Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/112

70 that Mr Little, whose acquaintance with the river is perhaps unique, affirms that at low water an ordinary kuadza such as I was travelling in would occupy six weeks between Ichang and Ch'ung-k'ing, or very nearly double the time actually taken by myself in November. On this point I shall have more to say in a later chapter. For the moment let me only remark that some insight into the peculiar construction of the Chinese mind may be gained by a careful observance of the immemorial methods of the boating population. I became quite absorbed on one occasion in watching a heavy junk struggling painfully up one of the lesser races, which are of frequent occurrence in certain stretches of the river. A long line had been laid out and hitched to a rock above the race. On deck a dozen men were yelling like fiends as they stumbled, slipped, and staggered in desperate endeavours to haul themselves up by the line. They would all seize hold of it, go through an exaggerated goose-step in execrable time, and as soon as they had a little bit in hand, make a desperate plunge with