chu-san among whom the vast number of such lanterns used in
.... their dwelling bouses and temples, as well as on the occasions
of their festivals and processions, have led to
many trials for improving their construction.. The horns
generally employed, are those of sheep and goats. The
usual method o f managing them, according to the information
obtained upon the spot, is to tend them by immersion
in boiling water, after which they are cut open
and flattened ; they then easily scale, or are separated into
two or three thin laminae, or plates, in order that these
plates should be made to join, they, are exposed to the
penetrating effect of steam, by which they are rendered
almost perfectly soft. In this state, theedgeSiof th^ipifces
to be joined are carefully scraped and slanted off, so jaa|
that the pieces overlapping each other shall not, together,
exceed the thickness of the plate in any other part. By
applying the edges, thus prepared, immediately to each
other, and pressing them with pincers, they intimately
adhere, and incorporating, form one substance, similar
in every respect to the other parts; and thus uniform
pieces of horn may be prepared, to almost any extent. It
is a contrivance little known elsewhere, however simple
the process appears to be ; and perhaps some minute
precautions are omitted in the general description, which
may be essential to its complete success.
The hall of audience furnished also another object o f
curiosity, striking at least to strangers. On several-tables
were placed in frames, filled with earth, dwarf pines, cbn-saa
oaks,, and orange trees, bearing fruit. None of them ex- -naa
ceeded, in height, two feet. Some of those dwarfs bore
all the marks of decay from age :, anirupon the surface
ofthesoil were interspersed; small heapsof stones, which,
in= proportion to the adjoining dwarfs, might be termed
rocksv ’ These were honeycombed and mhss-grown, as if
untouched for ages, which served to maintain the illusion,
and to give an antique appearance to the whole. This
kind of stunted vegetation'seemed to* he much relished
b y the eWife^s imtSbbta'; and spfeeimensof it were tone
found in every cdirsiderahle dwelling. produce them
forrfeed a part* o f the gardener’s skill, andwas an art ito*
vented in, that.country. Besadelthe mere merit of ovei-
' corning^ difficulty, it had that of introducing vegetables
info common apartments, from which, their* natural size
must otherwise have excluded them. According to the
usual course of nature, different vegetable productions
attain their perfect state in different periods; and after acquiring
different dimensions, and passingtiitough different
stages of growth. Thus the cedar’ of Lebanon, for
example, ;eu»sumes some years in forming a tall and
woody trunk, with many horizontal branches, before it
emits its colourless flowers, and small cones, for the pur*
pose of reproduction^ which is the period of its perfection
; while the hyssop, capable, al most, of-raising a
Ihort^erbaceons stem, produces its flowers and seeds the