244 KEPOET OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



30 miles. Kinkiang is an important place for the export of tea. The 

 tea districts are situated about 60 miles from the town, and the coolies 

 bring in the chests in two days, each man carrying a load of 100 pounds. 

 The weight of a load and the distance over which a coolie travels may 

 be different in the north and south. I have not been able to make in- 

 quiries elsewhere but at this port." 



In Shanghai 140 pounds is an ordinary burden. For long distances 

 100 pounds is the load and 20 miles the ordinary day's journey. The 

 bearer has a staff in his hand and rests ad libitum by balancing his bur- 

 den on top. One hundred pounds 20 miles equals a ton a mile per day. 

 Now, if there are a million coolies, there are each day in China 1,000,000 

 tons of freight moved 1 mile on the backs of professional carriers. The 

 ancient Egyptians practiced this mode of carrying extensively. 



9. On the scapulae. — The grain carriers or lumpers who load vessels 

 with wheat or corn may frequently be seen with a full sack resting on 

 top of their backs. They run up a plank to the hatch, toss the sack in 

 the air, mouth downwards, and catch the lower corners so as to save 

 the sack and dump the grain into the hold. 



The English porters and furniture men have a knot, padded with 

 something soft, which they place around the forehead and on the 

 scapulae. They are then ready to take on the largest pieces of furni- 

 ture, such as bureaus, sideboards, etc. The higher form of this art of 

 carrying on the scapulae is the Holland yoke, a device which enables 

 the bearer to bring the hands into play. 



10. On the bade. — The back is the natural resting place for the bur- 

 den. The lowest savages know this, and inventive genius early began 

 to devise apparatus for harnessing this part of the bod} T . In Africa, 

 on the Andes, in Mexico, throughout the civilized world, the peaceable 

 carrier bears on his back the commerce of the race. The load is held in 

 place either by the forehead strap, the breast strap, the shoulder strap, 

 or by two or more of these combined. Bock, in his " Head-hunters of 

 Borneo," represents a carrier using both the head band and the shoul- 

 der straps as in knapsack carrying. In war the soldier fastens his 

 knapsack to his back and shoulders, leaving his arms free to do their 

 work. There are many patent devices for distributing the soldier's load 

 over the shoulders, breast, back, and hips. For obvious reasons his 

 hips are left free. Children play at pick-a-pack, passengers are landed 

 in shallow ports, persons of means pass over difficult places in the man- 

 ner described by Cassius : 



I, as iEneas, our great ancestor, 

 Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder 

 The old Anchises hear, so from the waves of Tiher 

 Did I the tired Caesar. 



The burdens of Kurdish women are thus graphically described: 

 " Soon we came to a place where the road was washed away, and we 

 were obliged to go around, We saw a woman there with a loaded 



