78 A Journey to the Salween 
but this beverage, which is of the consistency of pea-soup 
and is taken warm, is probably more nourishing than 
inebriating. In the winter men and women sit round the 
fire for hours at a stretch, chatting, smoking, and drinking. 
It is meat and drink and medicine to them, and by no 
means unpalatable. 
The men wear their pig-tails down, not bound on the 
top of the head as do the Tibetans, and their dress, though 
simple, is not unpicturesque—short breeches (probably 
copied from the Chinese) and shirt of white hemp cloth. 
trimmed round the collar and sleeves with light blue, and 
strips of cloth wound loosely round the calf, like puttees. 
The women wear a single long-sleeved garment usually of 
dark blue cotton cloth, reaching below the knees and tied 
round the waist, and frequently a hempen cloak, extending 
across the chest from the right shoulder to the left arm-pit, 
is added. A hempen bag, decorated with seeds but of 
plain workmanship, is slung over the shoulder, and it may 
be remarked that similar bags are carried by most of the 
tribes west of the Mekong, but not by the Tibetans or 
Mosos. They usually bind the pig-tail round the head, 
after the style of the Tibetan women, but there is little 
jewellery worn. Some of the girls before child-birth are 
extraordinarily handsome. Their complexion is decidedly 
lighter than that of the Tibetans, but not so sallow as that 
of the Chinese, the features are regular, the nose well 
bridged, the eyes large and round, the high cheek-bones 
scarcely prominent. 
The religion of this people is a modified form of 
Lamaism, but | believe this has been clumsily grafted on 
to a much older cult, probably Vaz propitiation, for in 
common with the Lissu and other tribes they hang up 
special corn cobs in their houses, which are, I think, in 
the nature of propitiatory offerings to the Penates, a 
practice which is not observed by the Tibetans at all. 
How far their Buddhism differs from the degraded form 
current in Tibet, I cannot say, for the only rite I ever saw 
anyone perform was when the young lady of the house 
took up a jug of water, and made the sign of the cross 
over the household fire by throwing water across it to 
north, south, east, and west. She did it in a very business- 
