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[[underlined]] Chapter X. [[/underlined]] 2^[[16]]. no actual molestation, or even hardship worth mentioning; although more than once we feared that our engine was about to be commandeered for military purposes, leaving us marooned in the midst of the great North China plain. Eventually, after changing trains at Cheng Chou, we reached K'ai-fêng, on the Lung Hai 隴 海 railway, and called on Mr. Wang ^[[Yu]]-ch'iao. He gave us a warm welcome, and assured us that we might carry on work in Honan with the full approval and active aid of himself and his colleagues He further arranged a meeting for us with several members of the pro^[[v]]incial government. At this gathering we discussed, thoroughly but in most amicable fashion, the matter of undertaking work at the site of the ancient Shang Dynasty city. We at length decided to begin operations [[strikethrough]] there [[/strikethrough]] there, jointly with the Historical Museum at Peking and the provincial Board of Education of Honan, as soon as the existing state of civil war and general disorder should permit. We concluded our [[strikethrough]] discussion [[/strikethrough]] session with the feeling that we had at last set in train something definite; although our gratification was considerably dampened, it must be said, by fears regarding the duration and outcome of the present political and military situation. During our short stay at K'ai-fêng my companions and I took occasion to visit that portion of the town once occupied by a little Jewish group that fled thither from persecution in western Asia centuries ago. [[superscript]] (190) [[/superscript]] It ------------------ [[superscript]] (190) [[/superscript]] I first visited the place in the summer of 1917, in company with Dr. J. C. Ferguson and Mr. S. C. Bosch Reitz (since deceased but then Curator of Far Eastern Art at the Metropolitan Museum in New York). The Jewish community at K'ai-êng was called by the Chinese the T'iao Chin Chiao 挑 筋 教, the "Plucking-out Sinew Sect"; for the origin of this name (and practice), [[underlined]] cf. [[/underlined]] Gen. xxxii, 32, "Therefore the children of Israel do not eat the sinew of the hip....." ------------------ had however long since been assimilated and completely absorbed by the surrounding Chinese population. Aside from slight but what seemed to