FROM TONKIN TO INDIA 



some remembered scene in Japan. Then to sleep : with only 

 the chirp of the cricket and the " takko-ko-ko " of the lizards 

 round us. 



Two more stages and we should arrive at Isa ; the road 

 became more frequented, as was shown by stone water - troughs 

 for the caravans under little wayside shelters. We met strings 

 of mules laden with salt, and other merchandise is taken down 

 the river in small i6-feet boats, which descend in convoys. At 

 the rapids the flotilla stops, the crews take to the water, and 

 pass each cargo through in turn. 



Our rate of progress was slow, for the animals were tired. 

 One of the mules being hardly able to stagger on, the makotou 

 bled it from the tongue, and burnt a rag under its nose, which 

 caused a discharge from its nostrils ; he then made the animal 

 inhale some powdered pimento placed on glowing charcoal, and 

 finally forced it to swallow a black drug called kouizen. After 

 which attentions the mule revived sufficiently to proceed. 



In the afternoon of the 13th (March) we came in sight of 

 Isa. I have seen few things more cheerful than the aspect of 

 this little town. Crowning the hills and set in the verdure of 

 the valleys, it enclosed its tiers of white - roofed houses within 

 walls which the bamboo and larger trees chequered with their 

 shadows in the sunlight. Beneath it, in the plain, ran the river ; 

 on the right bank, rice-fields dotted with villages ; on the left, 

 the range that we now forsook, which reared its bare crags as 

 a background to the richness of this little oasis. 



It was opposite Isa that Gamier descended. The town con- 

 tains some thousands of inhabitants, and has a brisk trade. Salt 

 comes from Mohei (near Pou - eul - Fou), sugar from Tong-hai, 

 tobacco from Canton through Manhao, and other goods from 



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