CHAPTER) Vit 
THROUGH THE LUTZU COUNTRY TO MEN-KONG 
On the following morning the rain gradually abated, and 
not only did it cease entirely before mid-day, but the cloud 
canopy began at last to disperse ; it had rained continuously 
for the last fifty-six hours, and I was becoming rather 
depressed. 
We now crossed the river in dug-outs, the Lutzu paddling 
us across with large square-bladed paddles, though there 
was a fine current running, the river being forty or fifty 
yards broad, considerably bigger and swifter than the 
Mekong. These dug-out canoes closely resemble those 
used by the Malays, but the dug-out is of necessity almost 
exactly the same everywhere, and was so widely distributed 
over the world at such a remote period that it probably 
originated in a number of distinct centres, and its presence 
in this place or that is not necessarily any evidence of con- 
nection between the two peoples. 
The high rocky banks of the river are composed of 
purple slates tilted nearly vertically, and slate instead of 
wood was frequently used to tile the huts. Above the 
alluvial platform, however, bare scarps of limestone were 
frequently conspicuous. The same slaty rocks appear on 
the Mekong much further south, where they are also tilted 
vertically, or nearly so. The river makes remarkably close 
S-shaped curves, but is not here interrupted by serious 
rapids, and we saw several Lutzu in their canoes fishing. 
Close inshore, nets attached to stakes are occasionally set 
up, but most of the fishing is carried on from canoes, a 
V-shaped net suspended between two long bamboos being 
plunged under water; the legs of the V are then widely 
opened and the net lifted to the surface. 
6—2 
