TRAVELING WITH MAN-POWER. PALANKEENS, JINRIKISHAS, AND SEDAN-CHAIRS.
To be carried on the shoulders of his fellow-man is not often the lot
of the American; the most frequent form of this species of locomotion
in the United States is decidedly uncomfortable and degrading, and is
known as "riding on a rail." The costume for an expedition of this
sort is inexpensive and ungraceful, though fitting closely; it usually
consists of a veneering of warm tar applied to the skin of the
tourist, and immediately afterwards he is rolled in a bed of feathers.
Thus equipped he is mounted on a pole, generally a fence-rail, without
saddle or bridle, and borne on the shoulders of those who supplied his
wardrobe. There is no mode of traveling known to civilization where
the accommodations are so wretched, and the mental and physical
discomforts so great, as in riding on a rail after the American
system. The only thing in its favor is its cheapness, as it is
generally quite gratuitous.
In Europe, before the adoption of wheeled vehicles, those who could
afford the luxury, were carried in chairs by two or more porters; the
conveyance was said to have originated in Sedan, France, and thus
became known as the sedan chair. It was introduced into England about
the time of King Charles First, and speedily attained great
popularity. It was gradually displaced by the wheeled carriage, and
disappeared from the cities of Continental Europe, one after another;
it lingers in Constantinople with other relics of past ages, and may
be seen occasionally at the European watering-places, where it is used
to convey invalids to and from the baths and springs. Before the
construction of the railway on Mount Vesuvius chairs were employed to
carry visitors up the steep incline, and they can be seen now and then
among the Swiss mountains. To see the _chaise a porteurs_ in all
its glory it is necessary to visit Asia.
The first vehicle of this sort that meets the traveler's gaze as he
journeys eastward from Europe is the palankeen, or _palkee_, as
it is usually called in India. It is a conveyance peculiar to India,
and consists of a box about seven feet long by four wide and three
high. It is entirely of wood, roof and all, and there is a sliding
door in each side, while the interior is equipped with a hard mattress
and bolster. There is a pole three or four feet long at each end,
which rests on the shoulders of the bearers, and is generally made
secure by iron braces. To enter this contrivance you back into it till
you can sit on the mattress, and then by a skilful swing you bring
head and feet inside at the same moment. Then you lie down at full
length and the coolies move off. You are expected to lie still, so as
not to disturb the equilibrium, and in the enervating climate of India
you are quite willing to be motionless. The bearers have a peculiar
swinging step that saves you from any jolts, and the motion is quite
luxurious.
Formerly in the cities of India the foreign residents made great use
of the palankeen, and every person of respectability was supposed to
keep one, together with the appropriate number of bearers. Of late
years it has been largely superceded by the horse carriage, of which
there are two or three varieties, and the palkee-bearers have been
forced to seek other employments. Four bearers are necessary to carry
the palkee, and four more run alongside to take their share of the
burden when the first are weary. At night a torch-bearer is necessary
to light the way, and to do the thing in style, there should be four
torch-bearers, two in front and two in the rear. Formerly the palkee
was the only means of traveling in the interior of India, but the
carriage road, and later the railway, have made the "palkee dawk"
(palankeen express) among the things that were.
For traveling on the high roads through the interior each palankeen
required sixteen bearers, and if the traveler had more than a very
little baggage he was compelled to hire from eight to twelve men to
carry it. The torch-bearers and other attendants generally brought his
retinue up to thirty-five or forty men, and sometimes even more. There
were stations on the road every ten miles where relays were obtained,
and there was always more or less delay at these stations, so that the
palkee was not a rapid means of travel. The "lightning dawk," as the
natives call the locomotive, has beaten it quite out of sight.
A cheaper vehicle for country travel is the dhoolie, a sort of chair
with a covering of canvas or muslin; it is lighter than the palkee,
and requires only twelve bearers instead of sixteen. An English
statesman of considerable renown once spoke in Parliament of the
ferocious dhoolies that carried the wounded from the battle-field on a
certain occasion; he was under the impression that the dhoolie was a
blood-thirsty native rather than an inoffensive chair.
What the palankeen was to India the sedan-chair is to China. As the
traveler finds it at Hong Kong or Canton it is a bamboo chair with a
ventilating top, like a Venetian blind, and it has curtains at the
side that may be rolled up or let down at will. It has a floor for the
feet, and rests for the arms, and altogether the Chinese chair is a
very comfortable vehicle. Long poles are fastened to the sides,
parallel with each other and projecting three or four feet in front
and rear, and by these poles the concern is carried. The chair is
placed on the ground for you to enter it, and you have none of the
difficulty experienced in getting into a palankeen. You simply sit
down as in an arm-chair at home; when you are seated, the bearers
seize the poles, and, at a signal from their leader, swing the burden
to its place on their shoulders. They move at a swinging pace, and
usually, but not always, keep step in unison. Every ten minutes or so
they change the pole from one shoulder to the other, and about every
half hour they halt and put the chair on the ground for a few minutes.
You may retain your place during this halt or get out and stretch your
limbs, just as you please.
In all the cities of China the chair is in use, and in most, if not
all of them, the streets are so narrow that carriages could not
possibly move about. For a short ride two bearers are sufficient, and
the chairs for hire in the streets of Hong Kong rarely have more than
two. But for an excursion into the country, or to the summit of
Victoria peak, overlooking Hong Kong harbor, four bearers are
necessary. There is a regular tariff for chairs, just as there is for
cabs in London or Paris. A short course costs ten cents, and a longer
one in proportion, and a chair with four bearers for an entire day, in
making the circuit of Canton, may be had for a dollar. Labor is cheap
in the far East.
Two-wheeled cabs, drawn by a single horse, take the place of the chair
to some extent in Pekin, but there are many streets where the cabs
cannot circulate. In Shanghai the wheelbarrow is a rival of the chair;
it is cheaper and more uncomfortable, and its use is almost entirely
confined to the natives. It has no springs, the pavement is rough, the
man between the shafts is generally far from strong, and altogether
the wheelbarrow of Northern China is not to be recommended.
The man-power vehicle, par excellence, is the jinrikisha of Japan. It
replaces the _norimon_ and _cango_, peculiar forms of the sedan-chair,
and has only been in use since 1870. It is said to have been invented
by an American, and the first jinrikishas that were used were imported
from San Francisco. Probably not less than a hundred thousand of them
are now in use throughout Japan, and they are said to have penetrated
to the remotest districts.
The jinrikisha is a carriage like a small chaise of the New England
pattern; it is on two wheels, and has shafts like a handcart, and
there is a hood over the top that can be opened or closed at pleasure.
The coolie that draws it places the shafts on the ground to permit you
to enter, and, until he picks them up, you are sitting with your head
bent forward. The cross-piece of the shafts held against his breast
brings the carriage to a level, and then you are ready for a start.
The jinrikisha is intended for one person, but occasionally you see
two Japanese or Chinese of medium size occupying a single vehicle.
For a short ride in a Japanese city one man to pull your carriage is
sufficient, but for a journey into the country, or of several miles,
you need two men, or perhaps three. Where you have but one man you
should not expect to go as rapidly as with two or three, and you must
dismount in sandy places, or when a hill is to be ascended. The speed
and endurance of these men is something wonderful. It is nothing
unusual for three of them to pull a jinrikisha fifty miles in twelve
hours, with only three halts of a quarter of an hour each, and they
have been known to make sixty-five miles between sunrise and sunset of
a long day. The writer, with three men to his carriage, traveled from
Osaka to Nara, a distance of thirty miles, between 10 A.M. and 5 P.M.,
with a halt of an hour for dinner. The next day he continued his
journey to Kioto, thirty miles more, in a pouring rain, with the same
men in the same time. The coolies were as fresh on the second day as
on the first, and as cheerful as one could wish, although their
passenger was not a light weight, and was suffering from a lameness
that prevented his walking up any of the hills.
Riding with a jinrikisha is cheap enough for the most contracted
purse. The tariff in the large cities of Japan is ten cents an hour,
or fifty cents for a day of twelve hours, and if the traveler wishes
to keep his carriage waiting for him, and subject to his call, he can
readily make a bargain for not over three dollars a week. Most of the
foreigners in Japan keep their own carriages by buying a jinrikisha,
and hiring a couple of men for six or seven dollars each per month.
They perform the work of general servants about the house and grounds,
and whenever the master wishes to ride out he orders the jinrikisha
and its accompanying coolies. A carriage of ordinary workmanship costs
about twenty-five dollars, and a "swell" one can be had for fifty or
something less. Its name is compounded of three Japanese words--jin,
man, riki, power, and sha, carriage--jin-riki-sha, man-power-carriage.
The stranger in Japan, China, or India, finds it disagreeable to ride
on men's shoulders, or to be drawn by them in a vehicle. Especially is
this the case in Japan, where you have the struggling and perspiring
man directly before you, and witness the effort he is making to propel
you over the ground. Everybody experiences this feeling, and his first
ride in a man-power carriage is rarely agreeable. But when you
remember that the coolie considers it a favor to be employed, and that
nothing would displease him more than to have the offer of his
services refused, you will change your mind, and take your ease in a
jinrikisha. Regard him as you would the man whom you employ to saw
wood or dig potatoes; he is thankful for the opportunity of working,
and so is the Japanese coolie who exerts his strength to pull you
about. And when you have done with him give a few cents extra, and he
will thank you with an expression so heartfelt that you cannot fail to
be touched by it.
Many of the Japanese still prefer the _cango_ to the jinrikisha,
but it is rapidly going out of use in all the localities where the
miniature chaise can run. The _cango_ is a sort of open-sided
basket slung on a pole, and carried by two men in the same way that a
sedan-chair is carried. The occupant must double his legs beneath him,
and sit perfectly still; this is easy enough for a Japanese, but is
torture to a European. No man from Europe or America will ever find
the _cango_ enjoyable until a system is invented whereby he can
unscrew his legs before starting, and screw them on again when his
journey is completed.