Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-05-12
Henry Norman Describes the Camel
Trains Of Mongolia and
THE COUNTRY OF COG AND MAGOG.
A Wonderful Work Wrought by Human
Hands of Long Ago.
TIE GRAND TOMBs OF THE GREAT MIKGs
rrnox OUR TRAVELLING COMMISSIONER, ,

and have seen few sights so picturesque a:
q string Of them approaching over these
brown plains. A dozen are fastened to.
gether BY cord attaching the nose of one tc
the tail of the other; bell, couple of feet
long, is hung round the neck of the last tc
warn the driver in front by its ceasing if the
line breaks anywhere; medley of bales and
boxes and clothing is slung on their backs;
ruddy-faeed Mongols, dressed in scarlet and
yellow, with ornaments of gold and silver
in profusion, sit up aloft and smile at you
as you pass; the great shaggy beasts
step softly along, ingeniously out OF
step, lifting their sponge-like feet and
dropping them again with perfect
and unyarying deliberation, the whole
train moving with the silence Of a dream,
broken only by the jang-jang of the solitary
bell. Their big brown eyes look you straight
in the face and there is something pathetic
and reproachful in their glance. "You are
laughing at me, I" they seem to say, land 1
know l am an extraordinary looking Great
ure. But then, if you only knew it, SO are
you, and it would be kinder to think of my
services than to laugh at my shape" All
day long, one street of Peking is filled with
these picturesque professions, gaunt, wretch
ed creatures, with worn-out coats and cov-
cred with coal dust, carrying sacks of coal
from the western hills into Peking; and the
far finer and better kept animals bearing
tea away up into the North. During all
my stay in Peking longed for the moment
when too should ride away at dawn toward
Mongolia, in the worn tracks Of these
strange beasts and their merry masters.
TRAVELLING THROUGH A LABYRINTH.
Ny pony was a little creature not much
bigger than a dog and with white coat as
long and thick as Polar bears. The mafoo
had bought him 8 few DAYS before from a
Mongol for 20 taels, and he had never had
foreign saddle and bride on till mounted
him. Therefore the all-day ride was not SO
monotonous as usual, and for the first five
miles it was even exciting. We started at
daybreak, and the sun was well above us
before we got outside the two gates of
Peking. Then the mafoo took the lead,
Once in the open country, we were on a
great alluvial plain, dotted with mud houses,
broken by irregular patches of verdure and
cultivation, laced in all directions BY dozens
of bridle-paths, and ending on our left in
the dim outlines Of the Western Hills, the
summer sanitarium of Peking. We plunged
into the labyrinth of roads and the mafoo
threaded his way among them without
moments hesitation. Afterward found
that he had been over them 46 times before,
but for my own part I could see hardly any
signs by which to distinguish one from an
other.
Till IL o'clock we trotted steadily on,
reaching then a small town called Sha-'ho,
where we stopped an hour for rest and tifin.
Here already foreigners are scarce and I was
the center of much curiosity, keen and in
quisitiTe but quite good natured. Crossing
a river over two very old, broad fiat bridges
ofSzrhite marble, built curiously at an OBJ
tuse angle to each other, we emerged again
into the plain. This grew more uneven as
we advanced, till at last we are riding along
narrow path on the sloping stony bank of
. dry water course. The stones grew bigger
and more numerous, till they could no
longer be navigated, and then my guide
struck up to the right, and an hours detour
across country, with half mile of such bad
going at the end that 1 got off and led my
pony, brought us at o'clock to the fortified
city of Nan-k' 'ou, 80 miles from Peking our
resting place for the night.
PICTURESQUE NAN-K'oU.
Nan-k'ou is a very interesting little place.
Its wall is in ruins. but that only makes it
the more picturesque; on the hills right
and left of the entrance to the pass which
the city is supposed to guard, are two
sprightly little towers; a dozen others are
just visible dotted about the chain of hills |
around it; its one broad street, paved once
with great blocks of stone, now worn away
and upset till pony can hardly make his |
way at all over their slippery, rolling sur |
face, is crowded with traffic of men and |
beasts. and every fifty yards wide arched |
doorway leads into spacious inn ward. |
This street is part of the great commercial
highway between China and all her neigh
bors of the North. Through it a constant
stream Of camels and ponies and donkey
and even laden coolies passes, bringing
MongoI produce to Peking, and taking
brick-tea back from Tentsin to Kiackta, ON
the Russian frontier. And through this
street this stream has passed for who knows
how many years-thousands, at any rate.
Next morning we embarked upon little
white dOnkeys, the pass being impractical
bic for ponies. This road in its glory is said
to have been paved with great smooth gran
ite blocks; now in the valley it is broken
mass OF rough stones in a river bed, through
which stream runs; while during the
ascent and at the height of the pass il is a
bad mountain road obstructed by great
masses of rock. A couple of hours riding
and walking brought us to another walled
town called Chu-yung-kuan, famous for a
heavy arched stone gateway, the whole in
side of which is covered with sculptures
in low relief and a Buddhist inscrip-
tion in six languages-Chinese, Thib-
etan, Mongol, Sanscrit, and two others
that could not get anyone to identify.
From the other side of this gateway
the pass of Nank'ou is spread out before
you, brown, barren, roek-strewn gloomy
valley, rising and narrowing till it disap-
pears in the hills, through which an endless
hle OF brown camels is slowly passing, fill
ing the air with the dust of their feet and
the clangour of their bells. For an hour or
more we jog on. Then when the pass has
become wearisome and am thousands of
miles away In thought my mafoo rides up
beside me and silently points to the hill top
on the right. I strain my eyes and there.
sure enough, the skyline far away is broken
by the crenellated outlineof the Great Wall
ITSELF This, said Marco Polo when he
saw it, lis the country of Cog and Magog."
THE GREAT WALL.
The Great Wall of China is, after all. only
! wall. And it was built with the same
object as every other wsll-to keep people
rom coming where they were not wanted.
Mr.. Toole's famous account of it is as
accurate as any. ''The most
important building in China he is accus-
omed to say, sis the Chinese Wall, built 1
% keep the Tartars out It was built at 1
uch an enormous expense that the Chinese c
lever got over it. But the Tartars did, And
he wav they accomplished this feat was as
ollows: One went first and t'other went !
.rfer." It differs from other walls in oply !
wo respects, its age and its size. The
ormer is 2, ,102 years, the latter is such that
{ is the only work Of human hands on the
,lobe visible from the moon. (I take no
for either Of these statements
The Chinese name for it is Wan-li-eh' 'ang- :
h'eng, '.the wall ten thousand ii long" 1
And the gate on this high way is called Pa
a-ling, and is about 90 miles northwest OF
'eking and 1000 feet above the sea. Be- c
'ond it lies Mongolia.
Half an houraiter this first glimpse stood
1pon the wall iteelf The gateway is large
louble one, with . square tower upon Il,