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[[underline]] Chapter XV. [[/underline]] 328.

many of them deserting or discharged soldiers---whose incessant depredations and^[[|]]outrages had for the time being put an effectual stop to all travel between Ningpo and Shao-hsing.
  Thus compelled to modify my plans as far as reaching Shao-hsing was concerned, I spent most of the day going about with my companions, visiting various temples, as well as shops offering for sale antiques of all kinds.  Among the latter, however, we found nothing older than certain Sung porcelains, and even these not of very high quality.
  During our rambles I noted an unusually profuse display of carved and colored (often gilded) work in wood on both shop-fronts and dwelling-houses.  This suggested to me the survival of an ancient tradition, dating from remote aboriginal times; for I knew that the art of the Indonesians and other less advanced peoples inhabiting the coastlands of south-eastern Asia and the adjacent island groups had most often taken the form of carving in wood.  Mr. Bahr however, it is only fair to say, believed that he detected in some of the ornamental designs that we saw here Peninsular influence, possibly traceable to the short-lived Portuguese settlement of the 2nd quarter of the 16th century, already mentioned (see page 325).  To this also, he thought, was perhaps to be ascribed the local prevalence---more marked, it seemed to all three of us, than elsewhere in China---of the round "Roman" arch, not an element of the indigenous architecture but almost certainly introduced by southern Europeans long enough ago to have become thoroughly naturalized here.
  The people who swarmed in the narrow, filthy streets and along the river-front of Ningpo  [[superscript]] (290) [[/superscript]] were small, dark-skinned, wiry, quick, and alert.
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[[superscript]] (290) [[/superscript]]   The city, I was told, had a population estimated at around 450,000.
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Quite different in physical aspect and manner from those of northern China, they resembled rather (allowing for the difference in costume)