The boy travellers in the Far East : adventures of two youths ... - Library

384
THE BOY TRAVELLERS.
of faueiful names for tlieir bridges and temples, and fi'equently the name
lias very little to do with the structure itself. I am told that there is a
bridge in the south of China with exactly the same name as this, and not
far from it is another called the ' Bridge of the Ten Thousand Ages.' We
have seen the 'Temple of Golden Happiness' and the 'Bridge of Long
Eepose.' "We shall be on the lookout for the ' Temple of the Starry Firma-
ment,' and probably shall not be long in finding it. Strange that a people
so practical as the Chinese should have so much poetry in their language
"We came to the village of Nan-kow, at the entrance of the Nan-kow
Pass, and stopped there for dinner. Our ride had given us a good ap])etite,
and though our cook was not very skilful in preparing our meal, we did
not find fault with him, as we did not wish to run the risk of waiting
while he cooked the things over again. The Chinese inn at Nan-kow is
not so good as the Palace Hotel at San Francisco ;
in fact, it is as bad as any
other hotel that we have seen. They don't have much pleasure travel in
this part of the world, and therefore it does not pay them to give much
attention to the comfort of their guests.
" The jS'andvOW Pass is about thirteen miles long, and the road through
it is very rough. The mountains are steep, and we saw here and there
ruins of forts that were built long ago to keep out the Tartar invaders of
China. Our animals had several falls, but they got through without acci-
dent, aTid, what was more, they brought ns to a village where there was an
inn with something good to eat.
" What do you suppose it was? It was mutton, which is kept boiling
THE GOD OF THli
KITCHEN.
pieces, and are of no further nse.
in a pot from morning till night ;
and as fast as any is
taken out, or the sonp boils down, they till the kettle
up again. Mutton is very cheap here, as sheep are
abundant and can be bought at the purchaser's own
price, provided he will keep himself within reason.
Great numljers of sheep are driven to Pekin for the
suppl}' of the city, and we met large flocks at several
points on the road. Their wool has been exported to
England and America ; but it is not of a tine quality,
and does not bring a high price.
"We passed the ruins of forts and towers every
few miles, and our guide pointed out some of the tow-
ers that were formerly used for conveying intelligence
bv means of signal -fires. They are now falling to
"This is the road by which the Tartars went to the conquest of China,
!