ristian inn of _Yan-Pa-Eul_. We
proceeded towards it, our road constantly crossed by fresh and limpid
streams, which, issuing from the sides of the mountain, reunite at its
foot and form a rivulet which encircles the inn. We were received by the
landlord, or, as the Chinese call him, the Comptroller of the Chest.

Inns of this description occur at intervals in the deserts of Tartary,
along the confines of China. They consist almost universally of a large
square enclosure, formed by high poles interlaced with brushwood. In the
centre of this enclosure is a mud house, never more than ten feet high.
With the exception of a few wretched rooms at each extremity, the entire
structure consists of one large apartment, serving at once for cooking,
eating, and sleeping; thoroughly dirty, and full of smoke and intolerable
stench. Into this pleasant place all travellers, without distinction,
are ushered, the portion of space applied to their accommodation being a
long, wide _Kang_, as it is called, a sort of furnace, occupying more
than three-fourths of the apartment, about four feet high, and the flat,
smooth surface of which is covered with a reed mat, which the richer
guests cover again with a travelling carpet of felt, or with furs. In
front of it, three immense coppers, set in glazed earth, serve for the
preparation of the traveller's milk-broth. The apertures by which these
monster boilers are heated communicate with the interior of the _Kang_,
so that its temperature is constantly maintained at a high elevation,
even in the terrible cold of winter.

[Picture: Kang of a Tartar-Chinese Inn]

Upon the arrival of guests, the Comptroller of the Chest invites them to
ascend the _Kang_, where they seat themselves, their legs crossed
tailor-fashion, round a large table, not more than six inches high. The
lower part of the room is reserved for the people of the inn, who there
busy themselves in keeping up the fire under the cauldrons, boiling tea,
and pounding oats and buckwheat into flour for the repast of the
travellers. The _Kang_ of these Tartar-Chinese inns is, till evening, a
stage full of animation, where the guests eat, drink, smoke, gamble,
dispute, and fight: with night-fall, the refectory, tavern, and
gambling-house of the day is suddenly converted into a dormitory. The
travellers who have any bed-clothes unroll and arrange them; those who
have none, settle themselves as best they may in their p