All along beneath the deck was a cabin, between two and three feet
high, which contained the altar, the kitchen, and the sleeping and
living apartments of the family. There was also a dear little baby,
two months old, which seemed to take life very quietly, while its
mother assisted its grandfather to row.
We soon reached the island of Chock-Sing-Toon, and disembarked at a
small pier near a village, which looked more like sampans pulled up on
the shore than huts or cottages. The children and I rode in chairs,
while the gentlemen walked, first over a plain covered with scrubby
palms, then through miles of well-cultivated plots of vegetable
ground, till we reached a temple, built at the entrance to the valley
for which we were bound. Thence the path wound beside the stream
flowing from the mountains above, and the vegetation became extremely
luxuriant and beautiful. Presently we came to a spot where a stone
bridge spanned the torrent, with a temple on one side and a
joss-house on the other. It was apparently a particularly holy place,
for our men had all brought quantities of joss-sticks and sacred paper
with them to burn. There was a sort of eating-house close by, where
they remained whilst we climbed higher up to get a view. The path was
well made, and evidently much used, judging from the large number of
natural temples we found adapted and decorated among the rocks.
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