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222. As a hindrance to traffic it can indeed lay claim to considerable distinction, but this, outside China, would scarcely be voted a desirable recommendation for a road, and as a highway qua highway, it can only be described as a dismal and sorrowful failure. I invariably left it when possible, and took a line across the adjoining hills and fields,—a procedure which I noticed was frequently adopted by the caravans of the country themselves. The muleteer is, indeed, as an individual, by no means devoid of humour. "Good for ten years, and bad for ten thousand," he says, as he stoically contemplates the highway which a thoughtful and paternal Government provides for him. That he happens to live during the period of ten thousand years, and not during the happier epoch of ten years, is neither his own fault nor the fault of his Government, but the accident of fate, and a thing, therefore, to be borne,—cheerfully it may be, but in any case to be borne. That is destiny, and no good Easterner is so foolish as to dream of questioning the decrees of destiny.