Travels of a pioneer of commerce in pigtail and petticoats; or, An overland journey from China towards India . p and Lowlee con-siderably, and the former, when turning in, again complainedof being ill. Just before I retired for the night, the Chinesefather sent me two fowls and a basket of delicious littlesponge cakes as a present, and I sent him in return a bar ofcommon brown soap and half a dozen wax candles, articles ofrare value in the eyes of native Christians. Foreign soap isa luxury highly prized by all Chinese, and I was asked for itwhenever I went on shore. The common soap of China is
Travels of a pioneer of commerce in pigtail and petticoats; or, An overland journey from China towards India . p and Lowlee con-siderably, and the former, when turning in, again complainedof being ill. Just before I retired for the night, the Chinesefather sent me two fowls and a basket of delicious littlesponge cakes as a present, and I sent him in return a bar ofcommon brown soap and half a dozen wax candles, articles ofrare value in the eyes of native Christians. Foreign soap isa luxury highly prized by all Chinese, and I was asked for itwhenever I went on shore. The common soap of China is avery coarse article, made of tallow mixed with ashes, andsometimes from the soap nut, and very expensive ; the soapnut is principally used by the poorer classes in Sz-chuan forwashing clothes, for which purpose only soap in any form isused, as the people never employ it to wash their persons. 92 TEAVELS OF A PIONEER OF COMMEECE. [Oh. III. We left Chung next morning, continuing through a well-cultivated country. The fragrance of the bean flowers wasdelightful. The last few days travel had brought us into. SZ-CHUAN QUAlUliMiiN. quite another climate. In place of the cold, piercing windsfrom snow-capped mountains, we had now delightful balmybreezes laden with delicious perfume, while the hills weresmiling with luxuriance, cultivated to their very summits. Cn. III.] SZ-CHUAN QUAEEYMEN. 93 The day after leaving Chung we passed without stopping, thecity of Fung-chien. Near the river were numerous quarries,where numbers of quarrymen were hard at work, some dressingthe blocks, and others splitting large masses of sandstone intosquares by means of iron wedges and huge iron hammers,weighing from twenty to thirty pounds. I watched thestone-splitters at their work, in which they displayed greatdexterity, each man selecting a huge piece of sandstone freefrom cracks, bored small holes about three inches deep andeighteen apart; marking the outline of the square blockrequired ; he then inser
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