Many, too, were the bones of dead children; for poor children are not buried, but are thrown outside the wall, sometimes before they are dead, to be eaten perhaps by the very dog that was their playmate since birth.
I called upon the French priest, Pere Maire, and he came with much cordiality to the door of the mission to receive me.

His is a pretty mission, built in the Chinese style, with a modest little church and a nice garden and summer-house.

The father has been four years in Tongchuan and ten in China.

Like most of the French priests in China he has succeeded in growing a prodigious beard whose imposing length adds to his influence among the Chinese, who are apt to estimate age by the length of the beard.

Only three weeks ago he returned from the capital.
Signs of famine were everywhere apparent.