Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 235 (Color Image)

0235	Among the Celestials : vol.1

CHAP. VIII.] A CONTRAST. 195

but easy and perhaps happy life, which they

allow nothing to disturb.

How different all this is to what we had

found in Manchuria ! There we had the keen,

industrious Chinaman, working his very hardest

—working away rom morning to night, not to

live merely, but to get the utmost he could out

of the land, accumulating his wealth, seeking

your custom, doing all he could to improve his

position. The ruins, the dilapidated towns of

Turkestan, were practically unknown there,

and the large concentrated villages, instead of

farmhouses scattered, as in Turkestan, in-

differently over the country, or situated among

the fields of the owner, spoke of a people

among whom the sterner habits of brigandage

were known. Of the two races, the Chinese

were evidently born to have the upper hand ;

but whether they therefore enjoy life so tho-

roughly as the easy-going Turki is a question

open to doubt.

Yarkand, as I have said, was the last town

in Turkestan I should pass through, and here I

had to make preparations for the journey across

the Himalayas. On entering the town I re-

ceived a letter from Colonel Bell, written on

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