CHAPTER VII.
Jos ceremonies—Chinese New Year's day—New Testament—Epsom salts—Grief of our jailer—Kites—Procession—Leave Ningpo—Chinhae—Huge idols—Chinese camp—Mandarin's message.
A night or two after our visit to the mandarin, we heard the priests chaunting, two or three silvery toned bells were struck at the same time, and now and then a drum. We could see nothing of their proceedings, but from the glare of light the temple must have been brilliantly illuminated. The priests were not exactly sober all the next day; so they must have taken strong stimulants during the night.
A few days after was the Chinese New Year's Day; when an immense number of worshippers visited the joshouse with offerings of various kinds; mostly ornaments of filigree paper. All the visitors were extremely well dressed; silks, satins, and furs of all descriptions, and very handsome dresses they were.
One of them, a man, arrayed in a splendid silk garment, had some words with our jailer, and I believe struck him, at least I saw his hand up: he was seized by the soldiers, and dragged by his tail to an inner court, from whence he was shortly led by a soldier with a long heavy chain round his neck, and handcuffed. What became of him afterwards I did not learn; but it seemed to me summary justice, and very hard usage, for apparently so slight an offence. The old officer, who lived behind our prison, wore a magnificent dress, something similar to a tartan, but the colours more varied, and brilliant. On his breast was a piece of beautiful embroidery; representing some extraordinary animal, only existing, I should suppose, in the imaginations of the Chinese. At his appearance, all the soldiers, and our old jailer, went to him, and made their obeisance; salaaming down to the ground; he returned it most graciously, and they then retired. In the evening rockets and other fireworks were going off in every direction. This festival was a great nuisance to us, as the generality of the shops were shut up for a fortnight, and we could only procure plain cakes.
It was about this time that Mrs. Noble sent us a New Testament, and Flavel on Providence, which were very acceptable indeed; and they enabled us to pass our time in somewhat more respectable a manner than heretofore.
We were sometimes very much amused by seeing our jailer's head shaved, and him in a manner shampooed, the operations altogether occupying a considerable space of time. The shampooing consisted merely of having the back well drubbed (for I can call it by no other name) by the barber, using one hand open and the other clenched; this was a finishing touch, after shaving him, and washing his head and face; the razors were excessively clumsy in appearance, but were very keen, and did their duty well.
Soon after the New Year's Festival, Wombwell and I were again sent for by the mandarins, and found letters to the same purport as before; but in one of the letters was a Latin quotation, which led me to suppose that peace was not quite so close at hand as the English part of the letter gave us to understand; however, this I did not translate, nor did I say anything about it to the other prisoners, thinking it was intended for the officers' private information. With the letters came some packets of medicine; and amongst them several doses of Epsom salts, which the Chinese mistook for saltpetre, and were quite astonished that it did not take fire when they applied a candle to it. Seeing them so inquisitive, I tried very hard to persuade them to take some blue pills which had been sent, telling them that they were sweatmeats of some sort, and very good for the stomach; but to no purpose, they were not to be taken in. This was a thoughtless action, I must own, as the consequences of the experiment, had I succeeded in persuading them to take some, might have made them imagine that we wished to poison them. We then returned to our sedans, and were taken home.
Just outside the gates of the mandarin's house, I observed a number of people collected, and amongst them, several children fancifully dressed, and crowned with artificial flowers; I could not imagine why they were arrayed in this style, unless they formed part of some procession in honour of the New Year.
During our absence, the jailer had been to the window, making signs that we were all going away; he appeared very much grieved, and putting his hand to his breast, with tears in his eyes, seemed to express his great regret at having to part with us. At last, his feelings completely got the better of him, and he was obliged to run into his room; where he shut himself up for the remainder of the day; sending us, however, some substantial marks of his regard, in the shape of stewed beef, bird's-nest soup, and samshu.