240 The Last of the Mekong 
Before reaching the mouth of the gulley we crossed the 
spur and descended a more gentle slope to the plain, stop- 
ping at the first village we reached to take breakfast. 
It was no great distance to the river, a small rapid 
stream, quite unnavigable and easily forded at many points, 
at least in winter. Dams had been constructed here and 
there, the water being allowed to pour through a sluice 
and deposit any fish which happened to be present in 
baskets placed for their reception, in much the same way 
as in the fish-traps on the Salween; but angling with rod 
and line was also quite a popular pastime. 
At the small market village of Lao-kai we called a 
second halt, and ate our meal in the street, being con- 
sequently surrounded by a crowd of curious sightseers, who 
were probably Chinese in everything but birth. Only the 
fact that many of the women did not bind their feet and 
were moreover tolerably good-looking suggested another 
element. 
Pursuing our way we crossed endless rice-fields and at 
dusk reached the market village of Kai-t‘ou, a mean and 
dirty little place whose inhabitants crowded round the inn 
door as though even the building itself had been grotesquely 
affected by my presence. Certainly they could not see me, 
for having been free from this type of curiosity throughout 
my travels, I found it sufficiently unbearable at the end, 
and hid securely in my room. 
In fact the only good word I can conscientiously put 
in for Kai-t‘ou is that, the early mornings being bitterly 
cold, with hard frosts, everybody was supplied with a small 
bamboo basket containing an earthenware pot full of red-hot 
charcoal, to be carried about whether one is engaged in 
sweeping the room or cooking the food or waiting 
impatiently for breakfast, as I was. This device, however, 
is by no means peculiar to the locality. 
But if I excited curiosity, it was nothing to the furore 
created by the appearance of Ah-poh. Never a man passed 
us without remarking on his size, or the length of his hair, 
or his entirely unique figure, and on the following day he 
had the satisfaction of stampeding an entire caravan of 
mules, who doubtless thought he was some wild animal 
escaped from the jungle. After this little incident, Ah-poh 
