The tough, lean coolies who pull them are to be treated always with respect for what they are in Chinese life and the waging of this war. They are the freight carriers, the builders of the Burma Road, the guerrilla fighters, their stomachs never filled, their bodies nothing but bone and muscle.
When you sit behind one of them in a ricksha, consider what he is and how you can help him. He will not appreciate it if you walk instead of hiring him, for he depends on his job to feed his family. But he will appreciate your sitting forward when he goes uphill, leaning back when he goes down, and at other times sitting with your weight in the middle of the vehicle.
As you walk along the street, the working man will appreciate it if you do not step over a carrying pole laid in the street for a moment's rest, or the lowered shafts of a ricksha or sedan chair, because this is supposed to bring bad luck in business for a year.
