either in a wood behind the village or close to the houses. I did not
see any in Kweichow, though I sketched just such a stone in Macao, where
there were offerings of incense and scarlet paper. There is a sacrifice
of a pig and a fowl made twice a year at the stone. The origin of this
worship is not known, but it is now supposed to be addressed to a god in
the sky, who protects the people. As regards the tree, it is a curious
fact that it is not of any particular species, but that every village in
the province of Yünnan, whether of the Chinese or of the aborigines, has
one; they have the same belief about its being inhabited by a dragon,
which protects the village.
The Ya-ch’io Miao offer in sacrifice an ox to Heaven and a pig to Earth,
and once every thirteen years they sacrifice buffaloes to Heaven.
Their sorcerers are men who wield great power, and it is a hereditary
profession. The sorcerer must wear a special kind of hat when he is
engaged in divination: without it he is powerless. He has special books
(of which I am fortunate enough to possess one) with movable disks,
superimposed one on another, for casting horoscopes. These books are
handed down from generation to generation, and used to be copied out
by hand; but nowadays they are printed. Such books were brought by an
I-chia, who had become a Christian, in order to have them burnt; the
missionary asked leave to keep them instead, explaining their historic
value. The accompanying illustration is taken from one of these priceless
old MSS. describing the Creation. It is written on a brittle kind of
paper, extremely worn and fragile, and the leaves are fastened together
with twisted strips of paper, acting as a string. This is a peculiarly
Chinese way of binding, such as you may see students practising any day
in class to fasten their notes. The colour of the paper is brown, the
characters black, and the illustrations are painted in several shades
of yellow and brown, forming a harmonious whole. The upper circle,
containing a bird, is the moon; and the lower circle, containing a beast,
is the earth.
Dr. Henry brought a large number of MSS. back from Yünnan, which are now
in the British Museum, but they differ in certain respects from mine. In
the first place, they contain no diagrams; secondly, they are all divided
up metrically into groups of five characters, or seven; mine are not all
divided into groups (as may be seen from the illustration, Ancient I-chia
Script), and those that are in groups vary in number, four, or five, or
six. He says that the subject-matter of all the MSS. which he studied
is religious ritual, genealogies, legends and song, and all are written
in verse. The script is quite unique: it is pictographic in origin, not
ideographic like the Chinese. Many Chinese words are compound, one part
denoting sound, the other part denoting meaning: Lolo words are never
compounds.
The characters, as will be seen from the illustration, are decidedly
simpler than Chinese. I had the good fortune to submit my MSS. when I
was at Swatow (a couple of months later) to a learned Chinese scholar,
who seemed greatly interested in them. He took them into his hands with
devout reverence and care, as if they were of priceless value. He said
that he had indeed seen such MSS. before, but that it was extremely rare:
he at once said that it came from no Chinese source, but from aborigines
in the north of Kweichow. When I asked if it were some hundreds of years
old, he replied, “Oh! much older than that,” and stated that the numerals
and certain other characters were the same as the Chinese script of three
thousand years ago. One of the characters which he pointed out was that
for the moon:
My MS. gives [Illustration]
Dr. Henry’s [Illustration]
Chinese [Illustration]
I have also compared my MS. with pages of Lolo writing published by
Colborne Baber in the Geographical Society’s Supplementary Paper, 1882,
and can find no exact correspondence between them. Surely it would be
a most interesting study for some one to undertake, the more so that
there is already a wealth of material lying ready to hand at the British
Museum. The Lolo writing is also different from Chinese in that it is
read in columns from left to right and the book begins at the same end
as ours. It corresponds with the later Syriac mode of writing, and Dr.
Henry suggests it may have had some connexion with the Nestorians, who
were to be found in all parts of China from the seventh to the thirteenth
centuries. S. R. Clarke mentions a spirit who controls the crops, and is
called by the Lolos Je-so: the Christians suggested that this name be the
one adopted for Jesus Christ, but it was not done.
The above-mentioned theory would account for some of the Lolo practices
and beliefs, which are otherwise very difficult to account for, such as
their keeping the Sabbath every sixth day, when no ploughing is allowed
to be done, and the women are not even allowed to sew or wash clothes
on that day. Of course this does not apply to all Lolos, but only to
some in Yünnan. They have also the remarkable crosses (as seen in the
soul-carriers), and they believe in patriarchs who lived to abnormal
ages, such as six hundred and sixty or nine hundred and ninety years, as
in the Old Testament records, not to mention the stories of the creation
and the deluge. Their name for Adam has the two consonants d and m, it is
Du-mu. The patriarchs are supposed to live in the sky: the chief of them
is called Tse-gu-dzih, and this patriarch is also a deity who opened the
box containing the seeds of death; he thus gave suffering humanity the
boon of death. He also caused the deluge.
“The legend of the deluge,” says Dr. Henry, “runs that the people were
wicked, and Tse-gu-dzih to try them sent a messenger to earth, asking for
some blood and flesh from a mortal. All refused but Du-mu. Tse-gu-dzih
then locked the rain gates, and the water mounted to the sky. Du-mu (?
Adam) was saved with his four sons in a log hollowed out of the Pieris
tree; and there were also saved otters, wild ducks and lampreys. From
his sons are descended civilized people who can write, as the Chinese
and Lolos. The ignorant races descend from men that were made by Du-mu
out of pieces of wood. Du-mu is worshipped as the ancestor of the Lolos,
and nearly all legends begin with some reference (like our ‘once upon a
time’) to Du-mu or the Deluge. Du-mu and precedent men had their eyes
placed vertically in their sockets; after him came the present race of
men, who have their eyes placed horizontally. This quaint idea may have
some reference to the encroachment of the oblique-eyed Mongolians, who
have horizontal eyes, as it were, i.e. eyes narrow in height, whereas
Europeans and other races have eyes that may be called vertical, i.e.
wide from above downwards.
“The Lolos have a cosmogony. Their account of the Creation is that there
were two Spirits, A-chi and A-li. A-chi made the sky, and made it evenly
and well. A-li slept, and on awakening saw that the sky was completed.
In his hurry to do his work, he dumped hurriedly earth here and there.
This accounts for the inequalities of the earth’s surface. When the sky
was first created the sun and moon were dull, and did not shine properly.
They were washed by two sky-maidens, and have remained clean and bright
ever since.”
Some of the Lolo tribes have the story of the Creation, but not all of
them, whereas the story of the Deluge is universal, though not always
the same. In some cases Noah has three sons, and in some no animals are
mentioned. The Black Miao story is told thus by S. R. Clarke, to whom it
was dictated:
“Who made Heaven and Earth?
Who made insects?
Who made men?
Made male and made female?
I who speak don’t know.
Vang-vai (Heavenly King) made Heaven and Earth,
Ziene made insects.
Ziene made men and demons,
Made male and made female.
How is it you don’t know?
Heavenly King is (or was) intelligent.
Spat a lot of spittle into his hand,
Clapped his hands with a noise,
Produced heaven and earth.
Tall wild grass made insects.
Stones made men and demons.
Made male and made female.
How is it you don’t know?
Made heaven in what way?
Made earth in what way?
Thus by rote I sing,
But don’t understand.
Made heaven like a sun-hat.
Made earth like a dust-pan.
Why don’t you understand?
Made heaven a single lump,
Made earth a single lump.”[25]
This is just a sample of their ideas; now I will give a sample of
their habits. They have big carouses on the open mountain slopes. A
man desirous to enter into relationship with a girl will watch his
opportunity for seeing her alone, and give as a signal a wide sweeping
movement of the arm: if she acquiesces she will go to the carouse. These
do not take place at stated intervals, but a party of young men will go
off with girls in groups of twenty or thirty and sit round a big fire,
singing their amorous ditties. These are mostly of a coarse nature not
suited for publication, but Dr. Henry has translated the following song
by girls working in the fields addressed to boys:
“We girls three
The black earth’s silver bridge,
Together with you youths, we have crossed it;
The white sky’s golden hat,
With you we have worn it;
The golden fan of the sun and moon,
Together we have seen it wave.
We girls and boys to-night have met.
Singing and playing comes from the hearts of boys and girls;
Silver comes from China;
Silk from the capital;
The rice from the plain;
The wheat from the mountain,
But courting-talk comes from the mouths of boys.”
While the “courting-talk” goes on round the fire, there is a goodly store
of weapons lying behind the singers. Any moment they may be attacked by
the parents, brothers or friends of the girls. When this happens and the
attack proves successful the luckless revellers are stripped naked.
The custom of the Little Flowery Miao is somewhat similar. Twice a year
the men make music outside the houses where the girls live, and those who
please go off with them to the hills for a carouse. Once a year the men
choose their girls, and the other time the girls choose their men! The
girls usually marry about fifteen or sixteen, and if they happen to be
poor they go to the mother-in-law’s house very young. Among the tribes
there are go-betweens to arrange marriages, but undoubtedly the young
people have a better chance of selection by mutual liking than have the
Chinese.
The music of the people is mostly produced from pipes, and has a certain
charm; it is flute-like in sound, and some we heard was not unlike that
of bagpipes without the drone. The I-chia are all fond of music and
dancing. They were rather shamefacedly persuaded to dance for us, while
one of them played. The steps were rather slow and stealthy, alternating
with rapid pirouetting. They sank almost to the ground on one bent leg,
while the other leg shot out in front to its furthest limit.
Witchcraft is firmly believed in by all the tribes. The witch-doctor has
a great hold over them, and trades on their superstition shamelessly,
getting wine, tobacco, or corn by means of what is called his “daemon,”
without apparently stealing the things himself. The witch-doctor uses
snake-poison to injure or kill people, and only he can make them well
again! He also induces madness, so that the madman may fling off his
clothes, which the doctor then picks up and carries off!
A curious story was told by an eye-witness to my friends in Ta-ting. He
was present at the building of a house in the country by two stonemasons.
They began quarrelling, and finally one went off in a great rage,
refusing to finish his job. The other remarked confidently, “It does not
matter; I shall get him back before evening”; but the onlookers did not
believe it. The narrator of the story saw him go off to the hill-side and
gather a bunch of grass and straw. He fashioned these into the figure of
a man and cast spells upon it, after which he returned to his job and
went on as if nothing had happened. Before he had finished the day’s
work, the other man returned in great haste, dripping with perspiration;
he apologized for his conduct and resumed work. He explained that after
he had left in the morning he became very ill and suffered such agonies
of pain that he felt sure he would die if he did not return at once.
Such is the kind of story that is current everywhere. It is a matter of
common belief that the witch-doctor never has any children, and that this
is a punishment from heaven. The influence of the missionaries brings
them frequently into contact with strange happenings: one of them in
Ta-ting. Miss Welzel was asked to visit a woman who had taken poison, to
see if she could do anything for her: on inquiring into the case she was
told that there had been no quarrel or any other known reason for her
committing suicide. The woman said she had seen daemons come into the
house through the window, who told her to take two ounces of opium in
brandy, which she immediately did, after which she announced the fact
to her family. They sent for Miss Welzel, but it was too late: the woman
died a few moments after her arrival.
[Illustration: Great Flowery Miao.
_Page 125_]
[Illustration: A Roadside Restaurant.
_Page 140_]
The funeral rites, which take place in the fields, include the burning of
buffaloes’ horns, cows’ bones, etc., on a kind of altar.
Our stay among the tribes and all we heard about them led us to believe
that they are capable of becoming a valuable asset to the empire, and the
progress now being made in civilizing them is most encouraging. Some have
even been sent as elected members of the first Parliament of the Chinese
Republic. They have proved themselves capable of taking literary degrees
on the same footing as the Chinese. One of the most powerful viceroys in
Western China was a Nosu. In S. Pollard’s book, _In Unknown China_, he
mentioned the interesting fact that he had obtained (through a friend)
the opinion of the brilliant Dr. Wu Ting Fang (formerly Chinese Minister
at Washington) as to the position of the tribes in the new five-coloured
flag. He places them in the red bar, which stands first of the colours,
reckoning them as Sons of Han, namely among the Chinese.
[Illustration]
_Chapter VI_
_The Province of Hunan_
“You’ve seen the world
—The beauty and the wonder and the power,
The shapes of things, their colours, lights and shades,
Changes, surprises—and God made it all!
—For what? Do you feel thankful, aye, or no,
For this fair town’s face, yonder river’s line,
The mountain round it and the sky above,
Much more the figures of man, woman, child,
These are the frame to? What’s it all about?
To be passed over, despised? or dwelt upon,
Wondered at?...
... This world’s no blot for us,
Nor blank; it means intensely, and means good:
To find its meaning is my meat and drink.”
—R. BROWNING.
_Chapter VI_
_The Province of Hunan_
[Illustration: INN PAPER WINDOW.]
We spent about three weeks in Hunan, and the weather was broken all
the time. Many days it rained, and occasionally there were violent
thunderstorms, so that our journey was delayed. We left the province of
Kweichow on May 14, and found ten days in our little house-boat quite
entertaining and recuperative, as it afforded time for rest after the
strenuous journey over the highways and by-ways of that province. The
river scenery was often very grand, though not equal to the Yangtze
gorges. There was constant variety to occupy our attention, stopping at
towns and villages, watching the other river craft, and making up arrears
of correspondence. We had also been provided by Mr. Davies with a bundle
of newspapers, and were glad to learn what was going on in the outer
world, from which we seemed so completely shut out for the time being.
It really did not matter that the papers were a few weeks old; the main
thing was that we should not be so entirely ignorant of what had happened
during our absence, when once more we reached home.
Mr. Davies had considerable difficulty in getting us a boat, as the
boatmen were all anxious to get loads of opium for smuggling down river.
There was a bumper crop, and the price of transport is heavy. Finally he
succeeded in securing the boat in which he and his family had come up
earlier in the season. The bargain was made for sixty-two dollars for
the trip, with a bonus of two extra at the end, if we were satisfied.
There were to be four rowers, but they didn’t keep to the agreement. They
wanted to have military escort in addition, which we declined on account
of the limited deck space in which they and the owners have to live.
The accommodation of a river-boat is small: ours consisted of three
tiny compartments, of which we took two, finding that our beds occupied
exactly half the space, with a well between them, and our chairs and
table the remainder. The cooking was done in a sort of well in the small
deck in front of us, and it was a great satisfaction to watch the way in
which it was done by Yao and his meticulous cleanliness. There was no
lack of water, so each vegetable was washed in clean water about five
or six times. I believe the correct number of times to wash rice before
cooking is ten. It was really astonishing to see the dishes Yao prepared
on the handful of charcoal which was used to cook not only our meals but
also those of the crew.
The scenery was very wild and beautiful, and on the whole our crew rowed
well. There was an engaging little girl of three years old, who amused
us not a little with her clever manipulation of the chopsticks, never
dropping a grain of rice: she wore two silver bangles and two rings.
Each night we moored by the bank in what was considered a safe place,
for the robbers were much dreaded by the crew. Our live stock—chickens
and ducks—were tethered out to graze. At one place they took on a couple
of unarmed police, unknown to us, but as they would have been no use
whatever had we been attacked, I ordered them to be put ashore at the
next town. The robbers had burned many villages, we were told, driving
off the cattle, killing some of the inhabitants, and looting all that
was of value to them. All the way we passed shrines dotted along the
river-bank—one hideous fat Buddha was painted on the rock—and incense
was burnt continually by the owners of the boat. The quality of their
zeal varied relatively to the danger incurred, so we had no need to
make inquiry. At the worst part of all we had to support the courage
of the crew by a pork feast, portions of which were flung into the air
and caught by wicked-looking crows, which hovered screaming overhead.
These crows are looked upon as evil spirits of the river needing to be
propitiated.
The first important town we reached in Hunan was Yuan Chowfu, and we
found there some missionaries of the China Inland Mission who had many
interesting experiences to tell of revolutionary days. Hunan has always
been a particularly anti-foreign province, and work has progressed
slowly: it is not at all surprising that the people should be slow to
understand the object of foreigners coming to settle among them, and
every one mistrusts what they do not understand. It needs something to
break down prejudice, and in this case the something was of a tragic
nature. The missionary came home one day to find his wife lying in the
veranda with a fractured skull and brain exposed to view: she had been
attacked by a madman, who left her for dead. It was long before she
was nursed back to a certain measure of health, with speech and memory
gone. This happened two years ago, and now she is slowly regaining
strength and her lost powers, and welcomed us with exquisite hospitality;
despite having an attack of fever, she insisted on our staying to tea
and the evening meal. Mr. and Mrs. Becker have the supreme satisfaction
of finding that from the time of the accident their work has taken on
a wholly different complexion; the people have rallied round them and
look to them for support in troublous times. With but slight medical
training Mr. Becker organized Red Cross classes, and took charge of the
wounded in the mission premises. At one time the city was threatened
by revolutionaries, the officials lost control, and for three days he
took full command and saved the situation. He received medals and a
complimentary board from the Government, acknowledging the great services
he had rendered to Yuan Chow.
No less than nine times Mr. Becker has been caught by robbers, but has
never had a single thing stolen by them, which certainly constitutes a
record. When a pistol was put to his head, he presented a visiting card,
saying, “Take this to your Chief”: it is a fine example of “a soft answer
turneth away wrath.” On recognizing who he is, they have always released
him without any injury. He told us that recently the robber bands have
been broken up, and thought we need have no anxiety about them. We were
regaled with the first strawberries of the season from their garden,
which contained a promising supply of vegetables, and there were goats
and kids in pens. We went away loaded with good things, and deeply
impressed by the sight of these heroic workers and their colleagues.
The principal industry of the place is white wax: special ash trees grow
here on which the insects live, but every year the insects necessary to
produce the wax have to be brought from the neighbouring province of
Szechwan. “When they reach the right stage of development they are put
in paper boxes, in bamboo trays, and carried by the swiftest runners.
These men only travel by night, as it is essential that the process of
development should not proceed too rapidly. The boxes have to be opened
every day and ventilated, and the men secure the best rooms in the inns,
so that other travellers have to suffer if they are on the road at the
same time” (_Face of China_, p. 183). There were also large numbers of
paulownia trees, with their lilac flowers in full bloom: they produce a
vegetable oil used for cooking and for furniture. All this district is
noted for its trees, and much wood is brought down by a tributary river
from the Panghai district, where it is cut down by the Black Miao tribe.
The next town where we halted was particularly attractive, surrounded
by red sandstone walls and grey stone battlements. We made a complete
tour on the top of the city wall, but the houses are so high that you
cannot see into any of the courtyards. At one point there was a fine,
picturesque group of trees overhanging the wall, otherwise the houses
were built very close together, like a rabbit warren. On the battlements
were a number of most comical little guns, some carefully protected from
the weather by shrines built over them. They looked as if they might have
come out of the ark, but were only about seventy years old, some being
dated.
In the market we bought wild raspberries, which had quite a good flavour
when cooked, but they were rather tart, as they were not fully ripe. We
found wild strawberries by the wayside, but were told that some varieties
are poisonous, and those we ate were quite tasteless.
Our next halting-place was Hong Kiang, where we arrived at 8.30 a.m., and
spent a pleasant day with two missionary families, one being a doctor’s.
He was rather depressed, because the town is under the control of a
military governor of irascible temper. The doctor’s cook had recently
been suffering from insanity and was being treated in the hospital,
when he was suddenly seized and condemned to death. The doctor, on
hearing of it, went instantly to the Governor to explain matters, but he
pleaded in vain, and found the man had been shot while he was with the
Governor. Executions are continually taking place, and so badly done that
frequently the offenders linger wounded for hours after they have been
shot. Often the doctor is begged to go and help, but what can he do? On
occasion he has been allowed to go and bring them back to life! In one
case he had taken stretchers on which to bring the sufferers back to the
hospital, but they were one too few, so that he told one man he would
come back for him. The man dare not wait for his return, and managed,
despite being in a terrible condition, to drag himself to the hospital on
foot.
Mr. Hollenwenger took us up a high hill behind the city to see the view,
and it was certainly worth while, although the heat was great. The river
winds round a long strip of land, and a narrow stream across it could
easily be made navigable so as to save the junks having to make a detour
of several miles. Another big tributary joins the river almost opposite
the stream, by which quantities of wood are brought down from the hills.
The valley is full of ricefields, and we saw men transplanting the rice
with incredible rapidity from the small field in which it is originally
raised to the larger fields where it attains maturity.