AT THE FOOT OF MOUNT OMI

The best Inn's best Room — Three Rivers of Kiating — All in Flood — Colossal Buddha — First View of Omi — Torrential Rain — Crosses on the Roadway — Great Buddha Temples — Chinese Rubbings — Embroideries — Missions — China Inland and Roman Catholic — Hotel Bill— Suchi— Pilgrims— Silk, and White Wax— City of Omi— Huge Bell — Bronze Pagoda — Limestone Ravine — Iron Suspension Bridge — Pair of Flying Bridges — Butterfly Collectors — Wan Nien Sze — Paying Coolies — Lohan and Hoangko Trees— Bronze Pusien on Elephant — Most Ancient Chinese Building — Pilgrims' Dress — Great Guest-room — Dining with a Chief Priest — Vegetarian Banquet — Barefaced Begging — Danger from Tigers.

在峨眉山腳下

最佳客棧的最佳房間——嘉定三江——全線洪水——巨型佛像——初見峨眉——傾盆大雨——道路上的十字架——大佛寺——中國拓本——刺繡——傳教活動——內地會與羅馬天主教——酒店賬單——素食——朝聖者——絲綢與白蠟——峨眉城市——巨鐘——銅寶塔——石灰岩峽谷——鐵懸索橋——雙座「飛橋」——蝴蝶採集者——萬年寺——支付轎夫工錢——羅漢與黃葛樹——銅普賢騎象——中國最古老的建築——朝聖者的服飾——大會客廳——與主持僧共餐——素食盛宴——公然行乞——來自老虎的威脅。

July 18, — Torrential rain. Last night's fine sunset turned out to be but a momentary break in the wet weather which set in last week, which, while it has cooled the air, has stopped our further progress. We put up last night at the best inn in one of the best-looking towns we have yet seen. It is kept by a " graduate," and is patronised by officials accordingly. It is gorgeous in gilding and red paint, and to the high guest-room, allotted to our humble selves, we ascended from the street through a succession of court-yards with the usual fish-ponds, flower-vases, and dirt. For, truth to tell, fine as is the accommodation at first sight, the floor has the usual accumulation of the mud of ages, covering the original concrete with hard, slippery undulations of compressed filth, which the continuous rain keeps moistened as the men come and go across the yard to our quarters. Woe betide you if, in dressing, you drop a sock upon the floor, or still worse, your pocket-handkerchief or

52 MOUNT OMI AND BEYOND

towel ; neither can be used again until thoroughly washed with soap and water. The smells, too, were of the usual nature, and when, in the morning, we were informed that the "Ya" (which our road to Omi crosses) was in flood and impassable, and that we must wait for the water to fall, our depression was as great as had been our elation the night before.

1892年7月18日——傾盆大雨。昨晚絢麗的日落僅是上週以來連綿陰雨中的一瞬晴空。雨水雖為我們帶來了涼爽，卻也阻礙了行程。昨夜，我們入住了迄今所見最優雅城鎮之一的頂級客棧。這家由「秀才」(graduate)經營的客棧常有官員光顧。內部金碧輝煌，紅漆裝飾處處。我們被安排在高等客房，這對普通旅客來說實屬難得。從街道到住處需穿過數個庭院，其中依舊可見魚池、花瓶，以及難免的雜亂。

誠然，這處住宿表面看來頗為體面，但地板上積累了多年的污泥，形成了光滑而起伏的硬化表層，完全掩蓋了原本的水泥地面。因過客往來穿院入室，連日的雨水更使這污泥層始終濕滑。若不慎將襪子掉落地上，或更糟的是手帕或毛巾，這些物品非經肥皂與清水徹底清洗，便無法再用。

更甚者，空氣中瀰漫著陣陣惡臭。清晨時分，我們得知通往峨眉的必經之路——「鴨河」(Ya)已被洪水淹沒，無法通行，只得等待水位消退。這一消息讓我們的心情從昨夜的喜悅驟然跌入谷底。

Kiating Fu — i.e., the prefectural city of Kiating — stands at the junction of two large rivers, as does nearly every city of note on the Yangtze and the Min, all the way from Hankow to Cheng Tu, a distance of 1500 miles. The Min is regarded by the Chinese as the main stream of the Great River, owing to its leading from Chfing Tu, the provincial capital, and to its flowing through a more productive country, andso being more useful to traffic than is the larger body of water coming from the south-west, into which the Min discharges at Suifu, and which we still call the Yangtze. The river which unites with the Min to form the peninsula on which Kiating stands is the Ya, a stream of considerable volume, which has its sources in the glaciers of Chinese Thibet. The Ya washes the southern and the Min the eastern walls of the city, the site of which rises to the north-west, where its walls enclose a good deal of hilly ground. The streets are wide and clean (for China), and the town made a pleasant impression upon us, although the " hoodlums " were nearly as aggressive as in Chungking, and delighted in running after A.'s chair (a covered bamboo sedan from South China) and shouting after her ICan yang po tse tso lung tse — i.e., " Look at the foreign woman in a cage." A break in the rain enabled us to walk on the walls in the afternoon and admire the vast waters that were imprisoning us, now at the height of the summer flood — on one side, the roseate waters of the Min running four to five knots ; on the other, the orange-coloured Ya running fully eight or nine knots. The water was one-third up the wall, and the gates in the lower part of the town opened direct on to the flood, the water-coolies filling their buckets without passing the gateways. It was a grand sight to stand at the angle of the wall where the two rivers met,

AT THE FOOT OF MOUNT OMI 53

and formed a dangerous rapid, known as the Ta Fo, or " Green Buddha" rapid, which sets direct on to the opposite shore, immediately below the break in the cliffs through which we had emerged the day previous, when our ferry-boat landed us safely at a practicable gate above the rapid, after hauling up stream by the aid of a bamboo hawser, lying in the bed of the river immediately under the cliff. So strongly does the current set on to this cliff that it is asserted that part of the river disappears under it. Descending boats manage to pass without accident only by rowing with might and main against the set of the current which would otherwise dash them with fatal force against the rocks. But the last defence is a colossal Buddha, some 200 feet in height, carved out of the cliff side, who sits calmly with his feet in the water, and his hands on his knees — a grove of shrubs for his hair and long pendent grasses forming his eyebrows. This meritorious work is said to have been carried out by a pious monk of the Tang period, who made it his life's labour, living in a cave, which is still shown, close by. The red sandstone is soft and easily sculptured, and no doubt the holy man found many willing helpers. A square thirteen- storied pagoda of Indian type and extensive temples almost entirely hidden in luxuriant sub-tropical foliage, adorn the surrounding heights. Thence we retraced our steps and walked inland along the wall to where it rises up the hill to a height of 200 or 300 feet above the river level, and commands an extensive prospect over the city and the broken plain beyond. Vegetable gardens, with not a few fine trees interspersed, fill this angle of the wall, and the country outside is unusually wooded with a great variety of trees and many fine bamboo copses, which appear to flourish to perfection in the red ochreous soil. We stood here undisturbed, away from the inhabited portion of the city, and, looking down from the ramparts, gazed westwards, hoping to catch a glimpse of our long-looked-for goal — the sacred mountain said to stand out from the plain in a gigantic precipice a mile in height — but now mysteriously veiled in

54 MOUNT OMI AND BEYOND

heavy banks of cloud. In the foreground stretched a wide expanse of water, broken by long wooded islands — the flooded valleys of the Ya and Tung rivers, which unite their waters a mile or more above the city. Not a boat was to be seen, nor were any villages discernible ; it looked more like the grand solitude and wild features of some Canadian landscape than a view in populous China. Suddenly the clouds broke, the setting sun shone forth, and there, about thirty miles distant, rose up the dark range of the western mountains, with Omi's peak, as Baber describes it, pointing a thumb-nail to the sky. Darkness quickly set in, and with it the rain returned, in which we walked back to our hotel with small hope of being able to make a start on the morrow. We were, however, most anxious to get away, and spent the evening packing, so as to be ready to make a start at daylight should it be possible.

嘉定府（Kiating Fu）——這座府城坐落在兩條大河的交匯處，展現了長江（Yangtze）和岷江（Min River）沿線從漢口（Hankow）到成都（Cheng Tu）全程1500英里範圍內城市的典型特徵。岷江因發源於省會成都，流經富饒地區，交通價值更高，故被視為主流，而非在宜賓（Suifu）與岷江匯合的西南支流。

另一條形成嘉定半島的是鴨河（Ya River），這條源自西藏冰川的大河沿城南流淌，與流經東側的岷江相映成趣。城市向西北延展，城牆環繞著廣闊的丘陵。街道寬敞整潔（相較中國其他地方），給人留下深刻印象。然而，當地頑童與重慶無異，常戲弄乘坐南方竹轎的A.，高喊：「看外國女人坐籠子！」（Kan yang po tse tso lung tse）。

午後雨歇，我們登上城牆，飽覽洪水壯景。盛夏汛期，岷江玫瑰色的水流以每小時四至五節的速度奔騰，鴨河橙黃色的激流更達八至九節。洪水已漫至城牆三分之一處，低窪處的城門直接浸沒其中，水夫不必出城便可汲水。

在城牆轉角，兩河匯流處形成了名為大佛急流（Ta Fo Rapid）的險灘，洶湧的水流直撲對岸懸崖。昨日我們正是在此搭乘渡船，借助纜索逆流而上，安全抵達上游城門。