FROM TONKIN TO INDIA 



buildings were new and cleanly. The chief industry of its Chinese 

 occupants was the making of the spirit called " tchaotiou " of rice 

 or barley, so that a mild exhilaration soon displayed itself among 

 our men. In rear of the village was a clearing, planted with 

 cabbage, lettuce, turnips, fennel, and pumpkins, the soil in many 

 cases being propped by horizontal tree trunks or hollow bamboo 

 stems, which also served as aqueducts. The side walks were 

 shaded by palms, pomegranates, bananas, and orange - trees, 

 carefully tended. The Chinese certainly are first - rate market- 

 gardeners. 



On the 6th (April) Ssumao was reported as only twenty-four 

 miles distant. I therefore sent on Francois and the makotou, 

 nothing loth, to secure quarters. Our mafous were ready to be off 

 by 8.15 a.m., — a treat to behold, — mules saddled, packs corded, and 

 no useless palaver ; our roles were reversed, — it was they who 

 hurried us now. One day more, and then pay, brandy, opium, and 

 leisure to enjoy their dissipation. From the number of basket- 

 laden peasants we met in the course of our approach to the town, it 

 must have been market-day ; buffaloes there were, too, swinging 

 wooden bells with outside clappers like those in Laos. The region 

 here seemed to be warmer, and, besides the commoner rice and 

 scented white rhododendron, aloes reappeared, which we had not 

 seen since our entry into the province of Yunnan. 



At a turn of the road Ssumao came in sight. Instinctively we 

 drew a deep breath as we saw stretched before us a wide plain, 

 such as we last looked on at Mongtse, in the centre of which the 

 town rose on a gentle acclivity. A haze hung over it, through 

 which an indistinct impression was received of white walls, grey 

 roofs, and darker verdure, with detached pagodas amid groves of 

 large trees upon the summit. Between us and the town lay spread 



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