in form from our point of view, though the substance is always the same, and probably more so than with us.  They are a much simpler people, and hypocrisy among them has not yet reached our civilised stage.  In the case of our poor leper friend, we have seen that the people who laughed at him were the first to help him; whereas, I have no doubt that among us who are good Christians, and nothing else but charitable, the majority would not have laughed; indeed, I am not quite sure but that, on the contrary, many would have run to the nearest church to pray for the man, meantime leaving him “cashless,” if not to die of starvation.

Now let us continue our walk and leave the blind man and leper behind.  On our left-hand side there is a huge gateway with a red wooden door—­in rather a dilapidated condition—­though apparently leading to something very grand.  Since we are here we may as well go in.  Good gracious! it is a tumble-down place.  In olden days it used to be the king’s palace, and if you follow me you can see how big the grounds are.  For some reason or other this place, with all its accessories, buildings, &c., has been abandoned by the Court simply because of rumours getting abroad that ghosts haunted it.  Evil spirits were reported to have been seen prowling about the grounds, and in the royal apartments, and it would never have done for a king to have been near such company; so the Court went to great expense to build a fresh abode for the royal personage, and the old palace was abandoned and left to decay.  The grounds that were laid out as pretty gardens were, many years later, used for a plantation of mulberries, a foreign speculation which was to enrich the King and the country, but which turned out instead a huge fiasco.  The mulberry trees are still there, as you may see.  Let us, however, proceed a little way up this hill and go and pay a visit to the two eunuchs who are the sole inhabitants of this huge place, and who will take us round it.  These eunuchs occupy a little room about ten feet square and of the same height in the inner enclosure.  They are very polite, and joining their hands by way of salute to you, invite you to go in—­to drink tea and smoke a pipe.  Poor wretches!  One of them, a fat fellow of an unwholesome kind, as if he were made of putty, having learnt the European way of greeting people, insisted on shaking hands with me, but, oh, how repulsive it was!  His cold, squashy sort of boneless hand, gave you the impression that you had grasped a toad in your hand.  And his face!  Did you ever see a weaker, more depraved and inhuman head than that which was screwed on his shoulders?  His cadaverous complexion was marked with the results of small-pox, which were certainly no improvement to his looks; his eyes had been set in his head anyhow, and each seemed to move of its own accord; his mouth seemed simply to hang like a rag, showing his teeth and his tongue.