THE TALDI. 69 



cultivated and populous country, comprising the 

 towns of Nim-pi and Ou-yam-pu, and further to the 

 west, Si-ning, Tonkir, and Seng-kwan. 



The inhabitants of this part uf the province of 

 Kan-su ^ are Chinese, Tangutans,^ and Taldi, to the 

 latter of whom I will for the present confine my 

 remarks. 



This tribe inhabits a comparatively limited dis- 

 trict near the towns of Nim-pi, Ou-yam-pu, and 

 Si-ning, and the temple of Chobsen, where they 

 form half the numerical strength of the population. 

 Externally they are more like Mongols than Chinese, 

 although a settled agricultural people. Their faces 

 are round, with flattened features, cheekbones promi- 

 nent, eyes and hair black, mouth rather large, and 

 figure thickset. The men shave beard and hair, 

 leaving a pig-tail.^ The girls plait all their hair 

 into a long tress behind, and wear a tall square 

 head-dress made of daba (cotton cloth), but the old 

 women put nothing on the head, dividing the hair in 

 front and braiding it behind. The dress of men and 

 women is very like that of the Chinese, with Avhom, 

 as well as with the settled Tangutans, they inter- 

 marry. They are Buddhists by religion.* 



> Kan-su is bounded on the north by Mongoha, on the east by 

 Shen-si, on the south by Sze-chuan, while on the west, before the Dun- 

 gan insurrection, it extended as far as Barkul and Urumchi in Eastern 

 Turkestan. 



* A description of the Tangutans will be found in Chapter W . of 

 this volume ; the Chinese in Kan-su are the same as in other parts of the 

 Empire ; the Mongols only inhabit those districts lying near the sources 

 of the Tatung, forming part of the Koko-nor administrative district. 



^ Unlike Mongols and Chinese, the Taldi can apparently grow 

 beards. 



' The following cxtrac t translated from Palladius' letter to Gen. 



