Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/185

Rh but whether the Tzu-liu-ching workmen did not understand the mechanism of the machine, or whether they saw in it a formidable rival and so wrecked it before its real capabilities became known, it was impossible to find out. The only thing that was quite certain was that it did not work. My informant objected that the cost of coal would render it too expensive; and yet the buffaloes employed cost at least £5 apiece to purchase, and 300 cash a-day to feed, and only last from one to five years.

During the evening I had a visitor in the shape of an itinerant dentist, who showed me with much pride a stock of false teeth (made in Japan). He had been at Tzu-liu-ching, he said, for a month, and had inserted no less than 100 teeth in the mouths of the townspeople during his stay. I become more and more suspicious of round numbers as used by the Chinese every day.