THE LOLOS OF KIENTOHANG, WESTERN CHINA LEGENDRE. 571 



goatskin with the meal, and when hungry he makes a ball of meal in 

 the palm of his hand with water from a stream and eats it as it is. 



The potato is well known to these primitive people and is quite 

 largely cultivated by them. For his primitive menu the cook is not 

 at all interested in what we term "condiments." The only seasoning 

 he cares for is salt and he likes that chiefly as a delicacy. In the 

 villages salt is eaten the same as sugar candy; pieces of it are passed 

 from mouth to mouth and each one sucks it for a given time. Sugar 

 is not at all disliked, but as the cane does not grow in the mountains 

 the Lolo must get it by descending into the valleys at night and 

 pillaging the Chinese fields. It is interesting to note in passing that 

 the mountain herder disdains the milk of his cattle. 



I return now to their dwellings. 



To give a complete idea I can do no better than to describe the 

 type of hut seen in the village of Bolo, near Yue Si. This hut is a 

 wretched little affair, 13 to 16^ feet long, 8 to 10 feet wide, and about 

 the same height. There is but one room, with a recess separated from 

 the other portion by a half partition. This recess serves not only as an 

 apartment for the household but also as a stable for the sheep when 

 the tenant is too poor to build one outside the hut. There is really 

 no furniture, neither table nor chair or other seat, much less a cup- 

 board or closet. The inmates squat on the ground around the hearth, 

 which serves as their dining table by day and a place for sleep at 

 night. There is no sort of bed in any form. I stated that there was 

 no trace of cupboard or closet in the huts, for what good would they 

 be? These poor Lolos have no need of a wardrobe. They carry all 

 their clothing on their backs, and wear it as long as they can, rarely 

 having a complete change. 



I saw no household utensils except the large Chinese scullion, like 

 a spherical pot, and some wooden bowls, very curious and well 

 turned. They had, however, some large, cylindrical bamboo baskets 

 for storing grain, and sieves and winnowing baskets made of the 

 same material. The hooks for hanging utensils or other objects are 

 made of simple forked branches of trees. One other way of holding 

 objects, such as baguettes or rods, consists of a double ring in the 

 form of the figure 8, made of a rope of bindweed or young bamboo. 

 These rods serve as rests for the large, flat baskets on which they 

 dry the grain. 



I have called the Lolo dwelling a hut and it is nothing more. 

 Made of bamboo strips crossed and intertwined or cut into ropes and 

 plaits, it offers but a meager shelter against the cold, wind, or rain, 

 and the pine strips that form the roof are joined so poorly that the 

 daylight shows through the wide cracks. The posts and joists are 

 merely trunks or branches of trees, not squared or even stripped of 



