174 



ADVENTURE WITH A BLIND MAN. Chap. IX. 



into execution, and I was inside the enclosure in 

 a moment. A number of watcli-dogs, which I 

 had disturbed, came running towards me, looking 

 very fierce and making a loud noise. Chinese 

 dogs are generally harmless enough and great 

 cowards, so that in this instance, with a good 

 stout stick in my hand, I felt no alarm whatever, 

 but went quietly on with my botanical researches. 

 In a few seconds an old man, who had been dis- 

 turbed by the barking of the dogs, came rushing 

 towards me with a stout bamboo in his hand, and 

 looking as if he intended to use it. He was evi- 

 dently in a towering passion. " Where had I 

 come from ? " " What did I want ? " " Why had 

 I come over the fence ? " were questions which he 

 put loudly and rapidly, interspersing them from 

 time to time with remarks which were not at all 

 flattering to my character or intentions. I knew 

 that I had done wrong, but the offence seemed 

 slight comparatively, and one which a stranger 

 and a foreigner in China might commit without 

 being called to account for it in this boisterous 

 manner. I remonstrated with the old man, com- 

 mencing in the most polite and approved manner 

 by asking him " if he had had his breakfast ? "* I 

 then told him, when I could get a word in, that I 

 was no thief, that I had merely come to pay him 



* This is a polite mode of salutation amongst the Chinese, not 

 unlike our own way of making remarks upon the weather. It is related 

 of a loving couple who had been separated for many years, that the 

 first words the wife said to her husband were — " Have you had your 

 dinner? '' 



