FROM TONKIN TO INDIA 



not look too closely into the doings on her frontier. And, on 

 their side, the toussous are flattered to feel that they derive their 

 authority from, and are recognised by, the Imperial Government. 

 The natives generally regard the Chinese as riparian owners of the 

 Mekong by right of superior race. Every year the toussou, or a 

 delegate kinsman, makes a tour of office through the villages sub- 

 servient to him, on which occasion each family has to pay him two 

 taels five tsiens of silver and five taels of opium. In the villages 

 directly subject to China, the chief has to remit annually an average 

 of from fifteen to twenty taels of silver to the authorities. He will 

 probably put aside at least an equal sum for himself. With regard 

 to the orround, the inhabitants have the risht to till waste lands 

 without rent or other formality, and conveyance of such is a 

 matter for private arrangement. 



On the 27th (July) and the two following days our journey 

 was prosecuted with little incident but much toil. Rain had 

 rendered the path slippery, and in places we had to shore it 

 with trunks and re-lay it with branches. In the open we noticed 

 vertical slabs of slate placed to keep off the monkeys, which 

 are numerous and destructive. To add to the discouracjement 

 of the troop, several false alarms caused dismay among the 

 mafous. A band of thirty men issued suddenly from the forest 

 with pressing offers of assistance with the loads. At another 

 spot Joseph had an apparition of a man armed with a long 

 sword, who confronted him without speaking, and then vanished. 

 These frequent scares made every countryman a brigand in their 

 eyes : in ours, the natives, robbers though they may have been, 

 were only very dirty and very repulsive ; especially the men, 

 for the women were often white-skinned, merry, and even 



graceful, though tattered. 



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