FROM TONKIN TO INDIA 



Squint-eyed, goitred, toothless, here a wen and there a tumour, 

 no single deformity was lacking for the caricature. The very 

 children were horrible. One little object waddled alone ; we 

 gave him a handful of rice ; he retreated gravely, turning from 

 time to time towards us a bulbous head with bulging eyes — a 

 perfect little monster. A hoary old man with shaven pate, 

 deprived of his queue, leaned his fleshless claw upon a crutch, 

 and watched us with a fixed regard, half hidden by his over- 

 hanging lids. His nose touched his chin, and he was micro- 

 cephalous. We did not linger among such a repulsive company. 

 For a new tribe it was a very disreputable one. 



17th (July). — The march was without incident yesterday and 

 to-day, always skirting the hill or the river, into which one mule 

 fell, but a few blows with the pick given by the makotou in 

 advance generally rendered the passage wide enough for the 

 animals. On the next day we had to engage four or five 

 villagers to help our men ; our gang thus beginning, without 

 remuneration from the Imperial Government, the hard labour 

 of road-making which was to continue for a long distance. We 

 met some P^-Lissous speaking the same tongue as the Ain- 

 Lissous, but seeming less of Chinese. Joseph said that the 

 P^-Lissous are pure bred and indigenous. Men and women 

 alike were swarthy ; the former clad in a long white overcoat 

 embellished with sort of epaulettes, descending to the knees and 

 often fitting close to the figure. Some among them had long- 

 swords with' straight blades wide at the end — their only dangerous 

 part ; they carried them in a section of a wooden sheath. The 

 women were often naked to the waist and of statuesque pro- 

 portions ; they had a little hempen skirt and a Chinese cap 

 decked with cowries and round white discs, which were said to 



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