Peeps Into China; Or, The Missionary's Children

by E. C. Phillips

"We have seen pretty sights since we came to China," Leonard said, agreeing with his sister.

The next day Sybil and he were taken into the Queen's Road, which crossed the town from west to east, to the right of which was a regular labyrinth of streets, some leading into very fine roads. In one part of Hong-Kong nothing but shops and houses of business were to be seen. One of its principal ornaments was the tall clock-tower, which made even high trees beside it look quite small.

The most ancient houses of the colony are in a street that leads to the clock-tower, and close by it is also the hotel of Hong-Kong. Into this Sybil and Leonard were taken to have some tiffin, or lunch, whilst their sedans and bearers waited for them not far off, under some trees.

Leonard took a good view afterwards of a man in a turban whom they passed, because, as he was so important a person as a policeman, he thought Sybil might like to describe him in one of her letters, and she might perhaps forget what he was like.

Sybil had, as yet, only written one of her promised letters, but this had been full of news, and had told of rides in sedan-chairs, little Chu and Woo-urh, and all sorts of things; and before they moved on to Macao, she had determined to write another letter, and tell of Leonard saving himself from the serpent, and what they saw in Hong-Kong. This seemed to be a very busy place. Steamers were always either coming or going; and here, too, telegrams were constantly arriving. Besides English merchants, Chinese, American, French, German, Hindoo merchants, and others also traded with the little island, and shared what wealth she had. Hong-Kong is very English-looking, compared with other places in China, and the people are not only governed by English laws, but their crimes are tried by English judges. But even at Canton, Shanghai, and other ports where the English have settlements, they now claim, and have a voice in trials for crime. It is only because Hong-Kong belongs to the English that telegraph-wires are to be found there, as the Chinese will not have them anywhere else, because they think that they would offend the ghosts, or spirits, of the places through which they would pass. For the same reason also the Chinese have hardly any railroads. Even children could easily recognise here the introduction of English ways and manners.

Lily Keith was very fond of shopping, therefore in her next letter Sybil not only gave an account of Leonard's bravery, of which she was really more proud than Leonard himself, but also described a visit that she had paid to some shops.

"We went to some of the best of all the shops in Hong-Kong to-day," she wrote, "and as we were going into the door of one, the proprietor came to meet us. Father said he was a merchant. He spoke English, and was very grandly dressed in silk, and wore worked shoes. His shopmen also wore very handsome clothes, and served us standing behind beautifully polished counters. In one part of the shop were all kinds of silk materials, and some stuff called grass-matting. We went down-stairs to see furniture and beautiful porcelain. The principal curiosities had come from Canton, so I suppose when we get there we shall find still better things; and in Canton people paint on that pretty rice paper. Across the road were meat, fish, vegetable, and puppy-dog shops. Yes, the Chinese do eat dogs: in some shops in Hong-Kong we have seen a number for sale; and they eat cats and rats too. We could tell a shop in which clothes were sold some little distance off, because an imitation jacket, or something of that sort, was hung up outside, as well as the long sign-boards, which told what kind of shops they were. Leonard says I am to tell you that a policeman was outside. He always knows policemen now by turbans that they wear, and they often hold a little cane in their hands; and on the pathway a man sat, wearing a hat just like one of those funny-looking things, with a point, that we wore for fun sometimes in the garden. There are no windows to the shops.

TEMPLE OF KWAN-YIN.

"Oh! but some of the Chinese do believe such strange things. The other day our amah told Leonard and me to chatter our teeth three times and blow. We could not understand what she meant us to do until she did it first. We had heard a crow caw, so she thought if we did not do this afterwards we should be very unlucky. The other day a coolie fell down and broke a number of things. He had not to replace any of them, but the master had to buy all the things again because it was fine weather. If it had been dirty and slippery, the boy must have bought them. None of us could understand the meaning of this till it was explained to us. If it had been a slippery day, the boy ought to have taken care, and it would have been very careless of him to fall; but if he did so in fine weather, some god must have made him slip, they think, and therefore he could not help it. The heathen Chinese have such a number of gods and goddesses.