of wedding one whom probably they have never yet seen, and for whom they can never care. Women of education —there are, alas ! but a few — occasionally hire educated widows in needy circumstances to read novels or plays to them. Women capable of reading in this way can make a very comfortable living. Story-tellers and ballad-singers are also employed to entertain them in the courts of their houses.
The evenings they generally spend in their court-yards, smok- ing and watching the amusements of the children; and on these occasions conjurors, Punch-and-Judy men and ventrilo- quists are much in demand. The families retire early to rest, the ladies never caring to spoil their eyes by working under the light of a lamp. Opium-smoking is freely indulged in by many women in China. The romance of love is not unknown in the land, although few marriages are ever celebrated where the contracting parties have formed an attachment, or even seen each other, before their wedding-day.
On leaving Yang's dwelling, I had always to make my way across a flooded court, where a steam mining-pump had once been set going and had deluged the premises before it could be stopped. My friend, when 1 took my departure, was daily expecting the complete apparatus for a small gas-work, to sup- ply his house with gas — a feat which I believe he successfully accomplished without blowing up his abode.
Pekingese Enamelling. — There are but one or two shops in Peking where the art of enamelling is carried on. The oldest enamelled vases were made during the Ta-ming dynasty, about three centuries ago; but these are said to be inferior to what were produced about 200 years later, when Kien-lung was on the throne. Within the last quarter of a century the art has been revived. One of the best shops for such work stood not
