the hair near the forehead to hang down towards the eye-brows, as in the figure of the young girls in this case, while the former have theirs bound together upon the crown of the head.

Among the accomplishments of the Chinese ladies, music, painting on silk, and embroidery, hold the chief places. The musical instruments are various in kind and material, and a supply of them is held to be an indispensable part of the furniture of a lady's boudoir. Painting on silk is a very common recreation; and embroidery is an almost universal accomplishment.

CASE V.

No. 24. TRAGEDIAN IN SPLENDID COSTUME.

25 & 26. TWO JUVENILE ACTORS, TO PERFORM THE PART OF FEMALE CHARACTERS.

27. CHINESE JUGGLER.

PARASOL USED ON STATE OCCASIONS.

MAGNIFICENT SPECIMEN OF EMBROIDERED TAPESTRY.

AND NUMEROUS SPECIMENS OF THEATRICAL CAPS ON THE WALL.

IN the fifth case we have a specimen of Chinese theatricals. There are three figures of actors, an adult and two children, a Chinese Juggler, a gorgeous state parasol, a number of theatrical caps, and a sample of embroidered tapestry. The costume of the Chinese stage is sufficiently appropriate to the characters represented, and on most occasions extremely splendid. Gay silks and embroidery are lavished on the dresses of the actors, and as most of the serious plays are historical, and for obvious reasons do not touch on events that have occurred since the Tartar conquest, the costume, as in the case of the tragedian here represented, shows the ancient dress of China, which in females, is nearly the same now as ever; but, as regards men, very different. The splendour of Chinese theatrical wardrobes was remarked by Ysbrandt Ides, the Russian ambassador, as long ago as 1692. The dresses and adornments of the actors here represented, are of rich materials and elegantly wrought with gold thread.

Theatrical exhibitions are favourite amusements of the Chinese, and as among the ancient Greeks and Romans, they are chiefly, in China, connected with religion. The estimation in which they are held may be inferred from a single fact. The money expended upon them in one

year at Macao, a place where there are but few wealthy Chinese, amounted to nearly seven thousand dollars.

It is remarkable that there are no regular theatres. The actors are literally vagabonds, strolling about from city to city, and from province to province. In Canton, for example, the inhabitants of a certain quarter club together and make up a purse, with which a company is engaged. A temporary theatre is erected, and the whole neighbourhood at liberty to attend. When the quid pro quo has been rendered by the actors, they move off to another quarter, and the same thing is repeated. It is customary to employ actors at private entertainments, which are never considered complete without a theatrical exhibition. Upon such occasions a list of plays is handed to the most distinguished guest, who selects whichever most accords with his fancy. The principal inns and all large private establishments have a room expressly for this purpose. Females are not allowed to appear upon the stage.

Visitors will perceive in the figure of the Juggler, one of a large class of persons, who obtain a precarious livelihood by an exhibition of feats of dexterity and legerdemain. Jugglers are numerous in the streets of Canton, and are as varied in caste as the different feats they perform. The person here represented ranks high in his profession. On his head is placed a porcelain jar, having a narrow mouth. This jar is so nicely poised in an angular position, that the slightest movement of the Juggler's head, or even the relaxation of a muscle, would cause a fall of the fragile burthen. In the right hand of the artiste are several pieces of bamboo, each about two feet in length. The main object to be achieved by the juggler, is, while he is standing perfectly still, to throw these pieces of bamboo to a great height with his left hand, in such a direction that they all fall into the jar. This manœuvre requires immense practice and steadiness, both of the eye and hand.

The amusements of a people have ever been regarded as indications, to a certain extent, of national character, denoting their boldness, simplicity, or frivolity. Thus, the bull-fights of Spain, the boxing matches and prize fights of England, and the juggling and sports of China, are all in harmony with the chief, but widely different traits of those nations where they are adopted as recreations. With this view, we proceed to mention a few other exploits of the most adroit Chinese exhibiters to the wondering crowd. A man produces from a basket the stuffed skin of a rat; this he exhibits to the multitude, and convinces them that it is exactly what he represents it to be. By placing the throat of the supposed animal between his finger and thumb, and pinching it, the jaws of the rat are forced open, and so exactly will the juggler imitate the squeak of a choking rat, that an observer, particularly if he be a

foreigner, will at once suspect that he had been deceived as to the want of vitality in the apparently tortured animal before him. With a singularity and quickness of motion altogether admirable, the exhibiter tosses it about his person, giving it the exact semblance of a rat endeavouring to escape from the fangs of the destroyer; and at the same time uttering such piercing and natural cries of distress, that the beholder is at last only convinced of the man's skill in ventriloquism, by an examination of the inanimate skin.

The following scene occurred in the drawing room of a foreign resident in Canton. Two jugglers were introduced before the company assembled; after going through a number of surprising feats of skill and agility, one of these men handed to the other a large china basin. This basin, after a few flourishes above his head, and being turned upside down to convince the spectators that it was empty, the exhibiter suddenly allowed it to fall, but caught it before it reached the floor. This movement brought him into a position resting upon his heels, the basin being now hidden from view by the folds of his garments. In that attitude he remained for a few seconds, with hands extended, but in no way touching the basin. With a sudden spring he stood upright, and displayed to the astonished spectators the basin filled to the brim with pure clear water, and two gold fishes swimming in their native element.

Another feat worthy of record, is one of a more exciting and thrilling nature. To be impressed on the mind with full effect, it should be seen under circumstances similar to those which attended the exhibition of it to the relater. Passing a motley crowd of persons in a public square near the foreign factories, the writer had his attention directed to a man apparently haranguing the bye-standers. Prompted by curiosity, he soon found the performer to be a mean-looking person, who divested himself of his outer clothing as far as the waist. He spread a small mat upon the pavement, and taking a boy from the crowd, who was afterwards discovered to be his confederate; he placed him in the centre of the rush mat. He then took from his basket a large butcher's knife, which he flourished over the head of the frightened boy, and with dreadful threats sprang upon his victim. The boy was thrown down, and the man knelt on him in such a manner as to secure his hands. While in this position, he forced back the head of the poor child, and with the knife inflicted a severe gash upon his throat, from which the blood instantly gushed in a torrent, flowing down the breast of the murderer, and sprinkling the nearest spectators. The death-throes of the poor sufferer were painful to behold; frightful and convulsive in their commencement, but diminishing with the loss of blood. The eyeballs start-the muscles are seen to work-there are twitches of the

fingers-desperate efforts to free the confined arms—a change of color in the face to an ashy paleness—a fixed and glassy stare of the eyes— then, a long, last spasmodic heaving and contortion, and all is over; the body falls a corpse!

On witnessing such a strange and revolting scene, the first impulse of the stranger, despite the surrounding crowd, was to seize the murderous culprit, but from this he was prevented by the deafening shouts of the applauding multitude, testifying their approbation of the dexterity of the performer, by a shower of "cash." It is almost superfluous to add, that the deception consisted in the construction of the blade and handle of the knife; so contrived, that by making a sawing motion on the throat of the boy, to produce a stream of coloured liquid resembling blood, pumped out of the knife and handle. These and many other rare sights of the kind are daily practised for the amusement of the idle crowd in the streets of Canton.

But, however, ingenious the deception of some of these persons may appear, the Jugglers from Nankin have a still higher reputation among their own countrymen. Several of their feats of skill and daring are, to the uninitiated, truly astonishing, for instance :-Two men from Nankin appear in the streets of Canton, the one places his back against a stone wall, or wooden fence; the upper part of his person is divested of clothing. His associate, armed with a large knife, retires to a distance, say from 100 to 200 feet. At a given signal, the knife is thrown with an unerring aim in the direction of the person opposite, to within a hairs breadth of his neck, immediately below his ear. With such certainty of success is the blow aimed, and so great is the confidence reposed by the one in the skill of the other, that not the slightest uneasiness is discernible in the features of him, whose life is a forfeit to the least deviation on the part of the practitioner. This feat is again and again performed, and with similar success, only varying the direction of the knife to the opposite side of the neck of the exposed person, or to any other point of proximity to the living target, as the spectators may desire.

Another, and the last feat to be mentioned, is equally exciting. A man is armed with an instrument, resembling a trident, or what is termed by sailors, "grains;" to which formidable weapon is attached a long handle of hard wood. The Juggler, with surprising strength of arm, throws this weapon perpendicularly into the air to a great height, as it gains the greatest elevation, he measures with a practised eye and wonderful precision the exact spot on which it will fall. To this point he advances step by step; in an instant the weapon descends with fearful velocity, scraping the edges of some protruding part of his person;

C

thus giving proof of a singular daring, and successful effort, which surpasses in skill, even the most celebrated rifle shots of the hunters of Kentucky.

The large parasol in this case, beautifully enriched with embroidery and gold thread, is one of those carried on state occasions by the attendants of the officers of government. Parasols and umbrellas were first mentioned in books published about A. D. 300. It is said, that they took their rise from standards and banners waving loosely in the air.

Some notice of the other national amusements will not be out of place here. The Chinese have fewer holidays than perhaps any other people; yet they have a number of festivals, which are enjoyed with a keen relish. The chief of these is the Feast of the New Year, which occurs on the first day of the first moon (about the middle of February), a species of Saturnalia, when the whole empire abandons itself to a frenzy of merriment. All labour is intermitted for several days; public business is suspended for forty days, that the prescribed ceremonials may be duly observed with appropriate solemnity and etiquette; servants are dressed out in all the finery at their command; visits of ceremony and presents are interchanged among friends; the rites of religion are conducted with unusual pomp ; and, in short, gaiety and pleasure are the reigning divinities.

On this day persons proceed from the temple with a lighted candle, with the superstitious impression that if they succeed in reaching their homes without extinguishing the light, that they will be prosperous during the year. They are, however, apparently regardless of any inauspicious omen, and will return to the temple, again and again, to relight their candles, and, as it were, to compel the fates to terminate their labours by a more successful attempt.

The Feast of Lanterns, which occurs soon after this, is a general illumination throughout the empire. The object seems to be to afford an occasion for the display of ingenuity and taste in the construction and mechanism of an infinite variety of lanterns. It is computed that, upon this occasion, there are not less than 200,000,000 blazing at the same time in different parts of the empire. The brilliancy of this beautiful festival cannot be adequately conveyed to the mind or fancy of a reader, even by the most glowing powers of description.

There are several agricultural festivals; an annual trial of skill in boatracing; a festival in honour of the dead; and a sort of general thanksgiving, a holiday highly enjoyed, which takes place in September, at the commencement of the business year.

Gaming prevails among the lower orders, but so much infamy attaches to gamblers, that government officers and the more respectable of the