t argue with an opium consumer to any
good effect. The habit once acquired is never successfully abandoned.
There is always some hope of reform for a drunkard, but for an
opium-eater, never. No statistics of a reliable character as to the
quantity of the deadly drug which is consumed in China can be obtained,
but the aggregate amount, large as it is known to be, is yet
increasing. All the opium which can be obtained from India is consumed
here, beside that which is raised in China; the former by the wealthier
classes, the latter by the poor,--the home product being cheaper and
much inferior in quality.

The temples generally seemed to abound with votive offerings; but the
one aim, so far as we could understand, was to appease the wrath of
malignant deities. These gods, it would appear, are largely composed of
departed ancestors, and the power of such spirits for mischief is the
most prominent article of Chinese faith. In one temple was observed the
hermetically sealed coffin of some lately defunct citizen, beside whose
casket an abundant meal of cooked rice and vegetables was conspicuously
placed. This preparation of food for the dead and buried is not,
however, an exclusive Chinese idea. We have also seen food placed by the
side of newly-made Italian graves at Genoa and Pisa, and our Western
Indians bury arms, clothing, and dried meats with the bodies of deceased
warriors. It is known that reverence for parents is the leading moral
precept of Chinese faith, and more than that, it is lived up to upon
earth by all classes, and when these parents die they are addressed
spiritually and reverentially as guardians. At the entrance of the
temples there are always two large, gilded wooden figures or idols,
considered as a sort of presiding guard over the place.

We visited the Temple of Honan, a place of great sanctity to the
natives. The service is conducted by a college of Buddhist priests
resident within its walls. The institution consists of a group of
shrines or demi-temples dedicated to special gods, and standing within
enclosed courts, shaded by trees of great height, size, and age, the
grounds covering many acres. At the main entrance are placed, as usual,
two hideous idols of colossal size, figures half animal and half human
in design, with strangely distorted countenances. Here the shaven-headed
priests were busy performing rites and chanting before burning incense
and lighted candles, after the Roman Catholic style