merable long, shed-like buildings, running parallel to each other. — The so-called »puo to sui», an old tower of an unusual shape, stands 2/3-1 mile S of the town. Each brick (some glazed) is pressed into a form with an image in the middle, so that the manifold sides of the tower present hundreds of small images. This tower and the glass pagoda only possess pure Buddhist figures and drawings.
The original population of the town is said to be Mohammedan. The Chinese immigrated subsequently in the course of centuries as merchants, officials etc. The Chinese population preponderates at present. About 70,000 of the 200,000 inhabitants are said to be Mohammedan. They have not intermarried with the Chinese population. You frequently meet Chinese with typical Turkish heads — aquiline nose, beautiful almond eyes with an uncovered caruncle, well-trimmed beard etc. The mosques are built in the same Chinese style as at Ili, Hochow and Si-an-fu. In one of them I saw a monument with an Arabic inscription which was said to belong to the time of the T'ang dynasty. Here, too, I was told that they had immigrated during that dynasty and that they were Turks from Istanbul. — The Mohammedans of Honan were not concerned in the Dungan revolt and have not been persecuted by the Chinese authorities. On the contrary, the authorities rather favour them to some extent. In schools, for instance, they are not forced to kneel in front of Confucius -- a privilege denied to Christian children. There were only a few Mohammedans in thz towns I passed through, but I was told that in a couple of fairly large places further south the inhabitants were preponderantly Mohammedan. The missionaries said that their number could safely be placed at about i million for the whole province, a figure that seems very high. — Religious instruction is given' in Arabic and many people are said to speak the language, especially those who have made the pilgrimage to Mecca and are held in great respect.
IIIF Color HighRes
