CHAPTER VIII.
THE CITY OF CHAOTONG, WITH SOME REMARKS ON ITS POVERTY, INFANTICIDE, SELLING FEMALE CHILDREN INTO SLAVERY, TORTURES, AND THE CHINESE INSENSIBILITY TO PAIN.
By the following day we had crossed the mountains, and were walking along the level upland that leads to the plain of Chaotong.

And on Sunday, April 1st, we reached the city.

Cedars, held sacred, with shrines in the shelter of their branches, dot the plain; peach-trees and pear-trees were now in full bloom; the harvest was ripening in the fields.

There were black-faced sheep in abundance, red cattle with short horns, and the ubiquitous water-buffalo.

Over the level roads primitive carts, drawn by red oxen, were rumbling in the dust.