Having now nothing to do, I went to the entrance, and on looking out, I observed, opposite to me, a building, from which proceeded a Babel of voices, and seeing a little girl come out of the door, I thought I would take the opportunity, whilst the officers were in another apartment, and the servants intent upon their supper, to walk over, and see what was in this place; so on the girl's return, I followed her; but was noticed too soon by the ladies inside, who no sooner saw me than they jumped up, and slammed the door in my face, setting up most dreadful shrieks, which brought the officers out, who immediately ran over to me, and led me back, laughing heartily at the same time; so that my attempt to see a Chinese lady's apartment was frustrated. I now returned to the interpreter, and having finished our task, the small table was again placed before us, furnished in the same manner as before; so that we could not complain of their want of hospitality. The mandarin, a fat jolly-looking old gentleman, asked me, through the interpreter, whether we ever had any snow in our country; and seemed very much surprised when I told him, we had far more than was then on the ground; he was very much taken with the appearance of my blue flannel shirt, which I was then wearing: but as it was my warmest piece of clothing, I could not afford to make him a present of it. The room we were in was very nicely furnished; with painted arm-chairs, a few couches, with soft cushions, small tables, inlaid with different kinds of woods, several handsome China vases, and a small English clock in a wooden case, inlaid with brass. The ceiling was painted buff colour, and varnished; and from it were suspended four large ornamented lanterns. There were neither rushes nor mats on the floor, but merely the bare boards, and these by no means too clean. When we reached home (as we were obliged to call our miserable prison) it was quite dark, and we found all the others had lain down. We communicated the happy news we had learned from the letters, and then followed their example. FOOTNOTE: [12] These two marines had their irons on their legs when they came to us. CHAPTER VII. Jos ceremonies--Chinese New Year's day--New Testament--Epsom salts--Grief of our jailer--Kites--Procession--Leave Ningpo--Chinhae--Huge idols--Chinese camp--Mandarin's message. A night or two after our visit to the mandarin, we heard the priests chaunting, two or three silvery toned bells were struck at the same time, and now and then a drum. We could see nothing of their proceedings, but from the glare of light the temple must have been brilliantly illuminated. The priests were not exactly sober all the next day; so they must have taken strong stimulants during the night.