266 THE LAST OF CHINA 



ous situation ! was too busy looking after his own 

 needs to bother about anything except the top of 

 the salt-cellar, which he stole when we were out 

 of the room. George told him any one who 

 smoked opium in England was shot on sight, but 

 he only leered placidly and went on manipulating 

 his mutton fat and lamp, kneading the black, 

 sticky little pellet of opium the while. Dogs 

 barked all night ; a cow kept bumping into my 

 cart ; the carter woke me twice from a wakeful 

 doze to unearth corn from below my feet to feed 

 his animals ; the sifter of a corn grinder ticked 

 loudly with the monotonous regularity of a grand- 

 father clock, suddenly spurted, stopped, only to 

 begin again a moment later ; so that it was with 

 a sense of relief that I heard two buglers giving a 

 most inefficient imitation of a bugle-call, and knew 

 that it would soon be time to start. 



We were passing through Mohammedan country, 

 and though the followers of the Prophet refused 

 to give us bowls, even for drinking, they cannot 

 be described as rigid sectarians. If a horse should 

 die by the road, two or three men prop it up ; three 

 or four others rush at it, knock it down, beat it 

 with sticks, cut its throat in the approved manner, 

 say a prayer or two, and then eat it. Many of 

 them eat pork, keep dogs, smoke and drink. 



We passed through a long, narrow gorge which, 

 at times, is one of the worst bits of the road. We 

 had heard of it ever since starting, but fortunately 

 we travelled that stage on an absolutely windless 

 day. Mr. Hansen, following us, was not so 

 fortunate, and encountered bad weather. On 

 February 22nd, after passing this gorge, the carters 



