from dawn to dark with scarcely an interval, and received the handsome reward of 4000 cash (about 8s. 6d.) for the journey, which might occupy anything from three weeks to a month. Could you want a better example of that class of men so common all over China "who are driven by the constant and chronic reappearance of the wolf at their door to spend their life in an everlasting grind"?
Trackers and boatmen alike are endowed with two remarkable characteristics—an invariable cheerfulness and good-humour in spite of their life of unceasing toil, and a colossal and ineradicable superstition. Hence the start on a voyage is celebrated with dramatic rites. The head of a sacrificial cock is ceremoniously removed, the blood is poured in libation over the vessel's bows, and amid the ascending fumes and smoke of many joss-sticks, the detonation of crackers, and the soul-stirring din of the inharmonious gong, the start is duly and propitiously made. Thus we placate the powers of evil that infest the waters of the great river, and set forth for the promised lands of the west.
The fame of the swirling races and majestic
