The Chinese, just mentioned as having been bitten by this reptile, was described to me as being a stout, robust, and healthy man. The part of his body wounded, was on and about the little toe. He was bitten at eleven P.M., and in the space of an hour was quite senseless. Before this, he described the pain as ascending rapidly up the body. It appears that when first bitten, he thought his assailant was a rat, and, kicking the reptile, he was rebitten; and, altogether, was wounded three times: he expired a little before four A.M. This snake is said to be used by the Chinese as a medicine, being dried, pulverized, and administered as an internal remedy. During floods, these reptiles are very commonly seen about the houses, coming from the creeks up the drains into the kitchens: they very probably inhabit marshy places, and are often brought down during the freshes of the river, among the weeds, rushes, &c., and at that time may be descried sporting and swimming about the multitude of boats in the river. They are killed in numbers by the boatmen. During the late floods which prevailed at Canton, a number of these venomous reptiles were destroyed.[44]
I availed myself of the kind offer of Mr. Davis, and left Canton with him at daylight of the 28th of October, in the Company’s yacht for Macao, where, after a long, but agreeable passage, we arrived on the evening of the next day.
During my further stay at Macao, I visited one evening, in company with Mr. Davis, a place called the Lappa,[45] situated on the opposite side of the peninsula, upon which the city of Macao is erected, in the inner harbour. The lofty hills have a barren and uninteresting appearance; and there is nothing attractive in the aspect of that part of the country, until, on landing, a pathway leads to a delightful, picturesque, and fertile valley, smiling with the cultivated plantations of rice, yams, sweet potatoes, and interspersed by rural cottages, peeping through a dense crowd of bamboo, pandanus, and plantain trees. Near the beach was a cluster of wretched-looking huts; but the features of the country, both in its natural state, as well as improved by art, were pleasing as we advanced further up this pretty, sheltered valley.
The declivities of some of the hills on the inner or sheltered side towards the valley, were covered by the Hill pines, or Shan, tchong[46] of the Chinese, the Pinus sinensis of botanists, of which I collected a few specimens in a state of fructification. Rivulets meandering through the valley, irrigate and fertilize the soil; and their banks are covered with a profusion of wild plants, a number of ferns, Myrtus tomentosa, Sida, Urtica, Melastoma quinquenervia, (or Kai, chee, neem, of the Chinese,) and a multitude of others. From the cultivated, we came upon a wilder, more stony, and less beautiful part of the valley, among scattered masses of granite rocks, about which a wild and profuse vegetation was lavished.
At one part, my attention was directed to a mass of granite rocks, appearing as if they had been huddled together by some convulsion of nature, and many of them were found to be moveable, when trodden upon. Some of these were described as being sonorous; and as they were regarded as one of the Macao lions, they were of course well worth seeing, if it was only for the pleasure of relating to every one that you had seen them. The first, and by far the most sonorous, was partially excavated underneath; and by striking it upon the upper part, a deep sound like that of a church bell was produced. The battered appearance of the stone above, bore several proofs of how many visitors had made this lion roar. Many of the other rocks were also sonorous, but not so loud as the first; and from their situations, (although moveable when trodden upon,) it could not be seen whether they were naturally excavated similar to the preceding. The Lappa is a place to which the residents of Macao resort, forming pic-nic parties for the purposes of enjoying a change of scene in their limited place of residence, and deriving a gratification from the natural and cultivated beauties of this pretty valley.
We returned late in a Tanka boat. These boats, from their bearing some resemblance to a section of an egg, are called egg-boats, or egg people boats; tan signifying an egg, and ka, people: they are principally navigated by women. The egg-boat people, both males and females, are only permitted to intermarry among themselves. Some of the females have often a little claim to personal beauty.
The Chinese burial-grounds are never inclosed, and are usually seen situated on the slopes of the hills. The graves never being opened a second time, the burial-grounds take up a large quantity of land. I believe the handsome and extensive vaults are sometimes re-opened for the interment of a second corpse: the graves of the poorer class have merely a headstone, upon which Chinese characters are engraved, giving the name, family, &c. of the individual, whose mortal clay reposes beneath.
One of the promenades in the vicinity of Macao, is to a sandy bay, called Cassilha’s Bay,[47] in which there was nothing to excite interest, having merely barren hills about it, and a distant view of islands. The only benefit derived from a visit to it, is the exercise of walking.
I remarked some Chinese one morning near Macao engaged in making some very durable ropes from rattan: the process of manufacture was but little different from that of hemp. The rattans were split longitudinally, soaked, and attached to a wheel, which one person was keeping in motion, whilst another was binding the split rattans together, adding others to the length from a quantity he carried around his waist, until the required length of the rope was completed.
The Portuguese ladies at Macao are, for the most part, possessed of but few attractions. The dark-eyed, beautiful damsels, the destroyers of so many hearts in Lisbon, are here seldom to be met with. The lower class may be seen covered by their mantilla, walking at a funereal pace to mass or confession; the only duties for which a Portuguese female considers it worth while to take exercise. The higher class are carried from one street to another by negroes, in clumsy and tawdry palankeens.