FROM MONGTSE TO SSUMAO 



whole. Manuscripts were plentiful at Lou-tchou, and they 

 brought me some very fine illuminated ones. The characters 

 are still in use, employed in property contracts in duplicate with 

 Chinese. A more learned native than most agreed to make a 

 translation for me, and said the Lolo caligraphy contained three 

 hundred letters and signs, and was read from the top of the 

 page to the bottom, and from left to right. 



We quitted Lou-tchou in thick fog by a route following for the 

 most part the crests of the hills through low woods, where red and 

 white rhododendrons alternated. Primitive bee-hives furnished us 

 with welcome honey in hollow trunks stopped with clay and bored 

 through the middle. The route being fairly frequented, we met 

 quantities of tea and cotton, the former sometimes wrapped in 

 bamboo leaves ; most of the muleteers were armed with tridents, 

 and as the caravans travelled in large convoys their appearance 

 was sufficient to overawe robbers. Despite the bad weather, our 

 men kept up well. Francois, draped in a long blue cloak, under 

 a round grey hat, looked from behind like a town-clock ; on the 

 march he sat his pony like a statue, mute and erect ; only after 

 dinner was his tongue loosed, and he would condescend to inter- 

 rogate the natives. 



Among our mafous was one, a lad of twelve, accompanying 

 his father, whose frank expression and cheery "cheulo" ("all right") 

 quite gained our hearts ; even when he rapped out the customary 

 " malepi," the imprecation seemed to lose half its ugliness. It was 

 deplorable to think that this boy was doomed to so short a child- 

 hood, and that ere long he would inevitably become a confirmed 

 opium -smoker, and acquire with their passions all the corruption 

 of his elders. Among the Hou-Ni villages around the greatest 

 squalor prevailed, and the wretched inhabitants lived in constant 



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