Page:Ossendowski - From President to Prison.djvu/49

Rh iron pan that serves for boiling their porridges of grain and their vegetable soups, for frying occasionally in bean or sesamum seed oil, for steaming the man-t'ou or dumpling-bread of the north and for all the other culinary operations. A fire of dry kaoliang stalks and driftwood fished out of the river burned under the iron pan while the smoke carried away through a flue that circulated under and through the raised platform of mud brick, or k'ang, and then issued forth on the outside of the house, through a conical clay chimney. The k'ang is thus warmed by the waste heat from the kitchen fire and serves the purpose of both a stove and a general bed for the whole family. I saw no trace of furnishings in the room save the straw mats spread over the dirt on top of the k'ang, some wooden basins and cups, two buckets and an axe, which appeared to comprise the total personal property of the household.

The Chinese host called the women. Two old ones and a young one answered, all of them ugly and awfully dirty. They were sullen and answered all our questions with contemptuous silence. They busied themselves with sweeping dust from the k'ang, then prepared tea and disappeared again. We settled for the night on the unbearably hot k'ang and surrendered ourselves to the mercies of a whole army of previous occupants, who made hideous the night through their proofs of valour and greed. At the outset I tried to fight this army, making vigorous counter-attacks; but I was eventually forced to capitulate and waited tediously for the dawn, fearing that, if the sun were late, my losses would prove fatal. But the sun was prompt and mercifully drove the satiated enemy into their dugouts to spend the day in dreaming of another night raid. It was not, however, until I was on the