6
82 THROUGH CHINA WITH A CAMERA.
sex to be met with out of doors in this part of China. They never paint, and are therefore set down by their countrywomen as of doubtful respectabiUty. This is really true of some of them, although in the presence of Europeans who may hire their boats, they behave with uniform modesty and decorum. Their boats are the perfection of neatness, and their dress as simple as it is picturesque. They scull or row with great dexterity, skimming in and out among the crowd of shipping, or along the narrow ways that form the thoroughfares in the floating town of boats, where natives in tens of thousands pursue their various avocations, quite apart from the dwellers on shore. A brisk trade is carried on in many of these narrow avenues, and the small merchants who engage in it have their shops in the bows of their boat and their residences at the stern. If business happens to be dull at one end of the town they move to the other, or else take a tour in the provinces, carrying their whole establishment to a region where the family can enjoy balmy air, and where they will delight the. hearts of the rustics with their display of city wares.
Steering clear of a floating market in one of the main alleys of this aquatic Babel, we come in front of a row of flower- boats, the floating music-saloons of this quarter of the stream. It is growing dark, and the numerous lamps which hang round these boats produce a very striking effect. Each saloon rears its head high above the water, and is carved into the most elaborate representations of the animal and vegetable world, of the beauties on earth or the wonders in the heavens above. Through the interstices of the carving we can make out some pretty female faces, and suddenly a crowd of fine young dam- sels rise above the woodwork, looking like a continuation of the ornaments. Suddenly they again disappear, as a gay group
