FROM TONKIN TO INDIA 



to take the weight. Whenever they saw us they turned their 

 hacks and plunged into the thicket. 



At a distance these natives in their monochrome of blue-black 

 presented a sombre appearance. We photographed a few Hou- 

 Nis in one of their villages at Ba-kopo. They call themselves 

 " Hou-Nia, " but scarcely sound the "a." Their women are valued 



at from sixteen 



to thirty -six 



-- " '^ ' ,^ — .<t^, .— — taels, and the 



^ ^ rich have two 



wives. They 

 inter their dead, 

 and mark their 

 mourning bv a 

 strip of white 

 linen on the 

 head. Their 

 religion is the 

 worship of an- 

 cestors. They 

 rent the ground 

 for tillage from 

 the district of 



Kai-hoa, but they have no other impost than this land tax. The 

 Government gives them a Chinese chief, who resides at Koate ; 

 and they have also a headman of their own of less importance, to 

 whom they give the title "tien-ni." Interrogated as to manuscripts, 

 they replied that they had none of their own and knew no 

 characters but Chinese. They had a musical instrument, a 

 three-stringed guitar, from which they get a very soft tone. 



44 



Chinese (lirl before her House. 



