178 THE HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS OF KWEICHOW 



interested crowd watched every mouthful with absorbed 

 attention. Our cook brought a fine, live "wild chicken" 

 (i.e. pheasant), which sat in the basket at the back of my 

 chair. 



On the outskirts of Lan-ni-kon, which was reached on 

 the second day, we saw people gathering nettles, their hands 

 being protected by thick gloves. We were glad to get into 

 a better inn than had been our experience for some time, 

 and to get our clothes dried by means of a brazier, as we 

 had walked up and down a very long hill in pouring rain, 

 owing to the stage being long and arduous — sixty miles in 

 two days. 



Next day was misty, and soon after we started there 

 was a steep stone stairway down the face of a cliff to be 

 negotiated, the steps being covered with slippery mud and 

 numbers of pack animals making their way down, slithering 

 and sliding in a precarious way. The scene was magnificent 

 — masses of roses hanging in long festoons from the rocks, 

 and the narrow verdant plain far below with the shining 

 river, Ya-chieh-ho, flowing along it. There were flowering 

 trees full of snowy blossom, catalpa, orange, azalea, iris, 

 a wealth of scent as well as colour; the village gardens were 

 hedged with spindle cactus. We had passed a variety of 

 trees since leaving Tating — poplars, pomegranate, catalpa, 

 besides hawthorn, sweetbriar and honeysuckle. At the 

 river's edge was a likin station, and we saw the mail bags 

 waiting to> be ferried across. It is astonishing to see them 

 all carried so regularly by runners to every part of this 

 neglected province. The likin office had a good motto up, 

 inviting people to advance the country's trade, but how can 

 it be done as long as they have such roads? They require 

 a Governor like Yen Hsi Shan (the Tuchun of Shansi) in 

 Kewichow; what a garden of wealth and beauty might not 

 be made out of it ! 



We passed over a fifteen-span bridge next day in very 

 good condition. The roads improved and the cultivation of 

 opium poppy grew less as we neared the capital, and other 

 things, such as vegetables, seemed to be a good deal grown 

 in its place. Kweiyang is a fine town (population 100,000) 

 with most picturesque surroundings. One road leading to it 

 had a succession of no less than twenty-seven memorial 

 arches, mostly put up to the memory of good mothers or 

 widows, I believe. 



We visited a Buddhist monastery in the neighbourhood, 

 where there is a crematorium for burning the dead bodies of 

 the monks and an adjoining stone-paved cemetery, where 

 their ashes are deposited in handsome stone monuments. 



