FROM TONKIN TO INDIA 



had seen in Madagascar. Just outside the village we passed 

 a tomb stuck with stones and bamboo tubes, which hatl probably 

 originally held food for the deceased. A post on which was 

 the skull of an ox, and five perches surmounted by wooden 

 birds roughly carved to represent hovering, were sufficient to 

 scare most evil spirits. It was some time since we had met 

 with these attentions to the dead. 



While at Tukiu-mu, where we all shared one roof, the rains 

 once more descended, and we might have supposed ourselves 

 shut up in a house-boat. The people of the district were so 

 destitute, of food as well as raiment, that we again found our- 

 selves checked for three days, and in straits for provisions. 

 The annoyance was that we had no hold on the natives : they 

 had only to disperse into the recesses of the hills or to hide 

 their grain to have us at their mercy. Even supposing we 

 could have laid violent hands on their property, we should 

 have alienated the very levies on whom we relied to carry it. 

 Having an aversion to rain, they would only come in singly 

 or by couples under cover of large shells made of tree bark, 

 bringing a few tongs (Thibetan measure) of rice, the husking" 

 of which in one little wooden mortar occupied another day in 

 this heaven - forsaken place. We paid for everything (which 

 was little) — in trinkets, prints, and yarn. But our most .seductive 

 wares failed to extort any but the scantiest pittance of tobacco. 

 It was amusing to witness poor Nam's dejection, and the care 

 with which he dried at the fire a sintjle leaf he had somewhere 

 acquired, fondling it like an old savant over the rarest object 

 in his collection. 



It was the same story. The inhabitants raised just sufficient 



for bare existence, and having no money had no desires. I 



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