230 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



As they had promised in the event of my success to 

 take the idol to see a play on their return to Amoy, 

 it seemed certain that he would grant their prayers 

 without delay. 



My interpreter, a young Chinaman named Lim 

 Ek Hui, who had learned English at an American 

 mission school in Foochow, and who proved in- 

 valuable in communicating their directions, as well 

 as a most interesting companion in discussing things 

 Chinese during the long, lonely evenings, then ar- 

 ranged between us the rate of wages, and this mat- 

 ter having been satisfactorily decided, we repaired 

 to our respective suppers I, to the great delight 

 of the admiring throng in the courtyard, to knife, 

 fork, and plate, they to their chow -bowls and chop- 

 sticks. The ten Chinamen who were to share my 

 temple then stretched themselves in various posi- 

 tions about the floor, lit their opium-lamps, and 

 smoked themselves into oblivion, the interior 

 quickly becoming filled with the pungent but not 

 unpleasant odor of the drug. Thomas found a posi- 

 tion at the other end of the temple, as far removed 

 as possible from the Chinamen; while I, repairing 

 to my bale of straw, was quickly asleep amid these 

 novel surroundings. 



At dawn the courtyard was filled with the same 

 admiring crowd of the night before, men, wo- 



