SSUMAO TO TALI 



of rather fine stalactites, like organ pipes. The Chinese, who 

 make marvels of mites, see gods in these, before which Franqois 

 failed not to prostrate himself. Some certainly bore a distant 

 resemblance to dragons and elephants, and one was curious as 

 producing a hollow sound when struck. The guide spared us 

 none of these prodigies, so that we gained the upper air with relief. 

 No doubt it is an interesting cavern, but not to be compared 

 with those of Laos and Pakai below Luang-Prabang. 



In the evening- the villao-ers, exultant in the violent death 

 of a pig, danced before us. The performers, four in number, 

 joined hands and alternately contracted and expanded in a circle, 

 afterwards separating as in a quadrille. Their movements were 

 supple, and in cadence to a double-stringed guitar. The women 

 remained as spectators. They had a different dress to any we 

 had before seen, being of a horizontally striped material wound 

 round the figure for petticoat, with a short loose jacket fastened 

 at the side, and a large turban crossed in front, something after 

 the fashion of the Alsatian knot, and falling in flaps behind. 

 The lobe of the ear was pierced with a large wooden spindle. 

 These little Pai ladies with their pale tinge were less unattractive 

 than the Chinese ; Sao, at least, found them more to his taste ; 

 but to us they were very wild. The evening ended in song. 

 The troubadour wailed in falsetto, imitating a woman, beginning 

 each strophe with a high note which gradually died away ; then, 

 a pause, and da capo. After a bit it was monotonous. 



On the 15th (April) we were fairly in Pai country. The people 

 said they came here many years back from the vicinity of Yiinnan- 

 Sen. It was curious to meet here, as among the Lolos, with folk 

 who had come from the north and east, rolled back by the Chinese 

 into the refuge of the mountains of Yunnan, which seems to have 



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