They had no brains, these men; or if
Heaven had thus o'erblessed them, they did not exercise them in their
industry--their coarse, rough hands alone gained food for the day's
feeding. And these mud-roofed, mud-sided dwellings--these were their
homes, to me worse homes than none at all. In their architecture not
even a single idea could be traced--the Chinese here had proceeded as if
by merest accident. All I could think as I returned their wondering
glances was that their world must be very, very old. But I have no time
or space to talk of them here. To throw more than a cursory glance at
them Would lead me into interminable disquisitions of a mythological,
anthropological, craniological, and antediluvian nature for which one
would not find universal approval among his readers. To those who would
study such questions I say, "Fall to!" There is enough scope for a
lifetime to bring into light the primeval element so strangely woven
into the lives of these people.
At Yuen-nan-i bunting and weird street decoration made the place hideous
in my eyes. The crowded town was making considerable ado about some
expected official. I saw none, more than a courteous youth--to whom, of
course, I was quite unknown and deaf and dumb--who graciously shifted
goods and chattels from the inn's best room to hand it over to me for my
occupation.
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