re ill-paved and the
people ill-clad.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE CITY OF CHAOTONG, WITH SOME REMARKS ON ITS POVERTY, INFANTICIDE,
SELLING FEMALE CHILDREN INTO SLAVERY, TORTURES, AND THE CHINESE
INSENSIBILITY TO PAIN.

By the following day we had crossed the mountains, and were walking
along the level upland that leads to the plain of Chaotong. And on
Sunday, April 1st, we reached the city. Cedars, held sacred, with
shrines in the shelter of their branches, dot the plain; peach-trees and
pear-trees were now in full bloom; the harvest was ripening in the
fields. There were black-faced sheep in abundance, red cattle with short
horns, and the ubiquitous water-buffalo. Over the level roads primitive
carts, drawn by red oxen, were rumbling in the dust. There were mud
villages, poor and falling into ruins; there were everywhere signs of
poverty and famine. Children ran about naked, or in rags. We passed the
likin-barrier, known by its white flag, and I was not even asked for my
visiting card, nor were my boxes looked into--they were as beggarly as
the district--but poor carriers were detained, and a few cash unjustly
wrung from them. At a crowded teahouse, a few miles from the city, we
waited for the stragglers, while many wayfarers gathered in to see me.
Prices were ranging higher. Tea here was 4 cash, and not 2 cash as
hitherto. But even this charge was not excessive. In Canton one day,
after a weary journey on foot through the crowded streets, I was taken
to a five-storied pagoda overlooking the city. At the topmost story tea
was brought me, and I drank a dozen cups, and was asked threepence in
payment. I thought that the cheapest refreshment I ever had. Yet here I
was served as abundantly with better tea at a charge compared with which
the Canton charge was twenty-five times greater. Previously in this
province the price I had paid for tea in comparison with the price at
Canton was as one to fifty.

Early in the afternoon we passed through the south gate into Chaotong,
and, picking our way through the streets, were led to the comfortable
home of the Bible Christian Mission, where I was kindly received by the
Rev. Frank Dymond, and welcomed as a brother missionary of whose arrival
he had been advised. Services were ended, but the neighbours dropped in
to see the stranger, and ask my exalted age, my honourable name, and my
dignified business; they hoped to be able to congratulate me upon being
a man of virtue, the fath