102 



THE HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS OF KWEICHOW 



these last three colours were used in conjunction; sometimes 

 as a sort of small panel of applique work in the midst of 

 cross-stitch patterns. 



It is most interesting to note the complete contrast in 

 design between the work of the tribespeople and of the 

 Chinese. The latter is exclusively naturalistic (except 

 possibly in the case of stroke stitch on grass cloth or linen), 

 more so in fact than that of any other people and includes 

 the widest possible range of subject. The inexhaustible 

 fertility of the Chinese imagination is shewn in their treat- 

 ment of landscape, seascape, life in all its many forms, 

 the unseen world, human and demoniac passion; everything 

 depicted by the needle is instinct with vitality. The tribes- 

 people, on the other hand, depict nothing naturalistic: all 

 their designs are geometric and (as the photo bears witness) 

 of no mean order, nor elementary in character. The only 

 attempt I have come across to depict life is entirely rudi- 

 mentary : it is a string of animals and men alternately, done 

 in the very finest cross stitch. 











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They are so small and inconspicuous that they only 

 become apparent on close examination : my illustration i& 

 the same size as the embroidery, which is done in red, white, 

 blue, black and yellow on a black ground. 



The material on which it is worked is a pretty fine 

 hempen native-made cloth, and it takes two years to com- 

 plete the making of any of their garments. The general 

 material worn is remarkably like the Hessian cloth used in 

 kitchens at home, only it is more closely woven — a coarse, 

 yellowish -whitish hempen material. 



The Little Flowery Miao we met further north at 

 Tatingfu. The Ta Wha Miaos not only have bolder, simpler 

 designs, but fewer colours, and larger and fewer kinds of 

 stitches, not cross stitch : the colours used are mainly scarlet 

 and dark blue, The material on which they work is the 

 coarse whitish cloth above-mentioned, and some of the design 

 is stencilled on a finer material sewn on to the ground, and 

 again worked over with coarse woollen thread. They also 

 use broad outlines of superimposed coloured cloth, but not so 

 well appliqueed as that of the Little Flowery Miao. 



I succeeded in purchasing a partly-worked piece of 

 embroidery from one of the Ta Wha men, while his wife- 



