Roads are needed far more than railways.

Being hungry, we sat down at Shui-chai to feed on rice at a place where a man minded the baby while the woman attended to the food.  Over my head hung sausages—­my men swore that they were sausages, although for my life I could see no resemblance to that article of food—­things of 1 1/2 inches in circumference and from 12 to 60 inches long, doubled up and hung up for sale over a bamboo to dry and harden in the sun.  Hams there were, and dried bacon, and dirty brown biscuits, and uninviting pickled cabbage.  By the side of the table where I sat was a wooden pun of unwashed rice bowls, against which lay the filthy domestic dog.

Outside, the narrow street was lined to the farthest point of vantage by kindly people, curious to see their own feeding implements in the incapable hands of the barbarian from the Western lands, and the conversation waxed loud and excited in general hazards regarding my presence in their city.

Stenches were rife; they nearly choked one.

A little boy yelled out to his mother in complaint of the food he had been given by a feminine twelve-year-old, his sister.  The mother immediately became furious beyond all control.  She snatched a bamboo to belabor the girl, and in chasing her knocked over the pun of pots aforesaid.  The place became a Bedlam.  Men rose from their seats, and with their mouths full of rice expostulated in vainest mediation, waving their chopsticks in the air, and whilst the mother turned upon them in grossest abuse the daughter cleared out at the back of the premises.  I left the irate parent brandishing the bamboo; her voice was heard beyond the town.

But I was not allowed to leave the town.  All the intellect of the place had assembled in one of the shops, into which I was gently drawn by the coat sleeve by a good-natured, well-dressed humpback, and all of the men assembled began an examination as to who the dignitary was, his honorable age, the number of the wives, sons and daughters he possessed, with inevitable questioning into the concerns of his patriarchal forbears.  Accordingly I once again searched the archives of my elastic memory, and there found all information readily accessible, so that in a few moments, by the aid of Bailer’s Primer, I had explained that I was a stranger within their gates, wafted thither by circumstances extraordinarily auspicious, and had satisfied them concerning my parentage, birthplace, prospects and pursuits, with introspective anecdotal references to various deceased members of my family tree.  I did not tell them the truth—­that I was a pilgrim from a far country, footsore and travel-soiled, that I had been well-nigh poisoned by their bad cooking and blistered with their bug-bites!

I rose to go.  Like automotons, everyone in the company rose with me.  The humpback again caught me, this time by both hands, and warmly pressed me to stay and “uan” ("play”) a little.  “Great Brother,” he ejaculated, “why journeyest thou wearisomely towards Yung-ch’ang?  Tarry here.”  And he had pushed me back again into my chair, he had re-filled my teacup, and invited me to tell more tales of antiquarian relationship.  And finally I was allowed to go.  Greater hospitality could not have been shown me anywhere in the world.