's journey was thirty-seven
miles, of which I walked fifteen miles and rode twenty-two miles. We
were travelling quickly. Distances in China are, at first, very
confusing. They differ from ours in a very important particular: they
are not fixed quantities; they vary in length according to the nature of
the ground passed over. Inequalities increase the distance; thus it by
no means follows that the distance from A to B is equal to the distance
from B to A--it may be fifty per cent. or one hundred per cent. longer.
The explanation is simple. Distance is estimated by time, and, speaking
roughly, ten li (3-1/3 miles) is the unit of distance equivalent to an
hour's journey. "Sixty li still to go" means six hours' journey before
you; it may be uphill all the way. If you are returning downhill you
need not be surprised to learn that the distance by the same road is
only thirty li.

To-night before turning in I looked in to see how my mule was faring. He
was standing in a crib at the foot of some underground stairs, with a
huge horse trough before him, the size and shape of a Chinese coffin. He
was peaceful and meditative. When he saw me he looked reproachfully at
the cut straw heaped untidily in the trough, and then at me, and asked
as clearly as he could if that was a reasonable ration for a
high-spirited mule, who had carried my honourable person up hill and
down dale over steep rocks and by tortuous paths, a long spring day in
a warm sun. Alas, I had nothing else to offer him, unless I gave him the
uncut straw that was stitched into our paillasses. What straw was before
him was Chinese chaff, cut into three-inch lengths, by a long knife
worked on a pivot and board, like the tobacco knife of civilisation. And
he had to be content with that or nothing.

Next day we had an early start soon after sunrise. It was a lovely day
with a gentle breeze blowing and a cloudless sky. The village of
Kong-shan was a very pretty place. It was built chiefly on two sides of
a main road which was as rugged as the dry bed of a mountain creek. The
houses were better and the inns were again provided with heaps of
bedding at the doorways. Advertisement bills in blue and red were
displayed on the lintels and doorposts, while fierce door-gods guarded
against the admission of evil spirits. Brave indeed must be the spirits
who venture within reach of such fierce bearded monsters, armed with
such desperate weapons, as were here represented. I stood on