FROM TONKIN TO INDIA 



was found whose official fears were not proof against his money 

 greed, and our remaining specie was transformed into two cheques 

 of 4,000 and 2,000 taels. We gained by the exchange, as our silver 

 received a value of 20 per cent, over the capital. 



It may be imagined that all these dispositions were not com- 

 pleted in a day. Before arriving at any result much time was 

 consumed in arguing, bargaining, and making chang-liang in 

 Chinese parlance. We turned the intervals to advantage by 

 examining the town and its environs, and in conversation with 

 the few European residents. 



Mongtse contains about 11,000 inhabitants. The place offers 

 but little of interest, and is quiet. The people, accustomed to 

 the going and coming of whites, appeared indifferent to our 

 proceedings, although the most extravagant reports had been 

 spread about our arrival. It was said that a king's son (Chinese, 

 " ichingotian" prince) was coming up to Mongtse with a thousand 

 armed men. I was used to these legends. Every week on market 

 day the streets presented an interesting spectacle. At the entrance, 

 outside the rampart, long strings of carrier oxen stood waiting 

 behind the straw-wrapped bales of yarn or sheets of tin for the 

 custom-house examination. Crowds of country folk thronged the 

 gate, the Poula element predominating. The women of this 

 race, with round faces sheltered under linen bonnets somewhat 

 resembling those of the Little Sisters of the Poor, crouched beside 

 baskets of vegetables. The men wore small open vests and a 

 blue turban, round which they twisted their pigtails. Here an 

 old beggar woman chanted her nasal plaint to the accompaniment 

 of oblong castanets. She was not bewitching, — we were far from 

 an Esmeralda, — but we threw her a few sapecks. There went by 

 the tinker, with his professional cry of " Pouko ! Pouko!" At a 



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