FROM TONKIN TO INDIA 



scampering in the streets, jumping and writhing as if mad. Then 

 comes the turn of the cats. It is as if the poison rose from the 

 ground, and, mounting, infected in succession all it met. In the 

 case of human beings the malady shows itself by a swelling of 

 the glands. The missionaries have successfully employed as a 

 remedy a strong emetic. Europeans are seldom included in its 

 ravages. 



The food resources are plentiful ; mutton and beef one owes 

 to the Mussulmans ; and fruit and vegetables, European as well 

 as native, abound ; strawberries, peaches, apricots, and nuts being 

 good. There are many pretty walks in the neighbourhood ; in 

 the mountains you may find silver pheasants and hares, while 

 the rice - fields of the plain teem with water-fowl and white 

 herons. The Chinese protect the latter birds ; they say they 

 carry the souls of the dead to heaven ; and upon their tombs in 

 their religious designs they give a symbolical significance to the 

 heron analogous to that which we crive to the dove. There is 

 something similar among the ancient Egyptians. 



Europeans receive two posts a week — one through the custom- 

 house, the other through the consulate; they come in five days 

 overland from Laokay via Sinchai. 



