180 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Dec. 



and other?!, when they soon extended their operations to the plains, 

 and to the siege of large towns ; and the local Government, receiving 

 no assistance from Pekin, finally succumbed, the insurgents became 

 supreme, and a separate Panthay Government was established with 

 its Head Quarters at Tali or Talifoo, then only a city of secondary 

 importance, but where the Mahomedan element had always been very 

 strong. Feeble attempts have since been made, from time to time, to 

 recover the lost Province, by the despatch of Imperial Troops from 

 the Capital ; but the Chinese Government has never been able to 

 make head against the Panthays ; and the troops sent have generally 

 been repulsed, before they could even penetrate within the Yunan 

 frontier. 



" The present Mahomedan Government of Yunan is presided over by 

 a military chief styled Sooleman by the Panthays, and Tuwintsen by 

 the Chinese. He has assumed the insignia of Royalty, by formal 

 instalation on the guddee, and by the exclusive, and prerogative use 

 of yellow clothing and appurtenances. This chief or king is assisted by 

 four military and four civil ministers, the principal one of whom is 

 established at Momein, a large town close to the Shan frontier, west 

 of Yunan. There appears to be little departure, in the matter of 

 administration, from the old form of Chinese Government, except 

 being more military in its character. Taxation is extremely light, 

 being restricted, as far as can be understood, to a moderate assessment 

 on land. 



" The Panthays are Mahomeclans of the Soonee sect, and pride them- 

 selves on their Arab descent : many of them arc able to converse in 

 Arabic, and their prayers are all in this language. They have 

 mosques or musjids of the true Moslem type, and are fanatical and strict 

 in their religious performances ; as far as I have been able to ascertain, 

 however, there is no trace of any religious zeal, or motive, as the 

 origin or pretext for the present rising of the Panthays against Chinese 

 rule. The Chinese are generally tolerant of all religious persuasions, 

 and unlikely to cause irritation to the Mahomcdans by any interfer- 

 ence with their religion. The Buddhist, wherever found, is untrammeled 

 by conventional dogma, and far less imbued with the odium thcolo- 

 gicum, or that contemptuous abhorrence of all creeds and customs other 

 than his own, than is the case with other natives of the east, of 



