mule litter

— The traveller may ride a donkey, a mule, or a pony; or he may use a barrow, a cart, a sedan chair, a boat, or a shentzŭ... The shentzŭ belongs more particularly to the north, and might be best described as a large sedan chair having an arched roof, the floor of the chair roomy enough to let a person lie on it; but whereas the chair is carried on men's shoulders, the shafts of the shentzŭ rest on the backs of mules. Shentzŭ is the Chinese name for what we would call a mule litter. As this conveyance can go over almost any kind of road, I decided on it, and engaged two mules for the litter, and a donkey for the baggage: the three animals with the shentzŭ and a man cost 1300 cash per day when we travelled, and 700 cash per day when we rested from any cause.