Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 121

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4:

Illustrations of Men and Things in China.

FEB.

ART. VI. Illustrations of men and things in China: priest col lecting paper; uses of blood; mode of cutting glass; a 'China-

man.'

PRIEST collecting paper.-I met a respectable looking Budhistic priest one day, perambulating the streets with two small baskets slung on his arm, on which were written the four characters

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king seih tsze che, meaning, 'respect and pity paper having charac tera on it.' I asked him what he was doing; 'I am going about picking up all written paper,' said he, lest sacred names should be defiled.' His baskets, 90 far as I could see, høld as much orange peel' as paper; but I suppose he thought that all useful things coming in his way, were not to be passed by, any thore than pieces of written paper. This respect for paper with characters on it is universal among the Chinese, and among this class of religionists it is deemed meritorious to go about and rescue all printed and written paper from defilement. The reader must not infer, however, that this is done gratuitously, for the priests collect money, from shopmen and others who write much, in order to pay themselves for picking up waste paper in the streets in their stead; thus making gain out of their reverence for holy characters.

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Uses of blood:-The butcher receives the blood of the ox or hog intò a tub, and after it coagulates, drains off the watery serum, and sends the rest to market. It is cooked in various ways by the people, both alone and combined with other viands. The blood of ducks, after co- agulation, is warmed over a fire, and when the color has changed, and the mass become a little concrete, it is cut into cakes and ex- posed for sale lying in water; the purchaser adds salt and other condiments when he cooks it a second time. The blood of hogs and cattle is also extensively used as a paste. It is, after coagula- tion, thoroughly worked by squeezing it through a handful of straw, to separate the fibrine, and then simmered over a slow fire with the addition of a little lime. When made it is of a dingy red color›; it must be used soon, for it spoils in a day or two; the shopmen paper tea-chests, boxes of goods, &c., with this paste.

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Mode of cutting glass.-The diamond and corundum are both employed by glaziers; they select the natural grains, or break them into fragments, and insert them in a pencil, so as to expose a corner; none of the lapidaries here can cut these genis. The

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