584 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 
like the Chinese, used colza or other oil for illumination; we use that, 
and also pine cones held in the hand or fastened to something as you 
have seen.” 
T then called attention to the fact that coal, so abundant in these 
regions, is little used by the Lolos. In the clan of Vou Ka they have 
used it for only the past 40 years. In the different districts that I 
traversed, places far from the centers and inhabited by various 
tribes, I never saw them make anythifg but wood fires. 
The chapter on religion is short, but Vou Ka declares that the 
tribes have no poussahs (grotesque religious images) such as the 
Chinese have. They never pray in his clan nor in others elsewhere. 
His god is his tuft of hair rolled up in his turban. This is his ‘‘corne.”’ 
“Ts the god represented by the tuft itself, or does he dwell there as an 
immaterial being?’’ I could not make my meaning clearer, yet Vou 
Ka appeared not to understand it; such fine distinctions were beyond 
his comprehension. When they make an offering, there is nothing 
religious or sacred about it; they drink some brandy mixed with 
blood, the blood of a dog that has been sacrificed. 
Loutze Ming and others had given me some information upon the 
penalties or crime in the tribes or clans and I wished to hear them 
confirmed by Vou Ka. He explained them clearly, summing up as 
follows the common law—there is no written law: 
He who has killed should die. Jf there should be any attenuating circumstances 
they permit the criminal to execute himself either by water or by the rope, but if 
he hesitates they drown him at once in the mountain torrent or else hang him. There 
are no such horrible tortures as one finds among the Chinese. 
Vou Ka confided to me that his people have none of the loose 
manners of the Chinese, and it is true. The Lolo has a very high 
idea of that sentiment which we call modesty. 
This modesty is so real, so deeply rooted in the intelligence of 
these primitive people, that it is the depth of disgrace to a woman 
and to all her clan likewise if she should expose her naked body. I 
can cite a curious striking instance of this characteristic, really eine 
all that a genuine SNortits involves. 
When two tribal enemies have long been in strife, so that fiuntrait 
and deadly encounters cause desolation and ruin among families, 
with no hope of reconciliation, the wife of the chief of one of the 
tribes resolves to sacrifice her female modesty, in order to bring to 
an end the dreadful feud. Her decision made, she hastens by devious 
paths, on the day fixed for the encounter between the two bands of 
warriors, in order to reach the place before the fight begins. 
Quickly, then, none daring to hold her back, she casts herself 
between the hostile ranks and in a becoming manner, in simple words, 
beseeches the fighters to put an end to a carnage which has lasted 
too long, which has threatened the annihilation of the brave and 
