later, through the opium combine, foreign detectives learned of
the smuggling and the boxes were seized.

The Minister of Justice denied all knowledge of the opium, as did the three
Parliament members, and Governor Tang was not interrogated as that would be
quite contrary to the laws of Chinese etiquette; however, he will not
receive reappointment when his official term expires.

As we neared Ta-li Fu, and indeed along the entire road, we were amazed at
the prevalence of goitre. At a conservative estimate two out of every five
persons were suffering from the disease, some having two, or even three,
globules of uneven size hanging from their throats. In one village six out
of seven adults were affected, but apparently children under twelve or
fourteen years are free from it as we saw no evidences in either sex.
Probably the disease is in a large measure due to the drinking water, for
it is most prevalent in the limestone regions and seems to be somewhat
localized.

Every day we passed "chairs," or as we named them, "mountain schooners," in
each of which a fat Chinaman sprawled while two or four sweating coolies
bore him up hill. The chair is rigged between a pair of long bamboo poles
and consists of two sticks swung by ropes on which is piled a heap of
bedding. Overhead a light bamboo frame supports a piece of yellow oilcloth,
which completely shuts in the occupant, except from the front and rear.

The Chinese consider it undignified to walk, or even to ride, and if one is
about to make an official visit nothing less than a four-man chair is
required. Haste is just as much tabooed in the "front families" as physical
exertion, and is utterly incomprehensible to the Chinese. Major Davies says
that while he was in Tonking before the railroad to Yuen-nan Fu had been
constructed, M. Doumer, the Governor-General of French Indo-China, who was
a very energetic man, rode to Yuen-nan Fu in an extraordinarily short time.
While the Europeans greatly admired his feat, the Chinese believed he must
be in some difficulty from which only the immediate assistance of the
Viceroy of Yuen-nan could extricate him.

In Yuen-nan it is necessary to carry one's own bedding for the inns supply
nothing but food, and consequently when a Chinaman rides from one city to
another he piles a great heap of blankets on his horse's back and climbs on
top with his legs astride the animal's neck in front. The horses are
trained to a rapid trot instead of a