A horrible kind of music gave us warning that something extraordinary was approaching, and we had hardly time to look up and step on one side, before the procession came flying past us at full speed.

First came the worthy musicians, followed by a few Chinese, next two empty litters carried by porters, and then the hollow trunk of a tree, representing the coffin, hanging to a long pole, and carried in a similar manner: last of all, were some priests and a crowd of people.
The chief priest wore a kind of white {110} fool's cap, with three points; the other persons, who consisted of men alone, had a kind of white cloth bound round their head or arm.
I was lucky enough to be enabled to visit some of the summer palaces and gardens of the nobility.
The finest of all was certainly that belonging to the Mandarin Howqua.

The house itself was tolerably spacious, one story high, with very wide, splendid terraces.

The windows looked into the inner courts, and the roof was like those in European buildings, only much flatter.

The sloping roofs, with their multitude of points and pinnacles, with their little bells and variegated tiles, are only to be found in the temples and country-houses, but never in the usual residences.