Right at last; and Ching threw himself back so that his mouth would open to the widest extent, struck a chord on the three strings, and burst forth with celestial accompaniment into what was in all probability a passionate serenade, full of allusions to nightingales, moonbeams, dew-wet roses, lattice-windows, and beautiful moon-faced maidens, but which sounded to me like-- "Ti ope I ow wow, Ti ope I ow yow, Ti ope I ow tow, Ti ope I ligh." The words, I say, sounded like that: the music it would be impossible to give, for the whole blended together into so lamentable a howl, that both Barkins and Smith started up into wakefulness from a deep sleep, and the former looked wildly round, as confused and wondering he exclaimed-- "What's matter?" As for Smith, he seemed to be still half-asleep, and he sat up, staring blankly at the performer, who kept on howling--I can call it nothing else--in the most doleful of minor keys. "I say," whispered Barkins, "did you set him to do that?" I shook my head. "Because--oh, just look! here are all the people coming out to see what's the matter." He was right as to the people coming, for in twos and threes, as they finished the refreshment of which they had been partaking, first one path was filled and then another, the people coming slowly up and stopping to listen, while Barkins stared at them in blank astonishment. "Here Nat--Poet," he whispered, "look at 'em." "I am looking," I said. "Isn't it just like a picture?" "It's like an old firescreen," he said; "but I don't mean that. Look! Hang me if the beggars don't seem to like it. Can't you stop him?" "No, of course not." "But how long will it be before he has run down?" "I don't know," I whispered. "But look, aren't those like some of the men we saw by the gates?" I drew his attention to about half-a-dozen fierce-looking men in showy coats and lacquered hats, who came up to the garden, stared hard at us, and then walked in. Each of them, I noticed, wore a sword, and a kind of dagger stuck in his belt, and this made me at once recall their offensive looks and contemptuous manner towards us, and think of how far we were away from the ship, and unarmed, save for the ornamental dirks which hung from our belts, weapons that would have been, even if we had known how to use them, almost like short laths against the Chinamen's heavy, broad-bladed, and probably sharp swords. "I say, Gnat," whispered Barkins, "those must be the chaps we saw at the mandarin's gate. Never mind; we'll ask them to have something as soon as old Ching has finished his howling."