verbal excuse he has only to drop some money in the hands
of the gate-keeper, and the pecuniary apology is considered entirely
satisfactory. Time has softened the asperities of Tartar and Chinese
association, so that the two people mingle freely, and it is
impossible for a stranger to distinguish one from the other. Many
Chinese live in the Tartar town and transact business, and I fancy
that they would not always find it easy to explain their pedigree, or,
at all events, that of some of their children. The foreign legations
are in the Tartar city, for the reason that the government offices are
there, and also for the reason that it is the most pleasant, (or the
least unpleasant,) part of Pekin to reside in. All the embassies have
spacious quarters, with the exception of the Russian one, which is the
oldest; when it was established there it was a great favor to be
allowed any residence whatever.

[Illustration: PROVISION DEALER.]

From the center gate between the Chinese and Tartar cities there is a
street two or three miles long, and having the advantages of being
wide, straight, and dirty. It is blocked up with all sorts of
huckster's stalls and shops, and is kept noisy with the shouts of the
people who have innumerable articles for sale. Especially in summer
is there a liberal assemblage of peddlers, jugglers, beggars, donkey
drivers, merchants, idlers, and all the other professions and
non-professions that go to make up a population. The peddlers have
fruit and other edibles, not omitting an occasional string of rats
suspended from bamboo poles, and attached to cards on which the
prices, and sometimes the excellent qualities of the rodents, are set
forth. It is proper to remark that the Chinese are greatly slandered
on the rat question. As a people they are not given to eating these
little animals; it is only among the poorer classes that they are
tolerated, and then only because they are the cheapest food that can
be obtained. I was always suspicious when the Chinese urged me to
partake of little meat pies and dumplings, whose components I could
only guess at, and when the things were forced upon me I proclaimed a
great fondness for stewed duck and chicken, which were manifestly all
right. But I frankly admit that I do not believe they would have
inveigled me into swallowing articles to which the European mind is
prejudiced, and my aversion arose from a general repugnance to hash in
all forms--a repugnance which h