China—Plate 19
Plate XIX.
AN ITINERANT MUSICIAN.
The Chinese have full as great a variety of musical instruments as most other nations, but they are all of them indifferent, and the music, if it may be so called, produced out of them, execrable. The merit of our travelling musician consists in beating a sort of tambourine, or rather a shallow kettle-drum, with a mallet held between the toes of one foot, while he strikes a pair of cymbals with the other, and, at the same time plays upon a sort of guitar accompanied by his voice. It would seem also that he is equally skilled in wind instruments, of which a flute and trumpet make their appearance out of the mouth of his bag; a pair of rattles connected by a piece of riband lie on the ground, and near them a hollow piece of wood, nearly heart-shaped, which, when struck with a mallet, emits a dull disagreeable sound, like the hollow bamboo carried by the watchman, for which this is sometimes substituted. A Chinese band always play in unison, and never in parts: this indeed is an art they have not yet reached, and those few who have heard European harmony pretend to dislike it. A Chinese ear is best gratified with the sounds of noisy instruments, as gongs, kettle-drums, shrill trumpets, jingling bells and cymbals, or with the faint and reedy tones, scarcely audible, of a little bamboo organ, which swell and die away not unlike those of an Eolian harp.
China—Plate 20
Plate XX.
AN OFFICER OF THE CORPS OF BOWMEN.
The original weapon of the Chinese, which by the way seems to be the offensive arms of most savages, is the bow. It is still preferred by them to the matchlock; and the Tartars are so fond of it, that it forms an essential part of the education of the young princes of the blood. Their bows are large, and require a considerable degree of strength, as well as a peculiar knack to string them. Even the Emperor wears a ring of agate on the right thumb for the string to press against in drawing the bow, which is the weapon he uses every summer in hunting tigers and other wild beasts in the forests of Tartary. When the troops are drawn out on parade-duty, not only the superior officers carry colours, but a small flag is stuck on the back of every fifth, seventh, or ninth man. The characters on the flag generally designate the rank of the bearer and the name of the corps.