290 



TEA DISTRICTS OF CHINA. Chap, XVII. 



Human life is not much valued in some parts of the 

 country, and the province of Fokien does not bear a 

 high character, and for aught I knew I might be in a 

 den of thieves and robbers. Sing-Hoo, but a short 

 time before, had been telling me of an occurrence 

 which took place in the wild mountain country be- 

 tween Hoo-chow-foo — the famous silk town — and 

 Hwuy-chow, his native place. Four travellers, he 

 said, took up their quarters one evening in an inn on 

 the roadside. They called for a good dinner, and 

 afterwards smoked opium and gambled until nearly 

 midnight. Next morning three of them paid their 

 bills of fare and took their departure, but the fourth 

 was nowhere visible. His body was afterwards found 

 in a pit near the house, doubled up in his own box, 

 and from its appearance there was no doubt the man 

 had met with a violent death from the hands of his 

 companions. 



With this story in my mind, I could not endure 

 the suspense any longer, and throwing on my clothes 

 I opened the door and walked into the place where 

 the disturbance was. What I saw was quite sufficient 

 to alarm a bolder man, and yet there was something 

 in it laughable too. Eight or ten stout fellows, in- 

 cluding the chair-bearers, were attacking my servant, 

 who was standing, like a tiger at bay, up against the 

 wall of the house. He had a large joss-stick in his 

 hand which every now and then he was poking at the 

 faces of those who threatened to close with him. The 

 most adventurous sometimes got a poke which sent 

 them back, cursing and swearing, rather faster than 



