pig has the same unpleasant habits that he has in the British Isles. He likes to wallow in the mud, and feed on garbage and other insanitary matter that a horse or a cow would absolutely refuse to touch. He is on the whole a quiet and inoffensive animal, and in his restless peregrinations after food he does not care to interfere with the comfort or liberty of his neighbours. But let his usual meal time come round, and if his mistress has neglected to fill his trough with something strengthening, he will squeal and grunt and make such a fuss and a disturbance that for the peace of the household speedy steps will have to be taken to satisfy his hunger.

Were it not for his low and ungentlemanly habits, the pig would doubtless have been the national emblem of the Chinese, instead of the mysterious and inscrutable dragon, and poets would have sung his praises, and artists would have immortalized him in their paintings. There was too little romance, however, about him to allow of such an honour being put upon him, but there is no question that he is the most popular animal in the whole of the eighteen provinces. The only word in the language for flesh meat is one that means pork, and throughout the four hundred millions of people, the one popular dish that makes all eyes glisten about meal times is the one that is composed of some preparation of the succulent flesh of this animal.

The pork peddler, as already intimated, is known by the powerful blasts that he blows from a sea sh.e.l.l. His outfit is of the simplest. It consists of two baskets, on one of which a board is spread, and the pork is laid out in a dainty fas.h.i.+on so as to tempt the intending purchasers to buy what they want. In the other are thrown odds and ends, for the peddler has really no need for it, as its main idea is to form a kind of balance so that he may be able to carry his load with comfort from the bamboo pole that rests on one of his shoulders.

Lying beside the pork is a large chopper, with which he cuts off the pieces that his customers may desire, and a steelyard for weighing his sales. As he rests his apparatus in front of some houses, he is soon surrounded by a little knot of people, some of them with private steelyards of their own, in order to test whether the peddler's has not been doctored, so as to cheat them of their due weight.

Sometimes when the peddler has had his pork watered there is great dissatisfaction, and no one will buy from him unless he sells at a considerably reduced price. This watering is a vicious custom that prevails largely amongst all butchers, and is intended to make it possible to sell the meat at a lower rate to the very poor. The way it is managed is to pump a quant.i.ty of water down the main arteries of the animal immediately after it is killed until the whole animal is saturated with it. As this injection of water drives out the blood, the flesh has a pale, anaemic look that tells the secret, and the aim of the peddler is to conceal this from the public by plastering the flesh over with the blood that flowed from the body when the animal was killed. This is the universal practice of the trade, though it does not deceive a single person, nor can it give the healthy look to the pork that the unwatered meat has.

No doubt this wretched system exists because the peddler can sell cheaper, and as cash are few and precious amongst the poor, the national delicacy would certainly be less attainable by large numbers of them were they to have to pay the higher price that is demanded for the unwatered article.

It is very amusing to watch the group that has gathered round the peddler, and to note how keen the Chinese are in everything where bargaining is concerned. The instinct of trade is deep seated within them, and they seem to have a positive enjoyment in the mere chaffering and bargaining, and in the final victory of a few cash that would seem to us such a trifling gain that we would not condescend to spend any time over the transaction. Here is a man that is evidently an important one, for he comes up with a dignified air and with his steelyard in his hand, as though he were going to buy the whole of the peddler's stock-in-trade. After many uncomplimentary remarks about the pork, and declaring that it is of very poor quality and would be found tough in the eating, he selects a piece that seems to have caught his eye, and he requests the man to cut that off for him.

He does so, weighs it with his steelyard, and in doing this he allows himself the liberal margin of the sixteenth of an ounce, so as to add to his profits and to save himself from any loss in the weight. The purchaser has an eagle eye, and watches this weighing with a very suspicious glance.

The Chinese are adepts in manipulating the steelyard, so as to make it weigh heavier or lighter according as they desire. Besides, as there is no standard to which the dealers must conform, and no inspectors of weights and measures to help to keep them honest, there is constant friction between buyers and sellers as to the true weight of the article that is being disposed of.

The man says, "Let me weigh the pork," and fixing it on the hook that is attached to his steelyard, he declares after a very careful manipulation of the instrument that it is lighter by two-sixteenths than the peddler was going to charge him for. This results in a wordy contest between the two men, and a weighing and reweighing by each, and an appeal to the crowd, and even to Heaven itself, as to the justice of each man's statement. Finally the dispute is settled by splitting the difference, which probably gives the true weight of the pork, and the people who sided with the purchaser, because of the prospective contests they are going to have with the peddler when they have their purchases weighed, declare that the principles of Heaven have been vindicated, and now every one ought to be satisfied. As the whole amount in dispute amounted to about one-sixth of a penny, and the time spent in adjusting the matter occupied fully ten minutes, whilst numerous appeals to heaven and earth and to the consciences of the peddler and the purchaser were pointedly made to them by the onlookers, it did really seem ludicrous and hardly worth the candle to go through such an amount of fuss for so small a sum as was involved either way.

After the question is settled amicably, and both parties have saved their face, the peddler ties the pork with a rush, gathered from the banks of some mountain stream, deftly makes a loop to act as a handle, and hands it to the man. Immediately an elderly woman from a neighbouring house selects a piece which weighs exactly two ounces, and for this she hands him cash to the value of about three halfpence. There is no paper needed to wrap it in, for the rush again comes into requisition, and with the loop in her forefingers she bears it away without any danger of violating the proprieties, or of soiling the meat by the dust that might have gathered on her hands.

Another very popular peddler is the middle-aged woman who goes round with a very unpretending-looking basket that contains all kinds of jewellery, such as women in the middle and upper cla.s.ses are accustomed to wear. All these may be purchased at any of the goldsmiths' shops in the city, but as the younger women are not allowed to go out and visit these for themselves, they gladly welcome the travelling jeweller, from whose store they can pick and choose the precise ornaments they wish to buy.

Articles of jewellery hold an important place in the dress of the Chinese women. As they do not wear hats or bonnets in the coldest weather, or when the sun in all his strength is pouring forth his fiery rays in the height of summer, a woman is never supposed to be completely dressed unless she has a certain number of golden or silver hairpins stuck in her hair, and bracelets on her wrists. In addition to these she must have some sprays of flowers, either natural or artificial, before she is dressed well enough to receive visitors or go outside of her own door. The laws of etiquette are very severe on this point, and even amongst the lowest cla.s.ses, a woman who is old enough to go out on business of any kind must wear her earrings and have flowers in her hair, unless she wishes to be looked upon with a great deal of suspicion.

The articles of jewellery are of a very miscellaneous character. Those used on the head are long, dagger-looking pins, made of gold and inlaid with kingfisher's feathers. They are meant really to add to the beauty of the coiffure, and not to keep their hair from falling down, for that is tied with red silk and plastered with unguents, so that it needs no further aid to keep it in position.

Next in importance to these are the bracelets that figure very largely in the toilette of the women of all cla.s.ses. They are chiefly made of gold and silver and jadestone, and vary in prices from a few s.h.i.+llings up to as many pounds.

The rich indulge in very expensive ones and wear several on each arm. The poorer women are pleased if they can afford to get one silver one, whilst those in the lowest ranks never dream of aspiring to any such luxury.

The earrings are things that every woman wears no matter what her position in life may be. When a girl is five or six years old her ears are bored.

This is done if possible on the tenth day of the tenth moon, as that is the one lucky day in the year when it is believed that no inflammation of the ears will follow from the process. In order to fully insure that, however, the needle that has been used for the operation must be thrown down the nearest well.

The fas.h.i.+on of the earrings varies in different localities, and if one is very observant, he will be able to tell the district to which a woman belongs by looking at the shape and size of her earrings. In one particular county with which the writer is familiar, the earring a.s.sumes enormous dimensions, being several inches in diameter; so large are they indeed that a child that is being nursed can easily pa.s.s its arm through one of them without any inconvenience to the mother or danger to itself.

Now the peddler has a large field in the countless homes in a considerable district in which to carry on her operations. She is usually a woman with a very fluent and persuasive tongue, who knows the foibles of women and their love for finery. She has a large stock of jewellery which she exhibits with such consummate art that women are inveigled into buying what they do not really need, and which they had no intention of purchasing.

The sight, however, of so many attractive works of art proves so irresistible that this clever dealer manages to dispose to those who can afford it many of the articles she has in her basket. The result is that some of these peddlers make in the course of years quite little fortunes, which enable them to spend their declining years in comfort and in comparative affluence.

One of these women, with whom I was acquainted, was the wife of a silversmith who had a shop in one of the princ.i.p.al streets of a very populous city. The business was a prosperous one, for the shop had a good reputation and the master of it was a man who knew his trade well and could produce goods that could not be surpa.s.sed by any other shop in the town. The true secret of the prosperity, however, lay not with the sales that were made over the counter, but with those that were effected by the wife. She was very plain and far from prepossessing in appearance, and utterly uneducated, for the family had risen from very humble circ.u.mstances. She was a woman, however, of great natural abilities, with shrewd common-sense, and she had the power of presenting anything she had to say in a forceful, eloquent manner that was very convincing.

She decided to take up the _role_ of peddler, so as to increase their trade by disposing of a larger number of goods than could be done in the shop. That she was willing to do this showed her strong and independent character, for a woman that pursues this calling must be prepared for a great many rebuffs, as it is not held in the highest honour by the community at large. She persevered in her intention, and the result was that she kept the business of the shop at high pressure in order to be able to supply her with the requisite amount of goods that she was able constantly to dispose of, and in the course of years from a Chinese point of view they became quite rich.

Another peddler with less ambitious aims than the one just described is the man that gets his living by coming round to the various houses where he has got to be known, and buying the tinfoil that remains as an ash after the paper money has been burned to wooden images. The Chinese believe that the idols in order to be induced to do any service for the wors.h.i.+ppers must be bribed by presents of money. A moderate amount of the current coin of the realm they are willing to expend in this way, but it must be limited, and so in order to make the G.o.ds believe that they are giving them vast sums, they have invented a system of paper notes, representing ingots and gold coins and common cash all done up in hundreds. Tinfoil beaten as thin almost as it will bear, is used to represent the more precious metals. In its natural colour it is supposed to be silver, and a yellow tinge is given to it when the wors.h.i.+pper wishes to propitiate the idol with gold. These different coloured pieces of tinfoil are pasted on coa.r.s.e paper of a settled size and are then burned in the presence of the idol, who is credited with not having sense enough to know that it is being cheated. If a hundred pieces representing a hundred dollars are presented, then the G.o.d is believed to be so much the richer by that amount, and that it has stored them away in its unseen treasury where countless sums of money are being acc.u.mulated. If a hundred pieces of gold are burned, the idol is then supposed to be all the more pleased and to be ready to send down blessings on the wors.h.i.+pper.

After the paper has been burned the tinfoil falls down amongst the ashes and is carefully collected by the priest of the temple, who in time sells the collection to the tin-beater, who can utilize the material for future service with the idols. In some of the more popular shrines, where the G.o.ds have the reputation of being able to bestow large favours on those who wors.h.i.+p them, the income derived from this burned and shrivelled tinfoil is very considerable. There is one famous temple that at times is visited by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims, who all burn more or less of this paper money, and where the sale of the scorched and apparently useless tinfoil brings in thousands of dollars a year.

The peddler I am describing has nothing to do with the buying of the refuse tinfoil in the temples. That is kept in the hands of the authorities in each, who dispose of it to meet their current expenses.