FROM TONKIN TO INDIA 



Two days which we passed at Pandam sufficed to partially 

 revictual the column, but our stock of salt was exhausted, and we 

 could by no means replenish it nor find an efficient substitute in 

 the pepper or grated ginger of the natives. The circumstance led 

 to a discussion among us as to which was the greater privation, 

 want of salt or tobacco ; and on a division I was in the minority 



Idiot Woman. 



in favour of the latter. Throughout our stay in this village we 

 were on the best of terms with the inhabitants, self-styled Lanouans, 

 but hardly differing from other Kioutse branches. As ill luck 

 would have it, a man was absent who might have served us as an 

 interpreter in the Moam plain, where they declared no one com- 

 prehended Kioutse. 



