r devoted to Yuen-nan-fu I have referred to the military of
Tali-fu, but here I saw the men actually at drill, and a finer set of
men I have rarely seen in Europe. The military Tao-tai lives here.
Progress is phenomenal. At Yung-chang, the westernmost prefecture of the
Empire, the commanding officer could even speak English.

In the famous temple ten li from Tali-fu is an effigy to the Yang Daren
who figured conspicuously during the Mohammedan Rebellion. My men
somehow got the false information that he was a native of
Tong-ch'uan-fu, so they all went down on their knees and bumped their
heads on the ground before the image. This Yang, however, was such a
brute of a man that no young girl was safe where he was; however, as a
soldier he was indomitable. The temple in which he is deified is called
the Kwan-in-tang,[AW] and there is no place in all China where Kwan-in
is worshipped with such relentless vigor. Some years ago, so the wags
say, when Tali-fu was threatened by rebels, Kwan-in saved the city by
transforming herself into a Herculean creature, and carrying upon her
back a stone of several tons weight, presumably to block the path. The
amazement of the rebels at the sight of a woman performing such a feat
made them wonder what the men could be like, so they turned tail and
fled. The story is believed implicitly by the residents of the city, and
the priests, with an open eye to the main chance, work upon the public
imagination with capital tact. I saw the stone in the center of a lotus
pond, over which is the structure in which the Kwan-in sits, not as a
weight-lifting woman, but as a tender mother, with a tiny babe in her
arms, and none in the whole of the Empire enjoys such favor for being
able to direct the birth of male children into those families which give
most money to the priests. Women desiring sons come and implore her by
throwing cash, one by one, at the effigy, the one who hits being
successful, going away with the belief that a son will be born to her.
When the deluded females are cleared out, the priest, divesting himself
of his shoes, and rolling up his trousers, goes into the water, scoops
up the money and uses it for his personal convenience--sometimes as much
as thirty thousand cash.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote AT: The commercial center of Tali-fu, the official city is 30
li further on--E.J.D]

[Footnote AU: _From Peking to Mandalay_, by R.F. Johnston, London, John
Murray. I am indebted to this raci