Life and Travel in Tartary, Thibet, and China; Being a Narrative of the ABBE Huc's Travels in the Far East (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1874 Excerpt: ...greasy abomination--sight and smell were quite enough without tasting it. Fortunately the missionaries had some knowledge of chemistry. A little wood was found, and burned into charcoal, which, broken small, was put into a boiling kettle-ful of the odious fluid. Their Tartar servant, who was not a chemist, sat staring by, wondering what sort of soup was to be made of burnt wood and dirty water. Presently it was poured out and filtered, --nothing to boast of, certainly, but still drinkable; and an ocean of tea was brewed with it, in which a pinch of oatmeal was mixed by way of rendering it meat as well as drink. Samdadchiemba was in a paroxysm of wonderment about the affair, protesting that his own Lamas, who pretended to know everything, would have died of thirst before they had found out how to make such stuff fit for use. And then, seeing the purifying properties of charcoal, he asked whether rubbing his face with it would make it as white as his masters';--a question no sooner asked than laughed at by himself, looking, at his own black hands which had broken up the charcoal. Two days' journey brought them to the foot of lofty, cloud-topped mountains, which had to be scaled with painful toil both to man and beasts, the feet of the poor camels bleeding with the ruggedness of the ascent. The crest gained, showed at their base the Yellow River rolling its majestic current from south to north, and nightfall brought the travellers to its banks. The passage of the stream was more successful than on the former occasion: the ferrymen were less exacting, the camels less contrary, but--there always is a but--their dog had to be left behind, the boatmen insisting that dogs ought to be able to swim across, and not take up the room of their betters in the boat--an opin...