No one at all ailing or deformed is allowed to approach a
building where they are kept. The worms are supposed to be very
nervous, and are guarded from everything that can possibly frighten
them, as well as from all changes of temperature or disturbances of
the atmosphere. Thunder and lightning they are supposed specially to
dread, and great pains are taken to shelter them by artificial means,
and keep them from all knowledge of the storm.
The next place we visited was a bird's-nest-soup-shop street, where we
went into one of the best and most extensive establishments. There
were three or four well-dressed assistants behind the counter, all
busily occupied in sorting and packing birds' nests. Some of the best
were as white as snow, and were worth two dollars each, while a light
brown one was worth only one dollar, and the black dirty ones, full of
feathers and moss, could be purchased at the rate of a quarter dollar.
Certainly the Chinese seem an exception to the rule laid down by some
writers, that no people can flourish who do not rest every seventh
day. In many ways they are an abnormal people, one striking point in
their condition being the state of dirt and filth in which they not
only exist, but increase and multiply. The children look healthy and
happy too, in spite of these apparent drawbacks, and notwithstanding
the fact that in many cases their poor little feet must be cruelly
tortured by the practice of bandaging them tightly to make them small.
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