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."
A BEGGAR.
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.
BRIDESMAIDS