Sulphur Bath.—Rowdy Behaviour.—Fight in Boat.—Imprisonment for letting to Foreigners.—Book-keeper in Foreign Employ beaten.—Customs Regulations.—Kimberley Legacy.—Happy Consul.—Unjust Likin Charges.—Foreigners massacred.—Official Responsibility
Sulphur Bath.—Rowdy Behaviour.—Fight in Boat.—Imprisonment for letting to Foreigners.—Book-keeper in Foreign Employ beaten.—Customs Regulations.—Kimberley Legacy.—Happy Consul.—UnjustLikin Charges.—Foreigners massacred.—Official Responsibility.
Responsibility）。
As an illustration of the position of Europeans up-country, I will relate very briefly the trivial events of two days. First I must say that nearly every woman in the place was ill—some very seriously so; and as I thought I was not well either, on hearing that my husband and another gentleman, who had gone for a cure to the sulphur baths about thirteen miles from Chungking, found the people quiet, I decided I would join my husband when his friend left him. The villagers, not the priests, objected to my sleeping in the airy temple, where the gentlemen had been allowed to put up their beds, amongst all the gilded images; so my bed and I and a servant moved down to the inn, where some twelve or fifteen persons assisted at the remaking of the bed in an already sufficiently stuffy room—although, happily, most of the dirty paper was gone from its one window—and being accustomed to the ways 99up-country, I slept just as well in that filthy inn room as I could have anywhere.
Next day, with a chair and a variety of coolies and boys, we took three photographs, and spent the morning under the shade of a magnificent banyan-tree in a lonely valley, stuck over with palms as a pincushion is with pins. The baths were so very hot, my husband thought he would refresh himself by a swim in the limpid stream that runs with many a beautiful cascade down the extremely picturesque limestone valley of the Wentang. Meanwhile, though it was extremely hot, so that it was an effort to move, especially after the hot sulphur baths, yet, being like Frederick "a slave to duty," I took a chair and five coolies to go a hundred yards across the bridge and photograph that and the hot springs from the opposite side.
硫磺浴——粗暴行為——船上打鬥——出租給外國人被監禁——外國僱員的簿記員被毆打——海關規定——金伯利遺產——快樂的領事——不公正的厘金費用——外國人被屠殺——官員責任
為了說明歐洲人在內地的處境，我將簡要地敘述兩天內發生的一些瑣事。首先我要說，這裡幾乎每個女人都生病了，有些情況非常嚴重；我覺得自己也不太好，在聽說我丈夫和另一位紳士為了治病去了距重慶約十三英里的硫磺浴，發現那裡的人很安靜後，我決定在他的朋友離開後去找我丈夫。村民們，不是僧侶，反對我睡在通風的寺廟裡，紳士們被允許在那裡的所有鎏金雕像之間安置床鋪；所以我和我的床以及一名僕人搬到了客棧，有十二到十五個人在已經足夠悶熱的房間裡幫忙重新整理床鋪——幸運的是，大部分骯髒的紙張已經從唯一的窗戶上清除掉了——因為我已經習慣了內地的生活方式，我在這個骯髒的客棧房間裡睡得和在其他任何地方一樣好。
第二天，帶著一個轎子和各種各樣的苦力和小孩，我們拍了三張照片，早上在一個孤寂山谷中的一棵宏偉的榕樹下度過，這個山谷像針墊插滿了棕櫚樹。浴池的水非常熱，我丈夫認為他應該在清澈的溪流中游泳來消暑，這條溪流在風景如畫的溫塘石灰岩山谷中形成了許多美麗的瀑布。與此同時，儘管天氣非常炎熱，移動起來很費力，尤其是在熱硫磺浴後，但我像腓特烈一樣「是職責的奴隸」，帶著一個轎子和五個苦力走了一百碼，過橋去拍攝那邊的橋和溫泉。
Unfortunately, as is so often the case, about twenty little laughing boys ran whooping along with me, joined as they went by some older people. This is so usual, I was only bored by it as I got out, and, studying the scene first from one point and then from another, was telling the coolies to bring the camera to a grassy plot from which the best view of the arches of the bridge and the deep pool and the hills behind could be obtained, when some agriculturists rushed forward, one lusty fellow violently threatening me with a stone, and at once snatching my alpenstock out of my hand. I trust I did not move an eyelid, certainly I did not budge a step, as I said: "Is this your land? If so, you are master here; and if you do not wish me to 100photograph, I certainly will not. But I am doing no harm." The head coolie did his best to explain what other photographs I had taken, and that photographing did not spoil crops. But the agriculturist first listened, and then resumed his violence. Probably he was excited by the prospect of all my following capering across an infinitesimal bit of cultivation that he had squeezed out of the rocks below. He told them not to do so. The coolie told them not to. They did not. But he continued to be violent. The best plan seemed to be to get into the chair and secure the camera; and as all the crowd began to get uproarious, I thought I would be carried quickly away instead of back through them. A very steep hill must, I thought, choke my following off. But it did not. And I had either to return with them to the town, in which case there was sure to be a row, or go to a distance of about two hours up one side of the stream by a very pretty path, and back again the other side by one of the most lonely of wild mountain roads. I had done it all before, having enjoyed all these scenes two years ago, when there was no thought of violence. However, my following kept with me, and grew. So I tried my old plan, the only one I have ever found effectual with a Chinese crowd, and, getting out of the chair, standing quite still, looked solemnly and sadly at first one, then another, till he wished the ground would cover him and retired. I fancy glasses heighten the effect. Anyway, they all sat down, each one hiding behind the other as far as he could.103
MARKET STREET OUTSIDE CITY.
We went on, and thus came near a very large Chinese house and garden, with a queer tale of a dead magician, where we had been hospitably entertained two years before. The people knew he had been a magician, because he used to disappear every day at a certain hour; and some one peeped through a crack one day, and saw him actually in a cold-water bath like a fish. I thought it would be a pleasure to visit the garden once more; but again a man shouting and gesticulating, this time armed with one of those heavy hoes they use in digging, which he brandished across my face! It seemed his master, who had entertained us, was dead, and this rustic would have no photography. It was a long way back by the other side of the river, so that it was quite dark when we got back to the little town. This perhaps was just as well.
Next day by daybreak we set off for Chungking. After five pretty but surely very long miles, we came to a market town; and, alas! it was market day. The coolies were desired to carry me to the best inn, and take me in quickly. Of course, it was necessary for them to get some refreshment, or we should not have stopped. I walked to the farthest end of the huge room set out with tables; but the agitated innkeeper asked me to come into a bedroom beyond, there were so many people. He banged to the doors, and then there began a hurly-burly, everybody wanting to get a sight of me. He begged me to go into a bedroom beyond down a steep ladder, and again bolted 104the doors. This room was even nastier than the first,—four beds with straw, no chair, and a frowsy table. It was so good of him to tell me it was clean, for I should never have imagined it otherwise. A young gentleman occupying an adjacent bedroom began to look furious at the noise and the barring of the doors. With a haughty air he unbarred them. I did not wonder he did not like it. I did not either. Who wants to be barricaded in a chairless, windowless bedroom on a hot day?
我們繼續前行，來到一座非常大的中國宅邸和花園附近，這裡有一個關於已故魔法師的奇怪故事。兩年前，我們曾在這裡受到熱情款待。人們知道他是個魔法師，因為他每天在某個固定時間消失，有一天有人從縫隙裡偷看，發現他竟然在冷水浴缸裡像魚一樣。我想再次參觀這個花園會是一種愉快的經歷；但這次一個男人大喊大叫，揮舞著他們用來挖掘的那種重鋤頭，對著我的臉揮舞！原來，曾經款待我們的主人已經去世，這個農夫不允許拍照。從河的另一邊回去的路程很遠，當我們回到小鎮時已經很黑了，也許這樣也好。