ged
before the Titai, who happened to be present, and ordered to be
beheaded there and then. An executioner was selected from among the
soldiers; but so clumsily did he do the work, hacking the head off by
repeated blows, instead of severing it by one clean cut, that the
friends of the thief were incensed and vowed vengeance. That same night
they lay in wait for the executioner as he was returning to the city,
and beat him to death with stones. Five men were arrested for this
crime; they were compelled to confess their guilt and were sentenced to
death. As they were being carried out to the execution-ground, one of
the condemned pointed to two men, who were in the crowd of sightseers,
and swore that they were equally concerned in the murder. So these two
men were also put on their trial, with the result that one was found
guilty and was equally condemned to death. As if this were not
sufficient, at the execution the mother of one of the prisoners, when
she saw her son's head fall beneath the knife, gave a loud scream and
fell down stone-dead. Nine lives were sacrificed in this tragedy: the
woman who was stabbed recovered of her wound.

Hsiakwan was crowded, as it was market day. We had lunch together at a
Chinese restaurant, and then, my men having come up, the kind
missionaries returned, and I went on alone. A river, the Yangki River,
drains the Tali Lake, and, leaving the south-west corner of the lake,
flows through the town of Hsiakwan, and so on west to join the Mekong.
For three days the river would be our guide. A mile from the town the
river enters a narrow defile, where steep walls of rock rise abruptly
from the banks. The road here passes under a massive gateway. Forts, now
dismantled, guard the entrance; the pass could be made absolutely
impregnable. At this point the torrent falls under a natural bridge of
unusual beauty. We rode on by the narrow bank along the river, crossed
from the left to the right bank, and continued on through a beautiful
country, sweet with the scent of the honeysuckle, to the charming little
village of Hokiangpu. Here we had arranged to stay. The inn was a large
one, and very clean. Many of its rooms were already occupied by a large
party of Cantonese returning home after the Thibetan Fair with loads of
opium.

The Cantonese, using the term in its broader sense as applied to the
natives of the province of Kuangtung, are the Catalans of China. They
are as enterprising as the Scotch,