THE LOLOS OF KIENTCHANG, WESTERN CHINA EEGENDKE. 583 



in constructing the larger and more comfortable homes adapted from 

 various Chinese types. 



The mason and the locksmith, like the shoemaker, may be passed 

 over without mention. 



There are no merchants in the clans, properly speaking, nor shops. 

 Each family supplies itself or receives from the seignior the material 

 necessary for food and clothing. The real necessities of life are less 

 complicated than one would imagine. The Chinese merchant never 

 settles in the villages nor in the territory of a tribe, but sells his arti- 

 cles through a colporteur, traveling from group to group. He is very 

 largely paid in cereals, wool, or animal hides. 



After this review of the social and economic organization of the 

 Lolos, various other subjects were discussed, and Vou Ka responded 

 with no less clearness. I already knew much about these people, but 

 it seemed very important to verify my first observations. 



"Is it true that the Lolo does not wash himself; that he never dis- 

 robes to sleep?" — "He bathes in summer in the mountain streams, 

 and washes his feet throughout the year at dawn of day, but has not 

 felt the need of other washing. Our women, our housekeepers, with 

 a strict sense of cleanliness, never knead corn or buckwheat flour 

 without having carefully cleaned their hands and forearms in plenty 

 of water. Otherwise they are not particular about washing; it is 

 really useless. Our people are not accustomed to disrobe at night. 

 He sleeps, as you have seen at Ta Cha Chou and at Y Le, crouched 

 before the fireplace wrapped in his mantle. We are always on the 

 alert, always ready to face an approaching enemy or to rush to the 

 call of the chief for an attack." 



"Did you know of rice before the advent of the Chinese? Was it 

 cultivated by any of the tribes ?" — " That cereal was unknown to us. 

 It was the Chinese who brought it to us and taught us how to cultivate 

 it. It is, however, as you know, used only as a delicacy by such of 

 our clans as possess rice fields." 



"Is it true that you can prepare meat in such a way as to obtain a 

 powder that will keep for a long time?" — "Our ancestors taught us 

 to cut meat into thin strips and to dry them in the air or before 

 a fire. When once hard and brittle, the strips are pounded in a 

 mortar and reduced to fine particles. This meat powder will keep 

 in good condition for two years when the desiccation has been 

 thorough, but only one year or less under ordinary conditions. It is 

 prepared for consumption by dissolving it in water." 



"To make a fire did your ancestors have any method other than that 

 now employed — that is, the flint? Have they any other processes of 

 lighting than by chips or sticks of pine or fir?" — "No; they light the 

 tinder, as you know, made from tops of the immortelle and other 

 plants, by striking the flint with a piece of iron. Our ancestors never, 



