FROM TONKIN TO INDIA 



been for many of the native races what Thibet has proved to certain 

 animals — an asylum rather than a creative centre. 



At Long-tang, the next evening's halt, we found the village en 

 fete for the marriage of the toussou's daughter. We made ourselves 

 at home in a pagoda, a regular Laos temple with pointed wooden 

 roof, red pillars, and door garnished with gold and silver arabesques. 

 The interior exhibited the votive table, bronze candlestick, and 

 altar with marble or gilt Buddhas draped in yellow under large 

 umbrellas. Behind the gods were three stone cones stained red, 

 and in a corner the chair whence the priests spoke. Banners, 

 scarves, and streamers with long inscriptions overhung the platform. 

 The night in this abode of sanctity was marred by the devotions of 

 the rats, which left us not a moment's peace. Nor were they the 

 only nuisance in Long-tang. Contrary to our experience among 

 the Laotians, the inhabitants, steeped in copious libations, became 

 more inquisitive and familiar than was pleasant. They were of an 

 individual type, and nowhere in China proper had we met with such 

 independence of manner. Had it not been for the presence of the 

 men of our own troop, we should not have known we were within 

 the Celestial empire. 



As in Laos, the bonzes were distinguished by a long yellow toga, 

 shaved heads, and a string of beads in their hands. The laity wore 

 their hair in a knot at the back or side of the head, with or without 

 a cotton turban of red or yellow design. The queue was discarded 

 as a mark of emancipation. Almost every man we met was tattooed 

 in blue from the waist to the knee, so thickly as to give the appear- 

 ance of pantaloons. Others, like the Burmese, had figures or 

 dragons in red, enclosed within a rectangular pattern, on the breast. 

 In physiognomy their eyes were straight, complexion bronzed, fore- 

 head slightly prominent, lower part of the face shapely, with small 



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