they
saved on the twenty days' journey, days that I rested not to count.

Of course none of the three men spoke a word of English. All were
natives of the province of Szechuen, and all carried out their agreement
to the letter.

On May 3rd I left Tali. The last and longest stage of all the journey
was before me, a distance of some hundreds of miles, which I had to
traverse before I could hope to meet another countryman or foreigner
with whom I could converse. The two missionaries, Mr. Smith and Mr.
Graham, kindly offered to see me on my way, and we all started together
for Hsiakwan, leaving the men to follow.

Ten li from Tali we stopped to have tea at one of the many tea-houses
that are grouped round the famous temple to the Goddess of Mercy, the
_Kwanyin-tang_. The scene was an animated one. The open space between
the temple steps and the temple theatre opposite was thronged with
Chinese of strange diversity of feature crying their wares from under
the shelter of huge umbrellas. There is always a busy traffic to
Hsiakwan, and every traveller rests here, if only for a few minutes. For
this is the most famous temple in the valley of Tali. The Goddess of
Mercy is the friend of travellers, and no thoughtful Chinese should
venture on a journey without first asking the favour of the goddess and
obtaining from her priests a forecast of his success. The temple is a
fine specimen of Chinese architecture. It was built specially to record
a miracle. In the chief court, surrounded by the temple buildings, there
is a huge granite boulder lying in an ornamental pond. It is connected
by marble approaches, and is surmounted by a handsome monument of
marble, which is faced on all sides with memorial tablets. This boulder
was carried to its present position by the goddess herself, the monument
and bridges were built to detain it where it lay, and the temple
afterwards erected to commemorate an event of such happy augury for the
beautiful valley.

[Illustration: MEMORIAL IN THE TEMPLE OF THE GODDESS OF MERCY, NEAR
TALIFU.]

But the temple has not always witnessed only scenes of mercy. Two years
ago a tragedy was enacted here of strange interest. At a religious
festival held here in April, 1892, and attended by all the high
officials and by a crowd of sightseers, a thief, taking advantage of the
crush, tried to snatch a bracelet from the wrist of a young woman, and,
when she resisted, he stabbed her. He was seized red-handed, drag