SHANGHAI SETTLEMENTS 97 



One further set of names suggestive of settlement history 

 is to be found in the "Mud Wall" names. They remain only 

 in native use. Those who use tram cars along the Bubbling 

 Well Eoad will sometimes hear the conductor informing 

 his passengers when they stop opposite the "New World" 

 building at the crossing of the Nanking and Thibet Eoads, 

 that they have arrived at the Mud Wall Bridge, the Nie 

 Zung Jau (M t$ g|). As there is now neither mud, nor 

 wall, nor bridge, there might be a little difficulty in account- 

 ing for the name, if the facts were not still within the 

 recollection of men yet living. We have to< go back to 1860 

 to discover the explanation. Then, as has already been 

 related, there was an attack on the city by the Taipings 

 who, beaten, went off vowing revenge. To strengthen the 

 .defences, earthworks were constructed wherever it was 

 thought desirable. One of these ran along the east bank of 

 the Defence Creek, or Chow-king Canal then connected for 

 the first time by digging with the Soochow Creek. It had 

 strong closed works at intervals. Over the creek there was 

 the bridge, known generally to foreigners only as the Loong- 

 Fei Bridge, so-called from the native name of the Horse 

 Bazaar then close by. That was the bridge which the native 

 community knew as the Nie Zung Jau, which name the 

 position still retains though the bridge has now disappeared 

 with the creek. Three other. Mud Wall Bridges retain the 

 old tradition. They are known as the Middle, South, and 

 North respectively. 



In quite early times street names were scarcely ever 

 used. All that was needed to direct servants or others 

 acquainted with the place to any desired point was the 

 pronunciation of the usually two-syllabled native name of the 

 firm to be visited. Let us accompany a lady quite un- 

 acquainted with Chinese as she makes a round of calls in the 

 •early days. No carriages or rickshaws exist. She steps, 

 therefore, into her sedan chair, and is lifted on to the 

 shoulders of her bearers. Her husband has provided her 

 with a slip of paper, on which the first inscription is 

 "Ne Chee" (H W). She pronounces the magic syllables, 

 leans r back in her comfortable conveyance, and is speedily 

 set down at the private door of that "loyal, faithful, patriotic 

 firm of heroic memory," Holliday, Wise & Co. Five or ten 

 minutes' chat, and she is off again. "Pau Zung" (St ®). 

 she says, and Dent's is the destination, the firm of "Precious 

 Compliance." The mistress of the house is not at home, 

 and so "Tai Wo" (^ *fl) is the next direction. Tai Wo is 

 soon reached. It is that firm of "Prosperous and exalted 

 harmony," known as Eeiss & Co. One final call has still to 



