Page:Through China with a camera.pdf/292

 monly salute the wanderer in China. Everything hereabouts shone with freshness and beauty, and it was evident that we must have landed in a real paradise of cultivation.

There lay the village in front of us, nestling cosily amid the trees! And as we marched along I pictured to myself a quiet, rustic hamlet, such as we encounter in our English counties. But notwithstanding the natural beauty of the situation, Kong-kai was disappointing. No perfume of rose or honeysuckle greeted us as we approached, no rustic cots, no healthy, blooming children, not even the fondly-expected sturdy villager were among what was to be seen here.

At this place we procured mountain-chairs for an eighteen miles' journey to the monastery of Tien-tang. The chair-bearers looked worn and feeble, but as I walked a good deal they were not over- fatigued. One or two of the hamlets which we passed on the road were much more attractive than Kong-kai ; and indeed the people seemed to improve in condition the further we advanced inland. Near the hills the women and children adorn their raven tresses with the bright flower of the azalea — a plant found in great profusion in the highlands of the locality. The halting-places were little wayside temples, and in one of these I met two old women, the priestesses of the shrine. Most hag- gard, ill-favoured crones were they, and it was with grave fore- bodings that I allowed them to prepare my repast.

The bearers rested as often as they possibly could, and spent their money and their leisure in gambling among themselves or with wayside hawkers. Some of the small temples hereabouts differed from any which I had seen in China, having their outer porches adorned with two or three well-modelled life-size figures in the costume which appeared to be that of the ancient lictors of the Ming dynasty. But the idols within were invariably the