94 Through the Yang-tse Gorges 



guitar, while a second man in the bows beat time with a big 

 pair of bamboo castanettes in his left, and a drum-stick in 

 his right hand. With this latter he hammered away upon a 

 drum on his knees, which consisted simply of a section of 

 a colossal bamboo, made at one of its joints. One hundred 

 cash (fourpence) was the cost of the entertainment, and for this 

 we were allowed to select three pieces from a long repertoire 

 tastefully inscribed upon an extended fan. Barring the 

 hideous accompaniment, the singing was not inharmonious. 



Monday, March 26th. — While delayed at Kwei-chow-fu, 

 I watched the big junks towing slowly round the flat boulder- 

 point below the city, above which is the quiet bay in which 

 we are moored. The lively cry of the trackers rings in my 

 ears, and will always be associated in my mind with the 

 rapids of the Upper Yang-tse. This cry is " Chor-chor," 

 said to mean " Shang-chia,'' or, " Put your shoulder to it," 

 " it " being the line which is slung over the shoulder of 

 each tracker, and attached to the quarter-mile-long tow- 

 rope of plaited bamboo by a hitch, which can be in- 

 stantaneously cast off and rehitched. The trackers mark 

 time with this cry, swinging their arms to and fro at 

 each short step, their bodies bent forward, so that their 

 fingers almost touch the ground. When coming into a 

 station like this, the long, thick tow-line is coiled up on 

 the bank as the trackers advance, each man promptly casting 

 off his own hitch as he gets to the front, and running back 

 to take up his place and hitch on again in the rear. Eighty 

 or a hundred men make a tremendous noise at this work, 

 almost drowning the roar of the rapid,' and often half a 

 dozen junks' crews are towing like this, one behind the 

 other. From the solemn stillness of the gorge to the lively 

 commotion of a rapid, the contrast is most striking. 



The larger junks are all accompanied by a tender, to land 



