SSUMAO TO TALI 



sufficed to make us feel the proximity of a large though unseen 

 body of water, and the depression which we skirted may be 

 likened to the mid-rib of a leaf from which the membranes, 

 here represented by the lesser chains, diverged. The left slope 

 was sparsely wooded and thinly peopled ; on our side good- 

 sized villages were frequent. We were still among the Lochais, 

 and got on very well with these gentry of the red-stained teeth ; 

 at least Briffaud and I had no cause of complaint, save the 

 absence of honey, which the natives do not gather at this 

 season on account of the bees pasturing on an unwholesome 

 white flower. The makotou, however, was found storming and 

 weeping and cursing by turns over the theft of his pipe, which 

 eventually betrayed itself sticking out of a bland native's pocket. 

 The way these Chinese shed tears over trifles was deplorable. 

 They are perfect babies. 



A torrent turned us down towards the Mekong again, and we 

 touched it a little below the confluence of a considerable river 

 called the S^-kiang. The waters of the Mekong here ran low 

 between sandy shores, varying in width from 87 yards to twice 

 that distance, but rocks marked high - water level up to 

 217 and even 325 yards. The hills had sunk to insignifi- 

 cance, and trees stood out upon them as thin as the bristles 

 on an elephant's forehead. At sundown we observed women 

 from the villages climbing the slopes with boughs in their 

 hands, like the moving wood at Dunsinane. Each had a hollow 

 bamboo filled with stones with which they imitated the sound 

 of the kestrel, and attracted to the branch numbers of grass- 

 hoppers, which are here esteemed a delicacy. 



On the 28th (April) we made the passage of the Se-kiang on 

 a triangular raft built of a single layer of bamboo. When loaded 



105 



