570 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 
capable of nourishing large herds of horses, mules, sheep, and goats. 
In the mountains there still exist some beautiful forests, wheré oaks, 
birches, and pines flourish, as well as the silver fir which covers the 
summits. Up to 11,500 feet altitude there is a marvelous under- 
growth of slender bamboos and rhododendrons, where hide a great 
variety of animals—bears, wild boars, wild goats, antelopes, and deer. 
These people are chiefly hunters and herders. They have learned 
agriculture from the Sifan and the Chinese, but spend no more time 
and effort at it than is actually necessary for subsistence. What — 
they love most is constantly to roam in pursuit of wild animals. 
This beautiful mountain region is favored with an exceptional 
climate. For a great part of the year, particularly in autumn and 
winter, the sky is of a rare purity and clearness. Summer is very 
hot and the thermometer is said to go as high as 40° C. (104° F.), 
both in the valleys and on the mountains up to a height of 5,600 
feet, but the humidity is low. Winter, in the districts below 6,500 
feet, is never severe, but, on the contrary, though at night the 
thermometer may fall below the freezing point, it will rise dur- 
ing the day to 15° or even 20° C. (59° or 68° F.) before sunset. In 
February I registered temperatures of 25° C. (77° F.) in the shade 
between noon and 2 p. m., but early in the morning it was less than 
—2°C., (28.4° F.). We may therefore class the climate as subject to 
extremes of temperature, but at the same time decidedly dry, even 
too dry in the valleys below 5,000 feet. 
In his daily life the Lolo mountaineer leads a simple and frugal 
existence, content with his primitive shelter made of interlaced bam- 
boo strips. Thé houses, made of rammed earth covered with fir 
planks, seen in certain districts, are copied from the Chinese style 
of construction, plainly deviating from the primitive huts. 
The chief feature of the Lolo hut is the hearth, located in the 
center of the room, made of three triangular-shaped stones inclosing 
a hole from 10 to 12 inches in diameter and 4 inches deep. At the 
side, one often sees an elevation of three steps made of clay that look 
like shelves; but it is more than that. It is a sort of altar on which 
certain religious rites are performed, is the very sanctuary of the 
hearth, the sacred symbolic spot, after the fashion of the Greeks and 
Romans, the consecrated place in the poor man’s house where genera- 
tions of ancestors have found their moral and physical being strength- 
ened. 5 
Around this hearth the Lolo eats his buckwheat or oaten cakes, 
boiled maize, or else some stewed meat that he eats when half cooked. 
He also cooks the maize in cakes under the cinders. Oatmeal is his 
principal food, that which he takes with him by choice when he goes 
forth as a warrior or to engage in a feud. He fills a little bag of 
