FROM TALI TO TSEKOU 



SaKven valley. After following a path to the wooded brink of 



a torrent, the track ceased. We had to separate, and I struck 



a trail in the thicket that brought me to a secluded nook, where 



on two opposing boulders, half hidden under the leaves, a fallen 



tree trunk spanned the chasm. A fine place for robbers, but 



utterly out of the question for mules. There was nothing for 



it but to undress and wade with our clothes on our heads. The 



water was nipping cold, and the current so swift that only by 



joining hands and leaning on a pole could we make head against 



it. Having forded the stream, we had to scramble up a frightful 



steep on hands and knees. How our mules, unloaded though 



they were, ever followed us was a problem : after what I have 



seen, I would way^er them to climb anv staircase. 



Bv this means we at length reached Teki, two freshly built 



villasfes as vet undarkened bv time, and with the thatch still 



yellow on the roofs. Among the new buildings protruded many 



ruins ; Teki had come in for devastation both by the chieftain 



of In-Chouan and by the subsequent Chinese avengers. At the 



doors stood scantily clothed women : a slight apron formed their 



sole covering ; some even found this too complicated, and preferred 



the garb of nature. We checked our mules at the court of an 



opium-smoker, who seeing us offering to pay for grain wa.xed 



communicative. A bad path was said to lead from here in two 



days to the Salwen, there both wide and deep. The Loutses 



were clearly Koua-Lissous. Here the word Loutse meant simply 



natives of the Lou-kiang, and w-as not applied to a race. The 



independent Lissous were reported dangerous ; a few bolder 



spirits from the Mekong valley occasionally penetrated their 



district at their peril to trade linen, salt, tobacco, and opium 



against drucrs and skins. The Loutses made constant incursions 



189 



