FROM TOx\KIN TO INDIA 



we had heard so many incoherent stories, — we should come to a 

 plain called Moam, which we must traverse, and that we should find 

 rice-fields and elephants. Our Thibetans on learning this testified 

 much interest, imitating a trumpet with their arms : they had heard 

 of such beasts in their legends, but had never seen one. 



An old man 1 conversed with declared the Kioutses, Loutses, 

 Lissous, and Chinese to be sprung from the same stock. 

 This branch of the Kioutses at Duma styled themselves 

 Reouans. They had been driven westward successively from 

 the Salwen and the Telo by the Lissous of Kioui. Even now 

 it was a Lissou delegate from the chief of Kioui who collected 

 the impost, one tsien per family ; thence it went to the chief 

 of Ditchi, who in his turn passed it on to the prefect of Likiang. 

 Filtering through so many hands, I wonder how much of it ever 

 reaches the latter. To my inquiry why they paid, they replied 

 that though some families evaded the tax they feared the power 

 of the Lissous. It was indicative of the reputation for ferocity 

 enjoyed by the riparian Lissous, that, already established in 

 the east and south-east, it should also be recognised so far west 

 of the Salwen as this. 



Negotiations for food and bearers were carried on more easily 



here. Money by weight and the rupee were known ; and with 



a wholesome addition to our diet of smoked fish, we were able 



to proceed on the 7th (November) after a halt of a single day. 



We forded a broad and shallow river, the Reunnam ; and it was 



hard to believe ourselves at the base of the lofty mountain 



chains of Thibet ; the long file of porters amid the tropical 



plants heightened the impression that we must be in equatorial 



Africa. The appearance of our column as it wound snake-like 



to the river's margin was original. The Kioutses led the way, 



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