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CHAP. VIII. ROADSIDE TEMPLES-THE BAMBOO. 155

Having visited many places on my route to the temple, it was past midday ere I reached its sacred precincts. The large bronze bell in the belfry was tolling, and the priests were hurrying to the great hall, where their devotions were about to commence, for "it was the hour of prayer."

The hills in the vicinity of the temple are richly wooded. Indeed the priests of this sect seem to preserve, in a most scrupulous manner, the trees which grow in the neighbourhood of their temples, and thus contribute greatly to the beauty of the scenery. Some fine trees of Cryptomeria japonica adorn the approaches to the temple; and the largest specimens of the Chinese pine (Pinus sinensis) which I have met with in the country stand near it. There are also some fine bamboo woods here, which deserve more than a passing glance. The stems of this variety are sometimes a foot in circumference, clean, straight, and from thirty to fifty feet in height. Those rough branching kinds which I have seen in India, and in other parts of the world, are not to be compared to the northern Chinese variety. It ought by all means to be introduced into our Indian possessions in the Himalayas, where it would be as useful to the natives as it is to the Chinese.

The bamboo is one of the most valuable trees in China, and is used for almost every conceivable purpose. It is employed in making soldiers' hats and shields, umbrellas, soles of shoes, scaffolding poles, measures, baskets, ropes, paper, pencil-holders, brooms, sedan-chairs, pipes, flower-stakes and trellis-work in

gardens; pillows are made of the shavings; a kind of rush cloak for wet weather is made from the leaves, and is called a So-e, or "garment of leaves." On the water it is used in making sails and covers for boats, for fishing-rods and fish-baskets, fishing-stakes and buoys; catamarans are rude boats, or rather floats, formed of a few logs of bamboo lashed firmly together. In agriculture the bamboo is used in making aqueducts for conveying water to the land; it forms part of the celebrated water-wheel, as well as of the plough, the harrow, and other implements of husbandry. Excellent water-pipes are made of it for conveying springs from the hills, to supply houses and temples in the valleys with pure water. Its roots are often cut into the most grotesque figures, and its stems finely carved into ornaments for the curious, or into incense-burners for the temples. The Ning-po furniture, the most beautiful in China, is often inlaid with figures of people, houses, temples, and pagodas in bamboo, which form most correct and striking pictures of China and the Chinese. The young shoots are boiled and eaten, and sweetmeats are also made of them. A substance found in the joints, called tabasheer, is used in medicine. In the manufacture of tea it helps to form the rolling-tables, dryingbaskets, and sieves; and last, though not least, the celebrated chop-sticks-the most important articles in domestic use-are made of it.

However incredulous the reader may be, I must still carry him a step further, and tell him that I have not enumerated one-half of the uses to which the

CHAP. VIII.

IMPORTANCE OF THE BAMBOO.

157

bamboo is applied in China. Indeed it would be nearly as difficult to say what it is not used for as what it is. It is in universal demand, in the houses and in the fields, on water and on land, in peace and in war. Through life the Chinaman is almost dependent upon it for his support, nor does it leave him until it carries him to his last resting-place on the hill-side, and even then, in company with the cypress, juniper, and pine, it waves over and marks his tomb.

At the time of the last war, when the Emperor of China, very considerately no doubt, wanted to conquer the English by withholding the usual supplies of tea and rhubarb, without which, he supposed, they could not continue to exist for any length of time, we might have returned the compliment, had it been possible for us to have destroyed all his bamboos. With all deference to the opinion of his celestial Majesty, the English might have survived the loss of tea and rhubarb, but we cannot conceive the Chinese existing as a nation, or indeed at all, without the bamboo.

When I had reached my old rooms in the priest's house, I found two of my Shanghae friends - Mr. Bowman and Dr. Kirk - domiciled there. The Doctor had been trying to astonish and instruct the priests by showing them a siphon, and by emptying one of their troughs with it; but it is difficult to astonish a Chinaman, or to convince him that there is anything he does not understand! The man looked on in silence for a second or two, and then, with a triumphant smile on his countenance, pointed to his bamboo tubes, which are here used for conveying

water to the priests' houses. "Did not the water rise perpendicularly in them, and to any height he pleased?" It did, but not on the siphon principle, for the source of the spring which supplied these pipes was high up on the hill-side.

In a day or two I left the temple, in company with my two friends, for the lakes of Tung-hoo. Having engaged boats, we sailed over the lakes and visited all their shores. When it was known that one of my companions was a medical man, he had many applications from "the sick, the maimed, and the blind," who fancied he could heal all manner of diseases. During an interview which the Doctor had with one old man, a laughable incident occurred. My friend supposed, from what the man said, that he wished to tender a fee; but upon inquiry it turned out, on the contrary, that he was trying to make the Doctor understand that his advice and assistance could only be taken if they were given gratis!

During the three days we were here I had my hands full enough in collecting objects of natural history. The shores of the lakes were rich in plants, and richer still in insects. Many of the latter are perfectly new to entomologists, but my collections are not yet arranged and examined.

I could have lingered much longer in this part of the country, but my servants had returned from the Bohea mountains, and my holidays, for the present, had terminated. I therefore returned to Ning-po, and made preparations for another and perhaps still more important journey.

CHAP. IX. RESOLVE TO VISIT BLACK-TEA DISTRICTS. 159

CHAPTER IX.

Leave Ning-po for the Bohea mountains - My guides - A flag and its history The Green River again - Spring scenery on its banks Yen-chow and Ta-yang A storm in a creek Boatwomen A Chinese Mrs. Caudle and a curtain lecture Natural productions Funereal cypress and other trees - Our boat seized for debt and the sail taken away A Chinese creditor Town of Nán-cheIts houses, gardens, and trade - Vale of Nán-che Productions and fertility - City of Chu-chu-foo - Moschetoes and Moscheto "tobacco" Arrive at Chang-shan.

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I was not quite satisfied with the result of my journey up the river Min. Although one of my men had brought me a fine collection of tea-plants and seeds from the celebrated black-tea country, and although the expedition was planned so that he could scarcely have procured them elsewhere, had he wished to deceive me, I confess I felt that it would be much more satisfactory if I could visit the district myself. I did not like the idea of returning to Europe without being perfectly certain that I had introduced the tea-plant from the best black-tea districts of China into the Government plantations in the North-western Provinces of India. There may also have been a lingering desire to cross the Bohea mountains and to visit the far-famed Woo-e-shan. At all events I made up my mind to make another attempt, and determined to start from Ning-po, where the people are not so greatly prejudiced against foreigners as they are farther to the south, about Foo-chow and Canton.

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