SSUMAO TO TALI 



mouth, and here and there a moustache or scanty whiskers ; but the 

 Hps were thick and the teeth blackened. Betel chewing was the 

 fashion. They were clothed in a short vest and either wide blue 

 and white trousers down to the feet, ornamented with blue, red, or 

 yellow stripes, or simple blue woollen drawers. All had the lobe of 

 the ear pierced and enlarged as a receptacle for flowers, or dried 

 leaves, which served them as cigarette papers. There were also a 

 few large hats of soft straw to be seen. Many displayed from a 

 vest button or the ear a thin silver disc with Chinese characters, 

 presents from the military mandarin at Ssumao to the soldiers of the 

 toussou. An unusual thing about the houses of this place was that, 

 instead of being on piles, as is customary among the Pais, the walls 

 rested upon the earth and the half cone roofs of russet thatch 

 descended to within three feet of the ground. They looked like 

 molehills or an African village. 



Taking a turn by the banks of the river, where the women were 

 bathing as on the Mekong, I met our escort returning from Ssumao, 

 without the mules. They brought a line from the mandarin dis- 

 suading us from going among the tribes of the Mekong, where, he 

 said, we should encounter sickness and robbers. This terrible 

 prospect caused Francois to spit blood and tremble. In the evening 

 we had to open a consulting-room for the folk who flocked to us 

 even from a distance for remedies. Besides the villagers, our own 

 men were suffering from a variety of ailments, and were difficult to 

 tend. Say what we might, they would not keep their sores or 

 wounds from the air. Sao's legs being in a bad state, we gave him 

 some carbolic acid. Presently the most doleful howls w-ere heard. 

 He had thought to effect a quicker cure by applying the acid 

 undiluted to the raw, with dire results. We tried to alleviate 

 his anguish with ashes, white of egg, and honey, and, after 



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