FROM TONKIN TO INDIA 



The Hatous were the next new folk amongst whom we found 

 ourselves. They resembled the Hou-Nis in their sombre dress, 

 but, in addition to the usual silver ornaments, the women wore 

 cowries or pearls pendent from large ear-rings, which were linked by 

 a light chain under the chin. They were all very partial to tobacco, 

 which they smoked in small wooden pipes with silver chains ; one 

 stalwart old woman offered me three eggs for a pinch of it : her 

 upright carriage, with the energetic expression of her bronzed and 

 wrinkled face and restless eyes beneath her turban, gave her a mien 

 of barbaric wildness that suggested something almost uncanny 

 behind the mask. These Hatous, whose speech was akin to that 

 of the Hou-Xis, came here twenty-nine years ago from Ouang- 

 Tchang (near Xieng-houng), a small town not far from Tali, and 

 regretted their migration, which they would gladly retrace had they 

 the means. They had no priests, but worshipped the deities of 

 sky, earth, house, and mountain, as well as ancestors up to the 

 third generation, and they disbelieved in evil spirits. 



■ The mountains harboured here wild boar, deer, roebuck, porcu- 

 pines, and tigers. The black panther is also to be found. I bought 

 a skin from two men, who called it helaofu (black tiger), and held 

 that it was the latter and no panther. However this may be, I 

 believe this is the first occasion when this colour has been cited in 

 these regions. 



We reached the left bank of the Black River on the 26th (March), 



and found a volume of tureid water rollinsf down, in breadth about 



eighty-seven yards, between wooded hills of less height than those 



which confine the Song-Coi. Its colour contrasted with the clear 



torrent we had lately been following, but by the time it reaches 



Tonkin it has lost its reddish tint. The Black River, known here 



as the Lysiang-Kiang, higher as the Papien, and lower as the Song- 



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