252 
MESSRS. A. ROSE AND J. COGGIN BROWN ON 
Struggling along the steep mountain sides, through bracken and bramble and rough 
low cover, many pheasants are put up by the native lurchers, and it soon becomes 
evident that every man is out for the best sport he can get and that there is little idea 
of an organized campaign. 
Still no sight of the animals which had sounded so near from the tales of the even- 
ing, and it is whispered confidentially that it may take six to seven days to track 
down a bear ; small game abounds however, the shooting is good, and one young Lisu’s 
cross-bow brings down a partridge at a distance of fifty paces. But before the day is 
over the clouds roll up, the whole country-side is wrapped in mist and the rain comes 
down in torrents, as we wend slowly back to the village through the dripping under- 
growth and huddle round the fires, rejoicing in the heat and the stinging smoke, as our 
clothes are dried and food prepared in the great iron pot suspended from a beam. 
Bamboo tubes are handed round, and the strong pleasant wine makes the blood run 
faster as the men vie with one another in describing the day’s sport. As we rise to go 
our hostess steadily resists, insisting that the cellar of the house is not yet empty— 
surely the strongest proof of Lisu hospitality. 
And so to our tents on the grassy knoll beyond the village, with a thousand fron- 
„ . . ^ tier peaks, dominated and crowned by the great Salween 
bveniug m Camp . . 
Divide, deepening from rose to heliotrope and then to 
purple in the soft autumn lights of : — 
a sun ’ s slow decline 
Over hills, which resolved in stern silence 
O’erlap and entwine 
Base with base, to knit strength more intense.’ ’ 
Suddenly a waving mass of pine torches winds along the hill and the camp is 
filled with tribesmen, young men and old, gay striplings and shy maidens all in their 
best, half reluctant but wholly pleasing as they gather round the fire. The men are 
in long hempen coats and short breeches, with broad turbans and leggings from the 
same rough loom, their ornaments being necklaces and bracelets of white cowries and 
plaited straw. The women are in brighter robes, their short coats, skirts and hoods 
all of hemp but designed in shades of maroon, blue, buff and white, whilst their great 
silver ear-rings, their bead necklaces and the broad silver plates fastening their tunic 
give a dainty finish to the whole. They are sturdily built, cheery people with sepia 
skins, and in the firelight and in contemplation of a brimming bamboo tube, their faces 
show a vivacity and sympathy which is unusual among the Chinese. Tale follows 
tale as the evening wears on, and the old blind chief at last unfolds his story of the 
birth of Man, the flood and the scattering of the races. Let us tell it in his own words, 
broken and cheered by the occasional applause of his fire-lit audience. 
In the beginning the Heavenly Lord was angry with the people and he chose out a 
pumpkin-grower and called him, saying, “ Take the seed 
risu^fcT* ° f the 0ngm ° f the of a gourd and plant it in the ground and wait for the fruit, 
for you will need pumpkins no more.” And the man 
heard and did as he was bid, and his gourd grew daily till it became the greatest in the 
