Leaving the city, we soon reached the mountains, and day by day skirted the upper part of them; sometimes plunging down deep into the valleys, especially for our resting-places at night. The people seem a sturdy, solid race, but through the greater part of the province which we have traversed, and especially round the capital, they are greatly disfigured by goitre. Every day we see scores of people (even quite young children) suffering from this disease. The women do a large share of all the hard work, carrying heavy loads, despite their small feet; the loads are fastened on by broad bands passed round the forehead, like those of Newhaven fishwives. These bands are frequently run through holes in a big wooden collar worn both by men and women. Some of these collars have pretty little bits of carving on them.
On the roads we met innumerable droves of pack-animals, mostly laden with blocks of salt. The pack-men have special inns where they put up, which are nothing more than stables, and scores of animals can be accommodated in them. Despite the badness of the roads and the rough way in which they are hustled along, we have not seen a single beast with broken knees. They are allowed to rest free from loads or saddles at midday, and to roll in the dust at pleasure. The loads are fastened on to a framework which fits into the saddle and so avoids the necessity of being adjusted on the animal itself. There are regular camping grounds for the pack-animals all along the road, and they seem the best tempered beasts imaginable. The leaders usually wear bright red rosettes on their heads, often with mirrors in them, and also the Government loads have brilliant flags attached, which give them a picturesque look. Some of them wear the long tails of the Amherst pheasant fastened between their ears, and look as proud of themselves as a fashionable London lady with the huge plumes now in fashion. Some of them wear bells, which are necessary so as to herald their approach on these narrow, winding, and precipitous highways.
FELLOW-TRAVELLERS
Every day we were more enchanted with the beauty of the country and the delights of spring. The banks are carpeted with primulas, and the hill slopes bright with rose-coloured camellias, scarlet azalea, white and crimson rhododendrons, yellow jessamine, clematis, begonias, and numberless flowering shrubs, many of which we have never seen before. This is the part of the world from which the majority of our flowering shrubs have originally come. It would be a paradise for botanists, and makes one long for more knowledge of many subjects, so as to be able to enjoy the journey still more and profit by it more thoroughly.
The second day after leaving Yünnan Fu, there was an earthquake, and it is a mystery why the front of our room did not entirely collapse. The inns here are really superior, but on this occasion the outer wall of our room happened to be constructed in sections at all sorts of angles, none of them what they were meant to be, and with extensive gaps between. It was quite impossible to shut the doors, and there was no pretence of a fastening, so we had put up a curtain in order to obtain a small measure of privacy. Happily, the people did not seem so inquisitive as they used to be when I was travelling in China fifteen years ago. In fact, we rarely see eyes peering through holes in the paper windows. Glass windows are still unknown in the inns, except in an occasional one in Shantung.
At Lu Feng Hsien we had an amusing experience. As we were resting after our evening meal there was suddenly a great noise of drums, and we were told that the dragon lantern was in the street. It turned out to be a sort of entertainment given by a cash shop next door, and not only was there a very bedraggled-looking dragon about twenty feet long, but also fish lanterns and sundry fireworks. The men carrying the sections of the dragon leapt about like demons as the shower of “golden rain” (fireworks) was turned full upon them, and the dragon withed with unwonted energy. The drums never ceased for a moment, so that it was rather a relief when the show came to an end by the exhaustion of the internal illumination of the dragon. We were stopping at an inn just outside the city wall, and when we left the next morning we crossed a fine suspension-bridge with an imposing archway at each end of it. The chief magistrate of the district happened to be travelling on the same road with us, and sent word ahead that we were to be accommodated in a charming inn that day, having invited us to stop at his Yamen in the city the previous night. When magistrates are travelling they always send to engage an inn beforehand, and a little official flag is then hung outside to show that the inn is full. Mr. Ku suggested that we should go in for an official flag, but we feared lest complications should arise.
TOMB OF A PHILOSOPHER AMONG RICE-FIELDS
The fresh New Year mottoes put up on the doorposts of our room stated encouragingly that “all cultured people inhabit this room,” and “the courtyard is full of chairs and carts,” but, true to Chinese incongruity, our coolies filled one of the rooms and the pigs occupied the background!