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Account of the Mantchous at Chapu
AUG
tle without delay and confusion. In the locating of their dwellings, the Tartar chiefs had an eye to martial arrangement, as appears not only from a view of them, but from a plan exhibiting a portion of their encampment, which was found by a marine officer and oblig. ingly given to the writer of these observations. The houses are gene- rally of a very humble character, being small and low. A few of more spacious dimensions present themselves here and there, and suggest to us, that they were tenanted by persons of quality and influence. One in particular, though not distinguished for neatness of architecture, bas several extensive halls and court-yards. In front of this residence is a green lawn, which served for the pasturing of about fifty ponies, said to be of Mantchou extraction, and for the more important objects of parade and military exercise.
If in a general statement it may be said the abodes of the Tartar soldiers at Chápú agree in being strait aud confined, they differ widely in point of accommodation; some have merely a bench for reclining at night, a table, a few stools, and perchance a solitary cup- board for the bestowment of some spare garments; others, though unpromising in outward show, are well stored with the necessaries, the comforts, and not in a paucity of instances, with the elegancies of life.
Each house is seated in a small inclosure, surrounded by a wall six or eight feet high. The gate consists of two folding leaves secured by a cross bar and a Chinese lock, but the texture and workmanship are often so slight that a blow from the arm of a soldier dismantles the whole at once. The courtyard is paved with stones, and earthen jars are placed here and there for holding fresh water. They are of the urn-shape, that is larger at the top than below, and as they are not unfrequently ranged in order, they furnish us with an apt illustra- tion of the passage in the 2d of John, wherein six earthen pots are said to have been set according to the Jewish rites of purification. In the centre of the court-yard a well is sometimes dug of great depth and of narrow bore. The water from this repository chiefly used in the offices of cooking, while the water treasured up in the earthen jars, was brought I suppose from the fresh stream, and destined to pre- pare the tea and to allay the thirst of the inmates. In one corner of many yards a lodge was seen, in which the porter and perhaps some of the other domestics sleep and take their meals.
In the same inclosure, upon a wooden stand rests a jar, in which the water-lily displays its broad leaf, and the gold-fish disports in the tiny waves when gilded by the rays of the sun In the different