A Woman's Journey Round The World, From Vienna To Brazil, Chili, Tahiti, China, Hindostan, Persia, And Asia Minor By Ida Pfeiffer
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It Is True That Vases And Other
Vessels Four Feet High Are Neither Light Nor Transparent; But Cups
And Other Small Objects Can Only Be Compared To Glass For Fineness
And Transparency.
The colours on them are very vivid, but the
drawings very stiff and bad.
In the manufacture of silks and crape shawls, the Chinese are
unsurpassable; the latter especially, in beauty, tastefulness, and
thickness, are far preferable to those made in England or France.
The knowledge of music, on the other hand, is so little developed,
that our good friends of the Celestial Empire might almost, in this
respect, be compared to savages - not that they have no instruments,
but they do not know how to use them. They possess violins,
guitars, lutes (all with strings or wires), dulcimers, wind
instruments, ordinary and kettle-drums, and cymbals, but are neither
skilled in composition, melody, nor execution. They scratch,
scrape, and thump upon their instruments in such a manner, as to
produce the finest marrowbone-and-cleaver kind of music imaginable.
During my excursions up and down the Pearl stream, I had frequent
opportunities of hearing artistic performances of this description
on board the mandarin and flower-boats.
In all kinds of deception the Chinese are great adepts, and
decidedly more than a match for any Europeans. They have not the
slightest sense of honour, and if you detect them, content
themselves with saying: "You are more clever or cunning than I." I
was told that when they have any live stock, such as calves or pigs,
for sale, they compel them, as they are disposed of by weight, to
swallow stones or large quantities of water.
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Page 211 of 708
Words from 56188 to 56465
of 187810
