THE DUNGAN REVOLT 
1 207 
the points of spears. When General Ho’s soldiers returned 
from a sortie, bringing in Mohammedan prisoners in chains, 
the populace fairly howled with delight, and swarmed round 
them in fiendish triumph as they were dragged through 
the streets to the Jen Tai’s yamen to learn their doom. 
Thereupon they were led away outside the city gate, and 
their throats cut with blunt knives. After that their chests 
were opened, their heart and liver torn out, stuck on 
the points of spears, carried in ghastly procession to the 
nearest cafd, roasted, and devoured. This the Chinese 
did in the belief, that by eating the hearts of their enemies, 
their courage would pass into themselves. 
It is estimated that during the revolt 50,000 Chinese 
perished, and the same number of Dungans. The latter 
made brave and capable soldiers, but were wretchedly 
armed. One instance will illustrate this. When Tung- 
kwan was stormed, there was one sentry-post on a tower 
that was fully exposed to the Chinese marksmen, who shot 
the sentries down one after the other. But as fast as 
each sentry fell, his place was taken by a comrade. This 
happened six times in succession ; and when the suburb at 
length capitulated, the Chinese found a sentry still in the 
tower nailed fast to his post with an arrow. 
The Chinese on the other hand were arrant cowards. 
A large force was besieg'ing a Mohammedan town not far 
from Si-ning-fu, and for three days on end bombarded the 
walls, without daring to deliver an assault. When they 
saw no men on the walls, they feared that treachery was at 
work. General Ho marched upon the place at the head 
of several hundred men, and after he had blown up the 
gates, there came to meet him one blind old woman, the 
last surviving inhabitant of the town. She told him, all 
the rest of the people had retired into the mountains 
several days before, and she wondered what on earth the 
Chinese were doing outside the walls, making such a din 
with their cannon. 
The position of the English missionaries during those 
five terrible months was anything but an enviable one. 
Like the Chinese, they expected every day that some of 
