of the province,
instructing them to receive us with all honor and to facilitate our work in
every way. None of the opposition which we had been led to expect
developed, and it is difficult to see how we could have been more cordially
received.

CHAPTER X

ON THE ROAD TO TA-LI FU

On August 6, we dispatched half our equipment to Ta-li Fu, and three days
later we ourselves left Yuen-nan Fu at eleven o'clock in the morning after
an interminable wait for our caravan. Through the kindness of Mr. Page, a
house boat was put at our disposal and we sailed across the upper end of
the beautiful lake which lies just outside the city, and intercepted the
caravan twenty-five _li_ [Footnote: A _li_ in this province equals
one-third of an English mile.] from Yuen-nan Fu.

On the way we passed a number of cormorant fishers, each with ten or a
dozen birds sitting quietly upon the boat with outspread wings drying their
feathers. Every bird has a ring about its neck, and is thus prevented from
swallowing the fish which it catches by diving into the water.

After waiting an hour for our caravan we saw the long train of mules and
horses winding up the hill toward us. There were seventeen altogether, and
in the midst of them rode the cook clinging desperately with both hands to
a diminutive mule, his long legs dangling and a look of utter wretchedness
upon his face. Just before the caravan reached us it began to rain, and the
cook laboriously pulled on a suit of yellow oilskins which we had purchased
for him in Yuen-nan Fu. These, together with a huge yellow hat, completed a
picture which made us roar with laughter; Heller gave the caption for it
when he shouted, "Here comes the 'Yellow Peril.'"

We surveyed the tiny horses with dismay. As Heller vainly tried to get his
girth tight enough to keep the saddle from sliding over the animal's tail
he exclaimed, "Is this a horse or a squirrel I'm trying to ride?" But it
was not so bad when we finally climbed aboard and found that we did not
crush the little brutes.

A seventy-pound box on each side of the saddle with a few odds and ends on
top made a pack of at least one hundred and sixty pounds. This is heavy
even for a large animal and for these tiny mules seemed an impossibility,
but it is the usual weight, and the businesslike way in which they moved
off showed that they were not overloaded.

The Yuen-nan pack saddle is a remarkably ingenious arrangement. The load is
strapped