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saw the last newyear have passed away. In some places, white, yellow, and carnation colored papers are employed, as well as blue, to distinguish the degree of the deceased kindred. Etiquette requires that those who mourn remain at home at this period. In a few hours, the streets begin to be filled with welldressed persons, hastening in sedans or afoot to make their calls; and those who cannot afford to buy a new suit, hire one for this purpose, so that a man hardly knows his own domestics in their finery and robes. The meeting of friends in the streets, both bound on the same errand, is attended with particular demonstrations of respect, each politely struggling who shall be most affectedly humble. On this day, parents receive the prostrations of their children, teachers expect the salutations of their pupils, magistrates look for the calls of their inferiors, and ancestors of every generation, and gods of various powers, are presented with the offerings of devotees in the hall or temple. Much of the visiting is done by cards, on which is stamped an emblematic device representing the three happy wishes of children, rank, and longevity; a common card suffices for distant acquaintances and customers. It might be a subject of speculation whether the custom of visiting and renewing one's acquaintances on newyear's day practised among the Dutch and in some parts of America, was not originally imitated from the Chinese : but as in some other things, so in this, the westerns have improved upon the easterns, in calling upon the ladies. Persons, as they meet, salute each other with Kunghí! Kunghí! i. e. I respectfully wish you joy! which from its use at this season, is quite like the Happy Newyear! of Englishmen. Towards evening, the merry sounds proceeding from the closed doors announce that the sacrifice provided for presentation before the shrines of departed parents is cheering the worshippers; while the great numbers who resort to the gambling-shops show full well that the routine of ceremony soon becomes tiresome, and a more exciting stimulus is needed. The extent to which play is carried at this season is almost indescribable. Jugglers, mountebanks, and actors, also endeavor to collect a few coppers by amusing the crowds. Generally speaking, however, the three days devoted to this festival pass by without turmoil, and business and work gradually resume their usual course for another twelvemonth.

The festival of the dragon-boats, on the fifth day of the fifth month, presents a very lively scene. Pairs of long narrow boats, holding sixty or more rowers, race up and down the rivers with huge clamor, as if searching for some one who had been drowned. This festival was instituted in memory of the statesman Wuh Yuen, about 300 B.C., who drowned himself in the Yangtsz' kiang; search was made for his body by the people, who loved him for his virtues, and this mode of remembering him has been since continued. The bow of the boat is ornamented or carved into the head of a dragon, and men beating gongs and drums, and waving flags, inspirit the rowers to renewed exertions. The exhilarating exercise of racing leads the people to prolong the festival two or three days, and generally with commendable good humor, but their eagerness to excel often breaks the boats, or leads them into so much danger that the magistrates sometimes forbid the races to save the people from drowning.

The first full moon of the year is the feast of lanterns, a childish and dull festival compared with the two preceding. Its origin is not certainly known, but it was observed as early as a. D. 700. Its celebration merely consists in suspending lanterns of different forms and materials before each door, and illuminating those in the hall, but their united brilliancy is dimness itself compared with the light of the moon. Fireworks are also exhibited by the rich, some of them very elegant. Magaillans describes one he saw, which was an arbor covered with a vine, the woodwork of which seemed to burn, while the trunk, leaves, and clusters of the plant gradually consumed, yet so that the redness of the grapes, the greenness of the leaves, and natural brown of the stem, were all maintained until the whole was burned. The feast of lanterns coming so soon after newyear, and being somewhat expensive, is not very enthusiastically observed, at least in the southern cities.

In the manufacture of lanterns the Chinese surely excel all other people; the variety of their forms, their elegant carving, gilding, and coloring, and the laborious ingenuity and taste displayed in their construction, render them among the prettiest ornaments of their dwellings. They are made of paper, silk, cloth, glass, horn, basket-work, and bamboo, exhibiting an infinite variety of shapes and decorations, varying in size from a small hand light costing two or three cents, up to a magnificent

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chandelier, or a complicated lantern fifteen feet in diameter, containing several lamps within it, and worth three or four hundred dollars. The uses to which they are applied are not less various than the pains and skill bestowed upon their construction are remarkable. One curious kind is called the tsau-ma tăng, or horseracing lantern, which consists of one, two, or more wire frames, one within the other, and arranged on the same principle as the smoke-jack, by which the current of air caused by the flame sets them revolving. The wire framework is covered with paper figures of men and animals placed in the midst of appropriate scenery, and represented in various attitudes; or, as Magaillans describes them, "You shall see horses run, draw chariots and till the earth; vessels sailing, kings and princes go in and out with large trains, and great numbers of people, both afoot and a horseback, armies marching, comedies, dances, and a thousand other divertisements and motions represented."

One of the prettiest shows of lanterns is seen in a festival observed in the spring or autumn by fishermen to propitiate the spirits of the waters. One indispensable part of the procession is a dragon fifty feet or more long, made of light bamboo frames of the size and shape of a barrel, connected and covered with strips of colored cotton or silk; the extremities represent the gaping head and frisking tail. This monster symbolizes the ruler of the watery deep, and is carried through the streets by men holding the head and each joint upon poles, to which are suspended lanterns; and as they walk they give the body a wriggling, waving motion. Huge figures of fish, similarly lighted, precede the dragon, and music and fireworks—the never-failing warning to wayside demons to keep out of the way-accompany the procession, which presents a very brilliant sight as it winds its way through the dark streets. These sports and processions give idolatry its hold upon a people; and although none of them are required or patronized by government, still, in China as in other heathen countries, most of the scenes and games which please the people are recommended by connecting with them the observances or hopes of religion, and the merrymaking of the festive board.

In the middle of the sixth month, lanterns are hung from the top of a pole placed on the highest part of the house. A single small lantern is deemed sufficient, but if the night be calm, a greater display is made by some householders, and especially in

boats, by exhibiting colored glass lamps arranged in various ways. The illumination of a city like Canton, as seen from a high spot, there made still more brilliant by the moving boats on the river, is extremely beautiful. On one of these festivals at Canton, an almost total eclipse of the moon called out the entire population bearing every description of noise-making implements, kettles, pans, sticks, drums, gongs, guns, crackers, and what not, to raise a din and frighten away the dragon of the sky from his hideous feast. The advancing shadow gradually showed the myriads of lanterns more and more distinctly, and started a still increasing clamor, till the darkness and the noise were both at their climax; after which silence gradually resumed its sway as the moon recovered her fulness.

The Chinese are fond of processions, and if marriages and funerals be included, have them far more frequently than any other people. There are numerous livery establishments in every city and town, where processions are arranged and supplied with everything necessary for bridal and funeral occasions as well as religious festivals. Not only sedans, bands of music, biers, pavilions for carrying idols, shrines, and sacrificial feasts, boxes for holding the bride's trousseau, &c., are supplied, but also banners, tables, stands, curiosities, and uniforms, in great variety. The men and boys required to carry them and perform the various parts are hired, and a uniform just thrown over their ragged garments and dirty limbs. Guilds often go to

a heavy expense in getting up a procession in honor of their patron saint, whose image is carried through the streets, attended by the members of the corporation dressed in holiday robes and boots. Splendid silken banners worked with rich embroidery, alternating with young girls bedizened with paint and flowers, and perched on high seats under an artificial tree, or apparently almost in the air, resting upon frames on men's shoulders; add to the pomp. Bands of music, sacrificial meats and fruits adorned with flowers, shrines, images, and curious rarities laid out upon red pavilions, still further enliven the scene. Sometimes boys gaily dressed like officers and riding upon ponies, or harnessed up in a covered framework to represent horses, so contrived and painted that the spectator can hardly believe they are not riding Lilliputian ponies as big as dogs, add to the diversion of the spectacle. A child standing in a car, and carrying a

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branch on its shoulder, on one twig of which stands another child on one foot; or a girl holding a plate of cakes in her hand, on the top of which stands another miss on tiptoe, the whole borne by coolies, are among the parts of the exhibition. Small companies dressed in a great variety of military uniforms, carrying spears, shields, halberds, &c., now and then volunteer for the occasion, and give it a more martial appearance. The carpenters at Canton are famous for their splendid processions in honor of their hero, Lupan, in which also other craftsmen join, for this demi-god, the Tubal-cain of Chinese legends, is regarded as the patron of all workmen. Besides these festivities and processions, there are several more strictly religious, such as the annual mass of the Budhists, the supplicatory sacrifice of farmers for a good crop, and others of more or less importance, which add to the number of days of recreation.

Theatrical representations constitute a common amusement, and when public are connected with the religious celebration of the festival of the god before whose temple they are exhibited. They are got up by the priests, who send their neophytes around with a subscription paper, and then engage as large and skilful a band of performers as their funds will allow. There are no permanent buildings erected for theatres, but the Thespian band still retains its original strolling character, and stands ready to pack up its trappings at the first call. The erection of sheds for playing constitutes a separate branch of the carpenter's trade; one large enough to accommodate two thousand persons can be put up in a day, and almost the only part of the materials wasted is the rattan which bind the posts and mats together. There is usually one large shed for the stage, and three smaller ones before it, inclosing an area, and furnished with rude seats for the spectators. The collections are acknowledged by pasting red sheets containing the names and amounts upon the walls of the temple. The purlieus are let as stands for the sale of refreshments, for gambling tables, or for worse purposes, and by all these means the priests generally contrive to make gain of their devotion.

Parties of actors and tumblers are numerous, and can be hired cheaply, and their performances frequently relieve the tedium of the private life of rich families who engage them to come to their houses. They are constituted into separate corporations or