Buying Curios.—Being stoned.—Chinese New Year.—Robbers.—Protesting Innocence.—Doing Penance.—Medicines
Buying Curios.—Being stoned.—Chinese New Year.—Robbers.—Protesting Innocence.—Doing Penance.—Medicines.
Before Chinese New Year bargains are to be picked up—in Shanghai lovely embroidered satins, exquisite transparent tortoiseshell boxes, or china of the Ming period. Up-country our buyings are of a different order—a tiger-skin thirteen feet from head to tail, with grand markings, though of course not so thick a fur as is to be had at Newchwang. Head and tail and claws are all intact; and the man who brings it exhibits also its terrible jaws, and points to the holes where the spear entered before the man conquered the tiger. We have besides stone slabs, with the shells of the orthoceras embedded in them, sawn asunder and polished for screens or table-tops. What that most remarkable animal did, with a shell like the horn of an unicorn, not uncommonly over two feet long, and beautifully convoluted, it is hard to think. These pagoda-stones, as they are called, arrive in mass, all to realise money for New Year's debts.
Rocks of various kinds are the special product of the 254Ichang district, where we could supply all the rockeries of Shanghai with disintegrated conglomerate. Only, unfortunately, at this season fern-stones are not in sufficient beauty to play the part of the Irish pig, and help to pay the rent. But one day an eagle was shown into the drawing-room in splendid condition, with grand yellow beak, and beautiful brown eyes, and neck of blended tints of brown and bronze. The poor creature's feet were tightly tied together; but even as it was, we were careful about admiring its beauties too closely. Eight hundred cash was all that was even asked by its captor, who eventually is said to have parted with the beautiful bird for five hundred cash, or one shilling.
購買古董——被投石——中國新年——強盜——抗議清白——懺悔——藥品。
在中國新年前，可以撿到不少便宜貨——在上海，可以買到華麗的繡花緞、精緻的透明玳瑁盒子，或明朝時期的瓷器。在內地，我們的購物品則有所不同——一張十三英尺長的老虎皮，從頭到尾都有漂亮的花紋，儘管毛不如在牛莊能買到的那麼厚實。老虎的頭、尾巴和爪子都完好無損，帶來老虎皮的人還展示了其可怕的下巴，並指出矛刺入的位置，這些地方是人們在打敗老虎前留下的。我們還有石板，上面嵌有筆石，用來做屏風或桌面的裝飾。很難想像這種奇特的動物是怎麼生活的，它的殼像獨角獸的角，常常超過兩英尺長，且有漂亮的螺旋紋。這些被稱為“塔石”的石頭成堆運來，都是為了賺錢還新年債務。
各種岩石是宜昌地區的特產，我們可以供應上海所有假山所需的分解礫岩。只是很不幸，在這個季節，蕨石並不夠漂亮，無法像愛爾蘭豬那樣幫助支付租金。不過有一天，一隻老鷹被帶進了客廳，狀態極佳，擁有漂亮的黃色喙、美麗的棕色眼睛和褐色與銅色交融的脖子。可憐的生物的腳被緊緊捆住，但即便如此，我們在欣賞其美麗時也格外小心。最後，捕捉者說以八百文錢出售這隻美麗的鳥，最後以五百文錢（約合一先令）的價格成交。
A curious little animal with beautiful long-nailed feet and tiny tail, and a fur so exquisitely thick and soft and feathery one quite longed for a collar of it, had not such luck as the eagle, and died before arriving here; but of these various luxuries—for none of these can quite be reckoned among the necessaries of life—it is a little difficult to choose on which to spend one's spare cash. The fur-shops close before the New Year, which is the more to be regretted as they offer the most fascinating footstool covers—intended for the seats of roomy Chinese chairs—made out of two heads of what are called seven-months' tigers, a thick fur of drab colour with an admixture of rich brown.
有一隻可愛的小動物，擁有美麗的長指甲腳和小尾巴，毛皮極為厚實柔軟，令人不禁渴望擁有一條這樣的毛領。但它不像老鷹那麼幸運，在抵達這裡之前就已經死去了。這些各種奢侈品——因為這些東西都不能算作生活必需品——中，很難選擇該把閒錢花在哪一件上。皮草店在新年前關門，這令人遺憾，因為它們提供了最迷人的腳凳套，這些腳凳套是用於寬敞的中國椅子座位上，並且是用兩個被稱為“七月老虎”的頭製成的，毛皮厚實，顏色是帶有濃郁棕色混合的灰褐色。
PUNCH AND JUDY.
Lent by Scotch Presbyterian Mission.
Oranges are what colour the scene,—mandarin oranges, of delicious flavour and thinnest possible skin; and other oranges, slightly indented at either end, and of a flavour peculiar to the district, and highly appreciated. 255But an attempt to examine the orange-market soon roused a row, when mud and brickbats flew through the air, so well hurled by some of the Hunan boatmen as to raise a lump like an egg on the skull of one of the party before we fairly got away, with our hats knocked over our eyes, and generally somewhat soiled. This stoning experience becomes a little monotonous. 256I have had hot things thrown at me in Hankow, hot things and stones in Itu, bricks and earth in Ichang, and since then so many things in so many less well-known places. There is a certain amount of excitement attached to it at first; but the most passionate lover of excitement could buy it more pleasurably otherwise. The people you look at always run away, if you look firmly enough; but then those from behind come on, and the men on the outskirts of the throng take the opportunity to throw things under cover of the others. After all, the shrieking and shouting they keep up is about the worst part of the proceeding, making one feel like a mad dog. And to walk through the narrow streets of a Chinese town in that character is not the pleasantest possible experience. We enjoyed it to perfection at Itu, where the people consider they have conquered the English; for a missionary, having taken a house there, was not only persuaded by the British Consul into giving up the house, the owner of which had as usual in such cases been thrown into prison, but had even to pay something himself, instead of having compensation given to him.
橘子讓場景變得五彩繽紛——柑橘，味道鮮美，皮薄如紙；還有其他稍微凹陷於兩端的橘子，具有該地區特有的風味，備受讚賞。試圖進入橘子市場檢查橘子的行動很快引起了一場騷動，泥土和磚塊在空中飛舞，一些湖南船工投擲得如此精準，以至於我們一行人在逃脫前，有一人的頭上被砸出了一個像雞蛋般大的腫塊，帽子被打落在眼睛上，整體上有些狼狽。這種被扔石頭的經歷變得有些單調乏味。我在漢口被扔過熱物，在伊圖被扔過熱物和石頭，在宜昌被扔過磚塊和泥土，從那以後，在許多不太知名的地方經歷過各種投擲。剛開始時，這種經歷有一定的刺激性，但最狂熱的興奮愛好者也可以找到更愉快的方式來購買這種刺激。當你堅定地盯著看時，周圍的人總是會逃跑；但背後的人卻會湧上來，而人群邊緣的男子會藉機在其他人的掩護下投擲東西。最糟糕的部分還是他們不斷地尖叫和喊叫，讓人感覺自己像一條瘋狗。而以這種形象走在中國城鎮狹窄的街道上並不是最愉快的經歷。在伊圖，我們享受到了這種經歷的極致，那裡的人認為他們征服了英國人；因為有一位傳教士在那裡租了一間房子，不僅被英國領事勸說放棄了這間房子（房主在這種情況下通常會被關進監獄），甚至還要自己支付一些費用，而不是獲得賠償。
Had it not been for the uproarious chorus of "Slay the foreigner!" the tune to which we habitually walked about in remote parts of Hupeh Province, the shops of Itu looked rather inviting. There were beautiful sheep-skins in great profusion; and even in passing I was struck by the delicate beauty of some of the fox-skins. Women's embroidered petticoats were also hanging up for sale; but this was probably a bad New 257Year's sign. In one of the temples at Itu report says there is an inscription in European characters; but the hooting crowd did not predispose us to research, the less so as over all down fell the silent snow, in the midst of which stalked the most formidable beggar I have ever yet seen, stripped to the waist, covered with skin disease, his face plastered with mud of a livid green hue, his hair wild, and his eyes fierce and shining.
How comfortable the familiar house-boat looks, after one of these raids upon the shore, with luncheon on the table, and the armchairs all equally inviting! But we were stoned at Ichang with no pleasant house-boat to make tracks to; and, what is worse, one of the party wounded, which was a bad precedent, to say the least of it. And we were met by a French gentleman, who said, "I was stoned for a whole quarter of an hour yesterday." It seemed to him, as it did to us, that these little breaches of the peace, acquiesced in, might easily lead to serious consequences. The cry of "Slay the foreigner!" was a novelty that year. It has become very common since then.