Omel is quite w mountain: between 10,500 and "11,000 feet, and itift climb indeed, force, with a. well Ughtly-laden porters it~ would possible to make the ascent in one ay. But as the weather at the top always very "uncertain, and one's transport is quite an expen: sive item, there is no point in doing 80, unless one 1s pressed for time. It'ig,.wisest to allot Detter still @ week, for a visit to the mountain, Eike most. sacred moun: tains I have visited, the greater part of the ascent is. by thousands stone steps which go up the hill aide at a very steep angle and make the climb dimeult and tiring. Tt struck me that, in many' sections, the path could' have taken much ler line, so perhaps—these Jong stretches of stone steps going Inter mirably straight up the face of the mountain, have been purposely ult, marder to ada to the merit of the pilgrim' who makes the of bamboo and is a8 ght, simple and comfort. ble as could possibly have been. devised, One can almost lift the whole thing with one hand, and the total cost is probably well under $1, It consists "merely of two poles of green bamboo held together at either end by pieces of split bamboo, a swinging seat of split bamboo slung, by strips of bamboo to the pol and, as an excess of comfort, an awning of white cloth held up by arched bamboo" rods tied to the poles. (itis better to have this awning removed, if there is no sun or if It fs mot raining, as it tends to obscure one's view). "In this swinging seat, with a piece of bamboo fastened' to the poles by yarn foot-rest, one half-sits half-lies very comfortably and with a feeling of complete security, much more so than in the ordinary rigid sedan-chair, and looks down between one's feet at the steep slope of the steps below out 'The only trouble about this litter 4s getting into and out of It; for in order, presumably, {0 meet the exigencies of the narrow path, the poles are set so close together' that 1, who am by no means a stout per-on, had to stand sideways between el snd then with @ vis ofthe ly jerk myself into the swinging seat. Two coolies carry a hua ken, and this fs quite sufficient, if one only Goes short stages. Bui as T did "double" stages and the litter was Troublesome Mosquitoes jas T said, Having {temple of Packuossu at the foot fin. the afternoon and so had to there the night. It is a noisy, un-Jcomfortable and unattractive place, fand the mosquitoes troublesome. If possible, it Is there }fore best to try and arrange one's fies, 30 og to make the large and note' comfortable temple of - Wannlenssu the first day's stage. It is an easy climb (3,000 feet) of hours from Paokuossu there on my way down), Tt contains the most interesting object that I saw'on the mountain:
bronze image of Pusien nearly 20 feet high siting on the elephant which, according to legend, brought him fo Int. Omel from. india. A fetus-fower forms the saddle; "but the elephant which is only "about ten feet high looks rather out of proportion. 'The casting is said to date from the Tang dynasty, about the seventh century A.D. 'The name of the temple, horally' Temple of Ten Thousand Years, means. in Agurative language, the temple of id 40 have been repaired' and enlarged by the Ming Emperor Wan Li_who was a devout Buddhist.
'The second stage would then be the temple of Hsihslangehih (Elejphant's Bathing Pool), over 8,000 about six hours' pretty hard climbing. The third stage would be the summit, about ye hours.
Cloudy Weather et I have no luck with sacred mountains, Whenever 1 go near one with {intent to ascend it, it at once starts raining or it shrouds its head in Jeiouds, Such was my experience on this trip: at the Huangshan in An-foul, at the Hengshan in Hunan and }Mount Omei was to prove no excep Hon. We left Paokuossu before six Jon a morning of brilliant " sunshine Jand climbed all the rest of the day fin fine weather Teaching the Elephant's Bathing Pool in. the early fafterncon, There was still plenty for time fo reach the summit before JGark, and for one short_moment toyed with the Idea of pushing on. /But 1 must confess that I was very tired, and in the face of the tre-Jmendous opposition that arose at such an unheard-of proposal—three stages in one day~I gave way and remained where we wer Perhaps it did not matter atter all, {for towards evening we were com: pletely enwrapped in clouds, and during the night it started to rain
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.