have not water brought by pipes into the houses, as we have here.
Here is the picture of a Chinese water carrier.

[Illustration]

They also make the most elaborately carved ornaments, in wood and
ivory; their toys and lanterns are celebrated for their ingenuity and
workmanship. Their fireworks are superior to all those of other
nations; and they excel in tricks and amusing entertainments. The
cultivation of tea is universal, and agriculture--which, you know is
the art of tilling the earth--is held in high esteem; the principal
products being rice, wheat, yams, potatoes, turnips, and cabbages. The
dwellings of the peasantry too, are not in villages, as in old
England, but are scattered through the country; and they have no
fences, gates, or anything to guard against wild beasts, or robbers.
The females raise silk-worms, spin cotton, manufacture woollen
stuffs, and are the only weavers in the empire. The art of printing,
though done in what I must confess is rather a clumsy manner, is much
exercised amongst them, and gives employment to many people.

I do not think we should like to dine with a Chinese gentleman, or
Mandarin, as he would treat us to strange dainties, as--a roast dog, a
dish of stewed worms, a rat pie; or, perhaps, a bird's-nest. But the
bird's-nest would be the best of the list, for it is not like the kind
of bird's-nests which you have seen, but is made, I believe, of the
spawn of fish, and looks something like isinglass. It is the nest of a
sort of swallow, is about the size of a goose's egg, and is found in
caverns along the sea shores; so it is not so bad as it seems at
first. And the rats are as large and fat as some of our rabbits, being
fed on fruits and grain, purposely for eating; as also are their dogs,