FROM MONGTSE TO SSUMAO 



over a small horsehair skull - cap. These people were very 

 shy ; I had much ado to photograph them ; and on my pro- 

 posing to buy a tunic, they fell on their knees and proftered 

 me some sapecks, trying to force back into my hands a small 

 hand-glass I had given them. I think they took us for gods. 

 They said they were Lintindjous, but the Chinese called them 

 Yaos. Rumour ascribed to them a writing of their own, of 

 which we tried in vain to procure a specimen ; their dialect at 



any rate was totally dif- 

 ferent from any other. 

 They had come to 

 market with a dye for 

 sale. The Lintindjou 

 females displayed a small 

 disc above the hair knot, 

 which lent their turbans 

 some resemblance to a 

 papal tiara. In their 

 ears were heavy double 

 rings of silver. 



On the 7th (March) 

 we re-entered the valley 

 of the Red River, to the satisfaction of our men. There was 

 much talk in camp of pirates on the heights. For my own 

 part I believe they were only natives in revolt against the taxes, 

 but our mafous showed no desire for chin-chin with them. 

 Spying on the door of a house here some white hieroglyphics, 

 I hastened to copy them, and flattered myself that I had made 

 prize of a new script. But Sao damped my philological ardour 

 by pronouncing the building to be a buffalo stable, and the 



47 



t'"1 



A Vao. 



