The seat of honour in the reception-hall has its place beneath the central window, facing the highly-carved and ornate pillared entrance; while the seats for the use of those inferior in social rank are ranged right and left along the sides of the apartment. Above the window an inscription, always to be found in a similar position, conveys some words of welcome or classical phrase. In the present instance it ran thus:—"The hall of joyful fragrance."
My friend furnished a choice repast, of which grapes formed one of the chief attractions. Here, indeed, as in many other parts of China, I was treated with the greatest courtesy and kindness. I had occasion to repeat my visits in fulfilment of a promise I gave Mr. Yang, to show him how to make for himself certain photographic chemicals with materials which he could procure in Peking.
No. 12 will convey an idea of the kind of buildings which divide one court from another, and also of the grotesque elegance of their ornamentation. It will show, too, how well the design has been suited to the exigences of a climate such as that which prevails at Peking, where the summer heat recalls the tropics, and the winter reminds us of Iceland. The heavy roofs of tiles reflect the heat and keep out the cold, while the verandah can be thrown entirely open, or kept closely shut; thus provision is made against the two extremes of temperature. The walls are built of grey bricks; the beams, joists, pillars, and panels being constructed out of hard wood, and thickly varnished to improve their appearance, as well as to prevent decay, and the inroads of destructive insects. The pierced ornamental brackets, equal in their strength to solid material, impart the additional charms of grace and lightness to the whole design.
Here, however, I cannot venture on a more detailed account of Chinese houses. I may have scope for this and other subjects of no less interest, should I decide on publishing a full narrative of my travels. The group in No. 12 represents my friend, his son, and a party of the ladies and younger children of his household.
His love of foreign machinery led him to erect a steam pump in one of the courts in the ladies' quarter. For this purpose some of the marble slabs were removed; the pump was then sunk till it met the water, and there this strange, rusty monument still stood. Once and for all had its owner succeeded in starting the steam-engine; and seemingly he could not stop it again in time, for the pump, which had worked nobly, flooded the quadrangle, and the overflow had not subsided up to the time of my visit.
A narrow, dark passage led to another part of the ladies' quarter, a chamber containing a splendidly-carved square bedstead made of hard, black wood, furnished with varnished wooden pillows, and draped with richly-embroidered silken curtains. The roof of this apartment was panelled and covered with a ceiling of cloth, stretched flat and whitewashed. Here, on a long table of carved black wood, was arranged an array of chemical and electrical apparatus, interspersed with ancient Chinese relics, classical books, and copies of one or two of our modern scientific treatises, which missionaries had translated into Chinese. Indeed, on this table were brought face to face the two principles that are now struggling for the mastery in China, and among the nations of the East. In the old relics and older books could be discovered the deep-rooted veneration for the wisdom of by-gone ages, and in the modern scientific appliances the elements of that living progress which is day by day affecting the destinies of the civilized world.
My friend Yang was groping in darkness with many of those things, although he had an intense desire to grasp their proper uses. He had made many mistakes. Thus, in an adjoining court or poultry yard, he had set up a saw-mill, a planing machine, and a steam-engine on wheels. As to the mill, he said that it was a wonderful contrivance, for which he had, at great trouble, procured a quantity of wood, but he added with regret that the machine had only been in use one day, in which space of time it had got through a surprising amount of work; having, in fact, sawn up everything he could think of to feed it with. The contrivance had, however, proved too much for the Pekingese. Alarmed by the hissing and throbs of the engine, and by the whirr of the saw, the citizens procured ladders, and scaled the walls in such numbers that the house-top was a black mass of chattering spectators. Besides all this, a number of the fowls, shocked and disheartened at the sad turn which affairs had taken, died off in a fright, or else poisoned themselves by drinking photographic water, tainted with cyanide of potassium.
