28 CONCERNING CHINESE ROADS 



most delicious melons I have ever tasted, in addition 

 to the other fruits I have mentioned. 



During the heat of the day, when the surface 

 of the road did not bristle with rocks, which 

 caused our carts to progress in a series of swaying 

 lurches and spine-shattering bumps, it was pleasant 

 to doze, for the nights were short. 



But the interest of the road was varied. A 

 taotai or some minor official travelling in tawdry 

 state ; a little Chinese girl, well and quietly dressed, 

 borne on a led donkey to visit her mother-in-law, 

 her cheeks whitened and rouged till she looked 

 like some inanimate doll ; the mails, in little 

 canvas packages tightly bound round a bamboo, 

 swinging and wagging on the bare shoulders of 

 the postman ; the " tunk ! tunk ! t-r-rllunk ! " of 

 some old muleteer ; a deserted and tumble-down 

 temple ; the only visible sign linking one to the 

 year of grace 1911, the distorted line of telegraph 

 poles stretching haphazard into the distance. At 

 times the Yellow River China's Sorrow its broad, 

 shallow bed muddy, yet majestic, swung into view. 

 Tall reed-beds flanked it, in. which frogs croaked 

 and little reed-birds shrilled and called. High 

 loess cliffs rose on the northern side, a thin strip of 

 unambitious bush at their base ; to the south the 

 Tsin-ling Mountains. 



Now and again we passed some high-walled 

 town, entered by the inevitable suburb. How 

 well 1 remember them ! A line of ramshackle 

 mud huts ; men sitting beneath thatched awnings, 

 drinking tea, or stuffing themselves by means of 

 chop-sticks ; a broken crenellated wall ; a tumbled- 

 down wooden arch ; a hooded gate frowning above 



