5^. ^ C^>) ^ LX LIBRIS ERNEST ALAN VAN VLECK >^»^^^ FOR THE PEOPLE FOR EDVCATION FOR SCIENCE LIBRARY OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY THE BIG GAME OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN CHINA * THE TAKIN '/^-7'f..r:^/^ Y^i^^-yyf-o-^^j'/- Z'f'.i'/y/f?^. THE BIG GAME OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN CHINA BEING AN ACCOUNT OF A JOURNEY FROM SHANGHAI TO LONDON OVERLAND ACROSS THE GOBI DESERT BY HAROLD FRANK WALLACE, F.R.G.S., F.Z.S. AUTHOR OF "STALKS ABROAD" WITH A FRONTISPIECE, TEN FULL-PAGE AND TWELVE HALF-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS FROM DRAWINGS BV THE AUTHOR, AND THIRTY-EIGHT PHOTOGRAPHS Now the Four-way Lodge is opened, now the Hunting Winds are loose- Now the smokes of Spring go up to clear the brain ; Now the Young Men's hearts are troubled for the whisper of the Trues ; Now the Red Gods make their medicine again ! RuDVARD Kipling. LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1913 All Rights Reserved TO GEORGE FENWICK-OWEN TO WHOM I AM INDEBTED FOR THE EXPERIENCES HEREIN DESCRIBED y^ INTRODUCTORY PREFACE Early in the spring of 1911 Mr. George Fenwick- Owen invited me to accompany him on an ex- pedition into the interior of China, his aim being to secm'e specimens of the takin {Sudor cas bed- fordi)^ a rare animal about which Httle is on record, a collection of small mammals for the British INIuseum, and any other species of big game which we might chance to encounter. We accordingly left Liverpool in May that same year, and arrived back in England in April 1912. In the following pages I have endeavoured to convey to those who do me the honour of reading this book some idea of a country which has been but seldom visited by sportsmen, and the strange people and still stranger animals to be found there. Our original intention, having secured the takin, was to hunt in the mountains in Koko Nor, and to return home through Szechuan and the valley of the Yangtse-kiang. This idea we were re- luctantly compelled, owing to the outbreak of the Revolution, to abandon. We had, however, ob- tained specimens of a number of rare species viii INTRODUCTORY PREFACE which had hitherto managed to escape the at- tentions of sportsmen. Om' united bag comprised less than a score of animals, yet the habits and natural history of these are but little known, and will, I venture to hope, prove worthy of attention. When consideration is taken of the great interest which, of late years, has been exhibited in the large fauna of the world, an interest which may be said to date from the opening stages of the Victorian era, the enlarged facilities for travel, and the increasing numbers of men who yearly scour the globe for fresh specimens, it is matter for comment when one realises that, from the point of view of the big game hunter, China is practically virgin ground. Every one knows that lions come from Africa, and tigers from India ; but there are many who, were they asked to name half a dozen species of animals found in China, would fail to answer. With the exception of a few travellers, to be counted on one's fingers, scarcely half a dozen sportsmen have visited the country since Pere David in 1869 spent some months exploring the quasi-independent district of Moupin. Many volumes deal with the fauna of Europe and America ; books of African sport and adventure are so numerous as to fill the amateur big game hunter of literary tastes with despair. India and Cashmere present an imposing bibliography for the edification of the travelling sportsman. China alone is left out in the cold, for, though one or two books touch incidentally INTRODUCTORY PREFACE ix upon the sport to be obtained, I know of none which professes to deal at all seriously with the large mammals about which so little is known. China, it may be safely prophesied, will never, under the conditions which have so far prevailed, become a popular country with the modern big game hunter. He cannot dash off for a couple of months' shooting in Kansu as he can to East Africa. The distances are too great, the list of game animals too small to entice him. With the advent of railways, should these ever manage to grope their way through the morasses of official graft and peculation in which they are at present submerged, matters will change to some extent, and we may yet see advertised : " Takin Trips in Twenty Days," and "Take your Camera to Kansu." The reasons for this state of affairs are many. In the first place, until recently, of the conditions prevailing in the interior very little was known even to long-estabhshed foreign residents ; the Chinese themselves did nothing to encourage the incursion of foreigners ; travel, at the best of times, was slow, tedious, and uncertain ; game was and is entirely confined to the mountainous regions, where cultivation is impossible, and its distribution in these regions was known to few. Lastly, and this point I must emphasise, there is one absolute and indispensable essential to a successful trip in China, a trustworthy and capable interpreter. The foreigner is legitimate prey in X INTRODUCTORY PREFACE most countries ; nowhere more so than in China. Much of the success of our trip was due to the assistance of Dr. J. A. C. Smith, 320, Avenue Paul Brunat, Shanghai, and those who contem- plate following in our footsteps cannot do better than secure his services. Talking the language like a native, he understands the Chinese thoroughly, and has a complete knowledge of skinning and preserving both large and small mammals and birds. I must express my indebtedness to him for much of the information I obtained. Had it not been for his knowledge of the natives and his skill in translating I should have remained in ignorance concerning many interesting points. With regard to the orthography of Chinese names I fear I cannot hope to have escaped criticism. So far as was possible 1 have followed the spelling adopted by the Chinese Imperial Post Office. " There are nine-and-sixty ways of constructing tribal ways And every single one of them is right," and as much may be said of the romanisation of Chinese. Every sinologist has his own opinion on the matter. In appendices I have given measurements of the diffi5rent specimens we obtained, a list of birds and small mammals, a rough calculation as to the expenses of a shooting trip in China, and a table of the stages, and distances between them, which we actually travelled. Though of little or INTRODUCTORY PREFACE xi no interest to the general reader, the latter may possibly be of some use to any one travelling over the route we covered. In addition to Dr. Smith, I must also express my gratitude to JNlr. C. H. Steevens, Mr. William Christie, Mr. James Ross, Mr. R. I. Pocock, Superintendent of the Zoological Society's Gardens, and in particular Mr. Fen wick- Owen, for infor- mation and photographs with which they have kindly supplied me. Some of the following pages have appeared in the form of articles in " Country Life," " The Badminton INlagazine," and '' The Field." My best thanks are due to the editors of these papers for permission to reprint them. H. F. W. Glen Uhquhart. CONTENTS Introductory Preface . CHAPTER I. The Call of the Red Gods, II. Shanghai ..... III. The Father of Rivers IV. Concerning Chinese Roads . V. Hwa-Shan — the Flower Mountain VI. Sian-fu, the Magnificent . Vll 1 9 18 20 32 39 VII. A Mountain Village and Tai-pei-shan 55 VIII. Some Notes on Caves and the Home of the Takin 08 IX. The Takin {Budorcas bedfordi) . . 69 X. Hunting the Takin .... 77 XI. Fensiang-fu — AN Inland Town . . 87 XII. Towards the Border .... 94 xiii \ xiv CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XIII. A Modern Rehoboam and his Capital 105 XIV. A Tale of the Border . . .114 XV. A Mountain Miscellany . . 127 XVI. The Wild Sheep of Western Kansu 138 XVII. A Day with a Ram . . . 147 XVIII. The White-Maned Serow [Nemor- hcedus argyrochcetes) . . . 154 XIX. Travellers' Tales . . . 163 XX. A Thibetan Interlude . . . 172 XXI. The Roe-Deer {Capreolus hedjordi) . 182 XXII. The Wapiti of Kansu {Cervus kan- suensis) . . . . . 195 XXIII. The Stalking of a Stag . . 208 XXIV. Rumours of War . . . .218 XXV. A Centre of Trade . . .227 XXVI. On the Fringe of the Desert, and Some account on Przewalski's Gazelle {Gazella przewalskii) . 238 XXVII. Across the Desert, and Some Notes ON the Mongolian Gazelle {Gazella gutturosa) . . . 250 CONTENTS XV CHAPTER PAGE XXVIII. The Last of China . . .262 XXIX. A Phantom Journey . . . 276 XXX. An Echo of the Call . . . 284 APPENDICES A. Field Measurements, Etc. . . . 291 B. Estimate of Expenses .... 308 C. Table of Distances and Stages . . 310 INDEX 315 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS The Takin (Budorcas hedjordi) Frontispiece FACING PAGE A View on the Yangtse-kiang Temples on Hwa-Shan The City Walls, Sian-fu Our Carts on the Main Road near Sian-fu Our Cave Interior of the Cave Takin Ground Takin Ground Sketches of Takin Studies of Takin {Budorcas hedjordi) The Lone Bull .... My First Takin — as he Fell Yong with my Second Takin Bull Takin Changing Ground Gorge Leading to Sheep Ground Chi-shi's House — Archuen . Sheep Ground .... Sketches of Wild Sheep, Kansu Sketch of Dead Ram, W. Kansu Dead Ram ..... Wild Sheep, Kansu A Last Chance .... W^hite-Maned Serow Returning to Cover White-Maned Serow at Bay White-Maned Serow {Nemorhcedus argyrochcetes) Roe by Moonlight Lao Wei with Roebuck White-Maned Serow {Nemorhcedus argyrochcetes) T'E-pu Lama Dancing Terraced Fields . 2 18 18 88 38 60 60 66 66 70 74 78 80 80 82 130 130 130 138 140 140 148 152 154 154 158 158 162 162 162 172 xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE Bear and Roe Ground ..... 172 Thibetan Women . . . . . .182 The Bear 182 A Study in Expressions ..... 182 Types of Chinese Roe Heads (Cajjreolus bedfordi). 184 Roe-Deer Alarmed . . . . . .184 Roe-Deer {Capreolus hedjordi) on the Tops . .190 Sheep Ground ....... 194 Wapiti Ground ....... 194 Studies of Kansu Wapiti ..... 200 Wapiti {Cervus kansuensis). Showing Markings on Hind-quarters ...... 206 Wapiti {Cervus kansuensis) ..... 206 Wapiti Ground 206 Kansu Wapiti {Cervus kansuensis) .... 214 Our Carts 236 Courtyard of the Viceroy's Yamen, Lanchow . 236 An Execution ....... 246 Caged — for Growing Opium .... 246 LlANGCHOW-FU ....... 246 Mongolian Gazelle {Gazella guiturosa) . . . 248 Przewalski's Gazelle {Gazella przezvalskii) . . 248 Przewalski's Gazelle {Gazella przewalskii) . . 248 In the Midst of the Gobi Desert . . . 252 An Inn in the Gobi Desert .... 252 " How Many a Lonely Caravan Sets Out ON ITS Long Journey o'er the Desert " . 254 Mongolian Gazelle {Gazella gutturosa) . . . 254 Desert Country ... .... 260 Crossing the Desert ...... 260 Domestic Sheep Head, Taochow, W. Kansu . 264 Fat-rumped Sheep, Ti-hua-fu .... 264 MAPS China and Central Asia (showing Route followed FROM Shanghai to Omsk) .... 1 Part of China (showing Route followed from Chengghow to Ansichow) .... 254 Z^y c ^u^ ■<- ^v^ r. /(^ ==.-TW o \r -^ J^ c^CT a>\ ^ THE BIG GAME OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN CHINA CHAPTER I THE CALL OF THE RED GODS The love of stalking was born in me, and William the Red ever stood for more than a date tagged to a name. I stalked my little brother behind the table — I must have been a horrid child, for once I bit him in the arm ; I stalked the nurse ; later on I stalked a thrush and killed it by a lucky throw. That thrush cooked, moix Indico, over a fire in the wood, feathered and uncleansed as it was, made the most delicious meal for a hungry hunter I On half-holidays I stalked the deer in Windsor Park with a catapult. Once I was surprised, but dis- arming suspicion by my mild " barnacled " and singularly unstalkerlike demeanour, was remanded with a caution. Still can 1 recall the awe with which I regarded the small son of a noicveau riche proletarian who was pointed out to me as having killed a real live stag ! The years go by very quickly in those halcyon days. We do not realise it until later, and it seemed that a vast period of 2 THE CALL OF THE RED GODS time elapsed before my long-clierished dream was fulfilled, and I too killed my first stag. He was, by the favour of the gods, the precursor of many. Then, " whilst I peered in maps for ports and piers and roads," by a turn of Fortune's wheel for which in my wildest imaginings I had never dared to hope, came two glorious, never-to-be-forgotten years, despite their sad close, " And the islands which were the Hesperides Of all my boyish dreams " developed into living realities. That virtually settled my affairs in life and laid me under the spell of the Red Gods. Never will the memory of those years fade ! The scent of the pines, most wonderful of odours, borne on cold and austere breezes of the north ; the painted, steaming glories of the South Seas and nights beneath the Southern Cross ; the languor of eastern islets and the blaze of the tropics ; the decaying glories of the past ; the strong, bright hopes of lands which are yet to be. It seemed then as if my stalks abroad were over, that never for long years should I see again mighty beasts of the earth wandering amid the silent places, nor stand before the Red Gods and make sacrifice at the trysting-place. Yet even then they were at work, although I knew it not. They took the matter in hand, or so I like to think, upon a gloomy, wet day in Masailand ; continued it, three years later almost to the day, through the prosaic medium of a telephone box at the Bath Club ; and finally brought me to Prince's landing-stage on the afternoon of May 19th, 1911. THE VOYAGE 3 The siren blared, a bell tinkled, the hawser tautened as the tugs gathered way ; the landing- stage slowly receded ; the line of humanity cluster- ing upon it in a long, uneven line broke into a fluttering sprinkle of handkerchiefs and waving hats ; a thin cheer came to us across the widening gap of water; something small and white shone for a second in the angle of a wall, and we were off. Six months earlier the greatest wish in the world had seemed as unlikely of realisation as that I should be starting on a big game expedition of indefinite duration into the interior of China. Yet here I was, mirabile dictu, both my dreams on the way to their accomplishment, as we dropped down the river into the unknown. Our voyage was much like any other Atlantic voyage, long, cold, wet and rather dreary. A couple of concerts near its close rather enlivened aifairs, that in the second class by far the more amusing. One performer was indisposed. The chairman announced that a young lady had kindly offered to recite as a substitute, and on the instant a small black figure in the flapper stage emerged, plunged with no circumlocution in niedias res and for fifteen long minutes declaimed in a perfectly inaudible and monotonous voice. I caught but two lines, " He raised his flashing brand on high " and " Dead — locked in a last embrace," which did not help me much, though I gathered the theme was not a particularly cheerful one ! However, the reciter was rapturously applauded, encored, and continued declaiming for another ten minutes, during which we left. 4 THE CALL OF THE RED GODS Deck sports filled up another day. An extremely unpleasant young woman with a horse-laugh carried all before her, and once we saw three birds and a seal ! Otherwise we relied on our fellow passengers, never unentertaining, for amusement. There were a number of Scots-Canadians on board ; one old couple in particular took my eye. He, silent, white-bearded, with a grave twinkle ; the Scot showing unmistakably : she, silver-haired, rosy-cheeked, with the comfortable walk of a farmer's wife. Both were clad in their best blacks. The snows of many winters were upon them, yet they retained something of the charm of youth. She had a trick of slipping her hand within the bend of his arm, of looking aslant at his face, in a manner which stirred my heart and set me wondering at the days when she was a girl and he, his shrunken frame sturdy and pulsing to the blood of youth, came courting up the glen. Then there was Horace. He came right through to Japan with us, so we had ample opportunities of studying his eccentricities. His real name was — not Horace, but nothing suited him so well. Some- thing of a mystery, he might have owned to any age less than thirty-five. Tallish, with fair hair and rather nice eyes, his looks were marred by a mouth several sizes too large. However, this he economised talking through his front teeth, em- ploying triple expansion at meal times. His metallic voice was of a peculiarly penetrating quality. From Quebec to Vancouver it roused me from my early morning dreams ; it was the last sound I heard at night mingling with the " clang clang " of the engine bell. A FELLOW PASSENGER 5 George had marked him as we crossed the Atlantic. At Quebec he was well to the fore, darting, their self-constituted protector, hurriedly and fussily in search of various ladies, watched with languid interest by the groups of expert expectorators with whom he got entangled. He was of that type who knows everything about any- thing, and laid down the law in an authoritative manner on the handling of a ship, an engine, or an aeroplane ; the cost of a first-class fare and the degree of comfort to be expected on any line of steamers, railways, or other mode of conveyance in any known sea or country in any part of the globe ; the exact method of booking luggage in advance and its advantages — and arrived at Van- couver, to the not unmixed sorrow of his fellow passengers, minus all his belongings save a hand bag and a bundle of rugs. The latter we found unlabelled in our cabin. George returned it to the anxious and perspiring owner with a few words as to the desirability of advertising his name. The ship sailed three quarters of an hour after the arrival of the train, during which Horace wildly ransacked the town in company with several C.P.R. officials on whom he had laid vengeful hands. He arrived on board as the gangway was being withdrawn, tightly clutching a bundle from which shirts, collars, and underclothes protruded in admired disorder. Apropos of his experience, the captain — I can see him now chuckling over it — told us that on one occasion a lady was placed, through the neglig- ence of the railway officials, in a similar predica- ment. Her luggage could not arrive before the 6 THE CALL OF THE RED GODS boat sailed, so she was given cmic blanche to go round Victoria and order what she wanted. Seizing her opportunity, the C.P.R. subsequently received a bill for six dozen pairs of necessary silk under- wear, six dozen pairs of silk stockings, and the rest of her equipment to match. The name of the Pacific calls to mind a vision of blue, glittering waves, in which roll shoals of fish, oily and black ; of sun-kissed coral beaches, and islands set with waving palms. Such dreams, stimulating to the imagination, do exist, but we saw none of them. Cold wet days again, a grey sea beneath our keel and a grey sky overhead. The passengers could be counted on one's hands, and it was with a sense of relief, despite the skipper's geniality, that we drew near the end of our voyage. So I come once more to Japan, left four years before with such regret. Japan, the land of cherry blossom and of almond trees ; of the God of little children and of fairyland romance ! Its very names set the mind running on stirring acts of love and war, on great deeds of patriotism and devotion ! They linger softly on the air like the echoes of an old song. Kyoto, with its great bell set in a green amphitheatre of hills ; Kamakura, where the Buddha stares serenely out across the pine set bay; Nikko, with its peerless glories and stupendous avenue ; Fujiyama, most beautiful of mountains ; Nagoya, with its castle and golden dolphins ; the shaded groves of Nara ; Nagasaki ; Shimonoseki. They are but names, you say ? Yet such names. No other country save my own rings such soul- stirring syllables upon the ear, and there is much THE CHARM OF JAPAN 7 of similarity in the life and associations of the two. About the hearts of those who love either lingers a charm which nothing can destroy. I thought that the years might have wrought a change — nay, I dreaded it — that the rosy mists of illusion swept aside, would have shown me the God-of-things-as- they-are staring me coldly and relentlessly between the eyes. But the mists were still there and I was happy. I like to think of it as a land of clear- running, laughing streams, of happy polite people who welcome the stranger within their gates. After the free and easy democratic manners of America, where everything has a monetary value — nor is it otherwise exploited by its owner — the extra civility with which one meets in the land of the Rising Sun is doubly refreshing. The willing, red-capped porters who actually take their hats off on receiving a tip, the giggling little knock-kneed lady in the ticket-office, the car-conductor, and the hotel boys, all dwell in my memory very gratefully. Our stay was short, but it sufficed to see Kyoto, most delectable of cities. Tokyo, hideous and pro- gressive, with its 200,000 inhabitants, yet even now reverencing the graves of the famous Forty-Seven before whose shrines are little twigs of fir and incense, we willingly left in pouring rain. When I awoke it was to find the country along- side the line divided up into little carefully parcelled parallelograms in which the young rice shone with a surprising greenness. Here and there clumps of trees bespoke the site of a village ; a grey stone torii and votive lanterns stood sentinel before a temple ; whilst in the background a gloomy range 8 THE CALL OF THE RED GODS of hills, well wooded and riven by deep gullies and ravines, tore indigo masses of scattered cloud. It was raining too when we reached the old capital, but cleared later as we saw the great temples, and gardens, a mass of irises. In the evening we dined on the lantern-lit terrace of the Miyako, the best hotel in the East. From below came the clicking oi geta on the cobble-stones and the thrumming of a samisen. The western hills glowed purple in the distance. In and out the shadows flickered the fireflies, for ever setting their sparks aglow at the wrong moment, seeking, yet never finding in the darkness, the thing for which they search. Soon, all too soon, we reached our ship, yet it was not to China, whither we were bound, that my thoughts turned, but to the land which lay behind us in the night ; to the grey curved lines of its temple's roofs ; to the mellow booming of great bells about its wooded groves ; to the musical rush of the Kamo- gawa laughing beneath grey stone bridges ; and to the linking of that wonderful chain which had brought me once again within sound of its waters. CHAPTER II SHANGHAI Almost the first warning which one receives of the imminence of the Middle Kingdom hes in the discoloration of the bright and sparkhng sea by the muddy waters of the Yangtse-kiang. They burst forth after their long journey from the highlands of Thibet with such volume that they are apparent eighty miles and more from the river's mouth. Shanghai itself is situated on the Woosung, an equally dirty river up which we journeyed in a launch. It was first settled about 304 B.C., and was raised to the dignity of a walled city 1554 a. d., having suffered severely at the hands of Japanese pirates. Captured in 1842 by Lieut.-Col. Mont- gomery, it is still a settlement, all landowners paying ground rent to the Chinese government. At the time of our arrival the whole place was in a ferment over the coronation of King George. The streets presented as strangely varied and cosmopolitan a spectacle as no other town in China could show. The Bund was crowded ; all the big merchant houses being lavishly decorated with flags, bamboos, evergreens, and floral arches. Across the river, factory chimneys belched smoke into the grey skies, and energetic and laborious tugs tore the waters with yellow foam. The 9 10 SHANGHAI prevailing colour of the crowd was blue, as it is everywhere in China, but among the blue were blacks, mauves, whites, and greys. Here and there the clean kimono and bright obi of some little Jap M^oman, tripping along with her peculiar knock- kneed gait, caught the eye, or a couple of Japanese naval officers resplendent with medals. Chinese and Manchu jostled each other, the women with their glossy black hair drawn tightly back and hanging over the neck, plaited, or dressed on a peculiar oblong frame. Stalwart Sikhs with black curled beards controlled the traffic ; or, in the French concession, Annamese or Tonkinese in round conical khaki hats. Chinese Roman Catholic priests rubbed elbows with their French brethren, both in black soutanes ; or perhaps a fair-haired missionary startled the onlooker with his yellow moustache, blue eyes, and light-coloured queue. At a few corners pale-faced British policemen in khaki, with military helmets, regulated the jostling throng. Bronzed bluejackets, English, French, or German, showed conspicuously. A large motor covered in flowers, driven by a neck-shaved, gum- chewing gentleman from the States, went hooting through the midst of the crowd, to be followed by another driven by a Chinaman, with lolling Chinese inside. Broughams drawn by sturdy little ponies, a couple of red-tasselled Chinamen on the box, carried Chinese women, palely peering above their high, silver-embroidered collars. In some subtle way their expressionless ftices conveyed a curious impression of restraint and anxiety. They looked artificial and unreal. The Chinese quarter was full of strange swinging THE VARIED CROWD 11 signs, emblazoned witli Chinese characters in red and gold. Yellow flags, on which the Imperial dragon w^ith horrific mouth pursued the fabulous pearl, represented by a flaming red splash, were the principal features of the decoration. In the open shops rows of Chinese watched the kaleidoscopic crowd beneath. Children, gaily dressed with tufted scalps, howled lustily, for there is nothing the Chinese baby does so constantly nor so efficiently. Coolies, swaying along beneath balanced bamboos, swerved hurriedly to the right hand or to the left as the sharp staccato cries of the rickshaw men cleared the way. Wheelbarrows, those curious contrivances which can carry heavier weights than any wheelbarrows in the world, trundled amid the crowd with their living burdens of men and women. But that which most impressed the spectator was the people. Fat Chinamen, thin Chinamen ; be- spectacled, clear-eyed, half-blind, or with little almond eyes peering from bloated cheeks ; pale yellow and dark chocolate, clothed or half-naked, they surged and tossed in the narrow street w^ith but one feature in common, a common factor for which you would now look in vain, the once universal queue. Broad, long, black and glossy, or thin, wispy, grey, and attenuated, they have gone now with the retiring Manchus. The Bund at night was a seething mass. From the window of the club it showed as a blue sea on which drifted and swirled white, upturned faces. A couple of bluejackets sturdily ploughed their way through the midst of the surging, swaying throng. From a window on our right a grey- haired gentleman, w^ho had obviously been doing 12 SHANGHAI King George the fullest justice, ejaculated at no one in particular " Hey ! Break away. I see you." Below a group of Loyalists with jovial, brazen voices reiterated the statement that they were the Dollar Princesses, the wretchedest women on earth. A compact mob of Chinamen listened from the pavement and clapped delightedly at each encore. Far on the left the Astor House glowed through the night, and the lights of warships shone from the river. Sampans, silhouetted against their glow, glided noiselessly, phantomlike, and unsub- stantial. A procession came whirling past. Light horse, scouts, volunteers, the regalia picked out with electric lights, great emblematic cars, Britannia, Japan, Australia, South Africa ; Sikhs, fine, soldierly men ; they swung by in succession. The Sikhs had won the tug-of-war at the sports after a terrific struggle, and were enthusiastically applauded. Bluejackets whirled madly in and out, two-stepping, waltzing in fours, bunny-hugging, and any other steps which happened to occur to them. They can- noned off groups of Chinese, drove across the road, buzzed through another group, and finally swung round a corner. Then a hundred or so neat little brown-faced Japs, all in white, paper lanterns glowing with the Rising Sun held aloft, came at a quick trot, trim and compact. The old gentle- man in the next window stopped his everlasting " Break away," and yelled " Banzais " at the top of his voice. The brown faces shone duskily in the glare of the lanterns. " Banzai ! Banzai ! " they called back. It began to pour with rain, and Coronation day was over. CHAPTER III THE FATHER OF IIIVERS Before leaving England George had cabled to Dr. J. A. C. Smith, an experienced collector who had accompanied the Duke of Bedford's Zoological Expedition in 1910. He knew China well, and talked the language like a native, having been in charge of a hospital at Sian-fu for eight years as a medical missionary. He was on the western border of Kansu when the cable reached him, but some hard travelling enabled him to reach the coast before our arrival, and with his help we had, in a few days, procured our stores, extracted our possessions from the maw of custom-house officials, and were ready to start. We left Shanghai at midnight, and awoke to find ourselves on the broad, brown bosom of the Yangtse-kiang — the Son of the Ocean, the Father of Rivers — which, rising in the highlands of Thibet, rolls its muddy waters for some three thousand miles eastwards. With the exception of the Ama- zon, it is navigable for a longer distance than any river in the world. Even large battleships and steamers, during the summer months when the river is in flood, can reach Hankow, six hundred miles from its mouth. Its breadth is so great that 13 14 THE FATHER OF RIVERS at first one can see nothing of the banks which confine it, save a few scattered clumps of trees. Higher up it decreases to two or three miles, and at Wuchang-fu, opposite Hankow, is but a mile or so across. As the steamer draws nearer to one bank or the other a thick wall of reeds, rising to a height of twelve or fifteen feet, fronts the river. They are used for winter fuel, thatch, fences, and a dozen other things. Beyond the reeds are low mud huts and bright green strips of cultivated land. Much of the country was flooded, for the river had risen forty-four feet at Hankow. In 1910, at Chungking, it rose no less than one hundred and eight feet. The reeds near a village are often cut in long strips. On their margin the current flows swiftly in a line of bubbling, brown rapids. From the thicket beyond, peering curiously from between the stems, come cautiously treading yellow-brown forms almost impossible to detect, bright black eyes all aglow. They gain corn-age as the steamer slowly forges ahead against the current, and it is then that you see them — little children come to wonder at the strange fire-junk which churns the waters of their river so loudly. As the voyage lengthens — and indeed each day is more pleasant than the last — the river seems to dwindle to a nar- row channel. Mile after mile goes by between low banks but a few hundred yards apart, still with the reed frontage, patches of cultivation, and low thatched huts beyond. Then far off, the chocolate sail of a junk, or the red funnel of a steamer shows amid the huts. The channel widens, the island drops astern, and the broad main stream is LIFE ON THE KIVER 15 again in sight Flocks of geese and ducks, number- ing hundreds, paddle about the flooded low- land where the water buffaloes stretch their per- petually stiff necks and are ridden to and fro by the naked children. All along the bank at fre- quent intervals stand thatched shelters raised on piles, and before them, overhanging the river, wide nets, dipping to the centre from curved bamboo cross-frames. In the shelters sit patient fishermen, who ever and anon swing up their nets, empty their catch, and resume their monoton- ous watching. At times one passes huge timber rafts. Some of them draw twenty-four feet of water, and carry as many as two hundred people in huts built on the timber itself. They come from the inland pro- vinces, and are worked down the river, gradually diminishing in size on their downward voyage until at length no raft is left. In the autumn, another striking sight is the large flocks of domestic ducks, numbering thou- sands, guided by a few men armed with long bamboos in small boats, being made to swim their way to market at Shanghai. In the winter wild duck, particularly at the Poyang Lake, literally darken the sun. Of every variety, they, with pheasants and other kinds of small game, have decreased of late years ; since, in fact, the establishment of a cold-storage estab- lishment at Hankow. Before reaching Kiukiang, said to be the hottest place on earth, a solitary pinnacle of limestone forms a prominent feature in the centre of the river. Conical and partially wooded, it serves as a resting place for the temple 16 THE FATHER OF RIVERS which crowns its summit and a crowd of cormor- ants. It is known as the " little Orphan." But the junks were what pleased me most, for they are the most distinctive feature of a Chinese river. You come across them first at Woosung in the sliape of a fleet of warships, which carry the mind back to the high-pooped vessels of Henry V., with their low waists, stern lanterns, and old cannon. One flies the red flag of the admiral, and on all are painted leering eyes below the prow, which show the vessel her path upon the waters. Up the river they are ubiquitous. Of every shape and size, great or small, they always, at a distance, charmed the eye. Here would be a big three-masted vessel, with broad brown sail, bowling at a brisk speed down the channel, little sampans bobbing in her wake. There, a fleet of salt-junks lay anchored to the bank, or rested like a flock of tired birds in some self-centred lagoon. Brown, chocolate, grey, or blue, their sails blotted the sky, slipping quietly up some hidden channel amid the reeds, lighting their way inch by inch up stream, or sweeping down upon the full bosom of the flood, broad sails bellying to the breeze, the muddy water churned to yellow foam before their bows. On the banks a crowd of patient villagers toiled like a swarm of ants to repair some weak spot in a dyke, the breaking of wliich would mean the loss of their seed for next year's rice crop. One tiny islet a few yards across held a couple of huts and three horses, which looked forlornly out across a turbid waste of water. Beggars swarm in China, and even on the river DIFFICULTIES OF DIALECT 17 they abound, for when the steamer drew up along- side the hulks which long ago were the P. ^^ O. liners Bombay and Ganges, dirty sampans came shooting to us. From each a long basket- topped bamboo projected which swayed to the intermin- able, supplicating whine of those who held them. China is so vast a country, and its eighteen pro- vinces so diversified, that there is considerably more difference between the dialects than between broad Scots and Somerset. There were three Chinamen on board who had to converse in English to make themselves understood ! Two spoke broken Enghsh, the third Mandarin, which one of the others understood but could not speak. They could not talk together in Chinese, for they could not understand each other's dialect : consequently, if the one who spoke Mandarin wished to speak to the first Chinaman, he had to say it in Man- darin to the second, who translated it in broken English. We had but few fellow passengers, though the engineer was a great character. He had fought in the Matabele war of 1896, and been through a South American revolution. On the Yangtse itself some years before, river pirates had attacked the ship he was on. He was in Peking in 1900, where, so far as I could ascertain, he spent most of his spare time removing superfluous idols from the temples which he subsequently retailed at five dollars apiece in Shanghai. Considering that had he been caught he would most certainly have died a very painful death, the price does not seem excessive. Four and a half days after leaving Shanghai 18 THE FATHER OF III VERS Hankow came in sight. Its many I'actory chinmeys vomit wreaths of smoke across the muddy river and add nothing to the beauty of* an unattractive spot. It was here, or rather at Wuchang-fu across the river, that tlie revolution broke out a few weeks later. The native city whicli lies just to the west of tlie settlement is, or rather was, for it was almost entirely destroyed, one of the most un- pleasant spots imaginable. Sir Frederick Treves has called Canton a nightmare city. The descrip- tion applied equally well to Hankow, for it w^as a place to see and forget. The first thing that impresses one on entering a native city of this kind in China is the overpowering excess of humanity. The coast towns and river ports are the dirtiest. Inland they do not strike with such repugnance, or perhaps one becomes hardened. That strange person, the man in the street, does not, if his surroundings are set in China, attract the observer. He is, in fact, singularly unpre- possessing. His shaven head gives him an air of artificiality which somehow unconsciously pre- judices the foreigner ; tlie bound feet and tottering gait of the women increase the feeling w^hich, at the close of one's first walk through a native town, has increased to positive aversion. Hankow was, I think, dirtier and more repellent than either Shanghai or Canton, and its inhabitants a most imhealthy-looking lot, of whom a large percentage had suffered from smallpox. The usual crowd collected whenever a camera appeared, and amid the unimaginable smells one which was recognisable had almost the greeting of an old friend. ^I^v >. _ili III "MP" ' A View on the Yangtse-kian( Temples on Hwa-Shan. 18] AT HANKOW 19 We visited the Slumsi Guild, ;i kind of Club house, magnificently Ccarved and beautifully kept. On the way home a theatre attracted us for a moment, but foreigners were not popular and we soon left. CHAPTER IV CONCERNING CHINESE ROADS Travelling in China is unlike travelling in any other part of the globe. The country is so old, so tired, and things are so far from being what they appear, that at times one seems to have wandered to a new world, immeasurably more ancient than that which has been left. In any other country tents would be a necessity. In China they are an almost useless superfluity save in the mountains, for there is nowhere to pitch them. It should be one of the hiost thickly wooded countries in the world. You may travel for days and never see a tree, for they have all been cut down. Dirt at times is undoubtedly an aid to the picturesque. In China it seems but to accentuate the apotheosis of the commonplace. The people, despite their four thousand years of civilisation, are in many respects lower than the African savage (certainly the latter has a great sense of modesty, strange as it may seem), yet they cannot be treated as sucli. Everything goes by opposites. It is a land of negatives. Even the varnish dries in wet weather, a walking stick is invariably carried by the wrong end, and when a Chinaman wants to beckon he makes a gesture of dismissal ! All one's standards 20 PERVERTED CUSTOMS 21 are cast down and set at nought. What is one to think of a nation who bind their women's feet with such tortures that they are incapable of walking normally during their whole lives ? The Chinaman holds that it is no worse than tight-lacing ; but two wrongs do not make a right. A Chinaman will commit suicide on the doorstep of any one against whom he has a grudge, so that his spirit may for ever haunt the place ; he will strew trails of sham paper money to lure off evil spirits from a dead friend ; he will hang heavy chains about a sick man to delude the gods who rule such matters into the belief that the invalid is a malefactor and so unworthy their august attention. The women pull hairs out of the centre of their scalps to make themselv-es look beautiful. The pigs are treated as personal friends, and for them the Chinese will perform the same disgusting offices as they do for each other. And yet those who lived among them for years say there is no race on earth like them and for every peculiarity which I have set down will adduce some trait in the European character equally obnoxious and striking. Heaven forbid that I should judge any one of whom 1 know so little as the Chinese ; but their characteristics strike a foreigner. VV^e left Hankow via the Feking-Hankow rail- way, reaching Honan-fti, whence our real start was made, after a night at Tchou-ma-tien, the following day. The train passes through some high loess cliffs and ravines burrowed and terraced like a rabbit warren, among which are numerous cave dwellings. At Honan, George collected some interesting 22 CONCERNING CHINESE ROADS bits of pottery and glazed earthenware which were dug up dining the construction of the railway and were said to be anything from one to two thousand years old. We saw camels, horses, human figures, some of them with quite a Hebraic cast of feature, and vases. One of the latter was really beautiful. Later on we saw similar specimens elsewhere. The luxurious mode of travel adopted by the Chinese official — though to Europeans large carts are far more comfortable — is the chair. In this, borne by four men, he sits upright, staring straiglit before him, with something strangely reminiscent of a lethargic tortoise in his mien. Next comes the mule litter, a kind of low couch slung on poles and harnessed to a couple of mules. Then the small cart, usually known as the Peking cart, and one of the most bone-shaking contrivances ever invented ; then the larger carts, drawn by four mules, one in the shafts and three abreast, hooded and capable of carrying loads of two thousand catties (2,666 lbs.) ; and lastly a mule, horse or pony. Female mules are used almost invariably to draw carts, the males being engaged with pack trains. We used the larger carts. Our beds were unrolled in the middle, and, the sides being well- padded, made comfortable seats. The drivers managed their teams extraordinarily well by voice and whip. They hardly ever touch tlieir animals and, though the open sores on the latter appal a foreigner, they are, on the whole, kindly treated and well fed. It is, of course, a matter of stern necessity to the muleteer that his animals should be in good condition, for they constitute his source of livelihood. CHINESE SERVANTS 23 One hears much of the excellence of Chinese })oys ; of tlieir quickness, quietness, and aptitude. Though perhaps not hard to get sucli paragons in the coast towns, it is difficult to induce them to rough it on a long trip inland. Certainly our followers were nothing like as good as the boys who accompany a safari in British East Africa in the capacity of personal attendants. They had no initiative, no memories, and no manners. Still, they were perfectly honest, and did their best. The head boy was one Ching-yii, formerly a muleteer, who had been in Dr. Smith's service some years. Ruh-si was cook and his brother syce, whilst an extraordinary little creatiu'e called Hsuie (pronounced Showee) came as our personal servant. He spoke a little broken English, loved display of any kind, and was rather like a monkey altogether. Te-kwei, an ex-soldier, we picked up at Sian-fu as an all-round man. The road between Honan-fu and Sian-fu has been described by Baron Richthofen as " one of the most trying pieces of cart-roads in Cliina." It runs en- tirely through loess country. Loess is a solid but friable earth of bi'ownish yellow colour, not unlike loam when wet. It is peculiar to Northern China, and does not extend to the south. To quote Baron Richthofen : " It is owing in a great measure to the loess that Nortliern China differs much from Southern China as regards scenery and products, the mode of agriculture, and the means of trans- })ortation. In the loess region the mountain ranges are usually buried in loess with tlieir lower portions, and the space between two ranges is occupied by a broad trough of loess sloping very 24 CONCERNING CHINESE ROADS gently down from either side. ... In some cases, as on the Wei River in Shensi, there is a gradual slope on one side of the river and a steep moun- tain wall on the otlier, . . . The loess is always completely unstratified. . . . If it did not exist Northern China would be a barren country." It is extremely easy to cultivate, and yields crops with- out manuring. Manuring increases the yield in grain, but a satisfactory crop is obtained without its application provided the ground receives a sufficient quantity of rain. " The majority of the people inhabitating loess regions live in caves. They select with great skill those places where the ground is firm, and many a cave has been inherited down through several generations." Loess, it may be added, "deter- mines the physical features of a region at least 250,000 square miles in extent." We would make our start walking in the cool of the dawn ; when the sky was lilac and lavender and the little grey-blue clouds in the west were turning pink. These were the pleasantest hours, as I remember them. Tired, dusty Mother Earth seemed for a time to shed her years, and met the eye with the same freshness as that which greeted much-enduring Ulysses setting forth on his journeyings, or even Adam in the green and gold of Eden. Pheasants called in the fields and sparred and fluttered as they met ; from beyond the trees came the cheery cry of partridges ; hares lolloped to a distance and sat with ears erect ; a pagoda broke the sky-line, while against the red soil of the green-terraced fields the blue-clad peasants, labouring even at that early hour, struck CHINESE ROADS 25 a pleasing and insistent note of colour. Far away rose purple hills, our goal ; and once as I looked I gave a gasp of unbelief, for there before me lay "The Warrior." He was stretched full length, staring up into the blue immensity, as he lies about Brjiulen. There rose tlie long slope running down to Struy and Ben Vichart, there the Valley of the Glass, and behind a knoll to the west the enchanted garden of my dreams. In a strange land and amid a strange people I felt a stirring of the heart-strings at this shadowy counterfeit, as the far-off, well-remembered names came crowding on my memory. The Chinese, bound to the soil, get their living from the land. Their wealth is in their fields ; they are a nation of small farmers. Nearly every man has his little plot of land, and in the country districts nearly every man is poor. He pays light taxes on his plot ; on the road as well should it run through his domain. Often it is a narrow baked ridge, dropping to cultivation on either hand and worn into regular imdulating ridges by the countless hoofs of patient nudes. Again, it is a deep thoroughfare running down into the friable red loess, and at the same spot there may be as many as five roads within a few yards of each other. When the weather is bad — and in wet no association of superlatives could do justice to the condition of the main highways — the muleteer placidly drives his team across some unfortunate's crop. Others follow, and the old road sinks into oblivion. It is compensatory justice, they say ; for the owner of the land should see to its preserva- tion. An infinity of patience is needed to travel 26 CONCERNING CHINESE ROADS in China. In dry weather the going is not bad — twenty to twenty-five miles a day, or even more. The dust is stifling, fine, penetrating stuff, for the loess wears down into gullies one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet deep. China has regarded itself as a civilised country for over four thousand years, but its glories lie in that past which the young Venetian saw when he came travelling to Cambaluc, the city of the Grand Khan, who, " in respect to number of subjects, extent of territory, and amount of revenue, surpasses every sovereign that has heretofore been or that now is in the world." Evidence of departed grandeur still hangs about the carved bridges and lingers in grotesque carvings by the roadside ; but the roads them- selves, when they do not resemble the dried bed of a water-course, are a more or less exact imita- tion of a ploughed field. For the Chinaman, living on the easy and self-satisfying principle that what was good enough for his father is good enough for him, and that any attempted reforms would inflict an indignity on the pious memory of his ancestors, leaves them " to gang their ain gait," a perpetual reminder to the Westerner of Eastern lethargy. In wet their condition, as 1 have said, is hori'ible, and impossible for any means of trans- port sa\'e pack-mules. A sweltering sea of mud and slime, they baflle description. Occasionally a cloud-burst in a narrow gully, the natural drains of a tree-denuded country, brings down a minia- ture tidal wave eight or ten feet high, which bears men, mules, and carts unresisting in its wake. On the road which we took such a disaster had occurred but a few days earlier. A coolie was CHINESE DISTANCES 27 drowned and a missionary lady swept down the road for over a mile. Fortunately she recovered. Distances are \'ariable, thouoh nominally fixed by the // (three and one-third go to the mile), a mysterious abstract as elastic as the conscience of an opium-smoker. In addition, there are in certain districts horrible inventions known as chia (ja) //, or false //. These add eight to every ten ! The answer to a repetition of the inquiry, " How far ? " is consequently as irritating as the everlasting " M'bali kidogo " of the native of Africa. In July there is an abundance of fruit, though the Chinaman, with the inherent perversity of his race, prefers it raw and hard ; and the peaches (sixteen a penny !), apricots, plums, and apples, which coolies bore on baskets suspended on their shoulders from swaying bamboos, were most of them too unripe for a European palate. After some twenty U or so we halted for break- fast in one of the many native villages. M?fa?ig, maize or millet soup, native bread and eggs, the latter fifteen a penny, made a sufficiently good repast. \^^e took some tinned foods with us, but hardly touched them until we had left China behind us and were on our way home across Central Asia. For native food is very plentiful, though one has to get accustomed to it. Besides fruit, vegetables are easily procured, and we were rarely without cabbages, egg-plant, cucumber, or some substitute. Tomatoes, however, are non- existent. All the animals one sees are muzzled, not because they are vicious, but for the protection of the crops. Later on our journey we ate the 28 CONCERNING CHINESE ROADS most delicious melons 1 have ever tasted, in addition to the other fruits I have mentioned. During the heat of the day, when the surface of the road did not bristle with rocks, which caused our carts to progress in a series of swaying lurches and spine-shattering bumps, it was pleasant to doze, for the nights were short. But the interest of the road was varied. A taotai or some minor official travelling in tawdry state ; a little Chinese girl, well and quietly dressed, borne on a led donkey to visit her mother-in-law, her cheeks whitened and rouged till she looked like some inanimate doll ; the mails, in little canvas packages tightly bound round a bamboo, swinging and wagging on the bare shoulders of the postman ; the '• tunk ! tunk ! t-r-rllunk ! " of some old muleteer ; a deserted and tumble-down temple ; the only visible sign linking one to the year of grace 1911, the distorted line of telegraph poles stretching haphazard into the distance. At times the Yellow River — China's Sorrow — its broad, shallow bed muddy, yet majestic, swung into view. Tall reed-beds flanked it, in which frogs croaked and little reed-birds shrilled and called. High loess cliffs rose on the northern side, a thin strip of unambitious bush at their base ; to the south the Tsin-ling Mountains. Now and again we passed some high-walled town, entered by the inevitable suburb. How well I remember them ! A line of ramshackle mud huts ; men sitting beneath thatched awnings, drinking tea, or stuffing themselves by means of chop-sticks ; a broken crenellated wall ; a tumbled- down wooden arch ; a hooded gate frowning above NATIVE HOSTELRIES 29 a cracked and disruptured pavement. Then, within the walls, a dusty, dirty street, lined with dusty, dirty booths, tenanted by dusty, dirty men. Black swine, looking like slab-sided, frowsy retrievers, roaming the gutters ; and in the shadows, pariah dogs, mangy, with open sores and black with flies, lurking furtively. Through such a scene, as the dusk deepened, our little string would draw near the walls of some odoriferous inn. Many still bore in the blotches of red paint and tattered strips of tawdry paper signs of the Imperial Party's tenancy during their hurried flight to Sian in 1900. Our first halting-place was typical of the larger class of Chinese hostelries. The courtyard was oblong, entered by a narrow arch. A narrow verandah, marked by wooden railings and large posts which supported the roof, ran round three sides of it. Off this opened the guest rooms ; fifteen or so in number, the best at the I'ar end of the yard opposite the arch. In the centre rose a couple of tomb-like excrescences holding flowers, flanked, the one by a peach, in the leav^es of which twittered homely-looking sparrows, the other by a pomegranate, bearing beautiful red blossoms. A few native beds were littered here and there, and in one corner a disconsolate and aged pony nmnched his evening meal. A couple of vulturine-looking fowls dodged in and out between his legs and pecked acidly at each other. Two tables were set willi eight or ten pairs of chop-sticks, and beside each pair a china spoon, such as one sees in a sick- room for eating jelly. Blue-clad Chinese in every stage of dress and undress paraded the court 30 CONCERNING CHINESE ROADS and conversed in loud voices, wliilst beneath the verandah eaves swallows came and went con- tinuously. A boy, wlio had set up a tray laden with cheap cigarettes, at intervals gave utterance in a nonchalant manner to an exhortative liowl. Since the suppression of poppy-growing, cigarettes have become very popular with the Chinese, and the British- American Tobacco Company turn out a million cigarettes a day, made of native tobacco, at their Hankow factory. \'icing with the cigar- ette seller was an elderly man with a tray of dis- gusting-looking cooked chickens, whose protruding necks and heads, petrified wings and straggling legs gave them a peculiarly indecent appearance. Both they and tlie hard-boiled eggs which wedged them on the tray were of a chocolate-brown colour, having been boiled in bean-oil. The proprietor, a fat, half-naked Chinaman, pompously paraded the inn. Popping in and out of doors, familiarly slapping his broad back when chance brought them within his peripatetic orbit, were three uncomely representatives of the oldest profession in the world. Pigtails hung down their loosely flapping shirts ; white trousers covered their lower limbs, and though their feet were only partially deformed they minced along with the stilted gait of a woman of fashion. Morosely viewing the scene was their manager, a gross, discontented -looking elderly man. At intervals he dashed frantically across the yard to the kitchen, and returned with a teapot. Now and again a muleteer arrived with a clinking of bells, or perhaps a chair. As the evening drew in lights appeared in the windows ; the fat proprietor, his queue replaited, sat with his underlings at the COMPANY AT THE INN 31 long tables ; the viilturiiie fowls sought the shelter of the pomegranate, the most beautiful thing in the inn. The three ladies repaired to some youthful guests' rooms, whence came the twanging of instru- ments ; the monotonous, irritating scrape of a native violin mingled with an affected ftilsetto voice. JNIen shouted to each other in the gloom, and a dog yelped dismally as it shot wildly through the gates into the dusty street beyond. CHAPTER V HWA-SHAN — THE FLOWER MOUNTAIN A LITTLE off the main road between Honan and Sian-fu rises Hwa-Shan — the F'lower Mountain — one of the five sacred mountains of China. Tai- Shan in Shantung, Omi-Shan in Szechuan, Wu- tai-Shan in Shansi, Heng-Shan in Hunan, are the others, thougli Hwa-Shan is not less famous than any. But few tourists visit it, for but few tourists reach the interior of China. During the summer months an odd missionary or two seek its cool shade, raising their eyes from the sweat holes in which they live, looking to the hills for their help. The mountain rises, a bulbous-looking top set on a spur of hills, surrounded by a curious confusion of jagged green peaks which slope to the Yellow River. Coming from the east one sees a lesser peak set in its shadow shaped like a temple roof. A tremendous chasm tears it from its neighbours on this side, and, to the west, a thousand -foot precipice drops to a tumbled huddle of lesser ridges, which, in turn, give place to green, splayed foot-hills, and the fruit orchards nestling about their base. The plain is rich, and to reach the mountain's 32 COUNTRY SCENERY 83 foot you pass little irrigated squares covered with all imaginable crops. Maize and millet, tobacco, cabbage, rice, two or three varieties of bean, the beautiful little indigo shrub, rowan-like pepper, chillis, cabbages, with here and there the grey stone arch of a piloh or some memorial tablet. A walled village, in a sad state of disrepair — the inhabitants took more trouble fifty years back, when the Mohammedans carried fire and sword through the country — raises sunbaked walls, and in the fields around foot-bound women, each with her little stool, pick at the ground like tired but industrious birds. A broad-leaved mulberry gives welcome shade, and round the glossy date trees cluster little rings of cornflowers. There are but few flowers in the plain, but the apple-trees are laden with hard little pink-cheeked fruit, and from the per- simmons hang great bunches of mistletoe. A temple stands at the base. Just behind it a deep ravine plunges into the bowels of the range, holding the grateful coolness of a deep, shaded well. There are some who say that after a year or so on the plains the great empty horizon grips them so that they cannot bear to lose it ; but such as these can never have loved the mountains. After the loess gullies, the long, dusty road, the parching thirst, and the sibilant whisper of the mosquitoes, the grey rocks, the firs, and even tlie grasses, gave me the welcome of an old friend. AVild thyme, and sweet-scented, starlike jasmine perfumed the air, and on the emerald banks little scarlet lilies made crimson splashes. Indian pinks nestled by the pathway, and over all lay the solemn, inspiring 34 HWA-SHAN, THE FLOWER MOUNTAIN stillness of a mountain. We tiu'ned a corner, and the murmur which had haunted my ear with its soft undernote burst into full-throated song, for there before us was the burn. It clattered and danced and laughed and sang until I could have cried aloud for sheer delight. For it was water, beautiful, clear, cool water, not the turbid yellow mud of the plains. It slipped round boulders, hid for a moment, sprang with a gurgle over a miniature precipice, and tinkled round a bend. A king-fisher flashed above it. Water ousels darted across its bed, and at the bottom of the clear, green pools the pebbles laughed to see them go. It was a burn, a real burn, and I could scarcely believe it ; just such another as that by which the Exception and I had sat— four long years ago. For a time we lost it, and something of the sweetness of the day seemed to have departed, but anon it appeared again, and sang beneath the Japanese anemones and sapphire monksfoot. In the rocks above caverns had been cut, and little shrines, at which the devout burnt tapers. Taoist priests called cheerful greetings, and in the grimy shadows the old gods grinned obtusely at the day. Butterflies hung fluttering, of every variety. Swallow-tails, admirals, fritillaries, whites with a gorgeous orange under-wing, sulphurs and heather- blues ; while overhead the buzzards called, pigeons flashed about the rocks, and from afar came the homely calling of the rooks. A mile or so up the glen an enormous boulder blocked the path, propped by a quaint superstition, with flimsy little twigs. Carved Chinese characters ornamented its surface. THE FISH STONE 35 Thirty years ago there were nuns as well as priests upon Mount Hwa. At that time a certain dissolute taotai was appointed to overlook the rebuilding of the temples. At the toot of the mountain he took up his residence, and by his mode of living and licentious acts aroused the wrath of Heaven. The priestesses became his boon com- panions, and the people dwelt in fear. The Dragon God, born of a great snake and a crane, dwelt within the mountains, and at length, roused to fury, he burst from the rocks and swept down the glen in a tempest of rain and wind. Temples were destroyed, people were slain, the wicked taotai and his companions were drowned, and at the spot where it now stands was deposited the great boulder. It is known as the " Fish Stone," for in its terrifying descent the head and tail of a fish were seen to protrude from the interior of the rock. The flowers increase as one ascends, and mingle with the sweetness of the hill grasses — hydrangea, meadowsweet, vetches, forget-me-not, tiger lilies, briars in masses, grasses witli a beautiful purplish bloom, columbine, Canterbury bells, lilies of the valley, and syringa. Nearer the summit, oaks, Japanese maple, and juniper find foothold, and the scent of the pines rises like incense to Heaven. The rocks upon the sky-line are curiously fashioned. Here a tortoise with mouth agape pursues a frog ; the inevitable puppy-dog lion grins at a frowning precipice ; and down a ridge in the evening light lumbers a bear. Half-way up is tlie Rock of the Fainthearted. Should the devout pilgrim gain its eminence, all 36 HWA-SIIAN, THE FLOWER MOUNTAIN is well, though the most terrifying aspect of the climb confronts him. Shallow steps cut in the rock and clanking iron chains aid him in his endeavours, which indeed would otherwise be useless, for the ascent at times is perpendicular. Two hundred feet of narrow chimney leads to a knife edge and more steps. Great merit attaches to those who at last look over " The Precipice of Complete Truth." One there was who did so, and declared his intention forthwith of spending his days on the summit, so greatly did he dread the descent. A ftiithful servant, however, administered intoxicants, popped him into a basket, and brought him home in triumph. It seems perhaps a trivial matter on this thin crust of a shell on which we hurry busily to and fro, that man should ascend a few thousand feet more or less ; but at the least he is so much nearer to the Heavens. Whatever the religion and however poor a resting-place the god may find, the idea of building a shrine upon a moun- tain is beautiful. Perhaps it was the thought of attaining, after much toil, peace at last which set the old builders toiling at the rock-cut steps ; that the motive which sends a swarm of pilgrims hither in the third moon. Be that as it may, the peace is there. One hopes that the old gods, if they have any sense of justice or humour, will debit the two fat Chinamen whom staggering coolies were carrying in chairs to the summit, and apportion much virtue to the sweating atoms of humanity who bore them thither with so much expenditure of laborious effort. The last few hundred yards are THE HISTORY OF HWA-SHAN 37 easy, and the wild raspberries of the lower slopes give place to masses of delicious little sweet- flavoured strawberries. There are three or four summits ; the mountain does not rise in one peerless cone like Fuji. From them a sea of jagged green peaks stretches away on every side, knife-edged and precipitous. The nearer tops are crowned with temples. From the " Southern Gate to Heaven " one sees upon a neighbouring peak a tiny shrine which is closely connected with the history of the mountain. Six hundred years ago a certain Emperor, by name Chao Kwang Yui, was playing chess with a Taoist priest. He lost far more than he could afford, and by way of payment gave Hwa-Shan to his opponent. The little shrine marks the site of the game. An agreement was drawn up which was engraved on a certain inaccessible slab of rock opposite the mountain as a perpetual memorial. The tablet, though certainly there, is quite blank. It is apparently of sandstone, set in the granite cliff and much exposed to the weather, which may have defaced the characters. There hangs below the summit a terrifying arrangement of chains and sticks by which the more adventurous defy the face of a sheer thousand- foot precipice. At the end of a nerve-racking span of rotten saplings is another rock-hewn temple, and in an impossible position in the rocks above are cut a number of Chinese characters. To the north it was possible to see hundreds of li. The plain lay sweltering in a purple haze ; the willow avenue which in olden days, consequent on a dream, a former viceroy planted from Tungkwan 38 HWA-SHAN, THE FLOWER MOUNTAIN to far-off r^anchow-fii, made a narrow streak, thougli its ranks in a country where fuel is so precious are sadly thinned ; west and east the mighty Hwang-lio and its great tributaries wound their dragon-like curv^es ; the firs rose dark against the salmon and gold of the evening sky ; away to the west lay a blue shapeless blur ; and though the depths would see me on the morrow. 1 was happy, for 1 knew that presently I should come again to the hills. The Ciiv \\ ai.i,.^, SiAN-iu. Our Carts on the ^Iain Koau near .man-fcj. 38] CHAPTER VI SIAN-FU, THE MAGNIFICENT We left Hoiiao with our three carts on July 7th, and, having taken two days off' in order to visit the sacred mountain, reached Sian-fu, the capital of the province of Shensi, on the 17th. As we neared the city, watch towers lined the road every five li or so, and, before them, five little mud squares. In the old days these were composed of wolf dung, which, being fired, sent up a great smoke and warned the country-side of approaching danger. Lines of graves, the tombs of long-dead kings, stretched like enormous molehills to the dim per- spective of tlie hills. As is the case with most large Chinese cities, one receives no hint of the presence of Sian until on a sudden the splendid walls and gate towers rise above the trees. The country continues just as before. There is not much increase in the traffic ; only here large suburbs, which in themselves are small walled towns, though completely dwarfed by the city of which they are the offshoots, relieve the impression of artificial growth and warn the traveller of his proximity to an important centre. Sian-fu, the Kenzanfu of Marco Polo and ancient capital of the Tang dynasty, is one of the most 39 40 SIAN-FU, THE MAGNIFICENT remarkable cities in China. Formerly its bounds extended thirty li northwards to the Wei River, a tributary of the Hwang-ho, and ten 11 to the south ; but the present city, a paltry five or six hundred years old, has contracted within narrower limits and holds half a million or so inhabitants. The walls, about two and a quarter by one and a quarter miles in circumference, and gate towers will, in preservation and magnificence, vie with any in the kingdom outside Peking. They protected the city for many years during the great Moham- medan rebellion. From 1868 to 1870 troops lay thick around and prevented almost any outside intercourse ; but they had no firearms and the walls defied them. Looking on the city from their eminence one sees the Bell and Drum Towers, those imposing excrescences of every large city, emerging from a waving and leafy forest. Down in the narrow dirty streets the trees are gone and no hint of green relieves the eye, for they all, like the women, are in inner courts and yards. Its commanding position, for it dominates the great arteries which keep up communication with the west, made it the capital of the Empire in ancient times. Indeed, its central position, apart from the lack of railways, admirably adapts it for such an honour. For more than two thousand years, with some intervals, many of the most powerful rulers of China resided here, or in the immediate vicinity. It still retains something of its ancient grandeur. The Mohammedans who now live there are not so numerous since the rebellion, nor have they the same power, living THE NESTORIAN TABLET 41 under severe restrictions. Had the population been given a free hand they would have un- doubtedly avenged their fellow countrymen far- ther west and exterminated the Mohammedans entirely. We remained a week here, as carts were no longer practicable and we intended continuing our journey with pack mules. These it is not always easy to procure. During our stay we rode out to see the Shiao-yien-ta and Ta-yien-ta pagodas to the south of the city. The former is thirteen stories, the latter nine stories in height, for these characteristic structures have never an even number. The taller cannot be ascended, as it has a large crack down the middle, but the other is in a good state of preservation, and a fine view of the city is obtained from its summit. Large barracks lie just outside the walls to the west, built about ten years ago and capable of holding thirty thousand troops. It was these men who, a few weeks later, captured the city, when ten thousand Manchus were massacred. The Nestorian tablet carefully preserved here is of great interest, so great that perhaps a brief account may be forgiven me. The Nestorians entered China by Canton. To quote Gibbon, " after a short vicissitude of favour and persecution the foreign sect expired in ignorance and oblivion." The tablet sets forth in Syriac and Chinese charac- ters the early fortunes of the Church from the first mission a.d. 636, a list of its bishops and the pro- tection and indulgence it received from different emperors. It was discovered by Alvarez Semedo. a Jesuit priest at Sian, in 1623 under an old wall. 42 SIAN-FU, THE MAGNIFICENT Voltaire, Julian and Renan stigmatised it as a forgery, but it is now regarded as genuine by sinologists. The Forest of Monuments, another relic of interest, consists of a vast number of large tomb- like stones on which are engraved the classics of Confucius in 250,000 different characters. They are nearly seventeen hundred years old. Peking holds a similar set. Close by is a statue of Confucius two or three hundred years old and a stone with his likeness carved on the surface. Most of the classics have had rubbings taken of them, but this is now forbidden, as one of the tablets was broken. The reason given for their origin is as follows : The great despot Tsui-chi-hwaiig (246-202 b.c.) — he who began the Great Wall, and who for the first time con- solidated under one rule the whole of what is now China Proper — was persuaded that all the misery and distresses of his kingdom were caused by the literati. He accordingly put them all to death and burned their books. The tablets were subsequently engraved to prevent the recurrence of such a disaster. Having called on the President of the Local Board of Foreign Affairs, we were invited to a meal. The festive table was decorated with hide- ous lodging-house-looking vases, plates of cakes, peaches, apples and plums, trays of cigarettes and some poisonous-looking cigars. Our hosts curiosity was insatiable and the doctor's answers could hardly keep pace with his inquiries. He had the vaguest ideas of geography, despite the position he occupied, and quite believed we came from CHINESE ERUDITION 43 a small island off the mouth of the Yangtse-kiang, adjoining others which held " Anthropophagi, And men whose heads do grow beneath Their shoulders." Such a belief is common among the Chinese. He professed the liveliest admiration for George as a lion slayer, and on a secretary obsequiously inquiring wliat such beasts might be was only too delighted to display his superior knowledge. " Oh," said he, "just like those stone beasts out- side the gate," effigies which resemble nothing so much as a couple of grossly overfed pug puppies wearing ecstatic grins. We visited the pawn-shops, those store-houses of strange and wonderful things, and bought some furs and curios. Unfortunately the boat which was taking them back to Hankow was attacked on its voyage down the river, our boxes were rifled, and had it not been for the energetic action of a revolutionary official, we should have lost every- thing. As it was, one box was lost entirely, though the others turned up in London ten months later. It was at Sian that I flrst recollect that fiuniliar sound at night in a Chinese town, the rattle of the watchman going his rounds. Every self-respecting establishment employs such a man, who is supposed to keep thieves from the door. They are paid sums varying up country from seven to nine shillings per month. They very commonly pay over a proportion of their wages to the local king of the thieves, who promises for his part to hold them immune from any burglarious attack. This 44 SIAN-FU, THE MAGNIFICENT strikes both parties as a perfectly natural and satis- factory arrangement, which the watchman makes no bones about admitting. A certain foreigner noticing that after the first outburst of energy on the part of a man newly engaged, things were pretty quiet, asked him why he did not go his rounds. The man at once explained that he had made an arrangement whereby he was not to be disturbed and assured his employer that his goods were quite safe ; as indeed they were. We occupied part of a large inn, which was luxurious for China. After the nightly explosions from the Governor's yamen — they nearly blew us up one night returning from dinner with Mr. Henne, the postmaster, who was most kind to us and who, I regret to say, was badly injured during the subsequent troubles — when tlie gates were locked and the keys delivered, when the " rub-a-dub-dub, slap-slap-slap " of the masseurs, the cries and drums of street-hawkers, and the exhortations of the Baptist evangelist and the Chinese philosopher round the corner had died away, the hot steaming night began. Towards one o'clock it cooled and from the other side of the thin mud wall beliind my bed came a confused murmur. It is one thing to kill a beast in fair hunting, another to be the passive spectator of an animal slaughtered for food, and again quite another to find oneself in the small hours an unwilling auditor of the death agonies of half-a-dozen pigs. A dog yelped amid a chorus of weary grunts. Then a man's monotonous voice quelled the murnmr, " Leh, leh, leh, leh, leh, leh, leh, leh " ad infinitum.^ calling as chickens are called to be fed. Then a scuffling, followed by a porcine A NATIVE MEAL 45 whimper which, in a second, developed into an ear- spHtting squeal. The squeals continued, reached their cUmax in one more comprehensive, agonised and earsplitting than the rest, after which they died faintly away and expired in a horrihle gugghng gurgle which made my blood run cold. That marked the end of the first victim, and there were usually six every night, so that I was not altogether sorry when the time came to leave Sian. The night before our departure some friends of Dr. Smith's invited us to a Chinese meal, the menu of which, at the risk of being thought tedious, I give : 1. Tea, melon and cigarettes. 2. Mushroom soup. 3. Fried Wei River fish. 4. Breaded mutton cutlets. 5. Roast strips of beef. 6. Pork rissoles and cabbage. 7. Shredded chicken with oak lichen. 8. Sea slugs (a great luxury and quite good). 9. Eggs forced with pork and onions. 10. Fat pork. 11. Egg plant. 12. Strips of bacon and boiled pork. 13. Boiled chicken. 14. Peaches and apple jelly (hot). 15. Sweetened pork with fermented rice. 16. Lotus root jelly. 17. Peaches and custard. 18. Apples, peaches, plums, melon seeds, pea- nuts, salted apricot seeds, and burnt walnuts. To drink, we had sweetened rice wine in tiny cups, tea, and lemonade which tasted like pear drops. 46 SIAN-FU, THE MAGNIFICENT Our hosts were most courteous, and though we could not speak directly to them, we thoroughly- enjoyed ourselves. Four days' march to the south of Sian lies the small mountain village of Ling-tai-miao, which we intended to make our headquarters. We left the city by the western gate, which was opened at dawn. Even in the provincial capital antiquated stands of arms, spears, billhooks, and other strange instruments are still placed by the guard-house for the defence of the gates. Little did we think as we rode out that morning past the Governor's yamen, what terrible scenes were to be enacted there so shortly. On Sunday, October 22nd, the revolution burst on the inhabitants. The city gates were closed at noon, and fighting commenced at once with the capture of the arsenal. The slaughter of the Manchus followed immediately. Foreigners in the suburbs could get no certain news of what was happening. They did not even know whether the outbreak was anti- dynastic, anti-foreign, or anti- Christian. Their danger was much accentu- ated by their ignorance, for had the policy of the revolutionists been known unnecessary troubles might have been averted. Firing continued all that day and night. A Mrs. Beckman, Mr. Watney, and six Swedish children were murdered by the mob in the south suburb ; but these, so far as I know, were the only foreigners who were killed in Shensi. Mr. Henne, as I have already mentioned, had a very narrow escape, but happily recovered. For three weeks previous to the outbreak the REVOLUTION IN SIAN-FU 47 JManchu governor of the province was in a state of great anxiety, and did not sleep at all. lie hid the keys of the city gates, and at the outbreak of the troubles escaped, but was traced to a place called Ts'ao-t'an, where he was beheaded. The Manchu commander of the troops was spared owing to the regard in which he was held by his men. There were 3,000 trained troops at Sian-fu at the time of the outbreak, and the city was for some weeks completely isolated. The mountain passes were held by troops, and all communication stopped. On the Sunday of the outbreak — " The trouble broke out about 12 o'clock. The soldiers first took the arsenal, and served out arms and ammunition to every one who was willing to join them, the badge being white. Unfortunately, this was not sufficiently distinctive, for numbers of bad characters put a badge on, got arms, and used them only to rob and loot. The attack on the Manchu city began soon after, and continued until Wednesday morning, the object being to totally exterminate the JManchus — man, woman, and child. After Wednesday they ceased kiUing the women and girls, but continued to seek out the males. The position of the JManchus was hopeless from the first, for their quarter was not enclosed by a wall, and tliough every man is a soldier, they are soldiers of the old type, with very inferior weapons, so, although there were 5,000 Manchu men, they could do very little. Tiie Chinese fired their houses, and then killed all they could while they were escaping. Many climbed up the city wall, and dropped down on the other side, some to be maimed or killed by the fall, others to be killed subsequently, and some perhaps 5 48 SIAN-FU, THE MAGxXIFICENT escaping. 1 have heard that a great many of the Manchus, especially the women, took their own lives. "At a low estimate probably 10,000 have been killed. The Chinese have received comparatively few injuries, which is not surprising in view of their superior weapons. There are many Manchus in hiding, and we know of the safety of all Manchu Christians." 1 quote the following account of the death of the Swedish missionaries from a letter written last November by Dr. Robertson, whom we had the pleasure of meeting. The house where Mr. Beckman lived was situated outside the wall of the south suburb, had a large garden front and back, and was sur- rounded by a fairly high wall. " About midnight (Sunday) they were attacked by a band of robbers and bad characters of the neighbourhood. All the servants fled, and in doing so removed the ladder which had been placed ready against the wall in case flight should become necessary. The mission party had there- fore to use a barrow, and JNIr. Watney got over first ; one child of twelve was handed over to him. As soon as they were over Mr. Beckman called to them, but had no reply, and he gathered that Mr. Watney and the child — who was Mr. Beckman's daughter — had had to run. It after- wards appeared that Mr. Watney and his little companion ran for about six miles, but were then overtaken and done to death. " Mr. Beckman, his wife, a little baby, and a little girl of seven, with the rest of the children, then took refuge in a little outhouse. Presently MASSACRE 49 they heard footsteps and knocking, and Mrs. Beck- man went out at once with her Httle girl. They must have caught her and killed her at once, for her husband never saw her alive after that. Mr. Beckman then went out, and found the court- yard empty. The front gate was burned down, and outside was a mob of people. He ran right through, and down to a pool of water two feet deep. Here he stopped for a while, hidden among some thick grass ; and when he saw men coming with lamps he moved along a little way to a tree. He heard men asking for him, and presently they left three there to watch till morning. " All this time he was standing in the water, w^th his little baby in his arms, and not once did she utter a sound to betray their presence. After a while he saw the morning star, and heard the men say that they would soon be able to find him ; he therefore felt about on the north side of the pool, and found a place where he could reach to the top with his arm. Then, though his strength was almost gone, he managed to climb up, and escape from his watchers. He and the child eventually reached the West Suburb, the only two that escaped from the attack. Mrs. Beck- man, Mr. Watney, and six children had fallen victims. " The new authorities are extremely sorry about this. Four men have been executed on account of the outrage, and their heads are hung outside the gate." These vigorous measures were evidence of the goodwill of the revolutionary authorities, who also sent out parties of soldiers to bring in the missionaries from their isolated stations at Sui-te- Chou and Yenan-fu. 50 SIAN-FU, THE MAGNIFICENT The day on which we left was extremely hot. The crows and magpies, of which we saw thousands daily, took advantage of every inch of shade, and stood gaping with wide-open mouths as we passed within a few yards of them. We also saw snipe, duck, and some large white birds with red, curved beaks, which we took to be ibis. All inns are not such as the one which I attempted to describe in a preceding chapter, and often the best of those where we halted had already been occupied before our arrival. Often we put up in a small room, opening off a narrow, muddy passage ; but it is wonderful how soon one gets accustomed to surroundings which a few months before would have seemed im- possible. Our advent invariably called forth the entire population of the village, who regarded us with slack, vapid, open mouths, and expressions of loutish stupidity. As everything in China is reversed it may be that their faces denoted the liveliest satisfaction ! The pleasantest sight was the fathers playing with their little sons. For this they always have time. Little boys are sadly spoiled in China, though girls are of small account, and are usually alluded to as "little guests," for Vvdll they not in time marry and go elsewhere ? The Chinese baby is a pot-bellied little creature on sturdy legs. His stomach decreases inversely with his years, and the bent, shrivelled old men, who in a west- ern country would be but in their prime, seem to have but little physical kinship witli their descendants. We often used to get into conversation, and the IGNORANCE AND CREDULITY 51 inquiries and remarks which Dr. Smith trans- lated were a never-faihng source of interest. One man wanted our field-glasses — the thousand- mile glass, he called it — to find his wife, who had run away. He quite thought that with their aid he would be able to see through the mountains and intervening obstacles which separ- ated them. A popular belief is that foreigners have the power of looking into the ground, and seeing what minerals lie below the surface. Of their ideas concerning geography I have already spoken. We were frequently taken for Japanese, with whom they apparently see no resemblance to themselves. We were informed that from islands adjoining our own, of course at the mouth of the Yangtse, came men with holes through their middles, who, when they went on a journey, slipped a pole through their centres and were borne comfortably by two carriers. Another was inhabited entirely by the fair sex. The crowds were nearly always decorous, quiet, and not obtrusively rude. It was very unpleasant, after a long, hot, dusty ride, to sit down at a table in the open and be instantly surrounded by a crowd of half-naked Chinese and that peculiar unmistakable odour which emanates from Eastern humanity. Still, it might have been a great deal worse ; and a few words from Dr. Smith usually relieved the situation when it began to get un- bearable. In Africa and India it is possible to travel, even if one can speak nothing but one's own language, with a native interpreter, and get along fairly well ; in China there is one absolute 52 SIAN-FU, THE MAGNIFICENT and indispensable essential for a successful trip, and that is a trustworthy and capable guide, in- terpreter, headman, whatever you like to call him, who knows Chinese well and something of the geography of the country. Such a rara avis is hard to find. So recently as 1910 a party of Americans went through a certain district accom- panied by native interpreters. The latter were enjoying themselves, which is more than can be said for their employers ; in fact, they stated that, for a nine days' journey between two important towns they had found it necessary to expend three thousand taels (roughly, £375). The same journey, with such comforts as were available, accompanied by three large carts and five Chinese boys, cost us under two hundred taels. This was entirely due to Dr. Smith's careful management, his thorough knowledge of the country, his appreciation of the native, and his command of the language. Having travelled with him for nearly a year, it is un- necessary that I should draw attention to the article ! Our " spectacles without legs " were a never- failing source of amusement and delight ; for the Chinaman, above all others, considers it an honour- able and fitting finish to his appearance to go '' barnacled." No light steel framework for him, but — and this is by far the most important item in the affair — a good solid front of heavy metal, as imposing and substantial as the railings before some large suburban dwelling. It holds a couple of squares or oblongs of, as like as not, cracked and broken glass ; certainly no aid to vision, though this is a minor consideration. It strikes one with THE OPIUM CURSE 53 astonishment at first to encounter some lean and scraggy old toiler, his business apparent in the hoe upon his shoulder, benevolently gazing through such monstrosities, when it seems that he should rather be poring over some learned tome in the quiet refuge of a library. The 1st and 15th of the month are feast days, and we met, during one day's march, a curious crowd of old ladies, hobbling with the aid of dragon-crutched sticks to the temple to pray. They looked, in the distance, for all the world like some queer kind of wading bird, with their tapering limbs and stilted, mechanical action. Sometimes in the crowd who swarmed around our halting-places we saw a face wearing the sallow, sodden, hopeless look of some poor wretch who had become an habitual eater of opium, which is about five times worse than smoking it. In spite of Imperial edicts, a certain amount of land in out-of-the-way mountain regions, which happen to be controlled by a slack Governor, is under cultivation of the poppy. The yamen under- lings, to whom the Governor trusts to bring him information, are bribed, the Governor hoodwinked, and the opium grown, as we saw from the bundles of dried poppy-stalks, in various places. The crav- ing for opium is about the greatest curse which can fall upon a man. Its victim sticks at nothing in his craving ; he will sell his land, his goods, his wife or child, rather than be without it. We came across one man who had originally been well-to-do for a country man. He acquired the opium habit, and when we saw him was a penniless beggar in rags. He was quite happy, and refused Dr. Smith's 54 SIAN-FU, THE MAGNIFICENT offer of a cure, which, though difficult, was still possible. He had mortgaged all his land, and occasionally did a little work, in order to get money to buy the drug. He hardly ate any food, and was content, even in winter, with a bundle of straw, in which he burrowed like an animal. CHAPTER VII A MOUNTAIN VILI>AGE AND TAI-PEI-SHAN LiNG-TAi-MiAO is a pretty little village, lying beside a brawling mountain torrent, fringed by shaking poplars, ash-trees, and some magnificent willows. The way was pleasanter than heretofore, through green rice-fields and clear-running streams, which flowed on beds of gritty sand and not the horrible red loess. Snipe rose from the marshes, and the wild duck brought a sense of home, for there is no bird so evocative of old associations. The heat was very trying, and we panted for the hills, lifting our eyes with greater fervour than did ever the Israelites of old. On the fourth day after leaving Sian-fu we passed, by the rocky medium of a river-bed, among the foothills, and presently saw our destination lying in the valley below. We received a warm welcome — or rather, our companion did, for the people knew him well. They were most friendly during the whole of our stay ; but the highlanders of any country, once their initial reserve has been overcome, are far pleasanter to deal with than the dwellers in the plains. Over 50 per cent, of the people we met here suffered from goitre, which seems very prevalent 56 A MOUNTAIN VILLAGE AND TAI-PEI-SHAN in the mountainous districts of China. Cretin idiots are by no means uncommon. We put up at a small temple. The caretaker — it was impossible to dignify him with the name of priest — a deaf but voluble old rascal, lived in a small room in one corner. Opposite, a miserable old woman had taken up her quarters, and over the gateway an opium-smoker dragged out his days beside a grinning god. Otherwise we had the place to ourselves. Dr. Smith's old friends brought presents of vegetables, cucumbers, potatoes, and eggs, usually refusing payment. A crowd of small boys followed our every movement with bated breath, until we turned their superfluous energies to account by sending them out to collect rasp- berries, of which there were great quantities grow- ing wild. They got twenty cash (rather less than a half-penny) per pound, and kept us well supplied during our stay. Even more than cash they prized empty cartridge cases. Large numbers of pigeons used to roost in the old stand for theatrical per- formances which is part of every self-respecting temple, and here we used to shoot them when our menu wanted a change. There were also doves here — pretty little birds, with a ring of blue- spotted white feathers round their necks, hares, and pheasants. In the winter these latter furnish good sport. One morning I was awakened by the banging of drums and the clanging of gongs. It appeared that a man in the village had had about 60 ozs. of opium stolen (at 650 cash per oz. this would be valued at 25 taels — rather over £3), and the astrologers were hard at work endeavouring to find DETECTIVE ASTROLOGERS 57 the thief. The spirits having been invoked, a small box, containing an assortment of numbered bamboo slips, was produced. One was drawn from the box at random and the number referred to a book of questions and answers. For example, " Is the thief twenty U from here ? " " Yes." " Is he ten // ? " " Yes," and so on, narrowing down the inquiry. On a previous visit the doctor's money and clothes had been stolen during his absence, the thieves gaining admittance by cutting a hole in the mud wall of his room, a very favourite method. Indeed, during our stay, poor old Count Fosco, as we called the caretaker, was attacked in this manner. He was a thorough-paced old rascal with a perpetual grievance, who did a little mild stealing on his own when he thought there was no chance of detection. The penalty for stealing over fifty taels' worth of goods is death, occasionally enforced, and he took good care to keep well within the limit. Unfortunately for him, he was very deaf, and the thieves quietly removed his clothes, bed- ding, a bag of flour which he kept under his pillow, and everything else they could find. Meanwhile, the old gentleman slept peacefully on and never discovered his loss till the morning, when the hulla- baloo he raised brought every one rushing out to see what was the matter. On the doctor's loss being made known, an old man who lived over the mountains near by, known as Shan-langyie, i.e. the old mountain wolf-man, was called in. He was a kind of clairvoyant, and his performance merits description. He and his assistant having made their prepara- tions, every one repaired to the temple. Paper 58 A MOUNTAIN VILLAGE AND TAIPEI-SHAN images of the gods were set up, surrounded by lighted tapers and incense. The old man and his assistant took hold of opposite sides of a bushel measure, a square box capable of holding about 53 lbs. They then twisted it round their heads, at the same time indulging in a kind of dance, such as is often seen on the stage. They were imitated in all their movements by two young men, who waved the handle of a knife from which the blade had been removed. Gradually they worked themselves up into a fi-enzy and approached the god, holding out the measure as though imploring him to enter. For two hours this continued, while one man beat a gong monotonously and another kept praying, " O Spirit ! we beseech thee to enter the measure," " O Spirit ! we beseech thee to enter the measure." At length the two holding the measure whirled out into the yard, through the room from which the money had been stolen, out of the court at top speed, through the watching crowds, and into the temple again. Time after time the dance was repeated, until finally they tore out of the temple to a distance of ten U. Here they entered a mill inhabited by a decrepit old man ; also an inn where dwelt a man well known for his honesty. Being thus apparently at fault, they said the thief must have been there, and next day tried again. On this occasion the measure led them to a man who eventually turned out to be the brother of the thief He, immediately after the robbery, had stolen a small pig by way of proving an alibi ! On another occasion this old mountain wolf- man was called in after 50 ozs. of opium had been stolen. He actually led the crowd a distance of FLOWERS AND BUTTERFLIES 59 40 //, when the stolen drug was discovered under a stone in the river bed. His assistant, whom the doctor knew, said that he could not explain the matter in any way, but felt that he had to go wherever the measure directed him. For some days after our arrival mist and cloud cov^ered the tops of the surrounding mountains. These rose to a height of over 11,000 ft, whilst the summit of the lower ridges, blotched and scarred, marred and torn as far as the eye could reach by patches of cultivation, were some 3,000 ft. above the river. My sympathies are with the toiling peasant, but I abominate his handiwork. Maize, wheat and barley were the principal crops. I have never seen such masses of wild flowers as grew on the crest of these foothills. There were lilies, red and yellow, spotted and plain ; some over six feet high, others but a few inches above the ground ; gentians, pinks, irises — these of course not in flower ; jasmine and a quantity of other varieties whose names I did not know. Above them fluttered hundreds of butterflies, which seemed particularly fond of a beautiful mauve flower grow- ing on a straight stem. The largest of these butter- flies were of a blackish green, with pink under wings and swallow tails. They must have measured nearly four inches across. These foothills are fine hunting ground for roe {Capreolus bedfoi^di) in the winter. During the summer the grasses and undergrowth are too luxuriant to render their pursuit at all a hopeful undertaking. We tried one day and jumped a buck which I missed ; while George shot a female 60 A MOUNTAIN VILLAGE AND TAI-PEI-SHAN for food. Wild pig are also to be found, but thouffh we came across their wallows we never o encountered the beast himself. On his first visit the doctor heard of a leopard with some cubs close by. He sat over the den and managed to capture the two young ones, but the mother never returned. The cubs, after living for a day or two, died. The Goral ( Urotragus goral) appears to be very widely distributed. I saw a skin at Hwa-Shan, and w^as told by a missionary there that he had seen one. The weather being so bad at Lingtai-miao during our stay, and the undergrowth so dense, we decided not to hunt them there, as we were confident of getting specimens farther west. This turned out to be a mistake, as we never saw one in Kansu at all. A few days after our arrival, some men, hear- ing of our desire to hunt, came and offered their services. We engaged two ; Yong, whose heart, in the expressive Chinese phrase, was " not in the centre," but the best takin hunter for miles, and Lou-loo, an inveterate slacker, with an engaging smile and magnificent calf development. He won something of my liking, for though obsessed with an abhorrence of any kind of work, the love of hunting filled his mind to the exclusion of every- thing else. Yong had been wounded years before by a takin, which the natives consider a very vicious animal. He had hit one and followed it up, his old native gun still unloaded. According to his own account, as he passed a rock the takin, which had been lying in wait, dashed out and with a twist of its head ripped his thigh open. The scar -1^ Our Lav 10. i%'^A>i Intehiok of the Cave. fio] CAMPING IN A CAVE 61 was certainly there, and on the whole there seems no reason why his story should be false. The takin is allied to the ox, which, in a wild state, is notoriously vindictive. Two of these animals were caught when young and kept in a village through which we passed. One died, but the other lived for two or three years, when it turned savage and had to be killed. Having secured our hunters, we left the village on August 1 at 5 a.m. for Tai-pei-shan. About 10.30 a.m. we had reached the bamboos, and half an hour later thickets of rhododendrons. We intended if possible to reach the summit of the mountain and camp in a cave of which the doctor knew. However, the porters with our possessions did not arrive until 3 o'clock, so we decided to spend the night in another cave, situated at an elevation of about 8,000 feet. It was very still up there. Even the ceaseless whirring grind of the cicadas, with its peculiar little run-down at the end, had ceased ; and in place of the whispering murmur of the willows was the clean, aromatic scent of pines. From the cave we looked out into a dense sea of bush, from which limestone and granite pinnacles, streaked and gashed, broke their way. Far below rose the red mud hills which fringed the river, a curving white streak at their feet. Mud- walled cottages dotted the green of the paddy fields, and beyond again rose more foothills, stained red with the everlasting, persever- ing patches of cultivation. They rose in spurts of enthusiasm nearly to the summits ; then died fit- fully away, exhausted by the effort. Beyond, the great plain of Sian-fu baked and sweltered in its 62 A MOUNTAIN VILLAGE AND TAIPEI-SHAN purple haze. On its vast expanse the Wei River wound a dragon-Hke course. Up in the heights all was clear and fresh and beautiful. In the valley below fireflies flickered about the temple roof, and in the darkness the opium smoker lay huddled beside his god. CHAPTER \ III SOME NOTES ON CAVES AND THE HOME OF THE TAKIN I AM ready to take Dr. Smith's opinion on any matter relating to China, save only as regards caves and the gastronomical qualities of musk deer ! " Ah ! " he said ; " wait till you get to the cave ! Beautifully dry inside, a grand outlook, and good shelter ! " I have always longed to sleep in a cave. I suppose every boy has. " There is nobody under thirty so dead but his heart will stir a little at the siglit of a gypsies' camp," and when one becomes a gypsy oneself the feeling is so far intensified as to render, for the time, no other life worth the living. What I wanted was just such a cave as the doctor described. I had pictured it all a hundred times. Tlie grey rocks ; the couch of fir boughs ; the leaping flames of the camp fire ; the strange figures of the native hunters, now red and strong in the glare, now hidden in the shadows ; grinning skulls in one corner ; the clarity of dawn in the moun- tains ; the solemn gathering of the shadows at evening. How seldom does anticipation accord with the reality ! The doctor knew the cave in winter, and we occupied it in midsummer ! The 6 03 64 THE HOME OF THE TAKIN weather had been tine, but on the very day we left Ling-tai-miao it broke, and there was an abundance of rain. Our shelter occupied a space about 18 ft. by 14 ft., but scarcely a foot of it was dry. Facing south, and partially sheltered by an overhanging rock, it protected us to a certain extent, for from this quarter came the prevailing wind, but I do not think I have ever experienced a wetter or a more uncomfortable time. We were wet when we rose from our soaking beds ; wet when we sought them after a soaking day. We had about twelve hours' hunting in all, and for the remainder of the time sat on damp cofthi boards in a swelter of mist and rain. As the Chinese sage remarks, " Appreciations come by contrast and experiences are the ladder of truth." Certainly when we left we were in a position to appreciate even the mud walls and squalor of a Chinese inn. At the least it had a roof, and we had to go outside to get wet ! The men— there were twelve of them the first night, for our porters were with us— huddled beneath a rock ; the doctor found an overhanging slab, whilst George and I essayed shelter some yards lower down the hill. We curled ourselves into a miscellaneous collection of garments covered by a thin native waterproof sheet — a purely courtesy title — and hoped for sleep. Never were hopes more sadly misplaced. I awoke after what seemed to me half an hour and heard a stifled groan from George. A cold, clammy chill permeated my back, and, hearing a floundering splash. I knew that my worst fears had materialised. In addition to a burn, whicli trickled gaily from the upper cave DISCOMFORTS OF CAVE-DWELLING 65 and continued its ever-augmented course beneath the fir boughs on which we lay, in addition to pouring rain and driving mist, from which we had practically no protection at all, a large waterfall discharged its contents with great precision into the pit of George's stomach, whilst lesser tributaries playing about my legs hinted at the discomfort which he was sutrering. No wonder he groaned ! We never had our clothes off for a week, and slept in them, plus pyjamas, a sheepskin coat, and Bur- berrys. George showed great ingenuity in varying his night apparel. , I know a pair of Jaeger trousers tucked into his socks was about the only permanent factor, whilst nightly he grew more bulky about the waist. The lowest which the thermometer re- gistered in the valley had been 69^, whilst in the cave it was 39"^. Nothing availed, and in the cold, grey dawns, pelting, pitiless, and penetrating, so different from my imaginings, three haggard, unshaven objects crept from their respective lairs, and con- verging, half-suffocated, on the miserable ashes of a wood fire, compared notes as to their respective experiences. There was nothing to do during the day save dry our clothes, read, and stare blankly into the grey wall of mist, which rose grey and forbidding to the very mouth of the cave. Occasionally it parted, and we could see jagged slopes and granite cliffs, with dense bush, far below us. Gusts of wind would tear it into shreds, and send boiling, swirling masses of vapour into the chasm confronting us. Rarely, very rarely would a glint of blue sky tantalise us into momentary cheerfulness. Then the curtain would roll down once more, and shut 66 THE HOME OF THE TAKIN us off from the world. Always there sounded in our ears the deadening, monotonous drip, drip, drip of faUing water. Drip ! drip ! drip ! it fell ; drip ! drip ! drip ! At times we lost consciousness of it, as one does of an oft-reiterated sound. Then it would spring suddenly to life, and we became conscious once more of its percolating murmur presaging horrors for the coming night. Still it was a grand opportunity for reading, and I shall always feel grateful to Gil Bias and the immortal and ever-cheery R. L. S. for their companionship during those long wet days. At length one evening the mists began to thin, our horizon, which had hitherto been bounded by the top of a stunted larch a few j^ards from the cave, extended, and we were able to see what our resting place might have been. Before us lay a deep gorge. Granite slopes and jagged cliffs whose battlemented crests hung poised above great slides of rock emerged. Below them lay thickets of rhododendrons. It was possible again to maintain a sense of distance. Ridges stood out, greyly at first, but later with a stronger definition. The nearer larches, no longer fiat masses in the fore- ground, put on delicate tints and shaded boughs. Through strips of opalescent cloud the half-veiled sun shone with a pearly lustre. The sky grew full of the most wonderful shades of colour ; here, glowing with the softened brilliance of a shell, there, a pale, argent blue. Over all hung an at- mosphere, unreal and impalpable, as though one looked at a silver point delicately tinted and en- dowed with life. Drifting mists swept across the valleys, softening the deep, glowing emeralds and THE HILL SCENERY 67 purples of the hills to an ethereal brilliancy. In places they coalesced, and laid themselves athwart the tops in rosaries of tiny clouds, strung on in- visible threads ; again some grim old peak would stand above them grey and lonely, emphatic of their symmetry and colour. Far below, blanketing the main valley, white masses gathered, and shut it from our sight. The larches and hill-grasses held a myriad subdued points of light, as though winter had on a sudden come and a chill morning's hoar frost greeted us, not the remnants of a long, wet day. The hills were of an extraordinary steep- ness. Grassy ledges sheltered amid the rocks, and from far, far below came the hollow roar of many waters. A woodpecker tapped industriously. From behind a rock-splintered crag an eagle swung. Rotting stumps and moss-grown boulders lay amid the flowers. Birch, rowan, larch, fir, huge currant bushes, and other shrubs made variety with gigantic rhododendrons. Here and there an entire hill-side would be covered with the latter, at times straggly and overgrown, but more generally of an uniform size, seven or eight feet in height. Azaleas gleamed amid the rocks, the mountains in May and June presenting such a blaze of colour as no country in the world could equal. Intersecting dense thickets wound the narrow, unseen paths of woodmen. On the rocky promontories overlooking each gully and chasm sweet-scented myrtle grew thick ; flowers mingled with banks of wild strawberries in a riot of colour ; about them hovered butterflies by the score. To the west lay a large basin, its salient feature a series of enormous slides of rock, grey and 68 THE HOME OF THE TAKIN menacing. Their component parts seemed small and insignificant until the glass revealed colossal granite boulders of every shape and size. Some, and these apparently the most solidly balanced, were so nicely poised that it needed but a touch to send them crashing and roaring into the stream below. Interspersed among these shdes, sprawl- ing over the hill-side in fantastic elongations and splashes, were patches of bush, the same stunted larches whose average height did not exceed eight feet, and flowering shrubs. These only partially revealed the rocks beneath, and served not only to conceal the game, but by their very nature gave them timely warning of any invasion of their solitude. The basin sloped steeply to rocky canyons and ravines, the lower ledges smothered in a mass of dwarf bamboos. A thin streak of blue sky beyond a far distant ridge silhouetted the low roof and grey walls of a temple 12,000 feet above sea level, to which even then the first pilgrims were flocking. As the mists cleared the low, ridged valley from which we had come loomed grey through its folds, the saddle we had crossed, and the wide river-bed leading to the plain beyond. Far into the haze stretched range upon range of hills, all save the topmost peaks looking like nothing so much as the presentment of mountains on a large topographical map. Such is the country of the takin. In the next chapter I shall give an account of the habits of this rare and little known animal. CHAPTER IX THE 'I'AKiN {Budorras bcdfordi) The takin is a strange beast inhabiting a strange country. No animal tliat I have ever seen is so difficult to describe, and none of the rare accounts whicli I ha\'e read in the least prepared me for his appearance. In this, an age of big game hunting, probably no creature in the world save his congener, the musk ox, has so seldom been an object of pursuit by the white man. Some years ago Professor A. Milne Edwards suggested an affinity between the latter animal and the Budorcas. The two genera were subsequently placed in juxtaposition by the late Professor Riiti- meyer. Dr. JNlatschie developed the idea, and regards them as forming a sub-family by them- selves— the ovibovinse. As indications of their mutual affinity he notices the short and broad front cannon bones, the structure of the skull and form of the horns, the small ears, the hairy muzzle, the short tail, the clumsy main hoofs, and the large size of the lateral pair. Mr. Blanford has placed Budorcas in the neigh- bourhood of the serows {nemorhccdus), and with this view Mr. Lydekker agrees. The takin has, in China, been killed by few r>9 70 THE TAKIN save native hunters. Mr. Meares, the companion of the unhappy T lieutenant Brooke, who, a few years ago, was murdered in Lolo-land, claims to have been the first white man to shoot a speci- men. Major Malcohn McNeill, D.S.O., has suc- cessfully stalked them near Tatsien-lu in Western Szechuan, as also Mr. Zappe, an American ; Dr. J. A. C. Smith, our companion, killed one in Shensi in 1910, but otherwise, so far as I am aware, none have been killed by Englishmen, though specimens of young animals have been obtained, probably from native hunters, by the American IMuseum of Natural History at New York. There are several known varieties. 1. The typical form found in Assam and Bhotan ( Budoix'as taocicolor). 2. That found in Western Szechuan and Eastern Thibet {Budorcas tibetamis). B. sinensis and B. mitchelli are regarded as synonymous with this species. 3. Budorxas bedfordi, found in Shensi. In the Tsinling Minshan ranges, a practically continuous mountain range running due east and west, they are in certain districts common, ranging from Chow-chih in the east to Li-shien in the west. Due west of the westernmost extremity of the Tsinling IMountains there appears to be a gap, the Peshui River, as the upper reaches of the Kialing are called, being their boundary in this direction. 4. They are said, on good authority, to be found in the mountains of Northern Shansi, due west of Peking. 5. Takin are known to exist near Pie-kou in Southern Kansu. To our great regret we were ■WV- Sketches of Takin. VARIETIES OF TAKIN 71 unable to hunt them here, owing to the outbreak of the revolution. I think it is not unreasonable to suppose that this variety may be found to be inter- mediate between tibetanus and bedfordi. 6. Mr. R. Kingdon Ward tells me that he found the skull and horns of a takin among the Lutzus, a tribe living near the Salween River. They and the Chiutsus, another tribe, speak of them as *' yie-nu" i.e. v/ild cattle, and shoot them with crossbows and poisoned arrows. That variety {Budorcas taxicohr) inhabithig the Mishmi hills on the northern frontier of Assam was discovered and described by Brian Hodgson in 1850. Mr. J. Claude White, C.IM.G., has rendered many familiar with its appearance, for he sent the first living specimen to reach Europe to the Zoo- logical Society. It can be seen any day in the gardens in Regent's Park. The Chinese takin, however, differs considerably from the typical form found in Assam. The prevailing colour of the latter is blackish brown, the whole of the upper side of the body being sprinkled with greyish yellow. There is a dark spinal stripe. It was in reference to the hght or greyish hue of the upper side, correlated with the dark hue of the underside and legs, that this specimen was named " taxi- color " or " badger-coloured." I quote Mr. R. I. Pocock : In Szechuan, the Assamese form is replaced by a lighter one {Budorcas tibetanus), described by Milne Edwards, which is mostly yellow or gi'ey in colour, with a blackish muzzle, ears and tail, a short dark spinal stripe and blackish or iron- grey legs. The prevailing colour of the Shensi takin, which again differs in coloration from the 72 THE TAKIN Szechuan variety, is golden yellow, and it may be taken that this is the most specialised representa- tive of the genus hudorcas yet discovered. To quote -Mr. Pocock again— and I am indebted to him for much information on the subject — " the main character in which this Chinese animal devi- ates from the Assamese one is the extension of the pale coloration over the greater part of the head and its intensification everywhere." There is no dark spinal stripe, though its remains are found in a longer ridge of hairs, of a slightly darker tone than those of the body, approximating to those found on the necks of the males. It is interesting to note, however, that this dark dorsal stripe is very prominent in the young, varying in colour from dark grey to chocolate brown on the neck and tail. The young have also dark hairs round the fringe of the curiously shaped ears and a dark muzzle. The legs and hind quarters are also con- siderably darker than in the adult. Even in the Szechuan variety the young are very materially darker than adult specimens. The cows stand about 42 inches at the shoulder ; a full-grown bull about 51 inches. The legs are short, enormously thick, and seem small in proportion to the body. The hoofs are large and very splayed. The hair is coarse. In sunlight they are a conspicuous golden yellow, though the females are considerably lighter and more silvery in tone, like the yellow in the coat of a Polar bear. The bulls are much larger and have a decidedly reddish tinge about the neck, not unlike the colour of a lion. The back view of both sexes, owing to the length of hair, the formation CHARACTERISTICS OF TAKIN 73 of the hindquarters, and comparative conceahnent of the short, broad tail, is absurdly hke that of a Teddy bear. Much larger in size, they reminded me very strongly of the Rocky ^lountain goat {Oreamnm montanus), both in their heavy build and apparently clumsy, lumbering gait. On occasions they can cover the rough ground on which they dwell with the agility of a rhinoceros. The head, normally, is carried low, the point of the muzzle being considerably below the line of the vertebrte. The eyesockets are prominent, close up to the horn, the curve of the nose decidedly Semitic, and the nostrils large and well formed. The colour of the young is yellowish grey, shading to a darker tone, mingled with brown on the flanks. The belly is brown, the hair soft and fluffy ; the hind legs dark grey, a lighter brown on the inside of the thigh. The upper part of the foreleg is dark grey ; the lower part of the leg brownish yellow. According to the natives, those found to the south of Tai-pei-shan are much darker in colour and not so yellow, but there seems no reason why this should be so. They also say that the calves in their second year are black and white and gradually turn yellow. No doubt the latter part of the statement is correct. The rut takes place towards the latter end of July and the beginning of August. The calves, usually one at a birth, are dropped towards the end of March or early in April. The summer excreta resemble those of domestic cattle ; the winter, ovoid, are like a deer's. They feed in the winter on bamboos and willows ; in the summer on birch shoots, a kind of 74 THE TAKIN elm, grass and a strong-smelling herb with a yellow flower of which they are very fond, called, 1 believe, senecio. When they descend, as they sometimes do if alarmed, into the bamboos they are very difficult to approach. Their pursuit under such conditions becomes very arduous in hot weather. In the Avinter they separate into small bands, but in summer collect and have been seen in herds of over a hundred. Indeed, I^ou-loo said that on one occasion he was in hiding, when a herd passed him numbering at least a thousand, but one must al- ways make a big allowance for native exaggeration. When suspicious they give each other warning by a kind of hoarse cough, and during the rut utter a low bellow. The natives, as I have already mentioned, credit them with great ferocity. In the winter they are to be found among the dwarf bamboos which cover the hills at an altitude of seven or eight thousand feet. In summer they retreat farther into the recesses of the mountains and spend their time on the rock-scattered slopes and battlemented crags which tower above the rhododendron groves and thickets of the Tsinling range. On being alarmed, unless badly frightened, they do not go very far, but stop at a little distance and start feeding again. The old bulls are very cunning and always the hardest to approach when alone. They will lie with outstretched necks in the densest thickets and refuse to move until the hunter is almost on them. They are local in their habits, and will not wander far unless much disturbed. We saw two bulls on the same hill-side, almost on the same spot, day after day. ^ CV «■•«*■ *»• f: f* r ,.' '>■ ,y"^ Studies of Takin {Badurcas bedjordi). 74j PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 75 The horns of the old bulls do not harden into ii solid central mass, but separate, and, though tapering at the tips, become worn and flattened in front. Those of the younger bulls are jammed close up against each other, and are soft at tlieir bases. When the horn growth is complete these harden and become more widely separated. Size of body is a just criterion to excellence of head. In other words, a big bull will almost certainly carry a big head ; though the difference between a big head and a very big head is, in the case of the takin, only a matter of a few inches. The horns of the cows are considerably smaller than those of the bulls. Of their senses I cannot speak authoritatively. It is a mistake as well as an exposure of ignorance to lay do\^m the law concerning the care with which any animal may be stalked on an acquaintance extending over a few days. One may or may not be lucky, the animal obliging or the reverse. I am inclined to think that, apart from the weather, the takin is not a very difficult animal to approach. The country which he frequents in the summer, though necessitating a good deal of hard climbing, is otherwise easily stalked ; the animal itself cer- tainly not, from our experience, unduly on the alert, and easily '•' picked up " with a glass. To judge an animal's faculties fairly one must have had him under observation ivheii he ktioivs that he is an object of pursuit. The takins in China, as we saw them, were so accustomed to the noise and passage of v.'oodcutters that I do not think they were unduly alarmed at the proximity of man. Those which we afterwards secured were in full 76 THE TAKIN view in the open half a mile or so away when first seen. They made no attempt to move, and betrayed no uneasiness, though it would have been easy for them to see us ; and wild sheep under similar circumstances would have been over the hills and far away in no time. Mr. Fergusson records the following notes : Each herd follows an old bull, who is the leader. To such a pitch do they carry their blind obedience that, on a native hunter shooting one, which fell over a cliff, the whole herd threw themselves over after him. In the spring the cows travel alone with their young, which can follow anywhere at three days old, and are weaned at one month. In Szechuan they collect about salt licks, to which they make regular broad beaten paths, but in Shensi we did not come across any such spots. Where they exist the hunting of any animal is rendered comparatively easy. All that the hunter has to do is to conceal himself near the lick, when he is almost certain to obtain a shot. CHAP'J^ER X HUNTING THE TAKIN It was on August 6th that our hopes were at last reaHsed. The night, cold and bracing, had slione with a beautiful clear moon in a cloudless sky, and we woke to a lovely sunrise and every promise of a glorious day. By 5 o'clock we were climbing the hill-side to the top of the ridge. The road lay for the first mile or so through meadows thick with stunted larches, whose grotesquely twisted branches blended witli the grey rocks whicli showed amid the long wet grass. At one time I was reminded strongly of pictures of caribou country in New- foundland, at others of nothing so much as of those rhododendron thickets which are so often seen about the policies of an old Scottish home. Presently we struck a narrow, knife-edged ridge, which on the east descended abruptly in a series of spire-shaped pinnacles to deep gorges with bare and naked sides. Swiftly running mountain streams gleamed like silver threads below. To the west lay the large basin, a portion of which we could see from the cave. At the far end it swelled gradually to rolling tops, typical sheep country, though there were no sheep, which again descended to similar country on the far side. From the 78 HUNTING THE TAKIN narrow ridge where we stood a magnificent view was obtained. Range after range stretched away to the west, a few fleecy clouds resting on the highest peaks ; a wide valley extended far below us to tlie north, and all, save where the rocks and slides made pronounced grey and white splashes, was of a vivid green. We halted. for a spy, the hunters squatting native fashion, while George and I pulled out our glasses and settled ourselves among the rocks. For a few moments no one spoke, and then George quietly remarked, " I've got them ! " We made them out, two great yellow forms moving amid the rocks on the far side of the basin. They were our first takin, and never shall I forget that moment. Their colour, I fancy, is what struck us all more than anything in their appearance. It was the reincarnation of the Golden Fleece. I have already described their appearance at some length, so that it is unnecessary to dilate upon it here. We watched them moving in a rather clumsy, lumbering way about the hill-side, and then set about getting closer. The wind was from the east, and a detour round the top of the basin our only means of approach. The actual distance was not long, but it look us an hour to reach the spot from which the descent had to be made. Here a higher and even rockier top than those which we had already traversed confronted us. From its side sprang an enormous jagged spur, which stretched into the depths of a deep gully on our left. Stopping again for a spy, the doctor almost immediately detected a herd of takins. They were lying about in the sun directly above A STALK 79 an almost perpendicular stone shoot, or narrow gully, which seamed one side of the spur and descended in an unbroken drop for over a thousand feet. We made out eight animals altogether — three bulls, three cows, and two calves. Two of the bulls were sparring, while the calves played about among the rocks. They were in a much better position for a stalk than those which we had previously seen. We accordingly decided to go after them. An hour and a half later we reached the summit of the mountain, attaining an altitude, I suppose, of between 11,000 and 12,000 ft. The ascent was very similar to the country over which we had already come. In the saddles, open grassy patches. Leaning on the^ stunted larches which bordered the edge of these little glades rested long roof poles and cofFm boards, for the country swarmed with Avoodcutters. No tree was of any size, for in a country where fuel is precious every large tree, with a happy disregard For the future, is chopped down and cast into the tire. Others are sliced into coffin boards and carried down the hill-side on men's backs, and so by mide to Sian-fu. Replanting is unlieard of, and to exemplif}^ the deforestation of the hill-sides the first remark a Chinaman will make on seeing any well- timbered country which is new to him is, *' Ah, there are some good roof poles ! " or " What splendid coJhn boards ! " according as he is of an optimistic or a pessimistic turn of mind. Conspicuous on one tree we passed was a notice in large Chinese characters imploring a thief who had stolen some roof poles to make restitution, the vengeance of the god of the mountain having been 80 HUNTING THE TAKIN invoked with much burning of incense, should he fail to do so. Bluebells, gentians, vetches, forget- me-nots, orchises, poppies, edelweiss, and many varieties of little rock plants grew scattered above the rhododendrons and azaleas ; meadow pippits darted about the rocks ; a Siberian mink (the Chinese call them " yellow rat-wolves ") flung himself headlong across our path ; a blood-pheasant called from the valley below, and was answered by the flippant cry of a fir-crow. Ever and anon the unmistakable scent of a fox was borne to our nostrils. Both hunters were very excited ; Lou-loo laugh- ing and gesticulating, urging us forward, rushing about in his rope sandals in a manner highly aggra- vating to any one in heavy shooting boots. We were now in a position to spy the takins. They had moved from their original position and were lying among the rocks scattered over the hill-side. One bull was considerably larger in the body than the other two and seemed an older animal, though these were both full grown ; his horns, too, looked bigger. He was lying some- what apart from the others, overlooking the stone shoot, in an ideal position for a stalk. We continued our advance until we had gained a position with the game some four or five hundred feet below, the ground rocky and extraordinarily steep. Here we put on some spare hemp sandals, which, though very small and uncomfortable, were a necessity, as it would have been impossible to get within shot in our own footgear. Even so, while descending I was within an ace of dislodging a large boulder, but fortunately managed to replace ^x t. -^-:- % ^ 45.^ . / "^I'th ■■■ V My First Takin — as he Fell. YONG WITH MY SECOND TaKIN BuLL. 80] THE END OF THE STALK 81 it in time. We drew for shot, the lot falhng to George. He accordingly decided to go for the big bull. On hearing his shot 1 was to fire at one of the smaller bulls, which were lying fifteen yards to the right of his prospective victim. A steep crag of rock, sloping into lesser pinnacles, rose im- mediately above the bank of dwarf rhododendrons sprinkled with wild flowers on which they lay. George, the doctor, and Lou-loo went to the left ; I and Yong to the right. Though only twenty yards apart, the rocks hid us from their sight. In Shensi — at any rate, when the animals are in the open — ^nearly all shots at pan-yang or " precipice oxen," as the natives call them, are taken at close quarters. I was, however, rather startled, on look- ing over my peak, to see a bull and two cows lying in blissful unconsciousness of danger within twenty yards of me. The big bull was hidden, the third tucked away beneath an overhanging rock lower down the slope. I cautiously thrust my rifle over the rock, took a fine sight at the bull's neck, and waited. It seemed an age before George's shot rang out ; but at last it did, and before my bull could spring to his feet he was dead. I heard a crash from below ; the two cows dashed past me, and as they did so I had a second shot. A calf suddenly appeared, and with it the doctor's final injunctions about meat ; for the roe, which had held out bravely, was almost exterminated. 'I'he calf disappeared behind a rock, and a second later fell fifty feet below me, though I did not know this until later. As another full-grown animal galloped across oia- front, Yong seized my arm and waved wildly. 82 HUNTING THE TAKIN Thinking it was the cow at which I had fired my second shot, I fired again, and apparently missed, for the beast carried on. I tried again, as he bhmdered over some rocks stern on, and had tlie satisfaction of seeing him fall. George appearing below, I joined him. He had killed his bull with a shot in the brain. It had pitched straight over the ledge on which it lay and lodged in the centre of the stone shoot two or three hundred feet below. Unfortunately, the tip of one horn was broken. Whilst he told me this, a cow — I do not to this day know where she came from — suddenly shot into the air within a few yards of us as though propelled through a stage trap-door. I gasped, the doctor yelled, and George in his rope sandals dashed round the corner in pursuit. Very shortly 1 heard two shots ; my companion came clambering back, and we com- pared notes. He had the big bull, a cow which he had just shot, and a youngster at which 1 had made some very bad shooting earlier. The cow had pitched a good fifteen hundred feet over rocks, trees, and shoots, being subsequently discovered by the indefatigable doctor smashed to a pulp. I had the bull killed by my first shot, a calf, and the animal which, as 1 thought, had been wounded by my second shot, and afterwards, on reviving, killed. Yong, however, who had been indulging in some mysterious manoeuvres on his own account, came up and said he had found this animal, a cow, lying beside the big bull in the shoot. The other beast wliich 1 had killed turned out to be the second bull, with a slightly better head than the first. Though the bull George had killed carried a RESULT OF THE STALK 83 better head than either of mine, and was a much larger animal in every way, as may be seen from a comparison of their measurements, I had had all the luck : for none of my three heads were damaged at all, whilst one of his bull's horns was broken and the cow's absolutely ruined. Thus ended a somcAvhat exciting five minutes, in which we secured specimens of a very rare animal. We had in all three bulls, two cows, and two calves. No particle of the meat was wasted, for the natives, woodcutters, and such-like, hear- ing of our success, collected and carried it off in basket-loads. Takin meat, though good, is de- cidedly tough, and we retained that of the calves for our own use. Almost immediately after we had ascertained the death-roll, heavy folds of mist which had been gradually collecting enveloped us completely, and we spent the rest of the day in their damp embrace, reaching the cave about six. The following morning I returned to the dead animals to make some sketches, while George went after a big bull which we spied on the far side of the basin. The animal was very restless, and they "jumped" him in dense rhododendrons, w^lien he went off like a streak of greased lightning, stopped once, and then started on again. George had another day after them in dense bamboo cover. He found a herd which, though aware of his presence, did not seem much alarmed. They pottered on in front, stopping to graze after a bit and then going on again. He killed a cow and wounded a bull ; which, vmfortunately, he was unable to follow up owing to an attack of cramp. It was impossible to force a way through the 84 HUNTING THE TAKIN bamboos, as small firs, birches, etc., grew thickly in between. It was very hard luck not killing a male, as he was out for fourteen hours and had a terribly hard day. Old Yong enjoyed it, for he found some roots which were supposed to be good for his tummy, his liver, or some other portion of his anatomy. He was always digging about, and was as keen as a pig after truffles. In the middle of a stalk he would suddenly dive into a hole, or some patch of undergrowth, grub for an indefinite period, and emerge, no dirtier than before, for that was impossible, but heated and triumphant, with some beastly little root, which he secreted in his rags. He and the other hunters quite believed tliat animals were able to understand human speech, but that by the interposition of the monosyllable " leo " this interesting faculty was frustrated. Thus, when two hunters were together, one would call across a gully to the other, " Game coming up to you, leo-leo-leo ! " or, " Go to the right, leo, leo, leo ! " — a pleasing and unsophisticated belief. He was much taken with our rifles, and de- scribed their powers to each wandering wood- cutter. " Before you could put a cup to your lips," he said, " they have killed a pan-yang ; before you can drink, another ; and before you swallow, a third." " The most patient people grow we;uy at last of being continually wetted with rain," to quote the " Arethusa," and after eleven wet days and nights, during which we saw the sun for about eight hours, we had had enough of it, and so, as we had got our beasts, returned to Ling-tai-miao. CHINA IN CONVULSION 85 I have endeavoured in these two chapters to give the reader some idea of the takin himself and of the country which he inhabits. He is not a grace- ful animal, but intensely interesting, while there is still much to learn about his habits and his dis- tribution. The country is unspoilt, and there are plenty of takin for future hunters. Their pursuit, apart from cold, would, I think, be much easier in the winter than in the summer, though it is no use travelling to Shensi at any season of the year unless prepared for a long tedious journey and some really hard climbing. China is in convulsion. Now that she has cast her old slough of JNIanchu, sloth and avarice, it is impossible to tell Avhat her future may be. None were more surprised than those who knew China well at the suppression of the opium habit, Men who had lived in the country all their lives said that it was impossible, unheard of, and bound to end in failure. Yet China did it, and in doing it did that which would have staggered any country in the world. It may be that in our own lifetime we shall see even greater marvels. The journey, which occupied long, dusty days of slow travelling, may in the not too distant future occupy but a few hours. The Chinese Government may welcome the travelling sportsman, and takin heads become as common as those of waterbuck and mule-deer. In conclusion, let me say one word. I have re- marked that the country is unspoilt. This is true in two senses. It is unspoilt as a game country save for the depredations of the native hunters, and they have only seriously harmed one animal, the wapiti ; it is unspoilt for the sportsman of moderate 86 HUNTING THE TAKIN means. T make an earnest appeal to all travellers, and especially to our cousins " across the pond," not to ruin China as many otlier countries have been ruined from a sporting point of view. A sum of money represents to the native of the interior at least ten times its value in our eyes. Everything is cheap, where eggs and peaches are sixteen a penny ! It is the gi'eatest possible mistake to pay European prices or to tip on a Western scale, only exhibiting the one who does so as a person to be marked down for loot, and spoiling the market for the next comer. CHAPTER XI FENSIANG-FU — AN INI-AND TOWN It was on August 17th that we left the village after pouring wet days. It was on the same even- ing that we ignominiously returned, for the river was unfordahle. The morning following it had sufficiently subsided for us to cross, and after a long day's travel we reached a crowded inn, where a large mob awaited our arrival. The country was very fertile, and we rode through fields of giant millet, twelve or thirteen feet high, maize, buck- wheat, tobacco, and other crops. George's pony was a troublesome little brute, affected with nerves, and not above letting him down in the middle of a river. I rode a Cromwellian animal which nothing seemed to daunt, while the doctor's mule, though a very useful animal, was afflicted at times with fits of obstinacy which refused to yield to the hymn-like exhortations of its rider. The next day we crossed the Wei River, riding across a narrow channel and negotiating the main stream in a big flat-bottomed boat. It was steered by means of a large rudder and six men with enormous sweeps in the stern. Early in the after- noon we arrived at 1^'ensiang-fu, where we were 87 88 FENSIANG-FU— AN INLAND TOAVN most hospitably entertained at the mission station by JMr. and Mrs. C. H. Steevens. Their beautiful garden, full of roses and lovely flowers, had just been completely wrecked by a bad hailstorm whicli devastated the south-west corner of the city and left the remainder untouched. Several cave dwell- ings outside the walls had been inundated and ten or eleven people drowned. It was most refreshing after the discomforts we had recently suffered to sit down to a table charmingly laid and decorated with flowers and dishes of ripe fruit. The city walls are built in a manner which is supposed to represent a phoenix, as the name of the city im- plies. The irregularly laid northern wall outlines the breast, the north and east gates being almost in a line when viewed from the north-w^est corner. The greater portion of this end of the city is de- voted to agriculture, nearly all the crops of maize and millet at the time of our stay being laid low by the storm. There are a number of wolves in the country round, which do not hesitate to come within the walls, where they are sometimes killed. They fre- quently attack people. One strong youth refused to be dissuaded from making a journey in the winter and set out, laughing at his friends' warn- ings. All they found was his skull ! Their favourite method of attack in the summer months is to creep up behind a man as he works in the fields and jump on his bent back. They often steal babies from before the doors where they are playing. They are common nearly everywhere in tlie in- terior, and the winter is the best season to hunt them. In January, when at Ling-tai~miao, Dr, WOLF RAVAGES 89 Smith told me it was possible to come across them any morning among the rocks of the river bed. At a place called San-yen, one day's march from Sian-fu, wolves had been doing a good deal of damage in 1902. The villagers found three cubs one day and, fearing to destroy them for super- stitious reasons, put out their eyes and left them. The mother, on finding them in this condition, went mad with rage and killed a number of children before she was destroyed. In times of famine they are particularly bold, and I have heard of twenty children being taken in a month from one village. One old hunter, who had been crippled by a wolf in his youth, made a practice of sitting up at night in a tree. He had made a peculiar whistle which never failed to attract the animals which he hated with such vehemence, and he would sometimes kill as many as three in a night. We went for a walk one evening on the city wall and saw two dogs eating something in a beaten- down maize field. This turned out to be a poor little baby which they had disinterred. Babies, at least females, are not often buried in China, but wrapped up in a bundle and left in the streets. Even in so large a town as Tay-in-fu the doctor found one. They are usually devoured by the morning. Mr. and INlrs. Steevens were both very popular with the Chinese. Old ladies collected from all sides on Sunday mornings to get JNIrs. Steevens's advice, and brought the most intricate domestic troubles for her to solve. One such difficulty, she told the applicant, was beyond her, and remarked, " No, no, wc can't interfere in this way ; it would be against all reason," 90 FENSIANG-FU— AN INLAND TOWN " Reason ! reason ! " screamed her visitor, " never mind about reason ! Just listen to what I say ! " which goes to prove that feminine nature is much the same all the world over. Mr. Steevens taught in the Prefectural Normal College for over a year, and was much interested in educational work. The old ladies in the yamen were on ^ ery friendly terms with his wife, who often visited them. They had abandoned gaily-coloured garments and dressed in more sober colours. They had also agreed to unbind their feet, and though of course the deformed members could never regain their natural growth, their owners, who had formerly never stirred without the aid of a maid, skipped gaily about without any extraneous assistance, in shoes of foreign model. One of the high officials, the prefect of the city, who held office a few years before our visit, had been a most enlightened man, and joined strongly in the anti-foot-binding crusade. He was in the habit of going round to fairs and inveighing against the ills of the practice. On one occasion he was getting very worked up, shedding coats in all directions, and exhorting his hearers to make their womenfolk abandon the habit. " All the ailments from which your wives suffer come from this curse," he exclaimed, " and they do suffer, do they not, from many ailments ? " He repeated this two or three times to give it emphasis, and inadvertently caught the eye of a countryman who thought he was being addressed. On its third repetition he roared out, " No, she doesn't ! My old woman's as sound as a bell ! " which rather disconcerted the speaker. DEFORMED FEET 91 In spite of Imperial edicts advising its abolition, foot-binding is still prevalent all over China. The native women in the west, that part of the country where the great Mohammedan rebellion arose, must be excepted, for so many women perished there owing to their inability to flee, that their descendants liave allowed their feet to grow in a natural manner. They conform in some degree to popular taste by wearing shoes very abruptly turned up at the toes, which, though hinder- ing their freedom of action, does not distort the foot in the unnatural manner prevalent fartlier east. Long accustomed to it, the Chinaman regards an artificially deformed foot as a thing of great beauty. No well-to-do Chinaman of the old school would think of marrying a girl with natural feet, and as marriage is the great aim and object of a Chinese woman's existence, popular feeling will have to undergo a very radical transformation before the practice can be stamped out. That it will be stamped out eventually is no longer a matter for speculation ; but it will take time. Those who picture the life of a missionary in China as one of leisured ease ought to have seen Mr. and Mrs. Steevens, for during the whole of our visit I do not think I ever saw them un- occupied. Patients were continually dropping in in the morning to be cured of various ailments. The constant reference to east and west in the conversation of a Scot is apt to strike the casual Sassenach. The Chinese carry their geographical terminology to an even greater extent, for a patient, when asked to locate the exact position 92 FENSIANG-FU— AN INLAND TOWN of the pain which troubled him, replied, " In the east end of my stomach ! " We left this hospitable mission station with feelings of genuine regret, a regret which was doubly intensified when we learned that on the outbreak of the revolution the mob had risen, set fire to it, and burned it to the ground with all its contents. Our kind host and hostess, with their daughter, barely escaped with their lives, and after great suffering and many privations, eventually reached Shanghai, with the loss of all their worldly possessions. Mr. Steevens was kind enough to write, giving me some particulars of the revolution at Feng- siang, which are sufficiently interesting to bear repeating. The restrictions on opium growing had caused widespread dissatisfaction — a feeling which was augmented when the report was circu- lated that the Mandarin himself, while supposedly carrying out the restrictions, was secretly buying as much of the drug as he could and reselling it at a big profit. The news of tlie outbreak at Sian-fu was the match which fired the mine. The officials were helpless ; the local city Mandarin was loathed for liis avarice and injustice ; the county Mandarin was a Manchu, and no soldiers were available for defending the city. The secret society of '' The Elder Brothers " — the Ko-lao-hui — had great influence in the district, and their aims — anti-Manchu, and at the same time anti- progressive — complicated the issues at stake. Their idea is to rid China of everything Manchu, foreign and progressive. OPIUM RIOTS 93 The rioters began operations about October 27th by destroying the Custom Houses and burning and looting other places in the suburbs as well. The city gates were shut. The defenders, expect- ing trouble from the east, concentrated their attention on that quarter. Consequently, on the following day, the rioters gained entrance at a weak point at the north-west corner of the wall. They then made their way to the west gate, killed the guards, and opened the gates to the mob outside. The city Mandarin was caught, and though his wife handed them the seals of office to spare his life, they cut off his head and carried it round on a pole. Their residences were set fire to ; tlie Government schools were wrecked, some of the professors (Chinese from other provinces) narrowly escaping with their lives. The mission liouse, as I have already said, was burned, and tlie missionaries themselves hunted. For about a fortnight the Prefect of the city eluded the search which was made, but was then discovered, his head split open with an axe, and his t\\'o httle boys murdered. Some time afterwards the true revolutionaries arrived and took possession of the city, executing the leaders of the rioters and gradually bringing the condition of affairs into something like order. CHAPTER XII TOWARDS THE BORDER I CANNOT subscribe to Mr. Chesterton's epigram that " It is not only nonsense but bhisphemy to say that man has spoilt the country," for in a wild hill country cultivation is hateful. It is, I know, a necessary evil, but I could wish that it were carried on without marring the beauty of mountains. In tlie low country it is another matter, and waving fields of corn spread about a plain produce a soothing and very pleasing effect upon the mind, turning it insensibly to thoughts of a home and the swelling of church bells. Par- ticularly is this the case if the observer reflects upon such a scene whilst on a journey. The fields move past him in one soft, easily-moving panorama. The monotonous tedium of everyday life is abolished, and over the dullest prospect is thrown an air of romance which, were the traveller to investigate at first-hand, would melt at his too corporeal touch as the fanciful realities of a dream melt at the coming of the day. For romance is ever intangible. W^e snatch at it with eager fingers as it flies before us, an elusive will-o'-the- wisp. But the homesteads we see, bowered in trees, within sound of ruiming waters, fixed and 94 CULTIVATION IN HILL COUNTRY 95 steadfast amid yellow fields, harbour those whose sheltered, sunny lives seem far removed from the petty, mundane worries which ever crowd upon the harassed voyager. So it comes about that as the sliding landscape moves before his eyes, it seems the most natural and enjoyable thing in the world, an occupation of which he would never tire, that he should make hay in the warm sunshine, or walk in flowered and leafy lanes, with no thought for the morrow. Romance is but a playing with possibilities, w4iich, as realities, lose much of their charm. All of which dissertation has arisen from a contemplation of cultivation in the low countries. Among the hills it is another matter. Artificiality seems out of place and the futility of man's ordered efforts when opposed to nature is palpable and obvious. Relentless forces are at work ; their operation liecomes apparent. Man ceases to labour for a space, and, like the resistless sea, Nature effaces his puny scrapings and scratchings with effortless ease. Soon all that is left to remind one that a fellow atom once toiled and struggled are a few green mounds, a few half-obliterated scars. As on many a Highland moor, purple heather covers the stones and knolls about which men toiled and laboured, so about the sloping summits of the bare hills of Kansu, you see here and there straight terraced lines. They are all that remain of old efforts at cultivation. Dominated by them are little conical heaps in the valley which endure for a short generation or so, and then give place to the resting-places of the sons and grandsons of those who lie beneath. Hills terraced and 8 9B I'OWARDS THE BORDER cultivated from top to bottom are a commoner sight. Humanity swarms omnipresent, paying but little heed to its inevitable end. To really enjoy China one must possess "a suffocating passion of philanthropy," and although the proper study of mankind is man, the philanthropist there gets such a surfeit of his passion that he has to travel far to study anything else. For the whole distance between Feng-siang and Choni, a small town on the Thibetan border from which we intended to make our next hunting trip, is densely populated, though nothing compared to some of the Southern provinces. At first the country was not very interesting. We passed for hours through the same monotonous fields of maize and millet, the latter here used almost entirely to make wine. Up the valley of the Wei River, shut in on each side by ridged and terraced hills, the natives chattered like daws from their hollowed cave dwellings above the road. Later, fields of buckwheat, splashes of rose du barri, relieved the monotony of their drab sur- roundings. The Wei River is the greatest affluent of the Hwang-ho, and the Wei basin the greatest agri- cultural country of the west. "Northern Shensi comprised in former time all the territory situated between the north and south reach of the Hwang- ho to the east, the Great \A^ill to the north, and a line of high mountain ranges to the south-west." When the province of Kansu was created, Shensi was considerably diminished in size, though the two provinces are under one viceroy, who resides at Lanchow-fu. " All historical, political, strate- REBETXION DESTRl^CTION 97 gical, commercial and social interests of Nortliern Shensi, centre in a large loess basin, through which lies the lower course of the Wei River." During the Mohammedan rebellion, which left such terrible traces in Shensi, the destruction was greatest here, for here the hills were more remote and the wretched inhabitants had no refuge to which they could tiy. The loss of life was estimated by millions. Although many years ago now, one often hears of it ; and travelling through a country of the antiquity of China, it seemed to me that only a few short years had elapsed. In one place were some really magnificent weeping willows, which must have measured over twenty feet in circumference. For the first few days after leaving Feng-siang, our route was entirely through loi'ss country. We crossed one narrow gully by means of a frail bridge constructed of mud and sticks. No Chinaman would ever dream of repairing such a structure save for his own personal convenience. It seemed pretty shaky as we went over it, and almost immediately after- wards collapsed l^eneath tlie weight of a mule litter. Litter, occupant, and mules were shot down in a smother of dust, and after a little difficulty extricated. Fortunately they were not hurt. The western border of Shensi is a great fruit- growing district. Peach orchards gave variety to the landscape, and we constantly met men with baskets of the fruit balanced on bamboo poles. We also ate some most delicious melons, which possessed as delicate a flavour as any hot-house specimens. 98 TOWARDS THE BORDER The third day after leaving Feng-siang we crossed into Kansu and found ourselves on the fringe of a Mohammedan population. Strings of mules coming down with hides from the west passed us. From Feng-siang they are conveyed by cart to Sian-fu, thence by mule to the Han Uiver and so to Hankow. The male mules utter a horrid neigh if they see a horse, and try to go for him, getting up close so that he is unable to kick, when they bite and savage him. The Mohammedan Chinese strike the observer as a much more ^ igorous lot than their countrymen who have not adopted the religion of the Prophet. They are more assertive and, in crowds, rather inclined to be boisterous. In many parts of China they are not allowed to settle save under very severe restrictions, but Kansu is their strong- hold. They are non-smokers, and wear little white biretta-like caps, or soft round black ones without the distinctive red button of their compatriots. Their towns are wider and cleaner than tliose farther east. Round their graveyards they are in the habit of planting hrs. The ignorance of some of the country people is astonishing. We were asked casually one day to which nation Kansu belonged. The doctor replied that it was part of the Chinese Empire. " Oh," said his interrogator, " I thought it had been given to England or America." It would have made, apparently, not the slightest difference if he had been told that the Sultan of Zanzibar was going to take possession, though probably no such person had ever been heard of. My tattooing AT FUKIANG-FU 99 came in for a lot of attention. One old gentleman at whose inn we stopped for breakfast, declared he had lived for eighty years and never seen anything like it. George told him that I was tattooed all over — a gross libel — when the poor old boy nearly collapsed from over - excitement. Fearing his curiosity might get tlie better of him on recovering, I left hurriedly. On the hills above every town of any size stood walled refuges or forts, built of mud, to which the inhabitants fled wlien danger threatened. During the great rebellion the rebels lit fires of capsicum, and under cover of the smoke undermined the walls. When the wretched fugitives went to ground in their caves, they smoked them out like rabbits and knocked them on the head. On August 30 we reached Fukiang-fu, where we stayed with Mr. and Mrs. Mann, who were in charge of the mission station. By the city gates hung some little wooden cages containing the shoes of popular officials who had left the district. This is a mark of great popularity. An oily and diseased-looking scoundrel in leg- irons appeared on the evening of our arrival with " rascal " written all over him. He told us a long and complicated story, explaining that he had been mixed up, very much against his will while trying to do a friend a good turn, in some illegal marriage contract or divorce. According to his own account, he had been made the scapegoat, and while all the other parties in the transaction had come off with flying colours, he had dropped in for ten years' banishment— a fate which, judging from his ap- pearance, he richly deserved. 100 TOWARDS THE BORDER He rather fancied himself as a traveller, and said " Good evening " in Enghsh. Asked who he was, he gave the luminous answer, " 1 am Paul at Phihppi — unjustly in chains ! " By a most unfair dispensation, he and fifty-four other blackguards were allowed, on market days, to take a cupful of grain for every measure which was sold. They were not above helping them- selves to two or three extra dips. Consequently, when, for instance, there was a drought, these ruffians often thrived while honest men suffered. As may be imagined, they were not popular in the town ! After a prolonged drought the Chinese have a custom of blocking up the south gate of the city. We passed one town where this had been done, but for some other reason. They also wreathe their heads with leaves and go to their god praying for rain. Sometimes they take him summarily from where he gesticulates in petrified abandon- ment amid the shadows, and place him in the full glare of the sun, as who should say, " There ! See what it feels like ! " Outside Fukiang, in a recess cut out of the hill- side, stands a large mud figure of the Buddha. It is not easy to make out from the road, as scaffolding hides it. Tliere is not much variety of bird life, but we saw two large red -billed cranes, ravens, choughs, pheasants, and thousands of pigeons, while a super- stitious person would have found himself in a whirl from calculating the effect of the number of mag- pies he had seen, and whether his luck were up HAWKING: FUNERALS: ROBBERY 101 or down. We encountered several men carrying hawks on rests. They hunted pigeons, pheasants and small birds. A little bird called the rock thrush, of which we afterwards saw great num- bers, is attractive. They have white heads, dark bodies, and red tails, which they are for ever flirting up and down. We met funeral parties on different occasions. The real procession kept on its appointed course, whilst a false trail of paper money and little white flags lured unsophisticated devils away from the deceased ! A white cock was tied on the top of the bier, for the spirit of the dead man is supposed to find a resting place in the bird. Soon after we had passed through one of the small country towns which dotted the country, two prosperous merchants jogging sedately through the west suburb were set upon by highwaymen armed with sticks, heavy iron chains, etc. Not content with robbing them, their assailants gave each a sound beating ; then, mounting their horses, rode off and escaped scot-free. Leaving the plateau (about 4,500 feet) on which we had been travelling, we rose to 7,000 feet or more a few days before reaching our destination and found ourselves in the district of flat roofs, prayer flags and other signs of Thibetan influence. The remains of fine natural flr woods, in the shape of sacred groves, showed what splendid forests must once have covered these hills. Though, as I have said, the scenery improves towards the western border, I have never seen anything in the shape of a hill which appealed to me less than the terraced ex- crescences through which one travels in this part of 102 TOWARDS THE BORDER the country. They are simply thousands of acres of dried mud. Baron Richthofen, from whom I have ah-eady quoted, considered the extermination of the forests a primary cause in the decadence of the Northern provinces of China as compared to the Southern. It naturally affects the climate in general, besides being the cause of an immense amount of destruc- tion which would not take place if the hills were wooded. The results of any interference with the laws of Nature are more difiicult to trace and less easy to observe among the civilised nations of Europe. After many weeks of travel through a country like China they are very forcibly impressed upon the traveller ; the essentials of life are brought home to him. If the hills had not been denuded of trees, the rains, instead of merely washing the soil from the rocks and pouring, unresisted, down the hill-sides, would be stored up in the ground and penetrate into the dusty earth. Extensive regions w^ould not be rendered unfit for agriculture, and would support a greater population under better conditions. Fuel is now getting scarce. Dried shrubs and roots dug carefully from the ground are precious things, and dung a treasure to be hoarded. This too in districts where coal is plentiful but unknown. " It is painful to see how much animal power is wasted, on account of the imperfect construction of the roads." Only those who live close to a coal- mine can afford to use it as fuel, for the cost of transport entirely cuts off the remainder of the population from one of the chief necessities of life. The few feeble attempts which we saw towards MONGREL DOGS 103 replanting are hardly worthy of note, and every- where in wooded districts trees are being cut down with the same happy disregard for the future as was shown in the past. Not only are they being cut down, but a tremendous amount of waste goes on. As, however, we came across practical results of this devastation while liunting, I will leave the subject for the present. The day before reaching Choni we crossed the Tao River, a swiftly flowing stream of comparatively clear water just outside the town of Chung-tsai-chi. Another sign that we were drawing near the border lay in the yak carts. 'I'he animals which drew them were gaily decorated with red tassels. Large bells, usually three in number, hung beneath the axle, their deep booming note echoing sweetly along the road. The canine population, too, was growing in size and becoming more mastifF-like. Some animals had the appearance of enlarged Guisachan retrievers with rougli yellow coats. Ne^'er, in my wildest nightmare, did I ever imagine such a mixture of types as was presented by the dogs we saw. They reached their climax after we had left Lanchow, though our pre\'ious wanderings had done something to prepare us for the monstrosities with which we were then confronted. A white beast would sedately waddle from a doorway like an animated clockwork toy. Following it came a creature which, at a hundred yards through the wrong end of a telescope, bore a faint resemblance to a long- haired dachshund. An Irish terrier with the liead of a black-and-tan suddenly developed as it changed its position into a cross-bred setter with the posterior of a bob-tailed sheep dog. They presented 104 TOWARDS THE BORDER a series of types which always varied and never failed to surprise. Never did we see two aUke, and never one of a recognisable breed. Still they visit me in my dreams and, with a faint echo of surprise, I see protean shapes shoot dustily from darkened doorways in the glare of sunlit village streets. CHAPTER XIII A MODERN REHOBOAM AND HIS CAPITAL You come to Choni — the town of the Two Pines — by way of Taochow, the New City, a mushroom gi'owth of some six hundred years, not the Old ; that hes farther to the west. The wall of New Taochow (it is pronounced Tow-jo) straggles up a hill-side and round a sharply rising knoll which makes a fine natural watch tower. Two-thirds of the area enclosed is devoted to cultivation, while the town itself, flat-roofed, and in some cases two- storied, meanders about the lower slopes. It is almost entirely inhabited by Thibetan Moham- medans, and is in reality the border town between Thibet and China, though Thibet proper lies a day's march to the west. A few // from the city a low pass gives a magnificent view of the Min- shan Mountains. They look down on a mass of gradually lowering hills, torn and intersected by green, rushing mountain streams from which radiate an interminable series of birch and fir- clad gullies. From the summit of the pass one drops between narrow grass-covered corries to the Tao and to the little town — if such it can be called — of Choni (pronounced Jornee). I was reminded of the lines : — 105 106 A MODERN REHOBOAM AND HIS CAPITAL " From hills that looked across a land of hope, We dropped with evening on a rustic town Set in a gleaming river's crescent curve ; " for they describe the place exactly. Incidentally one passes from lackadaisical, inert China into a stimulating atmosphere of border feuds, mediaeval raids, pine-covered, snow-capped mountains and a wild race of Highlanders. It is a quaint little place, nestling like a pigeon's nest in a cluster of red cliffs. Frowning abo\'e the town is a lamaserai holding six hundred monks, as dirty and e\'il-looking a lot as most of their tribe. The capital of the Prince of Choni, it is the only town within his dominions. These cover an area about half as large as Scotland. A half-caste Thibetan aged twenty-three, he furnishes a very pretty parallel to Rehoboam. His pre- decessor, the eighteenth of his line and a popular and wise old ruler, adopted him. On his death the present Chief turned away the old men who had hitherto helped to govern the forty-eight wild tribes over which he ruled, and substituted the young men with whom he was in the habit of gambling and generally making merry. He was, at one time, much addicted to the opium habit, but at the time of our visit had abandoned tlie practice. Yang- ching-Ch'ina, for that is his name, is dependent on China, and under the authority of the county official, a man of slight importance, who, again, is under the Provincial Go^■ernor, w^ho is responsible to the Viceroy of Shensi and Kansu. He pays no tribute, but has to supply two thousand irregular — very irregular — cavalry if called upon. If he desired he could easily raise 1.5,000. On our arrival he and two hundred of his men were away fighting the THE PRINCE OF CHONI 107 T'e-pu, a wild aboriginal tribe who inhabit the country to the south of the Minshan Mountains. The only casualties were a large number of sheep and pigs. One man had a hole blown in his leg by an enthusiastic friend who was explaining the mechanism of a foreign rifle ; and the Prince lay on his back, and looked at the sky, and wished he had never gone. We called on his return and received a warm welcome. Asked his opinion of the state of affairs in China, he assumed a wise look, saying, " The foundation of the throne is in the heart of the people. The people's heart is not true now. The JNIanchus must go," which I thought was original, but found out afterwards was cribbed from Con- fucius. A temple was in course of construction near Choni to which he was asked to contribute, but refused. The holy man who had begged for the subscription instantly had a fit and declared that great disasters would follow unless a handsome donation was forthcoming. The Prince, who is very superstitious, promised a sheep, but when the time for delivery came substituted a goat as being cheaper. The holy man on hearing this was again possessed and subsequently got the promised sheep from the reluctant ruler. The T'e-pu are a wild lot, as I have said. They are divided into fourteen clans and are much dreaded by the Chinese, who only venture through their country once a year. They then organise a big caravan of merchants with guards and hurry through the dangerous hill country as quickly as possible. The T'e-pu are very hostile to strangers, and it would probably be as nmch as one's posses- 108 A MODERN REHOBOAM AND HIS CAPITAL sions were worth to venture into their territory- alone. A clan protects its own friends and the friends of its chief, but not those of another clan, who are looked on as legitimate prey. Any stranger whom they happen to hold in great rever- ence and affection they have a custom of adopting as their father. As illustrating their character the following story is interesting : The grandchildren of a certain convert to Christianity had been kidnapped by them. The man was in despair, for no one had the courage to make any attempt to rescue them. In his trouble he went to the then Prime Minister, who was sub- sequently turned out of his office by Yang. Hav- ing been adopted by about forty T'e-pus as fatlier, he told the unhappy man that he would try to get back the kidnapped children. He accordingly started off alone on his dangerous errand, and after a few days returned unharmed with the children. The T'e-pus are not agriculturists and live chiefly by barter, coming into Choni occasionally for provisions. We saw a number of them later on, including a lama, who performed a monotonous and somewhat senseless dance for our edifica- tion. At times they dash down in a sudden raid as the Chonians are watering their horses and live stock at the river. These they whirl away into the hills before their owners have time to recover from their astonishment. One of their priests was imprisoned in the yamen. Six of them set out to rescue him and had the courage and impudence to walk into the l*rince's yard and cook their fbod there ! At Choni we stayed with Mr. and Mrs. '\^^illiam GOOD MISSIONARIES 109 Christie. From all the missionaries whom we met in China we received kindness and hospitality. I can pay no greater tribute to that of INIr. and Mrs. Christie than to say, that even had their old friend Dr. Smith been absent, their welcome to us would have been the same. Almost entirely cut off from the outside world, utterly out of reach of the comforts and luxuries of civilisation, they have given up their lives to the wild hillmen of the Thibetan border. It must be some consolation and satisfaction to them to know that they are universally loved and respected by all the natives for miles. It is very largely, if not entirely o wing- to their tact and to the friendly relations which they have established with the Prince and his people that we were enabled to hunt for weeks in the mountains round Choni without a harsh word or a disagreement of any kind with the natives. Mr. Christie is a model to all missionaries. His knowledge of Thibet and the border people is thorough, wide and most entertaining. It is a thousand pities that lie does not make public some of the information which he has collected during a long residence among people whose folk-lore and character are but little known in Europe and are of the greatest interest. He took us over the lamaserai and proved a most well-informed guide. -All Thibetan monas- teries are built on tiie same plan. A prominent feature of the main court is the large brass " wheel of life " of which Gautama spoke. He, of course, used the expression in a figurative sense, but the Thibetan mind is not capable of grasping an ab- stract idea, hence the brass wheel. At Chonij 110 A MODERN REHOBOAM AND HIS CAPITAL two deer act as supporters ; scattered about are prayer wheels galore. It is a common sight out- side the villages to see a large prayer wheel con- tinually turned by the action of the mountain stream near which the village is built. In the lamaserai at Choni is an immense prayer wheel about ninety years old. It is twenty-five feet high and consists of three stories. These con- tain the Buddist Bible, commentaries and classics. After one revolution a bell rings automatically. The Bible is a colossal work. It is printed at only three places, Peking, Lhasa and Choni, and, vWth the commentary, which is about twice as bulky, costs six hundred taels (about £75). The two together run to a hundred and eight large volumes and furnish loads for a dozen mules. The Choni edition is considered the best. When a field is un- productive the owner goes to the lamaserai and implores the abbot's aid. For a suitable fee the vast work is taken on tlie backs of men or animals in solemn procession round the sterile ground. This is supposed to restore its productivity. There are three sets of Buddhists : the Black — the original sect — the Red and tlie Yellow. Those at Choni follow the latter religion if such it can be called. In every family one son at least enters a monastery, for no race is more priest-ridden. Once a priest, he can only be bought out for a sum of fifty taels. The boy starts as a novice and after rising to catechumen and ordained priest becomes a lama. In every large monastery are one or more " living Buddhas," reincarnations of Buddha. The lamas are dressed entirely in red ; red togas and red shoes with red soles. Many carried mystic RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS 111 keys to lock out evil influences. The Abbot must be of the House of Choni. The office has been vacant for thirty years. Phallic worship is intermingled with their religion, which is anything but pure. Many of the paintings and images which adorn the walls of the temples are most indecent. In the tenth moon a great festival and dance are held at Choni. One tableau represents the discomfiture of the Great Enemy, a former king of Thibet who nearly exterminated Buddhism. He wished to uphold the ancient Ban religion of fire and Devil-worship (some of theT'e- pu, by the way, are Bans to this day t-f being their symbol), but was killed in battle, the whole country having risen against him. This was looked on as a just punishment for his sins, inflicted by the Buddha, and the incident is exemplified in the dance. The Yellow sect worship a reformer who arose some five hundred years ago. Before the advent of this reformer tlie Goddess of IVlercy had been worshipped for two hundred years. He told his followers she was to be reincarnated. They accepted this, and having established the belief, he put forward liis nephew as the reincarnated God- dess. This boy was the first Dalai Lama. In Thibetan he is known as " The Great All-Seeing Precious One.' Some Chinese scholars have identi- fied the Goddess of JMercy witli the Virgin Mary, whence arises an interesting field for religious controversy. Among the many images which crowd the lamaserai I noticed none of Gautama, and Mr. Christie told us there was not one. In ven- turing on these remarks with regard to Buddhism I feel I am on dangerous ground, never having 9 112 A MODERN REHOBOAM AND HIS CAPITAL properly studied the subject, and relying solely on what 1 heard. At the time of our visit the lamas were very uneasy, and more hostile than usual to the Christian religion. The following legend in their books of prophecy accounted for it : When Gautama, the historic Buddha, was on earth, another Buddha arose whose name was Ever- lasting Ijove. They met, and a dispute arose as to which was the real Buddha, each maintaining his claim, and stigmatising his opponent as an impostor. At length they decided on the following test. Each was to procure a pot, and fill it with earth. They were then to retire to rest. A flower growing in the mould was to be a sign that the owner of the pot was the genuine Buddha. He was to remain on earth and diffuse his religion, whilst his adver- sary was to depart and leave him in peace. Gautama, so the story goes, being rather appre- hensive as to the result, got up in the night to see how things were going. To his disgust, he found that while his own pot remained in exactly the same condition as that in which he had left it when he retired, from that of his rival a beautiful flower was beginning to sprout. He accordingly quietly transferred the contents of his own pot to that of Everlasting I>ove, and substituted the flower in their place. He then sneaked back to bed, anticipating triumph in the morning. He awoke to And Everlasting Love quietly contemplating the two pots. Gautama pointed triumphantly to his own, exclaiming, " See ! there is the flower. I am the true Buddha ! " His rival regarded him sternly, A CHEATING BUDDHA 113 and then said, " Cheat and liar, your words are false. I know that you substituted yoiu' earth for my flower whilst I slept. Be it so. I will go hence. You shall remain ; but so long as your teaching endures, so long shall cheats and liars endure on this earth. In the future I shall come again and establish the true faith, and when that time comes your supremacy will end." So saying, he disappeared. His second advent, according to the books of prophecy, is due within the next few years. Hence the lamas' hatred and fear of any- thing which will destroy their influence. CHAPTER XIV A TALE OF THE BORDER At the foot of the wild huddle of mountains, clothed on their northern slopes with pines, bare to the south, situated on the borderland between Thibet and China, nestled a small village. It con- sisted of the usual filthy street slightly raised above the level of a brawling mountain stream, a dozen or so flat-roofed houses straggling beside it and falling gradually away to the main road, which ran down the valley. In the largest of these houses dwelt an unimportant Tliibetan chief called Lao. The Chinese Government was supposed to give him a salary for the official position which they had con- ferred on him, but in Lao's eyes this was a small thing. He relied on the power which his office conferred as a means of squeezing anything and everybody with whom he had dealings. His father was dead, but had married, on the death of his first wife, a woman who still lived. Lao cordially detested her, and though they lived in the same house she returned the compliment. Morality in its Western sense has but little meaning to the Thibetans. Indeed, the children of an unmarried girl are given as warm a welcome by their grandparents as though their entrance into 114 FAMILY CUSTOMS 115 this wicked world had been as orthodox as ceremony could make it. 'I'heii* mother carries no stigma, and is looked on as something of a catcli, i'or will not her encumbrances presently grow up and work for her husband, who can thus live in comfortable idleness ? Owing in great measure to the prevailing licence, the border people, whatever is the case with the true Thibetans, are rapidly degenerating, childless families being the rule rather than the exception. Lao's old stepmotlier was an amorous old lady. Even at the age of sixty she was convinced that much of her youthful charm was still in evidence, and though enjoying to the full her position as a widow, had no desire that her wayward fancy should become crystallised into permanency by a second marriage ceremony. At the end of the village street, next door, in fact, to the house of old Kwan-fong, a Chinese scholar, dwelt Wei-sha. He was not an unattractive young man. \Vlien he smiled his beautiful white teeth, which are so common a feature among the Thibetans, lit up the whole of his face. Of late, however, his smile had been less frequent, and he would spend days shut up alone in his house, which reeked with the fumes of opium. At one time, before the opium craze seized him, he had been a great hunter, and spent days in the mountains with Lao in pursuit of sheep, roe, and wapiti. One day when drinking tea with Lao and his old stepmother, for on the border the strict etiquette of China is replaced by free and easy intercourse between the sexes, he had noticed his host's old stepmother furtively watching him. 116 A TALE OF THE BORDER On the next occasion that he visited the chief she met him at the gate. VVei-sha was for passing on, but she stopped him. That night \Vei-sha came stealthily up the village street, and stopped at the house of Lao. A muffled figure opened the door to him, and after shutting it led him up the rickety ladder to a room overlooking the roof. That visit was the first of many, until almost every night the door was cautiously and quietly opened, and he creaked up the ladder. After every visit he added a little to the store of opium which gave him such wonderful dreams in the dirty little room at the end of the village street. Out beyond the outskirts of the village lived a man who had been a friend of Lao's father. He was quite a poor man, honest as men go in Thibet, but weak and without strength of any kind. He had one great grief, his youngest son, a man of twenty-five. Tsi" was weak, too, but viciously so, and without any of his father's good nature. He drank when he got the chance, brawled, consorted with women of loose character, defied his father's authority, and, generally speaking, lost no chance of a short cut to the painted devils who grinned in the temple shadows. He had married a girl who, though certainly not a model wife, had some affection for him. Tsi's father thought there might be a chance of getting him to lead a decent life, and went to him. " Come ! " he said. " Bring your wife to my house, and we will all live together, as we should. Your brothers will welcome you. I will give you food and lodging. Be content." AN ANECDOTE IIT Tsi, however, reviled him openly, refused his offer with curses, and told the old man he was going his own way. Finally he entered the house during his ftither's ahsence, stole his gun, and one or two odds and ends he thought might he useful, and departed with his wife to a solitary hut on the mountain side. Wei-sha never hunted with Lao now, for he was useless and thought of nothing but his opium pipe. Also Lao gave him black looks whenever they met, and consorted openly with Tsi, who had always been W^'ei-sha's enemy, and was jealous of his reputation as a hunter. Now he laughed at him, and said that he could not even stalk the tame yaks which grazed on the hill-side. One day a neighbour came and told Tsi's father that Lao and his son were down in the fields, for the harvest was drawing near. " Ah," thought the old man, " I will go and see if I can find my gun in the hut of that rascally son of mine ! " So off he went. The hut was empty, for Tsi's wife was in the fields also. The old man searched in vain for his gun amongst the litter which cumbered the room. A pile of bedding lay in one corner, and there he looked last. No gun was hidden amongst it, but from one corner of the quilt fell a little twist of paper, Wong, that was the old man's name, picked it up. He turned it in his hand, this way and that, but could make nothing of it, for he was no scholar, and the strange, sprawling characters conveyed no meaning to him. For some time he puzzled over it, and then putting it into his deerskin 118 A TALE OF THE BORDER tobacco pouch, went to the door. No one was in sight, so, replacing the quilt as he had found it, AA^ong went home. All that night he pondered ov^er his find. He was dying to know the meaning of the characters, but could see no way to do so. He did not wish to confide in his sons, for they would see to it that he was no gainer if there was any money to be made. At length he resolved to consult Kwan-fong, the old Chinaman. Accordingly to this worthy he repaired. After some time had been consumed in com- pliments and small talk, for Kwan-fong was a punctilious old gentleman, Wong produced the paper. " 1 have here," he said, '' a paper. Upon it are certain characters to which I am a stranger. You, 0 Kwan-fong, are a scholar of much learning. I pray you to decipher them for me that my mind may be at rest." Thereupon he handed the paper over. Kwan-fong took it, and peered for some time through his great horn spectacles. Not a muscle of his face moved. At length he spoke. " You have done well, friend Wong," said he, " to bring me this paper. Some of the characters are strange to me, but 1 will examine them well, and when 1 have considered their meaning will let you know at what conclusion I arrive." Wong did not much like leaving the paper, but as the Chinaman refused to give any further explanation, he had no alternative. Kwan-fong had his full share of the cupidity which is one of the great characteristics of his KWAN-FONG THE WILY 119 race. Also he was a bit of a scoundrel, though he probably regarded his next step as the only natural one in the sequence of e\'ents wliich led up to it. Having thoroughly mastered the meaning of the paper, he made a careful copy of it, and locked the original away in a private box. Next day he called on Lao's stepmother. The old lady received him, yelled for a small girl to bring tea, and begged him to be seated. Half an hour or more Kwan-fong expended in the ceremonial politeness which he considered an inevitable prelude to the real object of his visit. " Wei-sha is an agreeable young man," he re- marked at length. His hostess blinked over her cup of tea, and gave a guarded assent. " I fear that his habits have changed, and that so much time spent indoors may injure his health," continued her visitor. " I fear, I greatly fear that serious illness threatens him." " ^^^hat serious illness do you fear ? " asked the old woman. " The night air is so bad for him," rambled Kwan-fong. " In all day and out all night ; it must injure the strongest constitution. Of course, you must know that he smokes much of the drug. I fear the taotai would be grie\ cd to hear it ; and then his friend is so good to him, and the drug so expensive. 1 fear he will fall seriously ill. 1 much fear it." And he shook his head, and looked straight at her through his horn spectacles. Lao's old stepmother began to get uneasy. " Yes," he went on, " the night ah' is so bad 120 A TALE OF THE BORDER for him. I fear some e\ening he may contract an ilhiess to which he will succumb. Your son Lao is anxious about him, I know. Ah ! the night air is bad. Very bad for young men ! " He waggled his wicked old head. "What do you mean ?" asked the old woman, now visibly perturbed. " JNly son dislikes Wei-sha." " His loss would indeed be great to you," said the Chinaman, who now thought that he might be a little more explicit. " T have here a paper which contains a certain cure for the illness threat- ening this estimable young fellow. If, as 1 believe, you take an interest in his welfare, you would perhaps be willing to invest in it," and he pulled out a copy of the paper which Wong had found. " Let me see it," said the old woman. " Before 1 let you see it," replied Kwan-fong, " it were better that you should let me knoM^ what sum you would be willing to spend on a cure. This prescription is of great value, and — mark me ! — known only to myself. I shall not therefore feel justified, seeing that I have a wife and children, in parting with it for less than — three hundred taels." The old woman began to laugh. " Three hundred taels ! " she cried. " Three hundred fiddlesticks ! It is quite true that 1 take an interest in the young man, for 1 have known him since he was a cliild. I am prepared to spend a small amount in buying your prescription since you consider that illness threatens him. But three hundred taels is absurd." Kwan-fong began to get rather nettled. " You would probably consider it absurd also THE STORY DEVELOPS 121 when I tell you that your son F^ao would give twice that sum for my prescription," he said. The old woman laughed. " Lao would not give you three cash for the thing if it was to cure Wei-sha," she cried con- temptuously. " Let me see this wonderful pre- scription of yours." She stretched out her hand for the paper. Kwan-fong handed it to her, and sat quietly watching. The laughter died from her lips as her eyes fell on the quaint, scrawling characters. " What is this ? " she gasped. " What ? " " It is the copy of an agreement," hissed Kwan- fong, " between your son and Tsi to murder Wei- sha. Lao suspects your relationship with him. Pay me the money, or I will go to Lao and tell him all. I know when Wei-sha comes to you at night. I have known from the first, for he lives next door to me. Choose quickly " ; and he rose and stood over her. " 1 will pay ! I will pay ! " cried the wretched old hag. " Lao will kill me. I will pay ! But not three hundred taels. It is a fortune. I will give you all I have. I will give you two hundred. It is my all. The savings of a life-time. Only spare me. Oh ! I^ao ! Lao ! IVlercy ! Mercy ! " and she fell on the floor. Kwan-fong went to the door. " Quick ! " he cried. " Get the money ready. I will take the two hundred. On my return to-night, when 1 have received the money, 1 will hand you the original of this." So saying he left her. That night he returned to Lao's house, got the two hundred taels, and handed over the paper. 122 A TALE OF THE BORDER He considered it prudent to retain the original, and handed over a very excellent copy upon which he had spent the intervening time. Staggering back with his booty, for two hundred taels is a heavy weight, he spent the rest of tlie night chuckling at his own astuteness and inventing a satisfactory lie with whicli to stave off the inquiries of old Wong. A few days later the Chinese official who lived ninety U from the village received a visit from Lao's stepmother. After a long conversation she departed. On his arrival back from the fields on the following evening Lao was greeted by half a dozen dirty yamen runners and soldiers, who told him they had been sent to fetch him. Lao, on his arrival at the yamen — to make a long story short — was charged with plotting to murder his stepmother ! Though somewhat taken aback and nonplussed, he retained enough presence of mind to deny the accusation. Proof, he knew, was superfluous. His stepmother would bring a number of witnesses against him. Deprived of his official position, his power would be seriously shaken. There was nothing to be done but put his hand into his pocket and recoup himself when opportunity arose. He assured the taotai that his suspicions were entirely unfounded ; that the information laid against him was absolutely false ; that, pained as he was, he had only to look at the taotai to feel sure that a man of his integrity and penetration would look at the matter in its true light ; a bit of spite on the part of a woman. Finally he told his accuser that in the course of a long and varied BARGAINING AND BRIBES 123 career, in which he liad met, he praised Heaven, many just and upright men, he had never met any one whose character had impressed him as being so nearly perfect and flawless as the gentleman before whom he then stood ; and that, as a small token of his gratitude at having been so privileged, he proposed giving the taotai a small mark of his esteem. The taotai expressed himself as being quite overwhelmed at such praise. At the same time business was business, and a plot to murder rather a dangerous affair to be mixed up in. Lao, of course, he could see, w^as a very sterhng fellow, though things looked black against him. Finally he delicately hinted that the exact sum which Lao considered adequate to his merits had not yet been named. Lao said five hundred taels appeared to him about the right amount. The taotai said that five hundred taels was a nice little nest-egg, but that they could not value good men very highly in Lao's locality. Lao thought perhaps they were rather a mean lot, and that personally he considered six hundred taels nearer the mark, only he was afraid of going against public opinion. The taotai rejoined that of course he was immensely flattered, but, after all, he was there to dispense justice, and that I^ao's stepmother had struck him as being a very well-balanced woman. Lao made a plunge, and said that in taking everything into consideration, and the fact that Heaven would probably never gratify him again with the sight of so perfect a being, he had resolved 124 A TALE OF THE BORDER to offer his all, seven hundred taels, as a token of gratitude. The faotai replied that one mustn't always judge by appearances, that from the first he had always regarded the charge as absurd, that he would take care to nip any such rumours as came to his ears in the bud, and implored Lao not to let it weigh on his mind. They then parted with mutual expressions of esteem, tlie taotai even coming to the gate to see Lao ofK, and inwardly praying that murder cases might come his way every day. The latter jumped on his horse, galloped ofL cursing his luck, his step- mother, the taotai, and the unknown person who had betrayed his plot ; on arriving home thrashed the old lady within an inch of her life, and drowned his sorrows in native wine. Meanwhile Tsi, having discovered the loss of his paper, and realising that, in spite of Lao's silence, things must be getting rather warm for him, went off to the nearest missionary station. Here he professed great anxiety to learn the rudimentary teachings of Christianity, describing himself as a man who had lived a bad life owing to a faulty bringing-up, but was resohed at last to mend his ways and reform. The missionary in charge knew something of Tsi, and a good deal more about the people amongst whom he lived. A few inquiries confirmed his suspicions. " The best advice which I can give you," he said sternly, "is to leave this part of the country altogether and try to live a decent life amongst people who do not know your past. I warn you frankly that I shall do nothing to protect you from the punishment you deserve." TSrS MISBEHAVIOUR 125 In vain Tsi begged and implored. He declared that he was a convert, an inquirer after truth, and ought to be protected. The missionary was firm. At length Tsi departed, seeing that the foreign devil, as he contemptuously termed him in his own mind, was firm. Twice he sent his brothers, with whom he was on more friendly terms than with poor old Wong, to intercede. The missionary returned the same answer. Tsi should receive no protection from him. He was not going to allow Christianity to be used as a cloak for malefactors, to be cast aside when danger was past. Tsi must go, and he himself would denounce him to the authorities if he were troubled again. On the following Sunday the missionary went to a neighbouring town. The congregation had already assembled when he arrived. He looked round on the people who had adopted the Faith he came to preach ; the men and women who had stood firm during the dark days of 1900, the teachers who liad proved their faith, the converts who had just begun to grasp its meaning, and then, in the back row, he saw Tsi. He was sitting in the corner throwing quick glances here and there, as though doubting what to do. The preacher had made up his mind long ago, and in a few brief words he asked the congre- gation to excuse him. Then he sat down and wrote on his card. This done he sent a boy with it to the yamen, and began to preach. And all this time Tsi sat in his corner. One last chance he had. The preacher spoke of the difficulties which had beset the early Church. He told his congregation how there had always been bad men 126 A TALE OF THE BORDER amongst the believers, whited sepulchres who used the true religion for their own base ends ; wolves among the sheep. " Even now," said he, " even now in this very room tliere is a wolf amongst the sheep," and he looked at Tsi. But Tsi refused to move, and sat stubbornly on. As the preacher continued, there came a blow on the door, and three men in the tattered uniform of yamen imderlings entered. They bowed to the preacher, who asked them their business. " We have been sent," they answered, " to arrest a bad man. Do you know if he is here ? " " Ves," said the missionary ; " that is the man ! " and he pointed to the trembling Tsi. Resistance was useless, for the soldiers were all big men. They led him off, struggling at first, to the yamen, loudly protesting his innocence. Here he was tried, beaten, and finally imprisoned. Early in 1911 anti-foreign riots occurred in Sining, a town on the Thibetan border of Kansu. Placards were posted enumerating the eight deadly crimes of foreigners, but the revolt was soon suppressed and its leaders executed. Many of their followers shared the same fate. So much the European papers told their readers. They did not mention a certain ruffian, one of the last who fell beneath the executioner's sword. His hatred of all foreigners, especially missionaries, had marked him from the first, and he had been loud in expressing, with awful curses, the fate he intended for those who fell into his hands. His name was Tsi. CHAPTER XV A IVrOLTNTAIN MISCELLANY We remained for a week at Choni, making arrange- ments for hunting. The Border Thibetans are all keen sportsmen, and we had no difficulty with regard to guides. The mist was low on the hills when we woke the morning after our arrival, a sure sign of fine weather. It cleared about 9 a.m., and w^e enjoyed a beautiful day. Just beyond the southern wall of the little town flows the Tao River. It divides two entirely different types of country. In place of the rolling mud hills, to which we had become so accustomed, terraced and cultivated, with scarcely a tree to be seen, rise slope after slope of grass-covered mountains. From any of the rolling summits above Choni, pastured by yak, one saw on looking to the south, ridge after ridge, green and well wooded. The T'e-pu from the stone battlements of their confining mountains must look on grass - covered slopes, gradually diminishing in height, topped by a thin dark line of conifers. For the trees grow all on the northern slopes, and where the fierce rays of the sun directly beat, no tree will live. The hard dividing line of fh*s running along the summit of each ridge gives the landscape a quaint air of artificiality. Wild 10 127 128 A MOUNTAIN MISCELLANY sheep — a form of the burhel — serow, goral, wapiti, pig, musk deer, roe, bear, leopard, and, I believe, a variety of sika, though we never came across them live amongst these mountains. Young-sha, a proverbially lucky hunter, put in an appearance and agreed to come with us. Later on, George engaged another man called I^ao-Wei. We went out one afternoon for roe, which Young- sha said could be found on a hill close to the town. We saw a doe and a fawn, but no buck. This man had several times, so the doctor told us, performed a rather remarkable feat considering the clumsiness of his weapon — namely, shot a roe, reloaded and killed a second. Thibetan guns are far superior to the old pistol-stocked weapons of the Chinese, which give their owner a severe blow in the eye whenever tliey are fired. They have a long barrel, the usual stock, and a fuse with which the charge is ignited. Below the barrel is a double prong of hardened wood, sometimes shod with steel or iron. This is hinged on to the weapon, and stuck into the ground before firing. It makes an efficient rest, and the Thibetans make very straight shooting with their weapons up to two hundred yards. For a really good gun the owner will ask as much as sixty or seventy taels (£8 or £9). We tried for a bear one evening, but it came on to rain so hard that we had to return to Choni without seeing a sign of one. There was a dear little girl in Mr. Christie's house, his cook's daughter, aged eight, who was already engaged to be married, the prospective husband having reached the mature age of five. Her father, some years before, had been smitten with the gambling GOOD MORNING ! 129 manui and sold lier for twenty-four taels. The only hope she had of being saved from a life of hopeless drudgery in the fields lay in the fact that Mrs. Christie refused to allow her feet to be bound, which was a great drawback in the eyes of her future relations. Our host's old doorkeeper had been a Buddhist priest. At their coming to Choni he had saved them much annoyance at the hands of the lamas, who were very hostile. " You may turn them out if you will," he said, " but more will come even though you kill them." He had one invariable greeting for strangers— all the English he knew : " Good morning ! The dog has many fleas ! " The Thibetans are tremendous walkers, and as illustrating their powers in this respect, one servant of Mr. Christie's walked fcom Honan to Choni, a distance of 2,300 // (roughly 700 miles) in eighteen days, carrying a load of 20 lbs. He did this twice, averaging 127 li a day. This same man walked from Choni to Lanchow and back (360 miles) in six and a half days. On September 11 we left Choni, and after a ten hours' march reached the little village of Archuen. We crossed the Tao by a typical Thibetan bridge, underneath which was hung the severed head of a bullock, a supposed deterrent of cattle sickness. For a mile or so the road lay down the main valley of the Tao, side valleys cultivated for a few // stretching into the hills on the south bank. In one of these, the Poayiikou, we afterwards hunted v/apiti and roe. The woods 130 A MOUNTAIN MISCELLANY were just tinted by tlie autumn cold, and against the green of the thickets, burberries made splashes of scarlet. Leaving the river, we crossed a ridge into a large valley running north and south, and travelled south-east all day. It was cooler, for we were about 9,700 feet above sea level ; Choni itself is 8,000 feet. We lunched in a beautiful grove, whilst a water prayer wheel industriously spun at a short distance. It was turned by a small mountain burn which ran into a clear mountain torrent, down which we saw many logsmen steering rafts. They went at a great pace, and managed their rickety-looking crafts with great skill in the rapids. Many places looked ideal ground for roe ; swamps, willows, firs, and rocks. The side valleys were said to be good ground for wapiti. The scenery reminded me very much of the valley of the Beauly and Strathglass, whilst at times we might have been in Japan, Switzerland, or America. All mountain scenery has common characteristics which, when grouped in a certain setting, remind the traveller of places he has seen thousands of miles apart. Right up to Archuen itself, we passed through waving fields of yellow corn. Indeed, in my opinion, this universal continuity of cultivation is one of the great drawbacks to travel in China, extending as it does up to tlie very haunts of the game. The hunters got in some time after our arrival. They had heard a pheasant calling about ten miles from the village, and went to investigate. Some animal, which they thought was a fox, raised its head above a tuft of grass, when they realised it was a large leopard. One of thein fired at it with ^IS « ^a-l H CHI-SHI AND HIS MASTER 131 no effect. It was heard on the other side of the valley some days hiter, but never seen. We lodged in the house of one Chi-shi. He was a keen hunter, a little thin wiry man with a pleasant face. He seemed chronically cheerful, despite a wife who appraised herself considerably above her real value, and boxed his ears when he smoked opium. Her husband had been induced to pay 300 taels for her, and of her morals the less said the better^ — " For the wildest dreams of Kew are the facts of Khatmandu, And the crimes of Clapham chaste in Martaban,"" or, one might add, in Archuen. A most masterful lady, she ruled Chi-shi with a rod of iron. We had to warn her not to invade the sanctity of our chamber at certain hours, otherwise she and the rest of the village, in particular the juvenile popu- lation, crowded to what they considered a show organised by a beneficent Providence for their especial benefit, in and out of season. The Thibetan houses are far cleaner and more tidily kept than those of the Chinese. We occupied the large family room which they all contain, and were really very well off. A long wooden box-like structure extends for about two-thirds the length of the room, holding two or three big copper vats in which all the cooking is done. Many of these coppers are very fine, ornamented with designs of fish, formal rosettes, and other decorations. They are made by the natives. There are usually one or two dressers, the wealth of the family being 132 A MOUNTAIN MISCELLANY gauged by the display of copper pots, plates and vessels which they hold. A huge spear eight or nine feet long usually occupies a corner of the " hall," and at the entrance the section of a tree hangs, which is supposed to keep out all witchcraft and evil influences. Overhead, in the big beam running across the room, were the eight precious things, gold, silver, and jewels which are always to be found in Thibetan houses. In the larger houses, which, from above, resemble enormous cardboard boxes with a raised lid in the centre, a gallery runs round the upper story, containing rooms. The " well " in the middle is left open. The roofs are flat, and on them the corn and grain are winnowed. We stayed at Archuen for a week, our main object being to obtain specimens of the mountain sheep. The climbing was pretty stiff", grass slopes and saddles leading one to rocky tops 11,000 to 12,000 feet above sea level. We calculated that the big stone range to the south must have been something over 15,000 feet at the highest point which we could see. The highest point we reached was probably a thousand or fifteen hundred feet below this. 1 saw one lot of sheep on my first day out. The ram had one good horn which I could clearly see as he stood on a pinnacle of rock on the skyline and looked down on us. We tried a stalk, but the sheep were too quick and slipped do^^^^n a cleft in the rocks which I should have thought im- passable to any living animal just as we reached the top of the cliff". George saw twenty-two sheep, in- cluding three good rams, but could not get a sliot. I hunted this ground for several days, but saw CAPREOLUS FiEDFORDI 133 no sheep, though we found their tracks, also those of serow and goral. Starting early one morning, I had only chmbed to the top of tlie first ridge when, on looking over. 1 saw two roe-deer {Capreohis bedford't). 1 pulled out my glass and saw that one was a buck, evi- dently an old beast, for his horns were twisted in a curious manner and " going back." He was within shot, and my first bullet broke his foreleg high up, while the second killed him. I shall not say much about him here, as we were not really hunting roe, and 1 saw many more afterwards, though 1 never killed another. This buck weighed 5i|^ lbs., and was still in his bright red summer coat (Septem- ber 16th). I sent Lao- Wei back with it, as we were close to the village, and went on up the hill. I expected him to join me in an hour or so, but he did not turn up till nearly one, as he had stopped to enjoy a meal in the company of Chi-shi's wife. He was quite convinced I should kill another roe, for my victim had died with its eyes open and had its tongue out when he reached Archuen, " which meant it was expecting another one." We saw nothing in the way of big game till the evening, but 1 shot a variety of snow fowl which the natives call shueclii (pronounced " shuergee "). They are about the size of a hen capercaillie, and make a curious squeaking noise as they run about among the rocks. We went on around the tops of the ridges, eventually descending into the glen up which George had sallied daily. How he did it I could never make out. The scenery was beautiful, indeed magnificent, but 1, unfortunately, was in no position to admire it. I 134 A MOUNTAIN MISCELLANY scarcely dared raise my eyes, glued perforce to the faintly wavering line which ran before me, called by courtesy a path. During the two unhappy hours it held me I realised, as I had never realised before, the eminence to which the late M. Blondin had risen. A Chinese herb picker, attempting to go along this road a few months previously, slipped and fell into the river. It was in Hood, and the un- fortunate man's body was never found. The path zigzagged in and out of bushes, shot suddenly and almost invisibly across smooth faces of rock, rose amid the tangled roots of trees, then slipped towards the rocks beside the river. A turmoil of blue waters, icy cold, scarcely covering projecting rocks, raced beneath. Spanning the gulf were a couple of polished bark-shaved poles, on which my guide in- vited me to trust myself. With quivering legs I essayed the task, collapsed and ignominiously and ingloriously punted myself over astraddle. This obstacle surmounted, 1 found myself perched on an enormous boulder, quite out of reach of a small snagged pole, presumably placed there to aid the descent. 1 half fell, half slipped to a pebbly beach and was confronted by two more poles propped perpendicularly against a wall of rock. They were notched at intervals after the manner of those which one sees in the cages of performing mice and such-like animals. I never felt less like a perform- ing mouse in all my life, but somehow or other reached the top. Once only did I really enjoy my- self as we crossed a level bank of green, about which grew burberries, clematis, rowan-like bushes with berries of white, azaleas, rhododendrons, and junipers. I heard a bark across the river, and there INGENUOUS STALKERS 135 among the graceful red birches, so Hke our own silver birches, but with a beautiful pinkish red trunk, stood a buck with long, widely curving horns a foot or more in length. Just as I started to creep down the bank as a preliminary to fording the river, he gave another bark and trotted into the bushes. I shall always admire George for resolutely setting out on that nightmare of a path morning after morning, its difficulties enormously increased by a night of frost. He slept for two or three nights in a shallow cave at the head of this glen, the better to reach his ground early. In a short note, reminiscent of Mr. Pepys at his best, he informed us the evening after liis departure from the village that he had had a stalk after the herd on a rocky spur thickly grown with rhododendrons; Vung-sha having poked his head and most of his body round a corner to " see what was happening," had put off the ram when they were witliin fifty yards of it. This herd evaded all their efforts, and liad eventually to be left. Though very nice fellows, these hunters were not stalkers in the proper sense of the word. In- deed, they broke the elemerrtary rules of stalking with the utmost sangfroid. When three steps would place Lao- Wei out of sight he would walk cheerfully along the top of a ridge in- full view of the opposite slope ; career gaily over a skyline, my rifle blazing on his shoulder in the sun, an outward and visible sign to any animal with eyes in its head for miles that danger was abroad ; whilst, in the middle of a stalk, the whistles of a peripatetic marmot would fill him with an innocent and child- 136 A MOUNTAIN MISCELLANY like joy, and he would settle hinisell" coiulortably to listen until the whistler had disappeared. Their own method of hunting consists in five or six of them marking an animal down, at least in the case of the wapiti, which is their most important quarry, returning for a big feed and a council of war, then sallying forth that evening or the next day, posting themselves at various points and trusting to luck that between them they will bring their victim to bag. Whilst we were hunting, the doctor had been collecting birds and small mammals, a list of which I give in an appendix. On his first visit to Archuen two years previously the natives had been very suspicious. When they saw him stuffing specimens for preservation they asked if we had not got any such animals in England that he took so much trouble, and if he made them alive when he got them home ! When they have a grudge against an enemy they make an image of sticks and clay and transfix it with sharpened twigs or burn it, after the fashion of witches in England many years ago. They kill a few sheep and roe-deer, and snare the latter, and very occasionally young wapiti, as follows : Finding a deer path, they bend a young sapling and fasten it with a notch by the side of the run. At the end of the sapling is a cord of hemp or flax, and for this purpose they are clever at making strong cords. The loose end terminates in a running noose, w^hich is fastened to the sides of the path with bits of grass. The roe is caught by the neck and soon strangled, or sometimes by the foreleg. They also catch musk-deer in this manner. TRAPS FOR DEER 137 I saw one of these traps, and while at Archuen they brought in a young roe, and a musk-deer which they had caught. Another method of trapping wapiti is to prop two young pines in a V-shape, the tops overlapping and forming a fork. A third pine is balanced in this fork, with a hemp cord fastened to the pro- jecting end. This again terminates in a running noose set in a deer path. The unsophisticated animal which is so ill-fated as to get caught by the leg overbalances the log, cannot go far attached to so cumbrous a weight, and is soon overtaken by the hunters. A smoking joint was placed on the table one night, which the doctor carved with an air of joyful anticipation. I took a mouthful, and wondered why he looked so pleased. Then George followed my example, and an awful look of pained surprise dawned on his face. " Isn't that delicious ? " demanded the carver, who had been so busy with the joint that he had not noticed our expressions. " I never tasted such beastliness in my life," said George, and the doctor was only pacified when we discovered that tlie animal from which our dinner came had been hanging in a snare for about a fort- night, and, I should imagine, for another fortnight in the house of the man from whom we bought it. As a matter of fact fresh musk-deer meat is very good. On September 20th we moved from Archuen, and camped some distance up a side valley to the east, where we had news of sheep. CHAPTER XVI THE WILD SHEEP OF WESTERN KANSU It is a remarkable and noteworthy fact that those animals, with but few exceptions, which in a wild state are most wary and intractable, become when degraded by generations of domesticity more docile and dependable tlian any. The ox tribe are notoriously tierce and vindictive in a state of nature, yet — in the East particularly — when im- pressed into the service of man they perform such useful services that without their aid the poorer classes would scarcely be able to endure existence at all. Similarly, the wild slieep, whose domes- ticated relations furnish food and clothing to a large proportion of the inhabitants of the globe, when an object of pursuit amid his natural surroundings, high mountain slopes and unscalable precipices, calls into play every particle of skill and endurance which the liunter possesses. From a stalker's point of view lie is the king of game animals. It may be taken as an axiom of mountain stalking that the essence of success lies in getting above the quarry. In the case of wild sheep, living as they do at great altitudes, this usually involves several hours' hard climbing in a rarified atmosphere on the part of theii' pursuer. Their powers of vision are only 138 ■I 1 :^;^^ Tl t>f^-#'-.#'( .,,.."'t Sketches of Wild Sheep, Kansu. 138] THE BURHEL lf39 equalled by such animals as the prong-horn antelope of North America and some of the plain-dwellers of Africa ; whilst so closely do they assimilate with their surroundings that it is no difficult matter, as they stand motionless amid the rocks, to pass them over, even with the aid of a powerful glass. The sheep of Western Kansu is no exception to these remarks. In size and weight a full-grown ram is about equal to a fallow deer, standing some 36 inches at the shoulder, and weighing ten or eleven stone. His blue-brown body and legs are hand- somely marked with black and white, whilst his graceful curving horns are more reminiscent of the goat tribe than of the species of which he forms a somewhat aberrant member. Closely allied to the burhel {Pseudois nahura) of India, he " not impro- bably represents a distinct race," according to Mr. Lydekker. Burhel have been recorded from Szechuan, though I am surprised to find them mentioned as also coming from Shensi. I fancied Kansu was the easternmost limit of their range. According to Hodgson, the burhel differs from the typical sheep by the absence of face glands and the pits for their reception in the skull, this being a feature in which it resembles the goats. The tail is more like that of a goat than a sheep. The angulation of the horns is less marked and their direction is more outward than in ordinary goats, but in this respect they are paralleled by the horns of the East Causasian tur {Capra cijllndricornis). There are glands between the hoofs of all four feet, and in this respect it agrees with the sheep and differs from the goat, as in the fact that the males have no beards. Mr. Elajidford writes as follows : 140 THE AVIT.D SHEEP OF WESTERN KANSU " This animal in structure is quite as much aUied to capvd as to ox^if;, and is referred to the latter genus mainly because it resembles sheep ratlier tlian goats in general appearance, and hence has been generally classed with the former. Hodgson dis- tinguished it as Pacudou, and tliere is much to be said in favour of the distinction, but the slieep and goats are so nearly allied that an intermediate generic form can scarcely be admitted." The burliel probably indicates the transition point from the sheep to the goats. Mr. Lydekker — from wJiose book, " Wild Oxen, Sheep, and Goats," I have quoted — says : " The difficulties of the case may be fairly met by regarding the bharal (or burhel) as the representative of a sub-generic group in the direction of the goats." Bharal is the Hindustani title. Its l^adaki name is na or s'na. The natives of Kansu call it '■ngakjang. The horns which I saw in the native houses and those of a ram which I shot were said by tlie hunters to be of the largest size. Much inferior in length to the Indian species, the best horns of the two varieties seem to approximate pretty closely in girth and width, though somewhat different in shape. The horns are smooth, growing more or less at right angles to the skull, and curve upwards and backwards at the tips. The males are hand- somely marked with black on the forelegs, with w4iite patches on the knees and above the hoofs. A black stripe runs up the hind legs to the point of the thigli. The hocks are also black. The chests of the older rams are of a similar colour, speckled with white on the neck ; the black marking extends between the forelegs. There is a f^ r^*.^ -'^-. vK >^ y ^' vv- Sketch of Dead Kaai, W. Kansu. Dead Ram. i40J BLUE SHEEP 141 black stripe on the side extending from the point of the thigh to within a short distance of tlie elbow. The tip of the tail is black. The general colour is grey-brown, though in certain aspects there is a decidedly blue tinge. Hence the name " blue sheep." The muzzle is dark to a line between the eyes, turning to a red -brown tone at the edges, where it merges into the general grey of the face. The animals are rather clumsy-looking about the quarters, and have a curiously lanky appearance when moving over the bare grass slopes on which they feed. The animal I killed was not at all strong- smelling, which is a characteristic of the Indian variety, though George said he noticed a distinct odour from the herd out of which he killed a couple of rams. The native himters declared that these sheep rut in January and that the lambs are dropped in May. No sooner had we moved camp than we experi- enced those alternations of bad weather which are the despair of the himter. Snow, mist, hail and rain succeeded eacli other with monotonous regularity, and though there were occasional breaks, for many days we pursued our quarry with unvarying ill-success. The hunters were nearly as aggravating as a Highland stalker when asked their opinion of the prospects for the day. "Well, it's rather dull (pouring rain and mist!), but it may clear," etc. They invariably sought refuge in the commonplace platitude, " If it is wet we shall not be able to use the long glass, but if it is fine we shall have a beautiful view." We both saw sheep, but never a good head. 142 THE WILD SHEEP OF WESTERN KANSU One morning, early, the doctor daslied into the tent and said that the hunters had found a lierd quite close to camp. We scrambled into some clothes and rushed off, to find a small ram and some ewes, pretty nearly invisible, amid a cluster of rocks. T missed the ram, which I took to be two hundred yards off, but was nearer three ; and after an unnecessary expenditure of good ammunition, secured an animal for the pot. In spite of, or perhaps because of, the usual bad weather, there were one or two days which will always stand out in my memory. One in particular I recall. Lao-A¥ei and I lay on the summit of a hill in the warm sunshine. The sky was like a frozen sapphire ; against it the grey rocks stood rugged and menacing, a few corners and irregular ledges carpeted with grass, a few, wider or deeper, giving foothold to stunted rhododendrons, whilst the splintered pines below us emphasised the harshness of the scene. Stone slides, narrow and cruel, ran steeply down the mountain meadows to the woods below. These, sprinkled now with autumn gold, showed birches, willows, and aspens amid the firs. Similar ridges to that on which we lay rose across the Aalley, down which trickled the clear green waters of a snow-fed stream. The northern slopes and those unsuspected ridges facing in the same direction were dark with trees ; the southern slopes were grass-covered, with outcroppings of rock which thrust sharp grey points towards the heavens, here in a tremendous serrated peak a couple of thousand feet high, there in a few tiny pin-pricks which scarcely served to break a passage to the air. MESSAGES OF THE WIND 143 For the most part it was still, with a stillness which is only to be found among great mountains, but at times a boisterous wind came shouting round the tops like a roUicking boy out for an imexpected holiday. On the grass slopes one could see his approach from afar as the yellow plumes swayed and bent. Then came a nmrmur and a little fitful breeze. Louder and louder it swelled, until, with a rush and a roar, he was over us and away, rioting down the glen, while tall trees sang at his coming. Then, in the warm sunshine, everything would grow still and silent again ; bees hunniied and murmured as they do on a Highland moor ; butterflies, strangely out of place amid the little sheltered patches of snow, fluttered and danced in a pathetic make-believe that spring was near, and the iron grip of winter far away. Occasionally, out of the nowhere, like the white soul of a dead child, floated a little speck of thistledown, pure against the blue im- mensity of the heavens. It hovered for a space and was gone again into the vast beyond ; and all the while silent, sentinel peaks, their ledges and sheer precipices slashed and streaked with snow, looked gravely on from afar at me, the butterflies, the wind, and the thistledown, as the gods looked down from Olympus at the doings of the men of old. It was pleasant to lie there three thousand feet above our temporary home ; to watch the grey rocks and the withered grand old pines — was it not Stevenson who said : " Thank God for the stems of the pines ! " ? — stately wrecks amid the glory of an autumn wood. It was pleasant to 11 144 THE WILD SHEEP OF WESTERN KANSU watch the marmots, perkily erect, as they whistled cheerily about their burrows, and Lao- Wei's child- like delight at their antics. The sheep were not there that day, it is true ; but about me, encircling, enveloping, was the God-sent grandeur of a September day — so who was I to grumble? Later we saw a ram and a small band of ewes in the early morning sunlight, but they had seen us too, and we never set eyes on them again. Our camp was set down close to a track which led far off into the mountains. On several occasions wandering parties of T'e-pus passed with their guns, women, and cross-bred yaks. It was a curious sight to see the great shaggy animals wandering along laden with side-packs. Cattle disease had broken out below Archuen, and the villagers drove a large number of their cattle up into the hills beyond us to be out of the way of infection. A couple of T'e-pu lamas were our most enter- taining visitors. They were on their way to Sung-pan, a border town between Thibet and Szechuan, having just completed a pilgrimage to various lamaserais. They came into our camp and begged for some rice and potatoes. On receiving these they signified their thanks by holding up both thumbs, scratching their heads and bowing. The more important of the two offered to perform a dance in return for a bowl of rice. He accordingly donned a cloth mask with eyelet-holes. It was decorated with a wispy moustache, one side black, the other white, a thin black beard and a cluster of red and yellow ribands at the back. He then began a monotonous MEDICINE COLLECTORS 145 and dreary chant, which described at length how he had always worshipped the spirit of fire and kow-towed to him. Then, for no reason which we could discover, he embarked on an endless dissertation concerning a little stick, represented by a small red Avand he held in his hand. How, when he was a boy it was small, and he rode it as a horse ; then, as he grew to manhood, the stick grew until it was ten feet long. This, with much pantomiming of hands, twiddlings and jumpings. How he always carried it wherever he went as his constant companion ; all the time chanting in a continuous, dreary monotone. It lasted about ten minutes, and was excessively dull. On another occasion a band of medicine col- lectors passed camp on their way over the moun- tains. They were looking for rhubarb. These men are always very badly paid by the medicine-buyers at Minchow, where they take their wares. That same evening we experienced a bad thunder- storm, just as we were turning in. The noise of the hail on the tent was terrific, and at one time we could not hear each other's voices, though but a few feet apart. The boys had found some phosphorescent wood, which shone quite brightly. We heard in the morning that the cook had been talking in his sleep, when he suddenly woke up and saw this wood shining. He was very fright- ened, and said to the doctor : " No wonder I talked nonsense in my sleep. It must be dead men's blood ! " We never quite unravelled the connection ! George one day killed a female musk-deer 146 THE WILD SHEEP OF WESTERN KANSU {Moschus sifcmicus). These little animals stand about twenty inches at the shoulder, and are called by the natives Jisiang. The Kansu variety have only recently been discovered. They resemble the Himalayan species in general characteristics, but the ears are longer and differently coloured. The value of the musk-gland was at one time very high, but I believe of late years it has decreased. He also shot a couple of macJri, a large species of pheasant with a handsome tail. The four tail- feathers w^ere formerly in great demand for the hats of military officials ; since the adoption of a Western style of dress the demand has died out to a great extent, though we saw" many of these birds kept in captivity for the sake of the feathers. They are caught in traps by the natives. The trap is a pit, over which a lid of brushwood fits. Some grain is fixed to a fine thread inside the pit, the other end of the thread being tied to a prop, w^hich supports the lid. When the bird pecks at the grain the lid falls, and he is a prisoner. The 'tame ones provide three lots of feathers a year, which are much superior, as might be expected, to those grow^n by the wild birds. They are sold for two taels a set. The price of the wild birds' feathers varies, being so low at times as one hundred cash for the four. The crops of those which George shot were full of iris roots and dirt. CHAPTER XVII A DAY WITH A RAiM It was on September 25th that our luck turned. The morning dawned clear and bright, and we were off at sunrise, our way lying for the first mile or so along the banks of the little mountain river on the north bank of which we were camped. We had settled the night before that George was to hunt on the " IVIatterhorn," as we had christened the snow-covered triangular mass of rock which rose at the far end of tlie valley. I branched off to the north wdth Lao- Wei, as I had seen a num- ber of ew'es with a ram on this ground a few days before, without being able to get near them. AVe went for half a mile through thick bush, past a woodcutter's camp, and presently emerged on a small flat from which a steep ridge gradually rose to the higher tops. Hardly had w^e pulled out our glasses when my hunter exclaimed, " 'Ngaiyang I"" Far, far above me, where the first ra3^s of the morning sun were just striking, I saw four ewes. They were leisurely walking over the skyline, stopping to nibble every now and again and gazing down into the shadows of the valley below them. We hurried on through the belt of trees w^hich grew along the lower slopes of the valley, and at 147 148 A DAY WITH A RAM our next spy saw the whole herd of a dozen animals lying amid the rocks, surrounding a ram whose head was silhouetted in magnified magnifi- cence against a background of deep blue. The stalk was an easy one ; the wind strong from the east and the ground favourable. Though not over- prone to count my heads before they have fallen, I confess that I felt very sanguine as to getting a shot at him within the next two hours. 1 accordingly set out on the climb which lay before me. When about half-way up Lao-Wei sud- denly remembered he had left my camera. I sent him back for it, climbed on, and spied again. The herd were still lying peacefully on the crest of the ridge where we had just seen them — a good view of the corrie before them, the wind on their flank, and the pinnacle of rock rising 120 j'^ards behind them from which I expected to obtain my shot. I turned to look for the hunter, and saw him wildly gesticulating and waving on the slope below. At a loss to understand these frantic signals, I followed their direction, and was horrified to find no less than three Thibetans, bent double beneath their loads, wending their deliberate and fore- ordained course immediately through the centre of the corrie. The sheep were bound to see them, and my hopes sank to zero. I am loath to confess it, but I have in the past entertained feelings of aversion to several individuals. I hated a Scotch shepherd who appeared on the skyline within fifty yards of a very fine stag I was stalking ; I hated a Mormon baby in whose company I once travelled to Salt Lake City ; I hated a man who got to windward of me on a rough day crossing the 1,^ A STRENUOUS CHASE U9 Channel ; but never did I hate any one as I did those three wretched Thibetans ! I rushed up the hill ("rush" is a purely metaphorical word), Lao- Wei rushed after me. The three miscreants, seeing a foreign devil armed with a rifle, his empurpled and streaming visage lifted towards them, and understanding — which I did not — the guttural anathemas of his follower, rushed precipitately over the crest of the hill, and the sheep, alas ! catching momentary glimpses of these events, leisurely disappeared over the ridge. It took us a good half-hour to reach the spot. Very cautiously we peered over each crest ; very stealthily we crept along a knife-edge of rock, overhanging a big basin, and spied ; Lao- Wei even threw rocks down in his disgust ; but not a thing stirred, whilst a great eagle swept around us in ever-widening circles, silently contemplating the scene. On our way up the hill we had seen a couple of ewes, with their lambs. They had ^^'histled derisively at us ; but, in spite of my companion's earnest solicitations, I had refused to shoot. The sheep we were after seemed to have vanished. We could see them nowhere in front, so, as a forlorn hope, w^e retraced our steps to the ewes. They placidly fed where we had left them, and no ram gladdened our eyes. Had the herd passed them they would certainly have moved, so it seemed that, after all, the ram must be somewhere in front of us. We clambered back up the hill — after I had made a sketch or two of the ewes, much to Lao- Wei's disgust, for his bloodthirsty mood had not evaporated — reached the top, and sat down to eat our sandwiches. Then it was that, very faint and 150 A DAY WITH A RAM far away, I heard two shots. George, at any rate, had had some hiek. The corrie, down the opposite side of which we had so stealthily crept an hour or so earlier, lay fronting us. The eastern side was overgrown with rhododendron bushes, the western presented a chaos of rocks, slides, small patches of grass, and an ineffectual covering of bushes and stunted firs. In desperation I pulled out my glass for one last spy — and found it focussed on Wxe sheep. There was no ram amongst them, but the rest of the herd could not be far off. 1 pointed them out to my com- panion and held up five fingers. He took the glass and held up nine. It was ten minutes before I made out the rest, and then discovered twelve in all, including the ram. They moved slowly and with agility across the face of the cliffs, reached the slope of the face and turned helter-skelter back, for no apparent reason at all. In a few minutes they settled to feed up a narrow crevice in the rocks and w^e, crawling out of sight, pounded up the slope down which we had so lightly dropped in the morning. They were in full view when we reached the summit, feeding away among the rhododendrons 300 yards below us. It seemed certain they would cross into the corrie from which the three men had dislodged them in the morning, so we continued our way, and presently lay safely sheltered among the rocks. Every second I expected the leading ewe's head to appear, but half an hour passed in silence and the suspense became too great. We crawled down the hill to a spot which commanded a view of the basin and looked over. There we saw them, well out of shot, their old course abandoned, AT IxAST! 151 working steadily away from us. Back we went and round the shoulder of the hill, then down the ridge which they had to cross to leave the basin. As I peered through the grasses I fully anticipated seeing them within shot. Not a sign of a sheep anywhere ! I^ao- Wei declared that they had already crossed and that we were too late. It seemed scarcely possible that they had had time to do so, but he seemed certain of it, so I sent him back to a spot from which he could spy, to see if they were still below us. He disappeared over the rocks, and presently I saw him, a diminutive figure, far back on the ridge. He moved stealthily from rock to rock, peering into the mass of boulders beneath him, then straightened himself He was right and* I was wrong ! Up the hill I went again, and he joined me. Hope still flickered within me, but it was faint. The evening was drawing in, and as I looked over into the corrie where the sheep had fed in the morning, I felt anything but sanguine. There it lay, and there too within shot of me, as I realised with a gasp of surprise, were the sheep. Placidly feeding after all the fluctuating fortunes of the day, it seemed as if they had never moved from the spot where I had first seen them. These are the moments which come back to one, and that is the moment which dwells in mind as I conjure up again the grassy corries and rocky tops of the Kansu sheep ground. Those last few yards, how exciting they are, when the stalker's skill and experience, pitted against the marvellously acute senses of a really wild animal, seem at last as if they are about to triumph ! The big ram was there, a smaller one, the ten ewes and the two mothers with their lambs. 152 A DAY WITH A RAM Back I doubled, round the hill, Lao- Wei after me. Three minutes later we lay in a convenient hollow, sheltered by a rock within a hundred yards of our beast. He was partially hidden by a dip in the ground ; another three yards would have brought him broadside on in full view, when the aggravating animal lay down. I could just see the tip of one of his horns. There we lay for half an hour, suspiciously watched by a malignant and youthful ram. The wait was enlivened by a violent altercation with Lao-Wei, carried on by signs and grimaces, which ended in his sulky subsidence. His object was to induce me to fire at the small beast, whose attention he had gratuitously attracted by his gesticulations, and to take my chance at the big one afterwards. I was equally determined to wait until a good chance at the latter presented itself. The light was fast waning, and at length, somewhat reluctantly, I made my follower pitch a few small stones on to a rock-slide which ran down the hill on our right. The first had " absolutely no efFec' wha'ever," as my wine merchant at Oxford used to say of his favourite claret. At the third the small ram leapt from his rock as if shot from a catapult, the alarm spread and the whole herd made off. The big ram, mercifully alone, stood for a second — and I ignominiously missed him ! As he galloped after the ewes I again pulled the trigger. Result — a miss-fire ! Just on the edge of the corrie — the ewes were already streaming over — he paused for a last look. As I fired a couple of stragglers came up, and they dashed out of sight in a bunch. We tore to the crest of the ridge. A second later the sheep appeared. In vain I scanned each head. ♦• 1^^" ^:., SUCCESS 153 The ram was missing. Who has ever adequately depicted the mingled waves of hope and fear which fill the stalker's heart at such a moment ! And yet my hopes were strong, for unwounded he would have been well to the fore. For a moment or so we stood there waiting, whilst Lao- Wei openly ex- pressed his grief at my miss. Then, from behind a tuft of grass, emerged a horn. It swayed, drooped, and was followed by a head. It was the ram. He walked a few paces very slowly, wavered, hesitated, then his legs collapsed, and with gathering speed he rolled five hundred feet to the foot of the gully. CHAPTER XV^III THE AVHiTE-MANED SEKOW {NemorJicedus argyrochcetes) The shots which 1 had heard came, as I thought, from George's rifle. He had killed two rams, one with a very pretty head. AVishing to kill a really good one, he and Chi-shi went up the glen to a cave at the foot of his ground and stayed there for two days. I returned to Archuen, where he joined me on September 30th without having had a shot. My efforts after roe proving equally hopeless, we determined to try for a white-maned serow {Nemor- hcedus or capricornis cng^yrochcetes). He is a strange beast, with enormous ears like those of a roan antelope and an elongated melan- choly-looking face. The mane from which he takes his name is long, and appears quite white at a distance, though this varies, of course, with the individual. There are many rufous hairs mingled, which gives it a decidedly reddish tinge at close quarters. The name was given to this variety by Pere Heude in 1888. The general colour is a dark blackish grey, shading to burnt sienna on the lower part of the forelegs. The hindquarters are distinctly reddish in tone. The tail is short and dark. The eye is 154 White-Maned Serow returning to Cover. White-Maneu Serow at Bay. 151] SEROW 155 rather small, with a small but prominent gland beneath. The hoofs are about the same size as those of a red deer, but considerably more splayed. The short black horns are curved, ringed at the base and as sharp as needles. Serow are said to be dangerous animals when cornered, and in " Adventure, Sport and Travel on the Tibetan Steppes " Mr. Fergusson mentions a Chinaman who was killed by one. Speaking generally, he is a handsomely coloured beast, a clumsy-looking mover and a first-rate climber. The hunters collected a scratch pack, for to hunt the animal with dogs provides the best chance of getting a shot. They were a motley collection. There was a little black and white bitch of a friendly disposition, Avith a pretty taste in food ; a persistent black female, the best huntress of the lot ; a wolf-like yellow dog with a broad head and a wicked eye ; a sad-looking white beast with a pink nose ; and a fat old grey brute who did absolutely nothing except eat any pheasants we happened to shoot for the pot. They were all tail- less, and at night they howled as if their hearts would break. Serow inhabit thick lir woods which clothe the northern slopes of the ridges south of the Tao River. They feed on the grassy southern sides during the early morning and retire early into the recesses of the forest. I was posted on a hill-top, while George commanded a wild corrie, a fir wood at his back, a steep precipice on one side and a frowning range of cliff, scattered with firs, larches and undergrowth opposite. ^Vhen chased with dogs the serow, if it plays the game, makes for a 156 THE WHITE-MANED SEROW wall of rock, where it may the more easily defend itself. The hunters and dogs entered the wood below me, and though it seemed as 1 looked down on them that the winter undergrowth, stripped of leaves, could conceal nothing, tlie twisting line of men and hounds vanished where invisible cover lurked, appearing and reappearing as the undula- tions of the ground alternately hid and revealed them. Far, far below me, where the green waters of the river, swollen by rains boiled and swirled, I could see tiny figures steering tiny yellow logs through foaming rapids. They looked like pygmies playing at spellikins seen through the wrong end of a telescope. Logs jammed between the rocks, were sheered off by the spellican players, slid through a turmoil of waters, and swung gracefully into an eddy, where a growing pile awaited them. The murmur of the waters came up to me faintly, in a confused roar and I fancied a dog barked. The sound came again, a dry, hoarse staccato note, and 1 peered anxiously into the wood below. An old crow sailed across the gulf, chuckling derisively, and my momentary excitement died away. Then long-drawn cries diverted me, and were answered and re-echoed from the hill-tops. A dog yapped, a shrill excited yelp, and the yells redoubled. Then sudden silence, with only the noise of the river below. The sharp crack of George's rifle came from the opposide ridge, and, a second later, a chorus of yells and shouts. He had something, at any rate. A quarter of an hour later Chi-shi, appearing on the ridge, yelled, 'Sangu' A VERY FLNE SHOT 157 — the native name for serow. It was most extra- ordinary luck getting one at the first drive, though I was fiir from being as optimistic as to future results as a man I know who went to a little Irish inn for a few days' salmon fishing. He sallied forth on the first evening of his arrival, and at his second cast hooked and landed a fine, clean run 15 lb. salmon. Highly excited, he rushed back to the inn, overwhelmed the landlord with his jubilations, instantly secured the sole fishing rights of that beat for the whole of his six weeks' holiday — and never rose another fish I It appeared from what I subsequently learned that George had sat on the top of the precipice for some time and then, thinking he might place him- self in a better position, moved a few hundred yards higher up. Soon after he heard the dogs yapping, and the little black and white bitch appeared at the edge of the wood. He saw no serow, but a moment later the hunters emerged and pointed excitedly at the opposite side of the corrie, beneath the rock wall. He then made out a serow, its back to him, moving slowly along beneath some larches. It suddenly stopped and, knowing lie would get no other chance, George brought off a very fine shot at nearly three hundred yards, killing the beast dead. It was a full-grown male with a fine mane and a good pair of horns. The next day, hearing of another, we started off in the opposite direction and, as usual, drew lots for positions. I was on a ridge. A large wood faced me, at its foot a running stream which wandered out of the valley between high walls of rock and after passing tln-ough a small birch-copse hurled 158 THE WHITE-MANED SEROW itself, with much pleasant splashing, into the main river. George was below the far wall of rock and above the birch-copse. The particular serow we were after was a cunning old beast and had, I suspect, been hunted before. It was a long time before his tracks were discovered in a distant fir w^ood. Then he came lumbering out, galloped, so they told me, like an overgrown calf, across a wide-open hill-side, made for the precipice above George, was turned by the hunter's yells, passed through the birch- copse, the rock walls, up the bed of the stream, completely hidden from me all the time by the dense undergrowth, and found refuge by keeping to the water all the way, thus drowning his spoor. He had taken the only course by which he was hidden from me, though had I known where to look I might have seen him for a few brief moments as he crossed the open a quarter of a mile away. All I did see was the pink-nosed dog and his sable companion wildly questing round the foot of the rock walls where the spoor was lost. The next day we tried for him again ; George occupied my old position, whilst I went along the ridge farther down the valley. I sat and meditated on the futility of human hopes, particularly when connected wdth serow driving, for some three hours or more, when I suddenly beheld a tall figure struggling up the hill-side above me. It was George. The serow, as his tracks showed, evidently knew the ground — and our exact positions — like a book. He had sneaked up behind George, who, had his attention not been distracted by the yells of the hunters on the slope opposite, might have seen ■i^J^- '^-^^ ^4 * White-Maned Serow {Nemorhcedus argyrochcetes). KoE BY Moonlight. 158] THE FORTUNE-TELLER 159 him for perhaps five seconds, at a distance of two hundred and fifty yards, walked leisurely up the hill and disappeared. That night a fortune-teller put in an appearance, introduced by the superstitious Chi-shi. He was a dirty old ruffian who chanted monoton- ously as he sat on the floor inhaling the smoke of a fire of juniper twigs and twiddling some little forked sticks. After manipulating these, speaking in a low, rapid voice, and, at the close of the per- formance uttering several prayers in an earnest tone of supplication, he delivered his prophecy. The serow was a certainty — provided we went to the right place ! George, also, was to see a big ram, but not get a shot. We were to get plenty of wapiti, have great success wherever we went, and arrive home safely to find our businesses (neither of us has any !) flourishing and dwell for ever in a dream of Utopian bliss. This seemed satisfactory as far as it went, but George's ram rather stuck ! Despite the forebodings of Chi-shi, who evidently regarded such an offer as tampering vv^ith the moral probity of the gods, vv^e offered the old humbug another bowl of rice if he would guarantee fine weather and a nice fat ram with long curly horns. The oracle flatly refused to commit himself to any definite statement about the weather, wherein he showed his wisdom. 1 would as soon prophesy as to the climatic conditions on the west coast of Scotland. His Delphic utterance — and it was really rather smart — amounted to this. If — if, mark you ! — it cleared and George read his prayers very earnestly, he would get a good sheep I It didn't clear, George didn't get his sheep, and 12 160 THE WHITE-MANED SEROW I didn't get a serow. Perhaps George didn't read his prayers earnestly enough, and we must evidently have gone to the wrong place for the serow. The dogs killed a young musk-deer, and that was the total bag. We stayed for some days more at Archuen, trying to drive serow every day. The weather turned very cold, and it was trying work waiting for hours in the open for serow which never put in an appearance. The glen up which we had journeyed but a fortnight before to our sheep camp presented a very different appearance. I have never seen so sudden a change. Then it had seemed the height of summer. The river babbled and chuckled with a pleasant, cooling murmur, grateful to the ear. The trees were smothered in a bravery of green. Through gaps in their rich mantle the sun filtered on to the mossy carpet of the woodland floor, and amid the emerald hues firs showed pointed and dark. Now it was so changed that it seemed impossible a few short days could have wrought the miracle. Swollen with heavy rains, the rivTr tore and roared through the gorges. The hill-tops were swathed in mist. Jagged spires and pinnacles of rock were thrust from the lower slopes into its dense folds. The verdure of the woods was gone. No sunhght splashed on the mosses. Dead yellow leaves fell sadly, and revealed a delicate tracery of branches purple with bloom as of the vine. The firs stood dark and threatening, dominating the leafless trees. The grasses which covered the southern hill slopes, no longer opulent with the mature charms of summer, were stained to melancholy browns and THE WHITE-MANED SEROW 161 ochres. Autumn had come, suddenly and Hke a thief in the night. It is usually a sad season, this waning of another year. So much it leaves behind it, and promises so little in the immediate future. Yet now it seemed to me that 1 found an added friendliness in the hills around me ; they looked less aggressively alien, and more like those hills I had known and loved for years. We got on the tracks of one or two serows, but never had a shot. Thej'^ always treated me rather scurvily, and I only saw two. One was a mile off standing on the edge of a slope, and gazing intently down into the valley, a position which he maintained without stirring for three-quarters of an hour. The other gave me a poor chance, as he lay with his back to me on the other side of a gully grown thickly vrith trees. A wretched little hawk pursued me with the greatest malignity, squeaking above my head, and fluttering round till his attention was attracted. To my lasting regret I missed him ! The doctor never failed to see one when he was after pheasants. An old male walked straight across a bare hill-side in full view of him one evening, and completely defeated the diminishing remnants of the scratch pack on the following morning. George came suddenly on a female whilst after wapiti. She disappeared very rapidly down a precipice without giving him a chance, and a few days later, whilst waiting for a stag to emerge from the wood below, he saw another. It stood motion- less at the edge of some firs on the far side of the valley, and looked superciliously at the corner 162 THE WHITE-MANED SEROW round which a native hunter had cautiously stalked a few moments earlier, whilst just below a couple of roe seemed to join in the joke. Though not plentiful in the sense that roe- or musk-deer are, I should not call him an uncommon animal ; but he is a very difficult beast to get at, and will long survive amid the woods and shaggy precipices where he makes his home. CHAPTER XIX TRAVELLEES' TALES We left Archuen on October lltli with many regrets, for it was a dear little place. We had some excellent sport with the pheasants on the way down to Choni. With a couple of good dogs and a few beaters who knew their job, we could have had first-rate covert shooting and killed a big bag. We saw literally hundreds, but con- tented ourselves with a dozen or so, as we could not have used more. As illustrating their numbers in many parts of China, a certain celebrated Ananias was recounting the details of a ride where birds were plentiful. " Suddenly," he declared, " my horse shied. My gun was slung on my back. Both barrels w^ent off. I looked round, and there were three dead pheasants in the road ! " Another story in which this gentleman figured is too good to miss. His father, though a foreigner, had resided for many years in China, and was alluded to by his son as " Poppa." One day the conversation turned on well-known travellers. Poppa's name — he was dead — cropped up ; so did that of Marco Polo. This was a chance not to be missed. 163 164 TRAVELLERS' TALES " Marco Polo ! " said the son in a casual manner, flicking off the end of his cigar. " Oh yes, my old Poppa was his guide. A nice man ! He came from Russia. How old was he ? Well, I never saw him myself; it was before my time. About forty-five, I should say. He had a grand horse he brought with him all the way from his own country. He gave it to Poppa, but the poor beast died from grief when the old man pegged out ! " " The mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure." Doubtless the son of ^larco Polo's guide endorsed the statement of the fraudulent Lord Chancellor ! Mr. Christie was away when we arrived, but returned the following evening. The welcome we received was so genuine and hearty that we might have been old friends instead of casual acquaintances. Missionaries in China as in other countries keep open house, and it is seldom that their hospitality is abused. There was one gentleman, however, who travelled all over China from one missionary to another, and claimed their generosity and services on the ground that they were fully requited by the advertisement (though the word is an odious one in such a connection) which he gave them in his writings. " You help me," he said, " and in return I put ttventy pe?^ cent, of Christianity into my books." He foisted himself on one wretched man, who rose at an unearthly hour " to speed the parting guest," and provided him with a substantial break- fast of eggs, bacon, coffee, etc. The latter, arriving at the house of his next victim, com- TYPES OF TRAVELLERS 165 plained of his host's stinginess " as he had only had four eggs for breakfast ! " On another oc- casion he persuaded a very well-known missionary who has worked for years in China to accompany him on a trip down the Yangtse. Not only did he overwhelm him all day and most of the night with a torrent of questions, to which he expected an answer in tlie form of a typewritten report, but actually expected his companion to get up early in order to clean his boots ! There is a certain type of man who looks upon self-satisfied blatant advertisement, to use the word in its proper sense, as a form of patriotism. Every nation, unfortunately, is compelled to claim such individuals. Such men have themselves photo- graphed in front of sacred idols, quite regardless of the feehngs of those who regard such objects as sacred ; entertain their friends at champagne picnics on historical spots ; and would carve their names on the walls of Westminster Abbey, Notre Dame, or St. Peter's if they got the chance. To such a class did another traveller belong. He burst one day without any warning into the study of a certain missionary. The latter was not unnaturally rather surprised at the huge apparition who suddenly confronted him. A fist like a leg of mutton was thrust under his nose. " That, sir," exclaimed the visitor, " is not the hand of a well man." His unwilling host could think of nothing to say except " Oh ! " which was non-committal and expressive. " No, sir, it is not. And 1 have come to you to be cured ! " 166 TRAVELLERS^ TALES The missionary thought it might be as well to start at the beginning and enquired his visitor's name. The latter flung himself into a chair and re- garded his interlocutor with an expression which intended to convey wonder at the ignorance of so distinguished a guest's proximity and pride at the announcement he was about to make. " Do you mean to say, sir," he began im- pressively, " that you do not know the author of ' A Yankee in Yak-land,' ' Yaps from the Yang- tse,' and ' Hell — how to avoid it ' ? " " You see before you," he went on, " one who has stood on the last brick of the Great Wall of China. On that brick, sir, I was photographed as a rep-re- sentative of our great and glorious country hold- ing at arm's length ' Old Glory.' Then, sir (still accentuating all the unimportant syllables), I took that brick and with my own hands I hurled it in-to the Yaller River so that no other feet but mine should ever po-llute its surface." He then proposed himself as a visitor for some days, informed his host that he would thank him for a concise report of the industries, population, geography and customs of the surrounding district, and was at last seen brandishing an enormous revolver at the terrified carter who was to travel with him for the next stage. JNIr. Christie, who, I should perhaps add, was not a participator in any of the foregoing events, had had several unpleasant experiences during his long residence in China. Once he was attacked by robbers near the great monastery of Labrang. They dashed out of a hollow where they had lain in concealment, A BORDER FIGHT 167 knocked down the first man they saw, and only released him when Mr. Christie confronted them with a revolver. They then apologised for attack- ing a foreigner and rode away ! Another adven- ture which might have terminated very un- pleasantly befell him shortly after he first came to Choni. His business took him to a town a hundred and fifty miles to the north which it was important he should reach quickly. Thirty U from his destination lay a valley. Seven years before the inhabitants of the upper portion had stolen a goat from those who lived at the lower end. They had stopped on their way home, not fearing any pursuit, w^hen just as they had killed the goat and were eating it the real owners suddenly appeared on the scene. One of the raiders was killed in the encounter which fol- io w^ed, and the feud was kept up. On reaching this place Mr. Christie found that a fight was in progress. He knew the combatants, and on reaching their outskirts, called one of the men and asked if he could get through. The road ran beside a little river from which rose a succession of terraced fields, among which the fighting was going on. The inhabitants of the lower end of the valley seemed to be getting rather the best of it, but, hearing that JNlr. Christie was in a hurry, they agreed to cease fire whilst he went through the lines. Accordingly they shouted across to their enemies, who hoisted a pole with a white flag at the end. " Now gallop ! " they cried to Mr. Christie, who, with his two followers, dashed down the valley. As they did so the men from the upper end of the 168 TRAVELLERS' TALES valley advanced down the hill. The intruders had only traversed about half the line of battle, w^hen down went the flag and bullets began to fly. The lower party becoming demoralised, gave up the contest and followed in their tracks. Before long they overtook them and soon Mr. Christie was surrounded by a mob of angry men, brandishing their weapons and shouting, " He is responsible for our defeat I " " Kill the Russian ! " " Kill him ! " Matters looked rather ugly, and Mr. Christie began to feel apprehensive, when, suddenly, a man forced his way through the crowd which surrounded him, seized the pony's bridle, took off his cap and cried in English, " Yes ! Yes ! Back- sheesh ! Backsheesh ! " Very much surprised, Mr. Christie asked him who he was. " Yes " and " Backsheesh " exhausted his English, but he turned out to be a man who had spent eighteen months in Darjeeling, of all places. He explained to his companions that JNIr. Christie was no Russian but an Englishman ; that the English were good people whom he knew wxll ; and that they always gave Thibetans backsheesh. The temper of the crowd changed at once and the men who, a few moments before, were clamouring for his blood, now patted their visitor on the back, stroked his clothes and shook hands with him. A small present of cash to the traveller from Darjeeling called forth profuse expressions of gratitude and thanks, and the incident ended pleasantly for all concerned. But it was a w^onder- ful coincidence ! CHOTENS 169 We were anxious to procure a few curios, and our host kindly helped us. One man brought a gilded copper model of a choten. They are curious bulbous-looking erections surmounted by a ball and crescent, and are supposed to ensure good luck and riches to the owner. If turned with the side towards the house of an enemy, his luck is supposed to be dominated and suppressed by the choten, which is sometimes expressly built in this manner. When Mr. and Mrs. Christie first came to Choni the Prince had the choten in his yamen thus turned in order to keep down their influence. We saw one later on, erected on the actual border of Thibet by the orders of a certain " Living Buddha " to resist the influence of missionaries, whom he had resolved to defy. The model shown to us was similar to those found in every monastery and rich man's house, and was supposed to contain the ashes of that para- doxical personage, a dead " Living Buddha." It also held the eight precious things to which I have already alluded. The original price asked was 30 taels, but the owner eventually came down to ten taels, which was not excessive, as model chotens of this description are not easily obtained. It is curious to watch a couple of Chinamen or Thibetans bargaining. When the vendor mentions a price he extends his hand, which is hidden by the long sleeve of his coat. In such deals each finger has a particular value. The buyer grasps one of them considerably lower in the scale than the price named, and so the 170 TRAVELLERS' TALES haggling goes on. We also bought some of the copper pots, which are very ornamental, and George invested in a Thibetan gun and some very fine cart bells. Unfortunately we had to leave most of those things behind us when the revolution broke out, as we had to travel as light as possible. Whether we ever see them again is somewhat proble- matical. We went to one fur shop. Outside the door several dogs were lurking, when the proprietor suddenly dashed out, seized one by the scrufF of its neck and hurled it into an outhouse, remark- ing, " I can't afford to have your excellencies bitten ! You are worth money ! " which was rather comforting under the circumstances. I bought a horn, which the shopkeeper told me was that of a nialoo, as they call the wapiti. In this he was quite wrong, for, unless I am mistaken, it is that of a sika. We on several occasions heard of a deer which is called by the natives yung-Ioo, or sheep-deer. They were described as larger than a roe and smaller than a wapiti, spotted in summer, reddish on the sides, and dark on the back. They become much darker in the winter, and carry four points on each horn. Another horn with four typical points which I saw had a small piece of skull with the skin attached. As soon as the owner found I was after it he asked me an absurd price. He admitted it was that of a '' yung-loo from the far west," so there is a chance for some future hunter, as they have never been obtained by a foreigner in Kansu. We heard of them as being found seventy li from Minchow, but an old GOLDEN-HAIRED MONKEY 171 hunter said that it was very difficult to make them break cover even witli dogs. Other animals of which we heard, but never saw, were the wild oxen of Thibet. They are found twenty to twenty-five days' journey in the interior of the Golok country. The natives call them ^/-o/z^^pronounced Drong). They were described as being larger than the largest yak, black in colour, and very wild. The natives hunt them in the following manner : A herd having been located, a deep hole is dug, in which the hunters conceal themselves. When an animal comes within range they open fire on him. It seems a somewhat uncertain, not to say un- sportsmanlike, method of shooting. Their horns are long, 6 in. and more in diameter at the base, hold over 20 measures of corn, and are used by the Goloks for this purpose. At Taochow George procured skins of the golden-haired monkey ( Rhinopithecus roxellanoe). Mr. Fergusson writes as follows : " These monkeys are remarkable animals ; they have bright blue faces and dark browTi eyes ; their nose looks as if a bright blue butterfly was sitting with its wings open in the middle of their face ; they have a long golden mane down their back. At Kwan-hsien (Szechuan) I saw a skin with hair 18 in, long and valued at £12 15^. These skins are collected and sent to the Imperial Family, and when made up into garments are allowed to be worn by them only." CHAPTER XX A THIBETAN INTERLUDE Taochow, the Old City, 2,000 ft. above sea level, of indefinite age, and inhabited by a mixed popula- tion of Thibetans, Chinese, and Mohammedans, lies on the borders of Thibet and Kansu. It is a quaint little Availed town, and vwandering through its streets one feels at the other end of the world. The chief object of interest is a fine Mohammedan mosque, surmounted by a double cupola with curved roofs. There is a curiously unbusinesslike, uncon- ventional air about the place. References are not asked for nor required, and the open shops with their miscellaneous contents invite enquiry. Bears' paws, dried, with the claws intact, for they are otherwise valueless, swing mournfully amid bundles of deer's sinews ; eagles' wings, machi feathers, wapiti horns, roe heads, yak bells, swords, daggers, and I know not what other curious objects, attract the foreigner's attention. They hold, too, a wonderful variety of skins. Half a dozen species of cat, from the splendid lynx, valued at seven or eight taels apiece, to the common domestic brute worth a few cash. Fox and wolf hang side by side, whilst in the wholesale houses lie hundreds of sheep and lambskins, of 172 TOWARDS THIBET 173 which the ordinary winter clothes of the people are made. The people, too, present a strange spectacle to the gaze of the foreigner. Lamas in their once-red robes mingle with half-clad Thibetans in sheepskins. The women walk swiftly, in shoes with upturned toes, for they ceased here to bind their feet after the great IMohammedan rising sixty years ago. V^endors of furs chaffer with Chinese-garbed shop- keepers ; here you may see a patient receiving from the proprietor of a medicine shop a packet of mysterious ingredients; there a wild-looking Drocwa tribesman bargains over the skins hung from his saddle ; one and all stop and gaze curiously at the foreigner, for they see but few in Taochow. We stayed one day only, and were off the next morning just after sunrise, our objective being the village of Meiwu, situated in Thibet proper, some 35 miles distant, whence we hoped to hunt the goa, or Thibetan gazelle. For a time our road lay along the dried bed of a river. It wandered down between the flat-roofed houses and clumps of aspens quivering with autumn gold, through the main street, and into the market place of the city itself, where fat, oleaginous ducks squabbled for precedence in its muddy pools. An insignificant, mud-walled village hung poised on the spur of a mud cliff; three deserted forts lay in the valley's mouth ; a white choten glimmered on the hill-side, and on the neck of the ridge straddled a wall. It was the boundary. Beyond lay Thibet ; Thibet, despite the unveiling of Lhasa, still one of the mysterious countries of the world. The Chinese claim the allegiance of its inhabitants, and 174 A THIBETAN INTERLUDE though the httle village for which we were bound is but a few miles distant from Taochow, where the civil official, its nominal ruler, resides, his real authority could not have been more ineffectually displayed had it been hundreds of miles farther west. The Wall, of course, at which a poll tax of 5 cash per head is levied on every passing Chinese and Thibetan traveller, marks no real change of country. High, grassy hills sloped steeply to a little burn. The lower slopes were cultivated, and on these enormous bundles of straw, apparently of their own volition, wandered aimlessly about. It was not until, with long-drawn yells, their owners drove the yaks which bore them down the valley, that one realised the motive power. Two or three villages clustered near the valley's mouth, and from every yard dogs barked at the passer-by. Big brutes, half mastiff, half coUie, they are, when free, a great nuisance to travellers. One came charging out at George's pony, but a passing Thibetan mounted on a shaggy little steed dashed up, and, from a regular arsenal of stones secreted round his waist, hurled volleys at the brute, making excellent shooting with his left hand. A little farther on we came upon yak-hair tents, low, black structures, v/ith the inevitable dogs on guard, and little round patches of dung, drying for fuel. The road was good, the grass hills rising to about 2,000 ft. on either side. At times one had but to look back from the patient string of donkeys to imagine oneself back among the high peaty tops of any Inverness-shire deer forest. THIBETAN WOMEN 115 Then a wild-looking, mounted Thibetan, halt' naked, his leopard skin collar rolled back, his long gun with its forked rest sticking over his shoulder, sword in belt, and a great dog on an iron chain trotting by the pony's side, would pass us, and the illusion vanish. Near a yak-hair tent we stopped for some food, and were surrounded by a crowd of friendly Thibetans, w^ho were much interested in our rifles, spy-glasses, and cameras. From one of the women at the tent we obtained some milk. They wear their hair in a great number of small plaits, which hang down the back and are gathered in at the waist. The unmarried ones have their hair done into a small roll behind the ear. They all carry large triangular leather pouches, ornamented with brass studs, in which are kept the yaks' hairs they weave. The right breast is usually left bare. Whilst having our food, a really pretty girl came up, evidently the daughter of a well-to-do man. Her ornaments v.^ere superior to any we saw, and she had on a fine fox-skin cap which completed the barbaric splendour of her attire and made me think of the dusky Indian maids of whom I used to read in Mayne Reid and Ballantyne. She was very shy, but had beautiful eyes and teeth, which she flashed at us from a respectable distance. Many Thibetans we saw had remarkably fine teeth and strong features ; a contrast after those of the lax, impassive Chinaman. Whilst endeavouring to cross a small burn, my pony tried a short cut and got hopelessly bogged. I managed to extricate myself and my rifle with no greater harm than a wetting. A little later, 13 176 A THIBETAN INTERLUDE one of the boys who was riding George's Httle white pony met with a similar mishap, and rejoined us looking as if the old gentleman in " Struwwel- peter " had dipped him into his inkpot ! On the owner's forcible remonstrances, he sat on a stone and burst into floods of tears ! Among some thornbushes we came on a large covey of hill-partridges, very much like the little brown bird at home, and killed two or three brace. I do not think they can ever have had a shot fired at them before, as they refused to rise, and with more cartridges we could have bagged the lot. Reaching the crest of the hill, we found ourselves on a high, rolling plateau, bounded to the north and west by hills, looking very much like an American prairie. It was ideal antelope country, pastured by herds of half-bred yaks, ponies, and big flocks of sheep with curiously twisted horns, growing at right angles from the skull. These are the property of the nomad Thibetans or Abrogba (Drocwa). Snow falls on these high plateaux in September and does not melt until May ; June, July, and August are the only really clear months. The afternoon drew on, we still passed flocks and herds, and towards evening found ourselves among low, stony knolls, and small, grassy valleys. It was dark when we stumbled out of these, and heard the distant barking of dogs. A small wooden bridge led us to an indistinct cluster of houses, and the only inn of Meiwu received us for the night. It was not a palatial hostelry, and one low-roofed, mud- walled room sheltered our three selves and the five boys. DISLIKE TO FOREIGNERS 177 We woke late the next morning, and during breakfast various reports announced that the head- men were complaining at our presence. The doctor and his companions had met with a similar reception on a previous visit, so we were not quite unprepared. The real trouble, however, began when we tried to get guides to show us the best gazelle ground. We were met with a flat refusal. The " Living Buddha " of the local monastery had, it appeared, issued a prohibition against the killing of any animal ; an infraction of his decree would, we were told, result in a recurrence of the cattle disease, which had been very preva- lent, and of which the inhabitants stood in mortal dread. We argued that such a prohibition did not extend to foreigners, and that we would go and find the gazelle ourselves, after an interview with the Buddha. This gentleman, it transpired, had gone on a pilgrimage to Lhasa three months previously, leaving no one with any authority to remove the ban. He had also taken with him the small local official to whom our escort — a solitary half-bred Chinese -Thibetan soldier — had been properly accredited by the official at Taochow. This was cheek with a vengeance, as the headmen, particularly one grey-haired old ruffian, absolutely refused to let us stir from the inn. They said that if we did, and killed gazelle, the local cattle- breeders — semi-nomads — would descend on the village and wreak their vengeance on them and their people. We asked for a representative cattle- breeder, and were finally checkmated by being told that it was impossible to know where such a person 178 A THIBETAN INTERLUDE could be found. The only concession they granted was that we might stray for two days, the headmen and lamas guaranteeing the behaviour of their people for this period. Then we must go. It was not the least use staying in the horrid little place unless we could hunt, so we decided to leave on the morrow. The dislike of these people to foreigners is not altogether unnatural. But few can talk their language, and they do not understand us. A German explorer boasted that during his journey along the border he had had thirteen "battles" with the Thibetans, in one of which he knew for certain he had killed four men. The day was filled up by entertaining relays of inhabitants, who came pouring in to inspect us and our belongings. The Drocwas, in whose country we were, are a fine-looking lot, at least, tlie lay- men, and, with their jauntily- worn sheepskin caps, leopard-skin collars, long swords, steel-sheathed dirks, and touches of barbaric finery, are as wild a set of semi-civilised barbarians as I have ever seen. One young fellow in particular, dressed as I have described, with a frank, open face, was very friendly, and received with joy a couple of pears. To mark his appreciation he drew his finger across his throat and held up one thumb. Another gentleman produced a large "450 revolver from the depths of his waistband, fully loaded. I hope for his own sake that he is never compelled to use it, for it will prove quite as dangerous to himself as his opponent. There was another old worthy among the crowd busily knitting. He was much interested in my ACTIVE HOSTILITY 179 knickerbocker stockings, and fingered them with the air of a connoisseur. The shaven-headed lamas are in a different category altogether. Thibetan Lamaism is about as corrupt and degrading a form of Buddhism as is to be found ; Thibetan lamas, forced to undergo the restrictions of a compulsory monastic life — for each family with a son devotes him to religion — are almost as corrupt, degraded, filthy, and evil- looking a crew as it is possible to imagine. They were, however, friendly on the whole, though some of the younger ones badly wanted kicking, and expressed child-like and unfeigned pleasure at the doctor's removable teeth, a magnifying shaving- glass, telescopes, and field-glasses. So the day passed, while an old gentleman sat and watched the crowd from a corner of the roof, said his prayers, and pointed out our strange ways to a naked child, who seemed, in his arms, to experience no discomfort from a chilling wind. From another corner an aged female appeared at intervals, screamed out a remark and vanished. Early on in the proceedings the old villain of a headman, who had taken a look through the telescope with a seemingly grateful smile, dashed into the crowd, and with a few hoarse shouts caused all the villagers to disperse, leaving a sedi- ment of lamas who did not recognise his authority. After lunch we had a little mild excitement. Our enemy sent in to say that we must go at once. We refused, and told him we would leave at daybreak. A sudden uproar caused us hastily to enter the courtyard. There was the old head- man, his garment off', stripped to the waist, setting 180 A THIBETAN INTERLUDE about our escort in a most professional manner. He, poor wretch, expostulated. The amateur prizefighter spat on his hands by way of answer, and regularly went for him. A crowd of followers joined in, and they started to hustle the repre- sentative of law and order towards the outer gate. Once outside he would undoubtedly have come in for a sound beating. However, some Mohammedan merchants staying in the inn separated the combatants, and peace was restored. Such an incident might, however, easily have grown into an ugly fight. Next morning we were up at 2 a.m., and in the dark and mist started back for Taochow. We had some little difficulty in finding the way as we wandered down the hill ; shallow depressions developed into huge gullies, low knolls were exalted into mountains, and the shadowy pack-train into the advance guard of a host. It grew lighter by degrees, and by the time the sun was up we v/ere well on our way, so, sending the pack-train ahead, we started on a small detour in the hope of falling in with some gazelle. The tops of the hills which composed the plateau were still in mist, but we made out some indistinct forms and George tried a stalk. The gazelle, however, took the alarm and fled over into a hollow. To make a long story short, we saw several scattered groups of from nine to five, but no buck save that which George had stalked. They are pretty little animals, about the size of a roe-deer, and not at all unlike one in appearance. Their colouring is much the same, and they have a similar white rump patch. RETURN TO CHINA 181 Whilst from can eminence we watched several small herds, that nearest us suddenly broke into a frightened gallop, and a large wolf cantered sedately out of a hollow on our right. He was a fine-looking beast, grey and tawny, but un- fortunately out of shot. I fired at a female gazelle later, as we wanted meat, but exaggerated the distance and went over her back, j; rhey were rather wild, but had we been able to hunt them properly from the village I have no doubt that on a fine day, with care and patience, we should have killed two or three bucks. However, as we killed gazelle crossing the Gobi Desert, I will say no more about those we saw here. Shortly after we joined our ponies it began to snow, and continued bitterly cold all the way to Taochow, which we reached about 4.30. So ended a trip that was a failure. The superstitious reader may perhaps derive satisfaction from the knowledge that our start was made on Friday, October 13th. CHAPTER XXI THE ROE-DEER {Capj'eolus hedfovdi) On October 17th we got back to Choni, and two days later, accompanied as before by Yung- sha, Lao- Wei, and an old toothless hunter who had spent sixty years of his life in the pursuit of wapiti, roe, sheep, and bear, we camped in the Poayii-kou Valley some twenty li from Choni, which was said to be good for both wapiti and roe. That same afternoon we tried for the latter animal. Owing to a stupid muddle on the part of the hunters, I crossed over into the corrie where George was stalking a buck, disturbed a doe and fawn and spoilt his stalk, for which I was very sorry. He killed a couple of does for meat on his way back to camp, but neither of us encountered another buck. Native hunters always go up the bed of a gully in preference to the ridges. It has one advantage, the game cannot see you unless they happen to be feeding out on the open hill-side ; but this argument cuts both ways, for neither can you see the game. In addition one usually has to advance up the rocky bed of a stream, stooping all the while to avoid the interlacing boughs over- head. The going is sometimes very bad, and 182 Thiretax W omen. IHK iiliAK. A Study in Expressions. 182] THE ROE-DEER 183 noise is inevitable. On the whole, I think the best plan is to go up the ridge on the side of the gully farthest from that in which you intend hunting. Of course, there may be game in the gully below you, but a certain amount of risk is unavoidable. By adopting this plan the gully in which you suspect game is undisturbed ; you will not be seen, and are safe from the wind. Having skirted the top of the side gully, you can choose your own place from which to spy, and all your ground is below you. The wind is always variable, and it is impossible to rely on it when making plans in advance. Roe-deer {Capreolus bedfordi) are widely dis- tributed throughout China. They are rather larger than the European variety {Capreolus capr'ea), standing about 30 in. at the shoulder. There is no w^hite patch on the nose, at least I never saw one thus marked. In summer their coats are very red, changing in the winter to a dark brownish grey. W e saw plenty " of these little deer in the Poayii-kou Valley, but found it an extremely difficult matter to get a good head, though there w'ere several about. However, I shall have some- thing to say about this later. Mr. A. W. Purdom, an experienced botanist who had been travelling in China for two years collecting specimens, and whom we met at Taochow, tells me there is a very good roe ground four days to the north of Sian-fu. They are also plentiful one day's journey from Minchow. The altitude at which they are to be found varies considerably. The greatest height at which we met them was between 10,000 184 THE ROE-DEER and 11,000 feet. They do not collect in large bands like the Siberian roe, which may number 300 to 500 head in a herd, but remain in small parties like the European variety. The horns are shed in November, and are fully formed in May. These are of some value in the eyes of a China- man from a medicinal point of view, though to nothing like the same extent as those of the maloo. We saw a good inany horns, still attached in some cases to the skull, in the medicine vendors' shops. We bought one or two, and whilst at Archuen several more from the natives. Not, of course, to be compared with the magni- ficent antlers of the Asiatic roe {Capi'eolus pygcirgus), the best horns of the Chinese species surpass those of the European variety, with the exception perhaps of the Swedish. Of these latter I have never seen a collection. The roe-deer in the Thian Shan have grown horns of 18 inches, though this is unusual ; a good Scottish horn is about 9 inches (12 inches is, I fancy, the record), whilst the longest of the West Kansu herds which I measured was 12| inches. I saw perhaps twenty, and I have no doubt that they exceed this length. George killed one with 10} in. horns, whilst mine was 10| inches, though I saw a very much larger head. Attempts have been made to cross the Asiatic {pyga7'gus) and European races, but 1 have never heard of such an attempt being really successful. Mr. J. Hamilton Leigh, an enthusiast where roe are concerned, carried out some interesting experi- ments, and came to the conclusion that the best cross would be a Scots buck and a Siberian doe. A half-bred buck crossed with pure Siberian does Types of Chinese Roe Heads (Caprcolus bidjordi). Roe-Deer Alaii.mi:d. 1S4] THE ROE-DEER 186 would probably give good results. If some Chinese roe could be imported, which should not be a very difficult matter, and crossed with Scottish roe, I see no reason why the cross should not be a success. Not so large as the pijga7'gus^ and slightly bigger than the European variety, a buck of the latter species crossed with a Chinese doe should produce an animal growing a very fine head. The shape of the horns of the bedfordi varies considerably, as will be seen from the illustrations. One pair is almost exactly like a miniature pygargus, whilst others might easily be mistaken for a good Scottish head, long, rough, and inclining to the lyrate form. 1 never saw a head with remarkable brows. They were nearly always short. From the east side of the valley in which we were camped branched a number of side valleys, running up to the main ridge, ten thousand feet or so above sea level. They were, in some cases, narrow, one side, as usual, thickly wooded, the opposite slope being covered with long grass ; in others, the ground opened into big corries, sparsely scattered with trees where the sun permitted, but, whatever the configuration of the ground, exceed- ingly steep and arduous to climb. The wooded northern slopes were the natural home of the roe. They feed early and late, and, so far as my experience goes, near the tops of the ridges. This might be expected in the case of such animals as slieep and wapiti, but I was surprised to find the roe, not among the bushes at the foot of the gullies, where a trickling stream usually wandered, but, on the contrary, near the summits. Whether this is a natural habit or one induced by the incursions of 186 THE ROE-DEER woodcutters, whose hideous clatter was to be heard hourly in the main valley and at frequent intervals in the side corries, I cannot say. There is practically only one hour in the day during which it is possible actually to stalk roe, namely, from 4.30 to 5.30 in the afternoon. It took about two hours to climb to the top of the ridge, a coign of vantage which it was absolutely essential to reach unless favoured by an extraordinary piece of luck, consequently early morning stalking was out of the question. I never saw one lying out on the open hill-side, and the earliest at which I ever saw one come out of the wood was 2.30. Usually they move about a little at noon, and then lie up again till late in the evening. The bucks seemed to me more alert than the does ; their heads were never down for more than a few seconds at a time. As a rule they stand at the edge of the wood, hidden by undergrowth, and make quite sure the coast is clear before venturing forth. George killed two bucks, right and left, at one o'clock, not far from our camp, without any stalk at all. They were both in their winter coats, though the younger of the two had not entirely completed his change. The muzzle was black, and there was a black patch on each side of the lower jaw, which was white. The edges of tlie ears were black, and the legs were dark in colour. The white patch on the throat was very conspicuous, extending as a rule for some way down the front of the neck, and not making two distinct markings as in the European variety. Though by far the commonest game animal we encountered during our whole trip, I consider it DIFFICULTIES OF SPYING 187 more difficult to make certain of getting a good roe head in China than any other trophy. But then the head you want most is sure to be the one to elude you ! To start with, the corries which they frequent are most difficult to spy, covered as they are with long dry grass. I am speaking, of course, of winter hunting in October and November ; in the summer, when the grass is long, roe-stalking must be pretty well an impossibility, for no spying, how- ever careful, would reveal the game in such thick cover. The roe are very small, and the corries are very large. I shall never forget one evening when Lao-Wei and I were coming back to camp. He suddenly stopped and said " Pao-Zoo / "—the native name for roe. I looked and looked, but could see nothing. At last, four or five hundred yards off, I saw what, even through the glass, looked like a little patch of grey fur ; it was only after some minutes, when he moved, that I distinguished a buck, so completely dwarfed was he by his sur- roundings. A great difficulty to contend with when spying, and one which is practically insurmountable, is the steepness of the sides of the gullies. This, coupled with the long grass, renders it impossible to spy the bottom of the slope on which you stand. The only place from whicli to get a clear spy is from the opposite ridge. In winter the valleys are in shadow comparatively early in the afternoon, and this again makes spying no easy matter from the sunlit tops. The great essential when after roe-deer in Kansu, or anywhere else for that matter, is careful spying. We saw deer nearly every day, but in the sixteen 188 THE ROE-DEER days during which I strenuously endeavoured to get the one particular buck I coveted, I only saw one other head which approached his in excellence. I could have shot two or three smaller beasts, carrying six points, it is true, but no better than an ordinary Scottish head. I did not fire, because I was afraid of frightening the big buck, whom I knew would not desert the ground unless he were thoroughly alarmed. I had two stalks after him, but never got a shot. The other good buck had already taken the alarm, though he had not seen us. He was slowly making off down the hill, when he suddenly stopped, and with cocked ears stared into the wood in front of him. Almost imme- diately another buck emerged and began walking towards him. He passed my buck, when the latter suddenly whipped round and charged up the hill after him. Another ten yards and I should have had a splendid chance, but alas ! it was not to be. They both dashed into the wood, and I never saw either of them again. The little deer has always been a great favourite of mine. Small as he is, he was my first big game, and I love him for that, if for no other reason. It was a dark deed, the slaughter of that unfortunate yearling, and I have often regretted it. Still, a schoolboy of sixteen, armed with a gun, and suddenly confronted by a real live roe — big or small — looking to his excited imagination the mucklest of muckle harts, cannot at so supreme a moment be harshly judged for forgetting the ethics of sport. That little head has hung in my bedroom for years, and though I am not proud of it, it has a special value in my eyes, for it marks my THE ROE-DEER 189 entrance into the happy hunting gi-oiinds which have since become my chief dehght and interest. But I lo\e the roe for other reasons as well. He is such a dainty thorough-bred little beast, albeit a bit of a misogynist in captivity. There is something fairy-like and unsubstantial about him, whether he is watched at his pretty love-making, delicately stepping amid the greenery of summer, whilst his lady-love, red as himself, flashes between the birch stems ; or, when his white patch goes bobbing and dancing through the thickets in late October. With the possible exception of some of the smaller African mammals, such as the impala, or Grant's gazelle, there is no beast of the chase w^iich for his size bequeaths so splendid a trophy to his slayer as the roebuck. I was almost over-anxious to secure a really good head in China, but the Red Gods averted their faces and I experienced a run of ill-luck which nothing relieved. But a stalker must always make up his mind to one thing ; however fine the trophies he may have secured, he will ever have the rankling recollection of a head or heads beside which his own pale into insignificance. Was there not once a stag in Eskadale ? and even Mr. Selous saw a finer lion than any he has killed. 'Hope springs eternal in the human breast, Man never is, but always to be blessed.' And so we go on always hoping, for, though the head of heads to-day is feeding out of range, there is ever a to-morrow. There was, too, a ram on Yarlakan of which I have written elsewhere ; now 190 THE ROE-DEEK there was a roe, for this also is the tale of a failure. I saw him first as I panted and stumbled up a hill-side. He was feeding with a doe at the bottom of a corrie where the berberis bushes and thickets of willow and tamarisk softened the hard line which divided the forest on the northern slope from the dull ochre of the ridge beyond the little stream. His horns were not enormous, but they were finer than any I had seen, long, rough and widely spread with dull white points which gleamed against the dark background. I gloated over him, as he fed all unconcerned in the sunlight, for, though long, the stalk seemed easy. Alas ! it was the first time that I pursued him on that treacherous ground, and experience left me a tired and wiser man ! In Scotland roe-stalking is despised by the many and appreciated by the few who really know what fine sport it affords. There, it is no easy matter. In the huge corries of Kansu its difficulties are enormously increased. In the present instance, apparently all that we had to do was to finish our climb — a matter of an hour or so — skirt the top of the ridge, gently descend under cover of the strip of wood which crowned it, and obtain an easy shot. All this we faithfully carried out — and found the corrie absolutely vacant. Then I remembered an eagle which had given me a momentary qualm as we ascended ; for our quarry was hidden once our climb began. Whether the bird had put them off, or the dry, crackling grasses had betrayed our presence, it was impossible to tell. The one thing certain was that they were gone, and that finished -t** ""^Mfe N" 3^-^^ SUSPICION 191 Act I. Next day I had a solitary walk, and owing to the fickleness of the wind jumped another buck, carrying quite a nice head, which galloped off in disgust at the unpleasant odour assailing his nostrils and never stopped until hidden by an intervening knoll. On the morrow, faint but pursuing, I toiled up the hill shortly after midday, and for several hours lay awaiting the arrival of my prospective victim. Sure enough, about 4.30 Lao- Wei developed an enormous smile and dug me gently with his elbow, ejaculating " Pao-looy From the edge of the wood below us appeared the buck. He skirted its fringe, fed for a few seconds, then raised his head. Next, a doe cautiously emerged from the bushes, and they quietly fell to feeding. At every other mouthful the buck would sharply raise his head ; indeed, nowhere have 1 seen the little deer so much on the alert. I w^as all for going down at once under cover of the fir- wood on our right, but my companion negatived this, intimating that they would see us. Whether he was right or wrong I shall never know, though I like to console myself with the thought that my plan might have been successful. As it was, we waited for half an hour, then, the roe never having advanced more than a few yards from the fringe of the cover, made our descent. All Vv'ent well at first, though the dead leaves and fallen branches with which the wood- cutters had plentifully bestrewn the gi'ound made the most hideous crackling at every step we took. My heart was in my mouth, but at length we gained a knoll a few hundred yards from our quarry and saw their white sterns showing palely 14 192 THE ROE-DEER amid the long yellow grasses. It was too far for a shot, so descending the hill we crept on in an endeavour to gain the shelter of a farther knoll. There are two great enemies of the stalker on this kind of ground — the wind and the long grass. The former — nearly always those " baffling mountain eddies " which chop and change so unexpectedly — gives him away at the most ticklish moments and in the most uncompromising manner ; the latter, tall, dry and brittle, is as confusing to his sight as it is deceitful to his footsteps, for while perplexing to the one its dry unmistakable crackle alarms the game at almost as great a distance as the scrunching of frozen snow. So it was in the present case. We gained the knoll and peered through the waving tops. The little glade was empty ; we mournfully descended into the valley, and that finished Act II. Like all good comedies — though I pictured a tragedy in my lighter moments — there was a third act. Again I climbed the hill, again I waited ; and yet again on the succeeding day. An immature and guileless stripling thrust himself repeatedly in my path and practically asked to be killed ; a one-horned veteran allowed me to approach within one hundred and fifty yards ; but I was firm. It was my own particular buck or his equal M^hich alone would tempt me to dye my hands in gore, and the stripling and the veteran were alike spared. Yet I saw him again. It was the evening before we broke camp. Saddened and resigned to his loss, I was returning down the hill. It had been a perfect day, diamond weather and overhead " the A LAST LOOK 193 high unaltered bkie." We had had a long round, and, roe or no roe, I had thoroughly enjoyed it. Of all kinds of hunting, that which most appeals to me is in partially wooded, mountainous country. The scenery is so varied ; one is indulged in a constant succession of surprises, for behind each knoll, each belt of woodland, lie unknown and wonderful possibilities. A fresh hill may tantalise you into advancing beyond the imaginary boundary you had marked down for yourself (for there is nothing so alluring as a hill), or a wide vista of hill and dale, strath and glen may delight you even beyond your expectations. So it had been that day. I had outstripped my companion, I had forgotten about the roe, and in spirit Avas back on such another day, three years before in Inverness- shire. A whistle from Lao- Wei made me turn. There he was, my buck, though he was never mine save in the series of beautiful pictures which his grace endowed, framed in firs, silhouetted against the sky. For a moment I meditated a hasty scramble through the wood below in a wild endeavour to obtain a shot, but an instant's reflec- tion convinced me of the madness of such a manoeuvre, and I stood to watch him. He had, I fear, sacrificed his affections to his safety, for the doe fed timidly with upraised head in the open below him. It was almost dark as I reached the foot of the hill, but far above me I could see his pale patch glimmering on the hill-side. I never saw him again, though he often fills my thoughts, as in that last moment when he stood clear and sharp against the sky and his splendid horns filled me with a wild regret. Now, far 194 THE ROE-DEER away, I cannot banish a hope that my attacks have taught him wherein Hes his safety, for no native hunter could properly appreciate those rugged little antlers, and that perhaps hereafter, in the happy hunting-grounds beyond the distant hills, we may yet meet and my shadowy bullet bring him to a shadowy end. N- 1 CHAPTER XXII THE WAPITI OF KANsu {Cewus kansueiisis) Whilst I had been devoting my whole attention to the roe, George had been so fortunate as to kill a bear on the very first day's hunting from our new camp. He saw it about four hundred yards below him in a little clump of bushes which grew in a sheltered patch on tlie rough and stony hill-side. The ground was very steep, but he got down the hill to within one hundred and eighty yards of the bushes, when he distinguished a head and neck. He made a very good shot, when the beast ran some way and disappeared. Yung-sha, his hunter, did not apparently realise what they were after until he followed the tracks into the thicket, whence he shortly emerged looking very scared, and expressing a desire to go home. George, however, went on, and they found the bear lying dead. These bears are said by the natives to mate in April after hibernating. They go into their winter quarters in the ninth month, after the first fall of snow ; the female bear emerging with a cub two or three months old. Next day they brought him in and skinned him. Unfortunately the skin was left lying on the ground 195 196 THE WAPITI OF KANSU that night, and Avhen morning came we found the dogs had irretrievably ruined it, though fortunately the head skin was undamaged. It was most annoying, but, relying on the old hunter's assur- ance, we thought the smell would have kept them off. Later on, after George had killed his wapiti, he, Purdom, who came and stayed with us in camp for a few days, and the doctor returned to Archuen to have another try for a big ram. Whilst they were away Yung-sha, with the old hunter whom they had left behind, went off, without saying anything to me, and killed a female bear and a cub in the next valley. These skins arrived home safely and are similar to one from Thibet or Szechuan which was noticed by Mr. Lydekker in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1897. "It was then suggested that this bear might be a local race of the little blue bear ( Ursus ijruinosus) of Thibet, but it is now evident that it is a much larger and apparently distinct animal." Three days after the death of the bear we heard on October 23rd the first news of the revolution and the secession of Wu-chang, a fortnight after it had taken place. The Viceroy of Lanchow withdrew the leave which he had granted to Purdom and four gentlemen who called themselves, or perhaps I should say objected to being called, " Pentecostals," to cross the border into Thibet, and for many weeks we and other foreigners in the interior were to be the prey of alarming rumours and conflicting reports. Four days later we heard that Hankow had fallen, the native city being burned to the ground. We indulged in several serow dri\'es without any DECREASE OF GAME 197 success, but as I have already described this form of hunting, I will say no more about it. I killed a musk-deer, but it was not full grown and had no tushes. George wounded a roebuck, but though he took the dogs up next morning, they were abso- lutely useless at tracking, paying no attention to tlie spoor and careering wildly all over the country. The doctor, paying the penalty of his profession, went off to iNlinchow, a distance of about 130 /i, in order to see a child who was ill with scarlet fever. The poor little thing — she was the daughter of a missionary — rallied a little after his visit, but died a few days later. The doctor having rejoined us, we moved camp 12 U higher up the valley as being a more convenient centre from which to hunt the wapiti. It is with this animal, in many ways superior in interest to any which we encountered, that I now propose to deal. All those who take an interest in the large fauna of the world know it to be a sad but undeniable fact that it is everywhere, with more or less rapidity, vanishing. Civilised countries, by framing game-laws, are striving to check its decrease ; but good game-laws are as easy to frame as they are difficult efficiently to enforce. In Europe, the big game which still survives is, in the majority of cases, preserved on the estates of large landowners. In Great Britain, the only large game which we possess, namely the red deer, is practically confined, with the 198 THE WAPITI OF KANSU exception of a few herds in Somersetshire, the Lake Country and Ireland, to the Higlilands of Scot- land. In South Africa but a fraction remains of the vast herds of game which roamed the high veldt in the days of yore ; in the more unhealthy central districts of the Dark Continent it still abounds, whilst in British East Africa it is yet possible to form an estimate of the picture which Nature presents in a country favourable to the increase of game when the hand of man is absent as a destroying element. Whether such will be the case in the near future is a question which time alone can answer. Vast reserves have hitherto preserved the game, yet during the past few years sportsmen and sportswomen have flocked there annually in greater numbers ; and, however stringent the regulations, such a slaughter as goes on season after season, with but slight intermission, is bound to tell. In America the bison has long since departed to the happy hunting grounds ; the pronghorn antelope is rapidly following him ; and the wapiti, most magnificent of all the deer tribe, is vanishing with frightful rapidity. In large measure the disgraceful destruction of this noble deer during recent years is largely owing to the fictitious value placed upon their canine teeth by — and the designation is paradoxical to the point of absurdity — the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. Wapiti, I may add, are universally mis- called elk in the United States. It was certain that the bison had to go, but that the wapiti, which roam over steep hill-sides unsuited for any THE WAPITI OF KANSU 199 purpose save as haunts of wild game, should follow them is an indehble disgrace to all real American sportsmen. In the words of Mr. H. A. Bryden, " a more shameful and wanton waste of animal life was never perpetrated in any age or country." There remains Asia. In India, particularly in Kashmir, thanks to stringent game-laws capably supervised, game is, if anything, on the increase. On the private preserves of the great rajahs enormous bags of tigers, bison, buffalo and deer are made. In the high mountainous regions of Central Asia, sheep, ibex, wapiti and roe are still plentiful. Until comparatively recent years wapiti were supposed to exist in a wild state only in America. In addition to being found in Central Asia they, or a very closely allied species, are also to be met with in certain districts of China. The huge forests which originally existed on the borders of North- Western Thibet, have, during the course of centuries, been fearfully depleted. The natural home of the v/apiti, providing cover and secure shelter during the hard winters, deforestation alone, even to the enormous extent to which it has been carried, would have had but small effect upon their numbers. They have, however, been reduced to an even greater extent than have the firs and pines which form their home. Nor is the reason far to seek. Whatever the true medicinal value of hartshorn, its efficacy has been magnified a thousandfold by the Chinese. The wretched wapiti have but practically two months' immunity from slaughter in the year, namely May and June. They shed their horns in April and 200 THE WAPITI OF KANSIT therein lies their sole safeguard, for minus their horns their commercial value is small. So soon, however, as the new horns have attained a respect- able length the hunters are again hot in pursuit, and far from wondering at the comparative paucity of their numbers it is a matter of astonishment that they hav^e not been totally exterminated long since. No deer that I have ever met with has so hard a time, for in no other country are a deer's horns, when in the velvet, of any substantial com- mercial value. They therefore, even in the absence of game regulations, have rest for a considerable, if not a greater portion of the year. The natives of a district abounding in game seldom, as a general rule, produce any appreciable effect on its numbers. Their methods of destruc- tion are too primitive, and the incentive to hunt is confined to the necessities of food and clothing. Given, however, a race of hunters (and nearly every man on the Thibetan border possesses a gun), plus a powerful motive for the killing of game, and its annihilation becomes inevitable. It may take generations — some exotic factor such as the impor- tation of modern rifles may hasten it within an inconceivably short period — but that it will sooner or later disappear, unless the evil is checked by drastic reforms, is as certain as the setting of the sun. Time is a matter of no consideration to the native hunter. He takes his gun, his coat, and a handful of food, finds his game, sleeps anywhere, and eventually bags his beast. It is pitiable, but it is inevitable. No sympathy can be felt for the educated and !^y.,^:)^^^'km:»^^^y. l.vi |lnpt»