ClIAP. X. 
INN AT CHU-CHU. 
169 
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 accommodation 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 chairbearers and coolie were already 
seated at one of those tables, evidently enjoying their 
evening meal after the fatigues of the day. Sing-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 atten- 
tion more to his o^vn 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 admission 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 floor, and the walls besmeared with the 
remains of tallow and dirt, and a fair idea may be formed 
of the place in which I was about to pass the night. ^ 
VOL. 11. I 
