The Land of the Blue Gown

CHAPTER I.

MY FIRST VISIT TO PEKING: BEFORE THE SIEGE

OX returning from Peking I still thought it the most wonderful place I had ever visited. On reaching Tientsin the first thing we saw was the then newly-arrived Thevenet steam engine and rails, and, though they were but baby ones, it seemed as if we had traversed centuries since three days before we rode stumbliugly through the Peking gates. Steamers were shrilly whistling in Tientsin, men hammering, blue-jackets encouraging their donkeys and ponies along the Bund in true English style, and the fair White Ensign floating from a real, live, modem man-of-war lying off* the Consulate door. Three days before long strings of two-humped tawny camels were the baggage waggons, and every whiff of air we breathed assured us we were in the pre-Sanitary Period, when not only sewers had not begun troubling, but every other thing of the kind was unknown except that last modern development, the sewage farm, carried on just outside most of the gates of Peking — ^just inside Tung-chow — and so regardless of odour as to make one doubt whether riding into the country at Peking

were quite as delightful as it is described.

A

2 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

Wearied of London, and perhaps somewhat overiaden with the cant of the day, eesthetic, hygienic, and social-ecoDomic, I can imagine nothing more tonic for the sufferer than a sojourn in Peking, fts it was. Even quinine is bitter in the taking. And wh»t are not the after-effects of those yellow-tiled imperial pavilions, glittering

in the sun, round about the marble bridge, and up the Mei-shan! Of the entrance pavilions — Ting-erh — deepest blue, bright green, bright vermilion, harmonised by golden dragons, imperially taking their ease, as also by an atmosphere whose transparency makes even a mud wall beautiful! The after-effects of finding women — women still, though for centuries wearing trousers and Lady Harberton's divided skirts ! The after-effects of mingling

MY FIRST VISIT TO PEKING 3

with a people so democratic as not even to distinguish between Bostonians and others, and yet without one touch of Radicalism, and always ready to make way for Acknowledged Merit in the person of a mandarin with eight bearers, and a crowd of retainers on horse-back!

We came down the Peiho, drifting slowly with the current but against the wind, in company with an expectant Taotai and his following. For all the world he might have been the sickly scion of a noble race succeeding to inherited honours, as with leaden cheeks he smoked and smoked and looked at us, quite ex-pressionlessly, never speaking a word. But I tried to remind myself here was Acknowledged Merit, waiting its reward. For had I not just seen the outside of the great Examination Hall at Peking — one mostly used to see the outsides of things then — as also the Hall of the Grand Triennial Examination, where men of China contested for the highest honours, the names of the successful being inscribed on imperishable, huge stone tablets for all after ages to see.

One of the most curious things in China is that this hall, even then still used for winning the highest honours by China's most distinguished men, had a much more neglected, discarded air than the remains of the dead and buried Roman age to be seen in Italy. There one goes into heathen temples, where for centuries no heathen rite has been performed, but looking much more as if it were going on still than the Chinese temples, where yet, till the siege, if not now, magnificent rites were at least twice yearly performed. The Apollos and Jupiters I have seen have had a far fresher air of being venerated than the Chinese Buddhas and Goddesses of Mercy. Never up till then had I succeeded in seeing anywhere the smallest fragment of religions service.

4 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

It may be true that China is still Buddhist, or Confucian, or Taoist. But I believed it far less after a few months in China than before. For there was no evidence of it beyond the temples and the images, according to which Rome would be Pagan still. I remember lionising foreigners in London. We went to Westminster Abbey, and the service was not over yet. They were none of them Christians, and were greatly impressed by its solemnity, till at last one sprightly German lady visitor whispered, "Could it possibly be cJlowed to use my opera-glass to look at this beautiful building ? " Who would hesitate to use an opera-glass in a Confucian temple ? We went on to the House of Commons; they were at prayers there. We proceeded to the House of Lords, but were not allowed even to look in, for the Lords had not yet prayed, and till they did, according to the policeman, none must even look in. " And is this every day — every day ? " asked a Swedish professor, solemnly. "Then, whether it is from the heart or not from the heart, still I say your England is a wonderful country."

China struck me as far more wonderful in its neglect of ordinances. And how congenial such neglect is to the human heart is, I think, sufficiently shown by the way in which it grows upon the Europeans in China. Almost all my life I have lived what is called abroad, yet I never but once heard a lady say she had been to a picnic on Sunday, for instance, till I came to China. Here it seems to be the rule rather than the exception. "It is the men's one day for getting away," they urge. But this could be urged with more force in smoky, foggy Liverpool or London. Where in all the civilised world will you find the European churches so little frequented as in China? I am often reminded of a Commissioner of Customs' remark : " The Chinese have

V, Is'

s ".

MY FIRST VISIT TO PEKING 7

done more to heathenise the English than the English with all their missions to Christianise them/'

Looking at that huge caravanserai Peking, I wondered what the subtle influence was that even had conquered the conquering Manchus, for at first sight everything seemed so overpoweringly repulsive, so beyond all ex-aggeration disgusting, that one would have thought that its present state would rather serve as a horrible example. Does the common saying : " The Chinese care for nothing but money, talk of nothing but money," explain it at all ? So far I could not make out that it was anything else the Europeans wanted to get out of the Chinese. Even the very missionaries sent out to teach that " the love of money is the root of all evil " seemed in many cases to have caught the infection.

There are charming nursery gardens at Peking. They were full of flowers as we passed by. And everyone coming out had hands full of tube-roses. The Chien Men, the principal gate, was quite perfumed with rows of little ptosprum trees, all in full flower, waiting to be sold. As the Chinese seem to appreciate flowers solely for their perfume, and only like those whose scent is very rich and luscious, it seems they must be so happily constituted as to have organs of smell capable only of conferring pleasure. For disagreeable odours they seem to make no effort to remove.

Seen from the walls, Peking looks rather like a park than a populous city, it is so full of trees, many of them very fine. There are rows of beautiful trees in front of some of the palaces, and nearly every house has at least one tree in its courtyard, the larger courtyards being full of them. Indeed, if Peking were what it might be, what perhaps it once was, I can fancy no city grander. Its general plan is on such a magnificent scale. One appreciates this especially looking from the Bell Tower at the Drum Tower, and vice

8 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

v&rtA, the perspective and proportions are so admirably arranged to enhance the effect of distance and give dignity to the details. So that a balcony on one of the towers, in itself

not 80 very remarkable, from the way in which it is placed seemed the grandest balcony I had ever seen. Indeed the Mongols appear to have excelled in what the English are exceptionally deficient in ; witness our Law Courts, and the chosen site for the new Imperial Institute, which is

MV FIRST VISIT TO PEKING 9

certaioly not what Eublai Khan would ever have sanctioned. Prohably there never was a city more grandly laid out tliaii Peking : its skeleton is j^igantic and magnificent. It is in-

teresting extremely as a survival from that past of which we have so often read, when the great people lived in stately palaces, surroanded by every luxury — not comfort and^seldom cared to go out, or if they did, accompanied by trains of lictors or retainers to beat back the common

10 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

people, whose very breath would be a pollution of their majesty. I can fancy some tenderer-hearted woman than the common, some larger-minded youth looking from his sedan, or peering out between the blinds of his springless cart with a heart full of great pity for this coranion people with their mis-shapen bodies, and their skin diseases, sometimes but one miserable, patched garment scantily covering their nakedness, and yet repelled from all active effort to ameliorate their condition by its very horribleness and degradation. The Peking streets seemed full of rowdies, possibly the hangers-on of great men. They were evidently ready enough to brawl and be insolent. The pity of the pampered great would soon merge into disgust or apathy in the sheltered air of their great courtyards, as full of shade-giving trees as of sunshine. Every now and then a clean-faced, self-respecting, kindly-smiling Mongol woman went by in a cart, evidently full of amusement, half wondering at the city and its ways, just as we read of good, quiet souls feeling in the Middle Ages, as in every period of the world's history.

AVhether Kublai Khan or any of his successors ever got his city clean, and what we should call properly kept up, no history tells us. But certainly the feeling I carried away from Peking was a deep regret that such a magnifi-cent conception, such grand proportions, should have been allowed to be thus sullied. And returning to Tung-chow I could not help growing hot with indignant pity to see the foulness of its principal street, a mass of ruts and loathsomeness, with heavily-laden carts struggling along it, like ships in a storm at sea, the gallant little ponies and sturdy mules doing their very best ; the brown, brawny men stripped to their waists doing more than put their shoulders to the wheel. Fighting, struggling along year in year out, it is pitiable to think of human nature, ay and even brute nature, put to such base use — to drag a heavily-laden cart

MY FIRST VISIT TO PEKING ii

or wheelbarrow out of a rut which should vot exist. No one more believes in the nobility of manual labour. But then it must be in manual labour properly applied, not wasted impotently. Let the road from Tung-chow be repaired ! Then it would be beautiful to see the men and beasts doing their best, equally as now earning their daily bread in the sweat of their brows, but conferring a hundredfold more benefit on themselves and others in the doing so. I see the scarred bodies of the men, the pre-maturely aged faces, their rough, rude manners. I have seen the sickly faces, the diseased heads and bad eyes of the children for whom the Sisters of St Vincent care. People say the Chinese poor do not suffer, but laugh and are light-hearted. People said just the same of the negro slaves. They also laughed. Which of us would have <;hange(l places with them, or would now with the poor Chinese working man, handicapped as he is by so many artificial difficulties? Each day the case of the Chinese poor more heavily oppresses me. For it is not owing to climate, to soil, or to character. If the government would allow it, it would soon be worth someone's while to repair the roads, and keep them in order, and remove those innumer-able other hindrances to intercourse, which must at once strike every European going to and coming from Peking. I felt as if I had actually arrived at the Middle Ages when at Amalfi with its streets of stairs, quite narrow, and often quite dark, thus affording at every step an ambush for the lurking ruffian, and making it quite impossible for a noble maiden to walk unattended, or indeed to walk at all without sullying her white garments and pure soul. But Peking is on a grander scale, and belongs to a far more barbaric period. And then pervading all Peking was the mystery of the Palace, the forbidden City, that no European foot had ever trod, that the boy Emperor had never left. By all report the present Empress must be a woman of

12 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

great energy of character, of indomitable will, who when she had set her mind to a thing had never yet failed to carry it through. Did she love power for its own sake ? Did she wish to do good with it ? Had she those loving thoughts of dead husband and of mother that so dis-tinguished our own Queen Victoria ? She is a woman after all. Did she at times, as she sat behind the curtain, overhearing, but not speaking, while the young Emperor sat in state, his councillors kneeling low before him — did she feel shackled by the century-old conventionalities of China ? Or did she, woman-like, believe in the established order of things, and, woman-like, dread revolution ? It would seem not, if it were really true that she herself wanted to occupy the European house the Bishop Tagliabue and his Fathers had to vacate because its tower overlooked the Palace garden. She had especially asked that P^re Arraand David's valuable collection of the birds of China might be left to her intact, as also the organ in the cathedral. Rumour said she intended to make an audience hall of this latter, and to receive foreigners there. If that were so, if foreigners were to be received by the Empress, and railway trains were, as I then heard, very shortly to conduct them almost to the gates of Peking, then this vast survival would soon be a thing of the past, and Peking become more like other cities.

Would it gain in doing so ? Sadly I remembered the housekeeper at Buckingham Palace saying to me, "The Shah of Persia was quite like a gentleman, lay in bed on Sunday, and all." And the ladies of the harem in various countries seem generally to signify their becoming European by witnessing a ballet, probably, as now con-ducted, quite as much a survival from the past as the city of Peking itself.

But how hard it is to look on anything with quite unprejudiced eyes! As my heart grew hot within me

MV FIRST VISIT TO PEKING 13

looking at the mass of struggling men and beasts frantic-ally trying to get their carts and wheelbarrows along the stone road — that great Ming masterpiece, leading from Tung-chow to Peking, but alas ! now worse than no road at all, so that everyone, who can, gets olf it on to any waste piece of land by the side and as I grew still hotter, thinking what the scene must be in the blinding heat and dust of summer, or in the slush and frosts of winter, I wondered how our waste of all our sewage to pollute our streams and seas strikes a Chinese. And what he thinks of our apparent indifference to the deterioration of property — not to say of human life — and hindrance to trade and locomotion caused by the London fogs, quite as remediable probably as the ruts in the Tung-chow road.

Each nation gets accustomed to its own shortcomings, has wide-open eyes for its neighbours'.

CHAPTER II PILOT TOWN: TAKU

ri^HOSE, who passed by Taku in the old days, probably ^ rarely landed to visit the little community at Pilot Town. Yet there the pilots, who guide the steamers across the two mile wide Taku Bar, live, and — though, as wicked rumour has it, often doing their best to kill themselves — do not die, so healthy is the air. Anyhow, whatever rumour says, the pilots had made a very ship-shape little colony for themselves. Their houses had mostly mud walls and mud roofs like those of the neighbouring Chinese villages, but how clean and tidy mud walls can look when freshly whitewashed people must go to Pilot Town to see, as also what a wonderful jauntiness can be given by a judicious mixture of coal tar and white paint on gate posts. Like a regular good old-fashioned, English country village round its green, Pilot Town is built round its lawn tennis ground. They had two courts when we visited the place, and there were actually benches, that seemed to belong to the community at large, where lookers-on could sit and watch the players. They boasted then of having thirteen ladies, and the manners of Pilot Town were said already to have greatly changed under their softening influence. They had their Jubilee too, and though they did not boast that theirs was the loveliest in all the world, like Shanghai and Peking, yet they seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed it, " A picnic, and a supper, and a dance. We should not

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PILOT TOWN: TAKU 15

think anything of anything in North China that did not wind up with a dance."

The country round Taku cannot be described by the kindliest visitor as in any way beautiful. It is — not to put too fine a point on it, as Mr Snagsby used to say — a mud fiat, which looks as if the sea had only that moment receded from it. But Pilot Town has made itself a road into Taku. It has also raised and re-raised its road, so that floods no longer sweep it away. It has planted trees and shrubs in its own small compounds, so that it presents the one oasis of green amidst the whole brown surface. It has laid out its little streets with great neatness and propriety, paving each down the middle with bricks against the floods. It is, in short, just the tidy, trim sort of colony one can imagine a number of master mariners creating for themselves, where singularly unassisted by Nature. Yet somehow or other these men, who of all others ought specially to set a value on the pilot's vocation, had provided themselves with no "sky pilot" of any sort whatsoever. Neither church nor chapel had they, and only very occasionally did a missionary arrive and give them a service. For three months in the winter, when the river and the sea are frozen over, and northward-bound ships stop and discharge cargo at Chefoo, Pilot Town is shut oflf from the rest of the world. Then, the pilot's occupation gone, they ride, and sleigh and dance, and according to their own showing enjoy themselves mightily. But again wicked rumour says they also quarrel, and who can wonder, shut up to themselves and their own concerns, and each watching the other's goings out and comings in across the green — I beg Pilot Town's pardon, the lawn tennis ground, a mud one like most of those in North China, and necessarily so in Pilot Town. They had no Mayor, nor Municipal Council, nor apparently any constituted authority in matters civic any more than in

i6 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

matters spiritual. They had, however, a new hotel started by an enterprising inhabitant, and of which every member of Pilot Town was naturally proud. It had two billiard tables, and quite a number of sunflowers in its garden, and sometimes people came down from Tientsin to enjoy the healthier air of Taku, so that the fashionable arrivals were duly reported in large type in a Chinese Times, And but the other day it had a newly-married couple spending their honeymoon there. What visitors at the Taku Hotel find to do, when they are not a,sleep, rumour sayeth not. But the air is doubtless good, and the hotel looked homelike.

There was, however, one walk from Pilot Town which might with advantage have been of tener taken. First along the road, which they had made and raised — every expedition from Pilot Town must begin along the road — across the mud flats to the Chinese town of Taku, then turning to the left up to the South Fort, which, when England and France fought side by side, and destroyed the Summer Palace to teach the Chinese a lesson, which they did not learn, the English took from the rear, so ungallantly, as thought the Chinese, who had only prepared for an honourable foe, who would sound a gong or trumpet for a note of warning, and come on from the front. Do not attempt to penetrate that fort, for it is not allowed without a lettevy and you can see probably all you care to see by looking in at the gate : soldiers in costumes and attitudes quite unsoldierly, and pale, eflfeminate-look-ing, sad-faced young officers in long, pale, blue and mauve gowns. But there, under the shadow of the fort, was a spot Englishmen would have done well to visit oftener. For there, with surrounding wall broken down and gate wide open, was the last resting place of all that was mortal of those who fell in North China in '60-'61 and '62. The memorial stones had been torn down by someone's hands,

PILOT TOWN : TAKU 17

the bricks with which the graves were faced removed by someone. But there one still read how one tombstone was put up by a friend, how this was to the memory of the men of the Royal Artillery, that of those of the Royal Engineers.

A very simple wooden tablet to the memory of six seamen and two stokers of H.M.S. Weazel, not being as handy for building materials, had escaped the ravages of rude hands. There it stood, still upright, its simple in-scription plainly legible, looking as if the ship's carpenter might have lovingly carved it out of some precious piece of Singapore wood in memory of his fellow messmates. For whilst granite and stone were all dilapidated around, this one wooden monument showed no sign of age. Captain Malachi Nugent of the 67th was the name upon one tablet. Private Murphy on another. There was a monument to someone in the 99th, and the largest monument of all was to the officers and men

of the Brigade, who died in North China in the

years *60-*61 and '62. But what the two words were preceding the word Brigade it was impossible to discover.

The people of Pilot Town had for some time been greatly troubled alx)ut the condition of this British ground. They had tried to call the Consul's attention to it They had thought of writing to Lord Wolseley. On the occasion of the Jubilee they planned that this should be their Jubilee offering to their Queen, the setting in order of the tombs of those soldiers and sailors, who died in her service in North China. But then with a certain worldly wisdom they decided against it as a bad precedent, for the graves were not the graves of their dead, but of the nation's, and why should they, who merely happened then to be residing in the neigiibour-hood, carrying on their avocations as pilots, take to themselves the duty of caring for England's dead ?

B

i8 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

The cost even then could have been but small. But if it were too much for our great nation to put in order the graves under the walls of the South Fort, would it not have been better at once to grass over the place, removing what remained of the monuments to the Legation Chapel at Peking, and not to leave them to be bit by bit stolen by the descendants of those very Chinese our men died in conquering ? It is not time, nor flood, nor wind, nor rain, that had overturned and moved away those monuments, and stolen those bricks and broken down the cemetery wall. It was the hand of man, as it was likewise the hand of man that in among our English graves, in our English bit of ground, had more recently placed a Chinese cofiin, yet unburied, only roughly covered with coarse matting. That the Chinese, who respect their dead as sacred, should think it well thus to place one of their own in among our dead is in itself not unpleasing, neverthele^^s the bit is English ground, walled in once at English expense, and bought with English blood. Should the Chinese Govern-ment take it into its head some day to include this bit in some new outwork of their Fort, whose duty would it be to object? And is it not the same person's duty now to see that individual Chinamen do not build their houses out of the building materials left so handy for them, lying unguarded unless, as they might think, by the ghcsts of dead soldiers and sailors.

As we moved from grave to grave a little following of Chinese soon collected round us, and as we failed to decipher first one inscription, then another, the expressions that coursed one another over their usually expressionless faces were very strange to see. It would seem only fitting to get this burial ground put in order, before all traces of the inscriptions should have disappeared, and thus to save the resting places of our dead from being, as then,

PILOT TOWN: TAKU 19

a daily scorn and mockery for every Chinese soldier as he went in and out of the South Taku Fort.

But since our visit to Taku in 1901 the burial ground by the Taku Forts has proved a safer resting place for the dead than that at Pekinof. The Taku Forts are handier for the admirals to watch over, and now, as of old, the admirals appear to be the best guardians of England's honour. If only they were not interfered with !

CHAPTER III AUGUST IN CHEFOO

NOTHING is more striking in China than the weary, worn looks of the women — European, I mean. Why they should fade, whilst English men with rosy cheeks bloom in perennial youth, so that I not uncommonly take men of thirty -five for boys of twenty- two, has exercised my mind ever since I first caught sight of the European community on the Shanghai race-course. Now coming to Chef 00 has, I think, at last explained it. English ladies in China live tightly girt, and gant-de- Studded y just as if they were going to drive out in a carriage and take a turn in Hyde Park with the thermometer in the sixties. Now, as for months together here the thermometer seems to be in the eighties or nineties, this simply means that for months together the ladies here take next to no exercise, and in some cases none. No small proportion of them neither .play lawn tennis nor ride. Meanwhile the men are walking, rowing, bathing, shooting, playing cricket, tennis, etc., etc., and hence, I imagine, the rosy cheeks of the one and the pale weariness of the others. With a vivid recollection of bathing places in the north of France, where Parisian eUgantes recoup themselves for the fatigues of previous toilettes by wandering about all day in the loosest and plainest and most convenient of sacques, or, in more primitive bathing places untouched by breath of English propriety and proportionally dear to

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AUGUST IN CHEFOO

the Purisiau, in a bathing dress and a quilt or shawl and parasol ; with a vivid recollection of these French bathing places, I fully expected that cosmopolitan Cliina would strike a middle course between these airy garments and those of the English seaside place, which, with its brown holland or serge, looks alike prepared for a ten-mile walk across country, or a scramble on the rocks. But no ! 1 have seen no one on the i-ocks yet, I have seen no one walking, nor even sitting on the sand by the seashore. And the explanation is not far to seek. Their dresses are W^i-

lly C'ipM!» Sa„dfr,

fitting, their shoes are thin, their heels are high, and in this hothouse air surcharged with moisture the least movement most produce consequences disastrous to their new gloves. Thus cheeks are pale and expressions sad. as they are carried to and fro in sedan chairs, or have those sedans placed by the seashore, where, still sitting holt upright as in Hyde Park, they can continue the gossip interrupted in Shanghai. In itself Chefoo is well enough, the air is fresh in spite of the heat, the sea is as blue as heart could wish. What with the stars and the wonderfully bright • moon the nights are only too brillantly lighted

22 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

without electricity, and though the country a little reminds me of that described by Southey in the " Curse of Kehama," there being barely a tree or a green leaf to be seen any-where, yet the wonderfully varied indentations of the bay and the serrated outline of the range of hills, that shut it in to the west, place Chefoo high, very high for picturesque-ness, if compared with Blankenbergh or Scheveningen, and bring it into the same category with Holyhead or Etretat.

It reminds me a good deal of Holyhead, indeed, when one crosses over to Tse Fu T'ou, the real Chefoo, at the other side of the harbour, and climbing one of the hills there sits looking out seaward, with Corea and Japan taking the place of much troubled Ireland as the only land between that bare hillside and the vast continent of the Americas. Holyhead has the same blue sea, and is possibly about the same height out of the water as one of these hills, but it certainly more vividly recalls the wintry storms that have raged against it, and in so far is grander. On the other hand it does not look out upon the enchant-ing panorama of fairy-blue mountains to the south, that look as if they had stepped out of Arabia Petrsea, and never a drop of rain fallen upon them since the creation of man. And it certainly has not got the stone masons of the real Chefoo, the village of Tse Fu, nor of the town and watering - place that have usurped the name, and are popularly known amongst Europeans as Chefoo. Chefoo s speciality is walls, walls of irregularly-hewn blocks of stone adroitly fitted together, cemented with raw mortar and eminently fitted to resist a siege. The meanest house, and there are in reality no mean houses in the neighbour-hood, has a wall that a fortress in any other country might envy. And everything seems finished off thoroughly well, and with the greatest care, and excellent taste, the windows, the doors, the roofs, the sides of the

AUGUST IN CHEFOO 23

inQer courtyardR painted in panels black aud white, with sometimes an additional b)iu;k and white design, simple but elegant.

The European colony has done its part bravely ; it has got a cool, airy, solid-looking club, which with the greatest liberality is thrown open to ladies in the morning hours. There are a lawn tennis club, and churches and chapels to suit most varieties of thought. What the Europeans of

By Mr Evirall.

Chefoo can do for their visitors has been done and done well. They have even got the Taotai to forbid the bath-ing of Chinese — undraped — before the European hotels. But, on the other hand, no one fresh from Europe can fail to be struck by a certain absence of life due to the want of initiative on the part of the CJhiuese. Not even to make money out of us do they put themselves out to welcome us. Xo pretty sailing boats with gaudy flags tempt you for filthy lucre. Xo woman offers chairs for

24 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

cash upon the sands. No girls with flowers perfume the air. No ponies, not even the well-beloved donkeys with red trappings, stand for hire at the corners of the streets. No sedan chairs ply for hire. Even the old familiar but most unbeloved seaside music is missed from the sands of Chefoo.

The thermometer soon rose to ninety-two in the house, and the north-east breeze, which was so refreshing when we arrived, changed into a south-west wind, which yet brought not the long-wished-for rain, the sun still shining out of a molten sky upon the evidences of drought all round.

Thus, in spite of rocky islands so called, Bois de Boulogne, Bamboo Temple, and Lighthouse all to visit, in spite of the bathing, and sailing and riding, I missed a little the lively hucksters of European sands, the various and novel and decidedly somewhat exciting negligee costumes of the Continent of Europe. Friends in England wonder I do not find China more amusing, So do I. But countries differ. And much though I love England I doubt its being at all an amusing country for a foreigner to travel in. Anyway I did not even find Chefoo amusing, although it was then China's one sea bath, and it was the height of the Chefoo season before we came away. The summer heat was then a thing of the past, although the bright settled autumn weather with its steady wind, by which you can sail outwards every morning and count on sailing homewards every evening in time for dinner, had not asserted itself. For we still had occasional rainstorms, and one day "drizzling drearily'* just as it might at home. Yet there was nothing to complain of in the weather. It was cool and pleasant, yet not chilly ; you could be out all day, and yet you could sit out even in the evening with impunity. At the same time I was getting a little tired of the raise'

AUGUST IN CHEFOO 25

en-scene. The modern stage has demoralised us into expecting a constant change de decors, and so though the view from our verandah was quite eye-satisfying — for what can one want more than to look across a Chinese artistic railing, between artistic Chinese reed blinds, on to a sea bluer than blue, finished off opposite with islands and lighthouse, iBnished off to the left by the out-jutting hill with its bungalows and outcropping rocks, with at low water delicious green reflections in the sea below ? Yet one sighed for some variety. Sometimes a procession of Roman Catholic Sisters, with bloodless, but radiant faces, ash-white veils hanging backwards, ash-white garments sweeping to the ground, looking at a little distance like corpses in their grave clothes, stood upon the rocks or passed along the sands. Every night the lighthouse lighted up, every morning the sun rose out of the sea. I could see it as I lay in bed if I liked, but I longed for a change of scene instead of just those light effects, which we have seen upon the stage so often to the sound of soft music, and heralding the advent of the villain or the heroine all in white and with dishevelled hair.

At Chef 00 it seemed impossible to change the scene. Tramp, tramp along the sands, always the islands, the hill, the blue, blue sea, and the lighthouse, lighted up at the same hour. Even if one climbed those arid mountain sides, without ever a blade of grass waving over their proud dryness, it would be still the same. I had been to the top of the highest hill on the Tse Fu side. It was just after sunset, and the scene was wonderfully animated ; great big insects, a cross between a cockroach and a spider, made the paths lively ; praying mantises, or their first cousins, the Chinese call them wrestlers, knelt piously, all in green ; innumerable dragon flies with large gauzy but colourless wings darted on their prey, whilst the

26

IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

swifts in their frantic excitement after food fanned my cheeks with the air made by their wings. I longed to stop there, it was bo lively. But the dire necessity for

Bi/ Mr JHcticarii

dining drove me back to our silent sands, lotielie

than

uiuiu^ uiuvt! lilt; uui^H. w uur siiijiiv »auue, iuueiier i;nsi ever, now the cessation of the great heat permitted peopl to make picnics and generally go about.

Tliere were four missionary establishments in Chefoo. How far they all served tlie purpose for which they were

AUGUST IN CHEF 00 27

intended of converting the Chinese, I had no possible means of knowing. But I could not help noticing what other excellent work they were doing alongside of their central object. Dr Nevius of the American Mission had introduced a kind of pear for which every September visitor to Chefoo ought to thank him, so juicy and delicious in flavour is it as it melts in the mouth. Chinese have got grafts, and oflfer pears from them for sale in the market, and the com-paratively high price they so far command may probably lead to the conversion of a good many more Chinese as far as pear growing goes. They do not seem yet to have taken so kindly to the varieties of grapes the same good doctor had introduced, and which decidedly beat the grapes of Madeira, even in its palmiest days, as well as the grapes of M^ran, and were simply the sweetest and most luscious I had ever tasted. It was Roman Catholic missionaries who introduced the potato into China. It is to missionaries we almost always have to turn for information about the languages and customs of little-known peoples. Whether their direct efforts to cliange the hearts and ways of life of those they go amongst succeed or not, probably it would be impossible to over-estimate tlie indirect results produced by a body of men and women on tlie whole so energetic and devoted. I saw but little of missionaries in C'hefoo, and probably that is why I learnt so little about the pro-vince of Shantung, which is the classic ground of China, and probably one of its oldest provinces. Its rocks are of that primeval Laurentian, which crops up at the Malvern Beacon and then is not found again, till it forms the shores of the St Lawrence. It is seen again at Chefoo. Little garnets are to be found among its sparkling mica schist, and very lovely are its white marble, and pink limestone.

We of the settlement hardly gob beyond walking round the hill, or wandering on the yellow sands looking at the sea. It required so much energy for us to set off towards

28 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

those cragged hills, that shut us in, for, unless we guided our steps very adroitly, we were sure to find ourselves entangled among dirtiest Chinese houses with gutters by the side of the street, that on a small scale emulate those of Peking for filth and odour. The Chinese town is not large, but it is straggling, and it has smells all China's own, such as one does not care to encounter the last thing coming in hungry for dinner. With its pol,vpus arms it enfolded us, till for want of roads we lamented "I can't get out" like the starling of song celebrity. If Chefoo had only a different back-ground, what a delightful seaside resort it would be ! As it was it reminded me of that cat of which Alice said : " I have often seen a cat without a grin, but never a grin without a cat before." It has a coast outline, three hotels, excellent bathing, and — nothing more !

CHA PTER IV

THK WA1.I>

(iHAl CITY

rriHE tide is coming in fast ami the north-east breeze is fresh. It is hardly possible to write for looking at the junks passing so fast up stream by the windows — each with five sails on five different masts. Here comes one with sails of ruddy brown, like a ripe chestnut in the eun. Here comes a steamer with a European flag : an ocean tramp' Many a weary mile has she coasted to get her freight, which slie carries at charges that may or may not pay. Yet seen from this distance she looks swift and jaunty in among the heavy junks. The sun shines, tlie fresh breeze blows invitingly: it is hard to resist the temptation to take hat and gloves and go out. But [lass on, brown sails ! Pass on, red sails ! I will not look at you. Yet — surely that is the smoke of a steamer in the far reach. Ciin it be — is it? It is I The home

30 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

mail \ But the two guns have Dot yet sent a thrill through all the Shanghai colony of Europeans: telling to one, of home and mother, home and child, home and wife ; telling, to another, of teas sold at a loss of 3d. in the pound, or silk not on demand. Even when the guns have sounded, tiie letters — the pleasant, chatty, hand-and-

K-i Mr H. Ikavi-l

heart-pj-essing home letters — Ciiimot be delivered that very minute. There is still time to ilescribe my last walk round the walla of that little known city tlie Shanghai Chinatown. Hithei-to our walks have cliieriy been con-tined to the grass-plats of the Bund, with its motley crowd, watching the boats go by. There goes another, distinctly- recalling the old Venetian galleys in Tintoretto's

ON THE WALLS OF SHANGHAI CITY 31

pictures, and there swiftly rides up stream an old Viking barge. " Freiglited with Curses!" I see it so called, and huny on the walls of the Academy. This with the eyes of the imagination, of course. In reality it is an honest Chinese junk returning lightly laden.

The European colony of Shanghai rarely stirs beyond

the Concession ; men who have been twenty years in China and do not .speak a woid of the laii<;iiage, as they boast, have never set foot in the Chinatown, which they verily believe to be the dirtiest in Cliinii. But it takes a great deal to be that. Anyhow. roun<l it.-* walls you get a tive-niile walk — a short Hve miles i>robabIy— all flat, ami with fresh country air as you round to the country side of the city. On the other you have the

32 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

advantage o£ taking quiet peeps into Chinese interiors and Chinese street-life by turns, uigostled and at your ease. It is pleasant to watch a family of carpenters at work ; the eldest boy, whenev^er the glue-pot requires warming, refreshing with bellows the fire burning on the floor in the midst of the shavings, the younger children playing about and admiring, and thinking they too will be carpenters some day. A little girl holds up to us an extremely fine baby she is nursing. " Would not you like to have him ? *' she asks. " Yes, throw him up," we reply. Then they all laugh delighted, the little nurse herself almost overcome, what with laughter and the very big baby. In this room we see them washing the floor — we feel glad they do that sometimes — cooking, working, enjoying — that ideal of the Chinaman — " elegant leisure." A few steps further on we look down upon a street just by an entrance gate. It is pleasant to watch the crowd in the narrow street, from so near yet from above, completely at our ease. Here is the entrance to a yamen ; the great man is evidently about to sally forth. Several little boys have been impressed into his service as pursuivants or outrunners. They are delighting in bright scarlet coats thrown over their dirty rags, in their conical, old-world caps, somewhat distantly related to college caps, yet with something of the jester's bells about them also. But what they are especially delighting in just now is the long tail-feathers of the Reeves pheasant : not quite two yards long, but getting on for it. These they are brandishing about before sticking them in their caps to walk in procession. In one part of the walls the path has been encroached upon, not as so often in China for a rope-walk, but a silk-walk. A boy with two small shuttles seizes hold of the light weight attached at one end of the silken cord, and with a few dexterous turns sets the whole cord, composed of several fibres, spinning.

ON THE WALLS OF SHANGHAI CITY 35

Theo the next, then the next; and so on till five silken threads are being spun by hand without the aid of machinery. At the other end there are weights hanging to keep them taut. But the other end is a long way ort'; and as we walk along it is hard to avoid brushing against the prettily- coloured silken threads. Here is a man

winding them into skeins. He enters into conversation. It seems the soldiers make an honest penny by letting off some part of the walls for silk-winding. They also let off the guard-houses:

The general efiect, looking down upon the city, presents one comical feature. Everyone, who can, ha.i* & tree, and some of the trees are tine. The Chinese ditt'er from the Knglish in that they devastate the country of trees, but

36 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

carefully preserve them in their cities. We, on the other hand, have sadly treeless towns. But the comicality of the view lies in the fact that each of these Chinese trees serves a purpose ; for on each, high aloft, is a bird-cage. The houses, that do not run to a tree, have a tall bamboo, and tie on to it a bough or two — to make believe for the bird doubtless. Each of these cages can be run up and down with ease like a flag by their haulyards ; and we met several of them being carried along, that their inmates might enjoy the air upon the walls. The latter evidently appreciated the attention, for they were singing to their heart's content. They were for the most part a kind of thrush, Hoa-vii, or Flowery Eyebrows. Evidently the one great joy of a Chinaman's life, the creature, with whose joys and sorrows he sympathises, is a song-bird. China-men love chrysanthemums, the hoar-frost-resisting flowers as they call them ; but their pets and their companions are birds. We passed by a woman gathering a sort of tiny yellow chrysanthemum, growing wild upon the walls, with which to dress combs to decorate women's hair. Some-times they have a stitter arrangement in green berries oft the same plant. Everyone we met seemed as usual very chattily inclined ; but some begged, and a few silly children called us by the Shanghai name for foreigner, a corruption of the Portuguese " ladnlos " — i.e., robbers. We had not time to explore a picturesque temple nestled into a very quiet, remote corner of the walls. The sun was already sinking fast — a golden red ball — casting long, purple shadows over the surrounding plain ; and so we hurried homewards, though much wishing to make the acquaintance of a little colony on an island in the China-town — an island only cut oft' from the rest of the world by open sewers or streams of filth, but built upon with such exquisite neatness that one longed to know who the people were. They had made a very tidy bridge for themselves

ON THE WALLS OF SHANGHAI CITY 37

with a cane fence across it, in that a cane door, and behind again another screen. Fences, walls, gates, and all were tidiness itself ; and walking across the bridge were two Chinamen in sombre garments, pig-tailed pictures of propriety. But the mail I Now let us forget China and be in England once again, each in familiar intercourse with his or her own people !

CHAPTER V INSIDE SriANOHAI CITY

^r^HE first tliorouglily pleasant afternoon I ever spent -*- in Shanghiii was when without a eard-e

Shanghai is the city of many calls — a little company in rickshas, we careered along the Bund, always a most animated scene with its very motley crowd of long pigtailed, short velvet-coated, blue-gowned Chinamen ; Sikh policemen of magnificent proportions, grimly bronzed faces and turbans of startling scarlet, as also of startling height, and mingled amongst them coolies crooning, " Kh — ah ! Eh — ah," as they carried packages suspended from bamboos ; Paraees with their curious, high, cylindrical hats, Jews of many nationalities but one type, Portuguese, French, English, etc., etc.; a few blue-jackets encouraging their ricksha men, as if they were donkeys, by good-naturedly ineffective blows; one or

INSIDE SHANGHAI CITY 39

two bound-foot Chinese women looking on amused, and a wedding procession, mostly scarlet, threading its way deftly in and out among the " BarbariauB." Suddenly we caught sight of men carrying baskets full — but full to overflowing — of brilliant purple and green Muscovy ducks, nil craning their necks to look about them, and

\H<i Mr l/,«mr/..;

flashing in the sunshine. At once our spirits rose, we nodded admiration to one another, turned down a long, narrow street past the old French Consulate, niid opposite to it, right opposite to it, apparently under the special protection of France, we saw the great opium den, that has ruined more Chinamen than any one given place in China. We turned another corner, sprang out of our

40 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

rickshas, and proceeded to that little visited, almost un-known city, the Chinese town of Shanghai.

But not so quickly ! easier said than done. Jinrickshas — that delightful missionary invention, originally called Jen-li-che or man-power carriage, but quickly corrupted into Jen-ri-che by Japanese, who hear no difference between r's and Ts — jinrickshas can run no longer through the narrow, crowded Chinese streets, but there are a whole array of wheelbarrows waiting to be hired. The street is narrow, the turns are sharp, and one wheel-barrow man is determined we shall at least hire him. He wheels against us here, he wheels against us there, he blocks the way, he is in front and behind us all at once. And all the while so good-humoured and silent, it is im-possible to be otherwise than good-humoured and silent also. But at last we get through the wheelbarrow men, also through the city gates, which are by no means im-posing, and pass the poor men sitting with cangues round their necks. This is the first time I have seen this punishment, but there seems to be plenty of it in the Shanghai Chinatown. Are the policemen cleverer to catch thieves there than at Hankow or Peking ? Are the people wickeder, or are the temptations greater? Anyhow tliere are the poor wretches with large cangues, preventing tliem from lying down, or even leaning back, unable to take them oil* day or night or even feed them-selves, and looking wretchedly sick and hungry, as they hold out suppliant hands, and point at their mouths waiting to be fed. But the vehement Neapolitan makes a gesture far more expressive of famine abandonment than these Chinese prisoners. The Chinese always con-vey the impression of having very little to express from their poverty of modes of expression. No flashing eyes, that speak for themselves, no working features, articulate without a sound, no dramatic gestures easy to read a

7ZJL

C*?/

'" 1

^:- >-..,*

PBISONBBS WITH CiSOfKB.

INSIDE SHANGHAI CITY 43

mile off, and finally a language almost inarticulate when spoken. Did they wish much to say anything their whole physique must have altered long ago. But they are a long-suffering race, born, one would say, to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, and to bear many things patiently.

Shanghai Chinatown enjoys the reputation of being very dirty and disgusting, but that sunshiny afternoon we did not find it so, though we wondered a little at the dirt as we passed down one street of Chinese houses crowded picturesquely on to a narrow creek, the tops of the houses, wooden sheds apparently, each with a sliai-Vai on the roof or, as I should call it, an Italian loggia. But here the little roof balcony or summer house is not built for pleasure to enjoy the sun and il dolce giuoco drgli occhi, as the Italians say, but to hang out clothes to dry. The tide was high, so there was little smell, but the water between us and the houses looked foul and sluggish, like a canal rather than a river, and a canal badly used, with everything flung into it. It is all these poor people have for washing, cooking, drinking. And yet just at hand there is the foreign Con-cession with its abundant supply of wholesome, pure water, and an enterprising company doubtless thirsting to prolong its mains into the Chinatown whenever the Taotai will allow of it. Meanwhile the poor people die of cholera, and who can wonder looking at that w ater, which must also be far more objectionable when the tide is out. Across the creek each house had its own independent, narrow, rail-less bridge turned edgeways, with nails projecting upwards from the upturned edge, so as to prevent even a cat getting across, when the cottage wants to receive no visitors; but diflicult for imaginative and consecjuently giddy Europeans to walk over, even when laid flat to invite intercourse.

The great thing to visit in Shanghai is the tea gardens with a certain far-off resemblance to the picture on the

44 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

famous willow-pattern plate. Here is water, with quaint, devious bridges, Btarting first oneway, then another, over it.

[B'j Mr Meiirari

and there are pavilions, and there is vockwork. When it was all made one cannot help thinking the water must have been clearer, and that there must then have been a few plants among the rockwork instead of as now stagnant

INSIDE SHANGHAI CITY 45

pools and filth. But the arrangement is really very pretty. As usual people say vaguely "The Rebels," when one wonders why, like everything else Chinese, it is in

\]hj Mr Mai'^ri

decadence and uiicared for. But the rebels were such 11 long time ago I cannot help thinking, if Slmnglmi city cared to furbish up its tea garden, it could have done so in nearly half a century, and I begin to wonder if it is not owing to the increasing use of opium rather than to the

46 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

rebels, that one finds things so untidy and neglected as in England one finds them only in a drunken woman's house-hold. After all, it is only quite of late years the Chinese have smoked opium extensively. And the first generation of opium smokers were possibly smokers in moderation. Anyway their constitutions were not soaked with it, as those of their grandchildren and great-grandchildren must be. Dipsomania is a modern development in England, where gin drinking is of comparatively recent date, as also tobacco smoking as other than a luxury. Science has not yet even attempted to work out how far national characters and constitutions are determined by their food and affected by a change of diet. And if it is opium, that has made the Chinese grow so careless, there may be other develop-ments going on in England, which we do not notice, because we are used to things as they now are. But certainly nothing has ever made me feel more anxious about the future of England than the dilapidated coquetries of that Shanghai tea garden ; for, bad though trade was then, the Shanghai Chinatown must be far wealthier than it was when that garden was made.

We sat down in one of the pavilions, and had most excellent tea, accompanied by sunflower seeds and pea nuts, both sold to us by itinerant vendors, evidently the ruined victims of opium. Sunflower seeds are like shrimps, very pretty eating when you arrive at it, but it is a question whether the amount of the delicacy obtained is in proportion to the trouble. An opium smoker came and oflfered us a bird for sale. His bird had learnt a very pretty trick of catching seeds, as he threw them into the air. It sat, as is usual with Chinese birds in captivity, on a cunningly-crooked stick, and had a silken thread around its throat. Outside amongst the slanting bridges and water there was a regular bird market going on. A man threw his bird into the air. It fluttered, and flew back.

INSIDE SHANGHAI CiTY 47

Again and again he threw it ; sometimes it would perch for a few moments on the curved gable of the tea garden pavilion, but always only to iiy down to him again, a crowd standing by to watch. There was a glorious, golden pheasant for sale cooped up in a wretched, little cage. But otherwise the birds were very dull in colouring after those at Tientsin and Peking.

There was a great Fair going on in Peking whilst we were there, and the hooded hawks tempted me more than anything. We saw the greatest beauty, for which three taels, about twelve shillings, were asked. But our man was against our buying it, saying if we could train it and take it out it would be all right, but if we slmt it up, or kept it confined, " hawks had no conscience." Trained hawks cost forty or fifty taels. This one was young, newly caught. There were numbers of dear little birds with red golden throats. I think they are a kind of thrush, and hear that a good one will fetch five hundred dollars, that is, a well-trained one. There is a bird the Pekinese teach to catch little balls ; it is said to be able to go after three and bring them back, if you throw them up in the air. I saw also the most magnificent bhick bird, a Mongolian crow, I think it was, very big and fat, with a beautiful glossy, blue-black plumage. The crow is called the grave of the Mongols, though whether their dead bodies are strapped on to wild horses, which are then let loose, as 1 was told, I really do not know. Any more than I know whether it is true, as some member of the French Legation, who re-cently went home through Siberia, writes word, that the tarantasses there are drawn by numbei-s of horses, gener-ally ridden by women, the women wearing the harness, not the horses. It may l>e true, but if so it seems odd not to have heanl of it before.

But to return to Shanghai. We passed by a stall with artificial teeth, covered with announcements how every

48 m THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

tooth pain could be at once cured, and paused for some time by an itinerant vendor of quack medicines. He had wonderful things upon his stall, a tiger's heart, a tiger's

■vi; tlie old Btyle and the nuw oh reganlti feet — the [itlicr'x feet mutilated into 2J inch len),'th. the little girt'it it bi)und. and mounted on the Manchu clog-like nhoea.

teeth, a little monstrosity of a fat baby, made in three parts, head, body, limbs united, no anatomy of any kind indicated, but probably used by his patients to point out

INSIDE SHANGHAI CITY 49

where their babies were affected. He was closing for the night, so we could not hear his patter. Hard by there were pretty little China cups as usual lying in the dost for sale, the fanciful Chinese pen rests, a haw-thorn twig, green, with four white flowers, a white and green bird nestling among them, and offering on its back several nice ledges for Indian ink-brushes to rest and dry.

Before that we had gone into the silk shops and bought skeins of every lovely hue ; examined Chinamen's pockets — possibly useful for travelling letter-cases — also their shagreen spectacle cases. We had seen the pretty little musical instruments made of crocodile skin, highly orna-mental to hang upon a boudoir wall, if not very harmonious, with their two strings between which the bow is fixed. Chinese tailors' scissors proved quite irresistible. We had to invest in them, thinking how many weary finger aches might be saved to English cutters-out if they once became usual in England. Nor was it easy to resist gambling for sweets in the streets and bestowing those gained upon the very smart little girls, who were standing round looking and longing, combs of yellow immortelles, or tiny yellow daisies framing the backs of their well-plastered heads, and giving them a most elegant appearance. We failed to get tongue scrapers, though they were duly advertised for sale over more than one shop we passed by, and we put off till another day examining the convenience of Chinese irons, lately brought out as a patented new inven-tion in America, as balanced rudders have been with us. For if "they didn't know everything down in Judee," it really seems almost impossible to hit upon any con-venience of life, which they did not know in the good old days in China, where they long ago discovered how to make divided skirts, such as Lady Harberton has so far failed even in copying, and where they know how to mako

D

50 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

great-coats with sleeves so cut, that you can put both arms ID at once without any laborious pushing or hauling, such as makes an Englishman shrink from getting into, or being in fi-om getting out of, his outer garment. When I left England the last new society, its proKpectus not printed yet, was that of the Ladies or Dames of the Thimble, to

[ISy Mr H. Beaitthaiap,

supply women menders, and find them mending to do. You may see these menders in Chinese towns, tidy women, going about in couples with their little stools, or sitting outside cottage doors mending the family linen. It is a thing of old custom here. Americans often say if the English ever do beat in the great international yacht race, it will yet be America's triumph, for it must be with a centreboard boat.

INSIDE SHANGHAI CITY 51

and America invented centreboards. Not so, America! Honest John Chinaman had been sailing about in centre-board boats for generations before ever you thought of them.

Exceedingly tired physically, but mentally refreshed, we came back to electric light, and carriages, callers, and Caledonians.

CHAPTER VI INTO THE CHINESE COUNTRY

AN expedition up the river is one of the pleasures of Shanghai life. People's faces brighten as they talk of" going to the hills." And there being no roads, the only way of really getting into the country is either to take a houseboat, and wind in and out of the various creeks, or with a yacht drop down to Woosung, or sail up the Huang Pu. We did the latter one winter's day, and the expedition left me rather meditative. Just as in the north I decided the graves were the only liveable-in places, being the only spots sheltered from sun and wind by trees, so here I found the graves were the only things, that made any variety in the landscape of flat alluvial plain, all cultivated, with every here and there a grave mound ! It suggested irresistibly that the lives of those around were all flat, full of labour, varied but by deaths, and those not tragic, nor specially interesting.

We sailed on and on, beating against the wind as I have been told no yacht in England could, only a Shanghai yacht with its ingenious adaptation of the Chinese rig. We passed Ming Hong with its picturesque Lelxin (Inland Taxes) and Life Saving Station, its pretty pavilion-topped gateway, and Bund, all facing south along the river side. No other boats ventured against the strong north-west blow, and the river felt lonely as we neared the Pagoda of Ta Kong. It seemed a pity not to land and look at something.

52

INTO THE CHINESE COUNTRY $$

So we l&nded: Fields without hedges and without trees, fields of rice recently cut down, and consequently with their mud all dry ! The walking was good enough, which it would not have been at any other time of year, and the fields being quite dry did not smell. Every now and then we crossed a creek by a bridge

[Ih, Mn Cnit Holliday.

of a single plank, or, worse still, of two quite narrow planks not in anj- way joined together, only placed along-side, so that one could if one liked put one foot on each, and walk across, each plank vibrating differently. Every now and then we came across cosy-looking home-steads with curved roofs and projecting eaves, lookinp very picturesque against the evening sky, and actually

S6 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

with a few trees round them, also great comfort-promising stacks of rice straw. But we knew only too well that, as we got near each, the smells must make us wish we had not. Finally a village somewhat especially odoriferous, as if its whole business were to provide fertilisers for the surrounding country! And at the back of it with no particular approach of any kind the Pagoda! It was locked up and ruinous. When someone put a ladder on to the roof, and climbed up, and unlocked one of the doors from the inside, I was sorry, for it seemed a duty then to go up and look at the view of the plain and the hillSy and yet it hardly looked safe. Clearly it would not do to lean against the railing round the balconies of the Pagoda. They were crumbling away. I thought then it would be curious to know when that Pagoda was built, and why it had never been repaired if it were worth while to build it. But now I know it never is considered worth while to repair anything in China. A public benefactor builds a bridge and has his name inscribed on a stone tablet forming part of it. But you cannot have your name immortalised for simply 3^ear by year replacing a damaged brick or two. We climbed three of the seven storeys, thereby procuring a great deal of excitement for nie. For with boots with heels, and petticoats, one shrinks from going down a ladder back-wards, and getting ofi* it on to another ladder starting in a directly opposite direction. Otherwise there was not much gained by going up. We certainly saw the hills, and we certainly saw the plain. The hills looked a little bigger than the grave mounds, and one satisfactorily ascertained for one's self that otherwise the plain was all the same, as far as one could see. The people of the village all congregated below the Pagoda, and stared at us when we came down. They looked very poor and ignorant. I do not know what we looked to them. But I

INTO THE CHINESE COUNTRY 59

certainly did observe that with the exception oE one boy they all had the good sense not to ascend their own Pagoda.

We dropped down Mtream in the moonlight, and next morning early landed at Ming Hong. Again Hat alluvial plain only varied by grave mounds I But here the river has raised the surrounding country sofBciently for cotton, not rice, to be grown, and great is the difference in the

6o IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

appearance of the people. Far the best-looking China-men I had yet seen thronged the streets of Ming Hong. And they appeared thriving and prosperous. There is a temple near to the town, that almost looks as if someone sometimes went and prayed in it. When you go into the inner temple there is a grave and rather beautiful Goddess of Mercy over the high altar, looking like a Russian Madonna. The roof is fine inside as well as out with great big beams and dragons. But the entrance temple, or Ting-ehr, was very comical. For there sat a gilded Buddha apparently in supreme enjoyment of the good things of this life, and on either side of him four gigantic idols, who had all had their legs either broken away, or worn away, and who had in other ways suffered change at the hands of time. At what should have been their feet sat a poor beggar begging lamentably with legs horribly swollen, and covered with sores which he was very anxious to exhibit. But it seemed pleasanter for all parties to give him something than to look !

We walked along a path, wliere, marvellous for China, two people could walk abreast, and crossing a variety of creeks in a variety of ways came upon the ruins of a camp, tinally arriving at two tall chimneys, a landmark in the scene. Our puzzle was what fuel they could possibly find to burn inside those tall chimneys. It turned out to be rice husks. A man sat on the ground and with one hand worked a bellows, thus making forced draught, while with the other he threw on a tiny handful of rice husks, not enough to choke the bright fiame roused by the draught. Another man weicfhed out crushed cotton seeds into a little basket, emptied them into a vessel on the fire till it just boiled, then emptied them again into another vessel — if you can call it such — a frame of split bamboo twisted, kneaded it all hot as it was with his feet, and then piled it up ready to

INTO THE CHINESE COUNTRY 6i

be pressed, always with a bit of basket work weighting down the top. We waited to see the cakes pressed. They were like cheeses, each with their twisted bamboo rings round them. When as many as could be were fitted into a trough, then by putting in wedges the bulk was reduced to rather less than half what it at first appeared, during which time a constant stream of oil was flowing from the trough. A man hammered the wedges, towards the end using a stone hammer so heavy I could only just lift it. It was rather amusing to see the politeness of these men. One of them wanted to smoke, but before doing so he offered his pipe both to my husband and to myself quite with the air of expecting his offer to be accepted. I had on an ulster, and they all admired the material of it very much, saying each in turn they were quite sure it was pi cAi, long ells ! There were buffaloes crushing the cotton seeds, walking round and round with basket-work blinkers over their poor eyes. Curiously enough the heavy millstones they wheeled round, all of hardest granite as they were, yet were decorated with carvings. One had the key pattern, also characters very care-fully carved to the effect that it was the Fairy Carriage and the Drag(m's Wheel.

It seemed strange to come upon this touch of a'sthetic-ism in this very homely sort of factory, whose whole plant must have cost so very little, and which was in consequence, though so well adapted for its purpose, yet so simple that it might well serve as an illustration of an elementary primer in mechanics.

Indeed this factory at home and in the fresh air was the very ideal Ruskin writes about, that the Village Industries Society at home has lately been formed to realise, if yet it may be in England. It has been realised broadcast in China, and yet they are not happy !

We went back through a long, crowded, flourishing

62 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

street. At one open doorway there were young priests sitting inside chanting. They had musical instruments and gongs. A man behind a table was very busy stamping envelopes such as Chinese officials use: very large and covered with characters. He was good enough to pause, and show us the letters these envelopes were to contain, very long, and beautifully written, and most neatly and cunningly folded. There was someone very ill in the house, and these letters were addressed to heaven, describ-ing circumstantially his sad case. They were presently to be burnt and thus delivered. The lanterns, with which this house was decorated, were blue for semi-mourning. Only a few doors further off curiously enough we came upon a wedding. The doors stood wide open, and we saw a long vista of courtyards and Ting-ehrs all with open doors, and at the end what I fancied were a number of smartly -dressed servants standing. But they may for all I know have been the hosts. There was a band in the first courtyard with the quaint, pretty-looking instruments of crocodile skin, which 1 had before so much admired in the Shanghai city. Every one seemed so obliging I asked to look inside the wedding chair. It was remarkably smart, really beautifully embroidered all over outside. But to my intense disgust the cushion, on which the bride was to sit, was an old common, red cushion worn at the corners, and actually dirty, and the inside of the chair had not been cleaned out.

Unfortunately all our following of street boys came after me into the courtyard to examine the chair, so feeling I was not only intruding, but making a real ob-struction, I came out again. As I did so, some women wedding guests got out of a sedan chair at the door with a baby marvellously attired. They were good enough to ask me to go in with them, and even seized hold of my hand to lead me in. But I felt as if I should lose face, as

INTO THE CHINESE COUNTRY

63

the Chinese say, i£ I went in among the wedding guests with my rough ulster, and without a single Chinese com-pliment to say to anyone.

Just as the day before there was a strong head wind when we were going up the river, so this day when we were coming down there was next to none. But our

[II.J .l/r, !,-y

wonderful yacht made her way all the same, bringing us down juat in time for the reopening of the Shanghai Theatre, with every place taken, so that actually money was being refused at the door.=.

Curiously enougli "Crutch ami Toothpick" wa.s the piece, that had been cliosen for the opening night, witli its oft-repeated moral : " The business of the rich is to

64 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

spend/' and its fully expressed if not spoken corollary: "To work for your living is low." It did not seem very appropriate to Shanghai, but people laughed ! No wonder the Chinese delight in theatres. Their flat country cries out for some artificial enlivening.

CHAPTER VII APRIL NEAR NINGPO

^r^WO years before, travelling through the English Lakes -■- in the month of June and rejoicing in the rhodo-dendrons and azaleas, so lovely there, I read Miss Gordon (^mming*s account of the azaleas on the hills behind Ningpo, and thought I must some day come to China just on purpose to see them. But I did not then think that I should ever really do so. Now one night on board the good boat Kiavytfrn had brought us from Shanghai to Ning|)o, reaching that place in pleasant time for break-fjist. And next day saw us most comfortably installed in a friend's houseboat en routf for Kongkou, where we were to take chairs to proceeed to the Snowy Hollow of Shih-to-sze. Ningpo boats are excellent, and the one lent us slipped along like an eel, propelled by two men with yuloH at the stem. Though pleasant enough there was little to notice on the way. But before ever packing into the houseboat, we had Iwen to see the various sights of Ningpo: the shops of the famous wood-carving; the grand old Fokien Guild House with its beautiful dracron-carved Atone pillars, and air of departed grandeur; then in the foreign quarter the race-course, which is not circular but straight, and where no races are ever run : the church with its excellent memorial window to Bishop Russel, and last, but certainly not least, the new Bund.

Ningpo shops appear to be rich in fresh, clean-looking matting, and in delightfully fresh-looking contrivances

67

68 IN THE LAND, OF THE BLUE GOWN

made out of bamboo. I was also greatly pleased to fiod Ningpo sailors walking about in nether garmeuts stitched with the very same amocking stitch our own carter lads have for centuries found so serviceable. It must be some-thing more than fancy, that makes so many of us like to wear smocking now, since Chinese "water-hands" and English labourers have alike discovered its uses.

Arrived at Kongkon, some twenty or thirty men turned out at once and waited patiently for an hour or two to compete for the job of carrying our baggage. It was rather difficult to get through them. But at last at nine we were ofl', and between four and five reached Shih-to-sze, Imving to pay a dollar and a half for each sedan chair, and half a dollar to each man carrying our luggage, that

APRIL NEAR .V/.VGPO

69

being the tariff. The roiid was at first rather monotonous, and the heat all the way very oppressive. But there came

a moment of intense excitement, wlien we first caught siKiit of azaleas, pink beneath the fir trees. Then tliere was a hillside or two in the distance all ruddy with them. At

70 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

last we were carried over such a hill, and sprang out and gathered our hands full of pale pink, of rosy red, of mauve and again of purple reddish azaleas. They were quite as lovely as in English gardens. The bushes were covered with flowers. But somehow I am not sure that when wild they give (juite the same satisfaction as do the fields waving yellow with rape flower, and scenting all the air with their sweetness. Whether from association azaleas look too fine for wildness. We lunched by a swift stream, on whose banks grew what looked like violet flowers, but violet flowers with leaves most unlike violets. And there we sat and watched the rafts go by ; five or seven bamboo-tree stems loosely tied together so that the water could come up between the stems, and with the ends somewhat curved upwards at one end like a prow. On a platform upon the steins would sometimes sit a party of women with their graceful style of hair dressing, a sort of chignon not hanging down the back, but sticking out very far behind, and giving the face a dreamy, poetic air, altogether unusual in ('liina. Sometimes all sorts of market produce would be piled up on the platform. The rafts always shot by (juickly, and I wondered how I should like sitting on one of them, knowing; it was soon to be our mode of con-veyance.

After hiricheou the scenery grew greatly in interest, recallint; Monte Generoso and North Italian scenes. But all on a sudden my eyes rested on a shabby shrub by the wayside. I was sure I knew something about that dull-looking shrub, something like a very forlorn camellia, recalling from a little distance a holly bush but without the prickles. It was only next day, however, I was able to assure myself I was right, and that it was — the tea tree ! We passed then by many tea gardens. We were told some were for tea and some for oil produced from the tea seeds. All looked alike neglected.

APRIL NEAR X/XGPO 71

All the way along the birds were siaging, the cuckoo calling eontinaously, the cock pheasant at intervale. There was a feeling of spring in the air. Two peasant v

passed in lively cimt ; they were most decorously dressed in front with their jackets drawn down over long aprons, that looked like petticoats, but which abruptly terminated, leaving only trousers visible behind, being in reality half their divided skirts, the other half having been taken

72 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

oif for convenience in walking. They chatted with us, they chatted with the stray men they met. Azaleas lay along the road dropped from the careless hands of previons passers. Nearly everyone we met was carrying a handfal of azaleas. But I was not sorry when we reached the elevated valley, on a sort of platform on which stands the famous monastery, said to have been founded towards the end of the ninth century under the reign of Hi-tsung. For the final hill was steep, and one of my chair bearers — a mere lad — could not carry. So I had to walk, and the heavy air made this very hot work. The guest-rooms seemed all the damper in consequence, and I wa8 glad soon to leave them and go out to see the beautiful cascade with its grand rock amphitheatre, and bushes of azaleas in full blossom, like delicate pink and mauve fairies, pro-jecting over the precipice ; all perfumed by the delicious scent proceeding from an evergreen shrub snowed over by what looked like glorified myrtle fiowers. But on the way my attention was arrested by what was indeed a novelty to me, a service in the temple.

In all the time I had been in China I had never caught sight even of the tail end of a religious service of any kind. So of course I lingered now. Six priests in disgustingly dirty and patched loose greyish -white gowns, with each a yellow robe fastened across one shoulder by a ring and fibula, knelt upright before the altar. Then they rose and prostrated themselves three times, one of them abasing himself till his head rested in his hands on the hassock on which he was kneeling. He seemed to be the leader, was perhaps the officiating priest. They struck gongs and bells, and a drum with a very deep sound, and processioned round the church chanting. Round and round the temple they walked, never apparently noticing me at all, with eyes cast down, and air of deep devotion. I seemed at intervals to hear Dominus, iJuminus, Gloria, Gloria, Certainly the

APRIL NEAR NINGPO 75

chant seemed the very same I have listened to so often in Boman Catholic churches in Europe. There was no con-gregation, and the demeanour of the Chinese priests was more reverent, that was all the difference I could notice. Thus for more than a thousand years they had been worshipping our Heavenly Father after that fashion in this very spot. Once there are said to have been three thousand priests in that monastery. Had their service been accepted ? Surely the old casuists were right when they decided that in His eyes, the question is, " Non si honurriy sed si bene.*' Not if the manner of worship be good, but if it be well done, that is true heart worship.

Possibly these priests now are ignorant, sunken in super-stition, not religion. There are many such in Europe. But it is impossible to contemplate their method of worship and doubt that it is derived from one common stock with that of the Boman Catholics, of whose service ours is but a modified translation. Be formation may be needed, always must be as long as man is mortal, but Omito Fo / Which of us is there cannot join in saying that ^

An old man looking at us from a window was telling his beads all the while. Each gaily-dressed woman carried a rosary conspicuously. At last we seemed to have reached a religious part of China.

Ta Lang Shan is, like the jinricksha, a missionary dis-covery. It is a plateau in an elevated valley, and the climate in the month of April recalls the Yorkshire moors or a spring day in Cumberland. In the morning one gets up to white mist over everything, and in the evening heavy mists settle down like a pall, covering first the distant hill tops, then shadowing the country below them, shining from under the veil all flecked with sun and shadow, finally settling down over everything visible. It is so high up that one can wander over the adjacent hills for hours without ever descending any distance to speak of.

76 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

These hills are grown over with firs, azaleas only budding then, lovely white and purple violets, tea plantations, and in the hollows the inevitable paddy. It was just a little cheerless there when the winter grass had not yet dis-appeared, or the bamboos put on their summer bravery. But some three weeks later it must be delightful indeed, and one envies the possessors of the various foreign houses, who can spend their summers here.

Only six weeks before, we were told, there were six feet of snow there, and the tea bushes still showed many signs of having been touched up by the frost. We saw bushes of which the owner said they were seventy or eighty years old, and others to which he assigned thirty years. They were growing into veritable hedges in some parts. And I could not help wondering what Indian cultivators would say to rows of tea bushes, interspersed among rows of rape, or, as was more common, among rows of barley, and with the ground all hard and undug around them. But then again we were told the tea would be very good that year because there had been so much snow. And Assam tea is, I believe, unassisted by snow. So probably there is a good deal of difference in the plants.

There was not a priest in the village, nor as it would seem a rosary ; yet a young man, son of a village notable, of his own accord volunteered that the people were much too good to be converted, and he thought it very wrong of a certain missionary to try. However this may be, one man told us he was the only Christian in the place, and another that there was not one, and this, though mission-aries had had houses there for six years, and frequented the place for nine.

The road from the Snowy Valley to Ta Lang Shan lies through a singularly beautiful ravine, full of bamboo groves with one bit like Scott's Enchanted Castle in the Valley of St John, with fine trees, and all the way a fresh

APRIL NEAR NINGPO 77

running stream. In this valley the boys wear a curious kind of top boots, perhaps they should be called long stockings, for they put on straw sandals over them. But however this covering may be called, it reaches to the knee, where it is turned down in a deep fold, and it is made of human hair plaited together, and so coarse and rough as to give the boys the appearance of young bears. We did not make out if it is made of their lady loves' hair or their own. Throughout Chekiang the men wear a delightfully convenient basket pocket tied round their waists by a straw girdle and hanging down behind. In this they commonly carry a knife, or pipe. But it would be the very thing for luncheon, or wild flowers, so I was delighted to have one presented to me by the head of a tea hong, who took us to see his house. It had carved doors, and all one end of the guest-room was carved by Fung Hwa men, five of whom he had in his employ. All the best Ningpo carving is done by men from this town. The beams projecting beyond the walls to support the roof outside were so quaintly and interestingly carved, I could not help once again regretting that no one in Shanghai has tried to build a house, that would be a rhrhtVa'avre of Chinese art, instead of an imitation of sometliing at home. A verandah with such carved beams would be a thing of joy, far better than a dozen so-called curios patched alx)ut a European room. Chinese dirt seems to have blinded people to the ever-varying beauty of Chinese designs, which may be very simple, but are hardly ever otherwise than graceful, often very much so, and always appropriate to the part they serve to decorate. The most delightful thing in this house, however, was the swallows' nests in the rafters forming the ceiling of the guest-room and the birds themselves swiftly darting in and out all the tinu* of our visit, not the least alarmed at the people round about. The Chinese are very fond of having birds'

78 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

nests in their houses, and thus giving the winged creatures free shelter seems far preferable to having them in cages.

The difficulty of obtaining houses away from the Treaty Ports had been satisfactorily solved here, the foreigner advancing to the landowner money to build a house, and then renting it of him, tlie principal being thus gradually paid off out of the rent. Meanwhile the house had to be kept in repair by the owner. There were four foreign houses then, situated some distance apart, and all command-ing extensive views, three belonging to Ningpo mission-aries, and one to the Commissioner of Customs. The air seemed far fresher and healthier than that of the Snowy Valley, but the latter has far more " sights '* to tempt the traveller, being surrounded by cliffs and waterfalls, and rich also in flowers and singing birds. One of the features in the accommodation provided by the priests at Shih-to-sze is the book where, unlike most travellers' books, each traveller seems to have tried to write something worth the reading. There are notes by Dr Macgowan giving some little account of the history of the place. Sir Walter Medhurst has written careful advice as to what walks to take, and in what order, though this seems to matter less, where all the surroundings are lovely. Someone has given a list of the birds. No one so far of the flowers. Mr Ernest Major has selected a legend of a great ex-terminator of mankind, who tried to slay one of the priests, but the priest lifted his finger and the sword would not cut, so the exterminator repented of his misdeeds and endowed the monastery. Dr Fryer has added his quotum, especially noting that the two trees at the entrance are splendid specimens of Salishuria Adiantifolia. But perhaps the wittiest entry is among the last: —

'* Of advice above given in brief here's the gist : If in climbing the Perilous Path you persist,

APRIL NEAR NINGPO 79

We recommend liuhhers (though not playing wlii»t) ; For though fog there be none, yet the way may be mist, And no doubt — though this need not be news that appals — In Shih-to-sze most commonly trips lead to falls. While as to the steps, which you see everywhere, I>own the vales, up the cliffs — why they just make one stair^^

(Signed) E. & R. S. Yorke.

I have been transported in many curious fashions, but I certainly never expected to be carried all day in a clothes basket, dangling from a bamboo pole, as I was from Snowy Valley here. It seems to be the sedan chair of these hilly regions. Our journey took longer than it should have, I think ten hours with only half an hours rest for luncheon. We had to pay two dollars each chair, and sixty cents for each baggage carrier. The men seemed greatly to enjoy themselves.

The great charm of Ta Lang Shan is the unex-pected beauty of the walks. One wanders along among fir trees and azaleas, and all on a sudden finds oneself on an elevated plateau standing out right in the midst of a valley, and commanding a prospect of surpassing loveliness. Yet amongst all the others I fancy the walk to Sze Ling carries away the palm, and by those at all pressed for time this may be taken on the way from Snowy Valley to Ta Lang Shan. The rocks and little precipices add greatly to the beauty of the scene, but its charm cannot be put into words. Only the artist could attempt to deal with that. At the same time it is worth noting that the variety of foliage would make the steep descent down to Sze Ling a triumph of landscape gardening, had it all been planted by the most skilful of gardeners instead of growing wild. Azaleas of varied tints and in full flower over-hang the precipices ; firs crown them. Beneath are groves of golden bamboos, Chinese palms, Cunningham las, fresh green larches, flowering holly, Osmundia Kegalis,

8o IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

with a whole following of ferns, all putting out fresh fronds ; running water, and opposite, ranged along the hillside in a commanding situation, the well - built picturesque farmsteads of Sze Ling. At Chin-ngan there is the same sort of headland standing out, command-ing there an all round view, but not with quite the same charm of character as at Sze Ling.

Another of the delights of the neighbourhood of Ta Lang Shan is the extreme friendliness and hospitality of the people. Heated with walking it is very pleasant to be welcomed with hot tea — really sometimes of delicious flavour — in the cool, dark guest-room of a farmhouse. We had eggs brought to us also, with salt ; no bread of course ; wine and pipes were offered, also a ewer of hot water with a cloth steeped in it, with which one is meant to cool one's face and neck. No fashion could be more sensible and acceptable. But it requires some resolution to make use of the cloth, that has probably already served so many a Chinaman, although steeped in hot water.

The women wear a variety of pretty pins in their hair, sometimes sticking out so far that I wondered if no young miss, toddling about on her poor deformed feet, had put out some younger brother's eye with her projecting pins.

As the weather grew hotter we had the pleasure of witnessing two thunderstorms at Ta Lang Shan. But all was cool with rapidly moving white mist, when we wended our way downward through the valley of Wu Ling Day, always increasing in beauty till one reaches Ta Jow, so that I think it the loveliest valley I have ever travelled through, although, on saying so, visions rise up before me, rather reproachfully, of a Val Paraiso in far-off Madeira, with chestnut trees ever waving their many branches, and pale pink belladonna lilies bowing

APRIL NEAR NINGPO 8i

their heads distressed. But for one thin^ Wu Ling Day is much longer and more varied.* People who have been in Japan say it is like Japan, only finer. It is very fine, though not in the least grand. Its feature, or one of its features, is its magnificent tallow trees. Laurel-like Fhotinias, one arch of white flower, also added much to its beauty as we passed through. It has a romantic character that made one wish all Shanghai could be transported bodily for one gladsome saunter, to go back refreshed. At Ta Jow the stream we had so long followed became navigable, and we took boats, and shot rapids through a still more beautiful scene. Every-where by the side elegant footpaths with well - kept flights of steps, and many peasants walking along them, and everywhere rest houses, with grand ancestral halls.

Having read a most pleasant account in the North China Daily News of the rapids near Wenchow, I hoped my heart would jump into my mouth, or that I should at least experience some sensation over these Ningpo rapids. But I must confess they suggested none but of pleasure and of admiration of the form of the boats, and the skilful way our very young bow boy steered. We always went full speed down the rapids and the motion was most exhilar-ating.

At Ning-kong-jow we found our kind friends' houseboat waiting for us, and proceeded to Ningpo by the River Yunsf. For the first half hour the scene was lovelier than any yet passed through, recalling the Wye, but more beautiful from the bright colours of the azaleas enhanc-ing its peaceful stillness. Gradually the scenery became uninteresting. But first we saw some hundreds of big paddy birds sitting together on one or two trees, every available perch occupied by these daw-like birds, with their long bills and pufl'ed-out chests. Kingfishers flew

F

82 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

before us — cuckoos called. Also a bird with a strange, sad " o-h ! o-h ! " reckoned a bird of ill omen by the Chinese. We reached Ningpo before breakfast the next morning, had a grand day buying embroideries and sweets, and after a dinner party stepped into the comfortable houseboat again and once more on waking found ourselves far away in the country among lovely scenery, bound for the celebrated monastery of Tien Dong.

In the particularly friendly province of Chekiang, the speciality seems to be rest houses and ancestral halls. There is however another speciality : a slight attempt there is made at decency. It was the first part of China where I had found any. And the result was so comical that the most prudish traveller could not fail to be at least inwardly amused by it. I must plead guilty to having several times laughed outright. A sedan chair for the sum of one dollar will take you from the boat to the monastery, between five and six miles off, along a picturesque but very hard road, and back again. Once there you may stay in one of the spacious guest-rooms, entertained by the priests for a very small sum per diem, and wander about in the bamboo groves, or study the true inwardness of Buddhism, now so fashionable a religion for hla9ie Londoners. In 5Iay the azaleas again there colour the hillsides in banks of yellow, pink and mauve. When we were there in April this was hardly the case yet, but the yellow azaleas were coming on. The yellow irises had not yet come out. Another iris, however, like the^citr de lys, carpeted the ground just outside the temple, while wistaria tossed its beautiful, scented blossoms over the walls on to the fir trees, and generally everywhere, making the air sweet with its perfume.

There is a long, long avenue of fir trees, with several TingehrSj or entrance pavilions, and two lake-like ponds on the way up, these last specially beautiful, reflecting

>

4

't:

APRIL NEAR NINGPO 85

as they do magnificent old trees growing all round. Some of these trees have little shrines erected round them as if to Dryads. We met hundreds and hundreds of people coming back as we went out. They were mostly women, and in their best attire. But, as a rule, from each family went one man to take care of his female relations, looking very much as if he were taking out a whole seraglio. But probably they were his "sisters and his cousins and his aunts." The clothes-basket-like sedan in which most of the country people are carried has a very comical effect until you are used to it.

It was too early in the season tor the great tubs of herb tea — a most refreshing tonic — to be put out in the rest houses. These are daily filled in summer by the charity of rich philanthropists, by whom also are placed at intervals the huge blocks of stone standing on end, on which the weary wayfarer can rest his load, Chinese philanthropy always seeming especially practical. Many a man, whose shoulders were breaking dowMi under his burden, would be unable even to relieve himself of it for a minute, were it not for these stones, for many of the men carry burdens much too heavy to lift back on to their shoulders unaided, if once set down on the ground.

I sometimes WMsh English charity would take a similarly practical form. Why should not the teetotal societies provide free Apollinaris at all railw^ay stations in August ? Why should not shelters, with the means for making a fire, be erected on the Yorkshire moors, and throughout the lake district \ And whilst asking questions, not to be answered, why ^'hould not a missionary, before much money be expended on his journey into the far interior, be recfuired to prove his capabilities for conversion by converting at least one Buddhist priest ? There are two hun<lred of them at

86 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

Tien Dong. They do not look like men very open to conviction, but they are friendly, merry fellows, in ash-coloured cotton gowns, with a cloak or cape made of

littlf! (iljlini;; bits of rod silk carefully sewn together with the wliite vilges sbowiiifj, and fastened over one shoulder; tJicKe little bits thus laboriously put together symbolising tlic rngH of [loverty. There is a temple to the Lord of Heaven, of whom there is a most unspiritual-looking

APRIL NEAR NINGPO

87

figure over the altar, with a large stomach and every sign of gratified appetites \a his fat, hanging cheeks and half-closed, laughing eyes. There is also a temple

beyond to Buddha, a far nobler type, whether imaged ns lx>»ito, or ns rejoicin<,', or as himself. There are three fi({Urea of him in the temple over his altar, and behind it a figure of his mother — Sa-kya Mouni's mother, as they call her, though not giving her son any other name than

88 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

that of his exaltation. There were worshippers going round, kneeling, and bowing their foreheads to the ground, or waving j ass-sticks before each statued disciple in turn. The priests were chanting very monotonously a service specially ordered by a Mandarin as a thanksgiving for his recent promotion in office.

Each chair bearer from Ta Lang Shan to Ta Jow re-ceived five hundred cash, each baggage carrier three hundred cash. (There are one thousand cash in a dollar, and a dollar then equalled two shillings.) Each boat from Ta Jow to Nin<j Konff Jow cost six hundred cash. It will thus be seen how very little is the expense of the whole trip, even with the fifteen dollars return ticket from Shanghai to Ningpo added to it. Ten days would be quite sufficient time. Some of those, who are thinking of Japan, might do well to turn their attention to the flowery hill tops and yet more beautiful valleys around Ningpo. Whilst those, who are interested in Chinese ritual, could not make acquaintance with it to better advantage than in the stately courts and solemn precincts of the Tien Dong Monastery.

CHAPTEU VIII

.SEPTKMHEH IX WUHU

WUHU, about hiilf way between Cliinkiang and Kiukiang, appears at tirst sight one of the pleasantest ports on the Yangtze. It is not crowded in amongst Chinese houses, but lies amongst hills, and is ex-ceptionally rich in pagodas ; that in the Chinatown, just where a wide creek crowded with masts diverges from the main river, being one of the grandest and most ancient looking I have seen. The European coiiiuiunity is small ; the ConBul's house stands upon a hill with a tine view, the Coramisaioner's houHe on a still higher hill with a finer view ; the missionaries have withdrawn themselves to a distaace of several miles, where their handsome houses,

90 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

situated on a well-wooded hill overlooking the river, and surrounded by uninhabited country, elicit many expressions of envy from merchant-captains and engineers, who, judging by its exterior near Wuhu, are fain to pronounce a Chinese missionary's life a very easy one. But nestled in beneath their villas is a school, and the education of the young is probably the most satisfactory form of missionary work, while the big building cresting the hill is a hospital. The Jesuits have built what looks like a positively colossal building alongside its Chinese neigh-bours, but it is intended to serve as a house of rest for those of their order all through the two provinces. Thus each big building may be explained, yet they look rather like fortresses beleaguering the one-storied Chinese town.

In the lotus-flowering season Wuhu must be a thing of beauty, for all around there are large lake-like ponds with firm, blue-green, platter-like leaves rising out of them, not lying on the surface like our own water-lilies. And it is between lotus covered - ponds and avenues of tall, stately sunflowers that the little European community goes to and fro to its lawn tennis ground upon the plains. Those accustomed to China can fill up the interstices with dirt and smells, which make what might be so charmingly romantic, distressingly Zolaesque.

Wuhu Chinatown did not appear particularly interest-ing, but lovely silk stuft's are to be had there, and huge skeins of filoselle silk in various exquisite hues, or dyed to order at fabulously low prices. And in the country round there are many objects of interest. One day we went to the Chin Shan, or Golden Mountain. In one place the creek along which we sailed was full of little cormorant boats. These uncouth-looking birds drive the fish along, much as we drive pheasants at home, before they catch them, and finally deliver them up to their keepers. We lunched in a little harbour with various flowering plants

SEPTEMBER IN WUHU 91

near us, then landed and walked along through sweet wild rosemary and wistaria, with which Wuhu also must be lovely in its season, to some small hills near the Golden Mountain. A pheasant whirred from almost under my feet, and one of the party got enough snipe for the whole party for dinner. The country to our left looked like Westmorland with a lovely farmstead in the middle distance with smoke rising from it. Before us rose a further hill, from which evidently an all-round view could be obtained ; beneath us in the hollow to our right nestled a temple. " Hills from the bottom ! Temples from the outside ! " murmured one of the party. We were undecided. It is wonderful what a short time in China inclines one to this underneath and outside view. But an adventurous spirit, who had already ascended the hill, was now to be seen making his way to the temple. So we tried for a short cut to it, and found one rather rocky and somewhat precipitous, and there in the rockiest and steepest part clusters of delicate, yellow lilies growing. Lilies of the daffodil yellow, but quite large and growing like bella-donnas, six or more flowers on a head, and with a faint, delicious perfume. We gathered our hands full, dug up some roots, admired the tine sand-like mould in which the lilies were growing, then descended on the temple.

A very sensual, jolly sort of Falstaff figure sat as an image of some god at the entrance, handsomely gilded and done up. Behind on the altar the usual three Buddhas of the Past, Present and Future, and around the twelve disciples. There seemed nothing of special interest. But behind this temple we entered an inner shrine, the most remarkable I have yet seen in China. For there, out of the face of the living rock, to a height of some forty feet or more, were carved idols innumerable, some standing out as statues, life size — man's life size, that is to say — some only in alto relievo. On each side there were quaint

92 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

figures, the one of a mythological sort of horse, the other of a bull, as far as I remember. And some way up among the figures on the face of the rock was a dove standing out by itself in complete relief. "You see that dove?" asked a Chinaman. " There were two, but the other flew away." There was a rough roof covering in the whole and protecting the brilliant colours and gilding of the images. In Europe one would hear long descriptions of such a shrine, when the images were carved, by whom, with what intent. In China one hears — nothing ! We all — newcomers and old residents alike — came upon it by chance, as it were. Two young priests with a very lowly dwelling, one half of whose courtyard was given up to the keeping of gilded images, and of a miniature shrine of like nature as the other, were alone in charge. They looked very poor, and had very simple, guileless faces.

As we left the temple the setting sun was beginning to dye the distant Yangtze, and an intervening lake-like expanse, all manner of beautiful tints of saflron and red. Looking back at the temple we saw a large owl fly slowly across it, and settle on a spur of hill running down, all rocks, into the alluvial plain. The contrast of rocks and mud was heightened by all the grass having been burnt black round the foot of the rocks. Turning away again I could not but be reminded of one of Mason's evening scenes ; the figures of our party standing out against the brilliant sunset, the huge bunch of yellow lilies harmonis-ing with the yellow sunset tints, as if a bit brought down from heaven to earth. But gradually the mud began to smell, whilst mosquitoes and gnats called forth many an exclamation. As we pushed ofl* in our boat a group of some twenty natives standing on the bank watching stood out as black silhouettes against the last bright redness, and the creek with its bamboo grove to the left, and water no longer visibly muddy in the twilight, looked

SEPTEMBER IN WUHU 93

very quiet and dreamlike. It had been a fiercely hot day, and it was very pleasant to sit on the top of the houseboat, and be quietly pushed along in the moonlight. Another excursion we made was to the San Shan or Three Hills. These were higher than the others. Again a temple at the foot, but a temple of no special interest, only with a very charming shady grove leading up to it, in which the wistaria must be glorious in the spring time. We climbed to the top of one of the three hills, but the view round was more interesting than beautiful. At the top of the hill was a pit said to be bottomless — but we thought we saw the bottom — and to communi-cate by subterranean paasages with more than one place in the country round. There were many beautiful ferns growing in it. And again the question, what caused it ? The sides were straight down almost like a well that had been sunk. The country people tell many wonderful tales about it; how a creature like a bird flew out of the hill one day, and left that hole where it came out ; how a dragon with an egg in its mouth descended into the earth there, and the egg formed the pit, etcetera. Coming back, through a rather large village, we found it en fete, matting covering in the principal, very winding street, and all the street hung with lanterns so close together as to be almost touching. The lanterns were mostly red, but there were occasionally others more elaborate ; the effect was exceedingly pretty even by day, and would be still prettier by night. Every now and then in the middle of the narrow street were stood altars with candles and artificial flowers, and at all the doors and at all the windows were all the inhabitants of the village in their gala clothes, silently waiting there to see us pass by. I never saw such a complete turn-out of a village before. As we passed numbers c)f men and boys fell out and followed us. We passed by large

94 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

lotus ponds and temples, whose admirable proportions and air of utter desolation much tempted me to pause. But evening was drawing on, and many hundreds were now following us. It seemed more convenient to enter our boat and push off, looking out for long-legged, cream-coloured cranes, and fire flies, which last when they came on board our boat turned out to be fat, luminous beetles.

And now the pleasant week at Wuhu had come to an end, and the water of the Yangtze flowed yellow brown, as we passed by fields of millet and sorghum, quiet farm-steads shut in by trees, temples with finely-curved roofs^ distant blue mountains, and creeks full of masts leading up to them. Here is a town all agog. Blue-gowned Chinamen massed by hundreds here, there, and again there in each clear space by the water to see the steamer pass, blue-gowned men and red-trousered women standing out against the sky in high-up Shai-tai, staring with all their might and main. There is a wedding procession with gay scarlet umbrellas, or is it some grand Mandarin the people are welcoming ? For there are triumphal arches. Here are frightened buffaloes, and homely peasants pausing from their daily toil. We pass by in the steamer, as we do in life, seeing the outside of many public events, of many individual lives, ignorant alto-gether of those realities beneath, which make life worth living to the people we pass by, going about our own business, and wholly preoccupied by it, as they also by theirs.

CHAPTER IX.

THE DRAGON KIXG's CAVERN AND THE DOME: ICHANG

IT had really been too hot to write an account of our ex-pedition to the Dragon King's Cavern and the Dome, through the wonderful conglomerate region to the south and east of Ichang. This is as different as possible from the by comparison graceful and pleasing limestone country of the Ichang Gorge. But much more noteworthy, for, as far as I know, the only other example of it on at all as large a scale is Montserrat in Spain. We started in the afternoon, A. and I taking chairs, Mr M. trusting to his feet alone, but he had in the end to be carried pick-a-back over the stream, which we crossed and recrossed till I was almost tired of it. We only got into the conglomerate country towards evening, huge blocks of rock fallen down, and as A. pointed out to me, with the granite 2)chhlcs, which go to their making, generally broken in two, thus showing not only how violent had been the force of their disruption but how strong the conglomerate mixture that united them. Dry rivers with stony beds, mountains with bulging sides, always the cracks in them horizontal and quite straight, as if ruled by a ruler, and with little holes like those that come in a plum pudding in the boiling, reminding one of their common name of pudding-stone. The valleys here do not grow narrower and more winding as one goes up them, but end quite abruptly in precipices. And as it grew darker the narrow path we were following looked as if it were leading us into the very bowels of the mountains, till

95

96 /.V THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

at last when under some very funereal-looking cypresses I saw a solemn gateway, wliich by its sudden turn seemed as if it itmsc take us there quite straight, it really required an

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eJfort ol' will to go cm. I couM i|iiiti; iiimj.'int^ tui-ning back, and flying down the steep path to tin: next village, as i£ pnrsm-ii by dtnions. However ftn<)ther sharp turn inside the gatowiiy. and iinnther gate, and a long flight of steps

DRAGON KING'S CA VERN AND DOME 99

Vinder dark cypresses brought us to the gate and the court-yard, on which look down the several coquettish and stork-Bnd-dragon decorated temples, all situated well within the overhanging arch of Lung Wang Tung, the Dragon King's Cavern. A most friendly light shone out from the high-up window of the grand guest-chamber, only dimmed by the shower of water always dripping over it like a veil of tears from the top of the cavern into the large basin made to receive it in the courtyard below.

Two more flights of steps brought us into the monastery. Oh ! the ugliness of these Buddhist priests ! We found all our men, chairs and all, were behind — so Mr M. and A. were both most pressing to me to change into a spare coat each had, as of course all the things we all of us had on were wet through with the heat. However, it was so damp and chilly there, I thought one person had better be uncomfort-able than two, so I waited till the things came. Then there being no doors to the guest-room, I solenmly notified everyone I could that I was now going to wash and change. Just as I was in full swing in came three Buddhist priests with cakes and seeds and tea. I ordered them not to come in, I gesticulated, I told them to go. I called the coolie to call his m6U9ter to interpret. But not the slightest notice would anyone take of me, which, however, under the cir-cumstances, was perhaps just as well — until with inathe-rruUical accuracy the table was laid, and the priests were thoroughly satisfied as to their own arrangements. Any-thing like the impenetrability of the Chinese, unless you address them in their own tongue, I never did see ! At last we got dinner, and went to bed — on tables !

Next mornins: we started ofi* for the Wen Fo Shan or Dome. Such dreary-looking country we walked through, patches of cultivation scratched here and there, looking as if they had been scratched too hard and the rock had come through — always bulging out, with straight, horizontal

lOO IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

i and little round holes. Always dry river beds ! But one waterfall, with water in it too, took one leap we all estimated at about one thousand feet. The path led along

the sido of ;i piocipicu, soiiiuwhurc in tlie iiiiddle of it. It didn't look ftnythin^' iJurticnljir wlion wjilkinj; along it, but lookint; buck ut it from tlie opposite side, I could quite iniai,'ine people gotting i,'oosc skin over it. The other side was a Very .sleep climb, ull made into steps, wliich at present

DRAGON KING'S CA VERN AND DOME loi

make very good walking. We got so hot and out of breath that when Mr M., as if having racked a well-stored memory for all he had ever heard upon the subject, said he believed that sucking an orange was the very best thing for getting up a hill, we at once found a beautiful flat rock to sit upon and were thoroughly happy for a time. Then up again, when A. suddenly called out from the front, " Well I I don't care. I really must sit down and smoke a cigar before we go any further." I was just about to be very severe with him and Mr M. for wanting to smoke before they got to the top, for they had made us late the evening before by greatly enjoying a bathe and swim in the stream, when my " Well, really ! " died away, as I became aware we were actually at the top of what we had been climbing, and there just at our feet the valley, and opposite to us. only joined on to our hill by a narrow ledge of rock, precipices on either side, the Dome rising some three or four hundred feet above us, and going almost sheer down into the valley at our feet, with to the right of it a wall of rock stretching out, I should say, eight hundred feet above the valley beneath, nnd almost as smooth as if it had been planed. The Dome stood out of a gnunl setting of range beyond range of distant mountains, which in themselves formed a most beautiful view, without the very startling foreground of this wonderful Wen Fo Shan. The others, who had known what was coming, rather chuckled over my surprise and their smoke : and then we walked along the edge of the precipice to the narrow, connecting ledge. Before we crossed, Mr M. photographed the Dome with its trees and temples on the top, and I measured the path from which he took his photograph. Exactly four of my feet could fit into it, but no more.

The connectinor ledjje made even me feel disinclined to look down, for one had to go down some rugged stops on to it, which added to the giddy feeling. But of course I

I02 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOIVN

conquered my disi a cli nation and looked round over the most weird, distrauglit-Iookinc; country I ever saw. When those evil spirits were turned into swine and ran violently

dmvn ;i steep |ilace I think they must, have chosen some coiiiitry like this. But it wivs not altofrethor abandoned to evil inlliienees. for beautiful, till), whit<.> lilies, twice the hei>'lit and size of vir<:in lilies, Liliiim Brownii, as they

DRAGON KING'S CA VERN AND DOME 103

are somewhat inappropriately called, were watching all around, and I never tasted nicer blackberries, though they seemed to ripen without taking the trouble to turn red.

The temples were very well kept, and the steps up to them were in beautiful order. But it was very oppressive on the top, and I was glad to get down again to the spot where the view first burst upon us like a coup de theatre. Although first we took a long glance down the windings of the Yangtze, as far as we could see, to try and distinguish some trace of any steamer coming up from Hankow. Seeing none we spent another night at Lung Wang Tung. The first evening, by a flickering candle, a priest had con-ducted us through the vast, cavernous kitchen, up steps and down steps, through first one chapel and then another till we felt thoroughly mystified. But in the early morning going by myself the romantic impression made upon me was greatly deepened. At the back there is a subterranean lake said to stretch on for ever. A man tried to explore it once. But he never came back again. There is a very big boat kept beside it now — the gift of some dignitary — and this is solemnly launched in times of drought, when the priests go to beseech the Dragon King to turn himself round and send rain, for they regard him as the giver of water, and therefore have built these three temples, shutting him in lest he should escape and drought for ever reign over the land. The water was so clear I could hardly see it in the semi-darkness, and was dreadfully afraid of stepping into it by mistake, the more so as a curious blue vapour was hovering over the surface of the water, and as I thought drawing nie on. But I went on exploring, until I suddenly found myself in a chapel I had not seen before, and there sat a grave dark man wrapped in a scarlet mantle, his head bowed in thought. He resembled so greatly an Indian, who came to London a little while ago

104 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

— as he said, to teach the EDglioh people that they bad lost sight of the real and the spiritual id the material — that for a moment I thought it vras he. The blue vapour again per-

iiieated this temple, mid by nii optical delusion made it s^eui as if the tigure moved. It was that of a man who wrought wonderful cures under the Sung Dynasty — Chang Lu. If it at ail resembles the original, some of his cures must I think have been effected by mesmerism. I never saw a

1

DRAGON KING'S CA VERN AND DOME 107

more lifelike figure. Even writing of it, its influence oppresses me, and this the more because I have not seen one other image in China, that has made the least impres-sion of any kind upon me.

I went back and fouiid A. sitting at the window of the gaest-room, looking out through the ever-falling veil of water between it and the romantic view outside, where woods of fir and cypress half conceal the isolated pyramid and cube of rock standing apart at the end of the hill, that shuts in the cavern to the right. He was interviewing dirty priests with dirty manuscripts. I interviewed a baby priest of two years old, the votive ofiering of his father and mother, who had three elder children. He was horribly afraid of me.

Then we started downwards back to Ichang by another route. The rain poured ; the mud ! well, I can only say I once or twice thought a paddy field easier walking than the path. But all things come to an end some day, and at last we arrived at the cn,»ek running into the Yangtze at the picturesque village of Annu iliao, the loveliest spot in the view from Ichang. We got into a boat — there was another in which cormorants with rin^rs round their throats were tranquilly fishing — and in spite of pouring rain got home hardly wet at all, to be greeted by all the sinologues of Ichang with " Well, you must have set yourself to * Ch'u Ming*" (get yourself a name), ''to have dared walk down the mountain in weafher like this.' A. had barely time to dress before starting back for Anne Miao, where the Mandarins were giving the Europeans a grand dinner in the European style, which, however, did not prevent their, before it was over, stripping to the waist in Chinese style, for the weather was oppressive. As for me, I lay down and slept after seven hours' plodding through mud such as I never saw before.

In common justice to Luntj Wang Tuntj I ouirht to sav

108 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

that, though it is damp, I think now probably the blue vapour was no noxious breath from the Drajjon King, as I fancied at the time, but innocent blue smoke escaping from

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the cavernous kitchi'ii, wliere our lireakfast was cooking tli(! wliile. Anywjiy it enlianccl tli,' ^-iWi of wlmt I must always think the most melodnimatic loilj^iiif; in which I have yet stayed.

DRAGON KING'S CA VERN AND DOME 109

Let those keep away from the Yangtze gorges who think, like White of Selbome, that "there is somewhat peculiarly sweet and amusing in the shapely-figured aspect of chalk-hills in preference to those of stone." For the gorges are all limestone, dolomite, granite, porphyry. But though they are " broken " and " abrupt " enough, cleft as with a dagger at times, and contrasting favourably, as I am told, for grandeur with the chasms of the Irrawaddy or the canyons of Colorado, yet they are always ** shapely," nor is there anything sinister or " rugged " about them.

On the way to San Yeutung at the entrance to the first gorge, butterflies fiew beside our path, poising obligingly from time to time, so that I admired closely eight different kinds in less than two hours : the little blue Thekla, or its Chinese representative; the large white cabbage butterfly, yellow butterflies, a coarse, greedy-looking butterfly with a fine swallow-tail, a huge butterfly glorious with peacock-blue feathers on its wings ; most interesting of all, a butterfly of soft red-brown, with broad Ixirs of brilliant yellow, such as made it (juite a gorgeous creature when it spread its wide wings for flight; when, on the other hand, it closed them, its wings looked for all the world like two withered leaves, the flecking at the edges ;^iving them even a crinkled appear-ance, and the veins down the middle exactly simulating a leaf's strong, middle stalk. A lizard with a very long tail paused to reconnoitre us. It had beautifully-pencilled, golden stripes on either side of its hack, and most delicate, graceful legs; but it turned to look at us cjuite a large, toad-like head with little protuberances all over it. A red dragon fly, with body like that of a bee tucked down under its elegant tail, poised itself over the water. For in spite of the drought the stream ran merrily down the glen, which we traversed again an<l again on stepping-stones mostly under the shadow of the overhanging clitt's.

no IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

From San-yeu-tung' one can walk across country past the T'aipin]^ Shan, as beautiful a site for a bouse as one could fiml anywhere, with the Terrace of the Sun immedi-

ately oppoi-ite ; !i tiny temple nicljed on the top of a precipice about two thousand feet hi{;h, the great Yangtze Hiver rolling between, an amphitheatre of mountains alt round, and immediatel)' to the ri<.'ht the Chin-kun-shiin. The latter is over three thousand feet high, and bus again a temple

DRAGON KING'S CA VERN AND DOME in

on the summit on only a slightly larger plateau. But to reach that summit you have to walk along one of those connecting ledges of rock, that at first a little try the nerve of the unaccustomed. You can walk on past the Chin-kan-shan, past the dreaded whirlpools of Nantor, on and on to the very end of the gorges, to Chung-king if you please. And all the way you may saunter along winding mountain-paths, up and down flights of st^ps. Never an inch of roadway ! Never a dusty thoroughfare or disdain-ful pushing to one side to make place for carriage gentry ! A foot tourist could desire no pleasanter touring ground. But is not this all described in my husband's Through the Yangtze Gorges ? so I must not pause over this enchanting region, a perfect Paradise for pedestrians.

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CHAPTER X A'-

KKSfJTL' : THE CHIXESK HADES

, LL tiir()iij:ii t'liiiia wheuevcr jviiyoiie >lies a letter is ;oleiniily writton to Feiigtu-clieni;. Has a Jotter from tiifire i^vt'r lji;vn rtet-ivcii in Eiijjlanil IjL'fore :" Written in Knglish too in tliis region peopk'd by Oliinese ghosts, ret-koninj; all tln'si' ivhu do nut speak Cliiiiose as dumb people. Tlie letters to Feiigtu are siilcninly bnnied by tlie Taoist priest, wlio writes, them, as the best way of de-livering them to the Knipemr of the Dead, whose visible home is tliere, as that of the 'l"ien Tze, the Rmijeror of tile Living', is tit Peking. But I hoped my letter would not bo burnt, not at least until after it had Wen delivered.

The Ijuy had just handed in Iiis accounts. His last accomplishment was doing this in English, and lie was im-mensely proud of it. But there was one item that sturtled

FENGTU: THE CHINESE HADES 113

me one night: "Pluto's Priest, 5000 cash." "Pluto's Priest ! Whatever do you mean ? " I exclaimed. But the Boy was . stolid. '* That priest — that come to the boat," was all he said. " But who taught you to call him Pluto;8 Priest ? " /' My savey he belong Pluto's Priest" It seemed it must be in his book. We all have books to learn languages from. And it seems Pluto's Priest had a book too, a red book very big — with such big same in it that no less than 5000 cash could be entered. And as his temple is said to have been built in the After Han Dynasty (a.d. 220) it would be a pity if it were not kept in repair. It is at the top of a hill, all covered with temples, and with a lovely, green-roofed pagoda at the foot. The hill is also covered with beautiful trees, and commands one of those fascinating views of the Yangtze, that tempt one to look on and on. But there is nothing very beautiful in the temple itself, nor anything in the red sandstone hill on which it stands, or the smiling scenery on which it looks, to explain why it is dedicated to the Lord of the Dead. The Elysian Fields, though not particularly awe-inspiring, have at least a dead-alive air.

We saw the dry well, that is said to reach down to the river bed, but the burning paper, that is being continually thrown in to show its depth has filled it up to within about thirty feet of the surface. We saw also the image of the Emperor of the Dead seated between his two wives. That on the left hand is said to be the skeleton of a woman, acquired as his second wife, some three hundred years ago, when she was really on her way in her wedding chair to be married to someone else, a mere mortal man. But we could only see its very smart embroidered dress, and take the skeleton on trust. I was very anxious to buy a memento of such an interesting place, and the Boy declared a number of little bows, each with two small arrows tied to it, hung up in one of the temples, were

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114 I^ THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

for sale. So I took them down to make my cKoice, when it turned out they were votive oflerings on behalf of sick children. So also he now says is a gigaatic iron kaife stood up on end in front of one of the temples, and from which hangs a little bell. Priests and people were alike most good-natured. Straying into some back premises we

1 B'j Mrs A nkibald lilUe.

came upon an ornamental iron cover to the wonderful well. It had a dragon's head at the top, aiid I thought I should like to photograph it, and when I asked if I might carry it outside, and desired two of our soldiers to do so, no one made the least objection. A priest was even quite ready to pose beside it, only suggesting if he held a burning joss stick it would look better. So ho did.

FENGTU: THE CHINESE HADES

115

We were quite a party. For besides ourselves there was the Boy, and the cook, who thought he would like to go too, and the Tsaijen, aeot by the excellent authorities

[% Mr,

of Chung-chow to protect us — a inoNt dilapidated specimen, but a peremptory old gentleman enough, as I loarnt when once, walking in the country, a small urchin, probably to attract my attention rather than out of malice, threw n small atone. Then there were three soldiers from our

ii6 LY THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

gunboat, and last but not least important there was our little dog, whom somebody always had to carry when the crowd grew thick. Going up by the most secluded way we had only between fifty and sixty people for escort. But at the top the crowd thickened every moment, and all the way down there were groups waiting for us. And the descent — a serried crowd — past a wind-ing row of wretched-looking creatures begging was certainly disagreeable. But the people were very friendly, one woman even coming up and asking as a favour that the little dog might be put down for a moment, because she wanted so much to see it. There were several re-presentations of Hades and the Judgment, and there were three bridges all together as we came down, and highly ornamented like the bridges, that only the good are supposed to be able to cross after death. But the most interesting sight was the pilgrims, so many nicely-dressed women with the uncommonly short petticoats and large earrings they wear in these parts. Boats full of them were goini:: up river, as we came up past the town of Fencrtu (rebuilt since it was washed away in the great inundation of 1870) and tied up beneath the imposing walls, which the then ma^^istrate built for a new city, safe up in the hills out of the way of inundations, and also of all business, and thus never inhabited ; even the yamens standing empty, and the gate towers and part of the battlements having already fallen oti'. AVe have tied up here, because we have at last succeeded in getting a new mast. Our mast was first mended with an old shoe, but that could not last for ever. The shoe was supplemented by a stout stick, and three days ago that gave way, and the mast fell with a crash across our cabin. The day after that we ran on a rock, and made such a big leak that all the men's bedding had to be put out on the shore, and it took half a day to repair the damage. It was then the

FENGTU: THE CHINESE HADES 117

Chung-chow authorities thought it necessary to send us s protector. Another day we ran on anotlier rock, and did not spring a leak, but broke our tow-line, and went careering down stream, fortunately not very far before we pulled up. I really did hope we might get to Chungk ing without any further accidents. For the scenery was no longer so

I % Mr FilU.

grand and the mobbing in or near the towns waa certainly most tiring. Wnnh^ien was the worst place. There three soldiers found it all they could do to keep the crowd off me. But at Cliung-chow, everyone on the beach having run round a long reach to get on to a lonely boulder bank where I was photographing, with five soldiers that time, a number of them thought they would like to come away

ii8 AV THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

after as by boat, and so many crowded in, that it simply sank under them. There were three boat-loads of them in the end, and more still to be brought away, when we left the place.

The country people are too much astonished to be troublesome, but the most interesting person we have met was a priest, who was journeying along with two men to carry his things for him. Whenever they had occasion to speak to him they inclined their bodies in the most reverent manner, and in all his conversation he never said a single sentence without somewhere introducing " Omito Fo," which I take to be " Holy is Buddha." So if reputa-tions are won in China, in the same way they are in Midlothian, by simply professing to be good he is probably esteemed exceptionally holy. Szechuan is a very religious part of China, with so many temples, not to speak of the little shrines built round the Hoang Ko, those beautiful shady trees that crown nearly every hill, and are also to be found filling up every post of vantage in the valleys with their tanijled mass of roots, and spreading evergreen foliage. Szechuan seems also to be the place for pretty Chinese women. There was quite a beauty in the boat next to us at Wanhsien, where almost all the women were nice-looking, with rosy cheeks and bright eyes. And another day I saw a girl like the Beatrice Cenci hanging over a, farmhouse wall, though of course it was partly the white Szechuan head-cloth, that made the likeness, also perhaps the dazed, hopeless, slave-girl expression. As a rule the girls are anything but hopeless here. And one moves along to the sound of rippling laughter, as in Japan. Any-thing indeed less like the sleek, yellow Chinaman of the ports it would be hard to imagine, for the men here wear their kerchiefs with an air, and are uncommonly good-looking, and the women certainly are coquettish. I must remember, however, that I am at Fengtu-cheng, close to the

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FENGTU: THE CHINESE HADES 121

Land of Shadows. I have only to look out and see the lights of "Pluto's" priests, and all around the poppy growing in long straight rows, carefully weeded, carefully watered, and looking in as exquisite perfection of health as its votaries do the reverse. It is not on subjects like these that one should moralise at Fengtu-cheng.

CHAPTER XI CHEAP MISSIONARIES

THE question of missionaries is always d Vat^dre dto jour in China, and the question of the day before the Boxer uprising was distinctively cheap missionaries. For that missionaries of some sort or other have come, are coming and will continue to come, must appear certain to all who are acquainted with the interior of China. Whether it is better to have one missionary backed by a salary of, say, two hundred pounds a year, or to have four missionaries struggling against the Chinese climate and the difficulties of the Chinese language on a doubtful fifty pounds a year or less is there the point debatable. How they do it is the question. The China Inland Mission gives its members house-reut. But they have to find everything else, food, clothes, medicines, travelling expenses, books or tracts to give away, together with salaries of Chinese assistants. Mr Horsburgh says he can live on ten dollars a month. We find our Chinese coolie reckons his food alone costs him §4*65 for a month of thirty-one days. That leaves J?5*35 for everything else per month. But how an English gentleman accustomed to the generous fare of old England is to keep alive even on what sustains a Chinese coolie is again a difficulty. During one summer we had the pleasure of visiting several mission stations in the West of China, both those of the Roman Catholics, to whom most travellers award lavishly the praise they deny to missionaries of their own Church,

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CHEAP MISSIONARIES 123

and those of the China Inland, and of Mr Horsburgh's new Church Mission. From all alike, it goes without saying, we received much kmdliness, besides that inestimable boon to the traveller, hearing in each case a little meed of fairly accurate information about the neighbourhood, such as it would be impossible to wring out of the surrounding Chinese. Amongst the men of the different missions — we did not then come across any lady missionaries — it would be most invidious to institute a comparison. Suffice it to say, that those of whom we saw the most impressed us the most highly, which is as it should be, and if there be saints still on earth, one or two of those we met struck us as very like our idea of them. Although there were others, who did not seem quite the best calculated to awaken the Chinese to the lovableness of a new Faith.

But to turn from the men to the missions, and to begin with the Roman Catholics, as the longest established. We first visited a Roman Catholic village, that had been con-verted to Christianity some hundred and fifty years ago — Ta-tien-tze. There was no church there, no resident priest, foreign or Chinese, but a house built by the villagers at their own expense, by their own hands, to receive their priest, when he could come to them, with a large entrance hall arranged to serve as a chapel. The village supported three girls* schools — curiously enough we did not hear of any boys* schools, but there must have been such. One taught by an aged dame reminded us greatly of those taught by a village dame, such as now in England only survive on canvas. It was in a small room of a large farmhouse, not well attended, the children too shy to show off their attainments to advantage, and the aged dame too deaf to converse easily. The other two were distinctly better. The girls read fairly, and then sang after a fashion ; they could not answer questions in arithmetic, but all had rosy cheeks, clean faces and bright, intelligent eyes.

124 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

These last seemed indeed the feature of the villi^, which for looks could compete with any we have seen in China. Indeed the contrast between it and the surrounding villages in this respect was most remarkable, as also its comparative cleanliness. Visiting some outlying farms we hardly required to hear the answer to our question given by an awkward-looking boy — " No, I am not sealed to the Faith," the Chinese phrase for being baptised, " I belong to the Three Religions," Taoism, Buddhism and Confucian-ism it is to be supposed, — for the slatternly surroundings suiGciently showed that the inmates belonged to the modem faith of China as regards cleanliness. Whilst in the next village to that of the Christians there seemed to be a regular gathering of bad characters, with such sore eyes, and so filthy that it was hardly possible even to eat there in passing. A very clean -looking, respectable man, pursuing the same route with ourselves, said he was the owner of an inn further on, and again a Christian, and though the distance was rather too great we immediately decided to push on for dinner, and were rewarded by one of the cleanest rooms we had had occasion to see for many a long day. As it came out that he was brother-in-law of the owner of the inn in the Christian village, and each, though barely more than in the prime of life, boasted of having already more than sixty descendants, it may be that the Christian village owes its comeliness and superior physique to its being chiefly peopled by one large, healthy, good-looking family rather than to its faith. Be this as it may, here is undoubtedly the cheapest way of doing missionary work — to let the people build house and church and support schools, and only send a priest for a few occasional weeks in the year to visit them. But for this you must first convert your village.

Having passed a delightful outlying Christian hamlet situated on the slope of an upland plateau, with large

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herds of cattle grazing round, as also several scattered houses, we at last arrived at the priest's residence at Hoang-mu-chang, some twenty-seven miles across high mountains. Somewhat stately to look at from the outside, it was notwithstanding just an ordinary Chinese house, with three courtyards, and a good garden. The church attached to the house, the girls* school adjoining round the comer, thus somewhat shut oft' from tlie priest and care-fully shut oft* from the far larger boarding school for boys, were in this instance very satisfactory, especially the church with its simple but bright decorations, which must to the Chinese around seem something exquisitely lovely and startling in their cleanliness. We arrived only in time to see the congregation disperse after the very early Mass on Sunday morning, many staying behind for a conversation with the priest and with one another. The priest himself, a hardy young mountaineer from Central France, showed with some pride the few panes of glass he had just had inserted in the window by his writing desk, thus enabling him to continue working when a Chinese by the darkness of his paper windows is compelled to inaction. Other luxury in his spacious sitting-room there was none, unless we count a bookcase of the simplest nature to contain the few books he had brouirht with him from France. There was no table, three chairs, nothing more ! He wore Chinese clothes, witli the large fanciful straw hat of the district. He had no wine but that supplied for the Mass. It is true he had a capital mule on which to visit his very widely scattered parishioners. But he was one man alone, not a family nor a pair of friends as is so usual in our missions. There was no European nearer than a very long day's journey across the mountains, and then not another for days and days. No seven or ten years will entitle him to a trip home to those French mountains, a tiny, pictured guide to which

126 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

he showed us, but which we noticed he did not venture to look at whilst we were there. Frenchmen are emotional, and home scenes sometimes awaken too vivid memories. He received no newspapers, and it seemed few letters. We asked him how he spent his lonely evenings in winter. He said earnestly that was the great trial of the first year, but after that one had got over it. This seemed to be emphatically a cheap mission. One can hardly doubt that, were there another priest forthcoming, it would be better for the Christianity of the first described village, and that in the second with a little more European converse it would be easier to sustain that energising influence without which conversions are humanly speaking im-probable.

It was a week's journey before we came across the next Christian outpost, again Roman Catholic. There three priests, with a stately house outside the town of Ta-chien-lu, and a most comfortable - looking faim on the other side of it, were holding the fort; but it would hardly seeia advancing much, to judge by the diminutive chapel, and girl's school of only eight, managed by a Chinese Sister, and admirably managed too. Here, though evidently desperately shy, the girls — Tibetans — road really well, sang sweetly, and answered every question put them in arithmetic. All indeed seemed specially well arranged, but when we thought of three men, with a preparation of many years for their work as missionaries, of the outlay upon their houses, of the excellent servants w4th whom we came in contact, the stately mule with its rich caparisons, and not yet, after many years, enough converts and incjuirers to overfill that little chapel, nor more than eight little girls will-ing to receive an excellent free education, this struck us as a very expensive mission, however abstemiously the Chinese-clad Fathers may live. Here it will be observed

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127

there was some society, and although there were no news-papers, that was simply the fault of the Chinese posts, not intended. There was a garden full of flowers, and

a large aviary, that had till lately been full of birds. The walla were covered with pictures, there was an abundance of maps, and what migiit be called the re-ception-hall was fitted up with Chinese magnificeiice, but which doubtless did not extend far beyond it. Unlike

128 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

English missionaries the Father, who especially did the honours to us, was intent upon giving us all the news he could, political and other. Had we heard the results of the English elections yet? And he hastened to give us the figures of the different parties. Had we heard recently from the distant city where we live ? Then we should be grieved to learn of a death by cholera there. He conversed pleasantly of the various distinguished travellers, who had visited his city, their routes and experiences. As he related what this one had said, what that one had done, it was only afterwards we realised that these few visits, whose incidents he touched upon, extended over a period not of months but years, some twenty years indeed, and represented all the inter-course of the jylace during that period with the outside world. "You will never regret having come here," said he, warmly, at parting ; " it will furnish recollections for all your lives." "Yes! and we go away with the re-collections. But you — you remain — with them." His eyes moistened. He had already been there eleven years, but he still talked as freshly of his previous experiences as if they were but of the year before. Truly a costly mission, we thought.

It was many days before we returned to the first Protestant outpost we had come across at Kiating, two China Inland missionaries and one of Mr Horsburgh's Church Mission sharing a not good Chinese house in a certainly lovely city, but without a garden, without a view, without any chapel giving on to the street, such a great desideratum in pioneering work. They showed us that ready hospitality, that is perhaps a distinguishing feature of our missions, to everything they had making us most cordially welcome. And their house, although neither good, nor it is to be feared healthy, seemed like a haven of rest after Chinese inns, with their squalor,

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smells, and staring crowds. The China Inland Mission had occupied the place four years. At first meeting with much opposition, and having great difficulty in getting a house at all, they now seemed generally re-spected and liked. The General opposite appeared on friendly terms ; two of the military A.D.C.'s, who came up with the new Governor of the province, spoke to us sympathetically of them and their work. One of the chief officials in the town had but the day before been to ask advice about his eyes. They had but one coolie to cook and serve them, one evangelist to help them in mission work. Directly the summer heat was over they had been in the habit of separating, one remaining at home, the other walking through the province, prepar-ing people for the reception of the Gospel rather than converting them so far, but anyway breaking down prejudices. They evidently lived in the simplest possible way, rather spending their money on their evangelists and on tracts — " We try to sell them, but one must so often give them away " — than on getting little luxuries for themselves, if indeed luxuries are to be had on a doubtful fifty pounds a year, sometimes only forty pounds. But they neither spoke of small funds nor of hardship, nor did they speak feelingly of exile, but evidently thought their town the best situated, their Chinese the pleasantest possible. This is again a dis-tinguishing feature of our missionaries; they always seem to like the Chinese. We have never heard French missionaries say they do, but often the reverse. Perhaps this leads travellers, as a rule, to think them the more self-denying. It is doubtless more self-denying to live among people wholly antipathetic, but whether they are so or not is after all often a matter of choice.

On our way to Mount Omi we were delayed in this station three days by torrents of rain and the impossibility

I

I30 IN THE LAND OF THE SLUE GOWN

of getting across the Ta River. One day, as it seemed better after a pouring night, we sent our headman to inquire, but he brought back word the ferry was sealed. Later on we saw roofs of houses, a drowned dog, etc., floating down the river, and we were told that if it did not leave off raining the authorities were going to order the people to kill no more pork, or otherwise take life. But we hoped to get away before that order came into force, for even our thermometers were thickly coated with blue mould, whilst our dog's remonstrating growls, as he turned over and over, told of a legion of fleas. All this in the inn's best room indicates without saying that the smells were trying, and we should have been glad to get away to the fresher air of the great sacred mountain of Omi, beautifully situated though Kiating is, with fine trees and green gardens occupying much of the space within its walls, with exquisite views of the mountains, as also of the three rivers that meet here, together with tree-clad islands, red sandstone headlands, lovely pavilions, old square pagodas, not to speak of the gigantic, cliff-formed Buddha, said to be three hundred feet high. There are caves too. One we ex-plored was two-storeyed, another a hundred feet deep, all carefully chiselled out of the living rock, over six feet high, with recesses for sleeping, for cupboards ap-parently, and with quite elaborately-shaped doorways in which there evidently had been most ingeniously con-structed doors, that allowed the air to come in and yet could not be opened from the outside.

And over against these remembrances of an otherwise forgotten age, there was this last development of modem days, this station of the China Inland Mission, with as so often now a member of the last addition to the Church Missionary Society attached to it for purposes of study and economy ! Mr Horsburgh's party seems to be expected to

CHEAP MISSIONARIES 131

live upon forty pounds a year, and to have an ideal before it, that is to be accomplished on twenty pounds a year. But this last they are not sure yet is quite practicable. People who know say it could be done at Ta-chien-lu. And let people, who think missionaries come to China for what they can get, try a summer regimen of pork and chicken by way of meat, Chinese sugar that has to be washed before it can be used, local blue-green salt and all those other delicacies, that are to be had for forty pounds a year, where carriage from Shanghai is about thrice as expensive as from England to Shanghai. And let those who think it is undertaken from a love of travel and adventure try a four years' confinement to any Chinese city of their acquaintance, for the same two young men, who started the China Inland Mission there four years before, were still stationed there. Never before had a woman in European dress walked through the streets of Kiating, but only in one place did the people seek to annoy us ; then they painted a cross on a flight of steps, fancying we should be unable to walk back over it. When missionaries first came there the people fancied they would steal their children and do all manner of dreadful things, so they used to pin crosses on to their children's clothes, thinking that Christians would not then dare to touch them. There was a Roman Catholic station there also of course, and one of the Fathers said when he first came to Szechuan twenty-eight years before, about one per. cent — certainly not more than three per. cent — smoked opium. He then estimated that about a quarter of the population did. But this was the very lowest estimate we heard, and must, one would think, be under the mark. He seemed to think the people were killing themselves as fast as they could. Certainly anything sicklier looking than the population we encountered during the eleven days' land journey from Chungking to Kiating I hope never to see. In some places it was positively startling the most fertile

132 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

plenty all round, and then a village, or small town full of men of extraordinary pallor, sunken chests and emaciated bodies, or rather one would say emaciated ribs, for there seemed to be no bodies. The people, who were travelling along the road for pleasure, as it were, that is to say, not as beasts of burden carrying heavy loads, mostly had with them a small box, that we took at first for a new kind of Kodak, rather smaller and more solid-looking than what one usually sees. It was their opium smoking box. The children looked healthy, and even between Shidzuoka and Nagoya in Japan the crops hardly appeared so plentiful as in this region, until we came to the great salt district, with its thousands of brine wells and lofty gallows, where the gas found on the spot boils the salt and lights up the salt works. The other wonder of the road was the hillside cut into a colossal head and shoulders of Buddha just before Yung-hsien. It is so freshly gilt that it does not look as antique as the Kiating Buddha, with hanging tufts of grass for eyebrows, and small shrubs for hair on the top of the head. That near Yuni^-hsien has the most claims to beauty and is in a sparkling state of restoration.

A clay's journey further on at Suif u there was another station of the China Inland Mission, with again two of Mr Horsburgh's mission studying Chinese. This time the China Inland missionary represented also a wife in bed and a new-born baby. He described the people as friendly, but very unwilling to hear the Gospel, having but the day before torn down all the placards he had issued with the name of Christ upon them. He had been there not quite a year, had a good Chinese house with pleasant, light rooms for studies, as also for a scliool, which was very well at-tended. He had two shops turned into a chapel on to the street for every-day use and further back had a good-sized hall, which he said was generally full for Sunday services. Not quite a day further on we came upon another China

CHE A P MISSION A RIES 1 3 5

Inland Station, in an excellent though not so well-lighted house, formerly an official residence, with a large garden and open space behind, giving on to the hills, thus avoiding all necessity for going through the streets to get to them, the more of a boon as this missionary represented a wife invalided for the present, after ten years in China, and five little children. There were also several members of Mr Horsburgh's mission studying there, who had proved of valuable assistance in past illness. This station after two years and a half of work had baptised five converts, besides numbering many inquirers, but it preferred to know them for a year at least as inquirers before proceeding further. Great progress has been made in all these stations since our visit, and already the people there were described as very friendly and willing to listen. But amongst their friends they had had to bury eight from cholera during the past summer. They laughed at the idea of their not being sufficiently well fed, and certainly seemed very sufficiently well housed though only at an expense of sixteen pounds a year, which sum it must be remembered covers also the rent for schools chapel, reception-room, etc. As to whether the place was healthy or not they seemed more doubtful, the summer had been so unusually hot. Certainly, to judge from appearance, these two last mission stations were admirably housed and quite suflSciently well fed and clothed. Amongst the members of the China Inland Mission there are some of good independent means and brilliant position in England. There are others from a very lowly station, accustomed from their earliest years not to have the best of everything and take up a principal position. Is there any reason why men and women of both these classes, if the Spirit moves them to come out to China to such precarious means of living, should not be left in peace to work away at their always suflSciently disheartening task without having to do 80 amidst the adverse comments of hot controversy ?

136 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

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CHEAP MISSIONARIES 137

evangelist or teacher. And although missionaries may not have much leisure for reading the news of the day, there are many occasions when sickness comes, or on long, hot summer days, or when over-fatigued by a foot journey, when turning over a pictured paper from home would be a real relief to those, who but once in a month or two receive a European visitor, never dine out, have no library at which to change their books, and who must take some special precautions if they are not to become as little energetic as the somewhat stagnant people they seek to animate. As for those who do not wish to see the Chinese Christianised, not sympa-thising with the object, they can hardly be fair judges of the methods pursued, and in their opinion we may rest assured that missionaries whether cheap or costly will to the end of time always cost too much.

CHAPTER XII.

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD, FIFTEEN HUNDRED MILES

INSIDE CHINA

/^ANE summer we were living in Chungking in the far ^^ west of China, fifteen hundred miles from the sea, five hundred miles beyond the reach of steamers then — it was some years after that the first steamboat was taken to Chungking by my husl)and as master and owner, he and I the only Europeans on board — and against its becoming too hot in that large city, the commercial capital of Szechuan, all shut in by walls, and so full of houses as not to have an available breathing space left empty, we had rented a hillside on which to build ourselves a summer cottage. But the magistrate stopped our building on the pretext that the country people were so much opposed to foreigners he dared not sanction our living amongst thein ; then made a great favour of having persuaded a certain farmer to have us as tenants, and suggested that, if we went out to him for three months, perhaps gradually the people might become accustomed to us.

It was very hot in the daytime, and all day long I was shut up in the one farmhouse sitting-room, so I started a diary for much the same reason probably that I have often observed people do on a sea voyage. They generally do not keep it up till the end, neither did I ; but I noted

down' everything I could observe of interest, as long as I

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LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 141

wrote in it, and here it is, recalling many simple pleasures and some painful days.

" Sorrow and Shine is Life, little Annie, Flower and Thorn."

To some the dulness of our days must make it not worth reading. To others it will be the more interesting as being an untouched picture of life among Chinese far away up country, and before Boxers were ever heard of.

July 6, 189<S. After all, I went ott to the farm by myself, starting at ten, and only getting there after twelve, though the crossing of the Yangtze River was rather excit-ing than slow, there being no freshet on. All the dreadful rocks, that went to fonn the remarkable little harbour of the Dragon's Gate in the winter, were now quite covered with water, so that our boat went careering over them. Afterwards it was so hot that the coolies spent a long time eating and resting before they got me up the thousand feet from the river to the T'u Shan Temple, on the top of the first range of hills. I was annoyed to find the furniture in our farm not yet cleaned and a good deal of smell from the dirt, in spite of the many men, who had l)een out cleaning it for several d«ys ; the shrine at one end of the room, that I had told the people they might take away, was still there. When I remarked on this, the cook ex-claimed it could not be moved. ** Well then, it must be cleaned," I said, attacking it with a feather brush, and immediately pn)ducing a shower of dust. The coolies all cried out at once, " You must not touch it ! We cannot touch it ! " " Call the woman of the house," I said. But she again waved deprecatory hands and cried, *' I cannot touch it," which the coolies all echoed in chorus : " She cannot touch it ! A woman ! " Presentlv the farmer appeared, very obliging but very grave. It seemed that he only could clean it. But he proceeded to do so with so

142 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

much reverence it was evident the accumulations of dust would never get removed. So I rubbed, and brushed, and generally knocked things about, for other people to put together, till gradually the whole erection came somewhat to pieces amidst showers of dirt. " The Fvusa (image) cannot like dirt,'' I continued to repeat. But at last they managed to convey to me that it was not a shrine with a Ptt«a, but the Holy Place, where the ancestral tablets were kept. " Oh, the ancestors ! " I then said. " Well, they do not like dirt. They would like to be clean," on which botli the farmer and his wife seemed greatly amused, especially the latter, who quite agreed, but would not touch anything. " We put fresh flowers before the pictures of our ancestors," I said. On which the children brandished crackers in my face, to show what a much better way they had of honour-ing their dead. Meanwhile the farmer and the eldest son cleaned the tablet, the vase before it containing incense sticks, etc., etc., and I was delighted to find one coolie could now really clean the outside of the shrine, and all the particularly dirty boards on the top, whilst no one objected to my taking all the musty books out of the cupboard underneath, drying them in the sun, dusting them and then putting them away tidily in the end. The eldest son then tore oft* the old red paper strips, and proceeded to write ou new red papers **As still with us, though above," which was stuck up above the ancestral tablet, a little looking-glass being very carefully hung in the middle. I pleaded to have it washed first. After all this great display of reverence what was my surprise to find that we were now quite at liberty to place our stores in the cupboard under-neath ! And our Boy with perfect calm stood two command-ing-looking bottles on the top, right in front of the ancestral tablet. Nor did anyone seem to see anything amiss in the arrangement.

They are busy weaving tlieir cotton, and we fell asleep

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 143

to the sound of the loom in the next room, and heard it already going on again when we awoke in the morning.

July 7. Wore my Chinese clothes for the first time, found them delightfully cool, and decided I would wear nothing else till the hot weather was over. A very trying day I Thunderstorms, and not a breath of air even on the top of our hill in the second and higher Range, thirteen hundred feet above the river, two thousand feet above the sea.

July 8. They were busy spinning yarn at the farm to-day, and all the concrete threshing floor outside our windows, that makes such a good place to sit out on in the moonlight, was taken up with their yam stretched on long frames. I found the cotton bandages I wore last year with straw sandals were not comfortable, so the farmer's wife offered to bind my feet for me. She did so just like her own poor little stunted things, only using broader bandages, about two and a half yards long, as my feet were so much bigger, and to my surprise her way of bind-ing the feet wjis not only tidy but most comfortable, supporting the foot just where it needs support.

Went up the hill ; then, seeing a great thunderstorm coming on across the hundred miles or so of country we see from there, I hurried down and sat outside without changing, watching the rain advance. Alas ! I had on my cool Chinese clothes, offering no protection against the change in the weather, so caught a severe chill round my waist, and felt no energy to go out with the farmer's wife, who was most eager and excited about it, when there was a sharp clap like the sudden report of a gun — just over our heads — without any following roll, and something fell in a paddy field below. A crowd of people collected, and, we heard afterwards there was a strong smell of sulphur and saw the stone corner of a wayside shrine, which was

144 /A^ THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

knocked off, but whatever fell got lost in the soft paddy field.

July 9. High fever all night, and aches in all my bones ! I was carried back to town in the evening throogh the rain, A. sturdily marching along in pyjamas, raised very high, though not quite as high as the coolies, who displayed their very well-shaped legs pretty well in their entirety. I was carefully dressed en EwropierMit once mora It is certainly much more convenient, as well as far more becoming.

July 19. Air fresh and fragrant, reminding one of hay-making days. Mistress of the farm flogged little grandson, because he had a sore on his leg and had not washed it properly. She does her washing of clothes in the most delightful fashion in a large wooden tray, brought out and stood on forms under the fine walnut tree, that shades our threshing floor. She washes clothes beautifully clean, although using no soap. To-day they are sizing the yam with rice-water, drying it, after boiling, in the very power-ful sun. As we wanted a stable for our pony, and also dis-liked the smell of the Mao Sze and pig-sty, the latter as a rule in Szeehuan placed under the former, they are ceding the old one to us for a stable, and have built themselves a new one. It is quite palatial, much the most carefully plastered place about the farm. It is of course the source of all the fertility we see around us.

The eldest daughter came out to spend the day. She arrived in a sedan with a sad tale. Her husband had beaten her. He keeps a small shop for selling clothes-stuffs, and, as far as I could make out, she had ordered new clothes of a tailor without insisting that the material should be out of her husband's shop. So when the bill came he refused to pay, but beat her instead. We took pony and chair on to the hills behind, but, though we went after five, the sun s slanting rays made me feel so sick

K

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 147

that we just lay still on the shady side of the hill, and gazed at the view, particularly clear, bathed in sunshine as it was, although we looked at it from the shade of our limestone range. The high mountain in the distance, round which I had so often seen the thunderstorms gather, and which now stands out quite clear with table top and several ro\f s of precipices shining white in the sunshine, turns out to be the Chin Fu Shan, (iolden Buddha Moun-tain, three days* journey off, and to which two sets of missionaries have just gone seeking for a sanatorium. One of our coolies, who has been a soldier, says he went there once with his general to burn incense, but when he was there the accomodation in the temple on the top was much too bad to stop there. He says there are Chinese there, but that there is also a tribe of Miaotse (Aborigines) and that it is on the borders of the province of Kweichow. The country people all cluster round to talk to our men, and seem greatly interested to tell about one set of missionaries, who had a small child with them and five coolies carrying loads, nine people in all. We hoj)e they will find a shelter, and hear that the inns along the way are good, but that it is a hot journey, as indeed it looks.

In the evening we were just falling asleep, sitting out-side in the moonlight, enjoying the most refreshing breeze, when one of the farm boys came up to A. again to ask when he would bring out his foreign gun. The boy had displayed the greatest interest in this gun all day long. And presently it appeared all the men of the farm were going out with heavy sticks and rough spears to hunt an animal — what, we could not make out — that stole their Indian corn. So we went too, cook and coolies and all. We climbed up and up to the very top of the cultivate*! ground. And there the men proceeded to dig. They had stopped up one burrow by day with stones and earth, but

148 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

they said there were three. As the digging went on, another man appeared with one of our candles — given by the cook for the occasion — and which being European guttered shockingly in the breeze. Then the two dogs found us out, and great was our alarm lest the long-haired terrier should be taken in the flickering light and shadow for the animal we had all come out to kill, and pressing were the men's entreaties to our beautiful black pointer to come and point out the wild beast, or, as they said dig, for it. But Beau refused to be in the least interested, and rightly so, for it seemed what we had all come out to hunt was a wild boar, and now it appeared he emphatic-ally was not at home, as our coolies dug and dug, and poked their spears into where his nose should have ap-peared. So the peaceful beauty of the moonless sky with its galaxy of stars, and landscape looking perfectly lovely, now that the somewhat ugly foreground of paddy fields was veiled by night, was unsullied by slaughter. We found the air much fresher up the hill, and tried to call the stars by their names, then came all stumbling down the steep hillside again. The mistress of the farm regretted much she had not been able to go too, but when all the men go out somebody must stop at home, she said. It seems now that this very well-to-do farm, where they are always pressing roasted cobs of Indian corn upon us, does not possess even one Chinese candle, their artificial illumination being confined to the tiame of a pith wick in a saucer of pea oil.

July 20. The beautiful tiger-lily the farm children brought in with such pride about a fortnight ago, saying its buds would open in water, and coming each morning to boast over them, is over now. So is an orange and cream lily they brought in the day before yesterday, and that at once made the tiger-lily look quite faded. The strange-looking scarlet flower, that I only know as the

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 149

dragon boat flower, has also shrivelled up. The cook tells us that after all he is not going to marry a Szechuan woman. We thought it was all arranged, and had lent him money for the wedding festivities. He says now, as soon as we can spare him, he wants to go home for a time to his own province of Hupeh. For, as he says, all the women here smoke tobacco, and many smoke opium, and how can you know beforehand ? It is true they are cheap. You can get a wife for ten taels (about £1, 10s.) or a very good one for twenty taels. But then suppose you had paid your money, and found out in the end she smoked, there you would be with your twenty taels gone ! Now in Hupeh he could know all about the parentage and connec-tions of the girl he should choose. Wise man ! evidently convinced of the truth of heredity without a Galton to teach him. But what odd people these Chiuese are ! One of our cargo boats has just been wrecked, and the head of the countincr-house tells A. " I have sent word down river never to insure shrimps again. It is a dreadful cargo. You see it smells, and in this way the porpoises and all the other big fishes find out what it is and make a disturbance in the water trying to get in to rescue their brethren in captivity." Even the Roman Catholic clerk says, " There must have been myriads of souls in that cargo of shrimps that has been wrecked." Went for a delightful walk along the hills to the south, walking along the shady side among the fir trees. A little bird flew from almost under my feet, and I found its nest between four tall stalks, with four spotted eggs ; begged the coolies not to touch it and had the satisfaction on passing an hour later of seeing the same little bird fly out. A lovely green praying mantis came into our room to-day. But the moon was watery at night, and few stars visible. It looks as if it were working up for another storm. A very hot day, though the thermometer in the farm did not rise above

ISO IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

eighty-six, but then the lofty room with thick, thatched roof keeps out a good deal of heat.

July 21. Several visitors to-day, one a married daughter of the farm with a very cross, little boy of three, not yet weaned, and chiefly dressed in a pinafore worked all over back and front in cross stitch by his mother. The

[% -Wr* Arck^ld Lilllf.

other a young woman, elaborately rouged, with pink nails, her hair brushed in two strands, one to the right, the other to the left across the foreliead, thus crossing in the middle of it and showint; no parting, a singularly disfiguring t'jishion. She had white flowers in a wreath all round her back hair. A pair of white cottcn trousers with blue cottOQ borders, and a rather long white jacket similarly

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151

trimmed, completed her toilette. She was too smart to do much. But the daughter o£ the house immediately set to work to help her mother in getting out of a sort of nettle

[liy Mr Mcncar

the fibre useil for making grass ctotb, and worked at this pretty well nil day, wlien not suckling her child. The break- . ing the stalks, without breaking the outside skin, made the peeling this skin oft' seem to require some knack, and

152 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

I did not try it. But I found it easy enough to Btrip the skin off the fibre when I had the proper implements. Taking a small iron spud with sharp edges in the right hand, and inserting the thumb of the right hand into a roll that just about filled up the spud when placed inside it, one then takes the skin of the tall nettle in the left hand and draws it again and again between the sharp spud and the thumb covering, till the fibres are quite clean. The sky was overcast, so that it was quite pleasant sitting outside, but the mistress of the farm would not allow me to become an adept, showing me her hands all stained with the nettle, and requesting me to keep my dress carefully clear of it for fear that should get stained too. Then they all talked about me in their local Chinese, saying to one another, " She does not understand ! " which, alas ! was true. Presently a man came round with two baskets dangling from his pole all full of pop-corn, some of it made up into cakes with molasses, but most of it in parcels. No one showed any eagerness to buy, not even the children. I tasted one of the cakes, and then presented it to one of the children, telling our Boy to buy some for the others. But this which seemed so natural to me was an unin-telligible idea to them, and they all began to buy for themselves and presently were all munching. There was some complaint about the price, when the seller said it was a long way to bring the cakes from Chungking, so my idea that they looked so clean because made in some clean, healthy farm house near by fell to the ground.

In the afternoon I rode our beautiful little Szechuan pony to the top of the hill, and then told the old man whom we have enfifaijed to take charore of him while here to lead him away to meet A. But the pony took charge of the old man, leading him a perfect dance all over the mountain top after nice patches of grass, indulging in i*olls between whiles, saddle and all. The old man talked to him a great

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 153

deal. But in the end I had to exert myself, or they never would have got down the hill at all. They had hardly been gone half an hour, before there was a merry neighing, and there appeared round the mountain side a most gaily -caparisoned pony with high red Chinese saddle, a whole collar of large bells, and a very large red tassel hang-ing over his neck. A man led him, and a man followed him, and presently appeared the young man from the grand house, whose large garden is the landmark we coast round to arrive at our farm. He walked along, fanning himself, but at once made for me to ask endless questions as to whether we would sell our pony, our foreign saddle, our dogs, whether we would buy his pony, and when we would go to his house to '' Shwa'' that most expressive Chungking word for generally enjoy oneself. His great delight was again and again to ask me if I would sell our long-haired terrier, Jack, what the Chinese call a lion dog, because I always definitely answered I would not. But apparently what he really wanted was the foreign saddle. He said he had given fifty taels (about eight pounds) for his pony, which was from Kweichow, and wanted to know what we wanted for ours. At last the sun was so near setting he thought it prudent to go away, as he said it was sure to rain directly the sun went down. But instead of that it turned into a lovely, clear night again. It appears now the weavers in the next room are only tenants at the farm like ourselves. They were working later than ever last night. It is very tiresome, as we cannot sleep for their weaving. They never leave oflf. I shall be curious to know what rent they pay. We by arrange-ment of the magistrate pay six pounds for our two rooms for three months — ten times as much as a Chinese family would pay for the same accommodation. We gave up one room, however, to which we were entitled, the farm people declaring they with their large family would have to move

154 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

out it we used it, and now we find they were all the time letting this other room.

July 22. To-day was a difficult day to get throUgli^ for A. had invited to dinner the sixteen elders of Chfr neighbouring districts, who had called on him before we moved out, bringing a large red card with all their naaneft-upon it, and a congratulation upon our change of resideneew And as they just filled two tables, leaving no room for him^ and his comprador, he had invited six Chungking meD to fill the third table. The best dinner Chungking ooulA provide had been ordered, at a charge of four thousand cash (at present exchange about ten shillings) per table of eight people, including use of crockery. Our meD began coming over from the city quite early ; they de-cided it was impossible for twenty-four people to dine in our sitting-room, two tables must be set outside not-withstanding the sun, so sent back to Chungking for our courtyard awning to hang from the walnut tree outside* This did not arrive till about one, and the city guests be<j^an arriving at eleven. First came the banker in a long gown of white silk with a little gauze stripe in it. When he took this off, as they all did to eat, he appeared in a short iacket of stiti* black gauze with a grey stripe. The comprador was in a long gown of grey pongee silk. The literary man and A. in white grasscloth gowns. The elders ahnost all had short coats, but one or two had new, long gowns for the occasion, and all had very smart silk over-trousers. They looked a most respectable set of men. They insisted upon the city men sitting inside, as it was cooler, and they said they were all country people, accustomed to sit out of doors. Then the city gentlemen sent me a request to sit down and dine with them, as there was a slight difficulty about my being served in my bedroom. However I declined, as I thought they might like to strip to the waist, as Chinese usually do in summer.

'l^v ■:■) iJP'

^

p

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LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 157

But it being in the country they found it so much cooler, they did not in the end care to do so. I think dinner began about two, and at last I got some dishes brought me which seemed very good. After dinner I took two photographs of the party, which seemed greatly to delight the elders. And they took leave apparently in a most enthusiastic state of mind, thanking profusely. The city men went away together at a quarter to five. We then went to the top of our hill, sitting as usual by the foundations of our unfinished house. I rode up on an English side saddle, and found it much more tiring than astride. Presently appeared the smart pony, and the young man from the grand house, with all his retinue. A. after a while took him back to our farm for tea. It seems he is seventeen, and reading for his Bachelor's Examination. He looks much more like twenty-four, and is already married. He begged us to go and Shwa at their house next day. The family consists of the widows and sons of a wealthy retired official.

After the dinner was over, all our coolies and the chair-coolies of the guests sat down at once to what remained. The women of the farm had a table to themselves, and also their portion of the feast, with which they seemed delighted. After they had all finished, one of our coolies was very eager for me to satisfy myself that no wine was left in the large jar that had been brought out. This I quite believed. But the tone in which he said it had been excellent was worth hearing. The feast was inaugurated by about five minutes of crackers, which had been hung in long garlands from the trees, where they looked quite pretty — like strings of red peppers — till they began to sputter and go off. We had laid in a good stock, and besides this the banker brought out another supply as a present. I understand that in accordance with custom we presented one hundred cash (about threepence)

158 AV THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

to the chair-coolies of each of our guest«, who came in a chair. What they gave to our servants I do not know. However, all the Twansheo (elders) walked, and to the head man among them we were indebted for the loan of extra tables and benches. Our farmer is one of the Twansheo. We played chess by moonlight in the evening to the great delight of the farm people, who could not, however, understand all our pieces being able to cross the river, i.^., the middle of the board, as only some of their pieces can. After all this A. had mosquito curtains hung from the walnut tree, and slept on a travelling bed outside.

I noticed to-day that the little orange tree in front of the house is covered with very large, green oranges, and the pomegranate tree beside it has also many fruits. They have picked olf the vine so many stone-hard grapes, which they were greatly disappointed at my being unable to eat in that condition, that I fear none remain to ripen. The children have bi'ought me fresh, huge bunches of the scarlet dragon tiower. It turns out it is called dragon's claws, not drat^on boat, from the flower's likeness to claws. It is all brilliant scarlet, calyx, corolla, stalk and all, and looks very well mixed with ferns and grasses.

To-day is the beginning of great heat, according to tlie (Jhinese calendar, but the thermometer was between seventy-eight and eighty-one all day here, and there was generally a liglit breeze.

.hily 23. We took the little pony, and went along the hills to the south, by a delightful, shady path. Then A. insisted on going down the steep mountain road, all stone steps, to see the wayside inn, that had so taken my fancy from a distance. It is very prettily situated with two grand Hoang Ko trees (Ficus I nf erf arid), a kind of banyan and very shady, in front of the door, and looking on to tree-clad hills with breezy slopes up the valley. But its

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 159

Murroundings were so dirty and neglected it seemed useless to recommend it to Chungking friends needing a change. There were two tolerable- sized rooms thrown into one, bat they were only full of straw mattressed beds and nothing else, and rather dark, looking on to a dirty courtyard ; of

[HjF Mrt Anbihahl l.illl'.

course infinitely better than the accommodation we often get in travelling, but still hardly what one would leave one's own house for just for a night We both slept under the walnut tree, but there was no breeze, and the dogs barked horribly.

July 24. A. got into his office by a.in, to-day.

i6o IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

After he had left I dressed and went for a delightful walk, getting back by 6*30. I went towards the Fortress of Refuge on the top of the highest mountain in the neighbourhood, two thousand five hundred feet above the sea, that is such a striking object in all the views all round, its battlements connecting the two tops of the hill, finally linked by the gateway, through which to-day I saw the sun rising. The air was so fresh, and the scene in its wildness so reminded me of the Cumberland Moors I wondered why one complained of the summer here. But the thermometer only varied from eighty to eighty- six in the twenty-four hours, and after a whole number of women had come flocking in to see me, inviting one another to sit down, looking into my bedroom, and generally making themselves quite at home whilst ignoring my feelings, I only felt equal to being carried up the hill in the evening and sitting in the sedan chair to enjoy the breeze. There was distant thunder. And it looked so like a storm, and seemed so defenceless to sleep outside by myself, I did not at all want to do so. But there were the mosquito curtains, and the cook began preparing my bed underneath as a matter of course. So I was ashamed to say I was afraid, the more so as there were three dogs to give me warning if anyone came near. But when I went out to get into bed there was our soldier coolie, not only stretched at full length in one of our mountain chairs, but having established it alongside my bed. " What are you doing there ? " I asked. " This is my bed," he replied. " I always sleep in this chair." *' Why is it not in its usual place ? " " There are so many moscjuitoes under the eaves ! " he replied with cool effrontery. " Dreadful lot of mosquitoes to-night ! " " Well ! you know you can't sleep there near my bed. Just take that chair off as far as you can.'' Which he did, not in the least abashed.

The farmer's wife was busy chattering, and chopping

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD i6i

up the leaves of the grass cloth plant for the pigs. It was ten o'clock, and as they always get up by four, I thought she might as well go to bed, and let me sleep, but she chopped and chopped. So presently I thought I might as well watch her from under the mos(|uito curtains, and had a heavenly night with a blanket over me, and such a breeze, till towards morning it actually blew the curtains from off me. Then a man passed with a torch, and all the dogs barked furiously. Presently the farm people got up, lit their tire, and the men came outside to wash in the dawn. Walnuts began to fall here and there from the tree above me. The wind blew more and more, and I wondered what would be the result if one happened to fall on my eyes, till at last I thought it prudent to go inside, and finish up with two more hours of undisturbed sleep in the fresh morning air.

July 25. A. came out quite late, and tells me two Swedish missionaries have just been killtMl by the people about a hundred miles from Hankow. It seems placards were put out telling them they would be killed on a certain feast day if they did not go away. But they could not l)elieve it. The magistrate asked them to take refuge in his yamen, but said he could not restrain the people. They stayed on in their house, the mob eliased them out, and finally killed them. We do not know how. Hankow is in great excitement.

July 2t>. A cool niglit and very cool morning. The cook declared himself verv ill, one of the coolies also ill. \Ve had our first European guest since we came here, June 29, the agent of a Scottish Hible Society. I felt as if I hardly knew what to say to him when lie rode up. The young man from the Yuen family again joined us on the hill, bringing a cousin and another pony, so there were four ponies altogether there. The two young men came back uninvited to refreshment, an<l like two boys ate

i62 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

up every one of our cakes, trying to help themselves when I was not looking.

July 27. Cook again not well. A cool day! Thunderstorms all round in distance. Went again towards the Chai (Fortress of Refuge) and watched the thunderstorms, indicating distinctly the relative distance of the different ranges. I estimate we see seven to the south, one even beyond the — said to be nine thousand feet high — Golden Buddha Mountain, and three to the west. The sun shone silvery through the clouds, and a large lotus pond below looked like a silver pond, the dark, large lotus leaves standing out finely against it, and looking in the thickest part as if they were mixed with silver flowers.

Our poor black pointer pup has become nothing but skin and bone. We do not know what is the matter with him, but are trying a Chinese cure of liquorice. The long-haired terrier was washed to-day, and the soldier coolie and I spent some hours over taking animals out of liiiii. Between each pair of toes he had at least two ticks, between some three or four. I s])end liours over him every day, but had not looked at his little feathery paws, thinking he would be sure to walk lame if there were anvtliincr the matter with them.

July 28. A. <j^ot off early, and when I got up at seven I foun<l it still so cool, tiie thermometer marking only seventy - nine, I thought I would take a few minutes' stroll before breakfast, but the air is so moist that I came back soaked with perspiration and had to change everything and rub myself dry. A very heavy day ! Dark clouds over ( 'liungkinc^, and the darkness gradually creeping up to us like a heat mist. Found the little pond, into wliich the spring from which we get our water falls, full of frogs, small, very finely

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 163

shaped and bright green. Birds flew in and out of the sitting-room to-day, as if troubled by the weather. Started at 1 p.m. for Chungking, through a luxuriance of vegetation, sunflowers dangling their leaves wearily amongst rice in ear, Indian corn, millet, French beans, taro and lotus. The last two, banked up in mud in their ponds, alone looked as if not in want of more water ; some lotus were already being pulled up for the roots. Found the river much risen, and flowing so fast I was not surprised there was considerable difficulty about getting a boat. We had to wait some time, send some way to look for boats and then only one big boat was to be had. It at first refused to take us but at last consented for a hundred and eighty cash, three times the large sum we usually pay. Coolies pay eight cash a head. After we had been ten minutes in the boat, we were a good deal further down river than when we started, the towing rope having been let go by the trackers, lest they should be dragged into the stream off a steep bank. The cook then wanted to persuade me to go back. But for his pressure before I do not think I should ever have started. I did not like to go back now, and a great deal thanks to his exertions we got to the other side at last in five minutes under two hours. We then found that another boat had slipped its towline, as we had, in the paorn-ing, and three men out of the eight in her had been drowned, and A. had sent a coolie to warn me not to try to cross the river, as it was so dangerous. But owing, I suppose, to the state of the water, his messenger had not got over in time. It felt quite cold crossing the river, and the people say this sudden rise in it is owing to the melting of the snow in Tibet. Last time it was because of rain in Yunnan.

July 29. Sitting on the Shai Tai, or drying place,

i64 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

on the top of our house with A., watching the thunder-storms moving all round — yet none arriving — he noticed a coolie, one of the calenders from the adjacent dyer's on his Shai Tai Ko Towing to the thunder ! Actually bought some grapes at the door, not quite ripe yet, but very nearly so, and in fine bunches. Had a dish of lotus roots shredded and sweetened with sugar- for dinner. It was rather nice, and seemed intended to be eaten with chicken stewed with cucumbers, ginger, and a kind of cabbage — the soup made from chicken cooked in this way is perfectly delicious. The mixture seemed curious, but pleasing.

July 31. Meant to cross yesterday, but the river was very high. Then it came on to rain, and in the end our man servant was too ill to go. Next day I settled to start with only the cook and water-coolie, but the latter was so ill he sent a substitute. The Chinese seem to suffer cjuite as much as, if not more than, we do from this oppressive weather. We crossed very \\\)s\\ up, tlu- water beiu^ smoother there, banked lip by that below. But the bridsi^e across an affluent, that used to stand so high up, was still under w^ater, only the tops of the stone stancliions rising from the parapet Ijeinij^ visible above it. It felt delightfully fresh at the farm, and in the afternc^on we went for quite a long ri<le, and saw a pond of lotus out in flower, but the blossoms were (juite small, about half the size of those in .lapan.

Aucjust 5. The last few davs we have had visitors, and my time has been too niucli taken up for more than admiring the ex(|uisite cloud etieets in the extensive land-scape on all sides of us, as the thunderstorms threatened but did not arrive. Yesterday, however, at last one did, and I think must have thoroughly washed out even Chung-king. We were only on the fringe of it, but our spring is

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 167

replenished, and in a few minutes the thermometer fell from eighty-tive to seventy-seven. A. arrived with a violent attack of lumbago, which seems common here, so we only went for a very little stroll, and wishing to sit at a view point with a fresh breeze, asked a cottage near by to lend us a form to sit upon. The little boy who brought it, and who replied with all the correct polite phrases when politely addressed, asked as a great favour if we would buy six eggs of them. They had only six. Our coolie replied at once we could not think of buying less than ten at a time, but we insisted on buying the six eggs of the little man, and he presently appeared with them, and was apparently too much delifj;;hted with two small foreign cakes even to recollect his manners. The storm has brought down a great many walnuts, and the little boy of the farm, who kept me awake last night by his groaning — he has a horrible skin disease over both legs, especially under the knees — brought me four with great delight. A thunderstorm with occasional downpours began at ten and went on till four. Till then the air felt heavy. We went for a ramble amonir the fir woods to the south. Two of our servants asked leave to go — as the one said in Chinese *' to reverence the Divinitv," as the other in English "to a four-man tiffin" at a festival in a temple near by, to which we yesterday evening saw a man staggering along under a heavy load of rice. Several country people returning from it came and sat about on the threshing floor, and bright-faced, very respectable-looking women tried to talk to me. Then, with that want of delicacy so conspicuous in Chinese, when I went to change my dress in our bedroom came to the window to stare in, which they would not like done to themselves. So I shut the blinds witli indignation. Scorpio, Cassiopeia and the Great Bear conspicuous in the evening, but the gentle Szechuan mist seems to temper

1 68 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

the brilliancy of the stars here generally, as it mercifully does that of the sun.

August 6. A crisp autumnal feeling in the air, and the thermometer actually seventy-four when we got up, which it has not been since July 3, when for two days we had it cool here. It was last seventy -four in Chungking on June 21 , a regular rainy day. To-day, with fresh northerly breeze, bright sunshine, and exquisite blue sky with white fleecy summer clouds, we thought we could not be better off than at our farm. I went to the back of the hill before breakfast, such a fresh, delicious breeze, and the golden Buddha Mountain — said to be from four to six days' journey away; reports differ — absolutely clear all along its flat back, with onlv one or two white clouds risincf from behind it, and threatening to overshadow it, as the day progresses. The farm people are unhusking their Indian corn, so now no more roasted or baked cobs, but baba instead, as they call the hot cakes made of the flour, which we so enjoyed on the way to Tibet last year. The pink crape myrtle seems over, and now we have only white hibiscus and ferns, and one red rose on the table. Tlie villai^e sclioohnaster paid us several visits, and with him a yoim^ niau in a sliabby, long black gown, whom I took for his assistant, but who said his family owned the Chai, the Refuge Fortress, that crowns and connects the two tops of the highest hill in these parts. He says they paid twenty thousand taels to build it a hundred and fifty years ago and would sell it now for eighty thousand. There are rice fields attached bringin<^f in six hundred taels a year. His home is behind and below the Chai, and he says a hun-dred people live in it. Other people tell us it is a very hand-some house with a fine garden, so we were glad he asked U8 to go there. Tiie schoolmaster seemed a very merry sort of character. To-day was the great day for all the seeds, baskets lull of Indian corn being unhusked, and red and

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 169

black peas being first spread in the sun, and pitchforked about as if to make hay, and then gathered into baskets. The beauty of the day tempted me to take several photo-graphs, but I think I suffered afterwards from exposing myself to the sun. In the evening went up the hill, and found the view again beautifully clear. A number of big birds were going to roost in a grove of firs. They looked like pheasants, but the coolies said one could not eat them, so I think they must have been jays. They seemed very restless, and were flying about a good deal.

August 7. Went into Chungking to-day so as to read the incoming mail before the outgoing mail went out. Ninety-two there felt very hot after seventy-two at the farm in the morning, and the mail was as usual here a disappointment. Not as many letters as we expected, and not one single news-paper. It will be four weeks to-morrow since one has reached us, although a mail ought to arrive every five days. The head of the counting-house invited me to a dinner his wife and the comprador's wife were giving at the Roman Catholic Guild garden. But I had to come back to the farm. The coolies turned cross and lazy, and two substitutes had to be got at the last moment. Turned aside on the way back to see some fields of ginger we saw, when first planted, near by the great monastery with the pagoda. It seems to be a sort of cane, atid is only about a foot high yet. I am told it should grow to two feet. It is very carefully planted in perfectly straight rows, with five-inch trenches between the rows kept apparently full of mud, but much lower than the plant. An odour of ginger seemed to hang over it all, but I could not detect any ginger taste in the leaf. Got home in the dark, seeing one or two glow worms on the way.

August tS. Called on the Yuen family. Everyone was in Chungking but the great-grandmother of our young friend of the pony. She told us she was seventy-seven ;

I/O f.V THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

she seemed ti) see and iiear rjmte well, and spoke re-freshingly distinctly, but said she could not accompany us round the garden as site could not walk, and that there were no flowers there now. The camellia trees with such magniticent flowers, when we were here liL'fore, now many of them had white and variegated

I/'.'/.

k-avfs. What I had taken for red leaves from outside turned out to lie cnipe myrtle looking like a fed flame, and tln.Ti! was one tfai-ik'iiia and one flower of a coral colour, whose name I do not know, tliouj,di I have often seen it before. The servants picked some orchids for nie, which though nut very pretty I was delighted to see, as I hiul long been watching the leaves, wondering

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what they would develop into. Our coolies were chiefly interested in a big coffin which was being got ready for the old lady. A. wanted me to tell her I had seen it, and compliment her upon it, as is the etiquette in China ; but I really could not. She had quite the manners, and I thought the hands of a lady, but was

dressed like any poor wotniin. The servants examined and admired every bit of my Chinese dre.ss, more than I have ever been examiiie'l in European dress. They evidently like it much betlt-r and think much more of it. There was a. wiiter-coiour picture of one 'if the ancestors in grand ullicial dress hanging as a Kakemono on the wall. It looked as if it were an excellent like-

172 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

ness, and the face stood out, so that one could hardly believe it was not in relief.

Our threshing floor was again spread with peas to-day, and beautiful cobs of Indian corn, which were raked about preparatory to unhusking them, like so much hay. Certainly this farm seems to produce every-thing. The farmer has been away the last day or twa It seems he is carrying on a coal business at the biggest mine near here, buying the coal on the spot, and retail-ing it in Chungking. If he had not such an energetic wife he would have enough on his hands. As it is she seems to manaj^e the farm and the children. She will not consent to the little boy with the bad legs going into the mission hospital, declaring he is a very difficult child to manage, and would be sure to cry and be naughty there. Besides, who would give him his food? Probably it is incredible to her that the hospital would, and if she did believe it, she would at once suspect some deep design underlying such open-hand edness, as of course there is; i.e., alienating the patients from the faith of tlieir fathers and predisposing them to another in its place, which probably this satistied-with-things-as-they-are woman, like most Cliiuese women, would re-gard as the most dreadful tliincr. 'rhe poor little fellow cannot be cured witliout ^^oiiig into a hospital, liowever. as he must be kept perfectly cjuiet, so probably he will go on moaning at nights, according as the weather affects his leirs. Just now he is better.

Aujjust 15. Since I last wrote in my diarv a very un-fortunate accident has occurred. Our little do^'s barkinsr had annoyed us so much that in order to get some sleep at night I sliut him up in one basket inside another on the 9th. That night it was rainy and so chilly we shut the front door for almost the first time since we have been here. But the next night, as it was very close as well as

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 173

rainy, I left the front door open, and yet shut np poor little Jack as before. Next morning as A. woke he said, *' It is really no use sleeping out here. I feel as heavy as if I were going to bed instead of getting up." But my attention was distracted from him by seeing my clothes, which I had left lying tidily on the top of one of our travelling baskets, all in confusion on the earth floor, and some of the contents of the basket lying in the dirt too. Then I saw some of the clothes out of the cupboard on the floor, and on the window-sill the brush and comb, which I had left in one corner well inside the wnndow, quite in another place and outside the wooden bars, and the candlestick also outside the bars, and as it struck me the candle much shorter than I had left it. Then on the other side of the bed there were my dark glasses and belt also lying on the floor, and underneath the bed, exactly underneath where I had been sleeping, the tray, which had been taken out of one of the bfiskets and evidently put there during the night. Quite bewildered, not sure if I were dreaming or not, I looked into the sitting-room to see the lamp where I had left it, but the shade and chimney both by the side of it, instead of on it, as if someone had lighted that too. A very little further investigation showed both our watches gone, A.'s compass, both our eye-glasses, all the spoons and forks, and sheets and tablecloths we had brought out with us, also all A.'s Chinese clothes, and a gooil many of my European clothes. But one of the coolies looking about presently brought back all the latter, together with some towels and napkins, thrown down into some Indian corn hard bv and soaked with rain. They were evidently all alike regarded as worthless, the material being cut about too much for Chinese use. The behaviour of our little dog was very peculiar. He did not bound out of his basket as usual, but sat quite stupidly, letting all the people of the fann

174 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

crowd into the room, and talk and look about, whereas generally he has to be held even if the fanner's wife comes in, so indignant is he at anyone but our owa servants coming amongst oar things. He appeared very deepy, and presently sat himself down, and watched the door of the next room, but interfered with no one. My own im-pression was at once he had been dragged. Bat if a dog^s gestures are to be believed, this poor little fellow said, ^I am very weary, but look behind that door, and yon will find your things." The room he was looking at, however, was that occupied by the farmer, his wife and family, and it seemed impossible to suspect them. The farmer, as one of the guardians of order in the district, went off at once to report the occurrence. And presently arrived a local yamen runner (tipstaff) to hear the story, and take note of everything, which, however, he did not seem to do, bat just sat about a little, and then went away. Some hoars afterwards arrived three men in chairs from the magistrate's yamen with a great following. One of the oddest things to me was how quiet everyone was ! No exclamations nor lamentations ! No attempt on the part of the farm people to clear themselves from suspicion I These men did take note of everything, and especially wanted a careful list and description of the things stolen, that they might search the pawnshops. Soon after that we went into town, and as it rained I did not come out again till yesterday, when another accident occurred. Oar little pony had grown so fresh by itself out here, it set off to gallop up the hill at the back with me, actually kicking up its heels with pleasure at being out again, in spite of the steepness. I therefore rode it quite to the top of a mountain we had not been up before, where we found the farm children gathering what looked like the smallest and most gnarled of crab apples, but which they get off a bosh that grows along the ground. They were munching them

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 175

with great satisfaction, and as usual eager to offer me some, but I could detect no flavour at all. I got off* however, to enjoy the view and specially red sunset, then gave the pony to our old man to lead down the hill, intending to mount him again presently, and go for a little further ride along the road. But the pony said to itself, " That is not the nearest way home. You mistake,'* twitched his head loose from the old man, kicked up his heels, and went careering along the hillside. Very pretty the little thing — 11 hands 4, and perfectly proportioned — looked doing so, and fortunately there were no worse con-sequences than a broken bridle. As we have another to replace that, till it is mended, that does not so much matter. But I have never now any notion what o'clock it is without a watch, and our supply of tablecloths also seems sadly short. And though last year travelling for months without a looking-glass, yet I am vexed to miss the convenient hand-irlnss out of mv travelling: baij. And now I find the thieves did not throw mv belt on the floor till they had wrenched the buckle ofl'. A. says Chinese thieves are supposed to burn something to make one sleep. Without something of the kind it is incredible how we could have slept through the much rummaging of two baskets, and a cuplxmrd, also a drawer, and a box being opened. The latter had one of my slippers stuck in it to make it shut noiselessly. Some of the things l)elonging to the farm people were taken also, in especial two candle-sticks, and two straw hats ; but they made strangely little fuss about them. I have forgotten to mention that their dog, which generally sleeps outside and barks, was shut up that night also because of the rain. But tluy say it did bark, and one of them got up to see what was the matter and saw nothing. Our other dog was sleeping in the kitchen at the back on this particular night, also on account of the rain. Tliis morning I went for quite a ride

176 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

before breakfast, determined to take it out of the pony and myself. But there was very Uttie breeze even on the tops of the hills, and the air felt heavy, as if another thunderstorm were under way. They are pulling np the Indian com near the house, and already rows of well* grown pepper plant stand' revealed, and in other places taro.

August 16. Sunflowers everywhere, but by no meauB generally looking east. To-day the air is all sweet with Kwei-hoa flower \Olea Fragrana) and there is a branch of it in our room, also a lovely breeze. Yesterday all the air round the house was heavy with the smell of the three cesspools, on which the fertility of this light rocky soil depends, but which one often wishes further. • Walnuts were falling in showers yesterday. I slept outside again last night, but there was not a breath of air; then the dogs barked dreadfully, the cicadas shrilled and shrieked like policemen's rattles, and the sheet, lightning seemed con-tinuous. I think I ought to have arranged from the first to mark in my diary any day on which there was neither litrhtnintr nor thunder — but I doubt if there has been one — as also when the children at the farm were not one or other beaten. To-day the little boy screamed so, I went out to see what he was being beaten with, as I one day saw his mother chasing and threatening him with a large log, such as one puts on the fire. But to-day it seemed only a decent-sized stick. The whacks, however, sounded serious, and I was glad to see his father interceding for him. Very red sunsets both the last nights ! The pony again nearly ran away from the man leading him yesterday. Having tasted the delights of scampering loose once, he wants to repeat them apparently, so I took him out for a ride again this morning. The most amusing thing is to see him roll, when he comes in, directly the saddle is taken off*. These small Western ponies seem to enjoy it, as children do. Our pony

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD

177

looks very much like a baby — but for it3 very serious, in-telligent face — lying down on its fern bed at niglit. It looks such an absurdly small thing to ride then. But it can do

its thirty miles a flay with ease, carrying weight too. The children and fnrni people hnve been munching millet stalks lately; these seem to me like a very inferior kiud of sugar cane, with the one advantage of being much softer. They

178 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

have picked all their grapes quite hard, as the leaves of the varnish tree, on which it has twined itself, are too thick for them to ripen, they say. But I doubt if they know the difference between ripe and unripe fruit. For they always gather it unripe. And they seem quite to enjoy these grapes, with the enjoyment only heightened by seeing my wry face, when they persuade me to taste one.

August 17. Last night everyone was requisitioned to strip the Indian corn off the cobs, as they do not hang them up here to dry in the fasliion we found so picturesque between Fulin and Yacheo last year, when the villages were all dressed with them, golden and red. I have at last found out why they grow the hibiscus, whose delicate white blossoms are just now in perfection. It is to make a cooling tisane, for which purpose they strip off the green calyx, and split the flower open to get out the stamens, etc A sunflower near the house is actually over twelve feet high. The thermometer was eighty-two early this morning, hotter than it has been for a long while, but it does not feel so hot from having a fresh breeze. We slept outside again, undiamayed by thoughts of walnuts falling on our Iieads. They do not seem to have any idea of shaking the tree, but just pick up what falls. In this way, however, I annexed about twenty yesterday to send in to friends in town, who have a difliculty about getting fresh walnuts. I have only been hit yet once, though we are always sitting and sleeping under the tree, and that was on the arm, where it did not matter. One of the married daughters has been making sandals for A. and me, soles and all, they are quite a success ! She came to discuss a nightdress bag, which I want worked in cross stitch as elaborately as her little boy's pinafore. She says it will take her a month, and asks a thousand cash (three shillings). But I know that is because I paid a thousand cash for one our tailor got worked for me. So I ofler her six hundred cash, a friend

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 179

of mine having had one worked for four hundred cash, but I think probably less covered with work than I want mine.

August 19. The cook actually gave us hibiscus soup yesterday, by way of a cooler. The flavour was rather agreeable. Yesterday was a very hot day, and the head of the counting-house sent out word to A. he had better not go in before Monday, it was so hot, prob-ably no one would do any business in such weather. Even here at the farm our own servants were all stripped to the waist, except the Boy, of course, and have now given up bundling on something to appear before me. The evening before, when we came in from our walk, we found the two young men from the Yuen family sitting round a table with the people of the farm, drinking Chinese spirits neat. They had brought me some flowers, and wanted A. to show them his typewriter, and were very pressing that we should go to their house to-day. as they were over in Chungking when we went before. So we went some time after five. First pause outside the gate, whilst A. put on a long gown, he having ridden. Then further pause, whilst the servants put on their clothes. On going inside we found a number of paper horses, chairs and attendants, and a Taoist priest, chant-ing all by himself in the entrance hall, all being hung round with pictures of ancestors. It was the anniversary of the grandfather's or great-grandfather's birthday. He died eight years ago, aged eighty-three. One of the young men received us, but not our number-five young-gentleman, who was out riding. Then came in a number of women. They did not bow to me nor ask me to sit down, and were dressed (juite commonly, just in long jackets and trousers of the commonest materials. So it did not occur to me they were the ladies of the house. But the young man, who was talking to A. on the other

i8o IN THE LAXn OF THE BLUE GOWN

side of the great entrance hall, now came to the women's side and introduced them. One was Ms mother j she, I gathered, was the principal lady who entertained us the

\ll.l Mr a. Ikaiu

tirst time we were thert. Oni' was nu in bur- five's mother. Then thei-e was his sister (iinl his wife, and possibly some more, whom I confused with the servants. Number- five's mother was put forward to entertain rao, u tall, thin

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD i8i

woman, not at all like her stout son of genial, honest, broad face. But she had a bright countenance. Walking about a little I asked the ladies' leave to look into an adjoining bedroom, so all went in, and they served me with tea and sponge cakes there. They examined my clothes, lifting up my petticoat, etc., just as unceremoni-ously as poor women do. Whilst I was talking to her mother I felt number-five's sister fingering the plaits on my dresa at the back, quite without any apology. As far as I could make out, number-five's mother told me she got up at ten, and went to bed at ten, and did nothing all day except smoke and shwa, that is, " amuse herself." She could not work, she said, nor cook, and did not read. I did not ascertain whether she could not. The two young girls read, she said. When we came out again number-five had come in. He had been thrown from his pony. He and the other young man led the way to the flower garden. The ladies followed through two court-yards on their tiny feet with diflficulty, then declined coming further. We passed the coflSn of the old lady who had also come in later to receive us, but from another side, and stood apart by herself all the time. They laughingly said it was hers, and one of them stretched herself back to show how the old lady would lie stretched out in it. There were some ten or more paper boxes, full of paper cash, to be sent after the old grandfather by beini,^ burned, that being the Taoist post. And as we came back we saw specially good caligra-phists writing letters to the deceased. The very hot day had become quite cool, with a beautiful fresh wind, look-ing as if it must turn to rain each minute. But the young men were eager for us to see a very fine crape myrtle tree, of which they declared the leaves trembled if one only scratched the trunk. As all the leaves were trem-bling in the wind, we could not decide if this were more

i82 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

than a legend. Then number-five actually tried to swarm up the tree to get me some of the lovely pink blossom. He seemed quite irrepressible, and next insisted on lift-ing up my chair with me and Jack in it, and he and one of our coolies carried me about a hundred yards. After which the two young men came a little further to see how our pony frisked along even with A. on his back. We came home and sat out in the moonlight, revelling in the cool breeze, till we actually found it too chilly. We had to sleep inside, and the wind quite wailed before I got to sleep. This morning heavy rain, coming in at three places in the sitting-room.

August 22. Sunday the 20th being again a rainj^ day, we went into town in the evening. The country pieople were busy picking peppers as we passed along, and there were many little fires of paper cash by the river side for the spirits of those drowned. No boat would take us at first, but at last one said it would for three hundred cash ; we generally pay sixty, coolies paying rather more than eicjht cash, now the water is so hiofh. Rather to our surprise we heard the cook, without any attempt at bargain-ing, at once promise three hundred cash. But arrived on the other nide he only gave a hundred and twenty. At last after a good deal of fuss, as usual, he gave a hundred and sixty. " That's the only way to manage," he said, when asked for an explanation. " If I had given the hundred and sixty at once, the man would not have taken it. And if I had not promised the three hundred in the first in-stance they would have run away, and you would have got no boat to cross over in. Now, as you saw, they were perfectly satisfied with the hundred and sixty in the end." And so it really appeared. Went shopping yesterday, and was nearly choked by the acrid odour of the red peppers being fried in the streets. In the afternoon, going to the " Friends Mission "country house, found nearly

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 183

all the miseionaries of the place out there, after having been myflclf nearly sufibcated by the smoke of the innumerable little fires of imitation paper money over the graves out-side the city gate. Coming back when it was darker, there was still the same smarting smoke, but the fireR looked very pretty. There were many of them all about;

[/(</ Mt II. Jlr.iu^hamp.

the vast graveyard that stretches on nil sides from the river side up to the city gates ; but there aeenietl, as far us I could see, to bo an extra numlHr in the paper burning en-closures just outaide the gate I went nut by. It felt beauti-fully fresh and cool getting back into the country thtx morning. There seems to be nu nutriment in the city air just DOW, one feels quite faint breathing it.

i84 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

August 26. Yesterday the farmer's wife brought in all the large packets of paper cash, that the eldest son has been so busy directing in his best handwriting for some days past to the grandfather, uncle, and all the dead rela-tions, to the number of eleven. He had a list to do it by, with the amount of cash, etc., to be sent to each carefully calculated. The farmer came in and stood the packets in rows along three sides of the table ; then with the help of the little boys a number of chop sticks were brought in, and a dinner laid, with cups of wine all round. The farmer prostrated himself before it all and the ancestral tablets three times, having previously carefully lighted a little row of joss sticks and burnt some incense. He then very reverentially burnt some paper on the floor before the table, and poured on the floor two cups of wine; after which the whole dinner was carried away to be eaten, and the envelopes to be burnt, which they were in the evening, when they made a cheerful blaze. They had wanted us to dine with them that day, but A. did not come out till the evening, and I had visitors. The Yuen family had sent us an invitation to dinner the day before, but the servants «ent back word A. was in Chungking. I as it happened was walking with a missionary, who had come out for fresh air and exercise, all over our hills from nine to one. It seemed wonderful one could do this on August 25, especially as it was sunny. But the breeze was de-lightful. There are many dragon flies about now, and of much more brilliant colouring than they were earlier in the summer. The grasshoppers also are very big and numerous now. We especially admired a big green one with a reddish head, and a broad amber stripe all down its back. The farm family seem at last to have finished unhusking their Indian coin, the business of so many evenings past.

September 3. Last Tuesday, August 29, seems to have

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 185

been the hottest day this year, and then in one sickroom in Chungking the thermometer fell from over a hundred to seventy within the twelve hours. Here it did not rise above eighty-seven, although it felt much hotter, and already by luncheon time it was getting cooler. Then rose such a wind one could hardly walk against it, and next morning it felt so cold I hurried to Chungking to find the thermometer only seventy-two, heap on clothes and generally feel very chilly. The day before that I saw some tea bushes in flower, and to-day coming in rice harvest was going on merrily, the rice being beaten with a stick, directly it is gathered, be-hind a screen in each field. Yesterday the farmer's wife came to see us in her new clothes, begging us to interfere to protect her, as the magistrate is insisting on her declar-ing the present whereabouts of the man, whom she had here weaving, before the robbeiy, and of whom she now says she knows nothing. Of course we will not, as we thought from the first he was very likely an accomplice. Every other foreigner, or Chinese dependent upon a foreigner, who has been robl)ed, seems to have either recovered the stolen articles, or been compensated for them by the local authorities, so I think we ought to get something. Yesterday I spent bargaining for counter-panes with quaint patterns in blue and white, to be used as tablecloths, and pillowcases for chair backs. A com-position with the pattern drawn or stamped on it is used as a stencil plate. Then with a large brush lime is passed over the pattern. After which the cloth is dried, and then when quite dry the white lime is brushed off. Thus the oftener they are washed the better they ai*e said to look. I got a large tablecloth for one dollar, a third less than the man asked, but very likely too much. Some pongee silks were brought for us to see, some undyed, some dyed the most beautifully artistic shades, ho that I longed to buy them all. They are about 10s. the piece of 60 Chinese

186 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

feet (24 yards) of 17^ inches wide. Such arei the city amusements! but out here the fresh breeze feels so in-vigorating as more than to compensate. However, a junk three months out from Ichang (the nearest point to which steamei*s run) is said at last to be arriving with our things, so I must go into the city to see them, as also to make sure that the tailor puts the silk wadding I am paying for (instead of cotton or half cotton) into the silk wadded dressing-gown I am having made for a wedding present

September 5. All yesterday watched two tailors putting silk wadding into the dressing-gown, and smoothing down the edges with dabs of cotton wadding. Then having annoimced that it would take eight days to finish it, the dressing gown was carried off and I cannot see anything to prevent them from substitut-ing cotton for silk in the privacy of their own apart-ment, if the spirit so moves them. The head tailor however is a Christian, and his father before him, so he ought to be above such dishonesty. He has, how-ever, like the equally Christian Godownman, a perfectly inscrutable face, which always makes me think the latter descended from Moliammedans ; but though coming from Yunnan, where there are so many, he says he is not. We came out to tlie farm in the morning. The country looks rather yellow now with just stubble where the rice fields and the exquisitely graceful tall millet were. The Indian corn is also all cut down, and the sunflowers, standing up tall and somewhat wide apart in sort of groves, give the effect of a garden run quite wild. Some turnips and also some beans are already planted out, but they are barely sprouting as yet.

September 7. Yesterday went for quite a long ride along the hill - tops, and then on by the Fuchow Road, round by the dwarf oak walk, and back along

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 1S7

the hill-tops. It was extraordinary to see what places the pony carried me down ; they tried my nerve once or twice, especially as the pony generally stopped at the top to see if I would get off. But it then carried me down apparently with no difficulty. Once or twice when I ma<.le a mistake about the path the little creature tried with all its might to go the right way, although OS far as I know it has only been twice before in those parts. There were

bi^ish drops of rain most ^tf^^l^.

of the time, with violent JSx^^^^B^k

gusts of wind, so that I had fT^s *

to take off my hat, and by "^ jSBSi^

the time I got home it was ^^P^^^M^^^^I

regularly raining. The storm ^^f'^^^^B^^M

only began, however, a.s ^^tt ^^HS^Sl night came on, RUch a violent '^^1^ ^ ^^^^^^P I wind the walnuts fell ^k^^BH^^^^W

showerB, the children like Q^^^^B^^V *

merry grigs running in and ^^^^^^^I^Bi

oat to pick them up. ^^^^^^H ^V*^

Then one of our blinds wa.s ^^^^^B P

violently blown to and broken,

next a branch crashed ott '^' ' pBi(i.-iT'M hV.u'"' ^""^^^ the walnut tree. I had to [tty m. iter-jfr.

bolt all the doors to keep

the draught out, the first time since we have been here that we have done more than put the doors to. The rain seemed pretty heavy, but I was relieved that it only came in in one place to the sitting-room, where I decided to sleep, as less damp than the bedroom. We have almost given up using the latter room except as a dressing-room, in spite of all the precautions A. has taken to make it dry and airy. Mud floors on a pre-cipitous hillside, when it rains, are not suited to

i88 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

European constitutions. But I did not feel it as cold as the farm people, who looked blue, and ran about in their excitement declaring they were so cold; the children with their clothes tucked up to their thighs lest they should wet them. Jack was not satisfied until a basket was brought him with straw^ on which he straightway curled himself up inside, as comfortable as any cat, whilst the little pony was led to his stable to do likewise.

September 11. We returned to the farm again on the 9th to find the most perfect weather, bright sun-shine, crisp, pure air, a pleasant breeze, and a clear blue sky. Spent almost all Saturday out on the hills. In the evening went to call on one of the missionaries, who, having found our air very reviving, have now taken rooms in the same house the China Inland occupied last year, some hundred and fifty feet lower than we are, and nearer the village, but a grander house than that we occupy and with a garden enclosed by a wall, which they happily think a great advantage. I should not like it at all, as it shuts out the breeze and shuts in the mosquitoes. Our friends were out, but the people of the house received us, as if our call were to them, the lady of the house having amber bracelets and very fine manners. Our landlord, who had formerly been her tenant, was there deeply engaged with some Christian tracts. He had seemed really interested and for a long time pursued the coiiv^ersation, which a Church missionary, staying with us, began, owing to the farmers curious mistake, thinking the three old women washing, each with a wash-tub in front of her, in Sunlight Soap's advertisement were three English Buddhas sitting on lotus flowers and with high caps for glories. But besides being anxious about religion he and our hostess w^ere voluble on the subject of the misery the officials were

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 189

bringing on the district by eearching for our stolen property. They quarter their runners on the various bouses in the neighbourhood, and one poor man we were now told had to sell his clothes in order to pro-vide dinner for these men. They begged us to interfere.

,;««^'«4f«4

[Bj( .Wr FUkt.

But this is the Cliinese way of forcing the people, some of whom they know must be in the secret, to give in-formation. There was a really beautiful bush of Marvel-of-Pern in full variegated flower, and some red lilies and Marshal Niels and balsams, so the garden looked gay. A. had before by our landlord's invitation been with him to dine and shwa at the T'u Shan Temple. As

I90 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

Chinese have generally an ulterior object, he thought perhaps he was taken as a witness, for the object of the visit to the temple was to get the priests there to pay for some grain they had had from our farm. The farmer came away however unsuccessful, and took occasion to tell A. what an idle lot the priests were, and how he himself would never contribute to temples, but to good roads, bridges, free ferries and the like. A lady missionary had been spending the day with us, and he wanted to know what her object was in coming and how much she got paid for it. A. told him, which was the truth in her case, that she was very rich and got paid nothing, but only came for love of the people anxious to do them good, adding that he himself told her she had much better not come here but go home, and do good there, as the people here did not want her, and did not like her. This only to make her position intelligible to the farmer — a most difficult thing to do, for it is an incredible position to a Chinaman. But the farmer exclaimed, " Who does not like her ? Only bad people. All decent people must be grateful to her for coming to help the poor people." And when she went away the farmer's wife presented her with two pome-granates oft the one tree, and some fresh walnuts. Yesterday evening the farmer came in with his tract, greatly troubled ; his eyes were not good and the print was too small for him to read much of it. He hoped I liked a bunch of red lilies he had brought me, and now what was Shang Ti ? (Supreme Ruler). Wasn't he the same as Heaven-and-Earth and as the Lord of Heaven ? The latter is the name the Roman Catholics give God in Chinese, the former the Chinese name for Him, and Heaven-and-Earth is either another name for God, or a God the Chinese thus worship. I only knew just enough Chinese to say Supreme Ruler and Lord of

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD

191

Heaven were one and the same, and created heaven and earth. " That's it." said the farmer, " that's it ! " But I wish I could convey the extreme reverence with which

he spoke, and the way in which he waved his hand around, as if to signify heaven and earth and all things. " Images are no good," he continued and then went on with a long diatribe against them, which I could not

192 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

follow. "They are no good, are they?" he asked eagerly. "They are made of wood," I said hesitatingly^ for I know so few words. "Yes, of wood or of clay," said he. But he was evidently anxious to have his book read to him, and I could only read isolated characters here and there, so he went off* to study it by himself. He has just the same type of face as the high priest at the temple we stayed at last year on the top of the sacred Mountain of Omi, and is evidently naturally of a religious turn, and quite unsatisfied by Buddhism. But as A. had had to go into town to send off his letters, having suddenly recollected that, owing to its being a short moon, mail night was one night earlier than usual, there was no one to talk to him.

The sunset was beautiful last night, red fading into various tints of orange and yellow, a sort of Aurora Borealis, as so many nights before, sending out bunches of rays in different directions, some straight to me as I sat on a new hiil-top to witness it. But to-day the dis-agreeables of farm life began again; I had been sitting outside, tliinking how beautifully fresh and pure the air was, and how delightful that now with a milder sun one could really enjoy out-of-door life, and not be boxed up in the house all through the daylight hours. The farm people had as usual been breakfasting outside, sitting on low benches round a very little, low table, the children sitting on the high threshold, all busy with their bowls. But when this was over, men came with loads, and there was a great re-mixing of the liquid manure, almost as valuable for farm produce as the solid, for which last they pay a (juarter of a dollar every two buckets if they have to buy it. The smell, though only in whiffs at each fresh mixing, was really too ol)jectionable, so I went inside. In town the pigs are now said to have got swine fever, and to be dying by hundreds, so we have been cautioned not to eat

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 193

pork, and handed this caution on to our servants, who, how-ever, are quite unimpressed. The cows are said for the second time to have gone to gaol by the magistrates* orders, as they are accused of damaging the graves, which occupy all available pasture land outside the city. There is, how-ever, a slight doubt as to whether this is not a fable of the dairyman's in order to raise the price of milk, or account for some shortcoming. For each time that the cows are all .said to be sent to prison, some people get their milk all the same.

We are beginning to wonder whether the worrying the people round so much on the plea of our stolen goods is not in order to make them object to our going on building on the land we have rented near here. Directly the robbery occurred, one missionary said he should not be surprised if it had not been done by order of the magistrate in order to «ay he could not undertake to protect foreigners outside the city walls. This seems too elaborate a plot. But that they should utilise the theft to make us disliked in the neighbourhood would only be natural. We hear no more of having our money returned us for the piece of land we rented last year, and have not so far been allowed to build upon, nor of our being allowed to go on building, and the three months we were to spend at this farm in order to accustom the people to us, etcetera, are nearly up. From the first, and all through, indeed, the country people have been only too friendly and cordial. It seems the country people were so to those two missionaries, who were murdered, and now they are all being tortured and ruined to make them also bring accusations against the two dead men. It makes one's blood boil to think of it ; everyone, who was in friendly relations with them, is being persecuted, and the men from a distance, who killed them — paid to do so, of course — are untouched. I feel as if, were I the friend of the murdered men, I must ask to l>e tortured in the

194 /-V THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

place of those poor, ignorant Chinese, who are being tor-tured out of all recognition — but I cannot think of it ! Crimson peppers and Indian corn are spread out in the

suTi oil the tliresliing Hoor, the \i\\.i':\ uriliuskL'd, and now being curffully niked owr and over, so as to be thoroughly dried.

September 13. As we go up tin; mountiun at the back so often, and just the last bit is so slippery, I took our

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 195

strongest coolie, whom we sometimes call the savage, be-cause he is just a great strong brute, to cut steps. There I heard the jingling of bells, and looking down from the mountain top saw some members of the Yuen family were paying us a visit, and finding us out were sitting round a table with the farm people. When I came down A. had just arrived from the town, and after admiring their ten taela' new saddle, a very handsome aftair indeed, but so mounted upon their pony's back as to look very heavy, our cook brought out wine for the party. We did not know till afterwards that he had put half water with the claret, and then added sugar, both to make the wine go further, and to make it more acceptable to a Chinese palate. But for months afterwards the wine on this occasion was always referred to as the best foreign wine they had ever tasted. There were just four glasses to hand round their party and one more for A. But our particular young friend was actually so polite as to offer his \x> me. I declined, but what interested me to observe was that one of the party promptly passed his glass on to the groom, who also had sat down on the same bench with him, our foreign chairs not going round for so large a party, and the groom, after having his drink, handed it on again to one of the boys of the farm, so that everyone sitting round was included. The same with some cigars A. produced. Our young friend, having examined them with much interest, declined to smoke, but one of his brothers, who had also already professed himself very ready to study English, if A. would give him lessons, smoked one for a while, then handed it on again, till it was passed from hand to hand like a Chinese pipe, each having a smoke in turn.

The married daughter of the farm, who has been work-ing, and most beautifully, a nightdress bag for me with a marriage procession on the back in cross stitch, has de-veloped bad ophthalmia, and now can hardly see for it We

196 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

hear it is very much about We feel greatly oonoemed. Gtreat excitement among the boys, because our missionary friends are going to exhibit a magic lantern on Thursday evening outside the temple. We have our table covered with red Quemsey lilies now, with a few sweet-smelling orchids like monkeys' faces intermixed. We had guests to stay again yesterday. Unfortunately the dogs barked horribly at men passing by carrying coal, so that it was difficult to sleep. And to-day again they are doing some-thing to the various cesspools, and the smell is horrible. The little boys are eating sunflower seeds, out of what look like gigantic artichokes, but are, of course, old son-flowera

September 17. A dreadful scene just now! Every-one has come and shouted at me with much gesticulation, apparently thinking that the way to make me understand was to make me deaf, but I cannot make out what it is about, except that it has something to do with our robbery. A man in a long blue gown came first and sat down and waved his fan comniandingly to all points of the compass, making such horrible faces I got the little camera out to photograph him. But on that he sat quite still, and became decidedly not worth taking. Then the mistress of the house wept, after evi<lently imploring my assistance; then dressed, and went across the river with the blue-gowned man and the daughter, who is married unhappily, and was returning to her cruel husband, together with little Hae Ching, who had made a special toilette for the occasion, got his hair all combed oft' his face and tidily plaited with extra red cords twisted round it, together with what looked like an extra heavy basket of farm produce, chickens, sun-flowers, etc. There was great regret that A. had already crossed the river, and apparently they are going to inter-view him in the first instance. I imagine the woman has to be cross-examined at the Yamen about the robbery, but

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feel the more hard-hearted, because, not having been well lately and had a difficulty about sleeping, it is very trying to be so often disturbed by the dogs, and this morning, very early, having at last got into a thoroughly comfort-able sleep, I was awakened by my poor little Jack barking with great determination, and someone, who had evidently jnst been coming in at our door, retreating with a loud laugh — evidently someone belonging to the house. The night before everyone was up looking for thieves, one at least of whom they said was behind the house. We sleep in the sitting-room now, the earthy smell and smell from the back being too bad in the bedroom, and as there is no window — nothing but the door — one requires to keep that open, unless the night is cold, which it was not last night.

Yesterday, the day before this unintelligible but rather moving scene, was a beautiful day. A. came over early, and after breakfast we started with the little pony between us, and actually got as far as the Gong Gorge, going all the way along this range without ever descending, most of the time in oak and fir scrub with bracken growing thickly and a delightful odour of we knew not what, but it smelt like sweet briar. The views on either side, as we went along the tjible land at the top, were very fine, and we saw the Chin Fo Shan and all the mountains to the south-east well towards evening. The much-heard -of Hoa I Shan to the north, which I have only seen once all the time we have been out here, would not show up. Tarchendo had his bridle taken off' and grazed beside us when we stopped, but he was still a little lame because the cook galloped him along the paved road, whilst we were in town, brought him down, and fell off, himself getting covered with bruises. When we returned here and I asked him if he had not en-joyed his holiday from work, he presented a most pitiful appearance, and afterwards it all came out. Just now,

200 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

under my supervision, he has been giving Tarchendo, so-called from the Tibetan name of Ta Chien Lu, where we bouglit him, a cold water bandage, using one of my long^ blue scandal cloths for the purpose, and the little pony-looks quite smart and comfortable again with it on.

We stopped at a cottage to have some water boiled to drink, as there was no good drinking water to be got all the way along. The coolies seemed very shy of asking any* where for it, but Kung Tao, the funny old character who attends upon the pony, and is generally led about by it^ rather than leads it, and who is known to all the country side, had some friends in a cottage near by. So we vrent there, and got a puinelow as well as hot water. Then A. had a dip in one of the head pools for in-igating the rice fields, very warm at the top and cool below, and our soldier coolie actually went in too, pronouncing it very cold.

Before we started yesterday, we saw hanging up the leg of the wild boar, which we hunted one night but did not kill. It has been killed of course whilst we have been away. So far, that seems the only piece of it forth-comin<r, ii^nd that was smoked when we saw it.

The missionary magic lantern entertainment had only one fault ; we are told that it brought in so manj'- people from the country round, who all stayed the night and wanted breakfast next morning. Strangely enough there was a high wind that evening, so unusual in these parts, so it could not be outside as intended, but had to take place in the temple. As the crowd inside were all bent upon seeing, and I did not want to stand in their way, and they also smelt strongly inside a building, I soon went away, but the farm people, with whom I went to it, seem to have enjoyed it, though they are so undemonstrative it is hard to tell whether they were satisfied, or simply puzzled. Hae Ching gives a very good account of the pictures and of

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 201

whatJesuadiil and said, forin the second part the slides were illustrative of His life. I quite understand that, as people go on trying to convert Chinese and failing, they seize first one aid (J) and then another. But the exhibition of magic lantern slides illustrative of the life of Jesus, of whom they have never heard, with what to them appear

[Bj, Mr, Archi'-tl'l l.iirU.

very comical clothes, and doing very funny things — in a Buddhist temple too— to Chinese, docs not commend itself to me.

We have got a new house and the Hoiis is moving in to it, so that we and our household will remain alone in that we at present occupy in the city. This will give us more room, and some quiet. The noise has been very

202 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

great of late. And I hope it may save our servants from all being corrupted by the free living ways of Szechnan business men, whose one idea seems to be dinner parties and wine drinking. When A. wanted to come across yesterday, the Boy — our head manservant — never came to wait upon him. So inquiring, he found he had not come in all night. When he appeared, he said with the greatest calm he had been to dinner with the carpenter the night before and taken too much wine. Not a muscle of his face expressed shame or confusion. For Chinese think it rather grand than otherwise to drink much wine. The other day a very nicely-dressed, most respectable woman arrived out here to see us. She turned out to be the mother of the lame young man, who took his two very prettily-dressed little girl twins to see the dragon festival from our boat, when I went to see it, and brought them to pay their respects to me first. He is an outside business man, receiving no salary, but eating the Hong's rice, and to be paid commission on any business he gets. But it seems so far he has not got any. His mother was in grejit distress about him. She began by asking A. to give him a salary, and pay it to her, as he brought nothing home for liis little girls, his wife and herself. She had been in a irood wav of business, but his extrava-giince had ruined her, forcing her to sell tirst one thing, then another. Then she proceeded to beg A. to send him away, that is to employ him elsewhere, as she said he had bad associates here, who led him astray, and that he was all the time shwa-mg with them, instead of with his excellent business connection. A. promised to do \vhat he could, and in the first instance decided to exhort the young man, which he says he did with some sternness, but without making any reference to his mother's visit. Again, he said, though he watched the young man closely, having placed him in a strong light for the pur-

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 203

pose, he found his countenance perfectly unperturbed and inscrutable.

The tailor has now finished the wadded silk dressing-gown which I want to send B. as a present on his marriage. He has made all the alterations in it with equanimity, having started off by making it too tight everywhere, which they will think is what foreigners desire, and gradually having got it to something like Chinese looseness. But he now firmly declines to make any more foreign clothes. They give him too much anxiety, he says. As there are plenty more tailors, and he seems to be charging us more than other people pay, I the less regret this.

September 19. The dreadful scene is explained. When the poor farmer's wife went in two days ago she knelt before A., for the discharged weaver under torture has confessed to being the thief (people say falsely), but says he did it at the instigation of the nice, married eldest son of the farm, who lives in the city, nnd paid us a long visit there one day with Mr B.'s little boy. So the eldest son, as we understand, has been thrown into prison, and she, his mother, wanted A. to say that her son had nothing to do with it. But how could he, much thou<^h he longed to <lo so, for we don't believe it for a moment, and we liked him so much t

So now it seems there is the married daughter almost blind with ophthalmia from working my bag, and the eldest son in prison through us too.

The head of the Twansheo (elders of the district) also interviewed A. The man who came out and gesticulated so yesterday was not a yainen runner, but the head of the family who came out to tell the news. It is considered very serious.

A quite poor woman hns died at a cottage in the valley beneath us, and at night it was pretty to see lights all

204 AV THE LAXD OF THE BLUE GOWN

along the curving path for a considerable distance. People here said they were bonfires of paper, whether paper cash I do not know. Unfortunately now there are Taoist rites all night long ; the music is not ugly at a distance, and to my ear i-ather cheer5% but the dogs keep being awakened by each fresh outburst, and barking. And one wishes the poor woman could have had more i'uss made about her in her lifetime instead of so much now.

In companies of four and five men are digging up all the ground round, so I suppose some fresh crop is going in, more important than turnips, which have so far seemed generally planted at once, whatever crop was taken up. The hedge of tea bushes behind the farm is coming into fine flower now, and the white hibiscus is lovely. I went out before breakfast again, and gathered what seemed the last of the red Guernsey lilies. I also got some gold and silver honeysuckle, and found two kinds of ferns and a very pretty moss, like what I discovered — till then un-known — near Ichanj]:, all ofrowins: tosrether. There seemed to be ^uite a new tlora in tlie prettily broken-up rocky bit of ground, wliere the lilies were growing in such profusion. The weather is niiite lovelv airain now, althouirh the sun was rather too hot vesterdav.

September 22. There has been a great piece of work at the grand house, at which the missionaries have rooms, makinof cakes for the festival on the loth of the Chinese moon. Two men with mallets four feet long, made out of whole locust trees, were using them as pestles, one disensracfinnf the stickv, orlutinous rice oli'the other's mallet by a dexterous blow. Four of the good lady's tenants had come in to officiate, and a great assemblage was looking on with much fun and merriment, reminding us of the stirring of our Christmas puddings. Later on the cakes were borne in triumph by a bevy of men, and patted and flattened out into about the size of dinner plates. We had

.. M'EPTBK, IS RICnT H»S1).

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 207

bad some for aupper, and uncommonly stick-jaw we found tbem, but I can fancy their being good eaten with sugar water when one ia very hungry. At our farm there have

[Hn Mr Ml>t€

been no merry duingn. The tall millet was certainly brought in the other day to be throHbod, but gradually eveiyoQe hart abamloned the farm. The stirring niistresti has been for two days kneeling and weeping in A.'h office,

208 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE. GOWN

^gK^g I^^ ^ ^7 ^^ ^^ ^^ nQtbing >to do with our robbery. He lent her ten thonaand oash.io mollify the runners' hearts, that her son mij^i not be jmi into -an instrument of torture, that seems to answer to.the Maiden of our Middle Ages, and said in the end if she ooold get the head of the twenty elders of the distriot, who must have known him always, to testify to his character, he would send in this testimony to the Consul, and ask him to do what could be done. To-day the poor young man's very dirty, hard- worked drudge of a wife — what a thing it is to be a daughter-in-law in China ! — has gone into town too^ ajid the farmer himself appears no more ; so now there are only the three children : bright-faced little Hae Ching, who is at school all day, and his younger brother of the horrible skin disease, who was again crying himself to sleep the other night — but it seems they will not send him into the, hospital to be cured, though Dr D. says the only hope of doing so is to have him under treatment and quite still for^ a fortnight — and then there is the small brother. Besides these three boys'there are now only the other lodgers and ourselves. We have alarms of thieves every night; the dogs bark furiously, keeping everyone from sleeping, and there really was a robbery the night before last at the neighbouring village.

To-day A., unable any longer to bear the thought of the misery we have anyhow been the means of bringing upon these poor people, has wi'itten to the Consul enquiring if he can find out whether what we have heard is true, and asking him if so to tell the magistrate that, while of course not presuming to interfere with Chinese justice, yet if it be but a question of recovering the stolen goods he would rather renounce them for ever than bring such trouble on our hosts. The last time the farmer appeared, however, he rather puzzled us. It was two nights ago, in the evening, and I remarked at once he had been drinking wine, he was so

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 209

jovial. A. could not believe it, because be said he had beeu dining at the T'n Shan Temple. Bat on inquiry it appeared that he had had both wiue and meat there. "At a Buddhist temple?" persisted A. "Why, yes!" said the farmer, "You see it is the festival of a very bad pusa " (or image). " What do you worsliip a bad pusa for ? "

[It-, .Vr.V.mnr."!

"Why! we must I He iw tiie iiead of all tho wolves ami night depredators." Thtn there followed a talk aliout the monastery we stayed at on Mount Onii, and that at the Hoa Njjai, where neither wine nnr meat weif allowed, and there were no bad i'i(-'",our Hupeh cook intorrujitini; with much warmth to ask, " Did we not know the temple at Wuchang, the capital of his province, on thi- back of tlic

2IO IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

Tortoise Hill, which was in connection with the Hoa Ngai> and where there were also no bad Pusa?" Then the farmer went on to say, "If you want tp build on a piece of my land here at the back among the fir trees, it ia beautifully cool there, and I should be glad to oblige you, you are such a kind man, and so good." " Shall you be here to-morrow ? " asked A. " No, the day after." " Well, the day after I will go and have a look at it with yoiL" He was stripped to the waist, as if it were the height of summer, to cool down after his wine drinking. There was not a word said about his eldest son in prison, nor about all the family trouble and disgrace. He has not appeared again since. And we do not know quite what to make of the little scene. As A. says : " The time to be on your guard is when a Chinaman flatters you.*' It seemed an odd time to choose. The pigeons have two little ones, a great delight to the eldest boy, who is for ever clapping his hands to make his pigeons rise or come, making a sort of yEolian music through the air with the whistle fastened on to the cock's tail, which gives forth one pro-loiim'd musical note more or less acute as his flicrht is faster or the reverse. The little pony's ankle swelled a^i^ain after our expedition on Sunday, so we have been banda^^in^^ it with cold water, tying it up again in one of niv lon<r, blue santhd cloths. The little creature seems (juite to understand it, and holds np his foot to be tied up, but does not approve of having his leg handled. The weather has turned very hot and oppressive again. A. says in the city yesterday it was well up in the nineties and he thought the hottest day this summer. In the evenin<i: the clouds crathered round these hills, and we every minute expected a thunderstorm. But it passed oti*, and there was a lovely moonlight night again with only more wind than usual. Everywhere about the country they are burning the ground, mixing dried grass

IP

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 213

with the earth to keep it smouldering on. We sat by one of thepe fires at the nearest gap in our hills last night, enjoying the smell of the burning weeds as well as the breeze and the moonlit expanse before us. But the summer is lasting very long this year, as great heat began before the middle of April. People who have lived here some years say, however, it is the coolest summer they have known here.

September 23. The farmer's wife came back last night, looking very sad ; the daughter-in-law, who had only been away all day, also returned. Bright - faced little Hae Ching now sits under the walnut tree crying, the tears silently rolling down his cheeks at the thought of his brother's disgrace. They say he has been bambooed in the Yamen ; also, we hear, put upon the rack. Our cook is begging us to cross the river at once, for he says there will be trouble on the country side when this becomes known. I wonder if it has any connection with this, that the coolie we sent across the river with a note did not return, but sent a substitute, and that the Boy has not come back. But this may simply be on account of the feast on Sunday. All the elders of the district are invited to dinner to-morrow, and A. wrote another letter to the Consul, but decided not to go in, so as to be present at the dinner here, and say he has done what he could to get the eldest son ofi*. We feel too sad even to talk over things now. This morning there was black mist over Chungking, a dull, overcast day, and of course cooler. A. and I have been practising with revolvers. The elders are going by to dinner. Everything seems sad, such a contrast from the brilliant, sunshiny day on which we gave our grand dinner on arrival. We had meant to give another, but just as we were about to send out invitations our land-lord's son was thrown into prison, and we felt it in-expedient.

214 /^V THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

September 24. Another dull day with mist on all the mountain tops, but not such a black, heavy cloud as yesterday. After lon^, long waiting, probably because it was one of the three great settling days of the Chinese year, the dinner came oitl The elders were all most polite to A., said they knew he was a very good man, and that it was no fault of his. They brought a paper, which they were all signing, to testify to the goodness of the farm family on both sides, father's and mother's. Both families had been settled here for a hundred and fifty years and were well known. On the other hand the weaver was a very bad character, known to be so, whom the farmer's wife had only engaged out of compassion for his mother, a widow living in the valley below, who had two sons, and unfortunately both bad. Our cook after the dinner, at which he seemed to be hugely enjoying himself, when A. left, asked leave to go across the river to testify that the eldest son was not over here at the time of the robbery. The farmer's wife was serving at the dinner, weeping before each elder in turn. The farmer himself, although an eMer, was not able to be present. The married <lau<;hter, whose eyesiglit lias <i^ono, was here beforehand, witli her poor, sore, runniiiij^ eyes, weeping and kneeling : " Release my brother." A. could only say he had written a second time to the Consul to tell the magistrate he would rather (i^ive up all claim to his things than bring trouble on the family, but that it was not in his power to relejise him, nor even to go direct to the magistrate to ask him to do so. We fear the Consul will not be at all willing to interfere in the matter. He certainly cannot like doing so.

Meanwhile, I cannot think what is happening to the crops. But the smells made by disturbing the manure heaps, and canning them by, are dreadful.

Went for a ride in the afternoon, and, while sitting on a

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 215

hill-top reading the disputes in England over the Home Rule Bill, the two coolies thou<jht it very pleasant to sit on another, and as the little pony had been rolling about on a bank of bracken with his saddle on, they took the saddle and bridle and bells off. Tarchendo then rolled to his heart's content, at which we all laughed. After that he grazed contentedly for a while, till the idea seemed to enter his head at last that he was loose, and might as well go home. Oti* he went, and as soon as he got into the path he set off cantering, and I expected to see him no more till I should find him tied to his habitual tree. The old man, evidently with the same idea, loaded himself with saddle and bells to carry home, but at the very steep turn of the road the soldier coolie caught the pony and brought him back, delighted to be of use once more. Met a great flock of ducks — about a thousand — waddling along the road in three detachments on the way home. Persimmons are in season now, and pears lasting on. As a rule fruits seem only to be in sea.son for one week in Chungking. We have also had chestnuts three times now, and little green oranges are being handed about, which our Boy says are *'all the same lemons." Their skin has a delicious fragrance.

September 25. Where the Indian corn and tall millet waved, when we arrived three months ago, now all the ground has been dug up to receive the poppy seed. They are but waiting for the rain to fall to put in it. Each day looks more threatening than the last, and each night a few-drops fall as if the heavy black sponge above us were 8(jueezed by an invisible hand, but so far the rain holds off. This time last year we were floating down the rapids of the river from Kiating in rain every day. It must come soon, and we only regret Chungking has not been washed out before we go into it. People have had the thermometer ninety-seven in their rooms more than once

2i6 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

this last week, and say it has been the most trying of all the summer.

Nothing could be done for Hae Chings brother yester-day because of the festival ; but there was no one here to do reverence before the ancestors' tablets, and I do not know wliat has become of all the letters little Hae Ching was directing, instead of his brother in prison, this time. But I went to see tlie D.'s in the afternoon, and found their table all spread for dinner, two incense sticks burning in the censer. The eldest son of their house came in and reverenced, and in this case raised each pair of joss sticks to a level with his eyes, which I had not seen done before. Then the feast was carried off to some back precincts to be eaten. It was a little distressing presently to see all the young men and even boys coming away with such very swollen, flushed faces and watery eyes, telling plainly of the strong drinks of which tliey had partaken. And when walking through the village this seemed pretty general. " All the same your ('hristmas time " a Chinaman would say, however.

Our coolies wanted to know yesterday whether we wanted tlieni to come in and salute us in the proper Chinese fashion at this season, and were we also going to present them with five hundred cash a piece. Tlie way the two (juestioiis were put together was higlily comic. After a little consultation we decided upon a thousand cash or three shillings between the three, and I said they certainly ought to salute us according to the Chinese etiquette. So they came in and knocked their fore-heads on the floor. The Boy, who had been trained in " barl)arian " Shanofhai, could not of course think of doinsr such a thin(^

October ^). The business house has been moving into new premises. On the day it moved a fire was piled up high in our largest charcoal pan. This was tied between

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 217

two bamboo poles, the tire lit, and then carried through the streets like a sedan chair. I am told when a house is bought the principal beam is taken out of the roof, and a new one put in, lest the owner should he held responsible for any debts contracted by the former possessor, and the like. In the evening the scene was very pretty. In the

[fly •"'■- Arrl.iM.r r.illlf

new house ihure is courtyard beyond courtyard, and there were innumerable (.'liinese lanterns and tamps hanging, and pots full of Howers; the chairs all coverctl with red cloth embroideries, a red rug on the floor in the end room of all, and deep red kakemonos hanging all round on the walla, presented for the occasion. Everyone coniiecte<l with the Hong was in full dres.H, high boots, long aatin

21 8 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

overcoat reaching to the boots, official cap with red tassel. They all came and bowed before A., very solemnly stretch-ing their clasped hands down to their knees, then raising them quickly up to their mouths. To my surprise they came into the inner private office, into which I had retired, and had the politeness to repeat the same ceremony before me. There were artistes from the various theatres singing in their peculiar fashion, once or twice rather agreeably, I thought, but often in what sounded like a series of harsh and yet harsher groans, oftenest of course in their favourite high falsetto. And there were many guests, all of whom sat down to a supper at little tables scattered about. That was on the 29th September. Now for four days there is a dinner and theatrical performance going on at the Hunan and Hupeh Guild, the finest in the city. Yesterday about ninety sat down to dinner, and I fancy there were all the principal merchants there ; the head of the eight guilds, a venerable man with a white beard, said to be eighty-nine, but looking in very good case for seventy-two, sat in the place of honour. People were invited for one or two, but I think the guests hardly arrived before four, all in official dress. The dinner was about six, and one of the most interesting sights was to see one of the head men in the business go round to each guest in turn, bowing solemnly in the aforementioned manner, which the guest returned in like style, and then conducting him at least part of the way to his assigned table, pausing in going to pour out a glass of wine, and offer it before the altar, also the chop sticks. Before that began he poured out two libations, one before and one behind, and at the same time there was a great explosion of crackers, and a sort of tom-toming. Slow music was played, and the actors, who took female parts, now came round in red robes to pour wine for the guests. Meanwhile all the guests and people of the Hong stood in a crowd at either side watching. Till then

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 219

they had sat at little tables, sippin^^ tea and smoking, till the light refreshment before dinner came in the shape of two dumplings stuffed with forced meat and two stuffed with sweets, also a bowl of soup. The entrance of the more distinguished guests was also rather amusing, for they went round to table after table, making the cere-monious bow and smiling all over.

I sat in a side box with screens all round, the wife and children of the head man keeping me company. It was amusing to see her intense delight when she saw her husband conducting the people to their seats. She had five jackets on, and a pretty tea-green silk overskirt. She and her boys were very lively, the youngest, only four, was always inviting me to drink wine with him in the most solemn manner. The native wine is very mild, and the cups very small, but I fancy this precocious child would l^e better without it. The actors both days displayed a board with the five Happinesses upon it, turned in my direction, directly I appeared, although I was supposed not to be seen. They came and asked A. which play they should act. They had an enormous ivory tusk covered with names ; he chose one, and they put it on at once. Of course there is no scenery. But there is a great variety of tine clothes. And what memories they must have to know so many pieces so well as to need no preparation ! The populace stood below in the courtyard, enjoying the spectaicle for nothing, and very much they seemed to do so. One man had brought his basket in, and stoo<l it in front of him. Suddenly there was he tearing after another man, who was attempting to run ofi* with it! No one else moved in the crowd, they were all so absorbed in the play. The opening piece yesterday was suppased to be appropriate to the occasion, about a fisherman so kind he would only tish with straight hooks. If the fish

220 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

were fated to be killed he would eateh than, not other-wise. So the Emperor distingidflhed him, and nosed him to high place and he snrroonded the throne with none hot good men and trae.

To-day the piece was laughable, and the audience mostly dealt in drugs. Meanwhile the poor eldest son of the farm never gets out of prison. His mother comes again and again, and yesterday got another ten thousand cash lent her, and to-day our cook was ever so long at the magistrate's Yamen, but it seems some one must go bail and the person willing to do that has not yet been found.

October 15. &Ir R. was to bring his two little boys to breakfast at eight o'clock this morning, but though we waited half an hour we had long ago finished when they appeared. Breakfast was brought back, but they also had long finished, when a most elegant apparition came curtseying through the courtyard, their eldest sister of thirteen, a really very pretty girl in her to-day's toilette, with bright brown eyes, and a graceful, alert step, in spite of tiniest feet. But then the young woman was rouged and powdered, and her lips coloured; all her hair in a twist on the top of her head stuck all over with very pretty pins, made of imitation pearls and blue jay's feathers, with a cap (or bonnet) all round it, jay's wings and jewels orna-menting this, gold pins fastening her hair at the back, three bandeaux of artificial flowers round her forehead, whorls of them at the side and a very pretty disposi* tion of them down the back of her head and neck. She wore a lovely rose brocade over-jacket with black satin collar, a mauve under-jacket, which did not show, and trousers of a rather richer rose, all embroidered too. Her little sister of six was only a little less elegantly dressed, and with her cap and long black

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 221

silk tassels hanging either side of her face looked like the most charming doll, when I made her lie back in one of our chairs covered with a goatskin rug, and play at going to sleep. The youngest brother, who is evidently the pride of the family, had the same criarde combination of colours as usual : rose-coloured satin hat, purple coat, red trousers, aud his hair cut short like a priest's. At last the little girls went away after I had twice photographed them, but the little boys were still hangin^r on when at 12.30 we started to cross the river. If they ever came to an end, Chinese visits would not be so trying.

A few mornings ago A. was surprised by a visit from two gentlemen, whilst we sat at breakfast. One was number-four young master of the Yuen family, our country neighbours, the other an ex-official, just returned from Peking. It seemed they actually wished to see me, so they were brought upstairs. And the ex-official after a little while said it would be so nice if I would give his sons instruction in English. I asked what age they were. It seemed there w^ere two, of twelve and fourteen. I laughingly said, '* Perhaps they would be afraid of me." ** Oh, no ! " Finally I agreed, thinking as we were soon going away that would break it off if tiresome. To my horror I found then that he proposed that they should come and live in our house, as his home was out by the Hoa Ngai Monastery, where we stayed last year, about a day's journey from here. I said, *' Perhaps they would get into mischief — English boys would ! Perhaps they would break things." The father, a nice-mannered man with a very grave, gentle face, seemed greatly shocked at this idea. But he said, if I liked, he would take a room for them in an inn, and send them here each day for an hour to learn English.

222 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

They must be pucauing their Chinese studies all day long and could not consequently get into any mischief. With tliis he went away, and so far I have heard no

;ibuut my twu yuiui^' to tfiR-li foi- tilt' iik'aMir.' ,- \v.i-^ luidennkoii Mr ako liii.iself iisoful in follow of tivo, "-lio 1

I, wlioiii I was apparently doin^' sio. A, however ; nict ehier son, who is : offic-e— if he can. The L- sjiL-akM, is iictnally said

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD 223

already to know two thousand Chinese characters. It is terrible to think of.

I went over to see the new Hong by dayliglit the other day. They could not pay me much attention, because, taking me over it, someone's eye was caught by a door opening on to an outside porch, commanding a fine view all over the river. The door from this to the house was right in the middle of it, and of the house, thus, as they said, affording most easy access to the demons. And every-one was full of suggestions as to what should be done, for obviously no one could expect to make money in a house with demons walking straight in whenever they liked. I recommended a leaf -shaped door, as so particularly curly-whirly, but was evidently considered frivolous. So I went on to see the part of the house we may eventually occupy. It is inhabited now by four Chinese families with such a number of wonjan, so dirty and draggled looking ; one, the principal one, with a big wen upon her forehead. But anything to equal the magnificence of the carved and gilded bedsteads I never did see ! They have a raised ledge at the side, very convenient to lay the (juilt on, when out of use, or any extra coverings. At the other side, that towards the room, are two seats, one at the bed head, one at the foot. On these the Chinese sit whilst dressing and undressing, laying their clothing mostly on the bed as extra covering. All two sides of the room were lined with cup-boards, black lacquered with drop handles. Seats without backs were placed against these, all the length of them ; there seemed no place for doing anything. And everything except the furniture looked so squalid and dilapidated I do not know how we can ever live there. But the Hong says the house could be done up for a small outlay, and has a little gankai, an immense advantage.

The Hong, greatly to my surprise, has set its heart on my staying here when A. has to go down river, keeping the

224 iN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

seals and the money, and generalljr maoafpng Uie bariiMHB. They seem to think this quite natonJ, and what a Chinese lady would da

Nikko, Japan, August 3, 1894. Thus abniptiy and some-what sorrowfully my farm diary, began with ' sodk a lig^t

heart, came to an end. Perhaps it was owing to blood-poisoning from all tliose dreadful smells — the doctor said it was — perhaps it was grief over the distress we had brought on others — it well might have been! — anyhow I wrote no more. And yet, even in (!hina things come right in the end sometimes. One day a most wretched-looking, emaciated, red-eyed, disfigured creature threw himself in the dust before me, and knocked his head a^nst the

LIFE ON A FARMSTEAD

225

ground repeatedly. I rather hurried away from him, because there were the farmer and his wife asking A. to sit down and drink wine with them to celebrate the release of their son from prison, and I wanted to congratulate them, and ask how he was ; then with a sudden horror

MitiiKtt.'r wiis uiiirdi-ri^ in I ll<i Mr. An-hiM-l I.HlU.

realised tliat the wretched ereature, who had just knelt IxToro me, had once been the stroni,', hearty man. who used always to call out in such loud, cheery tones : "Is it cool enou;;h lor you, T'ai t'ai ? " on his freijueiit visits to his parents' home. We felt then, treeing him, we could not take jiart in the fensl of congratulation. Hut he is a Chinaman.

226 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

And since then he seems quite to have got over his tortur-ing in the yamen. Our things have been recovered. The thieves have been exhibited in four cages outside the'farm-house, and the honour of the farm family is intact onoe more. Our big brute of a coolie disappeared without his wages one day. He was the most powerful man I have come across in these parts. But he had stolen someone's jacket. And though it was recovered, he returned no more. Our cook has married a Szechuan woman after all, in spite of all his wise saws, the farmer's wife playing the part of middle woman. A new building site in the mountains has been given us, and we have also built ourselves a dwelling-house in the country on the river bank, and thus ends all likelihood of our again living in a Szechuan farmhouse, the homely details of whose doings may, however, have some interest for those, who like to realise that that great division of the human race, called Chinese, consists not only of Chinamen but of real men and women with simple wants and wishes not after all so unlike our own.

CHAPTER XIII.

ANTI-FOREIGX RIOTS IN WESTERN CHINA

IT is a question whether the true story of the Szu-chuan riots of 1895 will ever be known. No inquiry has ever yet been made into any of the previous riots on the Yangtze — that is, no inquiry by a foreign commission ; and to a Chinese inquiry no one who has resided in China would attach any importance. It invariably results in the beheading of a few needy coolies, a condemnation of the behaviour of the foreigners, especially if they have been killed and cannot speak for themselves, the persecution of all those who have stood their friends, and the removal — i.e.f promotion — of the local officials. Ordinary Chinese — that is, the man in the street and his like — said these riots were neither anti-Christian nor anti-foreign, but all to " let the Emperor know and Japan man know," but especially the Emperor, " that China man, he no likee — too muchee cross." Well-informed foreigners say much the same — that it is all a bit of party politics, the Hunan men, represented to us in England by the late Marquis Tseng, who were then out of power, wanting to turn out the Ngan-hui men, Li Hung Chang and his gang, and adopting these means of getting them into difficulties. The Hunan men, who may be called the patriotic party, are naturally anti-foreign. It may be remembered the late Marquis Tseng could never return to Hunan after his friendliness with English people.

Whatever was the cause, somebody put out placards

227

228 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

towards the cod of May, 1895 — ^no foreigner yet knows who — and the walU of Chentn - all over the city bore this lageDd : " Xotice is hereby given that at the pretent 'foreign barbarians' are hiring evil charaeten to Bteal small children that they may eztrset oil from tiiem (or their use. I have a female servant nuned Li who has

[Sjf Mr Daridion.

personally seer, this done. I therefore exhort you good people not to allow your children to go onL I hope you will act in aceonlance with this."

Xow iu judging of after events it must he remembered that to a Chinaman there is nothing incredible about this anonymous placard. Even the most enlightened China-men, educated in America, and at the head of large

ANTI'FOREIGN RIOTS IN W. CHINA 229

industrial concerns, will maintain stoutly, " The Roman Catholics do not have such high walls and closed doors for nothing *' ; whilst a manservant of a mast superior kind, who had spent all his life in English (chiefly Consular) employ, on being asked by his mistress, aj)ropos of similar reports on another occasion, " Surely you do not believe them ; you know master and me ; you no believe master would take out small children's eyes ? " drew a long breath, and then honestly replied, ** My no savee." All through China it is generally believed foreigners take out children's eyes, and extract oil for photographs and worse purposes.

On the afternoon of May 28, the (^anadian Metho<list Mission premises at Chentu were atUicked. They happened to be nearest the throwing of the plums, a yearly ceremony, that in Chentu takes the place of the dragon-boat festival elsewhere. Mr Jackson, of the Church Mission, had come in from his outlying station, a five days' journey, to have his teeth attended to, and both he and the doctor were weary after the operation when they found themselves suddenly confronted by an angry (yhinese mob. Canadians, like Americans, seem always to have firearms handy, whilst most English missionaries, brought up from childhood in highly-policed England and unaccustomed to them, think it wrong to have recourse to them. The two doctors drove the crowd back once; then, having put the ladies into comparative safety in the hospital compound next door, they once more kept the gate for nearly two hours, with their arms visible but not used, whilst they sent to the officials for help. Then a few yamen runners and unarmed soldiers stepped out and said they would disperse the mob, on which the doctors went to join their wives and children, and at once the mob swept past the yamen runners and began destroying everything. The missionaries next tried to hide under some timber, but a Chinaman warned them they would thus be burned to death. Then, finding the

230 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

back gate besieged, they fired a shot over the people'ci heads, through the top of the gateway. This was a meet fortuuate idea, for it not only dispersed the people for a while, but also gave a means of exit.

For now the missionaries found they must leave the premises, and through the hole thus made in the gate crept out four adults and four very small children. They sought refuge, but no one would give it to them, and they went down the street amid cries of " Beat them to death." But it should be stated that these cries are common in China ; we in the interior are mostly hardened to them. The fugitives then tried to get into some barracks, but the soldiers drove them away, one of them kicking one of the ladies : then they made their way to the city wall, all but the Church missionary, who, taking a wrong turning in the dark, got separated from the others and eventually reached the China Inland premises, and one of the children, who was also lost for a time. The others were on the city wall till about midnight, and from there, shoeless, and not knowing what might not happen next, they watched their compound burning. In the small hours of the morning Chairs were sent to them and took them to the China Inland Mission, where they rejoined Mr Jackson, having also regained the missing child, brought back to them by a servant from another part of the city. There also they were joined by the Rev. G. Hartwell and the ladies of the China Inland, both of whose houses were already de-stroyed. The people in the street said to the members of the China Inland, " You have been here over ten years and have done good ; no one will touch you here." The mob, however, began to collect, and one of the number went to the yamen to give notice. One of the American Methodist Episcopal Mission had already, at 3 a.m. on the 29th, taken a box round to the magistrate's yamen, asking him at least to take care of their things for them, but had had to

ANTI-FOREIGN RIOTS IN W. CHINA 231

take it away again, being assured they were quite safe. This did not, however, prevent all the foreigners in Chung-king from meeting there the next morning, with every-thing destroyed but what they stood up in. Again the unfortunate Canadians, now accompanied by the China Inland, had to escape by the back, whilst the mob surged in at the front over the barricaded doors. This time they got over the back wall by ladders into a small house, and by giving thirty taels (about four pounds) to three brothers of the household, obtained a hiding-place within the mos(|uito curtains of a bed in a back room. The party consisted of some six adults and several children. All the foreign children in Chentu were under three years old ; and the great difficulty was to keep these children quiet. For three hours in the terrible heat of a very early Chinese summer, they were thus all hidden together, not daring to speak above a whisper, whilst their premises were being looted and dest roved within a few feet of them. The man of the house drew his bed in front of the door and lay on it, smoking oT)ium, an<l the women of the house went on with their usual work, as though nothing had happened, till at last it was dark enough for the whole party to be taken in chairs to the yamen. except one man, again missing. The latter ha<l found his way into a Chinese doctor's house, and tlu*re the bright idtwi was conceived of passing him oft* as a patient. He was muffled up in a red and blue Chinese hood, then with large Chinese glasses, and leaning on the shoulders of two men, he was supported to the door, and there, in the very midst of the destroy-ing mob, put into a chair. The chair coolies were warned that he was a man so sick he must die within the year, and therefore the curtains must be kept closely drawn that not a breath of air might touch him lx»fore they <ielivered him in the magistrate's yamen. Thus he too got safe away.

232 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

The Americans, only about three hours after their return from the yamen, having been refused protection for their vahiables, had to escape over their side boundary wall. Had they gone over their back wall they would have found themselves in the hands of naked robbers, as did their native helper, who had to pay ten taels, or over a pound, to get away. Hidden in a loft, they all actually watched the destroying, carrying off, and burning of their property — one a young bride only eleven days arrived — until at last the dreadful day was over, and half the night; for not until i a.m. did the authorities think it safe to take them to the yamen.

Just after Mass on May 29 the Roman Catholics received a letter saying that all foreigners were to be attacked. The Bishop applied to the Viceroy by letter, his yamen being next door. Receiving no answer he went to the Tartar Generars yamen, meaning to ask for a hundred soldiers. He was not allowed to enter, but received with insults and stoned. "Afterwards my chair was overturned and my bearers beaten. I was obliged to get away as best I could, under a hail of stones, many of which struck me. As I was making off, a mandarin amongst the crowd tried to strike me with an axe, and had the blow taken effect it would have shorn my head off. I was hurt and bruised about the body and my head was cut, nor was my protector (a petty official) without many injuries from stones and sticks. After a time he succeeded in escorting me safely to a small yamen. During my absence from the mission, which was but o£ short duration, the mob destroyed the Catholic premises. It was all over so quickly that the Fathers had time to save nothing but a few papers, everything being over in an hour and a half, when all the furniture was broken and the various establishments were completely looted; but while yet the buildings

ANri'FOREJGN RIOTS IN IV. CHINA 233

were standing^, some mandarins appeared on the scene and easily persuaded the mob to desist and go away ; but the rioters returned in a few minutes and completed their work by pulling down the buildings. While this was going on the Viceroy himself passed and called out to the mob, * You can pull down what you like and rob what you like, but do not burn anything lest you should set tire to the neighbours' houses.' Hearing this, some friends of ours and honest men among the crowd gave up the efforts which up till this moment they had been making on our behalf, and went away. During the destruction of our property the tomb of Monseigneur Dufresse, one of our bishops who was de-capitated by the Chinese seventy years ago, was broken into. The skeleton of the martyr was torn from its resting-place, and the poor bones were carried about the streets by the mob for the purpose of further in-furiating the people against us, the rioters crying, ' See, here are the Ixmes of some of the people the missionaries murdered ; we have just tiiken them from under the foreign devils' houses.' Orphanages, churches, and all our houses were destroyed. There is now not one stone left standing on another.

"At 3 a.m on the 80th we were all taken in chairs to the yamen of the Hwa Yang-hsien, where we found eighteen English and American missionaries, including ladies and children, who were all, like ourselves, poor people, beggars, without anything left to them in this world. The mandarin there was sutficiently polite, but the accommodation was horribly insufficient. Hero we all remained till 1st June, when we were taken to the Prefect's yamen, from which I am now writing to you."

Thus, thirty-one foreigners, British, American, and French, were together on May 30 and 31, all home-

234 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

less and destitute. A telegram was sent to the Cionsal at Chungking, and the news got through to Peking. Otherwise what farther might not have happened to them? Directly the Viceroy heard of the telegram he sent to the operators to stop it — ^happily too late. After that foreigners were told the wires were broken. Meanwhile, what with the bones of the Boman Catholic bishop and the blood of a fowl someone had killed and sprinkled on the walls, the people were kept in a frenzy of excitement, till they threatened to wreck the yamen and kill the foreigners.

Worse than this, a beggar boy was brought to the yamen with his tongue cut out, and this was said to be the work of the missionaries. The boy's tongue being cut out he could tell no tales. No mere mob would have ventured on this act of brutality. Tins of milk were shown about the streets, said to contain the brains of young children pounded up, on which the missionaries battened. In the midst of all this one of the ladies was prematurely confined. There was a plethora of medical assistance within the yamen, but not a drug, not a rag, not even a pin amongst tliem. Then by one of the most extraordinary chances one of the doctors, allowed to go out, saw a man passing by with his hands all white and a bottle. It was carbolic, carried off from the doctor's own hospital, and the man having burnt his hands with it was glad to sell it. Humanly speaking, but for this carbolic the poor lady could not have sur-vived, the heat being so abnormal as it was this June in the west of China. It was all the medical stores the whole party had for the next three weeks.

It was on May 29, whilst the burning and sackino* were in full swing, the Taoiai Cheo put out the following proclamation with his name : '' At the present, we have obtained clear proof that the foreigners deceive and take

AXri-FOREIGN RIOTS IN \V, CHINA 235

8maII children. You soldiers and people must not be disturbed and flurried. When the cases are brought before us we certainly will not be lenient with them." On the 30th the following anonymous placard appeared : "At the present time, when Japan has usurped Chinese territory, you P^nglish, French, Americans have looked on with your hands in your sleeves. If in the future you wish to preach your doctrine in China you must drive the Japanese back to their own country, then you will be allowed to preach your Holy CJospel throughout this country without let or hindrance." And on this day, the 30th, at last the Covernor-General put out his pro-clamation : —

" I, the Governor-General, have heard that yesterday at the *Twan-yang' feast, according to the custom of the province, crowds of men and women assembled to witness the scattering of fruit, also that foreigners having gone to witness it ^this was not true, none had) trouble was caused and the chapels were destroyed. It is certain that evil characters have been stirring up trouble in order to steal and rob. In addition to searching clearly into this matter, I have also put out a proclamation for you elders, wanlens, soldiers, and people's information.

** You, my good people, should each follow his own voca-tion, and should you have any grievance you may petition the officials of the two districts, Chentu and Hwa-yang, and I will justly <lecide without any partiality.

"You may by no means recklessly help forward these evil men and get yourselves caught in a net. I>et them be punished by the law ! For those who assemble evil characters let there be no leniency."

This proclamation is put forth for the information of all. On the 3l8t, when it is to be assumed he had heard from Peking, martial law was proclaimed. ** Whereas a number

236 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

of evil characters have assembled, scattering evil ramours, I have already memorialised the Emperor, and you may put them to death without discussion."

Only eleven days after the riots was it thought fitting to let the missionaries leave the yamen. Then the British and Americans were conducted again at one o'clock in the morning to the Min River, two or three ofiicials and six small boatloads of soldiers going with them as esoort& One of the China Inland Mission had telegraphed to the British Consul at Chungking for permission to remain in Chentu. But the officials had refused to send the telegram.

Mr Jackson was most carefully escorted back to Chong-pa, his station, dressed as a Chinese official, with official cap, long boots, etc., and given a grand chair, which he was requested never to leave, also so grand an escort that it nearly caused a commotion when he reached Chong-pa. He was given dark spectacles, requested to dye his moustache, and his escort were told, if asked who he was, always to answer, " A Chinese official going to meet the incoming Viceroy." For one of the peculiarities of the position was that the Viceroy Liu, one of Li Hung Chang's special friends, was already, when all the trouble occurred, degraded, and his successor expected. The boat party from Chentu reached Chungking safely, and arrived at Ichang just about a month after they had been driven out homeless. Some man-of-war is generally at Ichang, a thousand miles up the Yangtze; but there was none even there then.

On Sunday, June 2, the houses of the Church Mission and the China Inland were attacked at Kwan Hsien ; a few things were stolen, but help arrived from the yamen. At Sin Tu Hsien a house belonging to missionary ladies was attacked; they escaped by the back door, but no one would take them in. At first the magistrate would

ANTI-FOREIGN RIOTS IN W, CHINA 237

do nothing, but at last he dispersed the mob, and the ladies, according to the latest news, were living with a guard.

Three ladies of the China Inland were visiting at Kiong-eheo when the large Roman Catholic premises were wrecked. A man stepped out of the crowd, and beginning to sharpen a large knife he carried on the flat stone at the ladies' door, he forbade the people to touch them, saying they were good women, and at last so cleared the |>eople away that one of the ladies with a Chinese woman ventured to the yamen to ask for assistance, but only to l)e refused admittance. The Chinese woman on this set up a loud crying, and said they would die there before the door if refused protection, they would never go away, till at last they were let in, to tind the magistrate trembling with fear. The man with the knife, mean-while, got chairs for the other ladies, and three of the rioters escorted the ladies to the otlicial's residence.

On June 4, at Kiating, the lovely city where join the waters of the rivers Tung, Ya and Min, the latter coming down from Chentu, the three houses of the Church Mission, American Biiptist Mission, and China Inland were looted and partially destroy imI, also the Roman Catholic Mission. The ladies again escaped over the wall at the back, and some of the men were very roughly handled. Two members of the China Inland, with their young child, were in the country at the time ; they heard of a plot to kill them, so thought it prudent to return. On arriving at Kiating the captain of their boat ordered them to leave it. Thev then found a man with a drawn sword at the door of the aibin Everything was taken from them, and no house would receive them in, thus hand in hand the father and mother, with their little child, had to rini the gauntlet of the howling crowd, to tind their mission premises a wreck, and be taken in by the charity of three old women, who

238 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

kept them safe till it was dark and they could rejoin the other foreigners in the yamen.

At Lu Chow the China Inland premises were damaged and broken into, but not destroyed. At Sni-fn, where the three rivers that meet at Kiating join the great Yangtae^ a very important city, the ofSciab by their prompt action stopped the riot after the houses of the American Baptist Mission had been destroyed and they had escaped in bdttte. Some of the China Inland Mission tried to remain, bat when the magistrate told them he could no longer protect them either in his yamen or elsewhere they also got into boats. And here a most unexpected and pleasant meeting occurred. The American Baptist missionaries at Ya-cheo^ finding all their communications were being cut, and think-ing that as soon as the news of the Chentu riot reached Ya-cheo, the centre of the great brick trade with Tibet, a riot was likely to break out there too, thought it wisest to try to put their women and children in safety. In the small hours of the morning they stole away like culprits from the sleeping city they had entered with such high hopes not quite a year before, and with an armed guard got on to one of the bamboo rafts, that are the only means of descending the extremely pretty River Ya. On their way down they passed one and another Roman Catholic Station being destroyed. Arrived at Kiating, they found all the missionaries still afraid to leave the yamen, and had already suffered such rude treatment from their own guard, one of them having been attacked indeed by a soldier with a big stone, that they were delighted to find the oppor-tunity of changing from their raft into a boat at Kiatincr without anyone knowing anything about them. But now arrived at Sui-fu their boat could not venture on the great Yangtze, and yet they dared not moor there, several Chinese coming up river having warned them not to do so, when suddenly someone espied a large boat on the other

ANTI-FOREIGN RIOTS IN W. CHINA 239

Hide of the stream. This turned out to contain the China Inland misaionariea of the place, who were just as relieved as those from Ya-cheo, as the ime set could not proceed for want of ready money, the others for want of a boat. And the meeting was the more fortunate, as presently armed boats came off and attacked them, but on being confronted

[11;, Mr Ipc,

with a Winchester in the hands of a determiiicil Aniericjui soon cleared off again. These armed men wimld not have been let off so easily had the fugitive party known, what was the truth, that when the American Baptist Mission took to their boats, leaving one of their number behind with money and supplies for thase coming from further up river, tho single man thus left behind unarmed bad been

240 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

attacked by these armed men and stripped not only of everything he had for the others, but everything he bad himself ; his life had been threatened, and for some time he had hung on underneath his boat whilst the Chinese prodded for him with long spears.

The British Consul recalled the lady missionaries from Lu-chow, and the magistrate sealed up their door and put a guard in front, as also at the Boman Catholic premises.

The Roman Catholics heard in very early days that their priests had been driven out of twenty stations in the province, their churches destroyed, and that in many cases their Chinese Christians were being plundered. At Pen Shan and at Sin King their missions were wrecked, as also their large college about ten miles from Sui-fu. From some of the more distant places it must take some time for them to hear.

CHAPTER XIV FURTHEU ALARMS OF RIOTS

IN July 1*S9.5, when we heard the Taotai, who had so determinedly adopted every means within his power of enforcing order, was summoned to Peking, when we saw the grand arches at the Gate of Great Peace to welcome the Viceroy coming from Chentu, and did not know who might not come in his train, but knew that (.'hentu was once again placarded with anti-foreign placards, although there was no longer a foreigner there, we felt as if we liad good reason to feel afraid. The examinations were to begin in tiv(* days. People said, though it seems in-credible, that twenty thousand students or thereabouts might be expected. That means at least sixty thousand men, mostly between nineteen and thirty, might be ex-pected in Chungking in the course of the next few days, counting them and their attendants. Many of them would, of course, be believing the bad reports that had been lately placarded about foreigners, many must be at least a little excited by the thought of how American and English men ha<l scuttled and run before them. It must be conceded we nations of the West had hanllv taken up a dignified position in the west of China, and that it would be hard for any Government to ensure order amongst such a band of new-comers, men who had heard all about the riots, and could not thereby

have been led to feel more afraid of foreigners, g 241

: 242 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN-

There was, liowever, the proelatnaticm : — " Whereas a nnraber of evil ' characters have assembled scattering evil rumours, I have already memorialised

\_BijMrFulf.

(the Emperor) and you may put them to death without discussinf^ (the matter)." Thus under tho protection of Chinese martial law we read quietly that there was no ■idea even of England's sending us any assistance nearer than Ichang, a month's journey away. Nor would there

FURTHER ALARMS OF RIOTS 243

liave been any need for protection had Sir John Walsham, when he opened this port, asked what then the Chinese were most ready to grant, that there should be a eon-cession set apart for foreigners, they saying that it would be easier to protect them thus, as is most obvious. We on the other hand wished for a concession, because if but a few of us lived tegether, we could protect ourselves, and the others could take refuge with us instead of in the yamen. Six Englishmen with rifles could surely defend all the women and children there acrainst a whole city full. As it was, there was no talk even of defending women and children there, in Chungking, should anything occur. And the women, feeling long before that they would but handicap the men, had all made ready to go down before martial law was proclaimed. The children no longer came to school, the sick no longer came to the dispensaries, everyone shunned them except their few trusty Chinese, who implored them to fly while there was yet time. The senior missionary of the station said they would have to go away for the examinations ; what was the use in their just remaining for another month a prey to anxiety ? So it may be fancied how each mission called its committee, settled which man was sick, and had therefore better go down in charge of the ladies, and how the poor ladies packed, selecting which treasures must be left for the mob. The ladies of one mission sent to those of another and settled to share boats together for safety, and then there was the question what each should take for use in the boats. Of course, in every case the senior minsionaries were to remain, and of course their wives had to settle about the boats, and they were to go next morning, and then arrived the weekly prayer meeting. Already there had been those terrible weeping adieux of the Chinese Christians and inquirers, the friendly few. Very little was said at the prayer meeting — people felt too

J44 /-V THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOU'X

iiiucli, " for we knew we should think n riot was liappening, and our husbaoda in dan^^r all the time, i£ we went away and left tlieiti," said one lady. " So I was afraid to speak

to Mrs , because 1 knew slie was feeling the same,

and we sat side by side and said notliinj; to each other,

\lli, M,- IhK-i.l,'.,,

till lit liiNl ^\w said tu nif. 'Someone sniil you wanted to hpL'iik to iiif.' 'I'lifU I Mskril licr wluii mIil' would takt', and ihiit lUiidi' us fi-.-l Ijuctoi'. jn>.t si-ttlin;,'. Slio thought we onj^lit tu take no brcls I'ur fear "f rousing suspicion, liut just nigs tc lay on thu lloor."

Next day, i|uite eiii-ly it seems, it was that most militant agent of the Scotch Bible Society, who rode

FURTHER ALARMS OF RIOTS 245

round upon the wonderful horse, that carried him to Bhamo and back and still thrives, and told the ladies martial law was proclaimed, and he thought they might stay now. They had packed what they dared take and put their boxes in the boats, thinking they could get on board more quietly in the night; some who were joining fugitives from Sui-fu had already gone down river, for the Consul would permit no fugitives to remain from other places in Chungking. As the days went by the Chinese began to say the authorities were so vigilant now, they thought it was safe to remain. So after a while the women got their boxes back. But the boats still were there waiting till the examinations should be over, and we had all learnt whether we might hope to pass the summer there, or had got to fly ahodesft, as people always seem to do in riots.

Meanwhile let no one think the missionaries showed any sign of fear. They had taken their precautions, some did not unpack their boxes, but after that they went on exactly as usual, except that hardly any girls dared come to the girls' schools, that there were fewer boys than usual, and fewer sick at the dispensaries.

Let anyone picture, however, if they can, what was still the life of those shut up at the yamen at Kiating. Some members of the China Inland Mission hnd arrived in Chungking after a month there. It is a small space, of course, with no outlook, not even protection from the sun. Those who fled there lost all they had. There is a little courtyard in which they could take exercise, that is all.

It was on June 4, during the examinations there, the missionary houses were looted and plundered, one of the men nearly torn in two by the mob catching hold of his girdle at both ends, and all as we understand more or less roughly handled. Englishmen are far too manly not to admire the courage of the women, who, after passing

246 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

through a hustling like that, held but in their ocmfinement of already a month and a half. It is a thing no man woald like to go through, and women's nerves are apt to give way sooner than men's. Yet they held out^ though whether it is wise to expose them to such a strain is a question. One difficulty is if people go down from Chungking they cannot return till October, because the' river is at its height in summer. And even after that the journey up from Ichang takes nearly a month, and to Kiating, even if you brave an overland journey, you cannot get in less than about a fortnight more.

It is true that none were killed, and so people may think that those in Chungking were needlessly alanued. The Chentu men, women and children all, however, witnessed from their hiding-places the burning, plundering mob, and from the expressions they seem to have little doubt of what would have happened had they not escaped to the yamen before the plundering was over. That ab-sorbed the crowd for a time. The yamen was threatened and as it seems only owes its safety to the telegram sent to the Chungkinf^ Consul — ichich the Viceroy sent to the teler/raph clerks to stop — but happily just too late, offer it had gone out But for that telegram we should probably have no difficulty in realising the state of anxiety of those within the yamen, who did not know the riots would so for pass off* without anyone being killed.

The Roman Catholic Bishop, the last to escape to the yamen, had been sufficiently roughly handled by the mob, as his attire and bearing showed, when he came running in and ran right through the rooms set apart for men, and, flying still, through the rooms given to the ladies. He had stayed at his post to the very last. It was clear it was till the very last, if he were to escape at all.

There is another fact to be remembered. We have in West China a good many American and Canadian missions,

FURTHER ALARMS OF RIOTS 247

and the men of these mij^sions, being accustomed to caiTy firearms, carry them and use them. But for a Winchester in the hands of an American Baptist a very different story might be told of one escape at least. In all the riots so far there have been Americans or Canadians somewhere about, and had it not been so, we still cannot tell what migrht not have occurred. As Captain Bower said, the Chinese are not brave before determined men with firearms.

On July 26th I wrote : The men of the Customs still go to and fro with loaded revolvers ; the Consul, if he comes to tea, only lays his revolver down with his hat; the Amissions, Quakers included, have a guard of ten Chinese soldiers to each household, each man paid fifty cash a day. The gay little pavilions still stand at the Gate of Great Peace, only the late Viceroy, in whose honour they were erected, i? expected no more. He got away from Chentu at last, he passed Kiating, he passed Sni-fii, and his boats floated proudly on the bosom of the great Yangtze, but arrived at Luchow, the next town to this, he was forced to turn round and go back every inch of the two rivers to Chentu. Great is the rejoicing. He must be made to pay, say the Chiuese. He must be made to suffer the penalty of his sins, say the foreigqers. If only he is punished properly we shall never have another riot in Szechuan, say Roman Catholic Chinese exultantly. But w^ill lie be punished ? No word of what England thinks or cares has reached us yet, and it is two months all but two days since the rising in Chentu. Nor can we doubt there would have been just the same here, but for the enercrv of our Consul, Mr E. H. Eraser, and the vigilance of the Chinese officials.

*' The Koman Catholics seem to have had over forty stations destroyed in this province. Yet not a Erenchman has left the West. * Pas un ! Ni pour cause de maladies, ni pour affaires particulieres, ni pour aller a Peking ! Pas

248 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

nn seul/ says the Procorem; flomewhafc proudly* FMu; however, among them one a Count at home in Franee^ have been driven away from their ataticma in those dia-tant parts beyond the Chienehang Valley, and ao eflbe-tively that for forty days they had to fly over momnftain passes and by little-trodden paths till they foond a refogie at last only across the border, in the capital of Tmuiaii, Tnnnanfu. It is to be hoped some day they may give u the details of this Lent-long flight. Other priests have been taking refuge in Chinese huts, in yamens, moving from place to place, but not one has left his post, but for these four driven out of the province. Even on the borders of Tibet, an outlying station of Tachienlu has been rioted. One priest somewhere — Chinese names are so hard to re-member — saved his beautiful church. He got a dozen spears, and telling a dozen Chinese to point them at the enemy, threw his doors wide open, and invited the rioters to come in. They saw the twelve spears, and before that sight hundreds dispersed.

" There are strange tales the Cliinese Christians might tell. Many of them were very well to do, well conducted, prosperous. They have not been plundered at Chentu. But in other outlying places they have lost all, or well-nigh all. And all knew the fate threatening them. One can fancy the scene at Hoang-mu-chang, a market village described by my husband in his Mount Omi and Beyond, built on a breezy plateau, a very deep defile on one side, on the other the foaming Tung between it and the lofty Lolo Mountains ; at the back, a pass ten thousand feet high or thereabouts, over which you go to Fulin and the Chienehang Valley, if you are coming from the east. It is on the regular route of the cruelly-laden salt carriers be-tween Kiating and Fulin. The pagans, shall we call them, hearing the news of the fine times at Chentu — in every case riots arose as the news was sent forward — ^rose

FURTHER ALARMS OF RIOTS 249

against the Christians, and the Christians defended them-selves with stones for over two hours. Then the leading man of the place, a Christian, called out aloud, " We have had enough of stones. Let us get our guns," and before that threat the pagans dispersed. It is a long, hard day's journey from Hoang-mu-chang to Ta-tien-tze — described both by Mr Little and Mr Pratt, and I think mentioned by Baber — both are under the same priest. But he resides at the former place, and only comes once a year to Ta-tien-tze, where the people have built him a house in which to live and hold services. This house is the pride of the whole well-to-do village and has been several times lent to travellers, Ta-tien-tze lying at the foot of the wondrous Sai-king-shan, one of the remarkable flat-topped mountains, sacred as Omi. The Christians of Hoang-mu-chang sent a messenger across the mountains to Ta-tien-tze, which is altogether Christian, and the men of the place assembled in a house commanding the one path between the two places. What the handsome, rosy-cheeked, bright-eyed women and girls did meanwhile, report sayeth not, but we can fancy that they applauded as the rabble band came on intent on phmder, and the men of Ta-tien-tze fired and killed eleven of their assailants. In how many remote villages liave not similar encounters taken place, but rarely so ettectively, for Ta-tien-tze — with its three girls' schools, and un forge table honey in the honeycomb, sweet with the fragrance of the mountain flowers — Ta-tien-tze was saved. At Sui-fu men were killed, but by the rioters themselves. In their greed to loot the large college, three miles from the town, men climbed upon the roof and seized the timbers ; some fell, and six rioters are reported killed. How was it known that a larjje sum in nionev had just been sent from Chungking to this college ? How was it known that it was buried, and where ? It is so difficult to conceal anything in China, and at least

250 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

six thousand taels mnst have been discovered and carried off.

''The students are mostly arrived, and the literaiy chancellor expected to-morrow. No chapels ar6 allowed to be open at night. No books may be sold to the students. A proclamation is but telling them iheir business here is to be examined, and begging them to stick to it.

"The critical moment for us here will be if the late Viceroy is allowed once more to leave Cbentu un-punished ; tlien every rioter in the province tvill think himself free to phinder and to bum. Again, a lesser but still real danger awaits us when our excellent Taotai leaves us. He is now to remain till the examina-tions are over. But when he leaves, if the new Taotai, who, when he was here before, gave people the idea that he was very anti-foreign, does not do something speedily to counteract the impression, we may expect some of the rioters from Chentu, many of whom are known to have come here, whilst only five so far have been arrested, at least to try it on. But Chinese mobs are certainly peculiar. At Kiating the senior member of the China Inland Mission, who has so long lived there quietly win-ning the respect and regard of the whole neighbourhood, ventured back from the yamen, and himself inspected the rioting of his house. People were all going in and helping themselves, and when he saw anything being carried off, for which he had a special value, he said, *0h, put that down, will you?' and they did so. On the other hand when a woman rushed out holding aloft with its sleeves spread out a nightdress, crying out, ' What is this ? ' he said, laughing, ' Oh, take that home, and make clothes for your little children. It will do nicely for them.' Thus they rioted and he looked on."

CHAPTER XV "bad" wen-tang

'T^WENTY miles south of Chungking the range of -^- mountains, that shields the eastern face of Szechuan's commercial centre, harbours a sequestered valley, in the floor of which bubble up the hot springs called by the Chinese Wen -tang. Having never visited a Chinese inland watering-place, we thought a visit to the Wen-tang would form a pleasant outing for the Christmas holidays, and accordingly, packing up our beds and a change of cloth-ing, we set out on Christmas Eve to make the journey. Crossing the great river by the ferry to Hai-tan-chi, a long straggling village composed of a narrow, winding street of steep, stone steps, the terminus of the Great Kweichow Road, we ascended a thousand feet to the pass of ** Hoang-ko Ya " (Banian Gap), so called from a group of magnificent Fieus infeciorid shading the last few hundred yards of the winding stone staircase, that leads to the summit of the gap, a thousand feet above the river. And leaving on our left the beautifully-wooded peak of Lao-chun-tung, with its groups of halls and temples, rising in terraces one behind the other (com-jnemorating some say the retreat in this spot of the philosopher Lao-tze, GOO B.C.), we traversed the Straszen-dorf, the narrow, covered-in street of which forms the first halting place for travellers bound from Chungking to the south. This pass leads into an upland valley, bounded on the east by another and loftier pine-clad range, its

251

fN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

floor, here half a mile wide, terraced into an endless succession of paddy -Belds, now clad in their winter jjarb of stagnant, but clear, water ; their banks green with bean plants just beginning to Hower. The back-b'lne uf all these mountain ranges is limeHtone, bat

l«."

r .\r.l,il.,ld l,;nl:

their flanks are rich with tiltod Itiyers of red .Szechuan s^andHtoiio. The great highway leads us by a gentle, almost imperceptible descent down tiie valley some six miles to the thitrkiy-built market town of Lno-chanf (old market): another market town, called Shin-ehnm' (or new market) lying up tlie valley side facing Hoainr. ko-ya. Here the main road crosses the valley on a

"BAD" WEN-TANG

253

raised causeway, the pat}i bein^ from four to six feet wide and well paved with Jiard and slippery limestone blocks, and shoi-tly aftei-wards ascends the second range, passing out into the country beyond and over the loftier mountains, whose crests form the boundary of the two provinces and whose blue forms are just visible in the

distance on a clear summer's day. But at this winter time everything is fiishrouded in mist and haze, and we make our way throuijh a light fojj in calm and refr<.'sh-ing coolness.

At Lao-chang we lunched in the usual open restaurant and hemmed in by the usual curious crowd. Our path hence kept on straight down the valley and, as this

254 ^V THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

narrowed in, it commenced to ascend, leadings along the side of very steep hills. This ascent, so oontraiy to ex-pectation, together with the absence of any stream in the valley, gave proof of underground draina|[e, direct evidence of which was given later in the sinks in the valley floor and in a high ridge, entirely shutting in its lower end. The country assumed the wild aspect of the pure limestone regions, nothing but huge ridges -ol forbidding, dark grey rock cropping up, wave upon wm'vii^ in almost vertically tilted strata, with, at first sights not a sign of man or of vegetation. But a closer inspection^ when the strata were, so to say, enfiladed by the visiQ^ brought to light row behind row of the jagged, doekweadi^ like shoots of the young poppy plants, sown in NovemliJBi^ and now just appearing above the scant soil collect^' between the strata and painfully supplemented by niBnnijt transported from the nearest town. After a stretch d^. this barren land (as it would be, peopled by any othflC*^ than Chinese) the beauty of the valley returned ; the heights were crowned with thickets of dwarf oak, palmi. and the F/cf'.s level fields of poppy in the valley floor ' and sinilin^^ farmsteads on the hillsides surrounded by ;y^roves of evergreens. Our path, just wide enough for the pony to keep his footin^^, was cut out of the steep hillside and, being comparatively level, was now very pleasant going ; the walls of the cutting were decked with maidenhair fern and many pink wild flowers. So on, about five miles, till the valley ended in a ridge, upon reaching the sunnuit of which the ground fell steeply away from us and we entered the vale of the Wen-tang.

A breakneck descent by the roughest of paths paved with loose fragments of limestone, for about five hundred feet, brought us at length in view of a winding stream of blue water crossed by a very solid an<l handsome three-

•'HAD'' ]VE\-TANG 255

arched bridge, beyond which a well-paved wide roadway led to the pavilion -covered gateway of u small, closely-packed village nestling uinidst the steepest of hills in a romantic and sequestered valley, apparently shut off from all communication with the outside world except by the most impracticable of mountain patli». The pine-clad peakn

were half hidden in clouds and the valley itself was full of fog, increased by the clouds of steam from the hot springs. We crossed the bridge, entered the dirty village — a sort of Chinese Ashinoyu — and put up in the befit room of the best inn, <'.''., in the c-urner uf a fairly clean barn full of people.

The bath was close alongside, and we immediately

.?56 AV THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

irratitied our curiosity, as to what a renowned .Chineaa '* bath'/ mi((ht be like, and, expecting nothing but dirt» we were a^^recably disappointed and did not hesitate to take our baths at once in the common pool ; and most refreshing we found them, though uncomfortably hot. The bath k walled in and has a hi^rh tiled roof; it is divided intotwA basins, one for men and one for women, that for men being about thirty feet square and the water about three fafli deep. Two sides of the basin are formed of the natiml: ruiTired limestone rock, such as would be a fine attractini in a Shanghai garden, while on two sides are wide-cnt steps, most agreeable for entering the water and standing upon. Like everything of the kind in China, the bath is free to all. Two or three boys and men were in the water on this evening, but there is such a large inflow of water and the bath is consecjuently kept so consbmtly changed that we had no hesitation in joining the native bathers. The water is transparent, but smells strongly of sulphur. We could not see the inflow, which is below the surface, but judging by the large stream that Hows out, the supply (►i* water is practically unlimited, and the natives informed u.s that the How was the same winter and summer. A temple adjoins the hath, and large stone tablets, their inscriptions no longer legihle, tell of its establishment. No natural ph(»nomenon in (,'hina is without its thank-ortering to the unsceii: and this pious feeling, so prominent in Szechuan, how will it fare in the face of the present active propaganda of a foreign creed i Possibly if it succeeds China will be civilised a /'America, where almost every natural beauty and gift of Heaven is monopolised by the *' Christian " speculator, and so none but those whose pockets are lined witli <lollars can partake of them ! But in this "heatiien" country, here in the west of China, religion ent("rs into the life of the people and is not a coat to be put on and oH' according to circumstance. Hence

"BAD" WEN-TANG

sucli a thing as a tolled bridge or a tolled road is abhorrent

to the so-called "heathen," while everywhere the poor

liave free ferries (and

here in Chungking,

throughout the winter,

free rice) and, if they

need it. free lodging as

well at their disposal.

Nor do vast private

enclosures cut oH" the

hill-tops from the tourist

as in many of the most

picturesque mountain

regions in Britain. Here

everything is o])en, as

sportsmen well know,

and liberty lo enjoy is

free to all.

Close by is a vast limestone grotto, out of which riows a river of pure, cold water, a gilded shrine to the Ooddess of Mercy again tlecorat-ing the entrance. One can penetrate a distance of titty yards, with the aid of candle;', at which distance abarrier.]>lacGd for safety, prevents further ingress. Hut the greatest sight in tlie neighl)ourhoo<l, in Chinese eyes, is the country scat of n certain Peng who, eighty years ago, built himself a lordly pleasure house in ii neighbouring valley, a couple of miles

26o IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

distant. The vast extent of the bnildings and gardens and their fabulons cost caused him to be regarded as a wixaid {yaoktvei) ; absolute proof of the fact was given by himself, so the country people say, by his having bathed every morning in cold water. To visit this celebrated ooontiy seat, called Peng-ho-lin, we ascended the valley of the Wen-tang River up a path climbing along the side of a romantic, wooded glen, the bottom of which is filled by the river falling in a series of cascades down steps of the here almost vertical limestone strata that form its bed. Thus the walk to Peng-ho-lin was delightful in the extreme, but the place itself hardly worth a long journey to visit. The redoubtable wizard departed this life some thirty years ago, and the elaborate palace and gardens have been going to decay ever since. The magnificent lotus pond before the entrance, about an acre in extent, has been converted into a paddy-field. The wide stone terrace before the entrance is falling down in places. The interior, which reminds one of the buildings that go to form a first-class Buddhist temple, has been robbed of its movable woodwork ; the fiower beds now ffrow cabbasres. In the principal fiower trarden the curling walls, which make a sort of maze to traverse, are still standing, but the wooden pavilions are gone, the immovable stone seats and tables alone remaining. The trees are there, and very fine specimens, but we were ignorant of their names. A very elegant fir with feathery foliage was called by the natives '^nao ivei sung^ or '* cats' tails fir."

Behind the buildings, which, we were told, though we did not count them, comprise thirty-six courtyards, are fine plantations of rare and beautiful trees running up to the crests of the hills, which form a background of the estate, and through which lead charming, paved walks traversable in all weathers. So far, these trees have happily escaped the destroyer, who is doing his best to reduce beautiful

''BAD'' WEN-TANG 261

Szechuau to the desert, into which he has almost succeeded in turning the provinces on its northern frontiers.

Thus the sights which it is de rigueitr to visit were soon exhausted, and the following day we trudged back in a Scotch mist, which wet us to the skin, yet de-lighted with our Christmas outing, but still more delighted to get back into a decent house and have a fire to dry our clothes. How in this climate, where there is no evapora-tion and the inns are reeking with perpetual moisture, travellers survive wet weather can be attributed only to the wonderful hardihood of this opium-smoking race. It would kill a European, and hence at this season we can hardly venture to be away from home more than two or three days at a time. As long as one is out in the weather it is all right, but the trial comes in the long winter nights passed in damp, leaky sheds. A constant procession of travellers, in chairs, niounted and on foot, throngs this the great highway to Kweichow and Yunnan in all weathers, all apparently perfectly satisfied with the acconimodation provided. Will the present generation of Euroi)eans in China ever see travel in China made more comfortable, and query, if it were, would the natives be any happier than they now are, with their limited wants and absence of discontent with things as they exist (*

CHAPTER XVI LITTLE KNO^VN BORDER TRIBES

/^\NE of the great excitements in Chinese city life is ^-^ when rt great traveller comes by. Then for a few days at least we all sit at his feet and offer tribute of all our local knowledge and stored-up experience of many years, asking in return for that lively interest we never get from people who live in China, and who almost all seem to grow like the Chinese, apathetic, asking also for some accounts of his past, where he has travelled, what he has seen or done, for all of which there is such ample leisure as one can never find in world centres. Thus we sometimes think on our occa.nons we enjoy a fuller, richer intercourse with distinguished people than would be possible else-where except under similar circumstances. Most of these travellers are already well known to be collecting materials for their books, which all in due course have appeared and enriched the world's stock of knowledge, but two, who had specially strange tales to tell, have written no books, and as they seem never likely to do so I think some account of their wonderful experiences would be very acceptable to the general reader. The one is Miss Annie Taylor, at that time an Associate of the China Inland Mission. She passed through Chungking in the spring on her way home from Tibetan voyagings, which had extended over nearly a year, the greater and most difficult portion of her journey having been made in the depth of winter.

Miss Taylor, in addition to the suffering inevitable in a

262

LITTLE KNO WN BORDER TRIBES 263

country so bare of food and shelter as is Tibet, and in a climate where the strongest often succumb, had her exist-ence further imperilled by the treachery and cruelty of her Chinese servant, and was only saved on more than one occasion from being murdered by the interposition of the more chivalrous Tibetans ; and even then, nothing but the most undaunted resolution, coupled with a coolness and nerve as astonishing as it is admirable, saved her from perishing a victim to such cold and hunger as it seemed incredible a frail woman should have survived.

Miss Taylor was then a medium-sized woman of Saxon build, with brilliant brown eyes, the complexion of a traveller, and the air of one who had suffered much. Her bearing, her bright eyes and animated expression showed her to be a woman of resource and imagination, and in seeing her lively manner, notwithstanding her then weak state of health, one began to understand the influence she had been able to exercise over the savage people, amongst whom she had been travelling alone with her life in her hand. She was still full of enthusitusm for the civilisation and conversion of the Tibetans, which she hoped to com-municate to the people of England.

But she had, when we met her, just performed a feat which rivals in adventure, while in difficulties overcome it surpasses, the travels of even Captain Bower and Mr Rockhill. Alone, with the help of one Christian Tibetan, whom she brought with her from Darjeeling, she had penetrated to within three days of Lhassa, and returned alive to tell the tale. But for the abominable treachery of a Mohammedan Chinese, whom she engaged in Kansuh there seems little doubt but that she would have arrived in Lhassa itself. Miss Taylor first attempted to enter Tibet from the Indian side in 1887. Sikkim was not English then, and orders were given that no one should serve her. So though she had plenty of money she could buy nothing,

264 /-V THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

and was often vei y hungry. Then she got fever, and had no appetite. But after quinine her appetite returned, till she •lid not know which was worse, fever or hunger. Sometimes for days together she had nothing to eat but grains dropped, it would seem out of kindness, by some man ^'alking along the road eating. For all were ordered not to sell to her or in anyway supply her with food. Twice attempts were made to poison her, and for ten months she never saw another European.

Then she decided to try to get in from China, came round by sea and up the Yangtze, then on overland to Sungpan on the Tibetan border. After spending about a year on the frontier, living very quietly, not going out, but constantly entertaining 'I'ibetans in her house, she received various oH'ers of convoys to Lhassa. Before crossing the frontier, about which she had no trouble, she, however, engaged a ilohannnedan Chinaman, whase Tibetan name was Noga. She had two tents, four servants, and tried to L^vt trn rually goo<l horses by promising to give them nt tln' iouriu'v's uiid to Xo^^a. Hut all throuirh lier 'iitiicult ics al.out horsos se<'iii to have been endless. One ni" lit-r tirst srri<;us a«]\riiTiin's was being attacked by a l)an<i ot" biMLiands with wliitr fur (.'oats, leading each a spare In )!•-('. Two iiK'ii wnc kilh'(l, ci^^-ht woundt'd, and five out <<l" h(.'i' lioi'scs kijh'd, ]M'si(it'> much property lost. Thiiii^s wciiild havL* bcM-n nnicli \v<»rst' witli her, and possibly her whoh.' V)ainl would ha\t' l)(.'en killed, but that a Lama called out to tlh' n)hbc.'i->. " I Ih'V are wouicu ! All women I '' so slir was not pursued. Amonust Mongols and Tibetans it is esteemed a dnadl'ul thing t(.) strike a woman, so that all women go about unnrm**!. alth(>ui;h every num carries weapons. As Miss Taylor savs, 1)V the Tibetan religion it is forbidden to take life, whether a tlra's. a sheep's, or a man's. The conse([Uenc<' ol* wliich seems to be not that hunuxn life is respected but that all life is alike lightly esteemed.

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On the 28th of September the party crossed the Yellow River, there very narrow and dangerous, on yak skins blown out, with hurdles laid upon them, and drawn by horses. These rafts are awash all the time, and the water was ice-cold. They then found themselves in the very large Golok district, peopled entirely by robbers. Apparently a charming country to travel in, for Goloks never rob within their own territorv. But it is not so pleasant to get in or out of. Travellers in making con-tracts in Tibet always have to agree to pay for a yak, or horse, if it die, or gets stolen on a journey, but uoi if it be stolen by the (ioloks. The (ioloks' chieftain is a woman, and laws are strictly observed in her domains, inul 110 hrihf's itikvu. This is a fact of which the supporters of woman's suffrage might well make note. But it is to be feared that as women become more civilised they also grow more mercenary. At that time the Goloks related how Hve Russians came to travel through the country, and they themselves went out to attjick them five hundred strong, but could kill none, though twelve of tlieinselves were killed. Then after that came one traveller alone with a tin box. They all wanted that tin box, and still continued to reproach one another tliat they did not take it, but their belief was that (m opening it an army of soldiers would come out, and they thought the same with regard to Miss Taylor's two eases of chests of drawers. Injsides havini: manv other fabulous tales about her, which all prolmbly stood her in good stead.

At (me time it wjis so cold that touching a knife made the skin come off* and one of her servants lay dying, but as he was a Mohammedan he had to be washed l)efore he died, although this was nearly an impossibility. But it was managed someliow, naturally hiistening the man's end. and then after that the ditliculty was how to bury him. They found at last a piece of swampy ground, and iw it

268 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

was still' early in the winter it was poaaible to move a few aods. So they covered him op, bat not before the woItm were all howling round. She then went on to ffiigiaki^

and saw tive liundred of the men there start out on a free-booting exeuision. They think tliis quite a right thing to do, although small thefts are severely punished among them. She then crossed the Drichu, which she thought wiis possibly the head waters of the Yangtze, passed Gala

LITTLE KNOWN BORDER TRIBES 269

with its houses all set against the hill, the roof of one house serving as the terrace of the one behind, and de-scribed how the people there used nothing to enrich the ground, nor even removed the stones, but just plant barley every other year, leaving the ground to be refreshed by the sun between whiles. By far the larger number of Tibetans, however, live in tents even in that climate, so unsuited as one would think. In every way the people sought to prevent her from entering the Lhassa district by telling her of fighting going on there, but she learnt that an arrangement had been come to that travellers should not be interfered with. It was there, however, Noga, after repeated acts of insubordination, began to use violence to her, and at last tried to draw his sword. It was the Tibetans who saved her from her own Chinese servant, and saying there was no chief there able to protect her, sent her on under an escort. " Whether a foreigner or not, you are a woman," said the Tibetans. Miss Taylor's hardships would require a volume. Kor three days her party lost their road ; they had no tent. That and every comfort had had to be sold to pay her way, her servant having taken everything he could from her before he left her. When on the 24th December they found the road again, they just hid away in the hills for the whole of Christinas Day for rest. During all this part of the journey her sufferings from the rarity of the air were very great, palpitations, gasping, and inability to digest their barley food. Of even that they had so little. Noga had spread a report that Miss Taylor was travelling with a belt of gold and jewels round her waist. And she had, therefore, to travel by night, finding the cold beyond what anyone could imagine who had not felt it. Tea froze as soon as poure<l out, and for three nights they were only too thankful to find refuge in a cave with just room for them to lie down, half sufi'ocated bv smoke, so as to obtain

270 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

a little warmth. On the Slst December they cfOSBed the Drichu into the Lhassa district, but had to stop near Najuca within three days' journey of Lhasaa owing to Noga having gone befpre making a great merit of revealing that there was a foreigner coming. A military chief there-upon arrived from Lhassa, very gorgeous in his clothing and at first rough, then friendly and indignant at the Chinaman's treachery. There was a sort of triaL And no one who could should miss hearing from this heroie woman's own lips, how she stood out for her dignity as an Englishwoman till in the end she not only won respect from all, but convinced the chief of the truth of her story, thereby saving the lives of her two Tibetan servants, who the Chinaman had tried to make out were treacherously leading her into Tibet. The Tibetan chieftains told her as far as they were concerned she could go on to Lhassa, but they would lose their lives if she did ; meanwhile they assigned to her an official and nine soldiers to protect her against the Chinaman, besides supplying her most pressing necessities. Everywhere she said she found the Tibetans express likiiif^ for the English. They had been especially struck by the prisoners in the Sikkim war beincj kept alive, well fed, and actually supplied with money to go home with. So that there even seemed a little fear lest should there be another war the whole people would seek to be taken prisoners.

On the return j(Urney the horses, which in winter have to be fed with <(oat's flesh, tea, butter and cheese, none of which she could aflbrd, suffered so much from hunger they were always tumbling down, until Miss Taylor joined herself on to a yak caravan. Then the two hundred yaks made a way for the wliole party through twenty feet of snow. It was on the 22nd January Miss Taylor left the Lhassa district of Tibet, and on the 12th of April she reached Tachienlu after hardships such as it seems hardly

LITTLE KNOWN BORDER TRIBES 271

credible a woman should have surmounted. In Tibet she was always called Annie, the name for their women religious teachers, and to look more like one had all her hair cut of!'. It seems in Tibet there are the girls who are the mothers of children by the various visitors at their fathers' house — these children belong to the girls' fathers, and are made very useful. There are the wives of often more than one husband, generally two or more brothers having the same wife, and so on, and then besides these there are the Annies. There is no girl infanticide in Tibet as in China, and more men becoming Lamas than women Annies, those whom we call the surplus women become girl-mothers living on in their fathers' houses. Truth, tis well as what we call sexual morality, seems to be a virtue unknown among the Tibetans. But whether because of their vices or their virtues, Miss Taylor returned with her heart as much set as ever upon carrying the gospel of glad tidings to this people who, if they do wrong, yet at all events, as she says, do not conceal it. I'hcy do it openly.

This picture of Tibetans is so unlike anything that I have yet read in any book of travels that it seems to me well worth recording, but I owe it all to this most exceptional lady missionary, who has now again returned to the Indian side of Tibet to try to work among the Tibetans abroad, access into their own country being so difficult. Since then the Roman Catholics, owing to the persistent efibrts of that most indefatigable French Consul, M. Haas, have succeeded once more in reinstating their missions in Tibet itself. But it is a great cjuestion whetlier for Christianising the people work over the border is not likely to be more successful, just as I have for many years thought that missions to Chinese in Alaskan salmon canneries, or on Canadian railroads, or in American laundries might be more remunerative than in China itself.

272 IX THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

They would certainly excite no opposition in the tirst iustanct;, H.nd in the second, all those who have live<l for any time out of their own country niu^t be aware how. whether for ijcxid or ill. prejudices drop away, habits become

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LITTLE KNOWN BORDER TRIBES 273

to complete the change. At home amongst their old surroundings, entangled at every turn by the claims of family and the chains of old immemorial custom, it is altogether a difierent matter. These reflections were, however, first forced upon me among the Alaskan canneries. The landing was difiicult, a crowd of Chinese employed there stood watching. When it came to my turn to get out of the boat, and I paused for a moment, two Chinese men came forward and each offered me a hand to help. Through all the length and breadth of China I have never seen such a thino, but these men were already converts to the European idea of a man helping a woman. My own acquaintance with Til)etans is very slight: at the frontier town of Tjichienlu we were chiefly struck by the beauty and modest air of the young men we met, but those we admired seem to have been of the wild Menia tribe, not real Til >e tans.

It is of another of the tribes on the border of China that Mrs Pruen has told me. She can hardly be descrilxjd as a traveller, but, like Miss Annie Taylor, is also a inoinber of the (yhina Inland Mission, and h>is for many years resided in the province of Kweichow, which is still full of aborigines. In most cases the Chinese conquerors have al)sorbe<l their subject races, effacing all traces of distinctive customs ; not so in Kweichow, where the aborigines are still as much despised by the Chinese of the neighl)ourh(H)(l as if they were Westerners. They seem now chiefly to livt* in the hills, and in place of images they have talK upright stones to which they pay reverence. With the exception of Mr Bourne, whose notes of his travels were so unhappily lost in the Chungking riots, no one seems to have written about them, which will give additional interest to the following notes given nie by Mi*8 Pruen :-

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274 /'V THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN The Oatherini/ of the Miao Clan".

" For three days of the second month, the black Mlresseil Miaotse alwiriginea assemble to the number of about A tliousand persons to perform a rehgious dance similar lo the old English dances round the Maypole, only far more solemn.

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■■ l-fuviii;; lln' ]in)\ iticiiil oiipitul ;iltor hrfiikl'ast. anrl iic-L-oniiiaiiit.'d by two iiiitivi' women in MiitiU serlaii chairs, we siHDn bi-jinii to iisc'ini the hill> am! by mid-day were :i li-:i;,'ui' I'lit of till' city, t^'oin;,' iivii' barren hills whose valiiys wen- full nl' oiiiuiii. vi'irclabli- uil mid bean plants, with uceasional waste s]mcc>i I'lir ric. Tin' road was so lia.l we weir ^rlad To .^-t out ■•( thr eJiairs and walk.

LITTLE KNOWN BORDER TRIBES 275

then after another ten miles onwards and upwards, ac-complished just before dark, we found ourselves beside a small high plateau surrounded by conical hills. A Chinese qoal-owner most hospitably received our large party into his house; in the next room were several "Miao" women with their daughters, who had come for the dance. And next morning we watched the girls adorning themselves like English ladies going to a ball. They took four hours over their toilettes ; but these were most proper, as the time was from 8 a.m. till noon. The dress consists of several suits, colour nearly black, the jacket in cut something like a sailor's, leaving the chest exposed, and the skirt a clasely-pleated (accordion) skirt reaching just below the knees and resembling a kilt. The jacket and skirt were beautifully embroidered with coloured silks. The girls' hair is coiled slightly to one side and for the dance partly covered with broad- headed silver pins; unmarried girls wear a white handkerchief bound round the head, also round their necks three silver rings given by their j)arentH.

"At noon the dance begins. From between the conical hills come running down to the plateau scort^s of grown-up lads and lasses; the youths wear blue or dark-coloured robes girdled with beautifully-embroidered sashes crossed in front and folded at the back. Both young men and girls wear streamers or tassels falling down the back, the heads of both richly ornamented with silver, and embroidered cloths wound round their ankles. But the girls had neither shoes nor stockings. Both men an<l girls wore silver rings round their necks, some several. Each youth carried a six-tubed flute (^its music resembled the bass of an harmonium). The dance is con<lucted each day in the saiiu^ manner and very quietly, the youths and maidens together in groups of tive, six or seven forming large circles. Then the youths play a few bars

276 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

on ttteir flutes and finiBh by wnving them in the air, after which the one nearest Uie fair partnen gives them a nudge and the little party move ndAmys, a few stepa towards the left, the girls taking the lead. Then they

[By Mr Cpcrafi.

all stop; and the youths play a few more bars and the ceremony is repeated, so in tlie end all of them go round the pole several times. At sunset they all disperse to their lioliday quarters; and at these times the dance partners ex<'hange presents so that on the second day

LITTLE KNO WN BORDER TRIBES 277

some of the youths and maidens have each about twenty silver rings round their necks."

At the gathering of the Black Clan, March 1894, there were about four hundred youths and maidens. This gathering is held annually and at the same place for three years. Their embroideries seem to be about the richest. They are quite unlike Chinese embroidery, and are done on native cotton cloth of coarse description, entirely covered with silks of the richest possible dyes, such as we never get in Europe now, so that the general effect is almost that of jewelled embroidery. The Miao silver ornaments are curious. One of the tribe made a five days' journey from Kweichowfu, the capital of the province of Kweichow, to get some for me, and even then could not buy them, but got them made by his people. The richly-embroidered cloth in which a woman carries her baby on her back is said to take her a year to work, and one can readily believe this, it is so en-tirely covered with work.

On another occasion Dr and Mrs Pruen went to the gathering of the " Chung Family " clan. It was a festival of rejoicing that the rice would soon be ready for harvest, and had also a great deal to do with courtship. At this they said there were hardly any elderly people, but crowds of young men and girls dressed in their best. Their costumes resembled that of the Chinese, with the exception of having unbound feet and wearing a dark handkerchief bound prettily round the head. The inn was surrounded all day by people, and there were several thousand persons at the market. In the evening as the people separated they sang in groups, the girls by themselves and the men by them-selves, but their language being (juite different from Chinese, what they sang was unintelligible. ** We saw six or seven different tribes, distinguished by their dress. Just opposite our house, at different times during the day,

278 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN ^

yt>Dngmen danced and played tiieir luh-sbengs (ttutvK), tin-men dancing in pairs, and it iras un effective (tpectaclc. The Hoa Miao girls stood by watehing Lheiti. They had a pecaliar dress, a closely-Stting Uaek hood, and skirt» edged with white, which at the back were long and rounded and pleated. As the girls walked these skirts swun^r from side to side like crinolettes.

"The Hoa Miao in Anshnen had quite plain rings round their necks, bo had the Tsing Miao whose dance I witaeased. For head ornaments to wear at the dance, they charge an ounce of silver for the workmanship of an oance, because they make birds, etc. The long chain should be tied in a bow or knot at the front, and worn hanging down like tbo Chinese mandarin's Kv.a chu ze. I should think iit these dances they would wear forty ouncos of silver; it svems much, but I saw one man with so many iiecklaceH that he conld not bend his neck.

" You could not buy a skirt ; as each woman embroiders her own clothes, she values them much, and I think those who sell their clothes are those who have left their own people ftnd come to live in the city and adopt ChioMe drcRS. There are six chavy of cotton cloth in the skirt, thirty-one narrow widths, the deep embroidery ia worn at the back, and the skirt crossed in the front. The jacket is worn over apron and skirt and tied loosely at the bai^. For a dance there would be many rings and chains and the head richly ornamented with silver birds, etc., sometimoB to forty ounces in weight. The skirt worn at the danoe, if they can atford it, is embroidered one foot deep. Of course there are poor women who cannot afford many silvBT ornaments. This tribe do not wear shoes or stockings, few do. The Chongkin do, and theirs are like the Kwangsi or Kwangtung shoes in sliapc, pointed at the toes. Their dance is different from that of the Tsing Miao.

" This Heh Miao dance takes place in the third month

LITTLE KNOWN BORDER TRIBES 281

and is arranged thus : Men with luh-shengs in the centre in groups of five or seven, girls in a ring outside and friends and parents outside again as a protection. The men lead the dance and the girls follow, the step is three steps forward with one foot, three steps with the other foot, and then turn round three times ; the steps are like those of the Scotch Reel."

Diagram of the dance of the Tsing Miao (Aboriginal T^ribe) of Kweichow Province, China. (As sketched by Ur Pruen) : —

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At the gathering of the Black Dressed Clan, March 1894, there were about four hundred youths and maidens. It is held annually, and at the same place for three years.

CHAPTER XVII TABLE DBOORATIOKS

HOW interesting it woald be at a flower show to fbriNr of^en a table competition to Chinese men instead! of European ladies ! The idea has been by the extraordinarily elaborate and very taatefnl deeoim-tions lately seen in a remote outport, the one by a Ningpo boy, the other by a Pekingese. The Ningpo boy relied almost entirely on flat devices on the tablecloth; one a roHcbufth in miniature, formed of bits of flat graae for stalks, with leaves and rosebuds, all first detached, most ingeniously laid together. The napkin by this was twisted into a snake with red seeds for eyes, a Usfllt^ pupil to each, whilst the napkin opposite represented a wolf. Tlion came a landscape formed of very small bits of leaf, all <(reen, and somewhat poetic in character. l>eHide another plate a miniature Abutylon plant appeared (juite Hat on thi' table, formed a^ain of detached flower l(;av<;H and stalks, and this time with even the flowers pressed open and flattened. And so on all round the tabh*.

The Pekingese hardly equalled the Ningpo boy in this his own specialty of Hat pictures. But he had a bowl of magnificent crimson roses in the centre of the table, raised, and with a garland of flowers round the foot. His dishes of fruit were also particularly successful, being decorated with ilowers of the same tone of colour a3 the fruit, only stronger, his table being as a w^hole all orange and crimson, relieved only by the white of the cloth. But his forte was

282

TABLE DECORATIONS

283

exceptionally graceful sprays of Howers, all wiieil, and disposed in curves that balanced one another, and thus knit the whole decoration into one. These aprays were master-pieces and would certainly have carried off a prize ut any flower show.

Then there was a flat scorpion composed of tiny bits

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of featherj- leafage, also a dragon, and every here and there, lightly resting on the tablecloth, the most dainty ichneumons made out of pea blos.som, with lonj^ antenna' formed out of the tendrils. Beside the one lady guest wa.s a special ro«e spray wire- mounted, and of the lightest possible de.scription : poised on oni; of thf buds was a butterfly with wings wide dispread, and apparently

284 /-V THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

perfect plumage. And when one of the wings fell off, the Pekingese was equal to the occasion, and on having the spray returned to him soon brought it back again complete with a butterfly with four wings once more. In both these cases each guest had as it were two spedal pictures on the cloth on either side of his plate, beaides the general effect, and the occasional creature& Nothing could well be more amusing than an exhibition of a variety of such tables all equally fanciful, but differently thought out. Would it not make a furore in England. and it would certainly be a novelty even in Shanghai, where possibly there is Jis little Chinese decoration aa anywhere, certainly less than in Paris.

In an old-established Chinese Hong or house of business, or in a bachelor household where details are left to the Chinese butler and his aides, all of whom alike we call Boys, there is a method of decoration which I have not seen anywhere else but in China. It consists of coloured saud or sawdust sprinkled upon the tablecloth by the aid of a piece of cardboard cut like a stencil plate. Tlius tliore will be a broa<l border of coloured sand with ])0.ssibly something; of tlie nature of a key pattern added to it all up aiul down the table. The linst impression is that of a velvet .stripe in the tablcclotli, and though stiff I cannot but acknowledge the effect if well carried out is decorative, l)Ut all brides steadily set their faces against it, for is it not unlike anytluiitr we have in England? Therefore when a man marries he must as a rule say good-bye to coloured sawdust on his tablecloth. Tlie puzzle, however, to my mind is where have Chinese servants learnt thus to decorate <linner tables, wliere have they acquired and practised tlie flattened llowei' landscapes I began bj' describing i For at no Ciiim*se feast, wedding, or dinner party have I ever set'u any arrangement of any kind of flowers whatsoever upon the table. There are flowers

TABLE DECORATIONS 287

in every Chinese lady's and little girl's hair, flowers in vases, but no flowers upon the dinner table. Is it possible that the Indian garrison in China may some day enlighten us as to the origin of what I have possibly hastily called Chinese table decorations ?

Chinese have no cloth upon the table, and our table-cloths produce anything but a festive impression upon their minds from their colour, white being with them associated with mourning. It is possible they therefore cast about for anything to give colour. Japanese are even worse otf' than Chinese in this respect, for they not only have no tablecloths but no tables, the pretty dinner tray before which they sit resting upon their heels not deserving to be ranked as a table. They very commonly, however, have a vase with a spray ot flowers placed alongside of the meal. Not so the Chinese. Yet I have tried up country with a Chinese boy, who has barely seen a foreign dinner table, never waited at a foreign dinner party, and on just bidding him : ** Make the table look pretty," been always delighted with the result. On one occasion I remember amongst other things we had pumeloes (like large oranges) peeled, the inside taken out, and a little light placed in its stead, and thereby extra fairy lamps extemporised, which at once quite cast into the shade the by comparison clumsy fairy lamps brought from London. Even the coolie, who carries a load for you, will at once understand, when he knows that you wish it, how to decorate your table for you. And as a general rule I have found the more untaught the Chinese, the less Europeanised, the more artistic will his flower arrangement be, although there is a curious uncertainty in his mind, such as I have found in some children's, as to which flowers must be reckoned dead. Dead leaves have often beautiful colours. Why not dead flowers, too, he thinks ?

aS8 AV THE LAXD Of THE BLUE GOltW

His eye for eoloar ia oot &s uors, but obe«rA'iiirr the bcMitiia) blendlDg of aaaiiy deiieUe ttnte ia the ordinary dras of a yonn^ Chinese duidy, uid contrasting thiit eoloor cyBphoDy with the pronooDL-ecl coloor coDtraH in tbe dresB of a y(>ai)g Lontloa liAndy, and tbe oft^o loodij '•*«■''' ""g eoloars in the dress of a fashionable lady, I sometimes fancy that it is oar ftat^e of colour, oot theirs, that is at faolL Tbey are naturally hardly to Uame if — &Ekdin^ we will bay them at higher prices becattse they are new— they tara oat enibnnderies for the Earopesn market with sQks dyed for cheapness with dyes from Germany. It is not China that invented these last, bat Europe. Eorope sells, and China bays and aell& back to Eorope again. The old embroideries have tints not as beaatifol a& the woDderfnlly rich tinut of the aborigioes' inn broidery deeeribed in another chapter, bat at least ri>-alliiig the beaotifal ookiars at tbe ceilings in the British L^gaden and otber P^ag palaces.

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CHAPTER XVIII WHAT ARE MISSIONARIES DOING?

WHAT are missionaries doing is a question so often asked in England, if not in China, that perhaps a few words as to what I saw and heard, as I passed up the great River Yangtze in 1899, may be of interest. To begin with Chin-kiang, the first port, the American Methodist Episcopal Girls* School there has already won itself quite a name. The girls have the advantage of a very skilled and energetic music teacher, they have sweet voices, and, as other schools say enviously, music is such a showy thing. They certainly sing very agreeably, and are capable of dealing with very difficult music. But the remarkable feature of this school, to my mind, is the way in which all up and down the river as one comes across a young Chinese woman with agreeable, friendly face and eyes, that show intelligent interest in what goes on around her. one is always told, " Oh ! she was brought up in Miss Robinson's school." There are already many apparently happy marriages, where the wife and mother owes her teaching to this school. Children of the second generation are now following its courses, and Miss Robinson herself, though always looking frail and easily tired, is hoping to educate a third genei'ation. The girls brought up in her school, when married, keep their babies clean, their houses clean, have their gardens full of flowers, and do all the many little things the poor club-footed women of China generally cannot even attempt ; for from

the outset Miss Robinson's girls have stood up firmly on

291

292 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

their feet, and walked with a hop, skip and jomp like the girls of other lands. Their whole phjrsique has in con-sequence suffered change, and the improvement in looks must be patent to the most casual observer. That they are happier than most Chinese women I think no one oonld look at them and doubt.

There were about seventy girls at the school, a rather larger number of boys at the adjacent boys' school, and there seemed to be therefore no difficulty in finding husbands for the girls, which the Roman (Catholics were till the other day alleging as a reason for not unbinding the feet of the girls consigned to them. If this difficulty can so easily be overcome by Protestant missionaries, why should not it be overcome by Roman Catholics? Is their influence less strong with their people ? Since then I am glad to see Roman Catholic schools have come to the conclusion that it is not.

If the American school in Kiukiang does not sing quite as well as at Chin-kiang, yet it would be well worth while to visit it if only to see the girls at their calisthenic course. To see over sixty Chinese girls all going through their exercises together, and though quite gracefully yet getting rosy and merry in the process, was a very pleasing sight. I also noticed with satisfaction that till school began the girls were all most actively engaged in foot shuttlecock or skipping. There were four funny little orphan girls of four, all dressed alike, at this school, and like the quaintest of little Dutch dolls in their blue and white clothes and general roundness.

There was also a large school for women being trained to be Bible women. Then there were young men who had been sent to America to be educated, and above all, there were two Chinese lady doctors, who had passed all their medical examinations brilliantly, and were then busy with numerous patients, as also building a hospital. Dr Shih, or Stone,

WHAT ARE MISSIONARIES DOING? 293

and Dr Kalin are two very remarkable young women. I do not know which to admire most, the way in which, now they have returned to their native land, they conform to Chinese eticjuette and live a quiet, retired life after the fashion of their country, or the way in which one of them will go out twelve or fourteen miles into the country on a dark night to prescribe for a critical case, or with the soft voice of a Chinese lady will yet succeed in making herself easily and pleasantly heard over a large lecture room. Dr Kahn is a gardener, and her chrysanthemums are a show, especially in the way she arranges them in imrterres on either side of the stove. Dr Stone's Chinese is the best, but both talk English fluently. What will be the outcome of all these Americanised Chinese one wonders a little. Two more young Chinese girls have since been sent over to America to study. ^Ir Jackson's large boys' school was almost more a college than a school, the boys being all but young men : and they certainly appeared as if they would do credit to the careful, conscientious teaching into which Mr Jackson seemed to put all his heart. He has since then, as it would seem unfortunately, been removed to another sphere.

At Nanking ])r Stuart presides over a university with every kind of improved appliance. 1 felt envious of the Chinese young men, when I thought how I had been brought up without even the traditional pair of globes, whilst they have instruments showing how the moon goes round the earth and the planets go round the sun, and all manner of scientific facts which I have been told but never before saw illustrated. They study English too, in the most advanced manner, and have the most comfortable of seats for working on ; and above all, they all looked as if their faculties were at full stretch, with indeed an air of excitement about them quite unlike the usual Chinese bearing. 'I'here are three, if not more, hospitals at Nanking. There is a large school full of very natural -footed girls,

294 /-V i'lif^ LAND OF THE ni.VE GOWN

(ind I believe several othei-s also. Most of the baildings Uiere are the gift of private personal friends of the work, not paid for onb of the mission funds. But I have not been insjiecLing mission works — only whilst engaged in otiier work aaw some things which I think it may interesi others to hear about.

[«y Mr, Iry.

At Wuhu missionary buildings have always been the fiiiture. Tlioy are now, however, more striking and larger than ever before. At i-chih-.shan, the beautiful wooded promotory a little way below Wuhu, the houses are not so large, although they have an exceptionally luxurious appearance from the way in which they are

IVHAT AkE MiSSlOJVAklES DOING? 295

mounded up, as also from the quantity and variety of trees round them, all planted by Dr Virgil Hart, who bought this site for the American Mission before leaving it. But the Alliance and one or two other missions have now erected huge blocks of building on the Wuhu hills. I never can help regretting that it seems impossible to carry on missionary work without such very large houses, giving the effect as if the various missions sat down out-side a Chinese city in fortresses to lay siege to it. But in this instance, among the Protestants the largest and most conspicuous building is Dr Egerton Hart's new hospital on the top of I-chih-shan. And at the outside it can only accommodate about seventy patients, and, whilst supplied with every necessary, it certainly does not err on the side of luxury. Dr Hart is already planning to build on to it.

He has for five years paid the working expenses of this hospital by the results of his private practice. How many men have done this ? He is Customs doctor, and prac-tises among both Chinese and foreigners, and the Chinese are grateful patients. Lord Li gave him a thousand dollars for his hospital, besides a magnificent silver tea service for Mrs Hart, and various other gifts. Another grateful Chinese was going to give a thousand dollars too, but then intended to give a thousand dollars a year. The Harts' drawing-room is beautiful with priceless pieces of old porcelain, in like manner presented. All this shows how his services have been appreciated and speaks volumes also for its success; for it may be noted that Li Hung Chang's family have paid nothing. Had Li Hung Chang recovered it had been intended to do great things. The Chinese do not pay doctors for their good intentions, but in accordance with their results.

People are fond of asking — Do you think the Chinese will ever thank you for what you are doing for them ? It seems they will thank when they are grateful, and that

296 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

they are grateful when they feel that they have been

served.

How many Europeans in China have ever even heard of Nan-chang-f u ? I am not consciooa of ever having done so till the other day. Yet it is the provincial capital of the well - known province of Kiangsi, in which liea the old-established port of Kiukiang. " Some of the gentry sent a request that you would go there and hold a meeting last year," said the well-known Miss Howe of the latter place. '* A — h ! But that was last year/' I added, " before the Co\Ji.p d'EtaC Then I heard the Nichols of the American Mission were stationed there, and I knew them, sa that was a reason for going, but then Mr Nichols was jnat going away to attend their annual meeting at Nanking, so that again was a reason for not going. In the end a young Chinese, who had studied five years in Ainericft» was willing to go too, and serve as interpreter, and so I started by one of the little steamers belonging to an enter> prising Mr Dzo, who had started steamers on the Pqyang Lake, and was still allowed to use his steamers for those towing purposes for which they were built. Although in other eases steamers are not allowed to tow on inleuid waters. He has gone to heavy expense in dredging work, in con-sideration of being granted a monopoly of steamer traffic for ten years, but before live years have expired a rival company is running a steamboat, not intended to tow but to carry passengers, and therefore more comfortably fitted up, thus entering into the results of his dredging labours without paying for them. Such is life ! as Virgil taught us centuries ago, Sic V08 nan vobis.

We left Kiuking at four o'clock one afternoon and reached Nan-chang-fu about four o'clock the next day, and the journey was not at all as interesting as I had looked for. We pa.ssed Hukow and the Great Orphan, which

WHAT ARE MISSIOA'AKIES DOING? 297

look so picturesque as secu from tlie Yaugtze, iu the dark, having delayed a long time taking in coal, which we did again next day at Wucheng, a very important city with a fine pagoda and rows upon rows of large junks with very high prows ; after that, instead of the lake marked in the maps, there were only long reed beds and shallows, and flights of white doves, and strips of yellow sand, till we

entered the Inner Itiver. as it is culled, and eventually arrived at Nan-chang-fii, with its tine backing of distant mountains. Mr Nichols new huuse. some way outside the city, is the most striking object as one approachfs, looking even bigger than it really is, for the situation is nil exposed one, catching every breath that blows np the river. There was a bitter northerly gale blowing as we arrived, and one cannot but regret that it should be .so exposed and yet

2g« IN THE LAXD Of THE BLUE GOWN

more that it should be so conspicuoos and bo much grander looking than any other house. It is not, however, really at all grand, nor even so very large, and it is very difficult as all architects know to build exactly the right honse really suited to the locality where it is to be seen. More conspicuous even than the house are. when one enters the city, the churches built by the Chinese at their own expense for their own uae in worshipping the Heavenly Father of us all. Mr Xichols has been working in the dis-trict for barely three years, living for six months in a house in the Chinese city, and for about six weeks in bis Bne new house outside. Miss Abbott and his wife are his only foreign helpers, and the tatter is somewhat heavily handicapped for direct nii.^sionary work by the care of three children, two requiring lessons and the younger one reijuiring constant attention. The district these three are trying to Christianise contains seven millions of people. It seems absurd to think of only these three effecting any chant^e at all among so many. But they have already a large number of native preachers. I think I saw about twenty of them going off to the annual meeting at Nanking, and they looked a most energetic company. There are already thirty-six preaching places in the dis-trict.

In each of their twelve districts there i.s now property either owned or rented. And not a penny of* the money needed for all this has been paid from home, but all by the Chinese Christians themselves, with the exception of five hundred and fifty-nine dollars so far contributed by Mr Nichols. The chapels, too, have all been provided by the Chinese for themselves. And by no means poor, con-temptible little chapels in out-of-the-way dirty mean streets, such as one sees sometimes. Nan-chang-tu is a very fine and rich city, with a great network of streets, full of articles of luxury, and with a large bazaar outside

-^

WHAT ARE MISSIONARIES DOING? 299

the beautiful Temple of the Myriad Years, the bazaar re-calling the Asaeusa in Tokyo, the network of streets recall-ing tlie Palais Royal as it used to be, dark and i>oky, but amusing. And there, a little beyond this temple and the principal theatre opposite, just outside the mast crowded gate of the city, is the new chapel the Christian Chinese are building, for though begun lirst, this chapel is not quite

;, M,- /■:.-,

finished yot. 'I'he towt-r is forty feet high, and somewhnt omaineutcd as to its arches with serpt'utim- curves: it has also pinnacles to its tower. It is of red brick, use<i for the first time in Xaii-chinig. and of a very ro^y tint. Aljout three hundred people can be seated in that chapel, hut there is another smaller cliapel for al)out two liiuidred people on to the street, and that can any day be thrown into it by means of folding doors. There is a nice dwelling-

300 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

place above for the Chinese preacher, with a beaatiful out-look on to the picturesque gateway, the crowds ever hurrying in and out, the booths, the conjurers, and all the other diversions apt to assemble outside a^ city gate. Just opposite is a very favourite temple with a courtyard larger than itself, full of tall, red yaraen poles deposited there in thanks for prayers that have been heard. The conjorers^ the Buddhist temple — with theatricals going on inside, when we happened to see it! And now the Christian chapel fast nearing completion, and built by the people thepaselves for themselves ! Which will prevail ? At the other end of the city is another somewhat smaller chapel already finished all but the painting. It stands on one of the principal thoroughfares, and will hold about three hundred people, with a slightly lower tower of red and glazed bricks. It is very neat, only redeemed from plain-ness by its lofty raftered roof. It is on the site of a smaller chapel pulled down, and had just been dedicated the Sunday before I arrived.

I tried to view the congregation with as critical an eye as possible, but — there is One only Who can read hearts. All I saw was a congregation almost entirely of men, who appeared mostly to be of the teaching or literary class, and who seemed very intent upon what they were about. There were a great many more women in the afternoon when, an anti-footbinding address being announced, which it was thought would specially concern them, the best places were given to the women, the men only reserving to themselves the left side of the church and all the back part of it. There was then a fair sprinkling of very well-dressed, tidy-lookmg women and more than a sprinkling of very studious-looking men. A well-dressed merchant of a most energetic type conducted the meeting. Although still carrying on an important business he is most anxious to be licensed as a preacher, and evidently has vitality and

^~a I

IVHAT ARE MISSIONARIES DOING? 303

earnestness that combined must always make a rousing speaker. There were about two hundred present. Several declined to join the Natural Feet Society because they had already unbound their feet, so could do no more they thought Some had no money with them. Some were strangers they said, others joined, and probably a very much larger number would do so, when they had thought it over a little. But description of this meeting, though the reason of my going to Nan-chang-fu, is a diversion here.

In Feng-chen-hien the people of the city had actually presented a Buddhist monastery to l)e converted into a chapel, and already twelve converts had been l>aptised there. There was a large temple adjoining, out of which the idols had been removed, because the people objected to their remaining so close to Christian preaching. The elders of the city were then considering presenting this temple also. In that case there will l>e a chapel capable of holding about one thousand two hundred people.

In Kien-chang-fu the (Christians of that city had presented the mission with a splendid property for which they had paid. It is the ancient site of the palace of the Emperor Yin, in the heart of the city on an elevation commanding it. Mr Nichols recently Iwiptised ten men there, four of them degree men, so that it is not wonderful that the Prefect of that city, when calling upon him, re-marked that many of the best people of the city wore connected with the Christian Church.

In Nan-feng-hien thirteen men had been recently baptised, seven of them degree men, and the jHiople there were planning to build a good church, if only a preacher could be assigned to them.

Those at Fu-cheo-fu were also talking of building next year. Thus this district then reported four hundre<I and two members, one thousand seven hundred and thirty-two

304 /^ THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

probationers, four thousand iAqairers. It» had eonfcribated during the year for church purpbe^ f 68689 and owned property whose approximate value was $16,000 ($1 about

Considering that work in this district was began in October of 1896 it is surely not depreciating the miaaion-aries in charge to say, " This is the -Lord's work, and it is marvellous in our eyes." And if as some people fear mixed motives may have conduced to some of these wnnderfol things, such as a wish to gain some sort of foreign support in opposition to the Roman Catholics, who are said by their detractors to count amongst their numbers many of the high-waymen of the district and other formidable characters, yet did not mixed motives have something to do with some of the baptisms that followed upon Constantine's ? Are not the majority of us probably in the first instance Christians because our fathers were before us? In any case is not the movement of which I have attempted to give some outline at least worth noticing and watching, and possibly helping ?

Continuing to travel round China I have heard of many similar movements towards Christianity, but perhaps of none altogether so remarkable.

CHAPTER XIX.

PART I. — AN ANTI-FOOTBINDING Tol'H TO HANKOW, WUCHANG, HAN-YAN(J, CANTON AND HONG-KON(i

^I'^HOSE, who reineiiiWr their sensations as children, ^ when first tjiken to plunt^e into the cold sea, can realise a little the feeling, with which I contemplated starting off on a tour round the south of China among complete strangers to oppose footbinding, one of China's oldest, most deep-rooted, domestic customs.

The honorary secretary of our Natural Feet Society — to translate its Chinese name of Tien Tsu Hui — liad done her best to prepare the way by writing beforehand to say that I was coming on behalf of tlie society, and the China Merchants' Company — tin' one great Chines(» steamship comjMiny — had most kindly at once granted me a free pass bv their steamers all round Chimi, but this made me all the more feel that I must work hard and acconjplish much in onler to justify tlu'ir liberality. They had promised intro<luctions to lea<ling ('hinese. Hut I had but few in-troiluctions to Europeans, an<l having mostly lived in the far west of China had hardly any ac<|Uaintanee in the south.

We had taken of late to inviting (Chinese officials to our meetings, and I still recalled the sinking of my heart when, the new Victoria Hall havinif been hired at Hankow, and the chairman of the Municipal Council liaving himself arranged the seats, the au<lience l>egan to come in, official after official, some with retinues, some without, some also

3o6 IN THE LA AW OF THE BLUE GOWN

with that tremendous swagger, that makes one feel, as if the man, who thus walked, could think no subject in heaven or earth worthy of his interest. The Consul introduced me in brief words, and then I had to stand up and front them, realising to the fullest extent exactly how strange, how unheard-of, these Chinese officials must consider a woman addressing them at all, and especially on that, to them, exceptionally indelicate subject — women's feet. I (lid not wonder my Chinese interpreter's courage gave way, and he became to all intents and purposes voiceless, for to him these officials were far more awe-inspiring personages than even to me. A well-known missionary with a fine knowledge of Chinese collo(iuial and a powerful voice came to the rescue. And keeping a firm hand upon myself lest I should laugh aloud, the whole scene striking me as so irresistibly comic, I proceeded to do my very best to make it seem anything but laughable to my Chinese hearers. ( )ver two thousand leaHets antl tracts against footbinding were carri(Ml off' from that meeting, and even then some of the princijml ufiicials were still asking for more as they went awav.

Hankow is but onu of three cities that meet together, only sL'j)arat<'«l l»y lliu Han and Yani^lze Kivers. Wucliann^. which lios opposite to it across the Yangtze, is the seat oi" (hina's nlo^t learned Viceroy, Chang Chili Tung. His literary sU'le is considered inimitable, and we had taken care to decorate our hall with huge red placards contain-ing his words against footbinding, in which the reasons for doing away with this most damaging custom are so well stated it seems almost needless for anything further to be written in that classic (.'liinese--or Wenli — of which the Viceroy is a ])ast master. Obviously for the 'stupid" peo])le sinij^lei' vt'rsions are reciuired. One military mandarin (»nly deigned to study this placard without c<jndescending apparently to listen to any of niv

AN ANTI'FOOTBINDING TOUR

309

words of wisdom, but he signed on as a member ot our society at the end, whilst the chief magistrate of Han-yang, the smallest of the three cities and separated from Hankow by the Han whilst lying on the same side of the Yangtze, signitied to the meeting that he had never per-mitted footbinding in his family. This nuturally produced

a [irofoumlimpresNion. And then thedi-niand for the tracts began, for if the great Viceroy at Wuchang condemned foi'tbinding, ami the chief magistrate at Han-yang had all tlie womimkind in bis family unbound, wluit was the purely conimercinl city of Hankow that it should stand against such bright exanijiles in high places '. And whi> could fail to wish to convince his womankind to give up this most troublesome and trying practice ? The interpreter,

3IO IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

before the meeting began, and when he was not yet voice-less, had already confided to me that he had twice taken the band^iges off his own little daughter's f eet» bat that her mother had always replaced them. For though it is to please men and win husbands of good social position for their daughters that women bind their little girls' feet, it is again and again the case that the elder men, especially amongst the learned classes, object to the practice as barbarous; just as men of a certain age in Europe denounce ear-piercing, tight-lacing, high heels, whilst yet women know but too well how the eyes and inclinations of the younger and marriageable part of the male community are attracted by these or any other follies plainly done to please, and thus serving to a certain extent as an announcement of the desire to captivate.

That public meeting at Hankow was quickly followed by another at Han-yang, of those who were believed to be convinced on the subject. Yet when the women, who had U7ibonnd their feet, were asked to stand up and one after another they slowly rose till the whole number were standin*^, we all thoujjht tliere must be some mistake, and yet more carei'ully and slowly the request was explained to them. On wliich all the <i^ood- humoured Hnpeh faces were rounded with m smile of great amusement as like one mass the women once more all arose. There had been meetings for the young men of the upper classes before that at Wuchang, and meetings for ladies, at which the whole room tittered on the ridiculous question being put to them, as to whether any woman ever bandaged her feet for her own amusement or delectation. With their feet all aching the ladies laughed at the idea ! And as I walked along the street of the provincial capital next day it was delightful to see children running out from quite grand official dwellings to ask if any leaflet could be spared for their household. But that meeting at Han-yang where

AN ANTLFOOTBINDING TOUR 311

the women rose en masse on u7ibound feet was the crowning finish, after which I left the familiar valley of the Yangtze, and returning to Shanghai prepared for this strange tour into the unknown south.

It would be difficult to say how very kindly was the welcome of the till then unknown Europeans, and what trouble they took to help forward the movement to set the women of China on their feet again. But to English readers the most interesting thing is to hear about Chinese. The chief feature of the visit to Canton con-sisted in an interview, accorded as soon as asked for, with the then Viceroy, Li Hung Chang. Additional piquancy wius given to this because the British Consul, when asked in the first instance whether he could give an introduction or in any way facilitate it, pronounced it such an impossibility that a Chinese Viceroy should be willing to receive a lady, tliat he seemed to think it even unnecessary to say he could render no assistance in a matter so contrary to all decorum. Happily Mr Volpicelli. Consul-General for Italy, residing in Hong-Kong, had thought otherwise, and already furnished me with a letter to his friend Lord Li — Li I lung Chang's adopted son. I therefore wrote to Lord Li indicatin<r how much it would help forward the anti-footbinding movement, if I could gain any sign of approbation from the Viceroy, and asking whether he could in any way arrange it, mentioning at the same time that, whilst myself ready to set aside any other engagement for the purpose, a well-known and greatly respected American lady doctor would be able to accompany me if a certain day could be fixed upcm : if otherwise I must go alone. Lord Li immediately replied appointing a day and hour when the latter could accompany me, although without his knowing it the time he selected was singularly inconvenient, being that already appointed for a meeting of Chinese ladies. There had

312 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

been before this a meeting of men and women at the Presbyterian Chapel, somewhat brilliantly began by Ifisa Dr Fulton presenting' diplomas to two Chinese lady, medical students. They were very gaily dressed, so alsa were all their friends and companions to do them hononr. The chapel was very elaborately decorated with innumer-able little shrubs twisted and wired in the Chinese fashion^ and a further festive touch was imparted from the hymns used on the occasion having been printed on rich red paper. Thus, when all the audience fluttered and turned the hymn sheets, it looked as if the chapel were filled with a flight of bright red birds.

Dr Kerr, the oldest missionary at Canton, who then saw his life work all around him, the men's and women's hospital, all built and for so many years managed by himself, presided on the occasion and told a curious story of the greatest compliment, that had ever been paid to his medical skill, when some twenty years or more before a lady had come from afar to put herself under him as a patient. Both her feet liad mortified ofl' through binding ; slie had however brou^^ht tliem with her — in sjnrlts, an<i now w^anted the foreic^n doctor, who could do such wonders, to fasten tlieni on for her again. How niiiny women in China would be thankful if this could be done, aud would not consider the pain they had undergone if only medical skill were eijual to thus repairing its visible effects ! The captain of a Chinese man-of-war, who had previously studied at Yale College, most kindly served as an interpreter, and from the eager attention and bursts of laughter it was evident not a point was lost. Though once or twice the gallant captain paused visibly, and looked with some hesitation at the screened-off side of the chapel, where amongst the other women sat his own wife, known as one of the richest as also one of the tightest-bound ladies of Canton. He however gathered up his

AN ANTI^FOOTBINDING TOUR 313

courage and interpreted bravely, and I have never addressed an audience, that seemed so much moved as that Cantonese audience, if one might judge by their laughter, generally a pretty fair indication in China, or by the way in which they all crowded up to the top of the chapel to pay each a small sum of money, and receive a paper indicating their association with the Natural Feet Society. It was impossible for the women to join there and then, as they could not get through the crowd of men, but the naval captain's wife took an opportunity after-wards for saying that she was going to let out her feet, had indeed already begun to do so, whilst an old woman of over seventy was eager to relate that, although no one had had courage to advise her to do so at her age, yet she had let out her feet ; and though for some time she had certainly sutfered very much, yet, determined to continue as an example to others, she was now thankful to say she suffered no more and could as we saw step out wonderfully well even considering her age alone.

The next day was settled for a meeting of ladies with bound feet, no others to be admitted. And then Lord Li appointed the very day and hour for an in-terview with the Vicerov, and to crown all it set to and poured — as it never can pour in England. Thus only nine Chinese ladies turned up, and even then we were astonished to see so manv, for Chinese dread the rain even more than English cats do. I had only time to say a few words, before leaving them with many apologies, but there was again a proof of how little importance we instruments are in the world, for although the meeting would never have been called but for my visit to Canton, and the ladies had been invited to meet me, yet when I went away and left them, the other European ladies pleaded so efficaciously that all nine Chinese there and then decided not only to join our

314 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUB GOWN

society but themselvea actnolly to niibiiul, to attain which blessed result I cannot believe any eloquence of mine would ever have sufficed. Meanwhile Dr Fulton

|«V Mts Cfril noirnl,<!i.

and I proceeded to the Viceroy's official residence, on and on through imrrow, crooked streets, in sedan chaii-s into which the rain streamed upon us, till at last after rather over an hour we arrived at the yanien, chilled and damped, but I at least on the tenter-hooks of ex-

^.V ANTl-J'OOTJilNDIXa TOUR

3"S

pcctation, for in all the yettin I had spent in China, I had cevur been inside an official residence. I)r Fulton had already, and maintained from the outset that it waj^ sure to he dirty, diliipidated and raniblin<;, and altojjether uninilircssive. Her description from iuiagjoa-tion proved fairly accurate, though I think Imd the day

U-y» tin,- thr ;.|,pr..,u-h Oin.U-h -i

Wr

Nil..

[ II., Mr. /.■«.

licymid pile-

pa-isiii;; hy iinr in wliicli a mundurin -at <owcrinf; in furs lunl iiiueli anxiety, Th.- two iiitirj.rutiTH Joim-d uh aluioKt immediately, bird Li luid Dr Mak. and vt-ry shortly word was wnt that Li Hunjj C'lmn^j wan ready

3i6 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

to receive us, and after passing along a long corridor, a spacious courtyard on either side, and to the right an aviary full of birds, we were received by the great man standing at the door of his little reception-room^ a most imposing figure, six foot four in height, dad in an ermine-lined gown down to his feet, and a beaatifnl sable cape, with diamonds actually in the front of his cap as well as on his fingers. This at least my missionary friend told me with an American's qaick-ness of sight for diamonds and sables. I only noticed his great height, uncommonly European type of feature, and piercing glance, as he received us most graciously^ and waved us to seats at a round table in the middle of the room. There was one especially cushioned arm-chair for the old man, and an attendant stood dose at hand to help him into and out of it. Lord Li sat down opposite, as we took our seats on either side of the Viceroy, Dr Mak drew up another chair to his right and somewhat in the rear, and a line of men servants stood at 'tention all down one side of the room. This line of listening servants is what stands for public opinion and the press in Chiufi. It is also through them that the most important State secrets are known to the man in the street before diplomatists have even taken them in !

I always try — though probably unsuccessfully — to be above prejudices, but I must confess that Li Hung Chang probably never received anyone, who held a darker view of his past history, yet in but a few minutes he had so entertained and charmed as to have quite disarmed me. Footbinding, the subject about which I had come to talk, was of course the subject he tried to avoid, and as I had not come about him the Viceroy wanted to talk to me about my husband, telling me when they had last met, and all they had

AN ANTl-hOOTBlNDING TOUR

3>7

said to oat' unotlier, chaffiD^ me about the results oE that interview, the rocks and rapids of the Yangtze, Hnd the insuperable diHicultieH steamers would encounter in the Yangtze gorges. I ventur<;d to tell him that, notwithstanding all these, my husband had taken a steamer through the Yangtze Hapids. and that on

iiipu

lliat occasion I had bee

oisly other Kuropeaii. " V

l.i Hung ('liang. " NUt ?

to coiiii' ;nid n'h' a Cliim

having ko far Cfmntcrvd 1

unfold the objects of aiy

see little childivn sutler over having their feet bound,"

grumbled out the genial Viceroy. " Hut then I never

I /(.« Mr, I,-.,

eing the L'd couritge," said 1 as when I presume<l <roy," I replied, and t attack proceede<l to " No, I do not like ti>

3i8 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

do see them," he hastened to add. I told him his brother's descendants, his own relations were many of them not binding. He could not believe this, so I ventured to say something about his mother. **Oh» she only let out her feet when she was quite old," said Li Hung Chang. ^'I think all the women in the Li family have always been bound." Then as I looked discouraged, knowing it was not the ease with the present generation, yet not liking to set the great man right about these family details. Lord Li politely in-terposed: "I can tell you of one who never has been and never will be, my own little girl." Li Hung Chang apparently thought it discreet not to seem to hear this» as he proceeded, **And you want me to unbind the feet of the women of China? No! now, that really is beyond my powers. Do you premeditate getting one kind of shoe to suit all the women of China? Because 1 can tell you beforehand that cannot be done. 1*11 answer for that. Do you want me to give you a writing like Chang Chih Tung ? Well, then you know, it must be an essay," he groaned out with a smile of amusement, as much as to say, the writing of essaj's is not much in my line, and I'm rather old to set about it now. The bright idea however occurred of asking him simply to write something on my fan a.s a recognition of the movement, and with the greatest good nature he called two servants to lift him out of his arm-chair, for with his great height and advanced years he could not then stand up or sit down unaided^ and walking to a writing table proceeded there and then to write an inscription, which has been shown at every anti-footbinding meeting since, and carried great weight. Lord Li took^ pains to point out that it might be put to this use, })ut also added good-naturedly that if he could he would get his father to write some-

AN ANTI-FOOTBINDING TOUR 319

thing more, but that really he was rather over busy, especially for hi» great age. We took this as a signal that we should withdraw, but tlie Viceroy begged us to remain till he had presented Dr Fulton with a hundred dollars for her hospital, insisting that she must take them away with her. He asked all manner of questions about the hospital, and scrutinised her subscription list very carefully, whilst the money was being brought. Then he grumbled out, turning to me, "You know if you unbind the women's feet you'll make them so strong, and the men so strong too, that they will overturn the dynasty." I have often thought of this prediction of Li Hung Changs since, whilst wondering what it is in his manner that so disarms suspicion, even dislike. He is evidently exceptionally quick and capable for a man of his years of any nationality, extraordinarily so for a Chinese, he has also that blufi* frankness, that manner of Ixjing forced to say things just so, that La Bruyere says is the only manner of correctl}' paying a compliment, as if it must out — even against possible better judgment. And with all this he has evidently an unfeigned and very ("hinese love for a war of words and a joke wherever to be found. That he has a charm none who talk with him can doubt, and the idea could not help crossing my mind how often Tse Hsi must regret that he is no longer her right-hand man, and that something or someone ever came between them. For with that imposing personality beside the throne the Dowager Empress must surely have felt a cheerier as well as a safer woman.

At Hong-Kong, thanks to the kindness of the (Governor's wife. Lady Blake, who presided at the meeting arranged by ilr Pollock, then Acting Solicitor-General, the way was made very ea.sy. The city hall was tilled and very inHuentially, many seeming anxious to do what they

320 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

could, although the language difficulty lay like an iron bar betweeo ao many and any practical work. The Ohioeae Club, formed the year before on the lines of a Earopeam club, then held a meeting, and when members of the committee came down in the European fashion and led na into the outer of the two rooms, which with their reapeotive

[By Mtt CcU llollidag.

balconies wert packed full of wealthy Chinese men, the whole gathering stood up to greet ua. and at the conclusion of the speeches cheered with as much fervour as English-men might have dont'. Mr Ho Tung, coniinonly reputed the richest man in Hong-Kong, presided, while a leading Chinese lawyer iutei'preted in case there were any present who should not understand English. But that these were verj- few was shown by tlie quickly following langhter and

AN ANTI-FOOTBINDING TOUR 323

other signs of comprehension before the interpretation began. This last was, however, a guarantee against misrepresentation. It may be thought odd so often to mention laughter at these meetings, assembled to discuss a subject, that seems far more lamentable than ludicrous. But besides that I always make as many comic points as I can, believing that it is far easier to move people to reform when already moved to laughter, Chinese, like Japanese, think signs of sorrow unbecoming, and being affected must show it in some way. Thus they often laugh when announcing a death, and when at Ningpo I related how much affected I had been on going over the Sisters of St Vincent's establishment to see five young girls, three quite children, two about twenty, who had all five lost both their feet through binding and could only get about upon their hands and knees, instead of tears or long-drawn ah*s as there might be in England there was a general burst of cackling laughter.

After the speeches and the applause were over at the Hong-Kong Chinese Club we were taken by the committee into an upper room, where European comforts of curtains and cushioned arm-chair^ were judiciously intermingled with Cantonese elegancies of black carved wood and landscape marble. There the most varied assortment of cakes was laid out for us on the middle table, but whilst talking with one or two of the Chinese Reform party, my late chairman begged us not to go too fast in the way of asking people to join our society, re-minding me that in the families of one or two gentlemen, who had applauded most heartily, the feet of all their women relations were to his knowledge still tightly bound. At first the difficulty about calling meetings at Hong-Kong had been that the oldest residents declared that women there rarely had bound feet, and had I not too vividly

324 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

have persevered. I had gone with a party of friends to visit a Chinese honse, often shown to sightseerB, bbA the master of the hoose, together with his guest, a genUemati

[By Mr, Cetil llollUluy.

with venerable white beard over on a visit from Hong-Kong, on hearing my name, had begged that I would go into the women's quarter. One of the sons of the house accompanied us. Having penetrated a certain distance we were about to turn back wlien some women servants lifted

AN ANTI-FOOTBINDING TOUR 325

the comer of a heavy curtain and beckoned to us to step within. In the semi-gloom inside, surrounded by women attendants, we found a young girl sitting in gorgeous garments, painted and bejewelled to exaggeration. Sur-prised that she did not rise to greet us, we still tried to salute her according to etiquette, whilst those irrepressible maids pulled her skirts aside to call our attention to her almost incredibly small feet. The poor child may have been suffering cruelly from them at the time, and as she showed every sign of disliking our intrusion, I with-drew a little, only to see from a distance how she humped her shoulder, turned her face away and almost kicked at my companion, making an inarticulate sound expressive of the deepest aversion. I suppose our faces showed our horror, for the servants began to apologise, saying she hjwl never seen a foreign tvoman before. Meanwhile her sister, whose toilette was as yet in the incipient stage, came in, and immediately tottered into the darkest corner of the room, holding her arms up before her eyes to shield them from the horrid sight, whilst warding us off. I hastened to retire, begging the young man to express to the two young ladies how much distressed we were to have caused them so much discomfiture, and that we never would have come in if we had thouirht our visit would have been so dis-agreeable. He seemed to think it a matter of little moment, and did not appear abashed, as he explained that the two were sisters, and the second his wife, both daughters of the grey-bearded old gentleman, who was the largest owner of Chinese house property in Hong-Kong, where the two girls had been bom and bred, yet as the servants said without even having once seen a foreign lady. This gave me some idea of the seclusion in which Chinese girls are kept in Hong-Kong and how little therefore European residents there were likely to know of their condition, unless they had taken some pains to ascertain facts. The steamer

326 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

captain had told me how those who had travelled with him were carried on board pick-a-back by their men servants, jast as sacks might be carried, so that I ooold not believe it when I was told there were no bound feet in Hong-Kong, and now, on being confronted with two rooms full of wealthy Chinese there I was told at once to bear in mind that nearly all their womenkind were crippled.

" We must have them too to a meeting " was the feeling, and here again Lady Blake came to the rescue. She sent out invitations broadcast to Government House, inside which no Chinese women had ever yet set foot, and to render it easier for them to come invited Chinese gentlemen to be entertained in one room whilst the ladies should hear addresses in another. Before this came off another meeting — of boys this time — was held by the kindness of the head of Queen's College — the one disinterested benefit that England seems to have conferred upon China — for whilst an excellent education is provided there the young China-men, who receive it, are afterwards scattered all over the vast Chinese Empire. The Bishop of Victoria, who kindly presided, brought a coutingent from his own Diocesan College, and so did Mr Pearce of the London Mission, who most kindly interpreted. There must have been over five hundred boys and young men present, but I still cannot think of this meeting without horror, for my chair coolies misunderstood where I wanted to go. I could not make them understand sufficiently to correct their mistake^ and when at last through the kindness of a passer-by I succeeded in this, they tftill did not know the way, and I could not tell it to them. The result was that bishop, boys, interpreter and all — all waited and wondered, whilst I grew desperate at being carried backwards and forwards through the back ways of the city of Victoria, and arrived too much ashamed and confused even to give utterance to my distress. Desperately I then tried to convey to the

AN ANTI-FOOTBINDING TOUR

327

yoQDg men what I wanted, and they, perhaps desperate also from having been kept waiting so long, applauded with auch lon{f-eoiitinued waves of applause and laaghed such echoing, rolliiig peals of laughtir, that it was almost impossible to get on with what I was saying. In the end, when it came to showing Li Hung Chang's writing on my

fan, anil Hiintgun my photographs of Chinese wonien'a feet l>oimd and unbound, iis also distributing tracts upon the subject free, gratis, and for nothing, the young men simply stormed the platform, carrying away the railing, and going otl' u serried, struggling mass of humanity, still dinnerless, but unyway laden with mental foo<). It must surely be a long time before Queen's College forgets that afternoon.

328 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

After the boys' meeting was over there was nothing to be done but arrange for the ladies' meeting and feel anxions about it. About an hour beforehand there sat the English admiral's wife patting a neatly-shod f oofc on the fender as she said, " It really won't matter much if none do come," whilst the Governor's wife said with authority, " Oh, some are sure to come, and well have them into the drawing-room and shut up the ballroom, if th^'re very few." Meanwhile Miss Blake, who had consented to be Honorary Secretary for Hong-Eong, had just re-turned with me from seeing the palms and shrubs the gardeners had been all the morning carrying to line the approaches to the ballroom, and we pronounced that it looked very big. Half an hour beforehand we all felt mire no Chinese ladies would dare to come, and that if they even did set out they would never venture past the sentries. But then we looked out and saw they were beginning to arrive. By some mistake they all seemed to leave their sedans at the outside gate, and great was the hobbling, whilst the ballroom filled and filled, till no more seats could be found any nth ere. Then two or three of the Chinese ladies conferred together, and one of them gave out that servants ought not to sit in the presence of their mistresses, and all amahs were requested to stand. This at once cleared out seventy or eighty not bound foot women, who thereafter stood down the sides of the ball-room, whilst a large school of little girls were requested to take up their places on the floor, rather to the horror of the children, who regarded sitting on the floor as far odder than English children would. But there was no other place for them. And though some were urgent to send these little girls away as too young I was delighted that they stayed, when at the end of the meeting these children counted out their money contributions and actually wrote down their own names as members of our

AN ANTI-FOOTBINDING TOUR 329

society. Four or five amongst them were already bound, so that there could be no doubt but that they all under-stood what they were protesting against. Two ladies with small bound feet took up a prominent position at the end of a front row, and after a Chinese lady from Australia had interpreted Lady Blake's words of welcome and the opening of my address, she could no longer stand the sight of these feet, stuck out straight in front of their owners for comparative ease and thus obtruded between her and the audience, so apostrophised the ladies in the racy colloquial of the south. Two English ladies, who had thus unexpectedly had the attention of a large audience called to them, would probably have looked very indignant, or if not indignant showed signs of confusion. But, although I think they certainly did blush, these two Chinese ladies showed no indignation and wonderful self-I)Osses8ion, as the elder answered that she was too old to unbind. What reason was given for the younger not doing so I did not understand. It was pitiful afterwards to see the rows of amahs in the hall waiting to support their tottering mistresses to their sedans. But forty -seven ladies joined the Natural Feet Society there and then, and one showed how she had already begun to loosen her feet. At one of the leading Chinese newspai)er offices a young man had said to me with a l)OW, " My wife and all my sisters have unbound their feet." A Chinese doctor had contended that Hong-Kong bound feet could not be unbound, but facts prove that he is mistaken, although it seems that feet are bound exceptionally tight there. According to a Chinese writer : " The child is made to lie in bed during the first year, and only lifted out when it is absolutely necessary."

According to a gathering of Chinese ladies in Shang-hai a woman with a very strong hand is rec^uired to bind the feet the first time, and she does it so tightly that

330 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

the bandage cannot be remoTed without dipping foot and bandage together into warm water. Unleas this pr«-cantion were taken all the Bldn would oome off with the bandage and probably great lamps oE fleoh alsik

Several uf tlieni said they had seen this occur. At a meeting at Foochow lady after lady said she had seen a girl, both wliose feet had dropped off through bindinf^, and one Chinese admiral's wife said, "Not one or two, but several have I aeou among ray own acquaintancea"

AN ANTI-FOOTBINDING TOUR 331

Before mortification sets in and goes so far as to cause the whole foot to fall off' it is painful to think what sufferings must have been undergone.

" Were they not exquisitely dressed and do you not think that a room full of Chinese ladies looks much better as far as toilette goes than a room full of English ladies?** Such was one of the remarks after the meet-ing. But the English admiral's wife, to whom we all deferred on matters of dress, answered with decision, " That is not at all fair. We were in morning dress. Wait till we come down in our ball-gowns and diamonds. They all were in full dress." Then she too went into an ecstasy over the embroideries and the blending of tints. All the same the Hong-Kong dresses were simply barbarous to what I afterwards saw at Hanixchow and Soochow.

CHAPTER XX.

PART II. — THROUGH MACAO, 8WAT0W, AMOT, FOOOHOW,

HANGCHOW AND SOOCHOW

IT is a little sad to have to own that anti-footbinding seems much farther advanced in languid, sunshiny Macao than in bustling Hong-Eong. Of course the Portuguese have been established there for centuries, and they mix with the people and inter-marry as we do not. It may be that which makes the difference. But some say a doctor, a leading member of the reform party, has made the change at Macao. There on the Praya, a miniature Bay of Naples, with the exceptionally romantic public gardens at one end and the Governor's palace at the other, the Portuguese band making music in the evenings, the waves lapping on the shore, mothers walk-ing out with their children round them, as we never seem to see English mothers in the East, and young girls with their duennas, there in Macao several of the best European houses are occupied by Chinese, and in one, conspicuous with heavily-gilded railings, I was delighted to find that all the children were growing up unbound. Mr Ho Sui Tin, the leading Chinese of Macao, and a Portuguese subject, not only arranged a Chinese meeting for me to address, but took me home to his house after-wards and assured me one of his little girls was about shortly to be unbound. But though they had every luxury in the way of costly and artistic furnishing, even to a billiard table, on which they said they played, it

332

THROUGH MACAO, SWATOW, AMOY, ETC. 335

was sad to see the eider daugliters with their bonnd feet He had not however been a member ot the Reform Doctor's Society. My interpreter had, and he seemed full

of eamestnens, when at a little Christian meeting, at which the enthusiasm of everyone impressed me very refreshingly, one of the first to join the society was a bound foot lady — his wife — who said, smiling, " If yoa will take my money, and accept my promise that I

336 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

am going to unbind." The Beeretary of the Poitngneaa Clnb, Signor d'Assompcfto, wu kind enough to organia3 a meeting there for all people, vho nndentbod English. A good many of the memben, who did not, came in to lieteD at first, then gradaally went away not qaite noiseleeely, and it was aransing next day to note the indignation of the Chinese pdrtion of the audience: "The Portuguese might at least have kept quiet i£ they— oould not understand ' " because the remark seemed toil indicate the very different way in which the Chineae regard the Portuguese at Macao from ^e way in which the Elnglish are regarded at Hong-Eong. I mast not however in passing forget to mention the great kindness of their then Governor Galbardo, even hampered as he was by the carnival — a great affair at medinval Macao \

The exquisite views, the orange trumpet flowers of the bignouia, the merry children in carnival costome, the soft sunshine, the romance that attaches to Comoens garden and everywhere romantic accessories, all transport one to Europe, and make Macao a place quite by itself in China. I cannot help hoping also that it is one of the first pliices where footbinding will die out. The Roman Catholic Sisters appeared eager to bring this about, thoujfh iis usual it was impossible even to ask them to combine for the purpose with Protestant miBsionaries.

The China Merchants' Company had granted me a free pass by all their steamers, the Hong-Kong, Canton Macao Company had been equally liberal, and now^ the Douglas Lapraik Line did likewise. I began to feel as if it were hardly right that hotels should charge me anything when steamer companies were so generous. But it was only at Canton and Macao that it wad necessary to tjo to hotels. Everywhere else people most kindly entertained me for the Cause.

THROUGH MACAO, SWATOW, AUOY. ETC. 339

At Swatow, the next treaty port to be vigited, I came across a <[uite different kind of binding. There people do not shorten the child's feet, always the most

(/(., Mrf-i^irh.r.

painful part of tlit; process. In order to get some fiehl work out of the children they do not bind their feet till twelve, often not till thirteen, when the foot is already too much formed for it to be possible to do more than

IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

narrow it by binding all the toea but the big one under-neath the foot. An abnormally high heel is however . and this gives to the foot, placed slanting upon it, the appearance oE being short. There is often a little round hole at the tip of the shoe through which the great toe can be seen. Obviously this kind of bind-ing is far easier to unbiud, and going five houi*s by steam launch up the river to Kityang I was delighted OQ being taken round to call on the various leading families to find them nearly all unbinding. The talk in each hou.se among the ladies was as to whether all their toea had yet come up or not. They have a way there of trying to pull them up by atringa One lady wa.s very proud that her foot was now all right. Bound at eight, unbound at twenty-one, seemed to be the record of her life. She said it had taken three years for her feet to regain their natural shape, but appeared now well satisfied with them. In another house one lady had two toes, that seemed to be driving her nearly )erate, in another one lady said she was almost giving up one toe. There was no Chinese society against binding in the place, nor did the missionaries, who were not long there, at all attribute this movement to their own influence, saj'ing they had found it all going on when they arrived. It is probably the out-come of the great society started by Kang Yu Wei in this province, and which increased till it is said to have had three hundred thousand men's names on its books, before it was dissolved by the Dowager Empress Tse Hsi's orders after the Coui^ d'Etat of 1898, when she forbade all societies. In one house all the four sons had distinguished themselves at the examinations, all having taken the first degree of Budding Talent, one having passed first of his year, and having therefore just received an invitation to Peking to instruct the

n

THROUGH MACAO, SWA TOW, AMOV, ETC. 343

Manchus there; whilst the eldest son had already taken the second de^ee. There I was gratified by finding my portrait in a Chinese magazine laid open on the table, evidently with the idea of being complimentary. And it seemed curious for once in a way to find people in China doing just what they would in Europe.

Although feet are not bound very small at Swatow, those that were exhibited to me at the various meetings by women, who wished to unbind, were certainly suflS-ciently revolting, and during all the evening afterwards I could not recover from the painful impression made by one.

At bright, beautiful Amoy the anti-footbinding move-ment has for about twenty years been nurtured and watched over by Mr McGowan, who has now the satis-faction of seeing all the many Christian women of the place unbound, and shod with what certainly seems to me the neatest Chinese shoe 1 have seen. At Canton the women with natural feet wear what is called the boat shoe, being shaped like the bottom of a boat, on which they can balance backwards and forwards. Boat-women and working women do not bind there, which has given the foreigner, who so often gets his idea of a Chinese city from Canton, the impression that this is the case all throuorh ('hina. Alas! in the West women even track lK)ats with bound, hoof-like feet, besides carrying water, whilst in the north the unfortunate working women do field work, often kneeling on the heavy clay soil, because they are incapable of standing. It is only at Canton that bound feet are in any senes a mark of gentility, though in Shanghai and many other parts they are a sign of respectability. The more distinguished ladies in Hong-Kong or Canton who do not bind, wear the Manchu clog-like shoe — with a very high heel quite in the centre of the foot. But

344 iN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

at Anu^ under the training of the missionarieB a very neat little shoe has been devised, such as would give an^ foot a very dapper appearance.

At Amoy it had been deeided £rom the tirst that an effort should be made to interest the officials, an im-poseibility at Swatow, as there were none there. But there the language difficulty, great all tbrouj^h China, but greater in the south, reached its climax, for it was pronounced necessary there to have two iuterpretcrs, ona who should traoslate into UaDdarin, the language of the officials, oue to interpret for the Amoy people, who speak an altogether different sounding language. Already at Swatow I had tonnd that my Ningpo servant, who could speak a little Mandarin, and had also saoeeeded ' generally in making himself understood at Canton and ' Uacao, though he coutd not often understand the people of those places, was in difficulties. At tuamsf he was, as he afterwards said, like a domb man, having no one but me to speak to: even at Foochow h*«ng better off, because one of the servants at the Cooaulate, where we stiiyed, was from afar. And Amoy was the only place where I spoke through two interpreters, though this WHS because at Foochow none of the local Chinese were invited to the official's gathering, other-wise I must have done so there also.

The Taotai at Amoy was of the conquering Manchu race, which never binds, therefore he wore an air of com-plete sympathy and approval at the meeting, which he was good enough to attend at the Club Theatre. Several other Chinese officials and men of wealth and standing were also there, being all invited by the British ConauL Several gave handsome money contributions, gave in their names as members, and promised co-operation, the Taotai even undertaking to placard the Viceroy Chang Chih Tung's words against footbinding all through the city, A ladies'

THROUGH MACAO, SWATOW, AMOY, ETC 347

meeting was hardly so satisfactory, still the fact that it came off at all was something, for the meeting was held on the island covered with foreign villas and gardens, whereas all the Chinese live in the great city of Amoy across a con-siderable stretch of sea, and not being in the habit of coming out, the bare idea of crossing the sea on a rather tempestuous day must have appeared most alarming to them, especially when it was in order to go into a fore ton house.

The roughest voyage I had yet had took me from Amoy to Foochow, and there real hard work began. The schools and the C'hristian concrrecjations had all mustered in force in Amoy, but were all unbound, so that it was only necessary to cheer them on there, and the schools there are as nothing compared with the schools at Foochow, which is a regular centre of education. Then the island at Amoy is so small it is but like one bijj flowerful crarden, whereas at Foochow the distances are enormous. And to add to it all, it poured nearly all the time I was there. Thus I could never really see the mountains, which have led to this port being the most renowned for scenery of any in China, but was for ever being carried backwards an<l forwards in dripping rain through the longest, dirtiest and narrowest streets of the Chinese citv.

It was, however, delightful to see the great colleges that the Americans especially have started in Foochow. There is always one remarkable feature al)Out their educational establishments, and that is the teaching of Chinese young men to such a large extent by American women. I am still sutRciently English to find it verj" odd, but as far as I can judge it seems to work very well, softening the Chinese young men as I fancy nothing else could. ( )ne of the students at the college interpreted for me, and was pronounced by two or three severely critical Sinologues the very best interpreter they had ever come acrass. And the occa8ion, when they heard him, was at a very trying

348 y.V THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

meeting for the young man, for 1 accomplished another long-cherished desire at Foochow. and addressed a meeting ■Q a Guild hall.

All through China there is a most complicated organisa-tion of guilds, far suqia^sing that in Europe during tlie Middle Ages, and the buildings where they meet, hold their clubs and give tlieir dinners and theatricals, are generally the great ornament of Chinese cities, vying with, if not surpassing, the temples. I had long wished, if it were possible, to hold an anti-footbinding meeting in odc of them, and this dream of mine became realised at Foochow. There was a great hesitancy at lirst as to which pietar-esque courtyard would be best adapted for the purpose, and at the time appointed we wandered from one to the other, followed by a little but ever-growing audience till at last we settled down into one. The far end was open to the evening sky, and there a certain number of women actually found a ataudiug place. We took the place of honour at the opposite end, a few leading people sat in the two rows of lar<;e chairs down the middle of the hall front-ing one another, but the bulk of the audience stood, and by some process of natural selection men of the literary class, Siid-faced, young reformers, stood to the right, men of the mercantile class, jolly-looking compradors and prosperous merchants, all men who, by mixture with foreigners, have learnt to think scorn of old barbarous ways, stood to the left. No one would speak. But when those, who wished footbinding done away, were asked to hold up their hands, up went alt the hands at arm's length fi-om the literary side. It was an impressive sight in the fast-waning daylight. They all looked so sad and appeared so voicelesa Among the six young men put to death by the ruthless Tse Hsi at the Vmip d'Etut in 1S98 had been their youth-ful leader Lin, who was fast winning over all Foochow to not binding, when he met his untimely end. No one liked

THROUGH MACAO, SWATOW, AMOY, ETC 351

to Dame him, but everyone thought of him. But the other day he was one of them. The mercantile side seemed equally of one mind, but less enthusiastically so.

One of the merchants had asked us to visit his wife and see if we could persuade her to desist from binding their one little girl, saying that he would ask several ladies to meet us there. This last part did not come off, but we had seen the wife and child, and received a very painful im-pression. The child was a frail little thing with even darker rings than ordinary under the process beneath her eyes, and a face that seemed all suffering, yet with especially winning pretty little ways. Our hearts were drawn out to-wards the child, and from her delicate appearance we did not think it possible she should live if the binding were con-tinued, even if it were possible yet to save her. So as the mother declared that she knew binding was too much for her child, and that she meant to unbind her feet, I said as persuasively as I knew how, ** Why not do it now ? Would you allow me the pleasure of beginning ? " As the mother did not object, I touched the child's bandages with of course the intention of getting them somewhat loosened, and so giving her comparative ease. Naturally one would not dare to remove them altogether at once. But the poor little girl, who had never had her bandages touched except to tighten them, cried out and looked at me with an ex-pression of such hopeless agony as I had never seen on a child's face and hope never to see again. She looked me right in the eyes as Chinese so rarely do and her eyes 8ai<l to mine, ** I cannot bear it. I know I canuot. I am powerless to save myself from you. But — it is inKyrt than I can bear." That expression of helpless rage and agony and hate in the poor little wizened child's face is more than I can ever hope to forget, and would alone spur me on to redoubled efforts to do away with a custom, that has been more than so many children can endure, and that must

352 /iV THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

have saturated so mauy childish souls with bittemeas, before they passed away from a world made impossible <er them. Sometimes indeed I have thought, that God has denied me the joys of personal motherhood in order that all possible tenderness for childhood may be expended on the tortured children of China without the diminution from it of one iota, reserved for some sheltered, guarded child by my own fireside. Anyway, the anguished eyes of thai Foochow little one plead with me with a power and a pathos beyond words. Would her mother yet unbind her feet \ And even so was it not already too late ? And even if not, how many thousands, nay, millions of little girls have been, are, and will be in like case, unless this practice of torturiuij tender little girls, that they may eventually win favour in the eyes of men of vitiated taste by the exacTfj^cnition of their deformity can be brought to an end {

The yount^ men at the great Methodist Episcopal College, one of the educational institutions that has im-pressed mti more favourably than any I have visited in China, althoii;^^h I hanlly myself know why, loudly and almost violently proclaimed their horror of the practice. So (lid the youni,^ men at the smaller American Board ('ollege within Koochovv city. The other is outside in the foreign settlement. But when the ladies of the Church Mission gave a great party, all the ladies they invited were painl'ully bound, an<l all I asked said they themselves knew ^irls both whose feet had mortified ott* tlirouo-h bin<lin<r.

It was like an illustration to my lecture to see the frail-lookint^^ Foocliow ladies, tottering on their bound feet» watched over and eventually supported away by their slaves, who, like the field women of Foochow, look like Amazons, with their silver sword-like hair-pins and huge ear-rinors. Folding their well-developed arms across their bosoms

THROUGH MACAO, SIVA TOll\ AMOY, ETC. 355

and at least a head and shoulders taller than their bound-foot mistresses, they look indeed as it* they were of another and more stalwart race by some charm attracted to serve and minister to pigmies.

If Foochow society be a sample of Chinese good society throughout the Empire what a mass of mortified feet there must be ! And there are besides the innumer-able girls who die of paralysis, eczema, and other illnesses, one in ten of the girls of China according to Chinese computation. But the head sister of the great Italian school and home at Hankow, numbering of late seven hun-dred souls, and of which she had been head for about thirty years, told me before her death she thought this very much under the mark for her part of China. I chiefly remember this Church Mission meeting from the lovely flower arrangements, pretty European dresses, and pictur-esque houses. They adapt Chinese buildings to their recjuirements instead of insisting upon forcing the archi-tecture of an English conventicle and lodging-house or even church together with the beautiful (iospel, that originally came to us from the beauty-loving East, upon the irr<-'iit Chinese nation, to whom decorative desiorn is so much a matter ot* necessity, that hardly the meanest cottatrer builds without it. Mission work has so often repelled me by its intense ugliness that it was (|uite a relief to find it as pretty as heathenism at Foochow, and far more pleasing from being cleanly and in good order. And I recalled again the women's hospital put up by the Church Mission at Ningpo, as eye-pleasing a bit of architecture as any to be seen in China in spite of its simplicity, and probably far more comfortable for Chinese inmates from being built in accordance with their customs, not ours. Foochow is commonly reckoned the most beautiful port in China from its surrounding scenery and the delightful river and mountain excursions that can be

356 I.V THE LAND Of THE BLUE GOWN

made from it. All this I could not see because of ibe i ponring raio, but hh a gr«at educational centre 1 wan immeDsely struck by it. and fancy few people either in England or America know what great things are being done there by welt-trained teachers of various modes of thought, but all alike ardent edncatoi's. In the young men and wotueii being educated by missionaries, who are too much absorbed in their work to be much talked about, lies probably the hope of China, if there be o ]iope now, when all the nations of Europe are striving to anatch some of the spoil out of the hands of the long effete Manehii Dynasty.

The Viceroy of Foochow was a very aged man. and at that time much beset by the claims of various European admirals, so that I did not see him, but the Taotai inWted us to the Board of Foreign Affaire, where he and eight other high officials, among them the Salt Commissioner, the Treasurer and Governor of the city received us in the picturesque Chinese building, and thi-n led us into a diuiug-rooiii, Jimiiijied in the foreign style, where tbey entertained us at an elegant collation. They seemed very favourably liisposed towards the movement, but there was a certain reticence in their manner, fully explained by the terrible events, that have .since occurred in Xorth Chiua, aD<l of the preparatiim for which they were pro-bably well informed, iis we were not. It was then however the Taotui paid me the grandest compliment I can ever hope to receive, when suddenly looking tixedly at me he said, "You are just like Kwanyin Pusa"(the Chinese (Sodcless of Mercy). " Hitherto we Chinese have had but one Kwiinyin. But now we have two. Vou are the second." There was however a curious twinkle in his eyes when I asked if his little daughter were bound, and he answered me, " Xo ! oh, no ! " 1 guessed what it meant, and turned quickly to the official on my other hand, who

'>

THROUGH MACAO, SWATOW, AJ/OY, ETC 359

blushed deeply, as he had to confess that all his daughters were bound. Then it was the Treasurer scored, when with great solemnity he said across the table, " The women of my family have not been bound for two hundred years." His family was one of the Chinese bannermen, and being thus bound up with the Manchu bannermen has to confoim to ilanchu usage. But the Taotai felt in honour bound to explain to the young Consul, who had kindly arranged everything he could for me in Foochow, that he himself had grossly deceived me, for his little girl was only three years old, much too young to be bound, under any circumstances. Let us hope however that she never will be.

A rough little voyage back to Shanghai, and then after a brief period of rest I started off on a circular tour to Hangchow and Soochow, the two great centres of fashion in China : Hangchow the capital of the province of which Ningpo is the commercial port, and at one time the capital of China, and Sooehow capital of the province in which Shanghai is situated. Almost at my own door I got into a boat, towed by one of the little steam tugs that daily make the journey, and next night after a voyage through most monotonous country recalling the low country of Europe, and only varied by innumerable stone bridges and memorial arches, arrived at Hangchow, one of the most interesting cities of China. The Taotai there again received us at the Board of Foreign Atfairs, far prettier than that at Foochow, being situated in a most fanta.stic garden, full of rocks and with a fine wistaria hanging its tre.sses of fragrant, lilac flowers over a corridor, made like the bridges in the Shanghai city tea garden in a variety of diflferent slants. It was however again pouring, so we had to hurry into the entrance hall, where we were received by the Taotai and only two other high officials, although a good many minor ones. After the Consul's wife

36o IX THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

and I liad out of deference to foreign ideas been placed in the BeatH of honour on the dais we were conducted again to a collation in the foreign style, and there the Taotai made oar hearts glad by telling na his wife and all the women niembers of his liouHehold had unbound feet He was hIso quite eager himnelf to undertake placarding the city

\l':

with the Vicyruy Chan;,' (.'hih Ttmy's most cogent argu-na'Hts iigaiiist footliimling, though this had to bo abim-rioncd jil'tcr wards, owing to the Viceroy's having evidently written tliij; jmper at the reijue.st of his then particuhir frientl Mr Liang, and twici: speaking of him by nanif. .\s Mr Liang, late editor of Ck'twtM' Progress, tiud such a inrtstc-r of Htyle that many literary Chinese say on reading

THROUGH MACAO, SWA TOW, AMOY, ETC. 361

any of his writings their eyes brim over with tears of admiration, has been condemned to death by Tse Hsi and moves about with a price put upon his head, it would not do for a Taotai officially to put forth to the world any paper containing his name. Under these circumstances we applied to Chang Chih Tung to alter his essay so that we could still use it, not daring to change it ourselves, as to alter even a word in a Chinese essay would be as heinous as to chancje the words in one of Milton's sonnets. The Viceroy said he would as soon as he had time. That was late in May, and in June the Empress's edict was out for the annihilation of all foreigners, the legations were besieofed in Pekintr, and it wouM be unreasonable to suppose that either of the two great Yangtze Viceroys has since then had leisure to correct an essay.

Besides other meetings there was a very lovely gather-ing of Hangchow ladies one afternoon. Curiously enough they mostly came in the most exquisite brocades of the same delicate rose colour, which made a fine contrast with the beautiful green jade ornaments, with which their dark hair was somewhat loaded. For the most part they seemed too much occupied with their finery to pay much attention. But to be (juite frank it nmst be recorded that one of the most beautifully dressed there, a girl of about nineteen, daughter of one of the leading families of the place, if not the leading family, asserted she could run and jump about with bound feet, and proceeded to do so, taking hold of my hand, and executing some of the most startling gambades and leaps. She was a plump young lady, and I could not help thinking must be suffer-ing terribly afterwards, but she declared she was not in the least tired, and her face certainly showed no signs of suffering. I could not have believed it possible that any-one with deformed feet, and her feet were bound very small indeed, could have executed such leaps and gambols.

362 /,V THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN

Bub we trembled to think what must come of so much suppressed energy in a girl evidently brimming over with viUility yet cut ott'from almost all natural outlet. As she ia very ricli possibly the bicycle will 4^me to her relief, as there seems to be no definite reason why a girl nrith bound feet sliould not ride, though a fall would probably be very serious in her ciise.

My visit ti) Soochow wtis ulto^trther exceptional ; the (jllifiiils wort- nil being chiiii.i;(^d. there could therefore be 111) iilliciiil M'ception, for fts in Ning])o, when I viKitoil that |iliie<', thnsL-who weri! there wore all busy going out to meet those who wore arriving. An American doctor kindly invittxi liio t(j moot his medical students, whom I was at last able to address ill Kuglish without an interpreter, although it

THROUGH MA CA 0, S WA TO W, A MO F, ETC 363

was not quite clear that they all understood fully, the words I used being necessarily different from those they were accustomed to in their medical studies, and the difference between English and American accents very puzzling. Here, however, for the first time on asking if there was anything to be urged in favour of footbinding, two young men had the courage of their opinions and maintained that there was — " It was pretty ! " When I heard after-wards that they were both engaged to girls with small lx)und feet I felt almost sorry for the confusion into which I probably threw them by asking whether it was the shoes, which were certainly pretty, that they meant, or the feet inside them which in everv case, where I had seen them, were horrible to look at, for of course they had never seen the girls' feet and probably every Chinese, when he fondles the feet of his bride, likes to imagine that they are all that they appear— tiny, satin clad and beautifully embroidered. The other medical students were, however, eager to form themselves into an anti-footbinding society, and after a meeting of Chinese men held next day, the audience at once convened another meetint: themselves and decided to form themselves into a society to work upon all the rich silk dealini: towns round about Foochow and to keep the newspapers au courunt of the movement. They sent round two representatives to ask if they could have the use of the Hospital Cliapel for monthly meetings, as if not they would select another place, but they thought that the most convenient. Their earnestness and eagerness were most remarkable, for Soochow is reckoned the Paris of China, and I had been warned that I should find the people caring for nothing but dress and fashion. The ladies' meeting really looked like it at first. They were all so very elegantly dressed, and seemed to have so many smiles and pretty greetings for one another. They were decidedly pretty — and I have lived fifteen years in China

364 IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWN ^

disbelieving in the poaaibility of a pretty Chinese woman — and they ware for the most part very piquante. Cariously enough they were all in a very delicate shade of blue just as the Hangchow ladies were all in rose colour, but the cui was the same, very much tighter than we are accustomei! to in the west of <"hina, approximating:; to the English coat, and with the trimmings placet! above the i-lbow of the tight coat aleeve instead of hanging over the WTists round a aleeve about half a yard wide. Indeed the dress o£ the Hangchciw and Soochow ladies, what may be called the present style of Chinese ladies' dress, seems just as near perfection as can be imagined. It is exceedingly pretty and can he made aa handsome as anyone could desire, yet without ceasing to be modest and natural looking ; in this way showing to great advantage beside our large hat^ pinned on to one aide of our heads, or huge angel sleeves, or skirts so tight as bai-ely to cover the figure, or requir-ing two hands to raise them when walking. It must be exceedingly convenient and comfortrtble.and as far us dress goes I should certainly be in favour of English ladies copy-ing Soochow ladies' satin coats, pretty divided skirts (longitudinally pleated skirts made in two bits), trousers and all rather than the other way. The shoes are just the one ditEculty. Two Chinese lady doctors of my acquaint-ance wear European leather shoes.

This meeting was the moat uncomfortably crowded I have ever addressed : all the windows were open, but they were crammed with heads of people who wanted to see and hear, yet could not get into the chapel, which was already crowded to suffocation. Indeed four or five ladies had to leave the room fainting before the meeting began. I felt as if I had not succeeded in touching the hearts of the ladies of Hangchow, and looking at this fashionable crowd, all struggling to get their parties together and evidently thinking a great deal of themselves and their

[B'l Mr.. (■:■{' ll-JI

THROUGH MACAO, SWATOW, AMO\\ ETC, 367

appearance, yet with that charm of manner that is so perceptible even where one cannot understand the spoken lan^^uage, it seemed to me that my only justification for speaking to them about a national custom, under which every one of themselves was sutiering, and about which of necessity they must know so much more than I did, was its enormity, and that the only way under the circum-stances was frankly to speak out and say exactly how dreadful 1 thought it. The kind lady, who interpreted for me, did so admirably, born and bred in China yet without having lost her American vivacity, her heart was also deeply interested. When we both paused exhausted — the room was very hot — one of the ladies who sat in the front row, and who had struck me from the first as probably the leading lady there, said in short, staccato sentences with a definite pause between each, " I am sick and weary of the whole subject — I am tired of hearing of my feet — I am going to unbind them and join your society." '' No ! I first ! I first ! " cried a very sombrely-dressed lady, sitting about two rows behind her, who had been pointed out to me as the most literary lady there, having actually com])ose<l essays, of which her husband was very proud. Then a Salt Commissioner's wife asked for associates' tickets for ^\{^ members of her household, whilst several vounger ladies said somewhat sadlv, thouirh with quiet dignity, as they bowed them.selves out, '* I am under authority, and therefore not free to act without first asking leave of those at home." Others joine<l, and many were the promises to set to work at unbinding. So that I left Soochow full of hopes that, if this centre of fashion thus began to unbind, a strong impetus would be given to the movement. But almost directly after-wards came the so-called Boxer rising in the North, and the Empress's orders for the annihilation of all foreigners, thus all left Soochow somewhat precipitately, and pro-

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farg w J thtr wcfc ov aoBie^ «m at-■dk ^l—iiiia to iBiiw^. For v^t [ fe«t »BM n.a bad of «^hb; mfnriste

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" : :-. . ■-■ ■ - — ^ _ : ;r.v:r >ctv:^-;::j men rv'iation>. .-_: : - ■ " - :■ .; : - - ^-"i.i^ r^ .•:..:■. c :h-r men :q \-arioa< T .:'- : .r-_"- . ". - __-^.- -- :_-v:;r i_-iiii :■; ;«erEi;t ihe l-inuin^

: -L-.r -^ r. - -. — : - ^.vl-. werv thr; mAs^Acrers and ■x-:_ !— i- --. o: . - : : v !-.;'.^S3 ';«jan-i c-o**, ?o that in - :,.- t-.rt- '. :_ - .-.r .:. c-: :_—■.-■::;<:* th^rv do not bind. I; ::.:- cr:-. : r.;:.;-r t .:. .:iv Eiarmer ^wept away from <-;:.: >:..i:.: :: .; ir. i *:,i:.-i :irj:'-il'.ini- ihooijh the horrors "";-rr- -:.:'_-:-: i: ;- . -_---'-- '-. ^v:..;th<:r the mas^ of haman -■;:^-r;r._- -*\ I r. : -- :".Tr^'y -^n the whole dimiDished, ivr w;ir^ e:;;.'^ ::: :':r a t:":v. : -X'^iniiinj: has sUio its victimi^ for ceciTir!-*. an : y-^r ir; year out has coDtinue-i lortcrir.^:. Ihe f->:r i-iaci we-i -A '"hina. where all wom*rn ar^ l-jun-i. Dot ju-t ih-i'x richer and more lasarioos

THROUGH MACAO, ^WATOW, JMO\\ ETC. 369

08 in Canton — the poor liound west lifts received no such terrible lesson, Go<l <i;'''i''t thnt without this it may yield to the porHUiisioiis of anti-l'ootbindinf; societies foroifjn

<)r ('hinese ! For tin- horrors i-niu'ti-tl in the nortli. thiin<.'li tliey nmy lie supprcHsed in official reports, and pa-sed over in striinije silence hy tin- Kuropean I'ress, have U'en enough to make even war correK|)oiuient.s shudder, nmrniur-ing sadly, "It has been like Hell let louse. It has Iwvn

5;o

I.\' THE LAND OF THE DIME GOUW

like Hell." And probably no other expression drawH ni^h to the atracities perpetrated both by Boxers and alas ! al^o by so-called Christian men.

Yet if the women of the future be thereby Raved good will have been done, for the women are not only in theiunelves Iialf the nation, but the inotherB of the men. If the women be mutilated, ignorant, unhealthy, so will be the sons they bear and rear, and it is at least a note-worthy fad that, sintie footbindiiig came into fashion, no man. whom the Chinese themselves regard as worthy of the nation's reverence has been born to the Chinese Empire. Even now the cry ia "Where is the man?" According to the Chinese reckoning the time is indeed already over puHsed for a fresh Saviour of society to arise, ax before at various ditTerent epochs, but blindly yet all ask " Where is the man '. "

050

rUROVGH MACAO. SWATOW. AMOWHTC. 369

HH in (^nton — the ]>(m)1- Umuil wt'st litis rocfivi-tl no such terrible lenson. Cioi) <;nmt thnt without this it may yield to the i>ersiiasions of iinti-t'i><)lliiii'lin<; societifs fiiroiyn

nrCliin.'w! For (In- hornir- ■tmrt.-.i in tin- ii..rtli, 1 thi-y nmy 1h' su|i|ircss<'i] in ijtficinl n'|ii>ri-., inni jm-si in stnin^ji- sili-n<i' l>y tlir Kiito|n;in I'n-s-. Imvi' t-nouyli to nmku fvi-ii wiir<'orn-'i|>i>iMli-ntss)iu<|i]('r, tiii iii^' sH'lly. -■ It has Uh-w Ilk- H.-lt Lt lo-s.-. It liu

THE LAND OF THE BLUE GOWX

And probably no other expression draws the atrocitiea perpetrated botli by Boxers and ) by ao-called Chri»tian men. f the women of the future be thereby saved will hdve been done, for the women are not only lemselves half the nation, but the mothers of the men. Dm- women be inutiiated, ignomnt. unhealthy, ho will oe thi; sons they bear and rear, and it is at least a note-worthy fact tliat, since ," " ' ^ing came into fashion, no , man, whom the Chinese themselves regard as worthy of the nation's reverence hns been born to the Chinese Empire. Even now the ciy is "Where is the man?" According to the Chinese reckoning tiie time is indeed already over passed for a fresh Saviour of society to arise, as before at various different epochs, but blindly yet all ask " Where is the man ? "

M &' C-^. . Limltid. Prin

3590 (J50

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