Chap. XVII. CHINESE BEGGAES. 



297 



string of a hundred cash there are a number of small 

 inferior ones: these are either given to beggars, or 

 the beggar lays down one of them for the shopkeeper, 

 who gives in return one of the usual size, so that in 

 this case the beggar receives about the value of half 

 a cash, or the fiftieth part of a penny ! I believe, in 

 many cases, it is not unusual for the inhabitants of a 

 city to compound with the heads of this strange com- 

 munity. When this is done a slip of paper is pasted 

 on the doorposts of the person who has made this 

 arrangement, and no beggar troubles him during the 

 space of time for which he has paid. 



Such were the kind of persons with whom I shared 

 the shelter of a public building on this eventful 

 morning. They were not inquisitive, but left me to 

 my own meditations, which were not very pleasant 

 ones. I had three hundred le of a mountain road 

 before me ere I could reach the head of the river, 

 which has one of its sources on the northern side of 

 the Bohea mountains, and in its course joins the 

 Green Eiver, which falls into the bay of Hang-chow. 

 This was a most serious undertaking ; and if I could 

 not procure a chair I should be obliged to discard the 

 greater part of my luggage, amongst which were the 

 tea-plants I had procured on the Woo-e hills. I 

 began to wish now that I had gone down the river 

 Min to Foo-chow-foo, instead of coming across these 

 mountains ; but there was no use in repining, the die 

 was cast, and I must press onwards. 



In about an hour Sing-Hoo returned, bringing a 

 chair and men, whom he had procured without any 



