CH. XII MY TRAVELLING LITERATUS 143
at Chinese conversation were grasped with a quickness which spoke volumes for Chiang's sympathetic penetration, and plenty of time on the road made up for the want of regular desk-work. If only Sinologist industry had provided a handy pocket-book on sound 011endorfian methods —and if only Chiang's broad Hunanese accent had not made his spoken Chinese so difficult to recognize in the orthodox transcriptional system of my available books ! It took a little time before I realized that ` Fu-lan,' the name by which I grew accustomed to hear of his beloved native land, was the province usually spelt Hu-nan ; that ` Bue jin' represented Pei-ching, ` the Northern capital,' our familiar Peking, etc. Of course, it ended by my learning to pronounce my modest stock of colloquial Chinese ` as we talk in Fu-lan.'
Chiang, to my great relief, seemed fully to relish his new functions and took easily to our wandering life. He was always laudably ready for the start in the morning, learned by gradual deposits to reduce his baggage to a very modest allotment, and yet managed invariably to turn up in neat clothes befitting his (brevet) rank and his position as a Ta-j ên's secretary and mentor. His garb gave a touch of colour to the greyest ensemble of dust, sand, and gravel. A dark blue silk jacket, exchanged at times for a maroon one, harmonized well with the bright yellow silk overalls which he wore when on horseback. The high and substantial Chinese saddle which he acquired for his outfit, bore a comfortable cushion of the brightest scarlet, while the broad black leather flaps below were gaily decorated with yellow and green embroidery, as if in niello. But I never could look at this heavy horse millinery and the terribly massive stirrups, each weighing some three pounds and of truly archaic type, without feeling sorrow for his mount. Of course, I took care to let him have the hardiest of our animals, a bony but trustworthy black pony. Against the heat Chiang used to protect his head by putting a light blue silk cloth under his small travelling cap, the pigtail being used to fix this substitute for a ` Sola Topi.' The eyes were shaded by the usual detachable peak of
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