Up the Mekong Valley 49 
the sick child to Tsu-chung to be baptized! Poor ignorant 
people, they were more anxious to save his soul than to 
preserve his body! 
I was at supper in my room that same evening when 
suddenly I heard the wail of a woman, and next minute Kin 
came in to tell me that the baby had just died quite peace- 
fully in his mother’s arms. I went out to see if anything 
could be done, but as I could find no sign of breathing 
with a looking-glass held over the mouth, I concluded that 
the parents were right ; the little baptized soul had fled. 
The mother, a Tibetan woman, warm-hearted and 
affectionate as are all Tibetan women by nature, was 
greatly distressed, but her more stolid Chinese husband 
showed no visible emotion; three small children stood 
silently by, with their fingers in their mouths, and their 
little black eyes wide open. Perhaps they had just seen 
death for the first time in their lives, and I wondered what 
thoughts were passing in their minds. Next morning I was 
awakened early by the noise of hammering, and outside 
I found the father busily employed. He was putting 
together the coffin for his little child, who was quietly 
buried on the hill side beneath the white rhododendron 
flowers the same afternoon. 
Gan-ton had undertaken to find porters and make all 
arrangements for our journey to the Salween a fortnight 
hence; but unfortunately he did not keep the plans to 
himself. The news got round amongst the soldiers at 
Tsu-chung, and a few days later a runner appeared from 
A-tun-tsi with a note from the official there, asking me not 
to go to the Salween, as the Lutzu were a very wild tribe 
and the Chinese could not guarantee my safety. Under 
the circumstances it seemed best to start at once for 
A-tun-tsi and set at rest the suspicions of this mandarin, 
for I did not doubt that he suspected me of being a 
political agent, and had for that reason described the 
Lutzu, a most inoffensive people according to Prince Henri 
d’Orléans, in unnecessarily harsh terms; as is the way with 
Chinese officials, who in the matter of diplomacy, prefer 
devious to direct action. Accordingly we packed up, 
collected mules through Gan-ton who was to await my 
return, and on May 11 set out for A-tun-tsi. 
W. T. 4 
