THE LOLOS OF KIENTCHANG, WESTERN CHINA—LEGENDRE. 575 
least annoyance from it. They could with impunity have caused 
my disappearance with profit to themselves, but I am sure that not 
one of them ever thought of it; that their great desire was to make 
my journey through their districts the most agreeable possible for 
me. As the winter’s cold is severe in the mountains, a rousing fire 
was carefully kept burning all night to protect me against the biting 
north wind. The poor people could not attain the result sought, so 
primitive is their cabin, so insufficient their shelter; but it was not 
their fault; they did all that was possible. Above all, the welcome 
was cordial and entirely unselfish. 
ORGANIZATION OF THE FAMILY, THE CLAN, AND THE TRIBE. 
The members of the Lolotte family are generally closely united. 
You find a true affection in the absolute equality of its parts. The 
wife is never such a slave as is nearly always the case among the 
Chinese; on the contrary, she is loved altogether as a woman and 
not at all as the perpetuator of the ancestral cult. Loved for herself, 
the true, intimate, and social companion of the husband, she always 
retains an individuality in the family, an acknowledged unity. 
The daughter-in-law is always tolerated if not loved; is never ill- 
treated like the daughters of Han. Children in their turn are much 
petted and caressed; the girls receive the same care and affection as 
the boys, and are never considered to be inferior beings as they are 
in China. 
Independence of the family—From a social standpoint, the Lolotte 
family is well organized. It enjoys its own independence, forms a 
unit in the clan or the tribe, with no possibility of servitude or 
danger of absorption by the autocracy of a chief or a seignor. The 
husband is the unquestioned head of the family, the wife is a com- 
panion and a highly respected counselor. The boy belongs first of 
all to the father, and next to the chief of the tribe, but not until, 
under the law of the clan, as a sacred warrior, he attains to manhood 
at 18 years of age. 
Education.—The child receives only a physical education, with no 
school or pedagogic instruction whatever, even for the son of a grand 
seignor. It is very seldom that even a nobleman (os noir) learns to 
read or write. They devote themselves to such exercises only in 
preparation for future sorcerer priests. The Lolo is in fact a very 
ignorant man who thinks only of running about the mountains with 
his pack of hounds and his herds or practicing his skill with the bow 
or the lance for his daring adventures. rey 
The youth on the day when he becomes a sacred warrior is con- 
sidered as of age. The young girl is free only at the date of her 
marriage, however late in life that may be. But she does not need 
