194 A Winter Journey amongst the Lutzu 
below us through the rising mists. Before mid-day we 
were back at Tsu-kou where we found the rest of the 
caravan patiently awaiting us, Ah-poh being wild with 
delight at seeing me again. 
Coming down the steep slope above the village I saw a 
party of Tibetans engaged in trapping vultures by means 
of decoy birds, which are led to carrion the moment the 
wild birds are seen, the men hiding meanwhile. When 
the wild birds, circling round the cliffs at an immense 
height, descry from afar the feast below, they come down 
to join the struggle for tit-bits, and the tame birds at once 
set on them; whereupon the men rush out from cover and 
despatch the intruders. The birds are thus caught for the 
sake of their feathers, which are sold in Tali-fu to make 
fans. 
We spent two more days at Tsu-kou drying and packing 
the seeds we had secured on the journey, and on Novem- 
ber 15 we finally started southwards for Wei-hsi in company 
with the deserter Gan-ton. The weather was warm and 
drizzly in the valley, but there was excellent duck shooting 
to beguile the time, and we made easy stages to Hsiao- 
wel-hsi. 
The forests in the rainy region of the Mekong do not 
compare with the Salween jungles in variety of plants or 
diversity of form, lacking in particular just those features 
which give to the latter their essentially tropical aspect. 
Pines and oaks are conspicuous but, except in the deep 
gullies, the deciduous-leaved trees below very soon give 
way to fir forests above, so that the rain belt, which extends 
north and south for about a degree of latitude, is inter- 
mediate as regards its vegetation between the semi-tropical 
forests of the Salween and the xerophilous vegetation of 
the arid regions. 
At K‘ang-p‘u I found a number of Lissus assembled in 
the Tussu’s yamen, where I slept, and learnt that this chief 
rules over some 15,000 families, Chinese, Minchia, Moso, 
and Lissu from the mountains to the east. When I first 
saw them I instinctively thought of Mr Edgar’s dwarfs, for 
the women, who made up the bulk of the party, were 
certainly dwarfish, with enormously developed legs. What 
was even more remarkable, several of them exhibited those 
