THERE is no nation so fond of illuminations and fire-works as the
Chinese, and no nation has exerted its skill so effectually in the
multitude of contrivances to exhibit light. Their lanterns are as
various in shape as in materials. The most common are of painted paper.
The most beautiful and ornamental of silk gauze, finely painted and
stretched on frames that are not deficient in carving and curious
workmanship, and decorated with tassels of silk of various colours.
Other lanterns are round and cylindrical, and of one single piece of
thin transparent horn, sometimes of an immense size. At certain times in
the year, but more particularly in the month of February, they celebrate
what has been called the Feast of Lanterns, when every body in the
street carries some transparency or other made in every possible form:
some of them like fishes, some like beasts of various kinds, and others
birds. Some resemble trees and shrubs, with flowers and fruits, each in
their appropriate colours. Those lanterns borne by the man in the print
are of the most ordinary kind.
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[Illustration:
CHINA—PLATE 13
]
Plate XIII.