FROM MONGTSE TO SSUMAO 



The Miaos or Miaotses (who do not speak Chinese) have 

 four family names : Tien, Lo, Tch'eng, and Ts'ai. They are 

 divided into — 



Koua Miao . . . dress, various. 



Pai Miao . . . ,, yellow. 



Hei Miao . . . ,, blue-black. 

 H'ing Miao. 



On leaving the Miaotse village, we noticed at the foot of a 

 large tree a white marble trough surmounted by a Chinese in- 

 scription, and below it two horizonal marble slabs, on one of 

 which the following figure was engraved : — 



Descending again to the level of the Song-CoT, we entered 

 upon scenery of unforeseen beauty. The road wound beneath 

 a wooded hillock, where the breeze that stirred the branches 

 wafted a faint fragrance of vanilla, not unlike the sweet scent 

 of the joss-sticks of Thibet, and the grove was bright with large 

 white blooms, either pendent or strewn upon the ground like 

 snowflakes. A little farther it dipped into cool hollows filled 

 with slender reeds or the wavino- boug-hs of the mimosa and 

 the tamarind. Coming from the rocky desolation of the river- 

 bed, the sensation was like that of Aladdin when he emerged 

 into the Wonderful Garden after threading long labyrinths of 

 dreary caves. In the heart of this little paradise nestled a Pai 

 hamlet ; by which for the night we pitched our tent, and watched 

 the moon rise almost red through the boles of the trees, as in 



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