LISU TRIBES OF THE BURMA-CHINA FRONTIER. 
257 
The late PRINCE HENRY OF ORLEANS, in the course of his adventurous 
journey with MM. Roux and Briffaud, travelled along the valley of the Yunnan 
Salween inhabited by the Lissou (Lisu) tribes. He has given accounts of their marriage 
customs, worship, dances and sorcery, and also vocabularies of their language. 
Prince Henry’s experiences form the basis of the remarks on the Lisus in the Burma 
Gazetteer. 
The late MR. G. J. L. LITTON, His Majesty’s Consul in Tengyueh, probably 
possessed a more intimate acquaintance with and deeper knowledge of the Lisu people 
than has fallen to the lot of any other European. He travelled extensively amongst 
them and made a journey through the portion of the Salween where they live uninflu- 
enced by Chinese civilization, and his death shortly after his return has probably 
robbed us of much valuable information. A most interesting account of this last 
journey, however, has recently been published by Mr. Forrest in the Journal of the 
Royal Geographical Society, Vol. XXXII. 
MAJOR H. R. DAVIES/ in the course of his extensive journeys in Yunnan 
came across the Liso (Lisu) tribes in various places, and has given an excellent sum- 
mary of his observations, to which reference is made in the body of this paper. 
MR. E. C. YOUNG 1 2 3 met numerous Lissu villages when crossing from Yunnan 
into Assam. 
MR. R. F. JOHNSTON 4 * found Liso and Moso living together on amicable terms 
in the Yung-ning district, and in the description of his travels makes numerous refer- 
ences to these people. 
MR. T. W. KINGSMILL’S 6 contributions to. the general question of the entho- 
logy of the tribes of the western frontier of China will also prove of value to 
those interested in this subject, though he does not deal specifically with the Lisu 
race. 
GILL, BABER, and DESGODINS have also mentioned the Lisu under various 
names in their writings, but their work unfortunately has not been accessible for 
reference in this paper. 
THE PRESENT WRITERS have personal knowledge of the Lisu communities 
scattered through the Northern Shan States (British), have lived with the Hua I/su 
of the Tengyueh, Kuyung Kai and other frontier districts, have travelled amongst 
the same people in the Likiang prefecture, and have met them in their most easterly 
settlement near Wu-Ting Chou, and their most westerly settlement near Myitkyina in 
Upper Burma. They are perhaps the only living Europeans who have come into 
contact with the Black Lisu of the Upper- Salween. 
1 Loc. cit., pp. 616-617. See also ‘‘ Burma ”, a handbook of practical information, by Sir J. G. Scott, K.C.I.E., 
London, 1906, p. 95. 
2 “ Yunnan ”, the link between India and the Yangtse, by Major H. R. Davies, Cambridge, 1901, pp. 391-392. 
3 “A journey from Yunnan to Assam ” by E. C. Young, Journal, R.G S., Vol. xxx, No. 2, Aug. 1907, p. 152. 
* “ Prom Peking to Mandalay ” by R. F. Johnston, M.A., F. R.G.S., London, 1908. 
6 “ The Mantse and the Golden Chersonese,” and “Ancient Thibet” by T. W. Ivingsmill, Journal of the R. A. 
Society (China Branch), Vols. xxxv and xxxvii. 
