Page:Ningpo to Shanghai.djvu/72

58 Half an hour's walk from the Monastery, travelling in chairs is no longer possible for the male adult;&mdash;though small footed old ladies and unused-to-travelling Chinese teachers, with heads insensible to giddiness from the peculiar swinging motion imparted by the bearers to chairs when ascending heights, do manage to keep their seats without flinching. The first Ding from the commencement of the ascent is reached in about seven minutes, and eight minutes walking further on brings the traveller within view of the small temple at the entrance of the Sze-tze-kow, or Cave of the Lion's mouth. The strata at this height is of the red brown hard sand stone before spoken of. Few or no birds or animals are to be seen in this quarter; indeed, throughout the province, the brute creation is sparse ;&mdash;the necessities of the people, perhaps, inducing them to destroy and use for food all the caro crossing their path.

Seventeen minutes walking from the first bridge brings the traveller to the second resting house, called the Ping-sang-Ding. In neither of these Dings are there idols, pictures, or tablets,&mdash;the vicinity of so much priestly sanctity being quiet sufficient for the native wayfarer apprently ;&mdash;apropos to the old English saying&mdash;"the nearer the Church the farther from the Divinity." Five minutes' walk from the second Ding are the quarters of a priest whose main occupation appears to be that of keeping the kettle or rather kettles boiling to supply passers by with warm tea. Here too can be obtained for a few cash, sweet cakes, dates, ground nuts &c.

The contrivance for keeping kettles away from or close to the fires, which are usually made of charcoal in large iron pans placed on trussels, is 