wall that is scarcely likely to save the inhabitants from a terrible death, should another Boxer rising ever occur in this unfathomable Chinese sea of humanity with its prejudices and unrest. — Father Hugh, who returned to Si-an-fu via Lintung in order to bear me company, said that the number of Chinese to be baptised annually has become about four times larger since the Boxer rising. When I asked what he thought the reason might be, he replied: »C'est la grâce, le sang des martyrs est la semence de la foi».
A short distance from the village we passed a picturesque old »peilu», approached by an avenue of 2 stone cubes and further on 2 stone horses, almost life-size. They were roughly carved and scared all our horses. The ground undulates slightly, almost imperceptibly. There were many houses and small villages, their well tended and well constructed buildings indicating that the owners were prosperous. Stone gates, horses, sheep and human figures carved of stone showed up here and there in the fields, in which the corn was already ripening. The old, grey clay wall of Kaoling hsien rose up some distance to the left of the road. We rode close past its high, lonely tower that was already visible yesterday.
We passed a couple of big villages. The ground dips towards the Wei ho, flowing beyond some groves of trees. Trees and groves had become considerably more numerous and could be seen to continue on the opposite bank. We reached the river a few li from the dip in the ground and crossed it by a ferry. The N bank was flat and sandy; the S bank rose in the form of a ledge, a few dozen feet in height. It was far more shady than the N bank. Our goal for the day, the town of Lintung hsien, an old place celebrated for its hot sulphur springs, lay about a dozen li from the river. The springs lie just S of the town, at the very foot of Lishan, a rather steep, grassy hill that projects very much northward from Huan ku shan. On the crest of Lishan there is a temple, named after the hill. It is said to be visited a great deal by Chinese pilgrims from the surrounding districts. The town is very
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