a second Journey to the Yang-tze 163 
just like the Lutzu huts on the Salween. Crowning the 
whole were the usual copper or brass ornaments, like mock 
chimneys or cowls, decorated with various symbols of 
Lamaism, and in the middle a golden cupola which, when 
the sun shines on it, is visible from a great distance. 
There are some 300 priests belonging to the monastery 
which, owing to its isolated position, looks far more im- 
posing when viewed from either up or down the valley, 
being but a scurvy place when seen at close quarters. 
Higher up the hill side is a smaller women’s monastery, 
if I may use the term, women priests being not uncommon 
in this part of the country. However, though curious, 
I thought it might be improper to pry too closely into the 
matter, and did not suggest visiting it. 
The descent to the Yang-tze was through very arid 
country until the terraced and irrigated alluvial fan sloping 
from the valley mouth was reached. Here were crops of 
cotton, tobacco, hemp, and fields of barley, pomegranate 
trees laden with glowing fruit, peach trees, groves of orange 
bushes, and walnut trees, amongst which were scattered 
large white houses. 
The women do not in the least resemble the Tibetans 
of the Mekong valley, being short of stature with remark- 
ably small features—fetzte is perhaps the word which de- 
scribes them best. They wear pleated skirts like those in 
vogue amongst the Mosos, and I am inclined to think that 
they are of Moso rather than of Tibetan origin, though 
they speak the latter tongue. The whole of the moun- 
tainous region east of the plateau is inhabited by more or 
less isolated Tibetan tribes, differing from the real semi- 
nomadic people of eastern Tibet and from one another, 
but evidently Tibetans in the broadest sense of that term, 
and the ancient and once powerful Moso kingdom which 
had its capital at Lichiang-fu may have grown out of the 
most successful of these tribes. All the way up the Mekong 
valley from Tsu-kou to Y‘a-k‘a-lo we meet with strange 
Tibetan tribes, but the mixture along the accessible roads 
of these border regions is now so great, comprising both 
hideous negritoids and really beautiful girls, that any 
attempt to disentangle the elements seems at first sight 
hopeless. 
i 
