Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XI. Camps and camp life
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
134 THE SIEGE OF PORT ARTHUR
connection, another thing which is worth mention-
ing. I have already said that the soldiers were
daily taken out for drill. Generally it was only
for a short time every day, the drill consisting
mostly of gymnastic exercises to keep the men fit
and in good condition ; but on one occasion for
about a week or ten days the plain in front of us
looked somewhat like Aldershot on a field-day.
Companies were exercised for hours at a stretch,
forenoon and afternoon, and were led to make
sham attacks on some hill in the neighbourhood,
or simply across the fields to a donga which had
to do service for a Russian trench.
Another thing we remarked at the same time.
On the side of the steep hill, under which the
camps were pitched, a kind of altar had been built
up, adorned with flowers and foliage and decked
with rice and cakes and other eatables. Before
this altar we saw on two or three different occa-
sions a considerable number of troops drawn up
and formed in open squares. Then a kind of
religious service took place, with Buddhist priests
in their long gold-braided robes performing cere-
monies, and then some superior officer stood forth
and harangued the troops.
It was long before we could learn what the
thing really meant. People were very reticent
when we asked them. We thought it some kind
of memorial service for those of their comrades
who had fallen in front of Port Arthur, and it did
not occur to us at all to connect this ceremony
with the very pronounced increase of drill activity
amongst the troops in our vicinity. But little by
little the real significance of these two facts oozed
out, and although it has been practically impossible
to get all the details, the gist of the story is
this :
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
