This is the month of the wheat harvest but there is no sound sleep for tired farmers after an exhausting day in the fields, garnering their crops. During these short summer rights strict watch has to be maintained on most of the flat housetops against roving bands practised by bandits is to send an Unarmed scout ahead of the party make investigations. Selecting a house on the outskirts of the village, this man in the guise of a belated travel-Ter who has lost his way. throws. stone upon the root of the house. It there is any response from above, the pseudo-traveller_ apologizes profusely for disturbing the household and meekly asks his way. Failing a reply the man. returns to report all clear and an attack is immediately made on the unsuspecting victims. The wall {is scaled, the house ransacked and, asa Tule, one unfortunate member carried off "asa human "ticket." be ransomed for a large sum. This horrible pastime, now practised over wide area in North China, is known as "pang Piao," binding the tickets, and the total sum of suffering caused by these desperate men is beyond computation, for but few of the rascals are brought to book.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.