The Portland daily press., 1871-07-20

CHINESE PECULIARITIEs.-AN Nevada pa
per, diating on the Chinese -fondness for
pork, thus describes singular scene when a
drove of several hundred hogs arrived in
town and were penned near the Chinese
quarters:
From all the tumble.down shanties in Chi
natown came the celestial inhabitants, great
and small; male and female came they, as the
animals went into the ark, all to gaze through
cracks and knot holes, and over the fence and
under the fence, and feast their eyes on that
drove of six hundred and odd fat pigs. A
greater collection of blue shirts, round and
umbrella hats, dangling queues and and bird
of paradise-dresses, or more animated as
semblage has seldom been seen. All the af-
ternoon, and till the sun had dipped behind
the peak of Mount Davidson, this scene con-
tinued; then the great priest of the joss
house, arrayed in his long blue robe, was seen
coming from the temple bearing in his hand
an incense pan, from which was spread upon
the evening air the aroma of burning sandal
wood. This wise disciple of COnfucius, and
big dog of the Buddhist lanyard, walked in
odoriferous silence about the inclOsure, gaz-
ing intently through cracks and knot holes at
the stold porcine herd. At length he uttered
a loud, waing cry, which was taken up and
echoed in every tone and accent of terror by
men, women and children. He pointed ont a
particularly large, particularly black, and par
ticularly wise and vicious looking hog. drop
ped something into his incense-pan, which
created dense smoke and stencil which
the very breeze seemed to hasten to leave be-
hind, when he set Up chant, and swinging
his incense. pan back and forth, began craw-
fishing from the place, safely guarding the
rear OF the now thoroughly frightened and re-
,oA TI,otx xHsrxlf t1,ara pnof
uproar in Chinatown, and above all could be
heard the tinkling cymbals and sounding
brass which always announce that his satanic
majesty has been unearthed. Every night
since, the most strenuous exertiOns OF the
whole musical portion OF the Chinese p0Pdia
tion appear to have been required lor the III
timida:jon OF "Auld Clootie." Last night the
bue-robed big gun of the Pagoda nad al the
neople in front of that institution, where, In
tbe ward. to the eastward of the gate, stood,
large as life, the image of the black hog This
image was stuck full of burning joss-sticks,
and as they were slowly consumed great
bowling and pounding of gongs and Kettle
drums was Kept up. At length the high
priest, rightly timing the burning of fuse,
entered the temple, and returning with one
OF their biggest wooden gods, stuck full OF pea
cock feathers, muttered a short prayer or ex-
Orcisnl, when he elevated the idol, and with
dall explosion and abominable stencil, the
image OF the hog was blown into a thousand
fragments. The priest rushed into the temple
with the idol and slammed the door, and the
people scattered amid great noise and zone
grand stink" as a Frenchman would say.
The hogs are now nearly all sold and gone
from the pen, and the explanation of this
whole affair seems to be this: The cunning
priest saw in the drove of hogs a great tenn,
tation set before his people unless he exerted
himself they would be sure to 90 hog stealing
and get into trouble, and in order to prevent
this, he went out into the hog yard in their
presence, and detected the devil in one of the
beasts. He kept them in terrible fright uu-
III nearly all OF the hogs were gone, when, by
blowing up the image of the black hog, he
sent the devil and all their troubles 'kiting,"
taking unto himself and his ugly god all the
glory Of the achievement.