He was the Yunnan giant,
Chang Yan Miun, a kindly-featured monster, whom it is a pity to see
buried in China when he might be holding _levees_ of thousands in a
Western side-show. For the information of those in search of novelties,
I may say that the giant is thirty years of age, a native of Tongchuan,
born of parents of ordinary stature; he is 7ft. 1in. in his bare feet,
and weighs, when in condition, 27st. 6lb. With that ingenious
arrangement for increasing height known to all showmen, this giant might
be worth investing in as a possible successor to his unrivalled
namesake. There is surely money in it. Chang's present earnings are
rather less than _7s._ a month, without board and lodging; he is
unmarried, and has no incumbrance; and he is slightly taller and much
more massively built than a well-known American giant whom I once had
permission to measure, who has been shown half over the world as the
"tallest man on earth," his height being attested as "7ft. 11in. in his
stockings' soles," and who commands the salary of an English admiral.

We made only a short march the first evening, but after that we
travelled by long stages. The country was very pretty, open glades with
clumps of pine, and here and there a magnificent sacred tree like the
banyan, under whose far-reaching branches small villages are often half
concealed. Despite the fertility of the country, poverty and starvation
met us at every step; the poor were lingering miserably through the
year. Goitre, too, was increasing in frequency. It was rarely that a
group gathered to see us some of whose members were not suffering from
this horrible deformity. And everywhere in the pretty country were signs
of the ruthless devastation of religious war. That was a war of
extermination. "A storm of universal fire blasted every field, consumed
every house, destroyed every temple."

Crumbling walls are at long distances from the towns they used to guard;
there are pastures and waste lands where there were streets of
buildings; walls of houses have returned whence they came to the mother
earth; others are roofless. In the open country, far from habitation,
the traveller comes across groups of bare walls with foundations still
uncovered, and dismantled arches, and broken images in the long grass,
that were formerly yamens and temples in the midst of thriving
communities. Yet there are signs of a renaissance; many new houses are
being built along the main road; walls are