INN AT TSAI-TSOUN. 
Chap. XXI. 
prevented the arrival of the usual supplies from 
the south. However, I obtained a mutton chop, 
hard-boiled eggs, and soft bread made of millet, 
and with these I made up a dinner. Animal food 
appears to he consumed by these northern Chinese 
to a far greater extent than by their countrymen 
in the south. Butchers’ shops are met with in all 
the towns, and both beef and mutton can be had 
anywhere. This is probably owing to the cir- 
cumstance that a large number of the people 
are Mahomedans, whose prejudices, as regards 
the use of animal food, are not like those of the 
Buddhists. 
Nearly shaken to pieces, and thoroughly tired 
with the day’s journey, I retired early to rest. 
The bed-place in these inns is a raised mud plat- 
form erected at one end of the room, beneath 
which there is a chamber which can be heated 
during the winter months when the weather is 
cold. A mat is spread out on the top of this plat- 
form, and this is all that is furnished by the inn- 
keeper ; the traveller in China always carries his 
own bedding with him. As the Chinese are early 
in their habits — going early to bed, and rising 
early in the morning — the inn was soon perfectly 
quiet, and nothing disturbed our slumbers, except 
perhaps the occasional bark of a dog or the neigh- 
ing of a horse in the courtyard. 
At daylight next morning we resumed our 
journey. The coimtry through which we passed 
was still flat, but rather better wooded than what 
