at either end. Within there is a wide thoroughfare, by far the widest I encountered in any Chinese city, and as roomy as the great roads of London. All the main streets of Peking can boast of this advantage ; but the cartway runs down the centre of the road, and is only broad enough to allow two vehicles to pass abreast. The causeway in the middle is kept in repair by material which coolies ladle out of the deep trenches or mud-holes to be seen on either side of it. Citizens using this part of the highway after dark are occasionally drowned in these sloughs. Thus one old woman met her end in this way when I was in Peking, so that I never felt altogether safe when riding through the streets at night; while in the morning, when the dutiful servants of the Board of Works were flourishing their ladles, one had to face the insalubrious odours of the putrid mud; and at mid-day again, more especially if the weather was dry, the dust was so thick that when I washed my beard I could have suppHed a valuable contribution towards the repairs of the road.
Notwithstanding all this, if there were no dust-clouds to obstruct the sight, the Peking streets are highly picturesque and inter- esting. Along each side of the central highway an interminable line of booths and stalls has been set up, and there almost everything under the Chinese sun is to be obtained. Then out- side these stalls, again, there are the footpaths and beyond them we come upon the shops, which form the boundaries of the actual road. It is a complicated picture, and I only hope that the reader may not lose himself, as I have done more than once, amid the maze of streets. The shops had a great fascination for me. In both cities they are almost always owned by Chi- nese, for the Tartars, even if they have money, are too proud to trade ; and if they have none, as is most frequently the case,
