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the people; o f their habitations,; drefs, diet and means o f
fubfiftence ; and foroe conclufion drawn as to the population
o f the country.
It was a remark too lingular to efcape notice that, except in
the neighbourhood of the Po-yang lake, the peafantry o f the
province in which the capital ftands were, more miferable,
their houfes more mean and wretched, and their lands in a
worfe ftate o f cultivation, than-in any other part o f the route—
a remark which alfo agrees with the accounts given by the
Dutch embaify o f that part o f Pe-tche-lee, on the fouth-weft
fide o f the capital, through which they paifed. Four mud
walls covered over with a thatch o f reeds, or the ftraw o f millet, -
or the .Items o f holcus, compofe their habitations; and they
are molt commonly furrounded with clay walls, -or with a fence
made o f the ftrong fteins o f the Holcus Sorghum. A partition o f
matting divides the hovel into two apartments; each o f which lias
a fmall opening in the wall to admit the air and light ; but one
door generally ferves- asyan entrance, the clofure o f which is
frequently nothing more than a ftrong mat. A blue _ cotton
jacket and a pair of trowfers, a ftraw hat and ihoes o f the fame
material, conftitute the drefs o f the majority o f the people.
Matting o f reeds or bamboo, a cylindrical pillow o f wood covered
with leather, a kind o f rug or felt blanket made o f the
hairy wool o f the broad-tailed Iheep, not fpun and woven but
beat together as in the procefs for making hats, and fometimes
a mattrefs fluffed with wool, hair, or ftraw, conftitute their
bedding. Tw o or three jars,, a few bafons o f earthen-ware o f
the coarfeft kind, a large iron pot, a frying-pan and a portable
4 A ftove,