Page:Through China with a camera.pdf/203

 here were rice, sweet potatoes, earth-nuts and sugar-cane. Many of the women were out at work in the fields; most of them had the compressed feet so much in vogue among the females of the Fukien province, and hence they seemed to Hmp about uneasily over the furrows. They generally wore pretty dresses of white caUco, edged with pale blue. As for the men, they were bronzed and fat, and they had a lazy, loutish appearance, seemingly leaving the women to do the bulk of the field-work. There were children to be seen too, but their attire consisted simply of a small charm hung on a string around the neck. As at Tai-wan-fu, we passed along some beautiful sylvan lanes, shaded by areca-palms and bamboos, and leading to the settlements which were truly enchanting when viewed from a distance, but less attractive and thoroughly Chinese on a closer inspection. The near approach to one of these hamlets was always known by the conflicting odours of garhc and^ manure, mingled with the fragrance of some sweet-smelling flowers of which the Chinese are very fond, and which quite overpower the soft perfume of the white wild-rose that grows in profusion in the hedges. In the wild flowers which bloom hereabouts we discover the deli- cate hues of our more temperate climes, blending charmingly with the vivid primary colours of the tropical flora. It was pleas- ant, too, to listen to the songs of the field lark, a bird common to certain districts of the mainland both in the north and south of China, and, so far as I can recollect, to some parts of Siam. Halting at the first range of hills, we send back the chairs and await the arrival of my boy Ahong and the coolies, who were far in the rear. Ahong, unaccustomed to walking, was already foot-sore. Against my advice he had put on straw sandals, and so blistered the soles of his feet that the remaining eight miles of our journey tried him severely. The road, if our