206 



TEA DISTEICTS OF CHINA. 



Chap. XI. 



with a cloth in his hand, hastily wiped a table and 

 chair, and, bowing politely, asked me to be seated. 

 He then placed a cup of tea before me, and brought 

 a joss-stick to light my pipe, and, having done so, he 

 retired and left me to my own reflections. 



I had now time to take a survey of my quarters. 

 In the front part of the building a number of persons 

 were dining at tables placed there for the accommo- 

 dation of travellers. I had given them a slight 

 glance as I passed through, but was now able to 

 examine the groups with more leisure. My chair- 

 bearers and coolie were already seated at one of those 

 tables, evidently enjoying their evening meal after 

 the fatigues of the day. Smg-Hoo was bustling about 

 with the landlord, making himself quite at home, and 

 ordering the materials for my dinner. Perhaps this 

 had a tendency to turn the landlord's attention more 

 to his own business than to that of his guests ; but 

 be this as it may, he never appeared to have the 

 slightest idea that he had a foreigner under his roof, 

 and asked no troublesome questions. 



On each side of the hall in which I sat there were 

 a number of small sleeping apartments — I can scarcely 

 call them bedrooms— and in one of them my luggage 

 had been placed. It was about twelve feet square, 

 and had two beds and a table in it. It had no 

 window, nor any aperture of the kind for the admis- 

 sion of light, but the front boarding was not carried 

 so high as the roof, and hence an imperfect light 

 streamed in from the top, or through the doorway 

 when that was open. Add to this an uneven earthen 



