SSUMAO TO TALI 



However, we got off at last with a brace of soldiers lent 

 us by the mandarin to carry a letter of recommendation to the 

 village chiefs. Four routes led to the Mekong ; we chose that 

 going most directly westward, leaving our northing to be made 

 more gradually. On quitting the plain of Ssumao we entered a 

 pretty country, where the sun's rays lit up hills covered with pine 

 clumps and valleys fully cultivated, and the air was fresh and 



White Rocks in Valley. 



cool on green lawns. The first night out we slept beneath a 



pagoda, defaced with plaster deities grotesquely streaked, and 



seeming in vain to assay our terrors with their threefold regard. 



What a miserable conception the Chinese have made of their 



pantheon ! It is hard to comprehend how they have distorted 



the fine ideas of Buddha by representations that are nothing but 



shameful, repellent, and debased. 



89 



