Soon after leaving Kuroki's village we passed a long train of transport carts driven by Chinamen, who grinned at me and shouted sarcastically, " Ta ta de kapitan! " (" Great captain!"), and " Cush cush mayo! " (" No food! "), whereupon little Hara got angry and threatened them with his rifle, shouting at the same time as loud as he could, M Yingwa-Rin! Yingwa- Rin! " (" He's an Englishman! He's an Englishman! ") We also passed long trains of Japanese pack-horses led by "styohe," or military coolies, from whom, sometimes, but seldom, a single abrupt, dispassionate shout of " Russky! " proceeded. At first Hara used to stop to explain to these good people that they had made a great mistake in calling me " Russky," but after he had done so for the two hundredth time or so, he got tired and even assented, if silence meant assent, to the people who asked him if I was not a Russian " shoko " (officer).
The first dtape, or, as the Japanese call it, communication station, was at a place called Tudyatun, where we had dinner. The commandant of this etape asked me if it was true that, just before the battle, a number of wounded Japanese had been bound with ropes and dragged through the streets of Mukden, in order to make the Chinese believe that the Russians were winning. I said that I only knew of some unwounded Japanese having been marched through Mukden, and that they were not bound and not illtreated along the route; but I am astonished that, with tales like these, told them by constitutionally inaccurate Chinamen and accepted as gospel by the General Staff, the Japanese, who took me for a Russian, did not indulge in any hostile demonstration. I am afraid that things would have been different in any other country, but it is not impossible that the Japanese themselves would behave differently in case they were losing. It is to the credit of the Russians, on the other hand, that, despite their uninterrupted succession of defeats, they treated Japanese prisoners with unvarying kindness.
All the way down the Liaotung peninsula and all the way from Hiroshima to Shizuoka I was taken for a Russian, but not even once was an angry remark addressed to me or an angry glance cast at me, either by the Chinese, who have suffered so much at the hands of the Russians, or by the Japanese. Sometimes Japanese soldiers, taking me for an officer, saluted me respectfully; and once, while standing at the gate of my Japanese prison, a little girl of about three years of age was induced by some companions a year or two older to toddle forward and present me with a bough of cherry-blossoms.
After leaving Tudyatun I passed further trains of Chinese transport carts, the Celestial drivers of which grinned at me with one accord, and shouted, " Poo ko bin!" a Chinese term which really means "cannot sell," but which seems to be used by the Japanese and the Chinese in their employ as the equivalent of "You are powerless. You cannot do anything."
Some of them shouted " Kupetz! " the Russian word for "merchant," whereupon, sooner than be taken for a camp follower, I resumed the brassbuttoned, double-breasted Russian coat which had previously caused me to be mistaken for an officer.
Midway between Tudyatun and Kandalusan I came across a little village occupied by military coolies, who invited me into their best house, offered me such simple food as they had got, and were very inquisitive, friendly, and sympathetic. Most of them introduced themselves to me in a state of nature, for they had just been having a bath in a new bath-house which they had erected; but as they themselves did not seem to realise that there was anything improper in their lack of attire I for my part did not manifest any surprise.
All morning we passed long strings of pack animals led by "styohe," alternating with longer strings of Chinese carts driven by Chinamen; and at noon a faint sound of cannonading, away to the northward, showed us that Kuroki was again righting, as I had fully expected, for, on the morning on which I left him, his headquarters had been in a state of feverish activity.