FROM TONKIN TO INDIA 



had fallen among gnomes or hobgoblins. In the daylight they 

 were less insidious, and testified the greatest interest in our writ- 

 ing and in the leather of our saddles. At the next Lochai 

 village the natives called themselves Lachos, and claimed to have 

 been there ninety years. We wished we could have procured a 

 specimen of Lochai writing, which they told us was in the old 









Little I'agoda on Hill. 



Chinese characters as used on the mandarins' seals. From 

 Tamano, a place about the same size as Tachin-lao, our men 

 began to step out, scenting an approach to Mienning from afar. 

 Near our sleeping-place we saw the site of two ancient forts, one 

 said to date from a century back. The people gave further inter- 

 esting particulars about the Lochais, averring that they came, like 



the Lolos, from near Nang-king ages ago. They made use of a 



io8 



