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.