28
A PEEP AT SOME CHINESE PROVINCES.

T is a pity we have no opportunity here for more
than a peep, for China is a most interesting
country. Not the least interesting parts of it are

| the provinces of Tonquin and Annam, from which
our artist has chosen the subjects for his pictures.
You will notice that one of his sketches shows a
scene in Nam-dinh, a strongly fortified town, captured by the
French. Next comes a Tonquinese mandarin’s banquet, which
is a very ceremonious affair. Endless are the dishes—live
fish, birds’-nest soup, sea-slugs (¢77fang), roasted puppy, and
half-decayed eggs—which to a Western palate are hardly
inviting. The cooks are said to be very skilful, and delight
in surprising the guests. With everything is served snowy-
white rice.

In the centre of the page is a wedding, which also is a
long, costly ceremony. The poor bride bends low before
her husband, confessing herself his slave. Lower down you
will notice a native forge. With a stone for an anvil, and |
a few simple tools, a little charcoal, and goat-skin bellows,
the men do really very fine smiths’ work. Below this is a
floating village on the Mekong River, and a fisherman with
a great square net, which he raises up and down with a kind
of crane.

_ Other pictures to be mentioned are the altar of ancestors,
whose worship is held sacred ; a palanquin, showing the mode
of travelling ; a tomb of the bonzes—that is, the burial-place
of the Buddhist priests; and an elaborate funeral procession.
You can also see how the women spin silk, and the way
in which the people amuse themselves in the open air.