Chapter XX
Canton, City of Mystery and Romance, of narrow sinister alleys forming a veritable mystic maze of allurement. Of lanterns and jades, of tapestries, fine embroideries and images. Here ten thousand odors fight for supremacy. Sometimes the result is nauseating, at times oddly enticing. The smells of China are like nothing else in the world, a dead dog lying in the sun, burning incense filtering through the lattice of a joss house, countless swarms of unwashed humanity as thick as flies around carrion, with now and then a whiff of sandalwood, jasmine or wistaria from the pack of an itinerant vendor of perfumes.
There are buildings in Canton that would
[209]
