Barbaric Pageants [pp. 357-364]

3~8 BarbarTh Pageants. [April,
or disintegrated ~anite which makes them look over other groves, over church spires, and
look much more like a land of gold than does the quaint Chinese town with the bandboxCalifornia at first sight of her sandhills. like houses, on to the glorious bay with its
When the sunbeams slant upon this marl, the cosmopolitan shipping, and thousands of
similitude to rough nugget gold is complete. samAans, looking with their matting sails like
-The harbor of Hongkong, shut in like a nautical bee-hives. Indeed, the interior and
great lake by the peaked mountains, glitters domestic arrangements of these boats are
again with these huge masses of seeming somewhat upon the bee-hive plan; one is
virgin gold, which, with its translucent blue frequently the home of three generationswater and its thousand vessels at anchor or the grandmother, her married children, and
skimming about, make it one of the most their babies. The tenement, which is both row
beautiful harbors in the world. Its arms do and sail boat, has a covered shed toward the
not extend so far as those of San Francisco stern, after the plan of the Venetian gondola,
-Bay, yet the actual anchorage is more exten- but these are larger and not half as graceful.
sive. Comparisons of beautyare alwaysinvid- They are generally manned by the ladies of
ious; but I should say that Hongkong Bay is the family, the grandame taking the helm and
the more startlingly beautiful, like a brunette two or three young ladies clambering the
who dazzles with the flash of her brilliant masts and trimming the sails. In bad weatheyes; while San Francisco has the placid er the whole family stow themselves away in
beauty of a blonde whose soft sweetness wins the hold with the bilge water, and the reason
your love. Once on shore the comparisons they are not all suffocated can only be exand rivalry cease - the dark belle carries plained on the hypothesis that they have an
away the prize without contradiction. The unsuspected amphibious nature. Darwin
one city has been marred in the making, should have investigated this point.
whilst the other is adorned with every archi- On board these sampans arose my first
tectural beauty that taste could suggest and perplexity in China, though on another
wealth supply. The beautiful terraced roads branch of science from ichthyology. Imwinding up to the top of the mountain, eigh-. mediately on our arrival in the harbor of
teen hundred feet above the water, give easy Hongkong, a person boarded us requiring
access to a few summer villas. The granite the ship's washing. Now, as the laundry
walls that form these terraces are covered business is entirely carried on by men in
with the greatest variety of ferns and creep- San Francisco, we naturally took the appliers; the gardens that they uphold are dense cant for that nobler sex, as there were no
with banana, date palm, pomegranate, and indications of femininity in dress or personal
mango trees. The private residcnces, which appearance. The blunder was received with
are nearly all detached, are built generally in considerable indignation by the washer-wo the Italian or Spanish style, with wide, mass- man, as she proved to be, and considerable
ive colonnades, constructed of stone or stuc- rents in the linen would no doubt pay the
coed brick; all the rooms and corridors are penalty. One of the sailors on board the
large and lofty. Of course there are a few sampan our captain hailed as "boy." It
of the "cursed streets of stairs," anathema- shook its head fiercely and vociferated, "No
tized in Malta by Byron, up which the boy!" besides a great deal in Chinese con chair-bearers and ponies trip nimbly, but only demnatory of our want of discrimination.
a few. The main streets or roads, running My friend recommended as a guide to the
horizontally along the side of the mountain, sex that I should look out for "a tail" or
are hard and smooth, and command a mag- "a teapot" at the back of the head as the
nificent view. - On the one hand rise the only sure sign of difference. The very
bosque's of perfumed shrubs and flowers, over- young men hav~ such soft, womanly faces
topped by the stern, rugged peaks whence that it is impossible to distinguish them
floats the British flag; on the other side you from the girls-in fact, many have a more