FROM TALI TO TSEKOU 



elbow. If she resembled Esmeralda, she too had her Quasimodo : 

 a few steps off glowered a little wizen, bandy-legged old hunchback. 

 Here was the foreground lor a picture, the quaintness of which was 

 enhanced by the grim surroundings whence we viewed it ; a lower 

 apartment filled with biers transformed into tables, benches, and 

 settees, in the midst of which our hosts obligingly described a few 

 of their strange usages. 



When the Lamasjens marry, the wedded couple live at first 

 apart with their respective parents, and do not set up together for 

 several years, or until the birth of a son. This custom also prevails 

 among the Lolos of Eastern Yunnan. Again, if female twins are 

 born, or two women in the same village each have a daughter on 

 the same day, the man who in process of time courts one must also 

 espouse the other, — their fate is regarded as inseparable. As 

 amongst the Pe-Lissous, before mentioned, the implements of the 

 defunct are placed upon his tomb, with the addition of a sapeck 

 inserted between the dead man's lips — none other than the ancient 

 provision of Charon's obol for the ferry. Here again the Lamasjens 

 told us that they did not look to a future existence ; their burial 

 rites would therefore seem only adapted from the Chinese without 

 knowledge of their significance. 



From an administrative point of view this region depends 

 indirectly upon China through the medium of local toussous. The 

 Imperial Government organises the jurisdiction of the latter in 

 such a manner that it shall never form a compact circle but always 

 be a segment. Whilst in China itself the mandarins are constantly 

 changing at the will of the Court at Pekin, here the office of toussou, 

 as well as that of headman of the village, is hereditary. On her 

 borders China applies the system of central supremacy with a light 

 hand, and, provided that the small tribute is regularly paid, does 



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