They scratch, scrape, and thump upon their instruments in such a manner, as to produce the finest marrowbone-and-cleaver kind of music imaginable.
During my excursions up and down the Pearl stream, I had frequent opportunities of hearing artistic performances of this description on board the mandarin and flower-boats.
In all kinds of deception the Chinese are great adepts, and decidedly more than a match for any Europeans.

They have not the slightest sense of honour, and if you detect them, content themselves with saying: "You are more clever or cunning than I." I was told that when they have any live stock, such as calves or pigs, for sale, they compel them, as they are disposed of by weight, to swallow stones or large quantities of water.

They also know how to blow out and dress stale poultry, so as to make it look quite fresh and plump.
But it is not the lower classes alone that indulge in cheating and fraud; these agreeable qualities are shared by the highest functionaries.

It is a well-known fact, for instance, that there are nowhere so many pirates as in the Chinese sea, especially in the vicinity of Canton; yet no measures are taken to punish or extirpate them, simply because the mandarins do not think it beneath their dignity to secretly share in the profits.
For example, though the opium trade is forbidden, so much of this drug is smuggled in every year, that it is said to exceed in value that of all the tea exported in the same period.

{102a} The merchants enter into a private understanding with the officers and mandarins, agreeing to give them a certain sum for every pikul, and it is no rare occurrence for a mandarin to land whole cargoes under the protection of his own flag.
In like manner there is said to be on one of the islands near Hong- Kong a very extensive manufactory of false money, which is allowed to be carried on without any interruption, as it pays a tribute to the public functionaries and mandarins.