GOOD MORNING! 129 



mania and sold her for twenty-four taels. The 

 only hope she had of being saved from a life of 

 hopeless drudgery in the fields lay in the fact that 

 Mrs. Christie refused to allow her feet to be bound, 

 which was a great drawback in the eyes of her 

 future relations. 



Our host's old doorkeeper had been a Buddhist 

 priest. At their coming to Choni he had saved 

 them much annoyance at the hands of the lamas, 

 who were very hostile. 



"You may turn them out if you will," he 

 said, " but more will come even though you kill 

 them." 



He had one invariable greeting for strangers all 

 the English he knew : " Good morning ! The dog 

 has many fleas ! " 



The Thibetans are tremendous walkers, and as 

 illustrating their powers in this respect, one servant 

 of Mr. Christie's walked from Honan to Choni, a 

 distance of 2,300 U (roughly 760 miles) in eighteen 

 days, carrying a load of 20 Ibs. He did this twice, 

 averaging 127 U a day. This same man walked 

 from Choni to Lanchow and back (360 miles) in 

 six and a half days. 



On September 11 we left Choni, and after a 

 ten hours' march reached the little village of 

 Archuen. We crossed the Tao by a typical 

 Thibetan bridge, underneath which was hung the 

 severed head of a bullock, a supposed deterrent 

 of cattle sickness. For a mile or so the road lay 

 down the main valley of the Tao, side valleys 

 cultivated for a few U stretching into the hills on 

 the south bank. In one of these, the Poaylikou, 

 we afterwards hunted wapiti and roe. The woods 



