posed couches, chairs, tables, and the requisites for
the toilet, besides a writing desk, so that a bedstead in China contains
all the furniture of the room. Some of these were valued at five and six
hundred dollars, but were very highly ornamented and of exquisite
workmanship.

A hat shop was the next visited. Its interior would have been considered
splendid even in Regent Street. A long highly polished counter with a
top of cane-work, was loaded with the hats and caps of Mandarins of
every class, and the display was very tempting to those who wanted them.
We then passed five minutes in a porcelain warehouse; from the warehouse
we went to a toy-shop, and being by this time pretty well encumbered
with mandarins' hats and caps, gongs, and a variety of other articles
which we did not want, at the same time making the discovery that our
purses were not encumbered with dollars as they were when we set forth,
we thought it advisable to leave off shopping for the day.

The next day we visited the Hall of Confucius, which was not worth
seeing, nor could we discover to what use it was dedicated, so we turned
from it and went off to see a Chinese play. As we proceeded to the
theatre we were surprised to hear a lad singing "Jim along Josey," we
turned round and found it was a real pig tail who was singing, and we
inquired where he learnt the air. We found that he had served on board
one of our vessels during the Chinese war, so we hired the young traitor
as a cicerone during our stay at Ningpo, and ordered him to follow us to
the theatre, which as usual was a temple or joss-house.

[Illustration: CHINESE JOSS HOUSE AT NINGPO.

F. M. DELT.

M. N. HANHART LITH. PRINTERS

LONDON; LONGMAN & CO. 1848]

We found it crowded with Chinese, and the actors were performing on a
raised platform. Our entrance caused a great sensation, and for a short
time the performance was unnoticed by the audience. Our beaver hats
quite puzzled them, for we were in plain clothes; even the actors
indulged in a stare, and for a short time we were "better than a play."
The Chinese acting has been often described: all I can say is, that so
far it was like real life that all the actors were speaking at one time,
and it was impossible to hear what they said, even if the gongs had not
kept up a continual hammering, which effectually drowned the voices. At
all events they were well off in the property line, being all very
showily dressed. Fireworks were at