Volume 1
Travels in Tartary, Thibet and China, 1844-1846 / translated by William Hazlitt; now edited with an introduction by Professor Paul Pelliot.
- Évariste Régis Huc
- Date:
- [1928]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Travels in Tartary, Thibet and China, 1844-1846 / translated by William Hazlitt; now edited with an introduction by Professor Paul Pelliot. Source: Wellcome Collection.
407/446 page 353
![part of the town seemed to us in even a worse con¬ dition than that which we had passed through on the preceding evening. Several portions were alto¬ gether pulled down and deserted ; the only living things to be seen were a few swine, raking up the rubbish. The inhabitants of this large city were in a State of utter misery. The greater number of them were covered with dirty rags. Their pale visages, haggard and thin, showed that they were often without the necessaries of life. Yet Ning-Hia was once a royal town, and, doubtless, opulent and flourishing. In the tenth century, a prince of Tartar race, a native of Tou-Pa [T’o-pa], at present under the dominion of the Si-Fan, having induced a few hordes to follow him, came, and formed, despite the Chinese, a small State not far from the banks of the Yellow River. He chose for his capita] Hia-Tcheou, which afterwards came to be called Ning-Hia. It was from this town that this new kingdom was called Hia. It was in a very flourishing State for more than two centuries ; but in 1227, it was involved in the common ruin by the victories of Tchinggiskhan, the founder of the Mongol dynafty. At present, Ning- Hia is one of the towns of the first class in the province of Kan-Sou. On quitting Ning-Hia, you enter upon a magni¬ ficent road, almost throughout bordered by willows and jujube trees. At intervals, you find small inns, where the traveller can reft and refresh himself at small expense. He can buy there tea, hard eggs, beans fried in oil, cakes, and fruit preserved in sugar or salt. This day’s journey was one of absolute recreation. Our camels, which had never travelled except in the deserts of Tartary, seemed thoroughly sensible to the charms of civilization ; they turned their heads majestically right and left, observing, with manifest intereft, all that presented itself on the way, men and 353 23](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b3135953x_0001_0407.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
