Kalli, whilst in London, on a visit to the author, was taken to the
British Museum. With some of the objects there he was much gratified.
The antiquities, sculpture, and specimens of art and science, had not
such charms in his sight as had the life-like forms of stuffed animals
in that great national collection. With the seals, reindeer, and a
gigantic walrus, with bright glass eyes, he was especially struck and
amused, lingering for some time in the attractive apartment which
contained them.
He had now and then much to bear from rudeness and incivility on the
part of some thoughtless persons, who derided his personal appearance,
though they were not successful in putting him out of temper. The
author recollects an instance of this in a street in London. He was
walking with Kalli, when two young men, who ought to have known
better, stared at the youth in passing, and laughed in his face: then
presently turning round, they said, as they pointed at him, "There
goes a Chinese!" He merely looked up, smiling, as if at their
ignorance, and want of proper feeling.
It has been observed of the people of his nation, that they evince
little or no surprise or excitement at such things as occasion
admiration in others. When Kalli first came up the river Thames with
Captain Ommanney, and travelled from Woolwich by the railway, thence
proceeding through the wonderful thoroughfare from London Bridge to
the West End of the town, passing St. Paul's Cathedral, and Charing
Cross, he merely said, _It was all very good_.
"I took him with me," said the Captain, "to the Great Exhibition, the
Crystal Palace, in Hyde Park. He beheld all the treasures around him
with great coolness, and only expressed his wonder at the vast
multitude of people."