Fifteen /i from Ninghsia we passed through the suburbs of the f mer Manchu garrison town, and. following the direction indicated by a muleteer, set off southwest across a country covered with sandy imarshes and abandoned to Chinese shepherds. It was already dark when we entered an inn at Pingchipu and established ourselves on the single k'ang which the establishment boasted. In Ninghsia tne camels had not thrived and they had set out with a sluggish and dis-pinted step. So on this first day's journey I walked all the way to spare them, and arrived half an hour before them. When they came in, however, Dusty was seated comfortably astride the pack of the leader and had probably ridden good part of the way. The profes-siena) camel-driver is a tireless pedestrian and never rides except when crossing streams or bogs. When I reminded Dusty of this, he remarked with some asperity that he was accustomed to ride and that he could not walk so far. The cai of the camels and the handling of baggage, he relegated to the inn-per and hi assistant, giving orders with much pomposity, When it came to arranging things on the k'ang, we had a dispute, during which he defended his opinions in loud voice. The upshot of it was that I jost my temper, caught him by the collar and dragged him about the k'ang with some violon ing ing him in sharp contact with the heavier baggage on one or two occasions. Several travellers, who trived on top of a cartload of grain just before us, loudly lauded this manoeuvre and fran! ly expressed the opinion that m retainer was no good and should be sent back. was all humility however, and set about the preparation of food in which he was given material help by the—innkeeper, who was anxious to see peace tored, and in a few minutes the incident was forgotten.
The following morning we set out before daylight with some vague instructions from the innkeeper. Ten minutes later we had lost the camel road, which he had indicated to us, and found our-again upon the cart road leading to the hills. This we followed in the hope of meeting some traveller who could again set us right. At the base of the hills and at the mouth of the ravine which the Wangyehfu road follows, we took a cart and the driver told us we were much too far west and advised that we go due cast until we came to the camel road which we had left in the dark.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.