"FOREIGN DEVILS" 267 



refused to start, saying that the wind was getting 

 up and that we might be frozen to death if we 

 ventured out. Sure enough, an hour later the 

 loose snow was drifting and whirling in an icy 

 wind against which no horses could have stood. 

 It died down towards noon, and we started. Even 

 then the carts got badly stuck, and needed a great 

 deal of manoeuvring to extricate. One little inci- 

 dent which George saw, though I missed it, im- 

 pressed us both. It occurred at an inn just before 

 we started for our day's march. A Chinaman and 

 a Russian had a quarrel. The former hit the 

 Russian and spat at him, but without the latter 

 making any attempt to avenge the insult. At 

 this same inn one of the crowd said something 

 about " foreign devils " in allusion to ourselves. 

 The doctor was up in arms in a moment, quite 

 rightly, and his scathing remarks drove the abashed 

 orator out of the inn. It came out afterwards that 

 he had not meant to be insulting, and had used the 

 phrase in ignorance. I think we only once heard 

 this expression during the whole time we were in 

 China. Before 1900 it was, if not common, at 

 least used frequently. We had accompanying us, 

 since leaving Lanchow, an escort. In any kind 

 of disturbance such a man would usually be worse 

 than useless. He is simply sent to show that the 

 traveller is under Government protection, and is 

 usually the dirtiest and most ragged-looking 

 individual about the purlieus of the local yamen. 

 His uniform, if he has one, is a blue coat with a 

 broad red edging, but his clothes are usually so 

 dirty that it is impossible to distinguish any colours. 

 Of all the tatterdemalion scarecrows who accom- 



