244 



TEA DISTRICTS OF CHINA. Chap. XIY. 



sure to awake me. Somewhere about midnight I 

 awoke, and for a second or two I heard nothing 

 except the heavy rain pattering on the roof of our 

 room. Shortly afterwards, however, a slight noise 

 below attracted my attention, and my eye naturally 

 turned to the trap-door. What was my surprise to 

 see it slowly open and the head of a man make its 

 appearance in the room where we were ! I scarcely 

 knew how to act, but at last determined to lie still 

 and watch his motions, and to be ready if necessary 

 to defend myself as well as I could. Gradually a 

 man's figure appeared, and entering the room he 

 began to grope about, muttering some indistinct 

 words. This awoke Sing-Hoo, who jumped out of 

 bed in a great fright and called out to me to get up. 

 " The rain is coming through the roof of the house 

 into our bed, 5 ' said the man, whom we immediately 

 recognised to be the poor old priest. We now 

 breathed freely and had a good laugh at our being so 

 alarmed. The old man, after putting some mats 

 above the place through which the rain was coming 

 in, descended the stairs to his own room. " Shut 

 down the door," said Sing-Hoo to him as he went 

 out. " It is much better up," said the old priest, " it 

 is much cooler : don't be afraid, there is nothing to 

 harm you amongst these mountains." Sing-Hoo did 

 not contradict him, but, when he was gone, got up 

 and quietly shut down the door. Nothing else dis- 

 turbed our slumbers during the night. 



These old people had not the slightest idea that I 

 was a foreigner; but I was subjected to some incon- 



