ite bull's-eye eighteen inches in diameter; he is bare-footed and
bare-headed and bare-legged. In the poverty of his apparel, the all-round
contempt of personal appearance and cleanliness, and the total absence of
individual ambition, this young person reminds me forcibly of our
happy-go-lucky friend Osman, in the garden at Herat.

In striking contrast to him is the dandified individual who brings up the
rear, about ten paces behind the bicycle. He likewise is a yameni-runner,
but of higher degree than his compatriot of the advance; instead of a
vulgar and rusty spear, he is armed with an oiled paper parasol, a
flaming red article ornamented with blue characters and gilt women.
Besides this gay mark of distinction and social superiority, he owns both
shoes and hat, carrying the former, however, chiefly in his hand; when
fairly away from town, he deliberately turns his red-braided jacket
inside out to prevent it getting dirty. This transformation brings about
a change from the two white bull's-eyes, to big rings of stitching by
which these distinguishing appendages are attached.

A substantial meal of yams and pork is obtained at a way-side
eating-house, after which yet another evidence of the sybaritic tastes of
the rear-guard comes to light, in the form of a beautiful jade-stone
opium pipe, with which he regales himself after chow-chow. He is, withal,
possessed of more than average intelligence; it is from questioning him
that I learn the rather startling fact that, instead of having reached
Lin-kiang, I have not yet even come to Ki-ngan-foo. Ta-ho is the name of
the city we have just left, and Ki-ngan-foo is whither we are now
directly bound.

The weather at noon becomes warm, and the luxurious personage at the rear
delivers his parasol, and shoes, and jade-stone pipe over to the slender
and lissom advance guard to carry, to spare himself the weariness of
their weight. Tea and tid-bit houses are plentiful, and stoppages for
refreshing ourselves frequent. The rear guard assumes considerable
dignity when in the presence of a crowd of sore-eyed rustics; he chides
their ill-bred giggling at my appearance and movements by telling them,
no matter how funny I appear to them here, I am a mandarin in my own
country. After hearing this the crowd regard me with even more curiosity;
but their inquisitiveness is now heavily freighted with respect.

Some of the costumes of the women in this region are very pretty and
characteris