wn quinine. They sat around and drank hot water, holding
forth with eloquence beyond their wont on the general advantages,
naturally and supernaturally, of their native city of Tong-ch'uan-fu.
And well they might, for I know no prettier spot in the whole of Western
China.

Fifty men--coolies who were carrying general merchandise in all
directions, and who had taken shelter in the large inn I stayed at--rose
with me the next morning. As I ate my morning meal, spluttering the rice
over the floor as I tried vainly to control my chopsticks with
frost-nipped fingers, they went through the filthy round of early
morning routine. Squatting about with their dirty face-rags, and a
half-pint of greasy water in their brass receptacle shaped like the
soup-plate of civilization, and leaving upon their necks the traces of
their swills, they wiped the dirt into their hair, and considered they
had washed themselves. Men would emerge from their rooms, fully dressed,
with the dishclout in one hand and the hand-basin in the other--on the
way to their morning tub. Oh, the filth, the unspeakable filth of these
people! Would that the Chinese would emulate the cleanliness of the
Japs, though even that I would question. In several years in the Orient
I have not yet come across the cleanliness in any race of people to be
compared with that cleanliness which in England is next to godliness.

The people of Pu-peng were pleased to see me. They hurried about
obligingly to get food for man and beast, and the womankind, poor but
light-hearted, cracked suggestive jokes with my men with the utmost
freedom.

In this town there are many Lolo--it might be said that the entire
population is of Lolo origin, although had I suggested to any particular
inhabitant that this was a fact he would probably have taken keen
offense, and things might have gone badly with me. With the men it is
most difficult to tell--there is little difference between the _Han ren_
and the tribesman. But the difference is often most marked in respect to
the women. The Chinese woman has a considerably fairer skin than the
female of Lolo descent, and her customs and manners, apart from the
distinct colloquial accent, are quite evident as pretty sure proof of
distinction of race. After the Lolo have mingled with the Chinese for a
few years, however, it is quite difficult to differentiate between them,
as most of the Lolo women now speak Chinese (in this town I did not hear
any language