66 French missionaries from Pekin, they | his lap while being immortalized on a have built themselves a neat and fine wooden panel, and had a curious twinchurch, in which they have mass and kle in his eye, as if he knew better, evening prayers every day, with accom- resisted bravely for some time and sat paniment of an harmonium, somewhat like a statue, but finally had to give in. played upon à la Chinoise, but still "You will die," cried an old woman wonderful considering that the whole at him, "I saw your soul come out service is carried on by Chinese of the of you and go into the picture. I did very poorest classes. really, I saw it with my own eyes!" "So did I," cried a hundred other voices in a chorus. Here again, however, I could not help remarking, though I admired them much for what they had done, that these converts lacked the repose and stolid, and at the same time gentle, manner of their pig-tailed heathen brethren. They seemed to me unsteady, and at times ill-natured. They had given us the best room they had at first, but during the night, for what reason I was never able to discover, we were roused up and bundled into a dingy room, where we had to spend the remainder of the night. Following the stream, in which I took a most delicious bath, to the great astonishment and disgust of the unclean Chinamen who happened to pass by, we halted after another long day's journey at Tu-thia-chuang. By the time the priest had got up, they had half convinced him that at least half his soul had really gone out of him; but had the soul gone or not, he would go and take the cash for safe keeping to his home first, and complain and ask for the restitution of his lost property afterwards. He was a sensible man. So was I, and knowing what was coming, the moment he had gone went into the room and packed the sketch safely, then took another clean panel and smeared it with the scrapings of my palette to show him instead, in case he should come back and wish the picture destroyed. I Twenty minutes had not elapsed when he was back again, of course without the cash, holding his stomach and complaining of internal agonies. "I am going to die," he cried the moment he saw me, 66 you have taken away half my soul !" "Certainly I have," said I sternly. "You did not expect me to give you all that cash for less than half your soul? Did you?" 66 Oh, no but I wish it back, as I feel so bad now without it." The inn at this place was somewhat better than the usual accommodation one gets in the smaller towns in the interior of the Celestial (only to Celestials) Empire. Crowds of people assembled as we arrived just before sunset, and among others I spotted a fine head of an old Buddhist priest. After a long confabulation and a few strings of cash, which passed from my pockets into his hands, I was able to induce him to sit for his picture, and I dashed off a sketch in oils before he had time to change his mind. Unfortunately, the large crowd that had gathered round, especially the women Here the other panel, smeared with folks, seemed to scold him and talk palette scrapings, was produced after angrily at him for his silliness in sit-making pretence at destroying it with ting, owing to the strange notion that a knife, and never in my life have I prevails in China and, in fact, nearly seen an expression of relief to equal all over the East, that if an image is that of the priest. He had not felt half reproduced a soul has to be given to it, his soul so much going out of him, but and that the person portrayed has to he certainly had felt it coming back be the supplier of it at his own ex-again. He could swear by it. He was pense. The venerable old Buddhist now perfectly well again! "All right," said I, “I shall go in the room and destroy the image I did of you; will you then be satisfied ?” "Yes." priest, who was nursing his cash on This wonderful cure gave us all a very busy evening. All the villagers | The descent from the summit to the who had complaints of any sort came monastery occupied two hours. to us to be restored to health. A leper who had lost all his fingers, wished me to make them grow again; and a pitiful case of a poor child only a few months old, was brought up, whose mother, while busy stirring boiling water in a big cauldron, had dropped the child in by mistake. He was so badly scalded that I am afraid, though I tried to relieve his pain by smearing him all over with the vaseline which had been saved in the cooking, the poor child cannot have lived more than a few hours. The Trappists may consider themselves very lucky to have landed upon such a delightful spot for settling in and building their abode upon it. The valley, in the centre of which they are, is divided in two by a limpid stream, and high mountains surround it on all sides. As for their building, it is a solid and simple structure encircled by a high wall, which not only protects the penitent fathers from robber neighbors, but also from the raids of panthers and leopards, which are numerous in that part of the world. We made an early start the next day, As we went in my friends and I were and by ten o'clock we passed Shan- most kindly received by the father lung-men. Going through the pass the superior, Father Maurus, a Frenchman, scenery was magnificent. I was fol- the only one in the convent who is lowing the dried river-bed, and on both allowed to speak. I believe that ten or sides had high mountains until we came more came out with him from France in sight of a portion of the Great Wall. to settle there, but only four out of that There was a huge tower on one side of number had survived, the others havthe river, and a long stretch of wall ing succumbed to illness and hardships. built on the steep slope of the moun- Many Chinese and Mongols, however, tain; on the other side was the contin- have joined the order, and it is partly uation of it. I was still moving in a owing to the manual help received by westerly direction, and from where the these Asiatics that they have been able tower was the ground rose in a very to build themselves the several houses, steep incline. Three hours of very the church, the wall, and the porticoes stiff climbing for my animals, my com- all round the premises. Father Maupanions, and myself, took us to the top rus spoke in terms of high praise of his of the mountain; and what a lovely Mongolian confrères, and, with the view when we got there! Chain after exception of their finding it a little diffichain of mountains of a pure cobalt cult at first to keep perfectly silent blue on one side, the high Hsi-ling- from one end of the year to the other, shan peak and a fertile valley on the he said that they were good, obedient, other. A long distance away in a and willing. The Trappists are vegetasoutherly direction I could just discern, rians, at least those out there were, against the bright sky line, the towers and their life is cut out as simple as it of Tung-an-tzu and another part of the could be as far as food and worldly wall, while under me, in the fertile habits go. They do nothing that is not valley, I saw signs of agriculture and a a strict necessity of life, yet they make large enclosure. On the nearest hills, themselves a white wine, rather pleasland-marks in the shape of large crosses ant to the taste, out of vineyards they had been put up, to show that the have imported and grown. On weekground belonged to a Christian sect, days they rise at 2 A.M. by the sound of called the Trappists, and to designate the church bell, and on Sundays an the limits of their property. Descend- hour earlier, but they are allowed an ing was much quicker work than as-hour and a half's rest in the afternoon. cending, and as I drew nearer I found Eight P.M. is their hour for retiring, myself among plantations of apricottrees that the silent fathers have grown in these almost uninhabited regions. and they are compelled to sleep in their clothes. Since their settling at Yangtzia-ku several European customs have been discarded, as, for instance, the the subject, if I am not mistaken, wearing of sandals, which are now replaced by Chinese shoes; also the growing of a pigtail is decidedly an adopted Chinese custom. They have three meals a day, except | on fasting days, and lunch is the largest meal they have, consisting of a bowl of soup and two small dishes of vegetables. At dinner they have less! being the quality and cooking of some fried potatoes and the bad success of the soup which he had just served me. It was comical to be talking of fried potatoes in the Latin tongue with a Manchu cook in a French Trappist convent in China! The Trappists possess eight hundred hectares of ground, and, though they do not make any converts, their object is apparently to serve as a good example to intending imitators, and to be the means of getting natives converted to the faith of Christ by showing them how to lead a lazy — I mean a saintly life. When they first went out they suffered much owing to the severe climate, their being completely ignorant of the Chinese language, and through the hostility shown to them by the neighboring villagers and by the mandarin of the province. They were The Trappists sleep each in a small once accused of concealing fire-arms cell, and I did the same during the time and ammunition, which were supposed I stayed there, only in a separate part to be awaiting the arrival of a large of the building. There was a wooden band of "white devils," who were crucifix at the head of my bunk and a then expected with these means to hard mattress, and that was all. My conquer a large portion of the "Em-paint-box, as usual, answered the purperor of Heaven's" dominions. The pose of a pillow, and altogether I was mandarin, with a large escort of sol- really very comfortable. diers and followers, unexpectedly arrived at the monastery and searched every nook within its walls, and, on finding nothing but the kindest reception on the part of the Trappists, his suspicions were dispelled, and he has not troubled them ever since. Not many miles off were the famous towers of Tung-an-tzu, and I started one morning on my way there. Along the stream, on the banks, are the two villages of Shang-wan-tzu and Shiawan-tzu, meaning the upper and lower windings of the river. Farther down When I visited the monastery they we come to Hu-tzia-ku (translated : had been there ten years, during which valley of the Hu family), on the left time they had only seen three Euro- side of the river, and an altogether peans. One of the chief features of Christian village. It is a pretty place, the monastery was the cook. He was situated as it is on a high bank overa Manchu, and had been wandering looking the stream. Its inhabitants poverty-stricken all through Manchuria are daggers drawn with the villagers of until, begging his way south, fate had Shang-wan-tzu and Shia-wan-tzu, for brought him to the monastery, where neither of these have followed in the the shelter he begged for was immedi- footsteps of their Christianized neighately granted to him. Their curious bors. In fact, several times they have mode of living interested him, and he shown themselves very hostile both remained with them as a novice for towards them and the more distant some years, until, through his perse- Trappists. At Hu-tzia-ku, in the house verance and other good virtues he had of the village chief, who is the catdisplayed, he was elected a father. He echist as well, one room had been seemed to be quite happy with his new turned into a small chapel, and had creed and his cooking utensils. He an altar with a few candles, a crucifix, had learnt Latin since he had been and on each side of it a large colored with the Trappists; and, to my great chromo of French production, and astonishment, breaking the vows he illustrative, in extra warm colors, of had sworn to obey, he began a conver- what becomes in future life of the poor sation with me one day in that tongue, Chinamen who do not accept the Chris At tian creed. The catechist insisted on | staying at the monastery I paid them accompanying me to the towers, so off several visits. A few presents in the we started together. I left my animals shape of needles and cotton-reels were at the small temple at the foot of the much appreciated by the weaker sex, mountain, and I proceeded to climb and a few small silver coins (Japanese) to the summit, where the two towers sent the men nearly crazy with dewere. The wall began from the first light. They did not even object to be tower we reached, and went across sketched, which is saying a great deal valleys and mountains; at intervals for Celestials. there were other similar towers, with Bidding good-bye to the fathers, I vaulted, but generally tumbling-down proceeded towards Tzie-zia-pu-zu, on roofs, the arches having given way and the right-hand side of the stream as the ceiling fallen in. The outside walls one faces the towers of Tung-an-tzu, were yet in excellent preservation. In then turning north-west, I found myall the towers I entered the walls were self in a narrow valley. Here and double, and access to the upper floor there a few mud villages were scatwas obtained by going up a small stair-tered about along a very picturesque case, similar to that of a ship and road, winding among huge boulders and nearly perpendicular. The upper part of the tower was of bricks, but the lower part and the foundations were made of enormous blocks of granite kept well together by strong cement. Between stone and stone one could see numerous iron bullets jammed in. A tablet, with the number of the tower engraved on it, was placed over the door, and the windows were invariably of a semi-circular shape. A wall, wide enough for several men to walk abreast, from one tower to another, connected all these towers, and the height of that portion of the wall at Tung-an-tzu was not more than twenty-five feet. According to some Chinese authorities, this part of the Great Wall is supposed to be much older than that farther The worshippers at, and the builders north at Chatao. That the wall is not of these temples, if I was well incontinuous can be ascertained here, as formed, labor under the impression no traces can be seen between the that evil spirits can only travel in a tower and wall which I saw at Sia-long-straight line, and that reaching a spot men and this part. One explanation in a roundabout manner is an impossiof the problem would be that these bility to them, which must make it fragments of the wall have been built very inconvenient for them but conat different epochs, closing more particularly valleys where an invading army could get through. The theory that it was erected with the object of keeping tigers, leopards, and other wild beasts out of the country I am afraid is not a very plausible one, as nothing would be easier for any feline quadruped than to climb over the wall. The villagers at Hu-tzia-ku were in every way most kind to me, and while rocks on both sides, forming beautiful venient to others; so that, if you wish ones in for you they despise getting round | be lighted in the winter under this you! The muleteers, many of whom kan to keep one warm. The smaller travel on these roads, are about the inns, as generally found in villages, only worshippers at these temples, and never did I see them passing one temple that they did not go in to pay their chin-chins to the gods. have only one long room, with a kan running the length of the longer wall, or sometimes two kans at the two ends of the room, where men of all grades South-east from the pass and a long of society rest their weary bones for way off I could still distinguish the the night, either sleeping in their towers and wall of Tung-an-tzu. The clothes or wrapped up in a blanket. I tablet at the temple was of the fifth myself had constantly to sleep in a moon of the fifteenth year of Tzia-tzin, | room with a dozen or even more other or, in other words, of the present dy- people, most of the other guests being nasty. Leaving the pack-mules to generally muleteers, as the better follow with the muleteers, I started classes in the interior of China are not down the mountain on foot, and I was much given to travelling. Each inn, much impressed by the marked change as a rule, possesses a courtyard, or a in the type of the inhabitants. They large enclosure in which the mules and were of a pure Mongol type; they had donkeys are kept at night. In most of larger eyes, a flatter nose, with wide them they only provide you with sleepnostrils, and were apparently not so ing accommodation and tea, and you intelligent. The dialect they spoke have to bring your own food, though also was incomprehensible even to my by making a special arrangement food muleteers. The valley grew wider as can always be obtained. There are I went along, and late in the afternoon several Chinese dishes that are not at I arrived at Kan-tzia-chuan, the village all bad; for instance, the laopings, a of the Kan family. cross between an omelette and a tart, were, to my taste, delicious. Great astonishment was caused at the latter village by my showing the crowd that had collected an indiarubber band, which with its expansive qualities produced a regular panic of terror among the villagers. Another village was gone through not very distant from this, after which the hills closed in again, the way being actually walled in between huge rocks perpendicular to the ground. The village of Mao-mian-tzu takes its name from a perforated and curiously shaped mountain in its vicinity, and later, towards six in the evening, after having crossed yet another small valley, and gone through another ravine and a narrow pass, we left the circle of mountains where the granite is replaced by yellow earth, and finally reached our halting-place, Sheu-mentzu (the stone door), where we put up at the quaint little inn. A Chinese inn is not a paradise of comfort, and less still a model of cleanliness or privacy. They are all more or less alike, though, of course, some are larger than others, but never cleauer. The ones in towns have separate small rooms, like cabins with paper windows, and a raised portion of the room called kan covered with a rough mat, is what one sleeps on. A fire can How a "ribbon," as they called it, only a couple of inches long, could become a yard in length, and vice versâ, was an astounding mystery to them. They kept discussing about it all night long, and none of them came within a respectful distance of me, or touched any of my traps. They were sure that I was a "white devil." I made a very early start, as I had a long day's journey before me, and at 8 A.M. I had already passed Tocheng-pu and reached the plateau-like stretch of yellow earth on the summit of the hills. About an hour later, in a storm of wind, I began descending towards an immense plain, like a desert, which lay stretched at my feet, while dozens of gigantic dust columns, making so many whirlwinds, were playing about, like huge ghosts, in a |