66 



TEA DISTRICTS OF CHINA. 



Chap. III. 



lested. Be this as it may, it is certain that they 

 revere and love old age and gray hairs. 



It was a custom with the boatmen every morning 

 to set aside a small portion of rice in a bamboo cup 

 to give to the poor. Hence the beggars were gene- 

 rally successful in their applications ; indeed, it was 

 a most difficult matter to get rid of them otherwise, 

 for they were most importunate and even trouble- 

 some. We were visited by so many that the boat- 

 man often complained of his inability to give more 

 than an ounce or two of rice to each, and appealed to 

 them on the subject. But unless the whole of the con- 

 tents of the bamboo cup was emptied into the basket 

 held out, the mendicants made a great noise, and 

 complained that they had been deprived of their due. 



Sometimes the river was so shallow and so full of 

 stones that the only passage for boats was close in 

 shore. The land beggars knew these places well, and 

 always took their stations there. Each was provided 

 with a basket suspended from the point of a bamboo 

 pole, which he held out to the boatman and asked 

 for alms. These landsmen were quite as importunate 

 as their brethren in the boats, and were generally as 

 successful in their applications. 



I was not aware until now that the lower orders 

 in China — such as these boatmen — were so charitable. 

 Few of the beggars — and " their name was legion" — 

 were sent away without "an alms." It might be 

 that, ignorant and idolatrous as these boatmen were, 

 they had yet some idea that a blessing would result 

 from " casting their bread upon the waters." 



