THE LOLOS OF KIENTOHANG, 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. 



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 



