and the villagers, too, were more robust-looking, although even the best of these, in spite of their willow-shaded dwellings and their harvest-fields, betrayed evidences of a hard-struggling, hand- to-mouth existence.
It was not till the afternoon of the fourth day that we reached Tung-chow, though we made but another halt to visit a village fair, where we saw a poor conjuror perform tricks for a few cash that would make his fortune on a London stage. And yet his greatest trick of all was transforming three copper cash into gold coin. His arms were quite bare, and having taken his cash in the palm of his hand, he permitted me to close the fingers over them. Then, passing a wand above the clenched fist, he opened it again and feasted the greedy eyes of his rustic admirers on what looked extremely like glittering gold. He also killed a small boy whom he had with him, by plunging a knife into his body. The youth became suddenly pale, seemed to expire, then jumping up again, removed the knife with one hand, while he solicited patronage with the other. There was one feat which this conjuror performed with wonderful dexterity. He placed a square cloth flat upon the ground, and taking it by the centre, between his forefinger and thumb, with one hand, he waved the wand with the other; and, gradually raising the cloth, disclosed a huge vase brimful of pure water beneath it.
At Tung-chow our boat was boarded by at least a dozen coolies eager to carry our baggage One of them incautiously lifted a trunk and was making off with it, when he was suddenly relieved of the burden by Tao and hurled pell-mell into the water. This summary procedure on the part of my Tientsin man almost cost him his much venerated tail, for it had nearly been torn out at the roots by the infuriated coolies before I could come to the rescue. Here we engaged carts for the
