TSEKOU TO KHAMTI 



orranite, quartz, and micaschist. The natives who came in with 

 food were well formed, though diminutive, almost naked, and 

 wholly dirtv, but withal of a not altogether unprepossessing 

 type, having large eyes, small heads, hair less coarse than the 

 Chinese and tending to brown, and their lower faces rendered 

 more shapely from slightly prominent cheek - bones. Most of 

 them carried a sword in a big sheath across the chest. Both 

 men and women smoked a powdered green tobacco. W'e paid 

 them partly in mone\-, but chiefly in yarn. 



The path by which we reached Deidoum on the i6th 

 (October) was frightful. It was blocked by enormous rock 

 masses, which had to be scaled, in some instances, by the help 

 of notched tree trunks and trailers, but more frequentK" without, 

 and having a 20-feet drop on the other side. Even the dogs 

 had to be carried in places. Twice across a torrent b\- a liana 

 bridge, holdinfr to the hand of the man in front. But no sooner 

 over than the clambering began again. The agility of the men 

 was wonderful ; no projection was too slight for a step, no 

 indentation too shallow for a toe. Their bare feet gave them 

 an advantage. And yet this route is not held to be a bad one 

 by the natives. They admitted that there was one, going west- 

 ward from Toulong into the mountains, that was dangerous. I 

 wonder what it may be like. What we were traversing is the 

 high road from China to India — the subject of so many English 

 dreams, and the ideal line of Captain Blackstone. For the 

 present, I rather imagine it has small chance of becoming an 

 artery of commerce. 



The denizens of Deidoum were very shy. At flrst they 

 inspected us from afar, climbing the trees and peeping at us 

 through the branches. The least suspicious movement on our 



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