evening companion; for here was a fire--albeit, a green wood
fire--which looked gladly in my face, talked to me, and put life and
comfort and warmth into me for the ten li yet remaining of the day's
hard journey.

And at night, about 8:30 p.m., we at last reached the top of the hill,
actually the summit of a mountain pass, at the dirty little village of
Ta-shui-tsing. Not for long, however, could I rest; for I heard yells
and screams and laughs. That pony again! Every one of my men were afraid
of it, for at the slightest invitation it pawed with its front feet and
landed man after man into the gutter, and if that failed it stood
upright and cuddled them around the neck. Now I found it had
run--saddle, bridle and all--and none volunteered to chase. So at 9:30,
weary and bearing the burden of a terrible day, which laid the
foundation of a long illness to be recorded later, I found it my
unpleasant duty to patrol the hill from top to bottom, lighting my
slippery way with a Chinese lantern, chasing the pony silhouetted on
the sky-line. Ta-shui-tsing is a dreary spot with no inn accommodation
at all,[V] a place depopulated and laid waste, gloomy and melancholy. I
managed, however, after promising a big fee, to get into a small
mud-house, where the people were not unkindly disposed. I ate my food,
slept as much as I could in the few hours before the appearing of the
earliest dawn on the bench allotted to me, feeling thankful that to me
had been allowed even this scanty lodging. But I could not
conscientiously recommend the place to future travelers--a dirty little
village with its dirty people and its dirty atmosphere. At the top of
the pass the wind nearly removed my ears as I took a final glance at the
mountain refuge. Mountains here run south-west and north-east, and are
grand to look upon.

The poorest people were lepers, the beggars were all dead long ago. In
Yuen-nan province leprosy afflicts thousands, a disease which the
Chinese, not without reason, dread terribly, for no known remedy exists.
Burning the patient alive, which used often to be resorted to, is even
now looked upon as the only true remedy. Cases have been known where the
patient, having been stupefied with opium, has been locked in a house,
which has then been set on fire, and its inmate cremated on the spot.

Mining used to be carried on here, so they told me; but I was not long
in concluding that, whatever was the product, it has not materially
affec