FROM TALI TO TSEKOU 



the improvidence of its inhabitants, one of his endeavours was 

 to induce the people to store the grain. The rains here are 

 neither very heavy nor regular, and during a certain season 

 nothing is seen but a little buckwheat cultivated on the heights. 

 In the months of January and February it rains a good deal ; 

 but the cold is never extreme, the minimum temperature being 

 about 20° Fahr., and there is little snow. 



Whilst we had enjoyed the society of our countryman, our men 

 had not been idle, and with several days' grain supplies ready, and 

 the season now advanced, we were constrained to be off Ao-ain 

 we were warned that after a few days it would be impossible to 

 continue on the right bank. Besides the consideration that the 

 transport of our numerous caravan to the other side by an insecure 

 bridge would be a hazardous undertaking, I preferred to adhere 

 to my original enterprise until it should become absolutely imprac- 

 ticable. On the right shore of the Mekong we were in unexplored 

 country. At Hsiao-Ouisi the traveller Cooper, coming from 

 Atentse, had crossed, as well as several missionaries. All had 

 quitted the river valley to the south of the town and gone in a 

 south-west direction ; so that we should have an entirely untrodden 

 territory before us. 



Accordingly, on the 12th (August) we performed a short stage. 

 Our troop had lost the services of " Eagle Beak " and the two 

 Minchias, and their places were filled by two Thibetans supplied by 

 the Father, who himself proposed to accompany us a short distance. 

 These recruits were Christians, and promised to be good workers. I 

 was glad to see once more the copper-coloured, large-eyed Mongolian 

 type and the regulation Thibetan tchaupa ^ and woollen boots. 



' A rough woollen tunic reaching to the knees, crossed in front and tied in to the figure 

 so as to form a pouch wherein pipe, tobacco, and food are carried. 



20.^ 



