Manchurian Books

The houses, or rather huts, were small and built of brick,
and with the exception of their flat roofs, presented nothing
peculiar. The rooms did not possess a ceiling of their own, but
were simply covered by the roof; the floor was formed of earth
closely pressed together, and the internal walls consisted partly of
bamboo-mats. What little furniture there was, was exceedingly
dirty. About the middle of the village was a small temple, with a
few lamps burning dimly before the principal divinity.
What struck me most was the quantity of poultry, both in and out of
the huts, and we had to take the greatest care to avoid treading on
some of the young brood. The chickens are hatched, as they are in
Egypt, by artificial heat.
On our return from the village to the pagoda, we saw two schampans
run in shore, and a number of swarthy, half-naked, and mostly armed
men jump out, and hasten through the fields of rice directly to
where we were. We set them down as pirates, and awaited the upshot
with a considerable degree of uneasiness.


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