by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER XXXII
THE CONTINUATION OF THE LECTURE
A walk of half an hour had freshened up the minds and bodies of thepassengers, and they took their places on the promenade for thecontinuation of the lecture. The professor had been to his stateroom,and returned with additional notes.
"Dr. Legge quotes Marco Polo, the greatest traveller of the Middle Ages,who visited China in the thirteenth century," the speaker began, takinga paper from the table, and reading as follows in regard to the GrandCanal: "'Kublai caused a water communication to be made in the shape ofa wide and deep channel dug between stream and stream, between lake andlake, forming as it were a great river on which large vessels can ply.'Kublai was the first sovereign of one of the old dynasties.
"The canal extended from Peking, the capital, in the north, to the southof the empire, a distance of six hundred miles; and it was in use allthe way in former times. The Chinese were not distinguished asnavigators; but in modern times steamers ply between Canton and theports of the Gulf of Pe-chi-li, so that the canal is less necessary, andmuch of it is in bad condition.
"The Great Wall is better known to all the world than the Grand Canal asa peculiarly Chinese wonder, and every school boy and girl has heard ofit. It was built as a defence against the raids of the northern tribes,though for this purpose it was a failure; but it still stands, thoughsome of the English newspapers only a few years ago treated it as amyth; yet there is no doubt whatever of its existence, for it has beenvisited by many reliable English and American travellers. It was beguntwo hundred and fourteen years before the Christian era.
"Our artist has indicated the wall on the map;" and Mr. Gaskette pointedit out on the west shore of the Gulf of Liau-tung, properly a part ofthe Gulf of Pe-chi-li, and traced it some distance to the west. "Itslength, following its numerous twists and bends, through valleys andover mountains, is fifteen hundred miles. It is twenty-five feet wide atthe base, and fifteen at the top. It is formed by two walls of brick,different from those we use, weighing from forty to sixty pounds; andthe space between them is filled with earth and stones. It varies inheight from fifteen to thirty feet.
"The top of the wall is paved with brick, but is now overgrown withgrass. Along the wall, and not on it, are towers of brick at intervals.You observe that at Peking the wall makes a sweep to the north, perhapsthirty miles or more, enclosing a square of land of this extent outsideof the general course of the structure. I met an American gentleman whohad been to the capital of China, and he told me he had been to theGreat Wall. Dr. Legge may take the conceit out of some travellers whenhe says: 'What foreigners go to visit from Peking is merely a loop-wallof later formation, enclosing portions of Chih-li and Shan-hsi.'
"Leaving the Grand Canal and the Great Wall, we will pass on to thelakes of China. They are not on a large scale, like the rivers; and theyare insignificant compared with those of our own country. The Tung-tingHu appears to be the largest, mostly in the province of Hunan, which issixty-five or seventy miles long. The others are Po-yang Hu, inChiang-hsi, and the Tai Hu, which is noted for its romantic scenery andnumerous islets.
"The temperature of the various provinces is on the average lower thanany other country in the same latitude. There is every variety ofclimate in the vast territory of China. The natives consider the threesouthern provinces, including the island of Hainan, less healthy thanthe other portions of the country; but foreigners find no difficulty inresiding in them. In a region taking in over twenty degrees of latitude,the productions vary from those of the tropics to those in the latitudeof central New York, from bananas and pineapples in the south to wheatand Indian corn in the north.
"About all the common grains are raised in the north, and rice is thestaple product of the south. All sorts of vegetables and herbs, ginger,and various condiments, are produced and largely used; though I believethe people are not so hot, gastronomically, in their taste as we foundthem in Batavia and some other places in the islands. They raise thecane and make sugar in Formosa and the southern provinces. All thefruits of our own country, including Florida and Louisiana, are grown indifferent parts of China. Opium, which formerly came into the countryonly from India, is now produced even in Manchuria.
"The Chinese are pre-eminently agriculturists, and farming is theiroccupation above anything else. In the spring the emperor turns over afew furrows in a sacred field, introducing the work of the season; andthe chief official in every province does the same, keeping theimportance of farming pursuits always before the people. The tools theyuse are very primitive; the hoe being the principal hand-tool, and theplough of ancient use for animal power. There is an extensiveapplication of irrigation, which is found to be so necessary in some ofour extreme Western States. In the north wells are used; and varioussimple machinery is employed to raise water when the canal or river isbelow the level of the field where it is needed, which you may have anopportunity to see.
"No kind of fertilizer is wasted, and some are used which are oftenneglected in other countries. A great deal of fun and sarcasm is appliedto the food of the Chinese, but most of us rather approved the dishesset before us by our host of the Flowery Nation in Singapore. In somearticles used for culinary purposes, Parisians go beyond the Chinese, asin the use of horse-beef. I have been in a provision store in Pariswhere nothing else was sold; and every part of the animal waseconomized, including the liver, kidneys, and tongue, and sausages ofthis meat were on view and for sale to epicures in this flesh. But Ibelieve the Chinese do not eat the horse, unless it be in a season offamine; and they had to eat cats in Paris during the siege of 1870.
"When you go into the markets you may see whole dogs dressed for food,or cut up into pieces ready for cooking. These are not common yellowdogs, such as you saw in the capital of the Turkish empire; but they arethe peculiar Chinese breed, sleek and hairless, which are carefullyfatted, and prepared for market. I have no doubt that your stomachsrevolt at the very idea of eating dog; but I cannot see that it is anyworse than eating pork and fowls, which feed more or less on animalfood. However, I do not hanker after dog-meat.
"The Buddhist religion prevails to a great extent here, which diminishesthe quantity of beef used, though not so much as the kindly feelingtowards the creature that is so useful in tilling the soil. Pork is themost common in use for meat, and the number of pigs raised is enormous.Geese and ducks are abundant, artificially hatched as in ancient Egypt,and to a considerable extent in America, and are largely used for food.
"The sea, rivers, and lakes supply fish in all needed quantities. Theyare taken in nets, and also by a novel method of fishing with which youcannot be familiar. A boat goes out with a number of cormorants trainedfor the purpose, which are fishers by nature. The birds dive and bringup the fish, which they deposit in the hand-nets of the boatman.
"Dr. Legge says the Chinese are not gross feeders, as generallyrepresented, except the very poor, and that a Chinese dinner oftwenty-seven courses 'may hold its own with the most luxurious tables.'He adds that the famous bird's-nest soup is a misnomer; but he admitsthat nests from the Indian Archipelago are sliced into other soups, inhis opinion without improving the flavor.
"For a drink, tea has superseded every other beverage, and is takenwithout sugar or milk. It was not used at all in ancient times, but itsuse is universal at the present time. The plant is not grown in thenorth. Black tea comes from the central provinces, and green from twoeastern mainly. Next to silk, if not equal to it, tea is the principalarticle of export. The doctor says that tea-drinking promotes thetemperance of the people more than any other influence. Alcoholicliquors are distilled from rice and millet.
"From the twelfth century B.C. the literature of the nation abounds intemperance lectures, warning the people against the injury of strongdrinks; but tea has done vastly more to prevent their use than anythingelse. As a people at home the Chinese make little use of liquors, thoughthat is not always the case with those who live in New York. They do notsit down to tea as we do, but keep it
at hand at all times, and treattheir visitors with it. Tea is written in the vernacular of the natives_ch'a_. When it was first imported into England it was called _t'ay_;but those who gave it the name were doubtless Irishmen, and they stillstick to it.
"There is no doubt that silk was first produced in China; and silk,linen, and cotton form the clothing of the people. A ceremony like thatwith the plough is performed by the emperor over the silkworms andmulberry-trees, whose leaves are the food of the worm. From before thetwenty-third century B.C., the care of the silkworm, and the spinningand weaving of the thread from the cocoon, has been the particular laborof the women. The mulberry-tree grows everywhere in the country, andsilk is manufactured in greater or less quantities in every province.
"The cotton-plant has been propagated in China; and the cloth is largelyused there, though not equal in finish to the imported article, but isheavier and more lasting in wear. Nankeen comes from Nanking. There areno fireplaces in the houses; and the people keep warm, if they can, byincreasing their clothing. Woollen goods are not manufactured to anygreat extent.
"I will not describe the pagodas, pavilions, bridges, and palaces; foryou will see them for yourselves. The streets of the cities in the southand some in the north are no better than mere lanes; and the crowds ofpeople hustling through them fill them about full, and make you thinkthe place is vastly more populous than it really is. As a set-off tothis idea, you will wonder what has become of the women, for you rarelymeet any of them.
"The streets are paved with stone slabs, badly drained, and abounding inbad odors, and you are not likely to enjoy your walks through them; butthey have magnificent names, which you will not read at the corners,such as the street of Benevolence, Righteousness, etc. When you go intothe house of a tolerably well-to-do family, you will find the quantityof furniture rather scanty, and not luxurious. The floor may be coveredwith matting, but you will find no carpets or rugs. A table and somestraight-backed chairs are the principal pieces. On the walls you mayfind Chinese pictures, which will not challenge your admiration, thoughthey may be artistic in China. Some jars and specimens of fine porcelainmay adorn the room, with writings on the walls expressing moralsentiments. There may be a couch, or more of them, of bamboo and rattan.
"The bamboo is quite as important a production in China as we have foundit in India and the islands; and it is used for all the purposes here,and more in addition than have been mentioned to you before. Thebastinado of the magistrate and the schoolmaster's instrument of tortureare both bamboos.
"Our Nimrods would not find much sport here; for the country is toodensely populated to afford hiding-places for wild animals, though abear or a tiger may sometimes appear, and is quickly killed. There areelephants, rhinoceroses, and tapirs in the forests of Yun-nan; and theemperor has tame elephants at Peking for state purposes. The brown andthe black bear are found in certain localities, as well as varieties ofdeer.
"The domestic four-footed animals are small horses and small cattle,which have not been improved. The donkey is a livelier beast than inEngland or America. About the capital there are very fine mules, whichare fashionable there as they are in some parts of Spain. Birds of preyare common, and magpies are sacred birds which the Nimrods must notshoot. The people are very fond of song-birds and flowers, which provestheir good taste.
"There are vast quantities of minerals beneath the soil of the country,yet little had been done in mining; though, since the government hassteamers of its own, they are doing more to develop the mines. Thecurrency of the country is nowhere; for the only coin that is legallycurrent is the copper _cash_, of which it takes ten to make our cent.Large payments are made in silver by weight, and the housekeeper has tokeep a pair of scales handy to ascertain the value of the silver shereceives or expends.
"But I know, my friends, that I have wearied you; and though I havesomething more to say about this very interesting country, I shall deferit till such time as the commander shall appoint."
The professor bowed and retired; but, as an offset to his last remark,the applause was more prolonged and vigorous than usual.