Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 75 (Color Image)

0075	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

HAN-CHUNG TO CHENGTU 45

the guests are caused to those who care and who

never seem to rise to as high a place as they would

wish ; whilst those who do not care where they

sit and would prefer a lowly seat next a friend are

placed in exalted posts and sit next the same

people whom they are always meeting. A vast

amount of wine is drunk, and the only way of

getting out of having to drink more than one

wants is to drink tea and absolutely decline to

drink against one's own desires. The Chinese

have but vague ideas about time, and sometimes

the foreigners are equally vague. So often a guest

arrives punctually and has to wait for an hour

or more for a late corner. According to Chinese

etiquette the lowest in rank should arrive first

and the biggest official last. Sometimes the latter

sits busily engaged in his yamen waiting to know

if all the guests have arrived before he starts.

The wearisome functions last for three or four

hours.

Brigandage was still rife in the neighbourhood,

and on account of it many country people came

into the towns. The brigands were so strong,

indeed, that they besieged Hang-chow-hsien for

twelve hours, and though a force was sent against

them from Chengtu the General in command of it

thought the brigands were too strong and he

returned without attacking them. It was corn-

puted that there were 250,000 brigands in the

Province of Szechwan alone, and of these 38,000

were armed with modern rifles. This brigand

force is regularly organised and its chiefs speak of

it as the brigand army—" fei-chün ".

Writing of the Chinese character Pereira says

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