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Show 2 PAPERMAKIN IN INDO-CHIN townsand cities of China population figures are a matte of conjecture; the making of an accurate census woul never occur to the Chinese authorities as desirable or es sential. My salesmen shipmates disembarked at Pakhoi no doubt hoping for trade in their nostrums as lucrativ asithad been with the good missionariesat Hoihow. Th town of Pakhoi is an interesting community with man irregular rows of closely-built shops open to the roads The Chinese merchants were busily engaged in weighin and selling all manner of commodities,-green cabbage and crisp bits of roasted pork for the consumption of th living, and neatly-ticd bundles of gay spirit-paper an fragrant joss for the benefit of the dead, each shop with it own distinétive odours and aromas. The most unusua feature of the town and adjacent locality of Pakhoi wa the great number of heavy creaking carts drawn by slowmoving oxen, their lumbering bodies quavering at ever step. These vehicles are unique to this southern countr and are seldom seen in other parts of China. The carts ar construéted of thick hand-sawed planks, the ponderou wheels hewn from solid blocks of timber, their swayin irregular motion cutting deep furrows in the loose roadways, like the ancient chariot ruts in the narrow streets o Pompeii. These awkward carts of prehistoricappearanc suggested a mode of transportation that might have bee in use during the stone age; these identical carts coul well have seen service in this remote district of Kwangs long before the Chinese invention of printing during th |
