rdinarily is. We had to discuss the matter
vigorously; first, for ourselves, then for our beasts, for the room, the
stabling, the watering, the kettle, the coal, the lamp, for every single
item, until at length we got the innkeeper down to the tariff of
civilised people. The unfortunate Tartar exterior, which, for other
reasons, we had assumed, had been the occasion of our acquiring a certain
degree of dexterity in discussions of this kind; for not a day passed,
during our journey through the province of Kan-Sou, in which we had not
to quarrel, in this manner, with innkeepers. Such quarrels, however,
involve no disagreeable results; you dispute, and dispute, and then you
come to an agreement, and the matter is over, and you are as good friends
as ever with your antagonist.

It was scarcely past midnight when the Chinese camel-drivers were on
foot, making, with great tumult, their preparations for departure. We
rose, but it was to no purpose that we expedited the saddling of our
animals; our fellow travellers were ready before us and went on,
promising to proceed slowly till we came up with them. The instant that
our camels were ready, we departed. The night was dark; it was
impossible to discover our guides. With the aid of a small lamp we
sought traces of them, but we were not successful. Our only course,
therefore, was to proceed, at chance, across these marshy plains, which
were altogether unknown to us. We soon found ourselves so involved in
the inundated soil, that we dared advance no farther, and halted at a
bank, and there awaited daybreak.

As soon as the day dawned, we directed our steps, by a thousand ins and
outs, towards a large walled town that we perceived in the distance; it
was Ping-Lou-Hien, a town of the third class. Our arrival in this town
occasioned lamentable disorder. The country is remarkable for the number
and beauty of its mules; and at this juncture there was one of these
standing, fastened by a halter, before each of the houses of the long
street, which we were traversing from north to south. As we proceeded,
all these animals, seized with fright at the sight of our camels, reared
on their hind legs and dashed with violence against the shops; some broke
the halters which confined them, tore off at a gallop, and overthrew, in
their flight, the stalls of the street merchants. The people gathered
together, sent forth shouts, anathematised the stinking Tartars, cursed
the camels, an