MISSIONARY YARNS—CHEAP LIVING—ON THE YELLOW RIVER AGAIN—CASH.
The room we occupied in our inn, which was the only one available, could not have been more than twelve feet by eight feet, and half this space was occupied by the indispensable k\'ang. Not having, as yet, acquired the Chinese art of squatting cross-legged on the k\'ang, and eating off a little stool about eight inches high, we were obliged to squash ourselves into the remaining space, which just enabled Esau to bring our dinner to the door and hand it in to one of us—there was no room for him inside till one of us went out. Nevertheless we managed to enjoy ourselves immensely, Lumberg forming a pleasant addition to our party. He and Rijnhart managed to keep us very much amused with stories of the mistakes they and others had made in talking Chinese, soon after landing in the country—mistakes that are rendered even more common by the numerous differences of dialect met with in the different districts.
On one occasion Rijnhart, when preaching in the streets, was exhorting his audience "to taste our religion, and see if it is good," saying, "If you see a pear, and want to know whether it is good or not, you bite it, and taste it, and then, if you find it good, you eat it." He had been going on in this strain for a short time, when he was suddenly interrupted by a bystander, who said, "But, teacher, you people 353 don\'t eat dogs, do you?" Rijnhart having, unfortunately, used the Chinese for dog instead of that for pear.
There is another story of a famous missionary, who, owing to differences in dialect in a district he had not previously visited, addressed the devil, instead of the Lord, at a public prayer meeting. Similar mistakes are very common, and are bound to be so in a language where the slightest inflection of the voice gives a totally different meaning to the words.
It was quite late that night before we went to bed, but as we had nothing to do the next day, it was a good opportunity for sitting up, talking and hearing about the Chinese people, from men who knew as much about them as our two missionary friends did. We had learnt from our own short experience that living in China was not by any means expensive, but it surprised us not a little to hear that Lumberg and his servant managed on one hundred cash a day (rather under twopence each). I do not suppose there is another country in the world where this could be done.
Next morning we went early into the city to see the market—a very busy scene, as people come in every morning from the country, bringing meat and vegetables, and the streets are crowded; quite different from the previous evening, when they had presented an almost deserted appearance, until the people got suddenly suspicious about Shahzad Mir. Besides this daily market, Chong Wei has another peculiarity. Like every town of importance, it is surrounded by a high wall, but unlike any other place we saw, it has only three gates, for instead of a north gate, a temple has been built, which guards the town from evil spirits, who, as every one knows, always come from the north. We had to lay in stores for our boat journey down the river, and as Mr. Forbes\'s agent asked us to be sure to have everything ready in ample time, we thought that there was no doubt that we would soon be on our way 354 down the Yellow River. Most of our buying was done by Lumberg\'s servant, a Christian convert from Ning-Shia-Fu, the cleanest and nicest Chinaman we met on our travels, who saved us an enormous amount of trouble, and got everything much cheaper than we could have done.
By night we were quite ready for departure, and had been assured that we should start by midday at the very latest. Accordingly, next morning, we were on board by 11 a.m., when we heard for the first time that there was no chance of leaving till the next morning, and that we should have to make an eight days\' journey across the desert from Shih-Tsui-Tsi to Pao T\'eo, as no boats could go so far down the river so late in the year. A pleasant prospect this, with hard frost every night, and no arrangements for camping! Altogether, we did not feel very amiably disposed towards the gentleman who had told us that we must be ready to start by midday. However, remonstrances were useless, and we had to make the best of it.
Next morning our inquiries were always met by the invariable answer that we were going to start at once, but the bill of lading had been incorrectly made out, and had to be rectified. Other delays cropped up, and it was just on 2 p.m. when the skipper appeared and we pushed off into the stream. However, the delay was acceptable in one way, for it enabled Lumberg to come down and see us again, with the welcome news that he had been able to arrange to get rooms in a new inn in the east suburb, and his troubles on that score were at an end.
Once under weigh, we travelled pretty fast. The stream was strong and carried us down grandly, but, after going a couple of hours, the skipper insisted on tying up for the night, saying that there was a nasty place ahead which they could not possibly pass in the dusk; a very feeble excuse, the real reason being that some of the crew lived in 355 a village close by. We had been in hopes of travelling all night, and had certainly been led to believe that we should do so, but nothing, apparently, was further from the intentions of the skipper and his crew. There was nothing for it but to set to work to make ourselves as comfortable as we could in the boat.
OUR WOOL BOAT ON THE YELLOW RIVER.
These wool-boats on the Yellow River are flat-bottomed, and very clumsily, though strongly built. They are from thirty to forty feet long, and ten or twelve feet wide. The ends are decked over for about nine feet, the remainder of the boat being divided off by partitions. As a rule, they trust to the stream to carry them down, the steering being done with a long sweep, but occasionally they use two other long sweeps to row. Up stream they are obliged to tow. The decked portion in the bows was left free of cargo for 356 our accommodation, while that in the stem was allotted to the crew and to our servants, and in it all the cooking was done. Matters were a good deal simplified by our men and the boatmen all being Mohammedans, with the exception of Esau, who had no religious objection to eating with any one, believer or unbeliever. Besides ourselves, there were three or four Chinese passengers going to different places down the river, their passage-money being the skipper\'s perquisite. All the remaining available space was piled up with wool, piled up as high as was safe, till the gunwale was only a few inches above the water. But for the danger of sticking on mud banks—a by no means infrequent occurrence—I fancy they would have been loaded even more deeply.
In addition to our own, there were four more boats going down stream in company with us, a circumstance we had reason to regret before very long, as on the very next day, the 6th November, just as we were making most satisfactory progress, one of these boats stuck about half-past three in the afternoon, and we had to wait till she got off. As she was still ashore at sunset, we made no more progress that day, and several valuable hours were lost. Next morning six men went to the other boat and began unloading the wool—a very tedious process—but, about 10.30 a.m., they got her off, and she came down towards us.
HALTING FOR THE NIGHT ON THE YELLOW RIVER.
While waiting here, we had managed to pass the time watching a ferry plying just below the spot where we were tied up. Mongols, Chinese, camels, sheep, and bullocks, all were piled in promiscuously, and taken across from one side to the other, being washed down a very considerable distance in the transit. All of a sudden a tremendous row started between the parties, apparently as to which had the right to be taken over first. They were fairly evenly divided and equally determined. Abuse was plentiful, and a free fight seemed imminent, when, somewhat 359 to our disappointment, we were called upon to renew our journey, thus being robbed of the one possible compensation for our hours of delay.
A FERRY ACROSS THE HUANG HO.
About 4 p.m. that day we had to pass the customs-house at the border of the Ning-Shia district, and here our skipper was detected smuggling ten bales of pears; the officials wanted to stop us all night, but a few words from Rijnhart pacified them, and on we went. Unfortunately the pears were not yet ripe, or we would have exacted heavy toll in return for our good offices. We had only managed another ten li, before we stopped for the night, at a small village on the right bank of the river, from which the skipper started off to walk twenty li to his own home. We were sick of the constant delays and stoppages, and as there were several boats tied up along the shore, we landed 360 and tried to find the owners, in hopes of being able to buy or hire a boat for ourselves, to go as far down the river............