THE VALUE OF LIFE IN CHINA. 
121 
make any headway. We were half an hour in accom- 
plishing a distance which, had it not heen for those 
closely-packed sampans, could have heen passed over in 
five minutes. While thus elbowing our way through 
them we passed a junk, upon the bow of which several 
Chinamen were standing with long bamboo poles in their 
hands: they seemed to be bearing something clear of 
their cables, — something which the tide had swept afoul 
of them. This something proved to be the dead bodies 
of three Chinamen, bodies without heads, — bodies of 
men who had been decapitated by either the mandaiins 
or rebels, tied together by the feet, and then cast into 
the river to save the trouble of burial. They were shoved 
clear of the cable, and then went drifting on, borne upon 
the changing flow of the muddy stream, to bo returned 
again by the rising flood, like any useless barrel or water- 
logged piece of driftwood. Such is life in China. I once 
heard from good authority that it was no uncommon thing 
for a person to take the place of the condemned unfortu- 
nate, provided said condemned would pay a stipulated 
amount to the friends of the self-oflered victim. 
“Leaving this revolting scene behind us, we pulled 
into a basin on the river’s bank, the mouth of Avhich was 
guarded by a floating log, and the quiet bosom of which 
was covered by scores of the light egg-like boats known 
as sampans or Tanka-boats. These admirable little pas- 
sage-boats are sculled by a single girl generally, though 
they are often the homes of a whole family. One would 
be surprised to see the great number of Chinese who Ike 
in boats. This basin was probably a hundred feet in dia- 
meter, and after crossing it we reached a flight of heavy 
