The village of Tschagu-Tschiendogu (accordingly to the spelling in our German map) boasts of a Japanese post-office, and a Japanese woman was trotting along with a baby on her back. Passing through it we plodded through deep silver sand for some distance before turning inland, but we had a long way still to go to reach the secluded monastery, which was our resting-place for the night. We wound in among the precipitous mountains of granite formation. The rocks stood out like mammoth beasts in all sorts of strange shapes, and they looked black and forbidding in the gloom. A green serpent mottled with black gave our men quite a fright, and they continually asked the way, getting not much enlightenment. At last we penetrated into an ideal valley with cliffs towering steeply upwards to a considerable height, and showing the jagged outlines which have given the Diamond Mountains their name. The narrow track changed into a broad well-kept road, leading through a pine forest, and we had not gone more than a mile or so when we met a party of monks taking their evening stroll. The youthful looking abbot wore a chain which distinguished him from the rest, and he stepped forward, bowing politely. It was rather difficult to know how next to proceed, as none of the party seemed to understand English or Chinese; however, Mr. Chiao at once began a conversation by writing on the ground and asking if we could receive accommodation for the night. The request was readily granted, and the party of monks escorted us back. As we approached the monastery there was a small open space by the roadside in which were stone vases and tablets, but with the exception of that and the avenue there was no sign to mark the neighbourhood of the buildings. They were situated up a short path at right angles to the road, and were by no means impressive. The temple stood slightly to the rear, and we were taken to a series of rooms opening on to a raised terrace, and ushered into the central one, where a Buddha occupied the post of honour. A screen was produced to divide off a part of the room for us, and the monks arranged themselves all round to watch proceedings, namely, the cooking of our supper. One of them wrote an inquiry whether we were “Jesus missionaries,” another brought us a Japanese-English primer, and said a few sentences which he had learned fairly accurately, but could not understand anything we said.