Directory_and_Chronicle_1845 — Page 810

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them as bringing ill luck, and that they have gone out of fashion in these days. People now erect wan ták or literary pagodas,

文塔 three stories high, and dedicated to the God of Literature, whose im- age is usually found enshrined in them. This, he remarks, indicates the literary taste of the present day, but I tell him I think it proves the poverty and want of spirit of the people nowadays to be content with a wan pih or mere writing-pencil, which it is modeled after and usually called, while their ancestors put up solid structures two hundred feet high, and calculated to last a thousand years.

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Lip-tak

NOTICES OF THE VILLAGES

BETWEEN Canton and WHAMPOA,

AND IN THE VICINITÝ OF WHAMPOA.

I.—Villages on the North side of the River.

This village is built on both banks of a deep creek which runs up from the north side of the river. In front of the village stands a stone fort named Tung-un Páu-toi

from which the Barrier runs across the river to the opposite shore. Some of the guns are brass pieces, weighing from 4000 to 5000 lbs. Lip-tak contains between 6000 and 7000 inhabitants, principally of the surname Li. There are also a few families of the surnames of Lam Leung, and Lau . There are but few shops in the village, most of the inhabitants being farmers, or engaged in trade at the provincial city. There are twelve or more ancestral halls, eight schools on the east side of the creek, and two on the west.

Ching-kái

This is the first village east of Lip-tak. It is approached by a stone walk, along the bank of a small creek. The number of inhabitants is 2000, who are mostly engaged in agricul

ture. There are no shops in the village, all the buildings being

family residences of ancestral nalls. The principal surnames are Sin and Li, the members of the Li clan have three ances-

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tral halls, and those of the Sin, two. There are only two schools, one containing fourteen boys, the other six.

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