NO. 2 FOLK RELIGION IN SOUTHWEST CHINA — GRAHAM 23 



for a few holidays, these stores are almost always open for business, 

 thus affording employment to a large number of people. In the smaller 

 stores all the work is done by members of the family. Only in the 

 largest stores are clerks, accountants, and servants hired. Certain days 

 are set apart for special market days, on which many people come 

 from far and near to sell their products — firewood, vegetables, grains, 

 chickens, eggs, etc. Many others come to buy, so that on these days 

 the markets and streets are crowded. 



Farming is the main occupation in West China, about 85 percent of 

 the people being employed in this way. As a consequence of good 

 fertilizing and irrigation, the yield per acre is large, but owing to 

 meager tools and lack of machinery, the yield per person is small. 



Some wealthy people own large farms. Some of the owners farm 

 the land themselves, hiring others to help them. Others rent their 

 land to families who work it and give the owners a goodly share 

 of the crop. Some families with small farms are able to do all the 

 work themselves, while others find it necessary to hire help at planting 

 and at harvest times. On some farms there are slack seasons when 

 farmers and their sons hire out as trackers to pull and row boats, or as 

 laborers to carry loads. 



An important occupation is that of boatman or tracker. Hundreds 

 of thousands are employed in this way. Another is the carrying of 

 burdens, some using the carrying-pole with half the load suspended 

 on each end, others carrying the loads on their backs, and still others 

 using a large pole carried by two or more men, with the load suspended 

 from the pole. Other occupations are the operating of the salt wells, 

 coal mining, cutting down trees and making them into firewood or 

 lumber, the white wax industry, the silk industry, spinning cotton into 

 thread, weaving cloth, fishing, hunting, and working as servants in the 

 homes of others. Many are employed as carpenters, blacksmiths, 

 masons, stone masons, bricklayers, water carriers, and in many other 

 occupations. 



The clothing varies much among tribespeople of West China, many 

 of them being distinguishable from other ethnic groups by their cloth- 

 ing. Tibetans often wear a long, thick red gown held at the waist by a 

 belt. Lolo men often wear thick felt cloaks which can also be used 

 as covers when sleeping. Many Ch'iang men and women wear undyed 

 white hemp garments. Ch'uan Miao men dress like the Chinese, but 

 the women, when they go to market and on dress-up occasions, wear 

 embroidered dresses with short skirts. 



At the beginning of the 20th century Chinese women wore trousers 



