SSUMAO TO TALI 



The usual difficulties attending a start were increased by the 

 irritating dalliance of the makotou, whose incessant iteration of the 

 words " mai " (buy) and " injen " (money) nearly drove us mad. 

 The avarice of the man was but one of his faults. The chief part 

 of every night he gave up to his besetting vice of opium-smoking, 

 emerging in the morning with blear and swollen eyes to enter upon 

 an arduous march, in which he would have to busy himself, keep 

 the mules going, and superintend the loads, all generally performed 

 with an open sore on his leg. It was marvellous what the 

 dominating greed of gain and self-indulgence would enable such 

 a being to carry through when he was inevitably approaching the 

 premature exhaustion of his vital forces. Franqois and he were two 

 typical real Chinese, and furnished in daily intercourse a perfect 

 sample of what goes to make up the essence of the Chinese 

 character in its few redeeming features, hideous vices, and in- 

 surmountable failings. It is narrated of certain pecaris, that if 

 a traveller takes refuge from their charge in a tree, they will 

 beleaguer the trunk till he drops among them from exhaustion. 

 The Chinese always gave me the idea of these wild boars. To see 

 them seated below us immovable throughout a whole day, scarce 

 stirring their hands save to fill the water pipe, or their jaws to 

 exchange a few words, they seemed doggedly to await something 

 from our hands which they would not get. If one dispersed them, 

 they immediately reclosed their ranks as before. Like as the people, 

 such are their rulers : what possible impression can our diplomatists, 

 using the methods of civilised nations, make upon this gelatinous 

 mass, or what hold can be taken of that which continuallj- slips 

 through one's fingers ? 



Throughout the day we followed the valley of the Nan-Ting-ho, 



which forms a complete basin around Mienning. The rice swamps 



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