Over the principal entrance are small stone bas-reliefs, and both the exterior and interior of the building can boast of a profusion of carved wood-work richly gilt.
Some fruit and biscuits of various descriptions, with a very small quantity of boiled rice, were placed upon the altar of the Goddess of Mercy.

These are renewed every evening, and whatever the goddess may leave is the perquisite of the bonzes.

On the same altar lay pretty little wooden counters cut in an oval shape, which the Chinese toss up in the air; it is held to be a sign of ill-luck if they fall upon the reverse side, but if they fall upon the other, this is believed to betoken good fortune.

The worthy people are in the habit of tossing them up until they fall as desired.
Another manner of learning the decrees of fate consists in placing a number of thin wooden sticks in a basin, and then shaking them until one falls out.

Each of these sticks is inscribed with a certain number, corresponding with a sentence in a book of proverbs.