FROM TONKIN TO INDIA 



was named, divided into Chang In-Chouan (upper) and Chia 

 In-Chouan (lower), composed of a few scattered houses and the 

 ruins of others. Nine years before, the chief of the place had 

 massacred a neighbouring famiK. The Li-kiang-fou sent a 

 mandarin to chastise him, who was himself beaten and robbed. 

 Thereupon China despatched a column of one thousand men 

 under the Li-kiang-fou in person, which killed the offending 

 chief and his nephew, occupied the place for three months, and 

 executed summary vengeance upon the inhabitants. The result 

 was what we beheld. The blackened walls of the slain chief's 

 residence afforded us a good kitchen, and in the moonlight the 

 aspect of the bivouac among the desolate remains was weird. 

 One might have taken it for a bandits' lair or a coiners' den 

 rather than the peaceable roasting of a pig at the camp fire of 

 the caravan of three French travellers. 



Before leaving we questioned the people as to the valley 

 of the Salwen, known here as the Lou-kiang. They told us 

 that it was a three days' march to that river by paths wholly 

 impassable for mules, with numerous villages belonging to the 

 H^-Lissous or savage Loutses. " Non cognoscunt urbanitateni " 

 was Joseph's comment, as he further imparted to us a curious 

 fancy gleaned in course of conversation from the Lamasjens. 

 The latter believe that the grains of rice were brought by dogs, 

 and that if they had no dogs they would have no seed. They 

 could offer no ground for the superstition other than that their 

 grandfathers had told them so. 



Having been refused supplies by a chief the day before, on 



the 1st (August) Briffaud, Joseph, Sao, myself, and a guide 



diverged from the caravan to try and find the village of Tdki, 



•where we were told we might obtain information as to the 



i86 



