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CHAPTER XVII.

Inn at Pouching-hien - Opium-smokers and gamblers-Value of life in China - A midnight disturbance - Sing-Hoo fights with a jossstick-Difficulty of procuring men next day-Sing-Hoo carries the luggage, and we march His bamboo breaks

beggars Description of beggars in China

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Scene amongst

A "king of the

beggars"- Charity always given - I continue my journey — Mountain passes and Buddhist temples-A border town and Tartar guard We are inspected and allowed to pass on.

HAVING left tea and the tea-hills behind me, I shall now go on with my narrative. When I arrived at the city of Pouching-hien it was nearly dark. It had been raining heavily all the afternoon, and, being wet and uncomfortable, I was glad of the shelter afforded by a Chinese inn. The one which I entered did not appear to be so respectable as I could have wished, and I would have left it and sought another had the weather been better, but as the night was so wet I determined to stop where I was.

The chair-bearers and coolie, who had been reengaged at Woo-e-shan, had now arrived at the end of their journey, according to agreement, and intended returning home again next day. They generally took care to be paid the proportion of their fare at the end of each day's journey, and I now desired Sing-Hoo to pay them the remainder and get rid of them as soon as possible. He informed me he had

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CHAP. XVII.

INN AT POUCHING-HIEN.

289

done so, but that they intended to remain in the same inn with ourselves for the night.

A hot dinner was at length placed upon the table. Rough and unpalatable as this would have appeared in other circumstances, I was now so accustomed to the Chinese style of living, that what was placed before me seemed tempting enough, and I believe I did full justice to it. My chair-bearers, having received their wages, were now seated at a side-table in another room absorbed in the mysteries of gambling, and Sing-Hoo was quietly smoking his pipe with the landlord. A number of other travellers were also loitering about, some of whom had an appearance which did not produce a favourable impression on me. They were evidently opium-smokers, from the sallow colour of their cheeks, probably gamblers, and altogether such characters as one would rather avoid than be on intimate terms with.

It still continued to rain heavily, and as all out of doors seemed dark and dismal,

viting, I retired early to rest.

and all within unin

Tired with the ex

ertions of the day, I was soon fast asleep in spite of my suspicious inn and strange companions. It might have been about midnight when I was awakened by the sounds of angry voices, and amongst them I could distinguish those of my chair-bearers and Sing-Hoo. I jumped up with strong suspicions that something serious was about to happen to us. The noise still increased, and, from the scuffle which reached my ears, I feared they were seizing my servant with the intention of robbing us, and perhaps of taking our lives.

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Human life is not much valued in some parts of the country, and the province of Fokien does not bear a high character, and for aught I knew I might be in a den of thieves and robbers. Sing-Hoo, but a short time before, had been telling me of an occurrence which took place in the wild mountain country between Hoo-chow-foo-the famous silk town-and Hwuy-chow, his native place. Four travellers, he said, took up their quarters one evening in an inn on the roadside. They called for a good dinner, and afterwards smoked opium and gambled until nearly midnight. Next morning three of them paid their bills of fare and took their departure, but the fourth was nowhere visible. His body was afterwards found in a pit near the house, doubled up in his own box, and from its appearance there was no doubt the man had met with a violent death from the hands of his companions.

With this story in my mind, I could not endure the suspense any longer, and throwing on my clothes I opened the door and walked into the place where the disturbance was. What I saw was quite sufficient to alarm a bolder man, and yet there was something in it laughable too. Eight or ten stout fellows, including the chair-bearers, were attacking my servant, who was standing, like a tiger at bay, up against the wall of the house. He had a large joss-stick in his hand which every now and then he was poking at the faces of those who threatened to close with him. The most adventurous sometimes got a poke which sent them back, cursing and swearing, rather faster than

CHAP. XVII.

MIDNIGHT DISTURBANCE.

291

they came. The whole scene brought vividly to my mind Bailie Nicol Jarvie's fight with the red-hot poker, so admirably described by Sir Walter Scott.

Had I been an uninterested spectator, I might have enjoyed a hearty laugh at the scene before me; but I was in the midst of a strange country and hostile people, and, being the weaker party, I felt really alarmed. The only weapon in my possession was a small pocket-pistol, one of those which are loaded by unscrewing the barrel. Thinking that if matters came to the worst this might be of some use, either in frightening our assailants or in saving my life, I went back to my bed-room and got it out. When I examined it I found that the wet had rusted the barrel, and it would not unscrew; it was therefore of no use.

The noise still continued, and if possible got louder. I determined, therefore, to present a bold front, and walked straight in amongst the combatants, clearing a space between my servant and the others, and asked the reason of the disturbance. My chair-bearers and coolie, who had always treated me with every respect, immediately fell back in the rear, grumbling at the same time about some cash which they had not received. On inquiring into the business, I found that Sing-Hoo, Chinaman-like, not content with what he got from me, had been trying to squeeze the chair-bearers and coolie out of 300 cash -about a shilling of our money. He denied the accusation most stoutly, but I had no doubt in my own mind that what the men said was true; besides

I was not going to have a disturbance, and perhaps lose my life, for a shilling, so I ordered him to pay the money without further delay.

This had the effect of restoring something like quietness to the house. I now ordered Sing-Hoo into my room and shut the door. The business, however, had gone too far, for the other men were highly incensed at his conduct, and threatened to be revenged upon him. For hours after this I could hear them talking about the matter, even after they had lain down in their beds. Sing-Hoo listened eagerly to every word of their conversation, and was evidently in a state of great alarm. He begged me to allow a candle to be lighted and kept burning in our apartment during the night.

In the room next to mine, and only separated from it by a wooden partition, about a dozen opiumsmokers had taken up their quarters. The soft, sickening fumes of the drug found their way through the chinks of the partition, and were most disagreeable. In a short time the opium began to operate upon the smokers; they talked and laughed loudly, and were evidently in their "heaven of bliss." Sing-Hoo's affair was uppermost in their minds, and it seemed as if they could think or talk of nothing else. What madmen might do under the circumstances-for madmen they were while under the influence of the drug -I could not possibly foresee. This kept me awake for several hours. At last, however, I dropped off to sleep, and did not awake until daylight was streaming into our miserable apartment. All was perfectly quiet.

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