Ballet dancer
Ballet Dancer
Ballet on stage
Dancers
Dancer
Dancer
Dancer
Dancer
Dancer
Dancer
Dancers
Dancer
Divider - dancers
Dancer
Dancing
Dancers
Dancers
Dancers
Dancers
Dancer and Guitarist
Dancers
Dancer
Dancer
Dancer
Dancer
Dancer
Clown Notice
Dancer
Enamelled Chinese Vase
Enamelled Chinese Vase with animals
The Physician
The Physician
The Buddhist Priest
The bare-legged, bare-footed figure in our sketch has travelled many a weary league in carrying on his work. His province is to beg—not for himself, but for the monastery to which he belongs. Every large establishment of this kind has priests of different ranks and different occupations. Su-preme over all is the abbot, or superior, who has his own private apartments, dines, except on great occasions, at his own table, and enjoys a com-fortable income. His duty is to entertain distinguished visitors of the monastery, to administer its revenues, to watch over the due performance of the services of the sanctuary, and to regulate and enforce its discipline in the priests committed to his authority. In the execution of his duties, he has the benefit of an assistant, as sub-prior, who also has his own private apartments, and who attends to minor matters of detail. Subordinate to the abbot and his assistant are the ordinary priests, the greater part of whom employ their time in lounging about ; some, studiously inclined, frequent the library, and pore over its voluminous contents ; some are engaged in cultivating the fields and tending the forests with which the monastery has been endowed ; some, again, are the cooks of the establishment, and display no mean skill in the preparation of their vegetable cuisine ; others, either singly or in pairs, start forth from time to time on a begging expedition, when money is needed for the repair of the buildings, or when an unusual influx of priests or unpropitious seasons have made the inmates feel the pangs of hunger ; and all, in rotation, take part in the frequent and regular chaunted services before the colossal figures in the central hall. Buddhism in China is not what it once was in power and influence. The monasteries which we now see were the creation of an age which believed in this religion ; some of them are the monuments of imperial zeal. But this faith seems now to be gradually dying out ; its sacred edifices are falling into decay, and no new temples are rising. The priests are generally uneducated men, and held in great contempt by the gentry. Imperial patronage, too, is wanting ; the present sovereign of the country is either unable or unwilling to raise and endow new foundations, or even to restore and maintain those which his forefathers erected. In the many monasteries which I visited, I can call to mind but few which indicated, by the care bestowed on them and the strict observance of the rules, that there was reality in the members, or which contained men of superior intelligence. Priests of earnest mind will often heave a deep sigh over the degeneracy of the present age. In Buddhism there is no distinct order of " beg-ging friars," but, as need arises, a few are chosen to travel through the country and collect subscriptions. In their journeys they are received and lodged by the brethren in other monasteries, who, by a law of the order, are bound to extend to them for a stated time such, hospitality. They visit alike the houses of the rich and of the poor, and usually bring the artillery of their arguments to bear upon the weaker sex. A wallet at their back receives the contributions of the charitable—generally in the form of a little cooked rice, all animal food being prohibited according to the terms of their religious vow. They are the most strict vegetarians in the world.
Mendicant Priest of Buddha
Mendicant Priest of Buddha
The Collector of refuse hair
To what strange shifts and expedients are many driven by the hard pressures of life to earn the means of barely supporting existence ! Any one, who is acquainted with the lower phases of London life, is well aware that thousands scrape together a living out of the dust-heaps in Pad-dington. Some in rags, some in bones, some in street manure, some in scraps of tin and iron, find support for themselves and their families. Man is not responsible for his natural powers, nor is it any disgrace to be so deficient in intellect as to be obliged to follow a mean employment. No toil debases man save that which injures his moral character. Our picture presents to our notice one of the meanest of Chinese callings ; and in the refuse hair-gatherer, our artist has not failed to give you a specimen of humanity in one of its lowest forms. But even such a case as this is not without its interest. From the maker of wigs, false beards, and moustache, and from the worker in ornamental hair generally, such a calling may justly attract observation. Without the aid of the poor hair-gatherer, how should that fashionable young man, who, Absolom like, prides himself upon his hair, and yet unlike Absolom has but little of his own to boast of, appear in proper guise before his compeers in society ? How, again, shall the coy maiden find, unless by the same help, those magnificent "butter-flies' wings " * of glossy hair, which ornament the back of her head? But I have unwittingly anticipated : by this time the reader surmises the functions of our friend going his wearisome rounds with his light wicker-basket. He is either buying or begging all the refuse combings of the women's long black hair, which others, skilful in their art, make up into tails, either to supply a need which unfortunately may have arisen, or to increase the proportions of that which nature had too sparely bestowed. As you pass down a Chinese street, you will occasionally see a shop where were sold long switchy horse-tails ; such, at least, they long ap-peared to the writer of these sketches ; inquiry at last dissipated the delusion ; appearances answered to their proverbial deceitfulness, and these long-switch tails were formed of the refuse combings collected by our persevering friend, and hung in the shop ready to be braided into the usual queue worn by the men.
Chinese Gentleman and Servant
Chinese Gentleman and Servant
Pilgrim-shaped bottle, enamelled with butterflies
Pilgrim-shaped bottle, enamelled with butterflies