hrough my fingers.[AN]

Outside the town, on the lee side of a triumphal arch--erected, maybe,
to the memory of one of the virtuous widows of the district--I untied my
pukai and donned my mackintosh and wind-cap. A gale blew, my fingers
ached with the cold, breathing was rendered difficult by the rarefied
air. As we were thus engaged and discussing the prospects of the storm,
yelling from under a gigantic straw hat, a fellow said--

"Suan liao" ("not worth reckoning") "only five more li to
Sha-chiao-kai."

We had thirty li to do. Such is the idea of distance in Yuen-nan.[AO]

The storm did not come, however, and my men ever after reminded me to
keep out my wind-cap and my mackintosh, partly to lighten their loads,
of course, and partly on account of the good omen it seemed to them to
be.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote AH: "Gwan" is the Chinese for "official."]

[Footnote AI: I have seen a European, with an imperfect hold of an
eastern language, knock an Asiatic down because he thought the man was a
fool, whereas he himself was ignorant of what was going on. The message
the coolie was bringing was misunderstood by the conceited assistant,
and as a result of having just this smattering of the vernacular, he ran
his firm in for a loss of fifty thousand dollars.--E.J.D.]

[Footnote AJ: Ts'u-hsiong-fu, as it is pronounced locally, with a strong
"ts" initial sound.]

[Footnote AK: Meaning a relief hand (Malay).]

[Footnote AL: Literally, "tea money."]

[Footnote AM: "Heaping up merit" is one of the elementary practices of
Chinese religious life.]

[Footnote AN: Chennan-chou, which stands at a height of 6,500 feet, has
been visited again since by myself. My caravan consisted on this
occasion of two ponies (one I was riding), two coolies, a servant, and
myself. As we got to the archway in the middle of the street leading to
the busy part of the town, my animal nearly landed me into the gutter,
and the other horse ran into a neighboring house, both frightened by
crackers which were being fired around a man who was bumping his head on
the ground in front of an ancestral tablet, brought into the street for
the purpose. A horrid din made the air turbulent. I sought refuge in the
nearest house, tying my ponies up to the windows, and was most
hospitably received as a returned prodigal by a well-disposed old man
and his courtly helpmate. The genuineness of the hospitality of the
Chinese is as strong as their unfriendliness can