When a Chinaman goes fishing he takes with him his nets and lines: but he has some other very ingenious methods of catching fish, especially by the employment of the fishing-cormorant; and when he goes out for a day’s sport, he usually takes with him ten or twelve of these birds, either in light boats, or on bamboo rafts. The cormorant is taught to pursue fish in the same manner as the falcon does game. The fishermen beat the water strongly with one of their oars, which serves as a signal to the birds, and they instantly plunge into the water, and swallow in as many fish as they can get; they then repair immediately to the boat, each conveying a large fish in the middle of its bill. To prevent the small fish from passing into the stomach of the bird, a ring is commonly put round its neck to confine its gullet, which is long and capable of great expansion. To make it disgorge the fish which it has swallowed, the fisherman holds the bird with its head downwards, and strokes its head with his hand. Some are so well trained as to have no occasion for the ring. They bring their prey honestly to their master, and when they have caught as much he wants, he allows them to fish for themselves.
The Chinese are equally as expert in catching birds as in catching fish. Their method of catching wild ducks is exceedingly curious and very amusing. The sportsman covers his head with the half of a large hollow gourd or dry calabash, in which he makes holes, to enable him to see and breathe; he then walks naked into the water, or swims about in such a manner that nothing is to be seen above the surface but the gourd, which is attached to his head. The ducks, which have been accustomed to the sight of the floating gourds, and to sport and dabble among them, approach without mistrust; the man then pulls them under water, breaks their necks to prevent their making a noise, and fastens them to his girdle.
Pedlars are common in China, and they travel without a licence. Here is a picture of one of them. His stock consists of pieces of stuff, ribands, purses, tobacco-pouches, and other small articles. He also deals occasionally in a little opium and tobacco. The latter is very dear in China, and the Chinese frequently mix with it opium, which produces a delicious kind of intoxication. There are thousands of professed opium-eaters in China, who ruin both mind and body by this destructive habit; and Mr. Welton, a surgeon and missionary, to whom the Chinese are greatly indebted for his services in this particular, describes the effect of opium as most frightful.
The importation of opium commenced in the seventeenth century, and since that time it has increased to an enormous extent. The chief officers of the province of Canton suffered the drug (though continually prohibited) to come into the country in large quantities, by paying a bribe for each chest, and in 1825 the importation rose to 10,000 chests every year, which increased till nearly 30,000 chests were disposed of annually.
I do not, however, wish to go into the opium question. I would rather afford my young friends some more pictures of China. The countrymen generally wear cloaks made of rice-straw. Their appearance is very nearly the same as that of the Chinese husbandman, two thousand years ago; for the fashions of China never change. The dress of the ladies is always unalterable. The sempstresses or dressmakers trudge about the streets, looking out for employment, until some one engages them. They carry in their baskets various articles belonging to their profession, and do not work as our poor creatures do, twenty out of the twenty-four hours in the season, to elaborate the dress of some duchess or countess, or that of Mrs. Beecher Stowe, the well-known advocate of freedom among the blacks.
The dress of the Chinese lady is very rich, and not ungraceful. She usually carries a pipe in one hand and a fan in the other, if the latter be not carried by a servant. The ladies have often their fans made so as not to close, whilst those of the gentlemen always close in the same manner as those of our ladies; but the most distinguishing mark of beauty among the Chinese ladies is their feet, which, to be handsome, must be especially small, and resemble in some degree that of the pettitoes of a little porker. The smallness of the foot is produced by placing, during infancy, the foot in tight shoes or bandages, so that it has no room to grow, what can have been the origin of this strange custom it is not easy to conceive, but it has been supposed to be one originating in a wish of the men, to keep the women from gadding abroad.
