 that at present there
were some persons who could put a cross mark on one's forehead simply by
blowing with the mouth or with a fan.
"On this account most of the people went to the Boxer's altars
to be examined. About nine-tenths of the people who did go to the altar
had the cross mark on the head. Some people said that in the Chinese city
a mark of a cross could not be cleared off without paying a tael of silver
for each. People thought that this was the Christian's magic power, but
I believed it was the Boxers cheating them, for I had never heard the Christians
possess magic power.
"In the streets some yellow papers pasted on the wall said that
on the seventh day of the seventh moon all the people should wrap their
heads with red cloth, and on these four days - seventh and fifteenth days
of the seventh moon, and first and ninth days of the ninth moon - they
should not eat cooked food, otherwise Niu-Lang, a spirit, would not help
the people to pass the calamity, and also foreigners could not be stopped
"A proclamation was issued by the metropolitan commander-in-chief
of infantry, in which rewards of fifty taels of silver for the capture
of a living foreign man, forty for a woman, and thirty for a child were
"One day when I was in the Yamen a man ran in suddenly and said
that there were Christians in Chao-Tang-Tsu-Hu-Tung, the lane just opposite
the one in which the Tsung-Li-Yamen is situated. The Boxers in the Yamen
immediately ran to the house showed to them by the messenger. When they
arrived the house had already caught fire. Some yellow Boxers captured
the holder of the house, and sent him to Prince Chuang's house to be examined.
Now, no persons could be put to death without being sent to Prince Chuang's
house to be examined.
"One day a long succession of firing guns was heard. It was the
bombardment of the British Legation.
"In the morning of the twenty-first day, when I was walking in
the main street at Tan-Pai-Lou, I saw one of the Jung-Lu's soldiers talking
with several passers-by, and I overhead that early that morning a few foreigners
came out of a legation (which he could not recognize) and begged a commander
of the troops to forgive them, and they would fight no more.
"They promised to stop fighting in Tientsin too. In the afternoon
a foreigner came out and was caught by a few soldiers, and he said he wanted
to see General Ma. The reason was that their provisions, ammunitions were
"An imperial decree was issued in which the Empress-Dowager regretted
the death of the German Minister and the Japanese Chancellor, and ordered
the Viceroy of Chih-Li and the metropolitan prefect to arrest banditti
and protect the legations, and to send the missionaries and merchants home.
On hearing this, the Boxers said the foreigners would soon be all killed,
and she was silly.
"The Empress-Dowager ordered the Tsung-Li-Yamen to present some
watermelons to the foreign ministers. The Boxers seeing this became very
angry, said that it was done by the Yamen privately, but that it was not
ordered by her Majesty.
On the twenty-ninth day Chang-Lin, a former vice-president of a board,
brought about two thousand Boxers to Chin-Chia-Tun to attack the Christians,
who fortified their place with trenches and guns, so the Boxers were wounded
before they could go near it, and therefore were defeated.
"Two, or perhaps more, of the students of the Peking University
were killed by the Boxers, for they had foreign books.
"On the first day of the seventh moon a telegram came from the
American Consul at Chefoo, in which it was stated that very large forces
of all nations were at Taku, and that no American was wounded, except a
little loss of property; and that he asked Mr. Conger to write with his
own hand the true condition of the siege.
"On the second day the Tsung-Li-Yamen sent a good deal of vegetables
and about a thousand catties of flour to the legations. The Boxers in the
Yamen looked at this with an angry frown.
"On the fourth day another telegram came from the American Consul
at Chefoo, which said that the admirals of all nations were anxi