Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 679

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Illustrations of Men and Things in China.

DEC.

place in the zodiac at the time the child was born; and each of the signs having letters peculiar to itself, the child is called by a name which begins with one of those letters belonging to that sign in which the sun was at the child's birth.

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ART. IV. Illustrations of men and things in China: manufacture of lanterns; an ode arranged in squares, with some account of its reputed author, Svo Hwuy; Chinese portable writing apparatus. Manufacture of lanterns.-The making of the transparent lanterns, so universally used by the Chinese, employs many thousands of work- meu. The framework of the lantern is made of fine bamboo splints, which are split by the hand with a knife, and woven on a frame of the proper size; this work is done by women and children, and it is said an expert hand can finish six or eight in a day. When brought to the shop, the workmen in the first place cuts off the fag ends, shapes it, and rearranges all the splints, so that the interstices, which are very large, will be nearly of equal size; he then stiffens them with a coat of glue, and lays the skeleton away to dry. When a suitable number are ready, he takes his station near the glue-pot, and laying a piece of thin and coarse bamboo paper called sha che, upon the frame which he holds in his hand, he brushes it down even- ly and smoothly over the splinths with a brush filled with glue. The glue is made from a species of fucus (a Delesseria?) found on the rocky shores of Hainan, and brought to Canton in junks in a dry' state; it is boiled to a proper consistence, and when dried upon the lantern is almost transparent. Two or three coats are laid on, each being well dried, after which the lantern is mounted with a socket for the candle, and a wire for the handle, and hung up for sale. When the customer selects it, a painter, usually one of the workmen, adorns it with flowers, or with his name, his style, the sign of his shop, or any other characters he wishes, fits in a grotesque handle if desired, and charges from five cents to ten or twenty times that, ac- cording to the size and finish.

Lanterns are used by the Chinese for many purposes unknown to western nations. Officers, when traveling by night, always have large ones carried before them with their titles written upon them; and, private persons carry one in their hand with their names upon them. By night, a lantera hung at a shop door serves both for an illuminat- ed sign, and to lighten the street. Besides the kind of lanterns abov