projecting balconies
produce a very fine effect, being built of coloured bricks, very
artistically laid, and faced with variegated tiles. The bricks are
placed in rows, with their points jutting obliquely outwards, so
that the points project about four inches over one another. At a
distance, the work seems as if it were half pierced through, and
from the beautiful colours and fineness of the tiles, a person might
easily mistake the entire mass for porcelain.

While we were viewing the pagoda, the whole population of the
village had assembled round about us, and as they behaved with
tolerable quietness, we determined on paying a visit to the village
itself. The houses, or rather huts, were small and built of brick,
and with the exception of their flat roofs, presented nothing
peculiar. The rooms did not possess a ceiling of their own, but
were simply covered by the roof; the floor was formed of earth
closely pressed together, and the internal walls consisted partly of
bamboo-mats. What little furniture there was, was exceedingly
dirty. About the middle of the village was a small temple, with a
few lamps burning dimly before the principal divinity.

What struck me most was the quantity of poultry, both in and out of
the huts, and we had to take the greatest care to avoid treading on
some of the young brood. The chickens are hatched, as they are in
Egypt, by artificial heat.

On our return from the village to the pagoda, we saw two schampans
run in shore, and a number of swarthy, half-naked, and mostly armed
men jump out, and hasten through the fields of rice directly to
where we were. We set them down as pirates, and awaited the upshot
with a considerable degree of uneasiness. We knew that, if we were
right in our supposition, we were lost without hope; for, at the
distance we were from Canton, and entirely surrounded by Chinese,
who would have been but too ready to lend them assistance, it would
have been doubly easy for pirates to dispatch us. All idea of
escape or rescue was out of the question.

While these thoughts were flashing across our minds, the men kept
approaching us, and at length their leader introduced himself as the
captain of a Siamese man-of-war. He informed us, in broken English,
that he had not long arrived with the Governor of Bangkok, who was
proceeding for the rest of the way to Pekin by land. Our fears were
gradually dispelled, and we even accepted the friendly invitation of
the c