SHANTUNG— CHINA'S HOLY LAND 



233 



breach had been 600 feet, 

 but was reduced to 300 

 feet by the formation of a 

 sand-bar on the opposite 

 side of the river. Hordes 

 of workmen with baskets 

 and barrows were set to 

 work on the top of the dike 

 bringing material to rein- 

 force the repaired section. 



THE EQUIPMENT 

 CARAVAN 



OE A 



From Tsinan our journey 

 was ten days by cart over 

 typical rough Chinese roads 

 in a general southwesterly 

 direction. Our party con- 

 sisted of myself, a student- 

 interpreter and recorder, a 

 cook, and three carts (with 

 carters whose bad behavior 

 we shall not soon forget), 

 in which food, tents, cloth- 

 ing, and bedding packed in 

 huge baskets were carried, 

 but in which we did not 

 often ride, for the carts 

 had no springs. For this 

 reason also our surveying 

 instruments were carried on 

 the shoulders of two men, 

 a third being supplied for 

 relief. 



This caravan advanced 

 about 25 miles a day. After 

 the first stage to Taian, we 

 were accompanied by a 

 military guard of two so- 

 called soldiers, who were 

 expected to keep the un- 

 ruly carters in check, but 

 who proved to be nearly as bad as they. 



For the most part we lived on the 

 country as we went. Sweet potatoes, 

 egg-plant, cabbage, turnips, and carrots 

 were easily secured. Good rice, such as 

 we know it in south China, was scarce, 

 but chickens and eggs, pork, persimmons, 

 hard pears, a few peaches, and abundant 

 dates, supplemented with a few tinned 

 goods, enabled us to live sumptuously. 



As a rule, we stopped at the regular 

 village inns, crude and uncomfortable, 

 but affording needed shelter for the 



Photograph by C. K. Edmunds 



THE EXECUTION-CAGE IN WHICH A CONDEMNED CHINA- 

 MAN IS STRANGLED TO DEATH 



Not to be confused with the cangue, or neck-stock (see 

 page 2^2), this instrument of torture takes the place of Western 

 civilization's gallows, electric chair, and guillotine. The victim, 

 standing on a pile of bricks, is placed on exhibition with his 

 head through a wooden collar. Day by day a brick is re- 

 moved until the culprit is starved and strangled to death. 

 Frequently there is an added refinement of torture in causing 

 the man's feet to dangle in quicklime. 



whole party of eleven souls and three 

 cart-mules. 



The roads through this section of 

 China are mostly ruts, which sometimes 

 attain a depth of 70 feet in the loess de- 

 posits. For a good part of our way the 

 road lay along the bank of a wide, shal- 

 low river cutting across the loess for- 

 mation. To judge from the height of 

 bridges and the markings on the land, the 

 tributaries to this stream, although dry 

 when we saw them, must be violent tor- 

 rents durinsr the rainy season. 



