THE HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS pP KWEICHOW 1 0& 



was away, though he evinced some anxiety as to what she 

 would say on finding out what he had done when she 

 returned home. The Miao* women seem very strong and 

 independent, and I can fancy she might have a heavy hand ! 

 Also they are thoroughly feminine in their love of clothes, 

 and many of them make quite an elaborate wardrobe, and 

 when they are going to a festival of any sort will carry as 

 much as forty pounds weight of clothes, so* as to have a 

 variety of costume. They swing their short kilts with all 

 the swagger of a Highlander, and although they are so short 

 and sturdy their fine carriage lends them a certain attractive 

 air. 



The women cling tenaciously (one is glad to see) to 

 their distinctive dress, but not infrequently the men take 

 to Chinese clothes, and the local Chinese dialects are spoken 

 by many of them, so that the Miao language may in course 

 of time be entirely lost. Unless someone makes an accurate 

 written study of it very soon it will probably become im- 

 possible to do this, the more so that there is no written 

 language known in any of the Miao tribes. 



Formerly they had no personal names and kept no; count 

 of their age : probably it is due to western influence that 

 they have adopted them, especially at baptism. Sometimes 

 the Chinese would take the women as wives and settle down 

 in their tribe, but no Miao man was allowed to take a 

 Chinese wife. This information was given to my interpreter 

 by one of them. 



We made careful notes as to height, and as there were 

 about a hundred gathered from the district for Sunday 

 services, we came to the conclusion that the average height 

 of the men was about 5 ft. and that of the women rather 

 less, probably about an inch less. As a rule they wear no 

 shoes or sandals ; but some of the wealthier ones had prettily 

 embroidered sandals, with an embroidered band along the 

 outer side of the foot and fastened across the instep with 

 a scarlet thread. The Miaos of both sexes wear stout 

 puttees wound round and round their legs till they look like 

 pillars: they are usually dyed blue. Sometimes the un- 

 protected feet of the girls get the skin cracked or torn with 

 the stones on their rough mountain paths, and they think 

 nothing of sewing them up with needle and thread. 



The hair-dressing of the Miao deserves some attention. 

 Their coarse black hair is very abundant, and while they/ 

 are girls it is plaited in two long plaits, hanging from close* 

 behind the ears to well below the waist. When a girl? 

 marries she has her hair coiled into a long horn, which 

 stands out just above and in a line with the shoulder. When 



