Grand memorial arches span the roadway, many of them notable efforts of monumental skill, with columns and architraves carved with elephants and deer, and flowers and peacocks, and the Imperial seven-tailed dragon of China.

Chinese art is seen at its best in this rich province.
[Illustration: CULTIVATION IN TERRACES.

In the foreground the poppy in bloom.] [Illustration: SCENE IN SZECHUEN.] I lived, of course, in the common Chinese inn, ate Chinese food, and was everywhere treated with courtesy and good nature; but at first I found it trying to be such an object of curiosity; to have to do all things in unsecluded publicity; to have to push my way through streets thronged by the curious to see the foreigner.

My meals I ate in the presence of the street before gaping crowds.

When they came too close I told them politely in English to keep back a little, and they did so if I illustrated my words by gesture.