SSUMAO TO TALI 



In the confined space in which we were cooped up, the germs 

 of various minor maladies contracted en route began to declare 

 themselves, and rheumatism, neuralgia, headache, and general slack- 

 ness prevailed ; while, in proportion as the moving accidents of 

 travel were lacking, difficulties assumed exaggerated shape, and a 

 mild form of nostalgia succeeded to the excitement of the road. 

 But man proposes and — in China — man also disposes. To our 

 followers this was a paradise which they were in no hurry to quit. 

 Luckily our relations with the local magnate were so cordial as 

 to console us in some measure for the delay. He was a well- 

 educated mandarin from the neighbourhood of Chanof-hai, and 

 gave us every attention and help in his power, from which we 

 derived considerable benefit both then and after. 



We got but little information out of the natives of the district. 

 A Lolo brought me a manuscript which he could read but not 

 interpret, being, as he averred, a treatise in an obsolete dialect on 

 religious subjects. I engaged this villager to write me some 

 modern Lolo ; and a young Chinese, who had brought two packets 

 of tea as a gift, with a request that we should remove a swelling 

 from his neck, offered himself as intermediary and scribe. He 

 wrote down some words in Chinese which he then read to the 

 native, who in turn rendered them into the Lolo language and 

 characters. By this means I obtained an interesting document. 

 It was a common appeal among these folk that we should cure 

 them of various complaints, chiefly of the interior. My usual 

 advice was — give up smoking opium, first of all. This was enough 

 for my patients. 



April the iith was finally fixed for the start. The makotou 

 and the mafous, in supplication for the road, made votive 

 offerings to Buddha in the shape of a fowl, a pig's head, a jar 



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