the cleaver-like sword of the practised executioner, severs the head from the trunk. A woman who had killed her liege lord was to be cut to pieces. The laws of China are very severe in the punishment of female offenders—“Women’s Rights” are below par—and it is a land which would not be adapted for the residence of the “strong-minded” women of our own country, Chinese prophecy having foretold the downfall of their empire by the machinations of women. We passed through one corner of the city proper, which, though permitted by treaties, is still a risky business. We were quick in our movements and were scarcely observed by the Tartar soldier on the look-out for rebels. This gave us an opportunity of seeing the thickness of the wall. We went in at the gate of the “Rising Sun,” crossed a small hypotenuse, and came out at the gate of the “Tranquil Ocean.” We next emerged into an open space on the north side of the city, used for drilling their soldiers, and where archery is practised on horseback at full speed, the most successful shot having as his prize, his name recorded in a temple near by. We crossed the place with a number of boys crying after us as we walked, “Fanqui! Fanqui!” (foreign devil), and passed under a recent triumphal arch of granite, erected by subscription and by imperial permission. The inscription would be news to the English: it told in grandiloquent terms, how the outside barbarians during the war, were repulsed by Chinese valor from their walls. Not far from here we stopped at a refreshment-house, and got tea and sweetmeats. Here, as at every other point, if we stopped for a moment, a crowd collected around. One would hold up an infantile “pig-tail” to the window, that he might see the “outside barbarian” inside, eat; while an old fellow created considerable laughter by pointing to my mustache—the wearing of the mustache among the Chinese indicating a grandfather. There not being any house for some distance, we walked close under the walls for some time. They were quite high, built of stone, capped with brick, almost covered with creepers and vines, and had at intervals projecting angles for look-out purposes.