56 Naturalist at Large 



sight and no one even paused to throw a glance their way. 

 We were told that the previous Tao Tat, not the present 

 incumbent who came to meet Mr. Russell, for he seemed 

 to be a kindly old gentleman, had often snipped off crim- 

 inals' eyelids and then blew quicklime into their eyes before 

 they were put into the tripod. The collar was made large 

 enough so that their hands could not get to their faces. 

 Of course everywhere in China at the time of which 

 I write, criminals were seen walking about wearing the 

 cangue, a great broad wooden collar, sometimes very 

 heavy, on which their sins were detailed in large painted 

 characters. 



Mr. Russell spoke mandarin Chinese fluently but the 

 Tao Tai came from the Province of Fokien and, as our 

 friend said, had "a thick Fuchow manner of speech," so 

 that they did not chin glibly one with the other; however, 

 Mr. Russell gleaned the impression that the old gentleman 

 had some pirates in a cage uptown and he would gladly 

 have them trundled down to the beach and have their heads 

 chopped off for our delectation. Rosamond thought we 

 could pass this up and I agreed. 



We lived on board the boat, which was tied up to the 

 riverbank. I have no doubt we could have found a Chinese 

 inn but the city was an extraordinarily stinking and filthy 

 one, although far from ugly when seen from a distance. 

 It had obviously been a place of great importance and I 

 think at one time was the capital of the Province of 

 Kwangsi. At this time, however, Nanning was the capital. 

 Unfortunately the river was too low for us to get up there 

 so, bidding good-bye to our friend, with whom for years 

 I carried on a desultory correspondence, we slipped back 



