A Winter Journey amongst the Lutzu 195 
unmistakable negritoid characters which had so struck 
me from time to time amongst the Tibetans and Lutzus. 
“Here,” said I to myself, ‘““are Edgar’s dwarf slaves.” 
But afterwards I was told that each family worked for the 
Tussu only five days in the year, and I was lucky to find 
them in the courtyard having their supper, a meal which 
consisted only of a greasy pottage such as is given to pigs 
in England. 
These women were dressed in pleated skirts such as 
the Mosos wear, except that they reached only to their 
knees, the calves being roughly bound with puttees; but 
unlike the latter people they were ugly, dirty, and altogether 
grotesque, the only pleasing feature about them being the 
cloth head-dress covered with cowries. These are probably 
heirlooms handed down the family, for all my efforts to 
purchase one were unavailing though I offered its weight 
in silver! 
Next day we reached Hsiao-wei-hsi, where I had supper 
with the French priest. This was as far as Gan-ton and 
his friends had arranged to come, though before setting out 
from Tsu-kou we had tried hard to persuade him to go 
with us either direct to T‘eng-yueh by the Mekong valley, 
or to Wei-hsi; but the men were afraid to risk either them- 
selves or their animals on the small road, except at a 
perfectly outrageous figure, and made ridiculous demands 
for the two days’ journey on to Wei-hsi. 
I therefore decided to be unreasonable too for once, 
and try to bring Mr Gan-ton to his senses; so for a start I 
refused to pay him till we left Hsiao-wei-hsi. He might 
suit himself, either go on to Wei-hsi at my price, or find 
me other transport. 
We spent a whole day arguing over this; he came 
down in price and I raised my offer till we were within a 
shilling of each other, but I stuck to my principle and 
refused to concede the point. I was in no desperate hurry, 
but bored beyond measure; nevertheless I settled down in 
camp at Hsiao-wei-hsi with the appearance of being quite 
happy, collected plants, and amused myself. Then Gan-ton 
tried to get even with me by telling the few villagers we 
had secured as porters not to go with me, but when he 
found that I was adamant and that the French priest was 
13—2 
