TSEKOU TO KHAMTI 



offer inducements. Even so, they would not engage to cro beyond 

 the Kiou-kiang. 



While waiting here we mixed freely with the people, whose 

 hospitable reception of us was in large measure owing to the 

 excellent relations we had had with the king of Yetche. They 

 were Loutses, mostly dressed in white togas with blue stripes, and 

 epaulettes like the Lamasjens ; many wore a cap of brown felt, and 

 all had large white bead necklaces. Each hamlet was merely a 

 collection of two or three houses under a headman. A tax-eatherer, 

 sent yearly by the Yetche mokoua, or by the mandarin of Ouisi, 

 takes a tsien per house in money or kind ; otherwise they are 

 unburdened. A few trophies of the chase, skulls, and horns of the 

 raguen and diasuna {^iieinorrhcsdus and biidorcas) decorated the 

 interiors, but we saw few tools. The women do what little tillacre 

 is necessary for bare sustenance. One of the chiefs on whom we 

 called had a primitive still in which he manufactured a sort of spirit. 

 A funnel hollowed out of a tree was placed over a cauldron of hot 

 water upon the fire. A wattle in the former contained the maize, 

 roasted and mixed with leaven. On top was fitted a vat of cold 

 water constantly replenished, which hermetically sealed the funnel. 

 A bowl received the condensed vapour, which fell into the centre 

 by a bamboo tube. We tasted the liquor, and upon m\- word it 

 was not bad. 



By the 4th (October) we were ready again. W'e resumed our 

 route with but vas:ue instructions for our future gruidance, but under 

 better physical conditions, and passed the first night beneath the 

 gigantic branches of a monster tree in shape like a dragon. The 

 ponderous arms were fraught with menace, but we consoled our- 

 selves by reflecting that as they had threatened thus for many 



years, they would probably last out our temporary stay. 



269 



