92 A NATURALIST IN WESTERN CHINA 



many respects peculiar, as far as my experience goes. Most of 

 the women have natural feet, and many were busy weeding 

 and firming the rice plants. 



On leaving Peh-shan ch'ang the road makes a steep descent 

 to a stream and a correspondingly steep ascent to the top of 

 the bluffs again, winding round to the crest of a ridge where 

 is situated the market village of Yuen-fang. This place, 

 alt. 3100 feet, which was our destination for the day, hav- 

 ing covered the allotted 60 li, is prettily situated. We found 

 lodgings in a new and clean house boasting a veranda over- 

 looking a grove of Pine and Cypress trees. The crowd which 

 collected was small and though inquisitive kept at a respectful 

 distance. 



The flora proved identical with that of the previous day's 

 journey. I again met with sub-spontaneous Tea bushes in 

 the jungle and also saw a number of the Red Bean trees. 

 Perhaps the most interesting objects noted during the day 

 were the tombstones. These are very different from any I 

 have seen elsewhere. They are of freestone, often highly 

 sculptured, the workmanship being superior and the effect 

 both artistic and dignified. One or two old stone mausoleums 

 were magnificently sculptured. The aboriginal population 

 of this region were accomplished workers in stone, and their 

 work may have served as patterns for the Chinese to copy 

 from. In conception the designs are evidently not pure 

 Chinese, and I strongly suspect " Mantzu " influence, to use 

 the Chinese term for the aboriginal population. 



At Fu-erh-tang there is a particularly fine family temple, 

 and near by a Mantzu cave in an isolated piece of rock. 

 Around many of the mausoleums and family temples ancient 

 stone pillars (wei-tzu, i.e. masts) occur. Wayside shrines and 

 small temples, dedicated to Kwanyin (Goddess of Mercy) and 

 to the tutelary genii are common, the images being carved in 

 stone and mostly coloured blue and white. The day's journey 

 was more than usually interesting ; somehow one felt instinc- 

 tively that one was traversing a region closely associated with 

 man from very ancient times. 



Leaving Yuen-fang ch'ang soon after 6 a.m., we traversed 

 country similar to that of the day before, and reached Pai- 



