In Yuen-nan these
welcome refreshment houses are not met with so often, and little
inducement is held out for the coolies to stop, but upon the slightest
provocation they will stop for a smoke. On this walking trip I made it a
rule to be off by seven o'clock, stop twice for a quarter of an hour up
to tiffin (my men stopped oftener), when our rest was often for an hour,
so that we were all refreshed and ready to push on for the fag-end of
the stage. We generally were done by four or five o'clock. And I should
be the last in the world to deny that by this time I had had enough for
one day.
Upon arrival I immediately washed my feet, an excellent practice of the
Chinese, changed my footgear, drank many cups of tea, and often went
straight to my p'ukai. The roads of China take it out of the strongest
man. There are no Marathon runners here; progress is a tedious toil,
often on all fours.
My room at Hwan-lien-p'u was near a telegraph pole; there was a
telegraph station there, where my men showed their admiration for the
Governmental organization by at once hammering nails into the pole. It
was close to their laundry, and served admirably for the clothes-line, a
bamboo tied at one end with a string to a nail in the pole and the other
end stuck through the paper in the window of the telegraph operator's
apartment.
Pages:
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411