rrears of business are made up, all accounts closed and
punctually discharged, whilst everyone works his hardest to increase his
stock of money.

At midnight on the last of the old year a bell is heard to toll, at
which signal everybody rushes into the streets, armed with squibs,
crackers, Catherine wheels, and other blatant pyrotechnical
compositions; and as each tries to outdo his neighbour in the din he
creates, the noise accompanying their discharge is the most satisfactory
possible. The temples and pagodas are brilliantly lighted with colored
lamps and colored candles, whilst similar candles and "joss-sticks," and
gold and silver paper, illumine the interiors of their, at other times,
grimy and dingy abodes. When morning arrives, the streets present a
curious spectacle--everybody seems to be shaking hands with _himself_. A
Chinaman, on meeting and saluting a friend, instead of seizing his hand,
as we should, clasps his own hands together, the right hand grasping the
left, which he sways up and down in front of his body.

Each person, too, is dressed in the newest and costliest dress he can
afford; and as there is but one universal fashion of garment in China,
everybody tries to surpass everybody else in the richness of the
material of which his clothes are made. The children, in particular,
come out well, the girls especially, with highly-rouged and powdered
cheeks and necks, gaudily decorated "queue" (for that appendix is not
confined to the one sex), and silk dresses of the most beautiful colors.
The whole scene has a very stage-like and brilliant effect.

It is worthy of remark, as shewing another trait in this truly
remarkable race, that though they manufacture a very fiery liquor
(called "_samshaw_") from rice, yet you will rarely see a drunken
Chinaman in the streets. As far as I can remember I have met with only
one such, and he a servant on board our ship, who had adopted a liking
for rum because, I suppose, it is the custom for a sailor to drink what
is issued to him.

The harbour, too, has its distinctive features on this gay and festive
occasion. Every junk is covered with great pennons of silk in the most
startling colors, whilst from every available space small oblong pieces
of paper, with characters written on them, flutter to the breeze. These
are "_joss-papers_," and contain prayers for wealth, prosperity, and (if
they have not one already) an heir, "_joss_" is the generic name they
give to thei