Four Young Explorers; Or, Sight-Seeing in the Tropics by Oliver Optic (best romantic novels to read .TXT) 📗

the way in former times. The Chinese were not distinguished as navigators; but in modern times steamers ply between Canton and the ports of the Gulf of Pe-chi-li, so that the canal is less necessary, and much of it is in bad condition.[301]

"The Great Wall is better known to all the world than the Grand Canal as a peculiarly Chinese wonder, and every school boy and girl has heard of it. It was built as a defence against the raids of the northern tribes, though for this purpose it was a failure; but it still stands, though some of the English newspapers only a few years ago treated it as a myth; yet there is no doubt whatever of its existence, for it has been visited by many reliable English and American travellers. It was begun two hundred and fourteen years before the Christian era.

"Our artist has indicated the wall on the map;" and Mr. Gaskette pointed it out on the west shore of the Gulf of Liau-tung, properly a part of the Gulf of Pe-chi-li, and traced it some distance to the west. "Its length, following its numerous twists and bends, through valleys and over mountains, is fifteen hundred miles. It is twenty-five feet wide at the base, and fifteen at the top. It is formed by two walls of brick, different from those we use, weighing from forty to sixty pounds; and the space between them is filled with earth and stones. It varies in height from fifteen to thirty feet.

"The top of the wall is paved with brick, but is now overgrown with grass. Along the wall, and not on it, are towers of brick at intervals. You observe that at Peking the wall makes a sweep to the north, perhaps thirty miles or more, enclosing a square of land of this extent outside of the general[302] course of the structure. I met an American gentleman who had been to the capital of China, and he told me he had been to the Great Wall. Dr. Legge may take the conceit out of some travellers when he says: 'What foreigners go to visit from Peking is merely a loop-wall of later formation, enclosing portions of Chih-li and Shan-hsî.'

"Leaving the Grand Canal and the Great Wall, we will pass on to the lakes of China. They are not on a large scale, like the rivers; and they are insignificant compared with those of our own country. The Tung-ting Hû appears to be the largest, mostly in the province of Hunan, which is sixty-five or seventy miles long. The others are Po-yang Hû, in Chiang-hsî, and the Tai Hû, which is noted for its romantic scenery and numerous islets.

"The temperature of the various provinces is on the average lower than any other country in the same latitude. There is every variety of climate in the vast territory of China. The natives consider the three southern provinces, including the island of Hainan, less healthy than the other portions of the country; but foreigners find no difficulty in residing in them. In a region taking in over twenty degrees of latitude, the productions vary from those of the tropics to those in the latitude of central New York, from bananas and pineapples in the south to wheat and Indian corn in the north.

"About all the common grains are raised in the north, and rice is the staple product of the south.[303] All sorts of vegetables and herbs, ginger, and various condiments, are produced and largely used; though I believe the people are not so hot, gastronomically, in their taste as we found them in Batavia and some other places in the islands. They raise the cane and make sugar in Formosa and the southern provinces. All the fruits of our own country, including Florida and Louisiana, are grown in different parts of China. Opium, which formerly came into the country only from India, is now produced even in Manchuria.

"The Chinese are pre-eminently agriculturists, and farming is their occupation above anything else. In the spring the emperor turns over a few furrows in a sacred field, introducing the work of the season; and the chief official in every province does the same, keeping the importance of farming pursuits always before the people. The tools they use are very primitive; the hoe being the principal hand-tool, and the plough of ancient use for animal power. There is an extensive application of irrigation, which is found to be so necessary in some of our extreme Western States. In the north wells are used; and various simple machinery is employed to raise water when the canal or river is below the level of the field where it is needed, which you may have an opportunity to see.

"No kind of fertilizer is wasted, and some are used which are often neglected in other countries. A great deal of fun and sarcasm is applied to the[304] food of the Chinese, but most of us rather approved the dishes set before us by our host of the Flowery Nation in Singapore. In some articles used for culinary purposes, Parisians go beyond the Chinese, as in the use of horse-beef. I have been in a provision store in Paris where nothing else was sold; and every part of the animal was economized, including the liver, kidneys, and tongue, and sausages of this meat were on view and for sale to epicures in this flesh. But I believe the Chinese do not eat the horse, unless it be in a season of famine; and they had to eat cats in Paris during the siege of 1870.

"When you go into the markets you may see whole dogs dressed for food, or cut up into pieces ready for cooking. These are not common yellow dogs, such as you saw in the capital of the Turkish empire; but they are the peculiar Chinese breed, sleek and hairless, which are carefully fatted, and prepared for market. I have no doubt that your stomachs revolt at the very idea of eating dog; but I cannot see that it is any worse than eating pork and fowls, which feed more or less on animal food. However, I do not hanker after dog-meat.

"The Buddhist religion prevails to a great extent here, which diminishes the quantity of beef used, though not so much as the kindly feeling towards the creature that is so useful in tilling the soil. Pork is the most common in use for meat, and the number of pigs raised is enormous. Geese and ducks are abundant, artificially hatched as in ancient Egypt,[305] and to a considerable extent in America, and are largely used for food.

"The sea, rivers, and lakes supply fish in all needed quantities. They are taken in nets, and also by a novel method of fishing with which you cannot be familiar. A boat goes out with a number of cormorants trained for the purpose, which are fishers by nature. The birds dive and bring up the fish, which they deposit in the hand-nets of the boatman.

"Dr. Legge says the Chinese are not gross feeders, as generally represented, except the very poor, and that a Chinese dinner of twenty-seven courses 'may hold its own with the most luxurious tables.' He adds that the famous bird's-nest soup is a misnomer; but he admits that nests from the Indian Archipelago are sliced into other soups, in his opinion without improving the flavor.

"For a drink, tea has superseded every other beverage, and is taken without sugar or milk. It was not used at all in ancient times, but its use is universal at the present time. The plant is not grown in the north. Black tea comes from the central provinces, and green from two eastern mainly. Next to silk, if not equal to it, tea is the principal article of export. The doctor says that tea-drinking promotes the temperance of the people more than any other influence. Alcoholic liquors are distilled from rice and millet.

"From the twelfth century b.c. the literature of[306] the nation abounds in temperance lectures, warning the people against the injury of strong drinks; but tea has done vastly more to prevent their use than anything else. As a people at home the Chinese make little use of liquors, though that is not always the case with those who live in New York. They do not sit down to tea as we do, but keep it at hand at all times, and treat their visitors with it. Tea is written in the vernacular of the natives ch'â. When it was first imported into England it was called t'ay; but those who gave it the name were doubtless Irishmen, and they still stick to it.

"There is no doubt that silk was first produced in China; and silk, linen, and cotton form the clothing of the people. A ceremony like that with the plough is performed by the emperor over the silkworms and mulberry-trees, whose leaves are the food of the worm. From before the twenty-third century b.c., the care of the silkworm, and the spinning and weaving of the thread from the cocoon, has been the particular labor of the women. The mulberry-tree grows everywhere in the country, and silk is manufactured in greater or less quantities in every province.

"The cotton-plant has been propagated in China; and the cloth is largely used there, though not equal in finish to the imported article, but is heavier and more lasting in wear. Nankeen comes from Nanking. There are no fireplaces in the houses; and the people keep warm, if they can, by increasing their[307] clothing. Woollen goods are not manufactured to any great extent.

"I will not describe the pagodas, pavilions, bridges, and palaces; for you will see them for yourselves. The streets of the cities in the south and some in the north are no better than mere lanes; and the crowds of people hustling through them fill them about full, and make you think the place is vastly more populous than it really is. As a set-off to this idea, you will wonder what has become of the women, for you rarely meet any of them.

"The streets are paved with stone slabs, badly drained, and abounding in bad odors, and you are not likely to enjoy your walks through them; but they have magnificent names, which you will not read at the corners, such as the street of Benevolence, Righteousness, etc. When you go into the house of a tolerably well-to-do family, you will find the quantity of furniture rather scanty, and not luxurious. The floor may be covered with matting, but you will find no carpets or rugs. A table and some straight-backed chairs are the principal pieces. On the walls you may find Chinese pictures, which will not challenge your admiration, though they may be artistic in China. Some jars and specimens of fine porcelain may adorn the room, with writings on the walls expressing moral sentiments. There may be a couch, or more of them, of bamboo and rattan.

"The bamboo is quite as important a production in China as we have found it in India and the islands;[308] and it is used for all the purposes here, and more in addition than have been mentioned to you before. The bastinado of the magistrate and the schoolmaster's instrument of torture are both bamboos.

"Our Nimrods would not find much sport here; for the country is too densely populated to afford hiding-places for wild animals, though a bear or a tiger may sometimes appear, and is quickly killed. There are elephants, rhinoceroses, and tapirs in the forests of Yun-nan; and the emperor has tame elephants at Peking for state purposes. The brown and the black bear are found in certain localities, as well as varieties of deer.

"The domestic four-footed animals are small horses and small cattle, which have not been improved. The donkey is a livelier beast than in England or America. About the capital there are very fine mules, which are fashionable there as they are in some parts of Spain. Birds of prey are common, and magpies are sacred birds which the Nimrods must not shoot. The people are very fond of song-birds and flowers, which proves their good taste.

"There are vast quantities of minerals beneath the soil of the country, yet little had been done in mining; though, since the government has steamers of its own, they are doing more to develop the mines. The currency of the country is nowhere; for the only coin that is legally current is the copper cash, of which it takes ten to make our cent. Large payments are made in silver by weight, and the housekeeper has to[309] keep a pair of scales handy to ascertain the value of the silver she receives or expends.

"But I know, my friends, that I have wearied you; and though I have something more to say about this very interesting country, I shall defer it till such time as the commander shall appoint."

The professor bowed and retired; but, as an offset to his last remark, the applause was more prolonged and vigorous than usual.[310]

CHAPTER XXXIII THE CONCLUSION OF THE LECTURE

At lunch the passengers