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0136 The Pulse of Asia : vol.1
The Pulse of Asia : vol.1 / Page 136 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000233
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of little people called Japanese, whose fathers, so report
said, were English, and whose mothers were Chinese,
but at any rate a people who had fought and whipped the
Russians. It would not be pleasant in Russia, he and his
friends thought; it would be better to go by way of India,
where it was reported that food was cheap and officials not
inquisitive, even if the way was execrable. So it happened
that on his return I met this highly traveled, ignorant pil-
grim under the mulberry tree, and found that unconsciously
he had grasped the essentials of the geography of Asia.
From his standpoint in Central Asia, the world was chiefly
desert with some oases. Had he not seen countries of that
sort from far away in Mongolia to the ends of the earth in
Arabia? China, known to him as "Bajin" (Pekin), stood
for civilization, something vast, populous, and unknown;
the land of his rulers, to be sure, but a place whither he
had no thought or desire of going. Russia, by which he
meant Siberia, was a broad land, easy to traverse and
interesting, but not a place in which to stay, for it was
expensive, and its people were prone to investigate the
affairs of others. And finally, India, under its Sahib rulers,
represented plenty, freedom, and honesty, coupled with
impenetrability, for it lay beyond the frigid ranges of the
"Abode of Snow," and the breathless desert of "Black
Gravel."