Page:Ling-Nam; or, Interior views of southern China, including explorations in the hitherto untraversed island of Hainan (IA cu31924023225307).pdf/187

 Lien-Chow and the Le People. 183

to desist ; but the teacher only laughed at them, and, telying upon his valour, caught the ox by the horns, grasping them firmly, and refusing to let go, until the ox gored him in the left thigh. The soldiers rushed immediately to the rescue, drove off the ox, and carried the teacher back to his boat. Upon their report I immediately sent a deputy to inquire into the facts, but the teacher would not allow him to enter the boat. Afterwards I went in person to inqnire, and found matters very much as the soldiers had reported,” ete., etc. Searcely a word of the above is true. There was nota soldier or guard near me, the ox attacked my little girl, pushing her against the bank, and I caught his horns to save her; and, after the ox became frightened and ran away, I walked back to the boat, so that the villagers who saw the affair might not know the extent of my injurtes. The officer knew nothing about it until more than twenty- four hours after it happened. This versatile Prefect has been promoted to a higher post, so that the people of Lien- chow have been deprived of the light of his countenance. In front of the eity of Lien-chow two streams, flowing from almost directly opposite directions, unite, but the smaller one is not navigable. Two miles above the city the main stream divides again, the larger branch leading to Sing-tsze, and the smaller to Tung-pi, both places on the borders of Hunan. Ascending the courses of these three streams, we come into a country of great and varied interest, known as yet to but few travellers, and to these but imperfectly. The most interesting portion of all, the country of the Aborigines, is yet entirely unexplored. We take these streams in their natural order, beginning