The Last of the Mekong 227 
made in the ridge fronting us, we reached Lao-wau early in 
the evening and I took up my quarters in a small temple. 
As previously stated I had met the Tussu of this place 
in the Mekong valley, but his deputy, a lame man who was 
carried in on the back of a friend, at once called on me to 
see that I had everything I wanted. A fire was set blazing 
on the stone floor by my bedside and gradually a crowd of 
some twenty men gathered round to watch me eat my 
supper. All—they were mostly Minchias—were friendly, 
and after supper I joined them round the fire while they 
plied me with questions, evincing the greatest interest in 
England. ‘Were there any mountains in my country?” 
“How far away was it?” “What crops did we grow?” 
“What did we eat?” ‘Had we a King or an Emperor ?” 
and other questions of similar nature. Having an ejector 
gun, I took the opportunity of showing them what wizards 
the English are. ‘Now” I said, displaying the breech 
with the cartridge inside, “that cartridge will come to me 
when I whistle,” whereupon, opening the breech till the 
spring was almost free, I fixed a stern eye upon it and 
whistled sharply, once, twice; at the same moment I 
surreptitiously continued till the spring was fully released, 
‘and obediently the cartridge hopped out on to my lap, 
This performance created roars of mirth, though for the 
moment the men were so obviously taken aback that they 
merely stared incredulously. At length, comprehending, 
they asked for an encore, and I responded several times for 
the benefit of the newcomers to our circle. I even invited 
the deputy chief to try his charms on the magic cartridge, 
but he shook his head and laughed, for alas! he could not 
whistle. Asa matter of fact it is seldom that a Chinaman 
can, and when -by dint of long labour he has acquired the 
art of producing one or two notes, he is so inordinately 
proud of the accomplishment that he gives one no peace. 
I now varied the experiment in order to show that my 
miraculous power was not confined to extracting cartridges 
from guns, and in the same magic way opened my folding 
camera, by whistling—and pressing the spring at the same 
time. The chief having in the meanwhile practised 
whistling till he could produce a sibilant hiss, thought he 
also could open my camera in this way, and taking it from 
I5—2 
