The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1869-01-08

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carleton" in his last letter to the Bos-
ton Journal, gives the following graphic
sketch of the Chinese temples in Canton
1t would take us long time to visit all
the idol temples, or '.joss houses" us they
are called. The word Joss" is not Chi
nese word, but corruption of the Latin
word Deus-tirst used by the Portuguese !;
the Chinese would not understand us were
we to use the term. A look into one or
two of the temples will be sufficient for our
curiosity. Every city in China has one,
which is called the City Temple, dedicated
to the god OF the city, and these are more
resorted to than those of any other god.
Going up into the heart of the town, we
find the temple on one of the principal
streets. There is such crowd in front of
it that We can hardly get along-not wor-
shippers, but re at the entrance are gam
blers, fortune-tellers by the<score, quack
doctors, hucksters of all Sorts ;. Near by
man is keeping up tremendous racket
on big drum and calling upon the cr%swd
to come and see tiger and other curiosis
ties which he has on exhibition. On both
sides nf tho wide passage are rooms tain
ing plaster images wliicn tell the story of
the torments of the wicked. One man is
being ground up in a grist-mill. The
devils are turning the stone, and the victim
has been put in head foremost. You see
only his legs and feet sticking out of the
hole in the stone. These people believe in
the transmigration of souls-that is, that
the wicked will live in the future in the
shape OF oxen, asses, monkeys, snakes, and
all sorts OF animals, and here is the repre-
sentation of the change. A boy is chang
ing to dog; one man has just begun to
take on the head OF an OK; another has be-
come an ass-nothing very strange in that,
perhaps you will say. We see no women
or girls taking the forms OF donkeys or
other shapes, Tor they believe women have
no souls.
There is enough about this temple to keep
us staring by the hour-great gilt idols,
fifteen feet high; long, crimson streamers
hanging from the roof; hundreds Of small
gilt images-the goddess of flowers, with
her thirty muses.; room after room hung
with flags and banners, covered with
strange devices; rooms where the storytell-
ers are sitting with listening crowds around
them.
There is woman worshipping, before
the idols; throwing upon the ground two
pieces OF wood, which are fiat ON one side
and round on the other-they are luck
blocks; if one flat surface and one round
surface is the result OF the throw, the day
will be lucky. She tries them three times
they are against her. She rises, lights a
paper, touches OF bundle of tire-crsn L a-s
and her worship is done. So MANY fire.
crackers are let of throughout the CITY. 40
acts of worship, that it is like Fourth of
July all the time.
Were there time we might have a long
talk about the temple of the Five Cent?
also the tive-storied pagoda, the temple of
the Five hundred Gods; also we might talk
OF the flower gardens, where the shrubs are
trained in the forms of goats, horses, dra-
CONS and great many other shapes
We might ramble through these narrow
streets for week, and we should all the
eoHie upon something new anetstranoe,
which would call forth our wonder, and
perhaps make us laugh outright.
TopcHING INSTANCE OF CHILDISH DEyo
TIoN.A7Three children in New Brunswick
got astray, One was about years of age
the others and 3. 1t was a wild region,
and in wild weather, and at the edge of
night From signs, it seems that the six
year old soon felt sure that there was no
hope of their being found, or finding them
selves that night and SO took measures
at once for the safe keeping of its little
ones. Putting them in the most sheltered
spot it could find, 1t then stripped away
most of its own garments to put on them,
and set out to gather dry sea weed and
brush to cover them up in and defend them.
Quite quantity Of this had been gath
cred and piled about the babes into a sort
of nest, and there they lay when the people
found, them, still alive: but the six year
old matron and martyr lay on Nthe shore,
dead of the cold-lay beside the vast pile
of brush it had been able to gather, but
was not able to bring in.
eA whats that picture on r. sand a
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