GOOD MORNING ! 129 



manui and sold lier for twenty-four taels. The 

 only hope she had of being saved from a life of 

 hopeless drudgery in the fields lay in the fact that 

 Mrs. Christie refused to allow her feet to be bound, 

 which was a great drawback in the eyes of her 

 future relations. 



Our host's old doorkeeper had been a Buddhist 

 priest. At their coming to Choni he had saved 

 them much annoyance at the hands of the lamas, 

 who were very hostile. 



" You may turn them out if you will," he 

 said, " but more will come even though you kill 

 them." 



He had one invariable greeting for strangers— all 

 the English he knew : " Good morning ! The dog 

 has many fleas ! " 



The Thibetans are tremendous walkers, and as 

 illustrating their powers in this respect, one servant 

 of Mr. Christie's walked fcom Honan to Choni, a 

 distance of 2,300 // (roughly 700 miles) in eighteen 

 days, carrying a load of 20 lbs. He did this twice, 

 averaging 127 li a day. This same man walked 

 from Choni to Lanchow and back (360 miles) in 

 six and a half days. 



On September 11 we left Choni, and after a 

 ten hours' march reached the little village of 

 Archuen. We crossed the Tao by a typical 

 Thibetan bridge, underneath which was hung the 

 severed head of a bullock, a supposed deterrent 

 of cattle sickness. For a mile or so the road lay 

 down the main valley of the Tao, side valleys 

 cultivated for a few // stretching into the hills on 

 the south bank. In one of these, the Poayiikou, 

 we afterwards hunted v/apiti and roe. The woods 



