Perfumed paper, which must be bought from the priests, is burnt at every opportunity, and very frequently beforehand, after every prayer.  From the trade in this paper the greater portion of the priests’ income is derived.

On several occasions, accompanied by Herr von Carlowitz, I took short walks in the streets near the factory.  I found the greater pleasure in examining the beautiful articles of Chinese manufacture, which I could here do at my leisure, as the shops were not so open as those I saw during my excursion round the walls of Canton, but had doors and windows like our own, so that I could walk in and be protected from the pressure of the crowd.  The streets, also, in this quarter were somewhat broader, well paved, and protected with mats or planks to keep off the burning heat of the sun.

In the neighbourhood of the factory, namely in Fousch-an, where most of the manufactories are situated, a great many places may be reached by water, as the streets, like those in Venice, are intersected by canals.  This quarter of Canton, however, is not the handsomest, because all the warehouses are erected on the sides of the canals, where the different workmen have also taken up their residence in miserable huts that, built half upon the ground and half upon worm-eaten piles, stretch far out over the water.

I had now been altogether, from July 13th to August 20th, five weeks in Canton.  The season was the hottest in the whole year, and the heat was really insupportable.  In the house, the glass rose as high as 94.5 degrees, and out of doors, in the shade, as high as 99 degrees.  To render this state of things bearable, the inhabitants use, besides the punkas in the rooms, wicker-work made of bamboo.  This wicker-work is placed before the windows and doors, or over those portions of the roofs under which the workshops are situated.  Even whole walls are formed of it, standing about eight or ten feet from the real ones, and provided with entrances, window-openings, and roofs.  The houses are most effectually disguised by it.

On my return to Hong-Kong, I again set out on board a junk, but not so fearlessly as the first time; the unhappy end of Monsieur Vauchee was still fresh in my memory.  I took the precaution of packing up the few clothes and linen I had in the presence of the servants, that they might be convinced that any trouble the pirates might give themselves on my account would be thrown away.

On the evening of the 20th of August I bade Canton, and all my friends there, farewell; and at 9 o’clock I was once again floating down the Si-Kiang, or Pearl stream, famous for the deeds of horror perpetrated on it.

CHAPTER IX.  THE EAST INDIES—­SINGAPORE.

ARRIVAL IN HONG-KONG—­THE ENGLISH STEAMER—­SINGAPORE PLANTATIONS—­A HUNTING PARTY IN THE JUNGLE—­A CHINESE FUNERAL—­THE FEAST OF LANTERNS—­TEMPERATURE AND CLIMATE.