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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12296 ***
+
+                           CAMPS AND TRAILS
+
+                               IN CHINA
+
+
+[Illustration: Our Camp on the Snow Mountain at an Altitude of 12,000
+Feet]
+
+
+
+
+                       CAMPS AND TRAILS IN CHINA
+
+                A NARRATIVE OF EXPLORATION, ADVENTURE,
+                    AND SPORT IN LITTLE-KNOWN CHINA
+
+
+                       ROY CHAPMAN ANDREWS, M.A.
+
+ASSOCIATE CURATOR OF MAMMALS IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
+AND LEADER OF THE MUSEUM'S ASIATIC ZOÖLOGICAL EXPEDITION OF 1916-1917;
+ FELLOW NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES; CORRESPONDING MEMBER ZOÖLOGICAL
+  SOCIETY OF LONDON; MEMBER OF THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON;
+               AUTHOR "WHALEHUNTING WITH GUN AND CAMERA"
+
+                                  AND
+
+                         YVETTE BORUP ANDREWS
+
+           PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE ASIATIC ZOÖLOGICAL EXPEDITION
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+                              ILLUSTRATED
+
+
+             D. APPLETON AND COMPANY NEW YORK LONDON 1918
+
+
+
+
+Copyright, 1918, by D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+
+
+
+Printed in the United States of America
+
+
+THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO
+
+PRESIDENT HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN
+
+AS AN EXPRESSION OF GRATITUDE AND ADMIRATION
+
+
+    "Let us probe the silent places, let us seek what luck betide us;
+     Let us journey to a lonely land I know.
+     There's a whisper on the night-wind, there's a star agleam to guide us,
+     And the Wild is calling, calling ... let us go."
+
+                                                           --_Service_.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The object of this book is to present a popular narrative of the
+Asiatic Zoölogical Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History
+to China in 1916-17. Details of a purely scientific nature have been
+condensed, or eliminated, and emphasis has been placed upon our
+experiences with the strange natives and animals of a remote and little
+known region in the hope that the book will be interesting to the
+general reader.
+
+The scientific reputation of the Expedition will rest upon the
+technical reports of its work which will be published in due course
+by the American Museum of Natural History. To these reports we would
+refer those readers who desire more complete information concerning the
+results of our researches. At the time the manuscript of this volume
+was sent to press the collections were still undergoing preparation and
+the study of the different groups had just begun.
+
+Although the book has been largely written by the senior author, his
+collaborator has contributed six chapters marked with her initials; all
+the illustrations are from her photographs and continual use has been
+made of her daily journals; she has, moreover, materially assisted in
+reference work and in numerous other ways.
+
+The information concerning the relationships and distribution of the
+native tribes of Yün-nan is largely drawn from the excellent reference
+work by Major H. R. Davies and we have followed his spelling of Chinese
+names.
+
+Parts of the book have been published as separate articles in the
+_American Museum Journal_, _Harper's Magazine_, and _Asia_ and to the
+editors of the above publications our acknowledgments are due.
+
+That the Expedition obtained a very large and representative
+collection of small mammals is owing in a great measure to the efforts
+of Mr. Edmund Heller, our companion in the field. He worked tirelessly
+in the care and preservation of the specimens, and the fact that
+they reached New York in excellent condition is, in itself, the best
+testimony to the skill and thoroughness with which they were prepared.
+
+Our Chinese interpreter, Wu Hung-tao, contributed largely to the
+success of the Expedition. His faithful and enthusiastic devotion
+to our interests and his tact and resourcefulness under trying
+circumstances won our lasting gratitude and affectionate regard.
+
+The nineteen months during which we were in Asia are among the most
+memorable of our lives and we wish to express our deepest gratitude to
+the Trustees of the American Museum of Natural History, and especially
+to President Henry Fairfield Osborn, whose enthusiastic endorsement and
+loyal support made the Expedition possible. Director F. A. Lucas, Dr.
+J. A. Allen and Mr. George H. Sherwood were unfailing in furthering our
+interests, and to them we extend our hearty thanks.
+
+To the following patrons, who by their generous contributions
+materially assisted in the financing of the Expedition, we wish to
+acknowledge our great personal indebtedness as well as that of the
+Museum; Mr. and Mrs. Charles L. Bernheimer, Mr. and Mrs. Sidney M.
+Colgate, Messrs. George Bowdoin, Lincoln Ellsworth, James B. Ford,
+Henry C. Frick, Childs Frick, and Mrs. Adrian Hoffman Joline.
+
+The Expedition received many courtesies while in the field from the
+following gentlemen, without whose coöperation it would have been
+impossible to have carried on the work successfully. Their services
+have been referred to individually in subsequent parts of the book:
+The Director of the Bureau of Foreign Affairs of the Province of
+Yün-nan; M. Georges Chemin Dupontès, Director de l'Exploration de la
+Compagnie Française des Chemins de Fer de l'Indochine et du Yün-nan,
+Hanoi, Tonking; M. Henry Wilden, Consul de France, Shanghai; M.
+Kraemer, Consul de France, Hongkong; Mr. Howard Page, Standard Oil
+Co., Yün-nan Fu; the Hon. Paul Reinsch, Minister Plenipotentiary and
+Envoy Extraordinary to the Chinese Republic, Mr. J. V. A. McMurray,
+First Secretary of the American Legation, Peking; Mr. H. G. Evans,
+British-American Tobacco Co., Hongkong; the Rev. William Hanna, Ta-li
+Fu; the Rev. A. Kok, Li-chiang Fu; Ralph Grierson, Esq., Teng-yueh;
+Herbert Goffe, Esq., H. B. M. Consul General, Yün-nan Fu; Messrs. C. R.
+Kellogg, and H. W. Livingstone, Foochow, China; the General Passenger
+Agent, Canadian Pacific Railroad Company, Hongkong; and the Rev. H.
+R. Caldwell, Yen-ping, who has read parts of this book in manuscript
+and who through his criticisms has afforded us the benefit of his long
+experience in China.
+
+To Miss Agnes F. Molloy and Miss Anna Katherine Berger we wish to
+express our appreciation of editorial and other assistance during the
+preparation of the volume.
+
+                                                    Roy Chapman Andrews
+                                                   Yvette Borup Andrews
+
+Justamere Home,
+  _Lawrence Park,
+    Bronxville, N. Y._
+
+_May 10, 1917._
+
+
+
+
+                               CONTENTS
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I
+
+                     The Object of the Expedition
+
+PAGE
+
+  The importance of the scientific exploration of Central
+       Asia--The region which the Asiatic Zoölogical
+       Expedition investigated--Personnel of the
+       Expedition--Equipment--Applicants for positions upon the
+       Expedition
+
+                                                                    1-6
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II
+
+                           China in Turmoil
+
+  Yuan Shi-kai--Plot to become emperor of China--The Rebellion--Our
+       arrival in Peking--Passports for Fukien Province--Admiral von
+       Hintze, the German Minister--_En route_ to Shanghai--Death of
+       Yuan Shi-kai
+
+                                                                   7-14
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III
+
+                           Up the Min River
+
+                               Y. B. A.
+
+  Arrival at Foochow--Foochow--We leave for Yen-ping--The
+       Min River--Our first night in a _sampan_--Miss Mabel
+       Hartford--Brigands at Yuchi--Yen-ping--Trapping at Yen-ping
+
+                                                                  15-25
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV
+
+                     A Bat Cave in the Big Ravine
+
+  The Temple in the Big Ravine--Hunting serow--A bat apartment house
+
+                                                                  26-81
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V
+
+                        The Yen-ping Rebellion
+
+  A message from Mr. Caldwell--Refugees from Yen-ping--Situation
+       in the city--Fighting on Monday morning--Wounded men at the
+       hospital--We do Red Cross work--More fighting--A Chinese
+       puzzle--The missionaries save the city--The narrow escape of a
+       young Chinese--The mission cook--Return to Foochow
+
+                                                                  82-48
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI
+
+                      Hunting the Great Invisible
+
+  Tiger lairs--Mr. Caldwell's method of hunting--His first
+       tiger--Habits of tigers--Experiences with the Great
+       Invisible--Killing a man-eater--Chinese superstitions--Hunting
+       in the lair
+
+                                                                  44-58
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII
+
+                            The Blue Tiger
+
+  Arriving at Lung-tao--The blue tiger--Mr. Caldwell's first view
+       of the beast--The lair in the Long Ravine--Bad luck with the
+       tiger--A meeting in the dark--Ling-suik monastery--Life at the
+       temple--Fukien Province as a collecting ground
+
+                                                                  54-66
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII
+
+                          The Women of China
+
+                               Y. B. A.
+
+  Schools for girls--Position of women--The Confucian rules--Woman's
+       life in the home--Foot binding--Early marriage--A Chinese
+       wedding
+
+                                                                  67-73
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX
+
+                          Voyaging to Yün-nan
+
+  Outfitting in Hongkong--Food--Guns--Cameras--_En route_
+       to Tonking--The Island of Hainan--We engage a cook
+       at Paik-hoi--Arrival in Haiphong--Loss of our
+       Ammunition--Hanoi--The railroad to Yün-nan Fu--Yün-nan--The
+       Chinese Foreign Office endorses our plans
+
+                                                                  74-83
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X
+
+                        On the Road to Ta-li Fu
+
+  Oar caravan--The Yün-nan pack saddle--Temple camps--Chinese
+       _mafus_--Roads--Country--Ignorance of a Chinese
+       scholar--New mammals--Village life--Opium growing--An opium
+       scandal--Goitre--The Chinese "Mountain schooner"--Horses--Miss
+       Morgan--Brigands--Our guard of soldiers
+
+                                                                  84-98
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI
+
+                               Ta-li Fu
+
+  Hsia-kuan--Summer temperature--Lake--Graves--Pagodas--Mr. H. G.
+       Evans--Foreigners of Ta-li Fu--Chinese mandarins--Mammals at
+       Ta-li--Caravan horses and mules--The cook becomes ill
+
+                                                                 99-106
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII
+
+              Li-chiang, and the "Temple of the Flowers"
+
+  Traveling to Li-chiang--Our entrance into the city--The surprise
+       of the foreigners--The temple--Excellent collecting--Small
+       mammals--The Moso natives--Customs--The Snow Mountain--Baron
+       Haendel-Mazzetti
+
+                                                                107-113
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIII
+
+                         Camping in the Clouds
+
+  Moso hunters--Primitive guns--Crossbows and poisoned
+       arrows--Dogs--porcupine--New mammals--We find a new camp on
+       the mountain
+
+                                                                114-119
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIV
+
+                            The First Goral
+
+  Killed near camp--A sacrifice to the God of the Hunt--Small
+       mammals--The second goral
+
+                                                                120-125
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XV
+
+                              More Gorals
+
+  Gorals almost invisible--Heller shoots a kid--Collecting material
+       for a Museum group--A splendid hunt--Two gorals--A crested
+       muntjac
+
+                                                                126-188
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVI
+
+                       The Snow Mountain Temple
+
+  The first illness in camp--Serow--Death of the leading
+       dog--Rain--Two more serows--Lolos--Non-Chinese tribes of
+       Yün-nan
+
+                                                                184-189
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVII
+
+                           Gorals and Serows
+
+  Relationship--Appearance of the serow--Habits--Gorals
+
+                                                                140-148
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVIII
+
+                           The "White Water"
+
+                               Y. B. A.
+
+  Our new camp--serow--We go to Li-chiang--A burial
+       ceremony--Ancestor worship
+
+                                                                140-156
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIX
+
+                       Across the Yangtze Gorge
+
+  Traveling to the river--Inaccuracy of the Chinese--First view of
+       the gorge--The Taku ferry--Cares
+
+                                                                157-163
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XX
+
+                       Through Unmapped Country
+
+  Along the rim of the gorge--A beautiful camp at Habala--New
+       mammals--Photographic work--Phete village--Stupid
+       inhabitants--Strange natives--The "Windy Camp"--Hotenfa
+
+                                                                164-171
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXI
+
+                        Traveling Toward Tibet
+
+  A hard climb--Our highest camp--A Lolo village--Thanksgiving
+       with the Lolos
+
+                                                                172-177
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXII
+
+                    Stalking Tibetans with a Camera
+
+                               Y. B. A.
+
+  Caravans--Tibetans--Dress--Appearance--Photographing frightened
+       natives--Reason for suspicion
+
+                                                                178-181
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIII
+
+                     Westward to the Mekong River
+
+  Snow--Photographing natives--The Snow Mountain again--The
+       Shih-ku ferry--Cranes--"Brahminy ducks"--A well-deserved
+       beating--Chinese soldiers
+
+                                                                182-189
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIV
+
+                        Down the Mekong Valley
+
+  Arrival at Wei-hsi--The Mekong River--Lutzu natives--Difficulties
+       in the valley--An unexpected goral--Christmas--The salt
+       wells--A snow covered pass--Duck shooting--Return to Ta-li Fu
+
+                                                                190-201
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXV
+
+                      Missionaries We Have Known
+
+  Our observations on work of missionaries in Fukien and Yün-nan
+       Provinces--Mode of living--Servants--Voluntary exile--Medical
+       missionaries--A missionary's experience with the brigands at
+       Yuchi
+
+                                                                202-211
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVI
+
+                    Chinese New Year at Yung-chang
+
+                               Y. B. A.
+
+  Traveling to Yung-chang--New Year's customs--Inhabitants of
+       the city--Foot-binding--Caves--Water buffaloes--Chinese
+       cow-caravans--Yung-chang mentioned by Marco Polo
+
+                                                                212-222
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVII
+
+                     Traveling Toward the Tropics
+
+  Shih-tien plain--Curious inhabitants of the city--A tropical valley
+       at Ma-po-lo--"A little more far"--A splendid camp--Many new
+       mammals--Preparing specimens Sambur--Trapping
+
+                                                                223-232
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+                 Meng-ting: a Village of Many Tongues
+
+  The first Shan Village--Priscilla and John Alden--Meng-ting--The
+       Shan mandarin--Young priests--The market--Photographing under
+       difficulties--Suppression of opium growing
+
+                                                                233-343
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIX
+
+                     Camping on the Nam-ting River
+
+  A beautiful camp--The "Dying Rabbit"--Sambur hunting--Jungle
+       fowl--Civets--Pole cats and other animals
+
+                                                                244-251
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXX
+
+                            Monkey Hunting
+
+  Strange calls in the jangle--Our first gibbons--Relationship and
+       habits--Langurs and baboons--A night in the jungle
+
+                                                                252-259
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXI
+
+                     The Shans of the Burma Border
+
+  An unfriendly chief--Honest natives--Houses at
+       Nam-ka--Tattooing--Shan tribe--Dress
+
+                                                                260-263
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXII
+
+                       Prisoners of War in Burma
+
+                               Y. B. A.
+
+  The mythical Ma-li-ling--Across the frontier into Burma--The
+       _mafus_ rebel--Ma-li-pa--Captain Clive--Guarding the
+       border--Life at Ma-li-pa
+
+                                                                264-272
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+                 Hunting Peacocks on the Salween River
+
+  The Valley at Changlung--The ferry--Peacocks--The stalker
+       stalked--Habits of peafowls
+
+                                                                273-280
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+                       The Gibbons of Ho-mu-shu
+
+  Climbing out of the Salween Valley--A Shan
+       Village--Ho-mu-shu--Camping on a mountain pass--Gibbons--An
+       exciting hunt and a narrow escape--Habits of the "hoolock"
+
+                                                                281-290
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXV
+
+                  Teng-yueh: a Link with Civilization
+
+  Tai-ping-pu--Flying squirrels--Lisos--A bat
+       cave--Mail--Teng-yueh--Mr. Ralph Grierson--Tibetan bear cubs
+
+                                                                291-297
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+                          A Big Game Paradise
+
+  Gorals at Hui-yao--Deer--Splendid hunts
+
+                                                                298-304
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXVII
+
+                           Serow and Sambur
+
+  Monkeys at Hai-yao--Muntjacs--A new serow--We move camp to
+       Wa-tien--A fine sambur
+
+                                                                305-314
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXVIII
+
+                          Last Days in China
+
+  Return to Teng-yueh--Packing the specimens--Results of the
+       Expedition--On the road to Bhamo--The chair coolies--Burma
+       _vs._ China--In civilisation again--Farewell to the Orient
+
+                                                                315-322
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+                                                             FACING
+                                                               PAGE
+
+  Our camp on the Snow Mountain at an altitude of 12,000 feet
+                                           _Frontispiece_
+
+  Yvette Borup Andrews with a pet Yün-nan squirrel                4
+  Edmund Heller                                                   4
+  Roy Chapman Andrews and a goral                                 4
+
+  A Chinese hunter and a muntjac                                 28
+  Brigands killed in the Yen-ping Rebellion                      28
+
+  The Ling-suik monastery                                        62
+  A priest of Ling-suik                                          62
+
+  A Chinese mother with her children                             70
+  Chinese women of the coolie class with bound feet              70
+
+  Cormorant fishers on the lake at Yün-nan Fu                    84
+  Our camp at Chou Chou on the way to Ta-li Fu                   84
+
+  The Pagodas at Ta-li Fu                                        96
+  The dead of China                                              96
+
+  The residence of Rev. William J. Hanna at Ta-li Fu            102
+  The gate and main street of Ta-li Fu                          102
+
+  One of the pagodas at Ta-li Fu                                108
+
+  A Moso herder                                                 112
+  A Moso woman                                                  112
+
+  The Snow Mountain                                             116
+
+  A cheek gun used by one of our hunters                        118
+  The first goral killed on the Snow Mountain                   118
+
+  Hotenfa, one of oar Moso hunters, bringing in a goral         120
+  Another Moso hunter with a porcupine                          120
+
+  A typical goral cliff on the Snow Mountain                    132
+
+  A serow killed on the Snow Mountain                           140
+  The head of a serow                                           140
+
+  The "white water"                                             152
+
+  A Liso hunter carrying a flying squirrel                      162
+  The chief of our Lolo hunters                                 162
+
+  A Lolo village                                                174
+  Lolos seeing their photographs for the first time             174
+
+  Travelers in the Mekong valley                                180
+  Two Tibetans                                                  180
+
+  The gorge of the Yangtze River                                184
+
+  A quiet curve of the Mekong River                             190
+
+  The temple in which we camped at Ta-li Fu                     200
+  A crested muntjac                                             200
+
+  The south gate at Yung-chang                                  210
+  A Chinese bride returning to her mother's home at New Year's  210
+
+  A Chinese patriarch                                           224
+  Young China                                                   224
+
+  A Shan village                                                234
+  A Shan woman spinning                                         234
+
+  A Kachin woman in the market at Meng-ting                     240
+  One of our Shan hunters with two yellow gibbons               240
+
+  Our camp on the Nam-ting River                                246
+  The Shan village at Nam-ka                                    246
+
+  The head of a gibbon killed on the Nam-ting River             254
+  A civet                                                       254
+
+  A Shan girl                                                   260
+  A Shan boy                                                    260
+
+  A suspension bridge                                           288
+  Mrs. Andrews feeding one of our bear cubs                     288
+
+  A sambur killed at Wa-tien                                    302
+  The head of a muntjac                                         302
+
+  A mountain chair                                              312
+  The waterfall at Teng-yueh                                    312
+
+  Map I. The red line indicates the travels of the Expedition   318
+
+  Map II. Route of the Expedition in Yün-nan                    320
+
+
+
+
+CAMPS AND TRAILS IN CHINA
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE OBJECT OF THE EXPEDITION
+
+
+The earliest remains of primitive man probably will be found somewhere
+in the vast plateau of Central Asia, north of the Himalaya Mountains.
+From this region came the successive invasions that poured into Europe
+from the east, to India from the north, and to China from the west;
+the migration route to North America led over the Bering Strait and
+spread fanwise south and southeast to the farthest extremity of South
+America. The Central Asian plateau at the beginning of the Pleistocene
+was probably less arid than it is today and there is reason to believe
+that this general region was not only the distributing center of man
+but also of many of the forms of mammalian life which are now living in
+other parts of the world. For instance, our American moose, the wapiti
+or elk. Rocky Mountain sheep, the so-called mountain goat, and other
+animals are probably of Central Asian origin.
+
+Doubtless there were many contributing causes to the extensive
+wanderings of primitive tribes, but as they were primarily hunters,
+one of the most important must have been the movements of the game
+upon which they lived. Therefore the study of the early human races is,
+necessarily, closely connected with, and dependent upon, a knowledge of
+the Central Asian mammalian life and its distribution. No systematic
+palæontological, archæological, or zoölogical study of this region on
+a large scale has ever been attempted, and there is no similar area of
+the inhabited surface of the earth about which so little is known.
+
+The American Museum of Natural History hopes in the near future to
+conduct extensive explorations in this part of the world along general
+scientific lines. The country itself and its inhabitants, however,
+present unusual obstacles to scientific research. Not only is the
+region one of vast intersecting mountain ranges, the greatest of the
+earth, but the climate is too cold in winter to permit of continuous
+work. The people have a natural dislike for foreigners, and the
+political events of the last half century have not tended to decrease
+their suspicions.
+
+It is possible to overcome such difficulties, but the plans for
+extensive research must be carefully prepared. One of the most
+important steps is the sending out of preliminary expeditions to gain
+a general knowledge of the natives and fauna and of the conditions to
+be encountered. For the first reconnaissance, which was intended to be
+largely a mammalian survey, the Asiatic Zoölogical Expedition left New
+York in March, 1916.
+
+Its destination was Yün-nan, a province in southwestern China. This
+is one of the least known parts of the Chinese Republic and, because
+of its southern latitude and high mountain systems, the climate and
+faunal range is very great. It is about equal in size to the state
+of California and topographically might be likened to the ocean in a
+furious gale, for the greater part of its surface has been thrown into
+vast mountain waves which divide and cross one another in hopeless
+confusion.
+
+Yün-nan is bordered on the north by Tibet and S'suchuan, on the west by
+Burma, on the south by Tonking, and on the east by Kwei-chau Province.
+Faunistically the entire northwestern part of Yün-nan is essentially
+Tibetan, and the plateaus and mountain peaks range from altitudes of
+8,000 feet to 20,000 feet above sea level. In the south and west along
+the borders of Burma and Tonking, in the low fever-stricken valleys,
+the climate is that of the mid-tropics, and the native life, as well as
+the fauna and flora, is of a totally different type from that found in
+the north.
+
+The natives of Yün-nan are exceptionally interesting. There are about
+thirty non-Chinese tribes in the province, some of whom, such as the
+Shans and Lolos, represent the aboriginal inhabitants of China, and it
+is safe to say that in no similar area of the world is there such a
+variety of language and dialects as in this region.
+
+Although the main work of the Expedition was to be conducted in
+Yün-nan, we decided to spend a short time in Fukien Province, China,
+and endeavor to obtain a specimen of the so-called "blue tiger" which
+has been seen twice by the Reverend Harry R. Caldwell, a missionary
+and amateur naturalist, who has done much hunting in the vicinity of
+Foochow.
+
+The white members of the first Asiatic Zoölogical Expedition included
+Mr. Edmund Heller, my wife (Yvette Borup Andrews) and myself. A
+Chinese interpreter, Wu Hung-tao, with five native assistants and ten
+muleteers, completed the personnel.
+
+Mr. Heller is a collector of wide experience. His early work, which
+was done in the western United States and the Galapagos Islands, was
+followed by many years of collecting in Mexico, Alaska, South America,
+and Africa. He first visited British East Africa with Mr. Carl E.
+Akeley, next with ex-President Theodore Roosevelt, and again with Mr.
+Paul J. Rainey. During the Asiatic Zoölogical Expedition Mr. Heller
+devoted most of his time to the gathering and preparation of small
+mammals. He joined our party late in July in China.
+
+Mrs. Andrews was the photographer of the Expedition. She had studied
+photography as an amateur in Germany, France, and Italy, as well as
+in New York, and had devoted especial attention to the taking of
+photographs in natural colors. Such work requires infinite care and
+patience, but the results are well worth the efforts expended.
+
+Wu Hung-tao is a native of Foochow, China, and studied English at
+the Anglo-Chinese College in that city. He lived for some time in
+Teng-yueh, Yün-nan, in the employ of Mr. F. W. Carey, Commissioner
+of Customs, and not only speaks mandarin Chinese but also several
+native dialects. He acted as interpreter, head "boy," and general
+field manager. My own work was devoted mainly to the direction of the
+Expedition and the hunting of big game.
+
+[Illustration: Yvette Borup Andrews with a Pet Yün-nan Squirrel]
+
+[Illustration: Edmund Heller]
+
+[Illustration: Roy Chapman Andrews and a Goral]
+
+In order to reduce the heavy transportation charges we purchased
+only such equipment in New York as could not be obtained in Shanghai
+or Hongkong. Messrs. Shoverling, Daly & Gales furnished our guns,
+ammunition, tents, and general camp equipment, and gave excellent
+satisfaction in attention to the minor details which often assume
+alarming importance when an expedition is in the field and defects
+cannot be remedied. All food and commissary supplies were purchased in
+Hongkong (_see_ Chapter IX).
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When the announcement of the Expedition was made by the American Museum
+of Natural History it received wide publicity in America and other
+parts of the world. Immediately we began to discover how many strange
+persons make up the great cities of the United States, and we received
+letters and telegrams from hundreds of people who wished to take
+part in the Expedition. Men and boys were the principal applicants,
+but there was no lack of women, many of whom came to the Museum for
+personal interviews.
+
+Most of the letters were laughable in the extreme. One was from a
+butcher who thought he might be of great assistance in preparing our
+specimens, or defending us from savage natives; another young man
+offered himself to my wife as a personal bodyguard; a third was sure
+his twenty years' experience as a waiter would fit him for an important
+position on the Expedition, and numerous women, young and old, wished
+to become "companions" for my wife in those "drear wastes."
+
+Applicants continued to besiege us wherever we stopped on our way
+across the continent and in San Francisco until we embarked on the
+afternoon of Mardi 28 on the S. S. _Tenyo Maru_ for Japan.
+
+Our way across the Pacific was uneventful and as the great vessel
+drew in toward the wharf in Yokohama she was boarded by the usual
+crowd of natives. We were standing at the rail when three Japanese
+approached and, bowing in unison, said, "We are report for leading
+Japanese newspaper. We wish to know all thing about Chinese animal."
+Evidently the speech had been rehearsed, for with it their English
+ended abruptly, and the interview proceeded rather lamely, on my part,
+in Japanese.
+
+Japan was reveling in the cherry blossom season when we arrived and for
+a person interested in color photography it was a veritable paradise.
+We stayed three weeks and regretfully left for Peking by way of Korea.
+But before we continue with the story of our further travels, we would
+like briefly to review the political situation in China as a background
+for our early work in the province of Fukien.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+CHINA IN TURMOIL
+
+
+During the time the Expedition was preparing to leave New York, China
+was in turmoil. Yuan Shi-kai was president of the Republic, but the
+hope of his heart was to be emperor of China. For twenty years he had
+plotted for the throne; he had been emperor for one hundred miserable
+days; and now he was watching, impotently, his dream-castles crumble
+beneath his feet. Yuan was the strong man of his day, with more power,
+brains, and personality than any Chinese since Li-Hung Chang. He always
+had been a factor in his political world. His monarchical dream first
+took definite form as early as 1901 when he became viceroy of Chi-li,
+the province in which Peking is situated.
+
+It was then that he began to modernize and get control of the army
+which is the great basis of political power in China. Properly
+speaking, there was not, and is not now, a Chinese national army. It
+is rather a collection of armies, each giving loyalty to a certain
+general, and he who secures the support of the various commanders
+controls the destiny of China's four hundred millions of people
+regardless of his official title.
+
+Yuan was able to bind to himself the majority of the leading generals,
+and in 1911, when the Manchu dynasty was overthrown, his plots and
+intrigues began to bear fruit. By crafty juggling of the rebels and
+Manchus he managed to get himself elected president of the new
+republic, although he did not for a moment believe in the republican
+form of government. He was always a monarchist at heart but was
+perfectly willing to declare himself an ardent republican so long as
+such a declaration could be used as a stepping stone to the throne
+which he kept ever as his ultimate goal.
+
+As president he ruled with a high hand. In 1918 there was a rebellion
+in protest against his official acts but he defeated the rebels, won
+over more of the older generals, and solidified the army for his own
+interests, making himself stronger than ever before.
+
+At this time he might well have made a _coup d'état_ and proclaimed
+himself emperor with hardly a shadow of resistance, but with the
+hereditary caution of the Chinese he preferred to wait and plot and
+scheme. He wanted his position to be even more secure and to have it
+appear that he reluctantly accepted the throne as a patriotic duty at
+the insistent call of the people.
+
+Yuan's ways for producing the proper public sentiment were typically
+Chinese but entirely effective, and he was making splendid progress,
+when in May, 1915, Japan put a spoke in his wheel of fortune by taking
+advantage of the European war and presenting the historical twenty-one
+demands, to most of which China agreed.
+
+This delayed his plans only temporarily, and Yuan's agents pushed the
+work of making him emperor more actively than ever, with the result
+that the throne was tendered to him by the "unanimous vote of the
+people." To "save his face" he declined at first but at the second
+offer he "reluctantly" yielded and on December 12, 1916, became emperor
+of China.
+
+But his triumph was short-lived, for eight days later tidings of
+unrest in Yün-nan reached Peking. General Tsai-ao, a former military
+governor of the province, appeared in Yün-nan Fu, the capital, and, on
+December 28, sent an ultimatum to Yuan stating that he must repudiate
+the monarchy and execute all those who had assisted him to gain the
+throne, otherwise Yün-nan would secede; which it forthwith did on
+December 25.
+
+Without doubt this rebellion was financed by the Japanese who had
+intimated to Yuan that the change from a republican form of government
+would not meet with their approval The rebellion spread rapidly. On
+January 21, Kwei-chau Province, which adjoins Yün-nan, seceded, and, on
+March 18, Kwang-si also announced its independence.
+
+About this time the Museum authorities were becoming somewhat doubtful
+as to the advisability of proceeding with our Expedition. We had a
+long talk with Dr. Wellington Koo, the Chinese Minister to the United
+States, at the Biltmore Hotel in New York. Dr. Koo, while certain that
+the rebellion would be short-lived, strongly advised us to postpone our
+expedition until conditions became more settled. He offered to cable
+Peking for advice, but we, knowing how unwelcome to the government of
+the harassed Yuan would be a party of foreigners who wished to travel
+in the disturbed area, gratefully declined and determined to proceed
+regardless of conditions. We hoped that Yuan would be strong enough
+to crush this rebellion as he had that of 1918, but day by day, as we
+anxiously watched the papers, there came reports of other provinces
+dropping away from his standard.
+
+On the _Tenyo Maru_ we met the Honorable Charles Denby, an ex-American
+Consul-General at Shanghai and former adviser to Yuan Shi-kai when he
+was viceroy of Chi-li. Mr. Denby was interested in obtaining a road
+concession near Peking and was then on his way to see Yuan. His anxiety
+over the political situation was not less than ours and together we
+often paced the decks discussing what might happen; but every wireless
+report told of more desertions to the ranks of the rebels.
+
+It seemed to be the beginning of the end, for Yuan had lost his nerve.
+He had decided to quit, and one hundred days after he became emperor
+elect he issued a mandate canceling the monarchy and restoring the
+republic. But the rebellious provinces were not satisfied and demanded
+that he get out altogether.
+
+About this time we reached Peking, literally blown in by a tremendous
+dust storm which seemed an elemental manifestation of the human turmoil
+within the grim old walls. Our cousin, Commander Thomas Hutchins, Naval
+Attaché of the American Legation, was awaiting us on the platform,
+holding his hat with one hand and wiping the dust from his eyes with
+the other.
+
+The news we received from him was by no means comforting for in the
+Legation pessimism reigned supreme. The American Minister, Dr. Reinsch,
+was not enthusiastic about our going south regardless of conditions,
+but nevertheless he set about helping us to obtain the necessary visé
+for our passports.
+
+We wished first to go to Foochow, in Fukien Province, where we were
+to hunt tiger until Mr. Heller joined us in July for the expedition
+into Yün-nan. Fukien was still loyal to Yuan, but the strong Japanese
+influence in this province, which is directly opposite the island of
+Formosa, was causing considerable uneasiness in Peking.
+
+We were armed with telegrams from Mr. C. R. Kellogg, of the
+Anglo-Chinese College, with whom we were to stay while in Foochow,
+assuring us that all was quiet in the province, and through the
+influence of Dr. Reinsch, the Chinese Foreign Office viséd our
+passports. The huge red stamp which was affixed to them was an amusing
+example of Chinese "face saving." First came the seal of Yuan's
+impotent dynasty of Hung-Hsien, signifying "Brilliant Prosperity," and
+directly upon it was placed the stamp of the Chinese Republic. One was
+almost as legible as the other and thus the Foreign Office saved its
+face in whichever direction the shifting cards of political destiny
+should fall.
+
+At a luncheon given by Dr. Reinsch at the Embassy in Peking, we met
+Admiral von Hintze, the German Minister, who had recently completed
+an adventurous trip from Germany to China. He was Minister to Mexico
+at the beginning of the war but had returned to Berlin incognito
+through England to ask the Kaiser for active sea service. The Emperor
+was greatly elated over von Hintze's performance and offered him the
+appointment of Minister to China if he could reach Peking in the same
+way that he had traveled to Berlin. Von Hintze therefore shipped as
+supercargo on a Scandinavian tramp steamer and arrived safely at
+Shanghai, where he assumed all the pomp of a foreign diplomat and
+proceeded to the capital.
+
+The Americans were in a rather difficult position at this time because
+of the international complications, and social intercourse was
+extremely limited. Dinner guests had to be chosen with the greatest
+care and one was very likely to meet exactly the same people wherever
+one went.
+
+Peking is a place never to be forgotten by one who has shared
+its social life. In the midst of one of the most picturesque,
+most historical, and most romantic cities of the world there is a
+cosmopolitan community that enjoys itself to the utmost. Its talk is
+all of horses, polo, racing, shooting, dinners, and dances, with the
+interesting background of Chinese politics, in which things are never
+dull. There is always a rebellion of some kind to furnish delightful
+thrills, and one never can tell when a new political bomb will be
+projected from the mysterious gates of the Forbidden City.
+
+We spent a week in Peking and regretfully left by rail for Shanghai.
+_En route_ we passed through Tsinan-fu where the previous night serious
+fighting had occurred in which Japanese soldiers had joined with the
+rebels against Yuan's troops. On every side there was evidence of
+Japan's efforts against him. In the foreign quarter of Shanghai just
+behind the residence of Mr. Sammons, the American Consul-General, one
+of Yuan's leading officers had been openly murdered, and Japanese were
+directly concerned in the plot. We were told that it was very difficult
+at that time to lease houses in the foreign concession because wealthy
+Chinese who feared the wrath of one party or the other were eager to
+pay almost any rent to obtain the protection of that quarter of the
+city.
+
+A short time later it became known to a few that Yuan was seriously
+ill. He was suffering from Bright's disease with its consequent
+weakness, loss of mental alertness, and lack of concentration. French
+doctors were called in, but Yuan's wives insisted upon treating him
+with concoctions of their own, and on June 6, shortly after three
+o'clock in the morning, he died.
+
+Even on his death-bed Yuan endeavored to save his face before the
+country, and his last words were a reiteration of what he knew no one
+believed. The story of his death is told in the China Press of June 7,
+1916:
+
+  According to news from the President's palace the condition of Yuan
+  became critical at three o'clock in the morning. Yuan asked for his
+  old confidential friend, Hsu Shih-chang, who came immediately. On
+  the arrival of Hsu, Yuan was extremely weak, but entirely conscious.
+
+  With tears in his eyes, Yuan assured his old friend that he had
+  never had any personal ambition for an emperor's crown; he had
+  been deceived by his _entourage_ over the true state of public
+  opinion and thus had sincerely believed the people wished for
+  the restoration of the monarchy. The desire of the South for his
+  resignation he had not wished to follow for fear that general
+  anarchy would break out all over China. Now that he felt death
+  approaching he asked Hsu to make his last words known to the public.
+
+  In the temporary residence of President Li Yuan-hung, situated it,
+  the Yung-chan-hu-tung (East City) and formerly owned by Yang Tu,
+  the prominent monarchist, the formal transfer of the power to Li
+  Yuan-hung took place this morning at ten o'clock. Yuan Chi-jui,
+  Secretary of State and Premier, as well as all the members of the
+  cabinet. Prince Pu Lun as chairman of the State Council, and other
+  high officials were present.
+
+  The officials, wearing ceremonial dress, were received by
+  Li-Yuan-hung in the main hall and made three bows to the new
+  president, which were returned by the latter. The same ceremony
+  will take place at two o'clock, when all the high military
+  officials will assemble at the President's residence.
+
+  The Cabinet, in a circular telegram has informed all the
+  provinces that Vice-President Li-Yuan-hung, in accordance with
+  the constitution, has become president of the Chinese Republic
+  (Chung-hua-min-kuo) from the seventh instance.
+
+So ended Yuan Shi-kai's great plot to make himself an emperor over four
+hundred millions of people, a plot which could only have been carried
+out in China. He failed, and the once valiant warrior died in the
+humiliation of defeat, leaving thirty-two wives, forty children and his
+country in political chaos.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+UP THE MIN RIVER
+
+_Y. B. A._
+
+
+Three days after leaving Shanghai we arrived at Pagoda Anchorage at the
+mouth of the Min River, twelve miles from Foochow.
+
+We boarded a launch which threaded its way through a fleet of
+picturesque fishing vessels, each one of which had a round black and
+white eye painted on its crescent-shaped bow. When asked the reason for
+this decoration a Chinese on the launch looked at us rather pityingly
+for a moment and then said: "No have eye. No can see." How simple and
+how entirely satisfactory!
+
+The instant the launch touched the shore dozens of coolies swarmed like
+flies over it, fighting madly for our luggage. One seized a trunk,
+the other end of which had been appropriated by another man and, in
+the argument which ensued, each endeavored to deafen the other by his
+screams. The habit of yelling to enforce command is inherent with the
+Chinese and appears to be ineradicable. To expostulate in an ordinary
+tone of voice, pausing to listen to his opponent's reply, seems a
+psychological impossibility.
+
+There had been a mistake about the date of our arrival at Foochow, and
+we were two days earlier than we had been expected, so that Mr. C. R.
+Kellogg, of the Anglo-Chinese College, with whom we were to stay,
+was not on the jetty to meet us. We were at a loss to know where to
+turn amidst the chaos and confusion until a customs officer took us in
+charge and, judiciously selecting a competent looking woman from among
+the screaming multitude, told her to get two sedan chairs and coolies
+to carry our luggage. She disappeared and ten minutes later the chairs
+arrived. Dashing about among the crowd in front of us, she chose the
+baggage for such men as met with her approval and after the usual
+amount of argument the loads were taken.
+
+We mounted our chairs and started off with apparently all Foochow
+following us. As far as we could see down the narrow street were the
+heads and shoulders of our porters. We felt as if we were heading an
+invading army as, with our thirty-three coolies and sixteen hundred
+pounds of luggage, we descended upon the homes of people whom we did
+not know and who were not expecting us. But our sudden arrival did
+not disturb the Kelloggs and our welcome was typical of the warm
+hospitality one always finds in the Far East.
+
+No matter how long one has lived in China one remains in a condition
+of mental suspense unable to decide which is the filthiest city of the
+Republic. The residents of Foochow boast that for offensiveness to the
+senses no town can compare with theirs, and although Amoy and several
+other places dispute this questionable title, we were inclined to
+grant it unreservedly to Foochow. It is like a medieval city with its
+narrow, ill-paved streets wandering aimlessly in a hopeless maze. They
+are usually roofed over so that by no accident can a ray of purifying
+sun penetrate their dark comers. With no ventilation whatsoever the
+oppressive air reeks with the odors that rise from the streets and the
+steaming houses.
+
+In Foochow, as in other cities of China, the narrow alleys are
+literally choked with every form of industrial obstruction. Countless
+workmen plant themselves in the tiny passageways with the pigs,
+children, and dogs, and women bring their quilts to spread upon the
+stones. There is a common saying that the Chinese do little which is
+not at some time done on the street.
+
+The foreign residents, including consuls of all nationalities,
+missionaries, and merchants, live well out of the city on a hilltop.
+Their houses are built with very high ceilings and bare interiors, and
+as the occupants seldom go into the city except in a sedan chair and
+have "punkahs" waving day and night, life is made possible during the
+intense heat of summer.
+
+A telegram was awaiting us from the Reverend Harry Caldwell, with whom
+we were to hunt, asking us to come to his station two hundred miles up
+the river, and we passed two sweltering days repacking our outfit while
+Mr. Kellogg scoured the country for an English-speaking cook.
+
+One middle-aged gentleman presented himself, but when he learned that
+we were going "up country," he shook his head with an assumption of
+great filial devotion and said that he did not think his mother would
+let him go. Another was afraid the sun might be too hot. Finally on the
+eve of our departure we engaged a stuttering Chinese who assured us
+that he was a remarkable cook and exceptionally honest
+
+If you have never heard a Chinaman stutter you have something to live
+for, and although we discovered that our cook was a shameless rascal
+he was worth all he extracted in "squeeze," for whenever he attempted
+to utter a word we became almost hysterical. He sounded exactly like
+a worn-out phonograph record buzzing on a single note, and when he
+finally did manage to articulate, his "pidgin" English in itself was
+screamingly funny.
+
+One day he came to the _sampan_ proudly displaying a piece of beef and,
+after a series of vocal gymnastics, eventually succeeded in shouting:
+"Missie, this meat no belong die-cow. Die-cow not so handsome." Which
+meant that this particular piece of beef was not from an animal which
+had died from disease.
+
+The first stage of our trip began before daylight. We rode in four-man
+sedan chairs, followed by a long procession of heavily laden coolies
+with our cameras, duffle-sacks, and pack baskets. The road lay through
+green rice fields between terraced mountains, and we jogged along first
+on the crest of a hill, then in the valley, passing dilapidated temples
+with the paint flaking off and picturesque little huts half hidden in
+the reeds of the winding river. It was a relief to get into the country
+again after passing down the narrow village streets and to breathe
+fresh air perfumed with honeysuckle.
+
+A passenger launch makes the trip to Cui-kau at the beginning of the
+rapids, but it leaves at two o'clock in the morning and is literally
+crowded to overflowing with evil-smelling Chinese who sprawl over
+every available inch of deck space, so that even the missionaries
+strongly advised us against taking it. The passengers not infrequently
+are pushed off into the water. One of the missionaries witnessed an
+incident which illustrates in a typical way the total lack of sympathy
+of the average Chinese.
+
+A coolie on the Cui-kau launch accidentally fell overboard, and
+although a friend was able to grasp his hand and hold him above the
+surface, no one offered to help him; the launch continued at full
+speed, and finally weakening, the poor man loosed his hold and sank.
+This is by no means an isolated case. Some years ago a foreign steamer
+was burned on the Yangtze River, and the crowds of watching Chinese did
+little or nothing to rescue the passengers and crew. Indeed, as fast
+as they made their way to shore many of them were robbed even of their
+clothing and some were murdered outright.
+
+Our first day on the Min River was the most luxurious of the entire
+Expedition, for we were fortunate in obtaining the Standard Oil
+Company's launch through the kindness of Mr. Livingstone, their agent.
+It was large and roomy, and the trip, which would have been worse than
+disagreeable on the public boat, was most delightful. The Min is one of
+the most beautiful rivers of all China with its velvet green mountains
+rising a thousand feet or more straight up from the water and often
+terraced to the summits.
+
+Perched on the bow of our boat was a wizened little gentleman with a
+pigtail wrapped around his head, who said he was a pilot, but as he
+inquired the channel of everyone who passed and ran us aground a dozen
+times or more to the tremendous agitation of our captain, we felt that
+his claim was not entirely justified.
+
+The river life was a fascinating, ever-changing picture. One moment
+we would pass a _sampan_ so loaded with branches that it seemed like
+a small island floating down the stream. Next a huge junk with
+bamboo-ribbed sails projecting at impossible angles drifted by,
+followed by innumerable smaller crafts, the monotonous chant of the
+boatmen coming faintly over the water to us as they passed.
+
+When evening came we had reached Cui-kau. The _sampans_ in which we
+were to spend eight days were drawn up on the beach with twenty or
+thirty others. Right above us was the straggling town looking very much
+like the rear view of tenement houses at home. Darkness blotted out the
+filth of our surroundings but could do nothing to lessen the odors that
+poured down from the village, and we ate our dinner with little relish.
+
+Our beds were spread in the _sampans_ which we shared in common with
+the four river men who formed the crew. There was only a mosquito net
+to screen the end of the boat, but all our surroundings were so strange
+that this was but a minor detail. As we lay in our cots we could look
+up at the stars framed in the half oval of the _sampan's_ roof and
+listen to the sounds of the water life grow fainter and fainter as one
+by one the river men beached their boats for the night. It seemed only
+a few minutes later when we were roused by a rush of water, but it
+was daylight, and the boats had reached the first of the rapids which
+separated us from Yen-ping, one hundred and twenty miles away.
+
+In the late afternoon we arrived at Chang-hu-fan where Mr. Caldwell
+stood on the shore waving his hat to us amidst scores of dirty little
+children and the explosion of countless firecrackers. Wherever we
+went crackers preceded and followed us--for when a Chinese wishes to
+register extreme emotion, either of joy or sorrow, its expression
+always takes the form of firecrackers.
+
+There had been a good deal of persecution of the native Christians in
+the district, and only recently a band of soldiers had strung up the
+native pastor by the thumbs and beaten him senseless. He was our host
+that night and seemed to be a bright, vivacious, little man but quite
+deaf as a result of his cruel treatment. He never recovered and died a
+few weeks later. Mr. Caldwell had come to investigate the affair, for
+the missionaries are invested by the people themselves with a good deal
+of authority.
+
+We spent that night in the parish house just behind the little church,
+a bare schoolroom being turned over to us for our use, and it seemed
+very luxurious after we had set up our cots, tables, chairs, and bath
+tub; but the house was in the center of the town and the high walls
+shut out every breath of pure air. The barred windows opened on a
+street hardly six feet wide, and while we were preparing for bed there
+was a buzz of subdued whispers outside. We switched on a powerful
+electric flashlight and there stood at least forty men, women and
+children gazing at us with rapt attention, but they melted away before
+the blinding glare like snow in a June sun.
+
+That night was not a pleasant one. The heat was intense, the mosquitoes
+worse, and every dog and cat in the village seemed to choose our court
+yard as a dueling ground in which to settle old scores. The climax was
+reached at four o'clock in the morning, when directly under our windows
+there came a series of ear-splitting squeals followed by a horrible
+gurgle. The neighbors had chosen that particular spot and how to kill
+the family pig, and the entire process which followed of sousing it
+in hot water and scraping off the hair was accompanied by unceasing
+chatter. Boiling with rage we dressed and went for a walk, vowing not
+to spend another night in the place but to sleep in the _sampans_.
+
+On the whole our river men were nice fellows but they had the love of
+companionship characteristic of all Chinese and the inherent desire to
+huddle together as closely as possible wherever they were. On the way
+up the river to Yuchi every evening they insisted on stopping at some
+foul-smelling village, and it was difficult to induce them to spend the
+night away from a town. Moreover, at our stops for luncheon they would
+invariably ignore a shady spot and choose a sand bank where the sun
+beat down like a blast furnace.
+
+The Chinese never appear to be affected by the sun and go bareheaded at
+all seasons of the year, shading their eyes with one hand or a partly
+opened fan. A fan is the prime requisite, and it is not uncommon to see
+coolies almost devoid of clothing, dragging a heavy load and with the
+perspiration streaming from their naked bodies, energetically fanning
+themselves meanwhile.
+
+Mr. Caldwell was _en route_ to Yuchi, one of his mission stations
+far up a branch of the Min River, and as there was a vague report of
+tiger in that vicinity we joined him instead of proceeding directly to
+Yen-ping. The tiger story was found to be merely a myth, but our trip
+was made interesting by meeting Miss Mabel Hartford, the only foreign
+resident of the place. She has lived in Yuchi for two years and at one
+time did not see a white person for eight months with the exception of
+Mr. Caldwell who was in the vicinity for three days. It requires four
+weeks to obtain supplies from Foochow, there is no telegraph, and mails
+are very irregular, but she enjoys the isolation and is passionately
+fond of her work.
+
+She has had an interesting life and one not devoid of danger. In 1895
+she was wounded and barely escaped death in the Hwa Shan (Flower
+Mountain) massacre in which ten women and one man were brutally
+murdered by a mob of fanatic natives known as "Vegetarians." The
+Chinese Government was required to pay a considerable indemnity to Miss
+Hartford, which she accepted only under protest and characteristically
+devoted to missionary work in Kucheng where the massacre occurred.
+
+Conditions at Yuchi when we arrived were most unsettled and for some
+months there had been a veritable "reign of terror." A large band of
+brigands was established in the hills not far from the city, and we
+were warned by the mandarin not to attempt to go farther up the river.
+A few months earlier several companies of soldiers had been sent from
+Foochow, and the result of turning loose these ruffians upon the town
+was to make "the remedy worse than the disease."
+
+The soldiers were continually arresting innocent peasants, accusing
+them of being brigands or aiding the bandits, and shooting them without
+a hearing. At one time accurate information concerning the camp of the
+robbers was received and the soldiers set bravely off, but when within
+a short distance of the brigands the commanders began to quarrel among
+themselves, guns were fired, and the bandits escaped. A Chinaman must
+always "save his face," however, and when they returned to Yuchi they
+arrested dozens of people on mere suspicion and executed them without
+the vestige of a trial. Finally conditions became so intolerable that
+no one was safe, and after repeated complaints by the missionaries, a
+new mandarin of a somewhat better type was sent to Yuchi.
+
+As it was impossible to do any collecting farther up the river because
+of the bandits, we left for Yen-ping two days after arriving at Yuchi.
+Yen-ping is a wonderfully picturesque old city, situated on a hill at
+a fork of the river and surrounded by high stone walls pierced and
+loopholed for rifle fire. Such walls, while of little use against
+artillery, nevertheless offer a formidable obstacle to anything less
+than field guns as we ourselves were destined to discover.
+
+The Methodist mission compound encloses a considerable area on the
+very summit of the hill, backed by the city wall, and besides the
+four dwelling houses, comprises two large schools for boys and girls.
+Mr. Caldwell's residence commands a wonderful view down the river and
+in the late afternoon sunlight when the hills are bathed in pink and
+lavender and purple a more beautiful spot can hardly be imagined.
+
+But the delights of Yen-ping are somewhat tempered by the abominable
+weather. In summer the heat is almost unbearable and the air is so
+nearly saturated from continual rain that it is impossible to dry
+anything except over a fire. From all reports winter must be almost as
+bad in the opposite extreme for the cold is damp and penetrating; but
+the early fall is said to be delightful.
+
+The larger part of Fukien, like many other provinces in China, has
+been denuded of forests, and the groves of pine which remain have
+all been planted. This deforestation consequently has driven out the
+game, and except for tigers, leopards, wolves, wild pigs, serows and
+gorals, none of the large species is left. However, the dense growth
+of sword grass and the thorny bushes which clothe the hills and choke
+the ravines give cover to muntjac, or barking deer, and many species of
+small cats, civets, and other Viverines. These animals come to the rice
+paddys, which fill every valley, to hunt for frogs and fish, but it is
+difficult to catch them because of the Chinese who are continually at
+work in the fields.
+
+We spent a week trapping about Yen-ping and although we caught a
+good many animals they were almost always stolen together with the
+traps. We had this same difficulty in Yün-nan as well as in Fukien.
+None of us had ever seen natives in any part of the world who were
+such unmitigated thieves as the Chinese of these two provinces. The
+small mammals are hardly more abundant than the larger ones for the
+natives wage an unceasing war on those about the rice paddys and have
+exterminated nearly all but a few widely distributed forms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+A BAT CAVE IN THE BIG RAVINE
+
+
+A few days after our arrival in Yen-ping we went with Mr. Caldwell and
+his son Oliver to a Taoist temple seven miles away in a lonely ravine
+known as Chi-yuen-kang. The walk to the temple in the early morning
+was delightful. The "bamboo chickens" and francolins were calling all
+about us and on the way we shot enough for our first day's dinner. Both
+these birds are abundant in Fukien Province but it is by no means easy
+to kill them for they live in such thick cover that they can only be
+flushed with difficulty.
+
+Early in the morning we frequently heard the francolins crowing in the
+trees or on the top of a hill and when a cock had taken possession of
+such a spot the intrusion of another was almost sure to cause trouble
+which only ended when one of them had been driven off.
+
+For two miles and a half the Big Ravine is a narrow cut between
+perpendicular rock walls thickly clothed to their very summits with
+bamboo and a tangle of thorny vines. In the bottom of the gorge a
+mountain torrent foams among huge bowlders but becomes a gentle, slow
+moving stream when it leaves the cool darkness of the cañon to spread
+itself over the terraced rice fields.
+
+About a mile from the entrance two old temples nestle into the
+hillside. One stands just over the water, but the other clings to the
+rock wall three hundred feet above the river, and it was there that we
+made our camp.
+
+The old priest in charge did not appear especially delighted to see us
+until I slipped a Mexican dollar into his hand--then it was laughable
+to see his change of face. The far end of the balcony was given up to
+us while Mr. Caldwell and Oliver put up their beds at the feet of a
+grinning idol in the main temple.
+
+We had come to Chi-yuen-kang to hunt serow (_see_ Chapter XVII) and
+had brought with us only a few traps for small mammals. Harry had seen
+several serow exhibited for sale on market days in towns along the
+river, and all were reported to have been killed near this ravine.
+There was a village of considerable size at the upper end and here we
+collected a motley lot of beaters with half a dozen dogs to drive the
+top of a mountain which towered about two thousand five hundred feet
+above the river.
+
+Never will we forget that climb! We tried to start at daylight but it
+was well toward six o'clock before we got our men together. A Chinaman
+would drive an impatient man to apoplexy and an early grave for it is
+well-nigh impossible to get him started within an hour of the appointed
+time, and with a half dozen the difficulty is multiplied as many times.
+Just when you think all is ready and that there can be no possible
+reason for delaying longer, the whole crowd will disappear suddenly and
+you discover that they have gone for "chow." Then you know that the end
+is really in sight, for chow usually is the last thing.
+
+We waited nearly two hours on this particular morning before we started
+on the long climb to the top of the mountain. The sun was simply
+blazing, and in fifteen minutes we were soaked with perspiration. When
+we were half way up the dogs disappeared in a small ravine overgrown
+with bamboo and sword grass and suddenly broke into a chorus of yelps.
+They had found a fresh trail and were driving our way.
+
+Harry ran to a narrow opening in the jungle, shouting to us to watch
+another higher up. We were hardly in position when his rifle banged,
+followed by such a bedlam of yells and barks that we thought he
+must have killed nothing less than one of the hunters. Before we
+reached them Harry appeared, smiling all over, and dragging a muntjac
+(_Muntiacus_) by the fore legs. He had just made a beautiful shot,
+for the clearing he had been watching was not more than ten feet wide
+and the muntjac flashed across it at full speed. Caldwell fired while
+it was in mid-air and his bullet caught the animal at the base of the
+neck, rolling it over stone dead.
+
+This beautiful little deer in Fukien is hardly larger than a fox.
+Its antlers are only two or three inches in length and rise from an
+elongated skin-covered pedicel instead of from the base of the skull as
+in all other members of the deer family. On each side of the upper jaw
+is a slender tusk, about two inches long, which projects well beyond
+the lips and makes a rather formidable weapon.
+
+We hoped that this muntjac was going to prove a "good joss," but
+instead a disappointing day was in store for us. When we had worked our
+way to the very summit of the mountain under a merciless sun and over
+a trail which led through a smothering bamboo jungle, we saw dozens of
+fresh serow tracks. The animals were there without a doubt and we were
+on the _qui vive_ with excitement.
+
+[Illustration: A Chinese Hunter and a Muntjac]
+
+[Illustration: Brigands Killed in the Yen-ping Rebellion]
+
+We selected positions and the men made a long circuit to drive toward
+us as Caldwell had directed. After half an hour had passed we heard
+them yelling as they closed in, but what was our disgust to see them
+solemnly parading in single file up the bottom of the valley on an open
+trail and carefully avoiding all thickets where a serow could possibly
+be. As Harry expressed it, "all the animals had to do was to sit tight
+and watch the noble procession pass." The beaters very evidently knew
+nothing whatever about driving nor were we able to teach them, for they
+seriously objected to leaving the open trails and going into the bush.
+
+We worked hard for serow but the men were hopeless and it was
+impossible to "still hunt" the animals at that time of the year. The
+natives say that in September when the mushrooms are abundant in the
+lower forests the serow leave the mountain tops and thick cover to
+feed upon the fungus, and that they may be killed without the aid of
+beaters, but at any time the hunt would involve a vast amount of labor
+with only a moderate chance of success. After we had left Fukien,
+Mr. Caldwell purchased a fine male and female serow for us which
+are especially interesting as they represent a different subspecies
+(_Capricornis sumatrensis argyrochætes_) from those we killed in
+Yün-nan.
+
+Chi-yuen-kang did yield us results, however, for we discovered a
+wonderful bat cave less than a mile from our temple. Its entrance was
+a low round hole half covered with vegetation, and opening into a high
+circular gallery; from this three long corridors branched off like
+fingers from the palm of a giant's hand. The cave was literally alive
+with bats. There must have been ten thousand and on the first day we
+killed a hundred, representing seven species and at least four genera.
+This was especially remarkable as it is unusual to find more than two
+or three species living together.
+
+The cave was a regular bat apartment house for each corridor was
+divided by rock partitions into several small rooms in every one of
+which bats of different species were rearing their families. The young
+in most instances were only a few days old but were thickly clustered
+on the walls and ceilings, and each and every one was squeaking at the
+top of its tiny lungs. The place must have been occupied for scores, if
+not hundreds, of years for the floor was knee-deep with dung.
+
+When we returned the day after our first visit we found that many of
+the young bats had been removed by their parents and in some instances
+entire rooms had been vacated. After the first day the odor of the cave
+was so nauseating that to enable us to go inside it was necessary to
+wear gauze pads of iodoform over our noses.
+
+The bats at this place were killed with bamboo switches but later we
+always used a long gill net which had been especially made in New York.
+We could hang the net over the entrance to a cave and, when all was
+ready, send a native into the galleries to stir up the animals. As they
+flew out they became entangled in the net and could be caught or killed
+before they were able to get away. It was sometimes possible to catch
+every specimen in a cavern, and moreover, to secure them in perfect
+condition without broken skulls or wings.
+
+If a bat escaped from the net it would never again strike it, for
+the animals are wonderfully accurate in flight and most expert
+dodgers. Even while in a cave, where hundreds of bats were in the
+air, they seldom flew against us, although we might often be brushed
+by their wings; and it was a most difficult thing to hit them with a
+bamboo switch. Their ability in dodging is without doubt a necessary
+development of their feeding habits for, with the exception of a few
+species, bats live exclusively upon insects and catch them in the air.
+
+It is a rather terrifying experience for a girl to sit in a bat cave
+especially if the light has gone out and she is in utter darkness. Of
+course she has a cap tightly pulled over her ears, for what girl, even
+if she be a naturalist's wife, would venture into a den of evil bats
+with one wisp of hair exposed!
+
+All about is the swish of ghostly wings which brush her face or neck
+and the air is full of chattering noises like the grinding of hundreds
+of tiny teeth. Sometimes a soft little body plumps into her lap and
+if she dares to take her hands from her face long enough to disengage
+the clinging animal she is liable to receive a vicious bite from
+teeth as sharp as needles. But, withal, it is good fun, and think how
+quickly formalin jars or collecting trays can be filled with beautiful
+specimens!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE YEN-PING REBELLION
+
+
+On Sunday, June 18, we went to the bat cave to obtain a new supply
+of specimens. Upon our return, just as we were about to sit down to
+luncheon, four excited Chinese appeared with the following letter from
+Mr. Caldwell:
+
+  Dear Roy:
+
+  There was quite a lively time in the city at an early hour this
+  morning. The rebels have taken Yen-ping and it looks as though
+  there was trouble ahead. Northern soldiers have been sent for and
+  the chances are that either tonight or tomorrow morning there will
+  be quite a battle. Bankhardt, Dr. Trimble and myself have just made
+  a round of the city, visiting the telegraph office, post office and
+  other places, and while we do not believe that the foreigners will
+  be molested, nevertheless it is impossible to tell just what to
+  expect. It is certain, however, that the Consul will order all of
+  us to Foochow if news of the situation reaches there. Owing to the
+  uncertainty, I think you had better come in to Yen-ping so as to be
+  ready for any eventuality.
+
+  After talking the situation over with Dr. Trimble and Mr.
+  Bankhardt, we all agreed that the wisest thing is for you to come
+  in immediately. I am sending four burden-bearers for it will be out
+  of the question to find any tomorrow, if trouble occurs tonight.
+  The city gates are closed so you will have to climb up the ladder
+  over the wall behind our compound. Best wishes.
+
+                                                                 Harry.
+
+  P. S.--Later: It is again reported that Northern soldiers are to
+  arrive tonight. If they do and trouble occurs your only chance is
+  to get to Yen-ping today.
+
+                                                                  H. C.
+
+
+The camp immediately was thrown into confusion for Da-Ming, the cook,
+and the burden-bearers were jabbering excitedly at the top of their
+voices. The servants began to pack the loads at once and meanwhile we
+ate a roast chicken faster than good table manners would permit--in
+fact, we took it in our fingers. We were both delighted at the prospect
+of some excitement and talked almost as fast as the Chinese.
+
+In just one hour from the time Harry's letter had been received, we
+were on the way to Yen-ping. It was the hottest part of the day, and
+we were dripping with perspiration when we left the cool darkness of
+the ravine and struck across the open valley, which lay shimmering in a
+furnace-like heat. At the first rest house an the top of the long hill
+we waited nearly an hour for our bearers who were struggling under the
+heavy loads.
+
+Three miles farther on a poor woman tottered past us on her peglike
+feet leaning on the arm of a man. A short distance more and we came to
+the second rest house. We had been there but a few moments when three
+panting women, steadying themselves with long staves and barely able
+to walk on feet not more than four inches long, came up the hill. With
+them were several men bearing household goods in large bundles and huge
+red boxes.
+
+The exhausted women sank upon the benches and fanned themselves while
+the perspiration ran down their flushed faces. They looked so utterly
+miserable that we told the cook to give them a piece of cake which Mrs.
+Caldwell had sent us the day before. Their gratitude was pitiful, but,
+of course, they gave the larger share to the men.
+
+It was not long before other women and children appeared on the hill
+path, all struggling upward under heavy loads, or tottering along on
+tightly bound feet. Probably these women had not walked so far in their
+entire lives, but the fear of the Northern soldiers and what would
+happen in the city if they took possession had driven them from their
+homes.
+
+Farther on we had a clear view across the valley where a long line
+of people was filing up to a temple which nestled into the hillside.
+Half a mile beyond were two other temples both crowded with refugees
+and their goods. Hundreds of families were seeking shelter in every
+little house beside the road and were overflowing into the cowsheds and
+pigpens.
+
+At six o'clock we stood on the summit of the hill overlooking the city
+and half an hour later were clambering up the ladder over the high wall
+of the compound, just behind Dr. Trimble's house. We were wet through
+and while cooling off heard the story of the morning's fighting. It
+seemed that a certain element in the city was in coöperation with the
+representatives of the revolutionary organization. These men wished
+to obtain possession of Yen-ping and, after the rebellion was well
+started, to gather forces, march to Foochow, and force the Governor to
+declare the independence of the province.
+
+The plot had been hatching for several days, but the death of Yuan
+Shi-kai had somewhat delayed its fruition. Saturday, however, it was
+known throughout the city that trouble would soon begin. Sunday
+morning at half past three, a band of one hundred men from Yuchi
+had marched to Yen-ping where they were received by a delegation
+of rebels dressed in white who opened to them the east gate of the
+city. Immediately they began to fire up the streets to intimidate the
+people and in a short time were in a hot engagement with the seventeen
+Northern soldiers, some of whom threw away their guns and swam across
+the river. The remaining city troops were from the province of Hunan
+and their sympathies were really with the South in the great rebellion.
+These immediately joined the rebels, where they were received with open
+arms. It was reported that the _tao-tai_ (district mandarin) had asked
+for troops from Foochow and that these might be expected at any moment;
+thus when they arrived a real battle could be expected and it was very
+likely that the city would be partly destroyed.
+
+We had a picnic supper on the Caldwell's porch and discussed the
+situation. It was the opinion of all that the foreigners were in
+no immediate danger, but nevertheless it was considered wise to be
+prepared, and we decided upon posts for each man if it should become
+necessary to protect the compound.
+
+Hundreds of people were besieging the missionaries with requests to be
+allowed to bring their goods and families inside the walls, but these
+necessarily had to be refused. Had the missionaries allowed the Chinese
+to bring their valuables inside it would have cost them the right of
+Consular protection and, moreover, their compound would have been the
+first to be attacked if looting began.
+
+On Monday morning while we were sitting on the porch of Mr. Caldwell's
+house preparing some bird skins, there came a sharp crackle of rifle
+fire and then a roar of shots. Bullets began to whistle over us and
+we could see puffs of smoke as the deep bang of a black powder gun
+punctuated the vicious snapping of the high-power rifles. The firing
+gradually ceased after half an hour and we decided to go down to the
+city to see what had happened, for, as no Northern troops had appeared,
+the cause of the fighting was a mystery.
+
+We went first to the mission hospital which lay across a deep ravine
+and only a few yards from the quarters of the soldiers. At the door of
+the hospital compound lay a bloody rag, and we found Dr. Trimble in the
+operating room examining a wounded man who had just been brought in.
+The fellow had been shot in the abdomen with a 45-caliber lead ball
+that had gone entirely through him, emerging about three inches to the
+right of his spine.
+
+From the doctor we got the first real news of the puzzling situation.
+It appeared that all the men who had arrived Sunday morning from Yuchi
+to join the Yen-ping rebels were in reality brigands and, to save their
+own lives, the Hunan soldiers quartered in the city had played a clever
+trick. They had pretended to join the rebels but at a given signal
+had turned upon them, killing or capturing almost every one. Although
+their sympathies were really with the South, the Hunan men knew that
+the rebels in Yen-ping could not hold the city against the Northern
+soldiers from Foochow and, by crushing the rebellion themselves, they
+hoped to avert a bigger fight.
+
+As we could not help the doctor he suggested that we might be of
+some assistance to the wounded in the city, and with rude crosses
+of red cloth pinned to our white shirt sleeves we left the hospital,
+accompanied by four Chinese attendants bearing a stretcher. In the
+compound we met a chair in which was lying an old man groaning loudly
+and dripping with blood. Beside him were his wife and several boys. The
+poor woman was crying quietly and, between her sobs, was offering the
+wounded man mustard pickles from a small dish in her hand! Poor things,
+they have so little to eat that they believe food will cure all ills!
+
+The bearers set the chair down as we appeared and lifted the filthy rag
+which covered a gaping wound in the man's shoulder, over which had been
+plastered a great mass of cow dung. Just think of the infection, but it
+was the only remedy they knew!
+
+We took the man upstairs where Dr. Trimble was preparing to operate on
+the fellow who had been shot in the abdomen. The doctor was working
+steadily and quietly, making every move count and inspiring his native
+hospital staff with his own coolness; the way this young missionary
+handled his cases made us glad that he was an American.
+
+On the way down the hill several soldiers passed us, each carrying four
+or five rifles and slung about with cartridge belts--plunder stripped
+from the men who had been killed. A few hundred yards farther on we
+found two brigands lying dead in a narrow street. The nearest one had
+fallen on his face and, as we turned him over, we saw that half his
+head had been blown away; the other was staring upward with wide open
+eyes on which the flies already were settling in swarms.
+
+There was little use in wasting time over these men who long ago had
+passed beyond need of our help, and we went on rapidly down the alley
+to the main thoroughfare. Guided by a small boy, we hurried over the
+rough stones for fifteen minutes, and suddenly came to a man lying
+at the side of the street, his head propped on a wooden block. An
+umbrella once had partly covered him but had fallen away, leaving him
+unprotected in the broiling sun. His face and a terrible wound in his
+head were a solid mass of flies, and thousands of insects were crawling
+over the blood clots on the stones beside him. At first we thought
+he was dead but soon saw his abdomen move and realized that he was
+breathing. It did not seem possible that a human being could live under
+such conditions; and yet the bystanders told us that he had been lying
+there for thirty hours--he had been shot early the previous morning and
+it was now three o'clock of the next afternoon.
+
+The man was a poor water-carrier who lived with his wife in the most
+utter poverty. He had been peering over the city wall when the firing
+began Sunday morning and was one of the first innocent bystanders to
+pay the penalty of his curiosity. I asked why he had not been taken to
+the hospital, and the answer was that his wife was too poor to hire
+anyone to carry him and he had no friends. So there he lay in the
+burning sun, gazed at by hundreds of passers-by, without one hand being
+lifted to help him.
+
+Our hospital attendants brushed away the flies, placed him in the
+stretcher and started up the long hill, followed by the haggard,
+weeping wife and a curious crowd. On every hand were questions: "Why
+are these men taking him away?" "What are they going to do with him?"
+But several educated natives who understood said, "=Ing-ai-gidaiie="
+(A work of love). They got right there a lesson in Christianity which
+they will not soon forget. It is seldom that Chinese try to help an
+injured man, for ever present in their minds is the possibility that he
+may die and that they will be responsible for his burial expenses.
+
+We left the stretcher bearers at the corner of the main street with
+orders to return as soon as they had deposited the man in the hospital
+and, under the guidance of a boy, hurried toward the east gate where
+it was said seven or eight men had been shot. Our guide took us first
+to a brigand who had been wounded and left to die beside the gutter.
+The corpse was a horrible sight and with a feeling of deathly nausea
+we made a hurried examination and walked to the gate at the end of the
+street.
+
+A dozen soldiers were on guard. We learned from the officer that there
+were no wounded in the pile of dead just beyond the entrance, so we
+turned toward the river bank and rapidly patrolled the alleys leading
+to the _tao-tai's yamen_ (official residence) where the firing had been
+heaviest. The _yamen_ was crowded with soldiers, and we were informed
+that the dead had all been removed and that there were no wounded--a
+grim statement which told its own story.
+
+The _yamen_ is but a short distance from the hospital so we climbed
+the hill to the compound. The sun was simply blazing and I realized
+then what the wounded men must have suffered lying in the heat without
+shelter. We returned to the house and were resting on the upper porch
+when suddenly, far down the river, we saw the glint of rifle barrels in
+the sunlight, and with field glasses made out a long line of khaki-clad
+men winding along the shore trail. At the same time two huge boats
+filled with soldiers came into view heading for the water gate of the
+city. These were undoubtedly the Northern troops from Foochow who were
+expected Monday night.
+
+Even as we looked there came a sudden roar of musketry and a cloud of
+smoke drifted up from the barracks right below us--then a rattling
+fusillade of shots. We could see soldiers running along the walls
+firing at men below and often in our direction. Bullets hummed in the
+air like angry bees and we rushed for cover, but in a few moments the
+firing ceased as suddenly as it began.
+
+We were at a loss to know what it all meant and why the troops were
+firing upon the Northern soldiers whom they wished to placate. It was
+still a mystery when we sat down to dinner at half past seven, but
+a few minutes later Mr. Bankhardt rushed in saying that he had just
+received a note from the _tao-tai_. The mandarin's personal servant
+had brought word that the Northern soldiers, who had just entered
+the city, were going to kill him and he begged the missionaries for
+assistance. Bankhardt also told us of the latest developments in the
+situation. It seems that the city soldiers supposed the Northern troops
+to be brigands and had fired upon them and killed several before they
+discovered their mistake. A very delicate situation had thus been
+precipitated, for the Northern commander believed that it was treachery
+and intended to attack the barracks in the morning and kill every man
+whom he found with a rifle, as well as all the city officials.
+
+The story of the way in which the missionaries acted as peacemakers,
+saved the _tao-tai_, and prevented the slaughter which surely would
+have taken place in the morning, is too long to be told here, for it
+was accomplished only after hours of the talk and "face saving" so
+dear to the heart of the Oriental. Suffice it to say that through the
+exercise of great tact and a thorough understanding of the Chinese
+character they were able to settle the matter without bloodshed.
+
+The following day twenty brigands were given a so-called trial, marched
+off to the west gate, beheaded amid great enthusiasm, and the incident
+was closed. In the afternoon a messenger called and delivered to each
+of us an official letter from the commander of the Northern troops
+thanking us for the part we had played in averting trouble and bringing
+the matter to a peaceful end.
+
+An interesting sidelight on the affair was received a few days later.
+A young man, a Christian, who was born in the same town from which a
+number of the brigands had come, went to his house on Monday night
+after the fight and found seven of the robbers concealed in his
+bedroom. He was terrified because if they were discovered he and all
+his family would be killed for aiding the bandits. He told them they
+must leave at once, but they pleaded with him to let them stay for
+they knew there were soldiers at every corner and that it would be
+impossible to get away.
+
+While he was imploring them to go, a knock sounded at the door. He
+pushed the brigands into the courtyard, and opened to three soldiers.
+They said: "We understand you have brigands in your house." He was
+trembling with fear, but answered, "Come in and see for yourself, if
+you think so."
+
+The soldiers were satisfied by his frank open manner and, as they knew
+him to be a good man, did not search the house, but went away. The poor
+fellow was frightened nearly to death, but as his place was being
+watched it was impossible for the brigands to leave during the day.
+
+At night they stripped themselves, shaved their heads, and dressed like
+coolies, and were able to get to the ladder down the city wall just
+below the mission compound where they could escape into the hills.
+
+The day after this occurrence, about four o'clock in the afternoon, a
+breathless Chinese appeared at the house with a note to Mr. Bankhardt
+saying that his Chinese teacher and the mission school cook had been
+arrested by the Northern soldiers and were to be beheaded in an hour.
+We hurried to the police office where they were confined and found that
+not only the two men but three others were in custody.
+
+The mission cook owned a small restaurant under the management of one
+of his relatives and, while Bankhardt's teacher and the other man were
+sitting at a table, some Northern soldiers appeared, one of whom owed
+the restaurant keeper a small amount of money. When asked to pay, the
+soldier turned upon him and shouted: "You have been assisting the
+brigands. I saw some of them carrying goods into your house." Thereupon
+the soldiers arrested everyone in the shop.
+
+The police officials were quite ready to release the teacher and the
+other man upon our statements, but they would not allow the cook to go.
+His hands were kept tightly bound and he was chained to a post by the
+neck. The soldier who arrested him was his sole accuser, but of course,
+others would appear to uphold him in his charge if it were necessary.
+
+The cook was as innocent as any one of the missionaries, but it
+required several hours of work and threats of complaint to the
+government at Foochow to prevent the man from being summarily executed.
+
+We were not able to get any mail from Foochow during the rebellion
+because the constant stream of Northern soldiers on their way up the
+river had paralyzed the entire country to such an extent that all the
+river men had fled.
+
+The soldiers were firing for target practice upon every boat they saw
+on the river and dozens of men had been killed and then robbed. The
+Northern commander told us frankly that this could not be prevented,
+and when we announced that we were going to start with all the
+missionaries down the river on the following day, he was very much
+disturbed. He insisted that we have American flags displayed on our
+boats to prevent being fired upon by the soldiers.
+
+Although it had taken eight days to work our way laboriously through
+the rapids and up the river from Foochow to Yen-ping, we covered the
+same distance down the river in twenty-four hours and had breakfast
+with Mr. Kellogg at his house the morning after we left Yen-ping. In
+two days our equipment was repacked and ready for the trip to Futsing
+to hunt the blue tiger.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+HUNTING THE "GREAT INVISIBLE"
+
+
+For many years before Mr. Caldwell went to Yen-ping he had been
+stationed at the city of Futsing, about thirty miles from Foochow. Much
+of his work consisted of itinerant trips during which he visited the
+various mission stations under his charge. He almost invariably went
+on foot from place to place and carried with him a butterfly net and
+a rifle, so that to so keen a naturalist each day's walk was full of
+interest.
+
+The country was infested with man-eating tigers, and very often the
+villagers implored him to rid their neighborhood of some one of
+the yellow raiders which had been killing their children, pigs, or
+cattle. During ten years he had killed seven tigers in the Futsing
+region. He often said that his gun had been just as effective in
+carrying Christianity to the natives as had his evangelistic work.
+Although Mr. Caldwell has been especially fortunate and has killed his
+tigers without ever really hunting them, nevertheless it is a most
+uncertain sport as we were destined to learn. The tiger is the "Great
+Invisible"--he is everywhere and nowhere, here today and gone tomorrow.
+A sportsman in China may get his shot the first day out or he may hunt
+for weeks without ever seeing a tiger even though they are all about
+him; and it is this very uncertainty that makes the game all the more
+fascinating.
+
+The part of Fukien Province about Futsing includes mountains of
+considerable height, many of which are planted with rice and support
+a surprising number of Chinese who are grouped in closely connected
+villages. While the cultivated valleys afford no cover for tiger and
+the mountain slopes themselves are usually more or less denuded of
+forest, yet the deep and narrow ravines, choked with sword grass and
+thorny bramble, offer an impenetrable retreat in which an animal can
+sleep during the day without fear of being disturbed. It is possible
+for a man to make his way through these lairs only by means of the
+paths and tunnels which have been opened by the tigers themselves.
+
+Mr. Caldwell's usual method of hunting was to lead a goat with one or
+two kids to an open place where they could be fastened just outside
+the edge of the lair, and then to conceal himself a few feet away. The
+bleating of the goats would usually bring the tiger into the open where
+there would be an opportunity for a shot in the late afternoon.
+
+Mr. Caldwell's first experience in hunting tigers was with a shotgun
+at the village of Lung-tao. His burden-bearers had not arrived with
+the basket containing his rifle, and as it was already late in the
+afternoon, he suggested to Da-Da, the Chinese boy who was his constant
+companion, that they make a preliminary inspection of the lair even
+though they carried only shotguns loaded with lead slugs about the size
+of buckshot.
+
+They tethered a goat just outside the edge of the lair and the tiger
+responded to its bleating almost immediately. Caldwell did not see the
+animal until it came into the open about fifty yards away and remained
+in plain view for almost half an hour. The tiger seemed to suspect
+danger and crouched on the terrace, now and then putting his right
+foot forward a short distance and drawing it slowly back again. He had
+approached along a small trail, but before he could reach the goat it
+was necessary to cross an open space a few yards in width, and to do
+this the animal flattened himself like a huge striped serpent. His head
+was extended so that the throat and chin were touching the ground, and
+there was absolutely no motion of the body other than the hips and
+shoulders as the beast slid along at an amazingly rapid rate. But at
+the instant the cat gained the nearest cover it made three flying leaps
+and landed at the foot of the terrace upon which the goat was tied.
+
+"Just then he saw me," said Mr. Caldwell, "and slowly pushed his great
+black-barred face over the edge of the grass not fifteen feet away.
+
+"I fired point-blank at his head and neck. He leaped into the air with
+the blood spurting over the grass, and fell into a heap, but gathered
+himself and slid down over the terraces. As he went I fired a second
+load of slugs into his hip. He turned about, slowly climbed the hill
+parallel with us, and stood looking back at me, his face streaming with
+blood.
+
+"I was fumbling in my coat trying to find other shells, but before I
+could reload the gun he walked unsteadily into the lair and lay down.
+It was already too dark to follow and the next morning a bloody trail
+showed where he had gone upward into the grass. Later, in the same
+afternoon, he was found dead by some Chinese more than three miles
+away."
+
+During his many experiences with the Futsing tigers Mr. Caldwell has
+learned much about their habits and peculiarities, and some of his
+observations are given in the following pages.
+
+"The tiger is by instinct a coward when confronted by his greatest
+enemy--man. Bold and daring as he may be when circumstances are in his
+favor, he will hurriedly abandon a fresh kill at the first cry of a
+shepherd boy attending a flock on the mountain-side and will always
+weigh conditions before making an attack. If things do not exactly suit
+him nothing will tempt him to charge into the open upon what may appear
+to be an isolated and defenseless goat.
+
+"An experience I had in April, 1910, will illustrate this point. I led
+a goat into a ravine where a tiger which had been working havoc among
+the herds of the farmers was said to live. This animal only a few
+days previous to my hunt had attacked a herd of cows and killed three
+of them, but on this occasion the beast must have suspected danger
+and was exceedingly cautious. He advanced under cover along a trail
+until within one hundred feet of the goat and there stopped to make a
+survey of the surroundings. Peering into the valley, he saw two men
+at a distance of five hundred yards or more cutting grass and, after
+watching intently for a time, the great cat turned and bounded away
+into the bushes.
+
+"On another occasion this tiger awaited an opportunity to attack a cow
+which a farmer was using in plowing his field. The man had unhitched
+his cow and squatted down in the rice paddy to eat his mid-day meal,
+when the tiger suddenly rushed from cover and killed the animal only a
+few yards behind the peasant. This shows how daring a tiger may be when
+he is able to strike from the rear, and when circumstances seem to
+favor an attack. I have known tigers to rush at a dog or hog standing
+inside a Chinese house where there was the usual confusion of such a
+dwelling, and in almost every instance the victim was killed, although
+it was not always carried away.
+
+"There is probably no creature in the wilds which shows such a
+combination of daring strategy and slinking cowardice as the tiger.
+Often courage fails him after he has secured his victim, and he
+releases it to dash off into the nearest wood.
+
+"I knew of two Chinese who were deer hunting on a mountain-side when a
+large tiger was routed from his bed. The beast made a rushing attack on
+the man standing nearest to the path of his retreat, and seizing him by
+the leg dragged him into the ravine below. Luckily the man succeeded in
+grasping a small tree whereupon the tiger released his hold, leaving
+his victim lying upon the ground almost paralyzed with pain and fear.
+
+"A group of men were gathering fuel on the hills near Futsing when a
+tiger which had been sleeping in the high grass was disturbed. The
+enraged beast tinned upon the peasants, killing two of them instantly
+and striking another a ripping blow with his paw which sent him
+lifeless to the terrace below. The beast did not attempt to drag either
+of its victims into the bush or to attack the other persons near by.
+
+"The strength and vitality of a full grown tiger are amazing. I
+had occasion to spend the night a short time ago in a place where
+a tiger had performed some remarkable feats. Just at dusk one of
+these marauders visited the village and discovered a cow and her
+six-months-old calf in a pen which had been excavated in the side of
+a hill and adjoined a house. There was no possible way to enter the
+enclosure except by a door opening from the main part of the dwelling
+or to descend from above. The tiger jumped from the roof upon the neck
+of the heifer, killing it instantly, and the inmates of the house
+opened the door just in time to see the animal throw the calf out
+bodily and leap after it himself. I measured the embankment and found
+that the exact height was twelve and a half feet.
+
+"The same tiger one noon on a foggy day attacked a hog, just back of
+the village and carried it into the hills. The villagers pursued the
+beast and overtook it within half a mile. When the hog, which dressed
+weighed more than two hundred pounds, was found, it had no marks or
+bruises upon it other than the deep fang wounds in the neck. This
+is another instance where courage failed a tiger after he had made
+off with his kill to a safe distance. The Chinese declare that when
+carrying such a load a tiger never attempts to drag its prey, but
+throws it across its back and races off at top speed.
+
+"The finest trophy taken from Fukien Province in years I shot in May,
+1910. Two days previous to my hunt this tiger had killed and eaten a
+sixteen-year-old boy. I happened to be in the locality and decided to
+make an attempt to dispose of the troublesome beast. Obtaining a mother
+goat with two small kids, I led them into a ravine near where the boy
+had been killed. The goat was tied to a tree a short distance from the
+lair, and the kids were concealed in the tall grass well in toward the
+place where the tiger would probably be. I selected a suitable spot
+and kneeled down behind a bank of ferns and grass. The fact that one
+may be stalked by the very beast which one is hunting adds to the
+excitement and keeps one's nerves on edge. I expected that the tiger
+would approach stealthily as long as he could not see the goat, as the
+usual plan of attack, so far as my observation goes, is to creep up
+under cover as far as possible before rushing into the open. In any
+case the tiger would be within twenty yards of me before it could be
+seen.
+
+"For more than two hours I sat perfectly still, alert and waiting,
+behind the little blind of ferns and grass. There was nothing to break
+the silence other than the incessant bleating of the goats and the
+unpleasant rasping call of the mountain jay. I had about given up hope
+of a shot when suddenly the huge head of the man-eater emerged from the
+bush, exactly where I had expected he would appear and within fifteen
+feet of the kids. The back, neck, and head of the beast were in almost
+the same plane as he moved noiselessly forward.
+
+"I had implicit confidence in the killing power of the gun in my hand,
+and at the crack of the rifle the huge brute settled forward with
+hardly a quiver not ten feet from the kids upon which he was about to
+spring. A second shot was not necessary but was fired as a matter of
+precaution as the tiger had fallen behind rank grass, and the bullet
+passed through the shoulder blade lodging in the spine. The beast
+measured more than nine feet and weighed almost four hundred pounds.
+
+"Upon hearing the shots the villagers swarmed into the ravine, each
+eager not so much to see their slain tormentor as to gather up the
+blood. But little attention was paid to the tiger until every available
+drop was sopped up with rags torn from their clothing, whilst men
+and children even pulled up the blood-soaked grass. I learned that
+the blood of a tiger is used for two purposes. A bit of blood-stained
+cloth is tied about the neck of a child as a preventive against either
+measles or smallpox, and tiger flesh is eaten for the same purpose. It
+is also said that if a handkerchief stained with tiger blood is waved
+in front of an attacking dog the animal will slink away cowed and
+terrified.
+
+"From the Chinese point of view the skin is not the most valuable part
+of a tiger. Almost always before a hunt is made, or a trap is built,
+the villagers hum incense before the temple god, and an agreement is
+made to the effect that if the enterprise be successful the skin of
+the beast taken becomes the property of the gods. Thus it happens that
+in many of the temples handsome tiger-skin robes may be found spread
+in the chair occupied by the noted 'Duai Uong,' or the god of the
+land. When a hunt is successful, the flesh and bones are considered
+of greatest value, and it often happens that a number of cows are
+killed and their flesh mixed with that of the tiger to be sold at the
+exorbitant price cheerfully paid for tiger meat. The bones are boiled
+for a number of days until a gelatine-like product results, and this is
+believed to be exceptionally efficacious medicine.
+
+"Notwithstanding the danger of still-hunting a tiger in the tangle of
+its lair, one cannot but feel richly rewarded for the risk when one
+begins to sum up one's observations. The most interesting result of
+investigating an oft-frequented lair is concerning the animal's food.
+That a tiger always devours its prey upon the spot where it is taken
+or in the adjacent bush is an erroneous idea. This is often true when
+the kill is too heavy to be carried for a long distance, but it is by
+no means universally so. Not long ago the remains of a young boy were
+found in a grave adjacent to a tiger's lair a few miles from Futsing
+city. No child had been reported missing in the immediate neighborhood
+and everything indicated that the boy had been brought alive to
+this spot from a considerable distance. The sides of the grave were
+besmeared with the blood of the unfortunate victim, indicating that the
+tiger had tortured it just as a cat plays with a mouse as long as it
+remains alive.
+
+"In the lair of a tiger there are certain terraces, or places under
+overhanging trees, which are covered with bones, and are evidently
+spots to which the animal brings its prey to be devoured. On such
+a terrace one will find the remains of deer, wild hog, dog, pig,
+porcupine, pangolin, and other animals both domestic and wild. A fresh
+kill shows that with its rasp-like tongue the tiger licks off all the
+hair of its prey before devouring it and the hair will be found in a
+circle around what remains of the kill. The Chinese often raid a lair
+in order to gather up the quills of the porcupine and the bony scales
+of the pangolin which are esteemed for medicinal purposes.
+
+"In addition to the larger animals, tigers feed upon reptiles and
+frogs which they find among the rice fields. On the night of April 22,
+1914, a party of frog catchers were returning from a hunt when the man
+carrying the load of frogs was attacked by a tiger and killed. The
+animal made no attempt to drag the man away and it would appear that it
+was attracted by the croaking of the frogs.
+
+"One often finds trees 'marked' by tigers beside some trail or path
+in, or adjacent to, a lair. Catlike, the tiger measures its full length
+upon a tree, standing in a convenient place, and with its powerful
+claws rips deeply through the bark. This sign is doubly interesting
+to the sportsman as it not only indicates the presence of a tiger in
+the immediate vicinity but serves to give an accurate idea as to the
+size of the beast. The trails leading into a lair often are marked in
+a different way. In doing this the animal rakes away the grass with a
+forepaw and gathers it into a pile, but claw prints never appear."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE BLUE TIGER
+
+
+After one has traveled in a Chinese _sampan_ for several days the
+prospect of a river journey is not very alluring but we had a most
+agreeable surprise when we sailed out of Foochow in a chartered house
+boat to hunt the "blue tiger" at Futsing. In fact, we had all the
+luxury of a private yacht, for our boat contained a large central cabin
+with a table and chairs and two staterooms and was manned by a captain
+and crew of six men--all for $1.50 per day!
+
+In the evening we talked of the blue tiger for a long time before
+we spread our beds on the roof of the boat and went to sleep under
+the stars. We left the boat shortly after daylight at Daing-nei for
+the six-mile walk to Lung-tao. To my great surprise the coolies were
+considerably distressed at the lightness of our loads. In this region
+they are paid by weight and some of the bearers carry almost incredible
+burdens. As an example, one of our men came into camp swinging a
+125-pound trunk on each end of his pole, laughing and chatting as gayly
+as though he had not been carrying 250 pounds for six miles under a
+broiling sun.
+
+Mr. Caldwell's Chinese hunter, Da-Da, lived at Lung-tao and we found
+his house to be one of several built on the outskirts of a beautiful
+grove of gum and banyan trees. Although it was exceptionally clean
+for a Chinese dwelling, we pitched our tents a short distance away.
+At first we were somewhat doubtful about sleeping outside, but after
+one night indoors we decided that any risk was preferable to spending
+another hour in the stifling heat of the house.
+
+It was probable that a tiger would be so suspicious of the white tents
+that it would not attack us, but nevertheless during the first nights
+we were rather wakeful and more than once at some strange night sound
+seized our rifles and flashed the electric lamp into the darkness.
+
+Tigers often come into this village. Only a few hundred yards from our
+camp site, in 1911, a tiger had rushed into the house of one of the
+peasants and attempted to steal a child that had fallen asleep at its
+play under the family table. All was quiet in the house when suddenly
+the animal dashed through the open door. The Chinese declare that the
+gods protected the infant, for the beast missed his prey and seizing
+the leg of the table against which the baby's head was resting, bolted
+through the door dragging the table into the courtyard.
+
+This was the work of the famous "blue tiger" which we had come to
+hunt and which had on two occasions been seen by Mr. Caldwell. The
+first time he heard of this strange beast was in the spring of 1910.
+The animal was reported as having been seen at various places within
+an area of a few miles almost simultaneously and so mysterious were
+its movements that the Chinese declared it was a spirit of the devil.
+After several unsuccessful hunts Mr. Caldwell finally saw the tiger at
+close range but as he was armed with only a shotgun it would have been
+useless to shoot.
+
+His second view of the beast was a few weeks later and in the same
+place. I will give the story in his own words:
+
+"I selected a spot upon a hilltop and cleared away the grass and ferns
+with a jack-knife for a place to tie the goat. I concealed myself
+in the bushes ten feet away to await the attack, but the unexpected
+happened and the tiger approached from the rear.
+
+"When I first saw the beast he was moving stealthily along a little
+trail just across a shallow ravine. I supposed, of course, that he was
+trying to locate the goat which was bleating loudly, but to my horror
+I saw that he was creeping upon two boys who had entered the ravine to
+cut grass. The huge brute moved along lizard-fashion for a few yards
+and then cautiously lifted his head above the grass. He was within easy
+springing distance when I raised my rifle, but instantly I realized
+that if I wounded the animal the boys would certainly meet a horrible
+death.
+
+"Tigers are usually afraid of the human voice so instead of firing I
+stepped from the bushes, yelling and waving my arms. The huge cat,
+crouched for a spring, drew back, wavered uncertainly for a moment, and
+then slowly slipped away into the grass. The boys were saved but I had
+lost the opportunity I had sought for over a year.
+
+"However, I had again seen the animal about which so many strange tales
+had been told. The markings of the beast are strikingly beautiful. The
+ground color is of a delicate shade of maltese, changing into light
+gray-blue on the underparts. The stripes are well defined and like
+those of the ordinary yellow tiger."
+
+Before I left New York Mr. Caldwell had written me repeatedly urging me
+to stop at Futsing on the way to Yün-nan to try with him for the blue
+tiger which was still in the neighborhood. I was decidedly skeptical
+as to its being a distinct species, but nevertheless it was a most
+interesting animal and would certainly be well worth getting.
+
+I believed then, and my opinion has since been strengthened, that it
+is a partially melanistic phase of the ordinary yellow tiger. Black
+leopards are common in India and the Malay Peninsula and as only a
+single individual of the blue tiger has been reported the evidence
+hardly warrants the assumption that it represents a distinct species.
+
+We hunted the animal for five weeks. The brute ranged in the vicinity
+of two or three villages about seven miles apart, but was seen most
+frequently near Lung-tao. He was as elusive as a will o' the wisp,
+killing a dog or goat in one village and by the time we had hurried
+across the mountains appearing in another spot a few miles away,
+leaving a trail of terrified natives who flocked to our camp to recount
+his depredations. He was in truth the "Great Invisible" and it seemed
+impossible that we should not get him sooner or later, but we never did.
+
+Once we missed him by a hair's breadth through sheer bad luck, and it
+was only by exercising almost super-human restraint that we prevented
+ourselves from doing bodily harm to the three Chinese who ruined our
+hunt. Every evening for a week we had faithfully taken a goat into the
+"Long Ravine," for the blue tiger had been seen several times near this
+lair. On the eighth afternoon we were in the "blind" at three o'clock
+as usual. We had tied a goat to a tree nearby and her two kids were but
+a few feet away.
+
+The grass-filled lair lay shimmering in the breathless heat, silent
+save for the echoes of the bleating goats. Crouched behind the
+screen of branches, for three long hours we sat in the patchwork
+shade,--motionless, dripping with perspiration, hardly breathing,--and
+watched the shadows steal slowly down the narrow ravine.
+
+It was a wild place which seemed to have been cut out of the mountain
+side with two strokes of a mighty ax and was choked with a tangle of
+thorny vines and sword grass. Impenetrable as a wall of steel, the
+only entrance was by the tiger tunnels which drove their twisting way
+through the murderous growth far in toward its gloomy heart.
+
+The shadows had passed over us and just reached a lone palm tree on
+the opposite hillside. By that I knew it was six o'clock and in half
+an hour another day of disappointment would be ended. Suddenly at the
+left and just below us there came the faintest crunching sound as a
+loose stone shifted under a heavy weight; then a rustling in the grass.
+Instantly the captive goat gave a shrill bleat of terror and tugged
+frantically at the rope which held it to the tree.
+
+At the first sound Harry had breathed in my ear "Get ready, he's
+coming." I was half kneeling with my heavy .405 Winchester pushed
+forward and the hammer up. The blood drummed in my ears and my neck
+muscles ached with the strain but I thanked Heaven that my hands were
+steady.
+
+Caldwell sat like a graven image, the stock of his little 22 caliber
+high power Savage nestling against his cheek. Our eyes met for an
+instant and I knew in that glance that the blue tiger would never make
+another charge, for if I missed him, Harry wouldn't. For ten minutes
+we waited and my heart lost a beat when twenty feet away the grass
+began to move again--but rapidly and _up the ravine_.
+
+I saw Harry watching the lair with a puzzled look which changed to one
+of disgust as a chorus of yells sounded across the ravine and three
+Chinese wood cutters appeared on the opposite slope. They were taking
+a short cut home, shouting to drive away the tigers--and they had
+succeeded only too well, for the blue tiger had slipped back to the
+heart of the lair from whence he had come.
+
+He had been nearly ours and again we had lost him ! I felt so badly
+that I could not even swear and it wasn't the fact that Harry was a
+missionary which kept me from it, either. Caldwell exclaimed just once,
+for his disappointment was even more bitter than mine; he had been
+hunting this same tiger off and on for six years.
+
+It was useless for us to wait longer that evening and we pushed our
+way through the sword grass to the entrance of the tunnel down which
+the tiger had come. There in the soft earth were the great footprints
+where he had crouched at the entrance to take a cautious survey before
+charging into the open.
+
+As we looked, Harry suddenly turned to me and said: "Roy, let's go
+into the lair. There is just one chance in a thousand that we may get
+a shot." Now I must admit that I was not very enthusiastic about that
+little excursion, but in we went, crawling on our hands and knees up
+the narrow passage. Every few feet we passed side branches from the
+main tunnel in any one of which the tiger might easily have been lying
+in wait and could have killed us as we passed. It was a foolhardy
+thing to do and I am free to admit that I was scared. It was not long
+before Harry twisted about and said: "Roy, I haven't lost any tigers in
+here; let's get out." And out we came faster than we went in.
+
+This was only one of the times when the "Great Invisible" was almost in
+our hands. A few days later a Chinese found the blue tiger asleep under
+a rice bank early in the afternoon. Frightened almost to death he ran a
+mile and a half to our camp only to find that we had left half an hour
+before for another village where the brute had killed two wild cats
+early in the morning.
+
+Again, the tiger pushed open the door of a house at daybreak just
+as the members of the family were getting up, stole a dog from the
+"heaven's well," dragged it to a hillside and partly devoured it. We
+were in camp only a mile away and our Chinese hunters found the carcass
+on a narrow ledge in the sword grass high up on the mountain side. The
+spot was an impossible one to watch and we set a huge grizzly bear trap
+which had been carried with us from New York.
+
+It seemed out of the question for any animal to return to the carcass
+of the dog without getting caught and yet the tiger did it. With his
+hind quarters on the upper terrace he dropped down, stretched his long
+neck across the trap, seized the dog which had been wired to a tree and
+pulled it away. It was evident that he was quite unconscious of the
+trap for his fore feet had actually been placed upon one of the jaws
+only two inches from the pan which would have sprung it.
+
+One afternoon we responded to a call from Bui-tao, a village seven
+miles beyond Lung-tao, where the blue tiger had been seen that day. The
+natives assured us that the animal continually crossed a hill, thickly
+clothed with pines and sword grass just above the village and even
+though it was late when we arrived Harry thought it wise to set the
+trap that night.
+
+It was pitch dark before we reached the ridge carrying the trap, two
+lanterns, an electric flash-lamp and a wretched little dog for bait. We
+had been engaged for about fifteen minutes making a pen for the dog,
+and Caldwell and I were on our knees over the trap when suddenly a low
+rumbling growl came from the grass not twenty feet away. We jumped to
+our feet just as it sounded again, this time ending in a snarl. The
+tiger had arrived a few moments too early and we were in the rather
+uncomfortable position of having to return to the village by way of a
+narrow trail through the jungle. With our rifles ready and the electric
+lamp cutting a brilliant path in the darkness we walked slowly toward
+the edge of the sword grass hoping to see the flash of the tiger's
+eyes, but the beast backed off beyond the range of the light into
+an impenetrable tangle where we could not follow. Apparently he was
+frightened by the lantern, for we did not hear him again.
+
+After nearly a month of disappointments such as these Mr. Heller joined
+us at Bui-tao with Mr. Kellogg. Caldwell thought it advisable to shift
+camp to the Ling-suik monastery, about twelve miles away, where he had
+once spent a summer with his family and had killed several tigers. This
+was within the blue tiger's range and, moreover, had the advantage of
+offering a better general collecting ground than Bui-tao; thus with
+Heller to look after the small mammals we could begin to make our time
+count for something if we did not get the tiger.
+
+Ling-suik is a beautiful temple, or rather series of temples, built
+into a hillside at the end of a long narrow valley which swells out
+like a great bowl between bamboo clothed mountains, two thousand feet
+in height. On his former visit Mr. Caldwell had made friends with the
+head priest and we were allowed to establish ourselves upon the broad
+porch of the third and highest building. It was an ideal place for a
+collecting camp and would have been delightful except for the terrible
+heat which was rendered doubly disagreeable by the almost continual
+rain.
+
+The priests who shuffled about the temples were a hard lot. Most of
+them were fugitives from justice and certainly looked the part, for a
+more disreputable, diseased and generally undesirable body of men I
+have never seen.
+
+Our stay at Ling-suik was productive and the temple life interesting.
+We slept on the porch and each morning, about half an hour before
+daylight, the measured strokes of a great gong sounded from the temple
+just below us. _Boom--boom--boom--boom_ it went, then rapidly _bang,
+bang, bang_. It was a religious alarm clock to rouse the world.
+
+A little later when the upturned gables and twisted dolphins on the
+roof had begun to take definite shape in the gray light of the new day,
+the gong boomed out again, doors creaked, and from their cell-like
+rooms shuffled the priests to yawn and stretch themselves before the
+early service. The droning chorus of hoarse voices, swelling in a
+meaningless half-wild chant, harmonized strangely with the romantic
+surroundings of the temple and become our daily _matin_ and evensong.
+
+[Illustration: The Ling-suik Monastery]
+
+[Illustration: A Priest of Ling-suik]
+
+At the first gong we slipped from beneath our mosquito nets and dressed
+to be ready for the bats which fluttered into the building to hide
+themselves beneath the tiles and rafters. When daylight had fully
+come we scattered to the four winds of heaven to inspect traps, hunt
+barking deer, or collect birds, but gathered again at nine o'clock for
+breakfast and to deposit our spoil. Caldwell and I always spent the
+afternoon at the blue tiger's lair but the animal had suddenly shifted
+his operations back to Lung-tao and did not appear at Ling-suik while
+we were there.
+
+Our work in Fukien taught us much that may be of help to other
+naturalists who contemplate a visit to this province. We satisfied
+ourselves that summer collecting is impracticable, for the heat is
+so intense and the vegetation so heavy that only meager results can
+be obtained for the efforts expended. Continual tramping over the
+mountains in the blazing sun necessarily must have its effect upon
+the strongest constitution, and even a man like Mr. Caldwell, who has
+become thoroughly acclimated, is not immune.
+
+Both Caldwell and I lost from fifteen to twenty pounds in weight during
+the time we hunted the blue tiger and each of us had serious trouble
+from abscesses. I have never worked in a more trying climate--even
+that of Borneo and the Dutch East Indies where I collected in 1909-10,
+was much less debilitating than Fukien in the summer. The average
+temperature was about 95 degrees in the shade, but the humidity was so
+high that one felt as though one were wrapped in a wet blanket and even
+during a six weeks' rainless period the air was saturated with moisture
+from the sea-winds.
+
+In winter the weather is raw and damp, but collecting then would
+be vastly easier than in summer, not only on account of climatic
+conditions, but because much of the vegetation disappears and there is
+an opportunity for "still hunting."
+
+Trapping for small mammal is especially difficult because of the dense
+population. The mud dykes and the rice fields usually are covered with
+tracks of civets, mongooses, and cats which come to hunt frogs or
+fish, but if a trap is set it either catches a Chinaman or promptly is
+stolen. Moreover, the small mammals are neither abundant nor varied in
+number of species, and the larger forms, such as tiger, leopard, wild
+pig and serow are exceedingly difficult to kill.
+
+While our work in the province was done during an unfavorable season
+and in only two localities, yet enough was seen of the general
+conditions to make it certain that a thorough zoölogical study of the
+region would require considerable time and hard work and that the
+results, so far as a large collection of mammals is concerned, would
+not be highly satisfactory. Work in the western part of the province
+among the Bohea Hills undoubtedly would be more profitable, but even
+there it would be hardly worth while for an expedition with limited
+time and money.
+
+Bird life is on a much better footing, but the ornithology of Fukien
+already has received considerable attention through the collections of
+Swinhoe, La Touche, Styan, Ricketts, Caldwell and others, and probably
+not a great number of species remain to be described.
+
+Much work could still be done upon the herpetology of the region,
+however, and I believe that this branch of zoölogy would be well worth
+investigation for reptiles and batrachians are fairly abundant and the
+natives would rather assist than retard one's efforts.
+
+The language of Fukien is a greater annoyance than in any other of the
+Chinese coast provinces. The Foochow dialect (which is one of the most
+difficult to learn) is spoken only within fifty or one hundred miles
+of the city. At Yen-ping Mr. Caldwell, who speaks "Foochow" perfectly,
+could not understand a word of the "southern mandarin" which is the
+language of that region, and near Futsing, where a colony of natives
+from Amoy have settled, the dialect is unintelligible to one who knows
+only "Foochow."
+
+Travel in Fukien is an unceasing trial, for transport is entirely
+by coolies who carry from eighty to one hundred pounds. The men are
+paid by distance or weight; therefore, when coolies finally have been
+obtained there is the inevitable wrangling over loads so that from one
+to two hours are consumed before the party can start.
+
+But the worst of it is that one can never be certain when one's entire
+outfit will arrive at its new destination. Some men walk much faster
+than others, some will delay a long time for tea, or may give out
+altogether if the day be hot, with the result that the last load will
+arrive perhaps five or six hours after the first one.
+
+As horses are not to be had, if one does not walk the only alternative
+is to be carried in a mountain chair, which is an uncomfortable,
+trapeze-like affair and only to be found along the main highways.
+On the whole, transport by man-power in China is so uncertain and
+expensive that for a large expedition it forms a grave obstacle to
+successful work, if time and funds be limited.
+
+On the other hand, servants are cheap and usually good. We employed a
+very fair cook who received monthly seven dollars Mexican (then about
+three and one-half dollars gold), and "boys" were hired at from five
+to seven dollars (Mexican). As none of the servants knew English they
+could be obtained at much lower wages, but English-speaking cooks
+usually receive from fifteen to twenty dollars (Mexican) a month.
+
+It was hard to leave Fukien without the blue tiger but we had hunted
+him unsuccessfully for five weeks and there was other and more
+important work awaiting us in Yün-nan. It required thirty porters
+to transport our baggage from the Ling-suik monastery to Daing-nei,
+twenty-one miles away, where two houseboats were to meet us, and by ten
+o'clock in the evening we were lying off Pagoda Anchorage awaiting the
+flood tide to take us to Foochow. We made our beds on the deck house
+and in the morning opened our eyes to find the boat tied to the wharf
+at the Custom House on the Bund, and ourselves in full view of all
+Foochow had it been awake at that hour.
+
+The week of packing and repacking that followed was made easy for us by
+Claude Kellogg, who acted as our ministering angel. I think there must
+be a special Providence that watches over wandering naturalists and
+directs them to such men as Kellogg, for without divine aid they could
+never be found. When we last saw him, he stood on the stone steps of
+the water front waving his hat as we slipped away on the tide, to board
+the S. S. _Haitan_ for Hongkong.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE WOMEN OF CHINA
+
+_Y. B. A._
+
+
+The schools for native girls at Foochow and Yen-ping interested us
+greatly, even when we first came to China, but we could not appreciate
+then as we did later the epoch-making step toward civilization of these
+institutions.
+
+How much the missionaries are able to accomplish from a religious
+standpoint is a question which we do not wish to discuss, but no one
+who has ever lived among them can deny that the opening of schools
+and the diffusing of western knowledge are potent factors in the
+development of the people. The Chinese were not slow even in the
+beginning to see the advantages of a foreign education for their
+boys and now, along the coast at least, some are beginning to make
+sacrifices for their daughters as well. The Woman's College, which
+was opened recently in Foochow, is one of the finest buildings of the
+Republic, and when one sees its bright-faced girls dressed in their
+quaint little pajama-like garments, it is difficult to realize that
+outside such schools they are still slaves in mind and body to those
+iron rules of Confucius which have molded the entire structure of
+Chinese society for over 2400 years.
+
+The position of women in China today, and the rules which govern the
+household of every orthodox Chinese, are the direct heritage of
+Confucianism. The following translation by Professor J. Legge from the
+_Narratives of the Confucian School_, chapter 26, is illuminating:
+
+  Confucius said: "Man is the representative of heaven and is supreme
+  over all things. Woman yields obedience to the instructions of man
+  and helps to carry out his principles. On this account she can
+  determine nothing of herself and is subject to the rule of the
+  three obediences.
+
+  "(1) When young she must obey her father and her elder brother;
+
+  "(2) When married, she must obey her husband;
+
+  "(3) When her husband is dead she must obey her son.
+
+  "She may not think of marrying a second time. No instructions or
+  orders must issue from the harem. Women's business is simply the
+  preparation and supplying of drink and food. Beyond the threshold
+  of her apartments she shall not be known for evil or for good. She
+  may not cross the boundaries of a state to attend a funeral. She
+  may take no steps on her own motive and may come to no conclusion
+  on her own deliberation."
+
+  The grounds for divorce as stated by Confucius are:
+
+  "(1) Disobedience to her husband's parents;
+
+  "(2) Not giving birth to a son;
+
+  "(3) Dissolute conduct;
+
+  "(4) Jealousy of her husband's attentions (to the other inmates of
+         his harem);
+
+  "(5) Talkativeness, and
+
+  "(6) Thieving."
+
+A Chinese bride owes implicit obedience to her mother-in-law, and as
+she is often reared by her husband's family, or else married to him as
+a mere child, and is under the complete control of his mother for a
+considerable period of her existence, her life in many instances is one
+of intolerable misery. There is generally little or no consideration
+for a girl under the best of circumstances until she becomes the
+mother of a male child; her condition then improves but she approaches
+happiness only when she in turn occupies the enviable position of
+mother-in-law.
+
+It is difficult to imagine a life of greater dreariness and vacuity
+than that of the average Chinese woman. Owing to her bound feet and
+resultant helplessness, if she is not obliged to work she rarely stirs
+from the narrow confinement of her courtyard, and perhaps in her entire
+life she may not go a mile from the house to which she was brought a
+bride, except for the periodical visits to her father's home.
+
+It has been aptly said that there are no real homes in China and it is
+not surprising that, ignored and despised for centuries, the Chinese
+woman shows no ability to improve the squalor of her surroundings. She
+passes her life in a dark, smoke-filled dwelling with broken furniture
+and a mud floor, together with pigs, chickens and babies enjoying
+a limited sphere of action under the tables and chairs, or in the
+tumble-down courtyard without. Her work is actually never done and a
+Chinese bride, bright and attractive at twenty, will be old and faded
+at thirty.
+
+But without doubt the crowning evil which attends woman's condition
+in China is foot binding, and nothing can be offered in extenuation
+of this abominable custom. It is said to have originated one thousand
+years before the Christian era and has persisted until the present
+day in spite of the efforts directed against it. The Empress Dowager
+issued edicts strongly advising its discontinuation, the "Natural Foot
+Society," which was formed about fifteen years ago, has endeavored to
+educate public opinion, and the missionaries refuse to admit girls
+so mutilated to their schools; but nevertheless the reform has made
+little progress beyond the coast cities. "Precedent" and the fear of
+not obtaining suitable husbands for their daughters are responsible for
+the continuation of the evil, and it is estimated that there are still
+about seventy-four millions of girls and women who are crippled in this
+way.
+
+The feet are bandaged between the ages of five and seven. The toes are
+bent under the sole of the foot and after two or three years the heel
+and instep are so forced together that a dollar can be placed in the
+cleft; gradually also the lower limbs shrink away until only the bones
+remain.
+
+The suffering of the children is intense. We often passed through
+streets full of laughing boys and tiny girls where others, a few years
+older, were sitting on the doorsteps or curbstones holding their
+tortured feet and crying bitterly. In some instances out-houses are
+constructed a considerable distance from the family dwelling where the
+girls must sleep during their first crippled years in order that their
+moans may not disturb the other members of the family. The child's only
+relief is to hang her feet over the edge of the bed in order to stop
+the circulation and induce numbness, or to seek oblivion from opium.
+
+If the custom were a fad which affected only the wealthy classes it
+would be reprehensible enough, but it curses rich and poor alike, and
+almost every day we saw heavily laden coolie women steadying themselves
+by means of a staff, hobbling stiff-kneed along the roads or laboring
+in the fields.
+
+[Illustration: A Chinese Mother with Her Children]
+
+[Illustration: Chinese Women of the Coolie Class with Bound Feet]
+
+Although the agitation against foot binding is undoubtedly making
+itself felt to a certain extent in the coast provinces, in Yün-nan
+the horrible practice continues unabated. During the year in which we
+traveled through a large part of the province, wherever there were
+Chinese we saw bound feet. And the fact that virtually _every_ girl
+over eight years old was mutilated in this way is satisfactory evidence
+that reform ideas have not penetrated to this remote part of the
+Republic.
+
+I know of nothing which so rouses one's indignation because of its
+senselessness and brutality, and China can never hope to take her place
+among civilized nations until she has abandoned this barbarous custom
+and liberated her women from their infamous subjection.
+
+There has been much criticism of foreign education because the girls
+who have had its advantages absorb western ideas so completely that
+they dislike to return to their homes where the ordinary conditions of
+a Chinese household exist. Nevertheless, if the women of China are ever
+to be emancipated it must come through their own education as well as
+that of the men.
+
+One of the first results of foreign influence is to delay marriage, and
+in some instances the early betrothal with its attendant miseries. The
+evil which results from this custom can hardly be overestimated. It
+happens not infrequently that two children are betrothed in infancy,
+the respective families being in like circumstances at the time. The
+opportunity perhaps is offered to the girl to attend school and she
+may even go through college, but an inexorable custom brings her back
+to her parents' home, forces her to submit to the engagement made in
+babyhood and perhaps ruins her life through marriage with a man of no
+higher social status or intelligence than a coolie.
+
+Among the few girls imbued with western civilization a spirit of revolt
+is slowly growing, and while it is impossible for them to break down
+the barriers of ages, yet in many instances they waive aside what would
+seem an unsurmountable precedent and insist upon having some voice in
+the choosing of their husbands.
+
+While in Yen-ping we were invited to attend the semi-foreign wedding
+of a girl who had been brought up in the Woman's School and who was
+qualified to be a "Bible Woman" or native Christian teacher. It was
+whispered that she had actually met her betrothed on several occasions,
+but on their wedding day no trace of recognition was visible, and the
+marriage was performed with all the punctilious Chinese observances
+compatible with a Christian ceremony.
+
+Precedent required of this little bride, although she might have been
+radiantly happy at heart, and undoubtedly was, to appear tearful and
+shrinking and as she was escorted up the aisle by her bridesmaid
+one might have thought she was being led to slaughter. White is not
+becoming to the Chinese and besides it is a sign of mourning, so she
+had chosen pink for her wedding gown and had a brilliant pink veil over
+her carefully oiled hair.
+
+After the ceremony the bride and bridegroom proceeded downstairs to the
+joyous strain of the wedding march, but with nothing joyous in their
+demeanor--in fact they appeared like two wooden images at the reception
+and endured for over an hour the stares and loud criticism of the
+guests. He assumed during the ordeal a look of bored indifference while
+the little bride sat with her head bowed on her breast, apparently
+terror stricken. But once she raised her face and I saw a merry twinkle
+in her shining black eyes that made me realize that perhaps it wasn't
+all quite so frightful as she would have us believe. I often wonder
+what sort of a life she is leading in her far away Chinese courtyard.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+VOYAGING TO YÜN-NAN
+
+
+We had a busy week in Hongkong outfitting for our trip to Yün-nan.
+Hongkong is one of the best cities in the Orient in which to purchase
+supplies of almost any kind, for not only is the selection excellent,
+but the best English goods can be had for prices very little in excess
+of those in London itself.
+
+The system which we used in our commissary was that of the unit food
+box which has been adopted by most large expeditions. The boxes were
+packed to weigh seventy pounds each and contained all the necessary
+staple supplies for three persons for one week; thus only one box
+needed to be opened at a time, and, moreover, if the party separated
+for a few days a single box could be taken without the necessity
+of repacking and with the assurance that sufficient food would be
+available.
+
+Our supplies consisted largely of flour, butter, sugar, coffee, milk,
+bacon, and marmalade, and but little tinned meat, vegetables, or fruit
+because we were certain to be able to obtain a plentiful supply of such
+food in the country through which we were expecting to travel.
+
+Our tents were brought from New York and were made of light Egyptian
+cotton thoroughly waterproof, but we also purchased in Hongkong a large
+army tent for the servants and two canvas flies to protect loads and
+specimens. We used sleeping bags and folding cots, tables and chairs,
+for when an expedition expects to remain in the field for a long time
+it is absolutely necessary to be as comfortable as possible and to live
+well; otherwise one cannot work at one's highest efficiency.
+
+For clothing we all wore khaki or "Dux-back" suits with flannel shirts
+and high leather shoes for mountain climbing, and we had light rubber
+automobile shirts and rubber caps for use in rainy weather. The auto
+shirt is a long, loose robe which slips over the head and fastens about
+the neck and, when one is sitting upon a horse, can be so spread about
+as to cover all exposed parts of the body; it is especially useful and
+necessary, and hip rubber boots are also very comfortable during the
+rainy season.
+
+Our traps for catching small mammals were brought from New York. We had
+two sizes of wooden "Out of Sight" for mice and rats, and four or five
+sizes of Oneida steel traps for catching medium sized animals such as
+civets and polecats. We also carried a half dozen No. 5 wolf traps.
+Mr. Heller had used this size in Africa and found that they were large
+enough even to hold lions.
+
+Mr. Heller carried a 250-300 Savage rifle, while I used a 6-1/2 mm.
+Mannlicher and a .405 Winchester. All of these guns were eminently
+satisfactory, but the choice of a rifle is a very personal matter and
+every sportsman has his favorite weapon. We found, however, that a flat
+trajectory high-power rifle such as those with which we were armed was
+absolutely essential for many of our shots were at long range and we
+frequently killed gorals at three hundred yards or over.
+
+The camera equipment consisted of two 3A Kodaks, a Graphic 4 × 5
+tripod camera, and Graflex 4 × 5 for rapid work. We have found after
+considerable field experience that the 4 × 5 is the most convenient
+size to handle, for the plate is large enough and can be obtained
+more readily than any other in different parts of the world. The same
+applies to the 3A Kodak "post-card" size film, for there are few places
+where foreign goods are carried that 3A films cannot be purchased.
+
+All of our plates and films were sealed in air-tight tin boxes before
+we left America, and thus the material was in perfect condition when
+the cans were opened. We used plates almost altogether in the finer
+photographic work, for although they are heavier and more difficult to
+handle than films, nevertheless the results obtained are very superior.
+A collapsible rubber dark room about seven feet high and four feet in
+diameter was an indispensable part of the camera equipment. This tent
+was made for us by the Abercrombie & Fitch Company, of New York, and
+could be hung from the limb of a tree or the rafters of a building and
+be ready for use in five minutes.
+
+The motion pictures were taken with a Universal camera, and like all
+other negatives were developed in the field by means of a special
+apparatus which had been designed by Mr. Carl Akeley of the American
+Museum of Natural History. This work required a much larger space than
+that of the portable dark room and we consequently had a tent made of
+red cloth which could be tied inside of our ordinary sleeping tent.
+
+Our equipment was packed in fiber army trunks and in wooden boxes
+with sliding tops. The latter arrangement is especially desirable in
+Yün-nan, for the loads can be opened without being untied from the
+saddle, thus saving a considerable amount of time and trouble.
+
+It was by no means an easy matter to get our supplies together, but
+the Lane & Crawford Company of Hongkong pushed the making and packing
+of our boxes in a remarkably efficient manner; as the manager of one
+of their departments expressed it, "the one way to hurry a Chinaman
+is to get more Chinamen," and they put a small army at work upon our
+material, which was ready for shipment in just a week.
+
+While in Hongkong we were joined by Wu Hung-tao, of Shanghai, who acted
+as interpreter and "head boy" as well as a general field manager of the
+expedition. He formerly had been in the employ of Mr. F. W. Cary, when
+the latter was Commissioner of Customs in Teng-yueh, Yün-nan, and he
+was educated at the Anglo-Chinese College of Foochow. Wu proved to be
+the most efficient and trustworthy servant whom we have ever employed,
+and the success of our work was due in no small degree to his efforts.
+
+We left for Tonking on the S. S. _Sung-kiang_, commanded by Harry
+Trowbridge, a congenial and well-read gentleman whose delightful
+personality contributed much toward making our week's stay on his ship
+most pleasant. On our way to Haiphong the vessel stopped at the island
+of Hainan and anchored about three miles off the town of Hoi-hau. This
+island is 90 by 150 miles long, is mountainous in its center, but flat
+and uninteresting at the northwest.
+
+A large part of the island is unexplored and in the interior there is
+a mountain called "the Five Fingers" which has never been ascended,
+for it is reported that the hill tribes are unfriendly and that
+the tropical valleys are reeking with deadly malaria. The island
+undoubtedly would prove to be a rich field for zoölogical work as is
+shown by the collections which the American Museum of Natural History
+has already received from a native dealer; these include monkeys,
+squirrels, and other small mammals, and bears, leopards, and deer are
+said to be among its fauna.
+
+The next night's steaming brought us to the city of Paik-hoi on the
+mainland. In the afternoon we went ashore with Captain Trowbridge to
+visit Dr. Bradley of the China Inland Mission who is in charge of a
+leper hospital, which is a model of its kind. The doctor was away but
+we made ourselves at home and when he returned he found us in his
+drawing room comfortably enjoying afternoon tea. He remarked that he
+knew of a Chinese cook who was looking for a position, and half an
+hour later, while we were watching some remarkably fine tennis, the
+cook arrived. He was about six feet two inches high, and so thin that
+he was immediately christened the "Woolworth Building" and, although
+not a very prepossessing looking individual he was forthwith engaged,
+principally because of his ability to speak English. This was at six
+o'clock in the afternoon and we had to be aboard the ship at eight. The
+doctor sent a note to the French Consul and the cook returned anon with
+his baggage and passport. Obtaining this cook was the only really rapid
+thing which I have ever seen done in China!
+
+When the _Sung-kiang_ arrived in Haiphong the next afternoon we were
+besieged by a screaming, fighting mob of Annamits who seized upon
+our baggage like so many vultures, and it was only by means of a few
+well-directed kicks that we could prevent it from being scattered to
+the four winds of Heaven. After we had designated a _sampan_ to receive
+our equipment the unloading began and several trunks had gone over the
+side, when Mr. Heller happened to glance down just in time to see one
+of the ammunition boxes drop into the water and sink like lead. The
+Annamits, believing that it had not been noticed, went on as blithely
+as before and volubly denied that anything had been lost. We stopped
+the unloading instantly and sent for divers. The box had sunk in thirty
+feet of muddy water and it seemed useless to hope that it could ever be
+recovered, but the divers went to work by dropping a heavy stone on the
+end of a rope and going down it hand over hand.
+
+After two hours the box was located and brought dripping to the
+surface. Fortunately but little of the ammunition was ruined, and most
+of it was dried during the night in the engine room. Because of this
+delay we had to leave Haiphong on the following day, and with Captain
+Trowbridge, we went by train to Hanoi, the capital of the colony.
+
+Hanoi is a city of delightful surprises. It has broad, clean streets,
+overhung with trees which often form a cool green canopy overhead,
+beautiful lawns and well-kept houses, and in the center of the town is
+a lovely lake surrounded by a wide border of palms. At the far end,
+like a jewel in a crystal setting, seems to float a white pagoda, an
+outpost of the temple which stands in the midst of a watery meadow of
+lotus plants. The city shops are excellent, but in most instances the
+prices are exceedingly high.
+
+Like all the French towns in the Orient the hours for work are rather
+confusing to the foreigner. The shops open at 6:30 in the morning and
+close at 11 o'clock to reopen again at 8 in the afternoon and continue
+business until 7:30 or 8 o'clock in the evening. During the middle of
+the day all houses have the shutters closely drawn, and because of the
+intense heat and glare of the sun the streets are absolutely deserted,
+not even a native being visible. In the morning a _petit déjeuner_,
+remarkable especially for its "petitness," is served, and a real
+_déjeuner_ comes later anywhere from 10 to 12:30.
+
+About 6 o'clock in the evening the open _cafés_ and restaurants along
+the sidewalk are lined with groups of men and women playing cards and
+dice and drinking gin and bitters, vermouth or absinthe. There is an
+air of happiness and life about Hanoi which is typically Parisian and
+even during war time it is a city of gayety. An immense theater stands
+in the center of the town, but has not been opened since the beginning
+of the war.
+
+We had letters to M. Chemin Dupontès, the director of the railroads,
+as well as to the Lieutenant-Governor and other officials. Without
+exception we were received in the most cordial manner and every
+facility and convenience put at our disposal. M. Dupontès was
+especially helpful.
+
+Some time before our arrival a tunnel on the railroad from Hanoi to
+Yün-nan Fu had caved in and for almost a month trains had not been
+running. It was now in operation, however, but all luggage had to be
+transferred by hand at the broken tunnel and consequently must not
+exceed eighty-five pounds in weight. This meant repacking our entire
+equipment and three days of hard work. M. Dupontès arranged to have
+our 4000 pounds of baggage put in a special third class carriage
+with our "boys" in attendance and in this way saved the expedition a
+considerable amount of money. He personally went with us to the station
+to arrange for our comfort with the _chef de gare_, telegraphed ahead
+at every station upon the railroad, and gave us an open letter to all
+officials; in fact there was nothing which he left undone.
+
+The railroad is a remarkable engineering achievement for it was
+constructed in great haste through a difficult mountainous range.
+Yün-nan is an exceedingly rich province and the French were quick to
+see the advantages of drawing its vast trade to their own seaports.
+The British were already making surveys to construct a railroad from
+Bhamo on the headwaters of the Irawadi River across Yün-nan to connect
+with the Yangtze, and the French were anxious to have their road in
+operation some time before the rival line could be completed.
+
+Owing to its hasty construction and the heavy rainfall, or perhaps to
+both, the tunnels and bridges frequently cave in or are washed away and
+the railroad is chiefly remarkable for the number of days in the year
+in which it does not operate; nevertheless the French deserve great
+credit for their enterprise in extending their line to Yün-nan Fu over
+the mountains where there is a tunnel or bridge almost every mile of
+the way. While it was being built through the fever-stricken jungles of
+Tonking the coolies died like flies, and it was necessary to suspend
+all work during the summer months.
+
+The scenery along the railroad is marvelous and the traveling is by no
+means uncomfortable, but the hotels in which one stops at night are
+wretched. One of our friends in Hongkong related an amusing experience
+which he had at Lao-kay, the first hotel on the railroad. He asked for
+a bath and discovered that a tub of hot water had been prepared. He
+wished a cold bath, and seeing a large tank filled with cold water in
+the corner of the room he climbed in and was enjoying himself when the
+hotel proprietor suddenly rushed upstairs exclaiming, "Mon Dieu, Mon
+Dieu, you are in the tank of drinking water."
+
+When we arrived at Yün-nan Fu we found a surprisingly cosmopolitan
+community housed within its grim old walls; some were consuls, some
+missionaries, some salt, telegraph, or customs officials in the Chinese
+employ, and others represented business firms in Hongkong, but all
+received us with open-handed hospitality characteristic of the East.
+
+We thought that after leaving Hongkong our evening clothes would not
+again be used, but they were requisitioned every night for we were
+guests at dinners given by almost everyone of the foreign community.
+Mr. Howard Page, a representative of the Standard Oil Company, proved
+a most valuable friend, and through him we were able to obtain a
+caravan and make other arrangements for the transportation of our
+baggage. M. Henry Wilden, the French Consul, an ardent sportsman and a
+charming gentleman, took an active interest in our affairs and arranged
+a meeting for us with the Chinese Commissioner of Foreign Affairs.
+Moreover, he later transported our trunks to Hongkong with his personal
+baggage and assisted us in every possible way.
+
+We went to the Foreign Office at half past ten and were ushered into
+a large room where a rather imposing lunch had already been spread.
+The Commissioner, a fat, jolly little man, who knew a few words of
+French but none of English, received us in the most cordial way and
+immediately opened several bottles of champagne in our honor. He asked
+why our passports had not been viséd in Peking, and we pleased him
+greatly by replying that at the time we were in the capital Yün-nan was
+an independent province and consequently the Peking Government had not
+the temerity to put their stamp upon our passports.
+
+Inasmuch as Yün-nan was infested with brigands we had expected some
+opposition to our plans for traveling in the interior, but none was
+forthcoming, and with the exception of an offer of a guard of soldiers
+for our trip to Ta-li Fu which we knew it would be impolitic to refuse,
+we left the Foreign Office with all the desired permits.
+
+The Chinese Government appeared to be greatly interested in our
+zoölogical study of Yün-nan, offered to assist us in every way we could
+suggest, and telegraphed to every mandarin in the north and west of
+the province, instructing them to receive us with all honor and to
+facilitate our work in every way. None of the opposition which we had
+been led to expect developed, and it is difficult to see how we could
+have been more cordially received.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+ON THE ROAD TO TA-LI FU
+
+
+On August 6, we dispatched half our equipment to Ta-li Fu, and three
+days later we ourselves left Yün-nan Fu at eleven o'clock in the
+morning after an interminable wait for our caravan. Through the
+kindness of Mr. Page, a house boat was put at our disposal and we
+sailed across the upper end of the beautiful lake which lies just
+outside the city, and intercepted the caravan twenty-five _li_[1] from
+Yün-nan Fu.
+
+On the way we passed a number of cormorant fishers, each with ten or a
+dozen birds sitting quietly upon the boat with outspread wings drying
+their feathers. Every bird has a ring about its neck, and is thus
+prevented from swallowing the fish which it catches by diving into the
+water.
+
+After waiting an hour for our caravan we saw the long train of mules
+and horses winding up the hill toward us. There were seventeen
+altogether, and in the midst of them rode the cook clinging desperately
+with both hands to a diminutive mule, his long legs dangling and a look
+of utter wretchedness upon his face. Just before the caravan reached us
+it began to rain, and the cook laboriously pulled on a suit of yellow
+oilskins which we had purchased for him in Yün-nan Fu. These, together
+with a huge yellow hat, completed a picture which made us roar with
+laughter; Heller gave the caption for it when he shouted, "Here comes
+the 'Yellow Peril.'"
+
+[Footnote 1: A _li_ in this province equals one-third of an English
+mile.]
+
+[Illustration: Cormorant Fishers on the Lake at Yün-nan Fu]
+
+[Illustration: Our Camp at Chou Chou on the Way to Ta-li Fu]
+
+We surveyed the tiny horses with dismay. As Heller vainly tried to
+get his girth tight enough to keep the saddle from sliding over the
+animal's tail he exclaimed, "Is this a horse or a squirrel I'm trying
+to ride?" But it was not so bad when we finally climbed aboard and
+found that we did not crush the little brutes.
+
+A seventy-pound box on each side of the saddle with a few odds and
+ends on top made a pack of at least one hundred and sixty pounds. This
+is heavy even for a large animal and for these tiny mules seemed an
+impossibility, but it is the usual weight, and the business-like way in
+which they moved off showed that they were not overloaded.
+
+The Yün-nan pack saddle is a remarkably ingenious arrangement. The
+load is strapped with a rawhide to a double A-shaped frame which fits
+loosely over a second saddle on the animal's back and is held in place
+by its own weight. If a mule falls the pack comes off and, moreover, it
+can be easily removed if the road is bad or whenever a stop is made. It
+has the great disadvantage, however, of giving the horses serious back
+sores which receive but scanty attention from the _mafus_ (muleteers).
+
+When we were fairly started upon our long ride to Ta-li Fu the time
+slipped by in a succession of delightful days. Since this was the main
+caravan route the _mafus_ had regular stages beyond which they would
+not go. If we did not stop for luncheon the march could be ended early
+in the afternoon and we could settle ourselves for the night in a
+temple which always proved a veritable "haven of rest" after a long
+day in the saddle. A few pages from my wife's "Journal" of September
+fifteenth describes our camp at Lu-ho-we and our life on the road to
+Ta-li Fu.
+
+  We are sitting on the porch of an old, old temple. It is on a
+  hilltop in a forest grove with the gray-walled town lying at our
+  feet. The sun is flooding the flower-filled courtyard and throwing
+  bars of golden light through the twisted branches of a bent old
+  pine, over the stone well, and into the dim recesses behind the
+  altar where a benevolent idol grins down upon us.
+
+  We have been in the saddle for eight hours and it is enchanting to
+  rest in this peaceful, aged temple. Outside children are shouting
+  and laughing but all is quiet here save for the drip of water in
+  the well, and the chatter of a magpie on the pine tree. Today we
+  made the stage in one long march and now we can rest and browse
+  among our books or wander with a gun along the cool, tree-shaded
+  paths.
+
+  The sun is hot at mid-day, although the mornings and evenings are
+  cold, and tonight we shall build a fragrant fire of yellow pine,
+  and talk for an hour before we go to sleep upon the porch where we
+  can see the moon come up and the stars shining so low that they
+  seem like tiny lanterns in the sky.
+
+  It is seven days since we left Yün-nan Fu and each night we have
+  come to temples such as this. There is an inexpressible charm
+  about them, lying asleep, as it were, among the trees of their
+  courtyards, with stately, pillared porches, and picturesque gables
+  upturned to the sky. They seem so very, very old and filled with
+  such great calm and peace.
+
+  Sometimes they stand in the midst of a populous town and we ride
+  through long streets between dirty houses, swarming with ragged
+  women, filthy men, and screaming children; suddenly we come to the
+  dilapidated entrance of our temple, pass through a courtyard, close
+  the huge gates and are in another world.
+
+  We leave early every morning and the boys are up long before dawn.
+  As we sleepily open our eyes we see their dark figures silhouetted
+  against the brilliant camp fire, hear the yawns of the _mafus_ and
+  the contented crunching of the mules as they chew their beans.
+
+  Wu appears with a lantern and calls out the hour and before we
+  have fully dressed the odor of coffee has found its way to the
+  remotest corner of the temple, and a breakfast of pancakes, eggs,
+  and oatmeal is awaiting on the folding table spread with a clean
+  white cloth. While we are eating, the beds are packed, and the
+  loads retied, accompanied by a running fire of exhortations to the
+  _mafus_ who cause us endless trouble.
+
+  They are a hard lot, these _mafus_. Force seems to be the only
+  thing they understand and kindness produces no results. If the
+  march is long and we stop for tiffin it is well-nigh impossible to
+  get them started within three hours without the aid of threats.
+  Once after a long halt when all seemed ready, we rode ahead only to
+  wait by the roadside for hours before the caravan arrived. As soon
+  as we were out of sight they had begun to shoe their mules and that
+  night we did not make our stage until long after dark.
+
+  In the morning when we see the first loads actually on the horses
+  we ride off at the head of the caravan followed by a straggling
+  line of mules and horses picking their way over the jagged stones
+  of the road. It is delightful in the early morning for the air is
+  fresh and brisk like that of October at home, but later in the day
+  when the sun is higher it is uncomfortably hot, and we are glad to
+  find a bit of shade where we can rest until the caravan arrives.
+
+  The roads are execrable. The Chinese have a proverb which says:
+  "A road is good for ten years and bad for ten thousand," and this
+  applies most excellently to those of Yün-nan. The main caravan
+  highways are paved with huge stones to make them passable during
+  the rainy season, but after a few years' wear the blocks become
+  broken and irregular, the earth is washed from between them and
+  they are upturned at impossible angles. The result is a chaotic
+  mass which by no stretch of imagination can be called a road.
+  Where the stones are still in place they have been worn to such
+  glasslike smoothness by the thousands of passing mules that it
+  is well-nigh impossible to walk upon them. As a result a caravan
+  avoids the paving whenever it can find a path and sometimes dozens
+  of deeply-cut trails wind over the hills beside the road.
+
+  We are seldom on level ground, for ten per cent of the entire
+  province is mountainous and we soon lost count of the ranges
+  which we crossed. It is slow, hard work, toiling up the steep
+  mountain-sides, but once on the ridges where the country is spread
+  out below us like a great, green relief map, there is a wonderful
+  exhilaration, and we climb higher with a joyous sense of freedom.
+
+  Yün-nan means "south of the cloud" and every morning the peaks
+  about us are shrouded in fog. Sometimes the veil-like mists still
+  float about the mountain tops when we climb into them, and we are
+  suddenly enveloped in a wet gray blanket which sends us shivering
+  into the coats tied to our saddles.
+
+For centuries this road has been one of the main trade arteries
+through the province, and with the total lack of conservation ideas so
+characteristic of the Chinese, every available bit of natural forest
+has been cut away. As a result the mountains are desert wastes of
+sandstone alternating with grass-covered hills sometimes clothed with
+groves of pines or spruces. These trees have all been planted, and ere
+they have reached a height of fifteen or twenty feet will yield to the
+insistent demand for wood which is ever present with the Chinese.
+
+The ignorance of the need of forest conservation is an illuminating
+commentary on Chinese education. Mr. William Hanna, a missionary of
+Ta-li Fu, told us that one day he was riding over this same road with a
+Chinese gentleman, a deep scholar, who was considered one of the best
+educated men of the province. Pointing to the barren hills washed clean
+of soil and deeply worn by countless floods, Mr. Hanna remarked that
+all this could have been prevented, and that instead of a rocky waste
+there might have been a fertile hillside, had the trees been left to
+grow.
+
+The Chinese scholar listened in amazement to facts which every western
+schoolboy has learned ere he is twelve years old, but of which he was
+ignorant because they are not a part of Confucius' teachings. To study
+modern science is considered a waste of time by the orthodox Chinese
+for "everything good must be old," and all his life he delves into the
+past utterly neglectful of the present.
+
+Every valley along the road was green with rice fields and this,
+together with the deforestation of the mountains, is responsible for
+the almost total lack of animal life. Night after night we set traps
+about our temple camps only to find them untouched in the morning.
+There were no mammals with the exception of a few red-bellied squirrels
+(_Callosciurus erythræus_ subsp.) and now and then a tree shrew
+(_Tupaia belangeri chinensis_).
+
+The latter is an interesting species. Although it is an Insectivore,
+and a relative of the tiny shrews which live in holes and under logs,
+it has squirrel-like habits and in appearance is like a squirrel
+to which it is totally unrelated. Instead of the thinly haired
+mouselike tails of the ordinary shrews the tupaias have developed
+long bushy tails and in fact look and act so much like squirrels
+that it is difficult to convince the white residents of Yün-nan, who
+are accustomed to see them run about the hedges and walls of their
+courtyards that the two are quite unrelated.
+
+The tree shrews are found only in Asia and are one of the most
+remarkable instances of a superficial resemblance between unrelated
+animals with similar habits. A study of their anatomy has revealed the
+fact that they represent a distinct group which is connected with the
+monkeys (lemurs).
+
+Although birds were fairly abundant the species were not varied. We
+were about a month too early for the ducks and geese, which during the
+winter swarm into Yün-nan from the north, and without a dog, pheasants
+are difficult to get. In fact we were greatly disappointed in the game
+birds, for we had expected good pheasant shooting even along the road
+and virtually none were to be found.
+
+The main caravan roads of Yün-nan held little of interest for
+us as naturalists, but as students of native customs they were
+fascinating, for the life of the province passed before us in panoramic
+completeness. Chinese villages wherever we have seen them are marvels
+of utter and abandoned filth and although those of Yün-nan are no
+exception to the rule, they are considerably better than the coast
+cities.
+
+Pigs, chickens, horses and cows live in happy communion with the human
+inmates of the houses, the pigs especially being treated as we favor
+dogs at home. On the door steps children play with the swine, patting
+and pounding them, and one of my friends said that he had actually
+seen a mother bring her baby to be nursed by a sow with her family of
+piglets.
+
+The natives were pleasant and friendly and seemed to be industrious.
+Wherever the deforestation had left sufficient soil on the lower
+hillsides patches of corn took the place of the former poppy fields
+for opium. In 1906, the Empress Dowager issued an edict prohibiting
+the growing of opium, and gave guarantees to the British that it would
+be entirely stamped out during the next ten years. Strangely enough
+these promises have been faithfully kept, and in Yün-nan the hillsides,
+which were once white with poppy blossoms, are now yellow with corn. In
+all our 2000 miles of riding over unfrequented trails and in the most
+out-of-the-way spots we found only one instance where opium was being
+cultivated.
+
+The mandarin of each district accompanied by a guard of soldiers makes
+periodical excursions during the seasons when the poppy is in blossom,
+cuts down the plants if any are found, and punishes the owners. China
+deserves the greatest credit for so successfully dealing with a
+question which affects such a large part of her four hundred millions
+of people and which presents such unusual difficulties because of its
+economic importance.
+
+Just across the frontier in Burma, opium is grown freely and much
+is smuggled into Yün-nan. Therefore its use has by no means been
+abandoned, especially in the south of the province, and in some towns
+it is smoked openly in the tea houses. In August, 1916, just before
+we reached Yün-nan Fu there was an _exposé_ of opium smuggling which
+throws an illuminating side light on the corruption of some Chinese
+officials.
+
+Opium can be purchased in Yün-nan Fu for two dollars (Mexican) an
+ounce, while in Shanghai it is worth ten dollars (Mexican). Tang (the
+Military Governor), the Minister of Justice, the Governor's brother and
+three members of Parliament had collected six hundred pounds of opium
+which they undertook to transfer to Shanghai.
+
+Their request that no examination of their baggage be made by the
+French during their passage through Tonking was granted, and a similar
+favor was procured for them at Shanghai. Thus the sixty cases were
+safely landed, but a few hours later, through the opium combine,
+foreign detectives learned of the smuggling and the boxes were seized.
+
+The Minister of Justice denied all knowledge of the opium, as did the
+three Parliament members, and Governor Tang was not interrogated as
+that would be quite contrary to the laws of Chinese etiquette; however,
+he will not receive reappointment when his official term expires.
+
+As we neared Ta-li Fu, and indeed along the entire road, we were amazed
+at the prevalence of goitre. At a conservative estimate two out of
+every five persons were suffering from the disease, some having two, or
+even three, globules of uneven size hanging from their throats. In one
+village six out of seven adults were affected, but apparently children
+under twelve or fourteen years are free from it as we saw no evidences
+in either sex. Probably the disease is in a large measure due to the
+drinking water, for it is most prevalent in the limestone regions and
+seems to be somewhat localized.
+
+Every day we passed "chairs," or as we named them, "mountain
+schooners," in each of which a fat Chinaman sprawled while two or
+four sweating coolies bore him up hill. The chair is rigged between a
+pair of long bamboo poles and consists of two sticks swung by ropes
+on which is piled a heap of bedding. Overhead a light bamboo frame
+supports a piece of yellow oil-cloth, which completely shuts in the
+occupant, except from the front and rear.
+
+The Chinese consider it undignified to walk, or even to ride, and if
+one is about to make an official visit nothing less than a four-man
+chair is required. Haste is just as much tabooed in the "front
+families" as physical exertion, and is utterly incomprehensible to
+the Chinese. Major Davies says that while he was in Tonking before
+the railroad to Yün-nan Fu had been constructed, M. Doumer, the
+Governor-General of French Indo-China, who was a very energetic
+man, rode to Yün-nan Fu in an extraordinarily short time. While the
+Europeans greatly admired his feat, the Chinese believed he must be in
+some difficulty from which only the immediate assistance of the Viceroy
+of Yün-nan could extricate him.
+
+In Yün-nan it is necessary to carry one's own bedding for the inns
+supply nothing but food, and consequently when a Chinaman rides from
+one city to another he piles a great heap of blankets on his horse's
+back and climbs on top with his legs astride the animal's neck in
+front. The horses are trained to a rapid trot instead of a gallop, and
+I know of no more ridiculous sight than a Chinaman bouncing along a
+road on the summit of a veritable mountain of bedding with his arms
+waving and streamers flying in every direction. He is assisted in
+keeping his balance by broad brass stirrups in which he usually hooks
+his heels and guides his horse by means of a rawhide bridle decorated
+with dozens of bangles which make a comforting jingle whenever he moves.
+
+On the sixth day out when approaching the city of Chu-hsuing Fu we
+took a short cut through the fields leaving the caravan to follow
+the main road. The trail brought us to a river about forty feet wide
+spanned by a bridge made from two narrow planks, with a wide median
+fissure. We led our horses across without trouble and Heller started to
+follow. He had reached the center of the bridge when his horse shied at
+the hole, jumped to one side, hung suspended on his belly for a moment,
+and toppled off into the water.
+
+The performance had all happened behind Heller's back and when he
+turned about in time to see his horse diving into the river, he stood
+looking down at him with a most ludicrous expression of surprise and
+disgust, while the animal climbed out and began to graze as quietly as
+though nothing had happened.
+
+Chu-hsuing was interesting as being the home of Miss Cordelia Morgan, a
+niece of Senator Morgan of Virginia. We found her to be a most charming
+and determined young woman who had established a mission station in the
+city under considerable difficulties. The mandarin and other officials
+by no means wished to have a foreign lady, alone and unattended,
+settle down among them and become a responsibility which might cause
+them endless trouble, and although she had rented a house before she
+arrived, the owner refused to allow her to move in.
+
+She could get no assistance from the mandarin and was forced to live
+for two months in a dirty Chinese inn, swarming with vermin, until they
+realized that she was determined not to be driven away. She eventually
+obtained a house and while she considers herself comfortable, I doubt
+if others would care to share her life unless they had an equal amount
+of determination and enthusiasm.
+
+At that time she had not placed her work under the charge of a mission
+board and was carrying it on independently. Until our arrival she had
+seen but one white person in a year and a half, was living entirely
+upon Chinese food, and had tasted no butter or milk in months.
+
+We had a delightful dinner with Miss Morgan and the next morning as our
+caravan wound down the long hill past her house she stood at the window
+to wave good-by. She kept her head behind the curtains, and doubtless
+if we could have seen her face we would have found tears upon it, for
+the evening with another woman of her kind had brought to her a breath
+of the old life which she had resolutely forsaken and which so seldom
+penetrated to her self-appointed exile.
+
+On our ninth day from Yün-nan Fu we had a welcome bit of excitement. We
+were climbing a long mountain trail to a pass over eight thousand feet
+high and were near the summit when a boy dashed breathlessly up to the
+caravan, jabbering wildly in Chinese. It required fifteen minutes of
+questioning before we finally learned that bandits had attacked a big
+caravan less than a mile ahead of us and were even then ransacking the
+loads.
+
+He said that there were two hundred and fifty of them and that they had
+killed two _mafus_; almost immediately a second gesticulating Chinaman
+appeared and gave the number as three hundred and fifty and the dead as
+five. Allowing for the universal habit of exaggeration we felt quite
+sure that there were not more than fifty, and subsequently learned that
+forty was the correct number and that no one had been killed.
+
+Our caravan was in a bad place to resist an attack but we got out our
+rifles and made for a village at the top of the pass. There were not
+more than a half dozen mud houses and in the narrow street between them
+perfect bedlam reigned. Several small caravans had halted to wait for
+us, and men, horses, loads, and chairs were packed and jammed together
+so tightly that it seemed impossible ever to extricate them. Our
+arrival added to the confusion, but leaving the _mafus_ to scream and
+chatter among themselves, we scouted ahead to learn the true condition
+of affairs.
+
+Almost within sight we found the caravan which had been robbed. Paper
+and cloth were strewn about, loads overturned, and loose mules wandered
+over the hillside. The frightened _mafus_ were straggling back and
+told us that about forty bandits had suddenly surrounded the caravan,
+shooting and brandishing long knives. Instantly the _mafus_ had run
+for their lives leaving the brigands to rifle the packs unmolested.
+The goods chiefly belonged to the retiring mandarin of Li-chiang, and
+included some five thousand dollars worth of jade and gold dust, all of
+which was taken.
+
+Yün-nan, like most of the outlying provinces of China, is infested
+with brigands who make traveling very unsafe. There are, of course,
+organized bands of robbers at all times, but these have been greatly
+augmented since the rebellion by dismissed soldiers or deserters who
+have taken to brigandage as the easiest means to avoid starvation.
+
+The Chinese Government is totally unable to cope with the situation
+and makes only half-hearted attempts to punish even the most flagrant
+robberies, so that unguarded caravans carrying valuable material which
+arrive at their destination unmolested consider themselves very lucky.
+
+[Illustration: The Pagoda at Ta-li Fu]
+
+[Illustration: The Dead of China]
+
+So far as our expedition was concerned we did not feel great
+apprehension for it was generally known that we carried but little
+money and our equipment, except for guns, could not readily be disposed
+of. Throughout the entire expedition we paid our _mafus_ and servants a
+part of their wages in advance when they were engaged, and arranged to
+have money sent by the mandarins or the British American Tobacco Co.,
+to some large town which would be reached after several months. There
+the balance on salaries was paid and we carried with us only enough
+money for our daily needs.
+
+Before we left Yün-nan Fu we were assured by the Foreign Office that we
+would be furnished with a guard of soldiers--an honor few foreigners
+escape! The first day out we had four, all armed with umbrellas! These
+accompanied us to the first camp where they delivered their official
+message to the _yamen_ and intrusted us to the care of others for our
+next day's journey.
+
+Sometimes they were equipped with guns of the vintage of 1872, but
+their cartridges were seldom of the' same caliber as the rifles and in
+most cases the ubiquitous umbrella was their only weapon. Just what
+good they would be in a real attack it is difficult to imagine, except
+to divert attention by breaking the speed limits in running away.
+
+Several times in the morning we believed we had escaped them but they
+always turned up in an hour or two. They were not so much a nuisance
+as an expense, for custom requires that each be paid twenty cents
+(Mexican) a day both going and returning. They are of some use in
+lending an official aspect to an expedition and in requisitioning
+anything which may be needed; also they act as an insurance policy, for
+if a caravan is robbed a claim can be entered against the government,
+whereas if the escort is refused the traveler has no redress.
+
+It is amusing and often irritating to see the cavalier way in which
+these men treat other caravans or the peasants along the road. Waving
+their arms and shouting oaths they shoe horses, mules or chairs out of
+the way regardless of the confusion into which the approaching caravan
+may be thrown. They must also be closely watched for they are none too
+honest and are prone to rely upon the moral support of foreigners to
+take whatever they wish without the formality of payment.
+
+We were especially careful to respect the property on which we camped
+and to be just in all our dealings with the natives, but it was
+sometimes difficult to prevent the _mafus_ or soldiers from tearing
+down fences for firewood or committing similar depredations. Wherever
+such acts were discovered we made suitable payment and punished the
+offenders by deducting a part of their wages. Foreigners cannot respect
+too carefully the rights of the peasants, for upon their conduct rests
+the reception which will be accorded to all others who follow in their
+footsteps.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+TA-LI FU
+
+
+On Friday, September 28, we were at Chou Chou and camped in a
+picturesque little temple on the outskirts of the town. As the last
+stage was only six hours we spent half the morning in taking moving
+pictures of the caravan and left for Ta-li at eleven-thirty after an
+early =tiffin=.
+
+About two o'clock in the afternoon we reached Hsia-kuan, a large
+commercial town at the lower end of the lake. Its population largely
+consists of merchants and it is by all means the most important
+business place of interior Yün-nan; Ta-li, eight miles away, is the
+residence and official city.
+
+At Hsia-kuan we called upon the salt commissioner, Mr. Lui, to whom Mr.
+Bode, the salt inspector at Yün-nan Fu, had very kindly telegraphed
+money for my account, and after the usual tea and cigarettes we went
+oil to Ta-li Fu over a perfectly level paved road, which was so
+slippery that it was well-nigh impossible for either horse or man to
+move over it faster than a walk.
+
+This was the hottest day of our experience in Northern Yün-nan,
+the thermometer registering 85°+ in the shade, which is the usual
+mid-summer temperature, but the moment the sun dropped behind the
+mountains it was cool enough for one to enjoy a fire. Even in the
+winter it is never very cold and its delightful summer should make
+Northern Yün-nan a wonderful health resort for the residents of
+fever-stricken Burma and Tonking.
+
+We rode toward Ta-li with the beautiful lake on our right hand and on
+the other the Ts'ang Shan mountains which rise to a height of fourteen
+thousand feet. As we approached the city we could see dimly outlined
+against the foothills the slender shafts of three ancient pagodas. They
+were erected to the _feng-shui_, the spirits of the "earth, wind, and
+water," and for fifteen hundred years have stood guard over the stone
+graves which, in countless thousands, are spread along the foot of the
+mountains like a vast gray blanket. In the late afternoon sunlight the
+walls of the city seemed to recede before us and the picturesque gate
+loomed shadowy and unreal even when we passed through its gloomy arch
+and clattered up the stone-paved street.
+
+We soon discovered the residence of Mr. H. G. Evans, agent of the
+British American Tobacco Company, to whose care our first caravan had
+been consigned, and he very hospitably invited us to remain with him
+while we were in Ta-li Fu. This was only the beginning of Mr. Evans'
+assistance to the Expedition, for he acted as its banker throughout our
+stay in Yün-nan, cashing checks and transferring money for us whenever
+we needed funds.
+
+The British American Tobacco Company and the Standard Oil Company of
+New York are veritable "oases in the desert" for travelers because
+their agencies are found in the most out-of-the-way spots in Asia and
+their employees are always ready to extend the cordial hospitality of
+the East to wandering foreigners.
+
+Besides Mr. Evans the white residents of Ta-li Fu include the Reverend
+William J. Hanna, his wife and two other ladies, all of the China
+Inland Mission. Mr. Hanna is doing a really splendid work, especially
+along educational and medical lines. He has built a beautiful little
+chapel, a large school, and a dispensary in connection with his house,
+where he and his wife are occupied every morning treating the minor
+ills of the natives, Christian and heathen alike.
+
+Ta-li Fu was the scene of tremendous slaughter at the time of the
+Mohammedan war, when the Chinese captured the city through the
+treachery of its commander and turned the streets to rivers of blood.
+The Mohammedans were almost exterminated, and the ruined stone walls
+testify to the completeness of the Chinese devastation.
+
+The mandarin at Ta-li Fu was good-natured but dissipated and corrupt.
+He called upon us the evening of our arrival and almost immediately
+asked if we had any shotgun cartridges. He remarked that he had a gun
+but no shells, and as we did not offer to give him any he continued to
+hint broadly at every opportunity.
+
+The mandarins of lower rank often buy their posts and depend upon what
+they can make in "squeeze" from the natives of their district for
+reimbursement and a profit on their investment. In almost every case
+which is brought to them for adjustment the decision is withheld until
+the magistrate has learned which of the parties is prepared to offer
+the highest price for a settlement in his favor. The Chinese peasant,
+accepting this as the established custom, pays the bribe without a
+murmur if it is not too exorbitant and, in fact, would be exceedingly
+surprised if "justice" were dispensed in any other way.
+
+My personal relations with the various mandarins whom I was constantly
+required to visit officially were always of the pleasantest and I was
+treated with great courtesy. It was apparent wherever we were in China
+that there was a total lack of antiforeign feeling in both the peasant
+and official classes and except for the brigands, who are beyond the
+law, undoubtedly white men can travel in perfect safety anywhere in
+the republic. Before my first official visit Wu gave me a lesson in
+etiquette. The Chinese are exceedingly punctilious and it is necessary
+to conform to their standards of politeness for they do not realize, or
+accept in excuse, the fact that Western customs differ from their own.
+
+At the end of the reception room in every _yamen_ is a raised platform
+on which the visitor sits at the _left hand_ of the mandarin; it would
+be exceedingly rude for a magistrate to seat the caller on his right
+hand. Tea is always served immediately but is not supposed to be tasted
+until the official does so himself; the cup must then be lifted to
+the lips with both hands. Usually when the magistrate sips his tea
+it is a sign that the interview is ended. When leaving, the mandarin
+follows his visitor to the doorway of the outer court, while the latter
+continually bows and protests asking him not to come so far.
+
+Ta-li Fu and Hsia-kuan are important fur markets and we spent some time
+investigating the shops. One important find was the panda (_Ælurus
+fulgens_). The panda is an aberrant member of the raccoon family
+but looks rather like a fox; in fact the Chinese call it the "fire
+fox" because of its beautiful, red fur. Pandas were supposed to be
+exceedingly rare and we could hardly believe it possible when we saw
+dozens of coats made from their skins hanging in the fur shops.
+
+[Illustration: The Residence of Rev. William J. Hanna at Ta-li Fu]
+
+[Illustration: The Gate and Main Street of Ta-li Fu]
+
+Skins of the huge red-brown flying squirrel, _Petaurista yunnanensis_,
+were also used for clothing and the abundance of this animal was
+almost as great a surprise as the finding of the pandas. This is often
+true in the case of supposedly rare species. A few specimens may be
+obtained from the extreme limits of its range, or from a locality where
+it really is rare, and for years it may be almost unique in museum
+collections but eventually the proper locality may be visited and the
+animals found to be abundant.
+
+We saw several skins of the beautiful cat (_Felis temmincki_) which,
+with the snow leopard (_Felis uncia_), it was said came from Tibet.
+Civets, bears, foxes, and small cats were being used extensively for
+furs and pangolins could be purchased in the medicine shops. The scales
+of the pangolin are considered to be of great value in the treatment of
+certain diseases and the skins are usually sold by the pound as are the
+horns of deer, wapiti, gorals, and serows.
+
+Almost all of the fossil animals which have been obtained in China
+by foreigners have been purchased in apothecary shops. If a Chinaman
+discovers a fossil bed he guards it zealously for it represents an
+actual gold mine to him. The bones are ground into a fine powder, mixed
+with an acid, and a phosphate obtained which in reality has a certain
+value as a tonic. When a considerable amount of faith and Chinese
+superstition is added its efficacy assumes double proportions.
+
+Every year a few tiger skins find their way to Hsia-kuan from the
+southern part of the province along the Tonking border, but the good
+ones are quickly sold at prices varying from twenty-five to fifty
+dollars (Mexican). Ten dollars is the usual price for leopard skins.
+
+Marco Polo visited Ta-li Fu in the thirteenth century and, among other
+things, he speaks of the fine horses from this part of the province.
+We were surprised to find that the animals are considerably larger and
+more heavily built than those of Yün-nan Fu and appear to be better
+in every way. A good riding horse can be purchased for seventy-five
+dollars (Mexican) but mules are worth about one hundred and fifty
+dollars because they are considered better pack animals.
+
+On the advice of men who had traveled much in the interior of Yün-nan
+we hired our caravan and riding animals instead of buying them
+outright, and subsequent experience showed the wisdom of this course.
+Saddle ponies, which are used only for short trips about the city,
+cannot endure continual traveling over the execrable roads of the
+interior where often it is impossible to feed them properly. If an
+entire caravan were purchased the leader of the expedition would have
+unceasing trouble with the _mafus_ to insure even ordinary care of the
+animals, an opportunity would be given for endless "squeeze" in the
+purchase of food, and there are other reasons too numerous to mention
+why in this province the plan is impracticable.
+
+However, the caravan ponies do try one's patience to the limit. They
+are trained only to follow a leader, and if one happens to be behind
+another horse it is well-nigh impossible to persuade it to pass. Beat
+or kick the beast as one will, it only backs up or crowds closely
+to the horse in front. On the first day out Heller, who was on a
+particularly bad animal, when trying to pass one of us began to cavort
+about like a circus rider, prancing from side to side and backward but
+never going forward. We shouted that we would wait for him to go on but
+he replied helplessly, "I can't, this horse isn't under my management,"
+and we found very soon that our animals were not under our management
+either!
+
+In a town near Ta-li Fu we were in front of the caravan with Wu and
+Heller: Wu stopped to buy a basket of mushrooms but his horse refused
+to move ahead. Beat as he would, the animal only backed in a circle,
+ours followed, and in a few moments we were packed together so tightly
+that it was impossible even to dismount. There we sat, helpless, to the
+huge delight of the villagers until rescued by a _mafu_. As soon as he
+led Wu's horse forward the others proceeded as quietly as lambs.
+
+We paid forty cents (Mexican) a day for each animal while traveling,
+and fifteen or twenty cents when in camp, but the rate varies somewhat
+in different parts of the province, and in the west and south, along
+the Burma border fifty cents is the usual price. When a caravan is
+engaged the necessary _mafus_ are included and they buy food for
+themselves and beans and hay for the animals.
+
+Ever since leaving Yün-nan Fu the cook we engaged at Paik-hoi had
+been a source of combined irritation and amusement. He was a lanky,
+effeminate gentleman who never before had ridden a horse, and who was
+physically and mentally unable to adapt himself to camp life. After
+five months in the field he appeared to be as helpless when the caravan
+camped for the night as when we first started, and he would stand
+vacantly staring until someone directed him what to do. But he was a
+good cook, when he wished to exert himself, and had the great asset of
+knowing a considerable amount of English. While we were in Ta-li Fu Mr.
+Evans overheard him relating his experiences on the road to several of
+the other servants. "Of course," said the cook, "it is a fine way to
+see the country, but the riding! My goodness, that's awful! After the
+third day I didn't know whether to go on or turn back--I was so sore I
+couldn't sit down even on a chair to say nothing of a horse!"
+
+He had evidently fully made up his mind not to "see the country" that
+way for the day after we left Ta-li Fu _en route_ to the Tibetan
+frontier he became violently ill. Although we could find nothing the
+matter with him he made such a good case for himself that we believed
+he really was quite sick and treated him accordingly. The following
+morning, however, he sullenly refused to proceed, and we realized that
+his illness was of the mind rather than the body. As he had accepted
+two months' salary in advance and had already sent it to his wife in
+Paik-hoi, we were in a position to use a certain amount of forceful
+persuasion which entirely accomplished its object and illness did not
+trouble him thereafter.
+
+The loss of a cook is a serious matter to a large expedition. Good
+meals and varied food must be provided if the personnel is to work at
+its highest efficiency and cooking requires a vast amount of thought
+and time. In Yün-nan natives who can cook foreign food are by no means
+easy to find and when our Paik-hoi gentleman finally left us upon
+our return to Ta-li Fu we were fortunate in obtaining an exceedingly
+competent man to take his place through the good offices of Mr. Hanna.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+LI-CHIANG AND "THE TEMPLE OF THE FLOWERS"
+
+
+We left a part of our outfit with Mr. Evans at Ta-li Fu and with a
+new caravan of twenty-five animals traveled northward for six days to
+Li-chiang Fu. By taking a small road we hoped to find good collecting
+in the pine forests three days from Ta-li, but instead there was a
+total absence of animal life. The woods were beautiful, parklike
+stretches which in a country like California would be full of game,
+but here were silent and deserted. During the fourth and fifth days we
+were still in the forests, but on the sixth we crossed a pass 10,000
+feet high and descended abruptly into a long marshy plain where at the
+far end were the gray outlines of Li-chiang dimly visible against the
+mountains.
+
+Wu and I galloped ahead to find a temple for our camp, leaving Heller
+and my wife to follow. A few pages from her journal tell of their entry
+into the city.
+
+  We rode along a winding stone causeway and halted on the outskirts
+  of the town to wait until the caravan arrived. Neither Roy nor Wu
+  was in sight but we expected that the _mafus_ would ask where they
+  had gone and follow, for of coarse we could not speak a word of
+  the language. Already there was quite a sensation as we came down
+  the street, for our sudden appearance seemed to have stupefied
+  the people with amazement. One old lady looked at me with an
+  indescribable expression and uttered what sounded exactly like a
+  long-drawn "Mon Dieu" of disagreeable surprise.
+
+  I tried smiling at them but they appeared too astonished to
+  appreciate our friendliness and in return merely stared with open
+  mouths and eyes. We halted and immediately the street was blocked
+  by crowds of men, women, and children who poured out of the
+  houses, shops, and cross-streets to gaze in rapt attention. When
+  the caravan arrived we moved on again expecting that the _mafus_
+  had learned where Roy had gone, but they seemed to be wandering
+  aimlessly through the narrow winding streets. Even though we did
+  not find a camping place we afforded the natives intense delight.
+
+  I felt as though I were the chief actor in a circus parade at home,
+  but the most remarkable attraction there could not have equaled
+  our unparalleled success in Li-chiang. On the second excursion
+  through the town we passed down a cross-street, and suddenly from a
+  courtyard at the right we heard feminine voices speaking English.
+
+  "It's a girl. No, it's a boy. No, no, can't you see her hair, it's
+  a girl!" Just then we caught sight of three ladies, unmistakably
+  foreigners although dressed in Chinese costume. They were Mrs.
+  A. Kok, wife of the resident Pentecostal Missionary, and two
+  assistants, who rushed into the street as soon as they had
+  determined my sex and literally "fell upon my neck." They had not
+  seen a white woman since their arrival there four years ago and it
+  seemed to them that I had suddenly dropped from the sky.
+
+  While we were talking Wu appeared to guide us to the camp. They had
+  chosen a beautiful temple with a flower-filled courtyard on the
+  summit of a hill overlooking the city. It was wonderfully clean and
+  when our beds, tables, and chairs were spread on the broad stone
+  porch it seemed like a real home.
+
+  [Illustration: One of the Pagodas at Ta-li Fu]
+
+  The next days were busy ones for us all, Roy and Heller setting
+  traps, and I working at my photography. We let it be known that we
+  would pay well for specimens, and there was an almost uninterrupted
+  procession of men and boys carrying long sticks, on which were
+  strung frogs, rats, toads, and snakes. They would simply beam with
+  triumph and enthusiasm. Our fame spread and more came, bringing the
+  most ridiculous tame things--pigeons, maltese cats, dogs, white
+  rabbits, caged birds, and I even believe we might have purchased a
+  girl baby or two, for mothers stood about with little brown kiddies
+  on their backs as though they really would like to offer them to us
+  but hardly dared.
+
+  The temple priest was a good looking, smooth-faced chap, and hidden
+  under his coat he brought dozens of skins. I believe that his
+  religious vows did not allow him to handle animals--openly--and so
+  he would beckon Roy into the darkness of the temple with a most
+  mysterious air, and would extract all sorts of things from his
+  sleeves just like a sleight-of-hand performer. He was a rich man
+  when we left!
+
+  The people are mostly tribesmen--Mosos, Lolos, Tibetans, and many
+  others. The girls wear their hair "bobbed off" in front and with
+  a long plait in back. They wash their hair once--on their wedding
+  day--and then it is wrapped up in turbans for the rest of their
+  lives. The Tibetan women dress their hair in dozens of tiny braids,
+  but I don't believe there is any authority that they ever wash it,
+  or themselves either.
+
+Li-chiang was our first collecting camp and we never had a better one.
+On the morning after our arrival Heller found mammals in half his
+traps, and in the afternoon we each put out a line of forty traps which
+brought us fifty mammals of eleven species. This was a wonderful relief
+after the many days of travel through country devoid of animal life.
+
+Our traps contained shrews of two species, meadow voles, Asiatic
+white-footed mice, spiny mice, rats, squirrels, and tree shrews. The
+small mammals were exceedingly abundant and easy to catch, but after
+the first day we began to have difficulty with the natives who stole
+our traps. We usually marked them with a bit of cotton, and the boys
+would follow an entire line down a hedge, taking every one. Sometimes
+they even brought specimens to us for sale which we knew had been
+caught in our stolen traps!
+
+The traps were set under logs and stumps and in the grass where we
+found the "runways" or paths which mice, rats and voles often make.
+These animals begin to move about just after dark, and we usually would
+inspect our traps with a lantern about nine o'clock in the evening.
+This not only gave the trap a double chance to be filled but we also
+secured perfect specimens, for such species as mice and shrews are
+cannibalistic, and almost every night, if the specimens were not taken
+out early in the evening, several would be partly eaten.
+
+Small mammals are often of much greater interest and importance
+scientifically than large ones, for, especially among the Insectivores,
+there are many primitive forms which are apparently of ancestral stock
+and throw light on the evolutionary history of other living groups.
+
+Li-chiang is a fur market of considerable importance for the Tibetans
+bring down vast quantities of skins for sale and trade. Lambs, goats,
+foxes, cats, civets, pandas, and flying squirrels hang in the shops and
+there are dozens of fur dressers who do really excellent tanning.
+
+This city is a most interesting place especially on market day, for its
+inhabitants represent many different tribes with but comparatively few
+Chinese. By far the greatest percentage of natives are the Mosos who
+are semi-Tibetan in their life and customs. They were originally an
+independent race who ruled a considerable part of northern Yün-nan,
+and Li-chiang was their ancient capital. To the effeminate and "highly
+civilized" Chinese they are "barbarians," but we found them to be
+simple, honest and wholly delightful people. Many of those whom we met
+later had never seen a white woman, and yet their inherent decency was
+in the greatest contrast to that of the Chinese who consider themselves
+so immeasurably their superior.
+
+The Mosos have large herds of sheep and cattle, and this is the one
+place in the Orient except in large cities along the coast, where we
+could obtain fresh milk and butter. As with the Tibetans, buttered
+tea and _tsamba_ (parched oatmeal) are the great essentials, but they
+also grow quantities of delicious vegetables and fruit. Buttered tea
+is prepared by churning fresh butter into hot tea until the two have
+become well mixed. It is then thickened with finely ground _tsamba_
+until a ball is formed which is eaten with the fingers. The combination
+is distinctly good when the ingredients are fresh, but if the butter
+happens to be rancid the less said of it the better.
+
+The natives of this region are largely agriculturists and raise great
+quantities of squash, turnips, carrots, cabbage, potatoes, onions,
+corn, peas, beans, oranges, pears, persimmons and nuts. While traveling
+we filled our saddle pockets with pears and English walnuts or
+chestnuts and could replenish our stock at almost any village along the
+road.
+
+Everything was absurdly cheap. Eggs were usually about eight cents
+(Mexican) a dozen, and we could always purchase a chicken for an empty
+tin can, or two for a bottle. In fact, the latter was the greatest
+desideratum and when offers of money failed to induce a native to pose
+for the camera a bottle nearly always would decide matters in our favor.
+
+In Li-chiang we learned that there was good shooting only twelve miles
+north of the city on the Snow Mountain range, the highest peak of which
+rises 18,000 feet above the sea. We left a part of our outfit at Mr.
+Kok's house and engaged a caravan of seventeen mules to take us to the
+hunting grounds. Mr. Kok assisted us in numberless ways while we were
+in the vicinity of Li-chiang and in other parts of the country. He took
+charge of all our mail, sending it to us by runners, loaned us money
+when it was difficult to get cash from Ta-li Fu and helped us to engage
+servants and caravans.
+
+It had rained almost continually for five days and a dense gray curtain
+of fog hung far down in the valley, but on the morning of October
+11 we awoke to find ourselves in another world. We were in a vast
+amphitheater of encircling mountains, white almost to their bases,
+rising ridge on ridge, like the foamy billows of a mighty ocean. At the
+north, silhouetted against the vivid blue of a cloudless sky, towered
+the great Snow Mountain, its jagged peaks crowned with gold where the
+morning sun had kissed their summits. We rode toward it across a level
+rock-strewn plain and watched the fleecy clouds form, and float upward
+to weave in and out or lose themselves in the vast snow craters beside
+the glacier. It was an inspiration, that beautiful mountain, lying so
+white and still in its cradle of dark green trees. Each hour it seemed
+more wonderful, more dominating in its grandeur, and we were glad to be
+of the chosen few to look upon its sacred beauty.
+
+[Illustration: A Moso Herder]
+
+[Illustration: A Moso Woman]
+
+In the early afternoon we camped in a tiny temple which nestled into a
+grove of spruce trees on the outskirts of a straggling village. To the
+north the Snow Mountain rose almost above us, and on the east and south
+a grassy rock-strewn plain rolled away in gentle undulations to a range
+of hills which jutted into the valley like a great recumbent dragon.
+
+A short time after our camp was established we had a visit from an
+Austrian botanist, Baron Haendel-Mazzetti, who had been in the village
+for two weeks. He had come to Yün-nan for the Vienna Museum before the
+war, expecting to remain a year, but already had been there three.
+Surrounded as he was by Tibet, Burma, and Tonking, his only possible
+exit was by way of the four-month overland journey to Shanghai. He had
+little money and for two years had been living on Chinese food. He
+dined with us in the evening, and his enjoyment of our coffee, bread,
+kippered herring, and other canned goods was almost pathetic.
+
+A week after our arrival Baron Haendel-Mazzetti left for Yün-nan Fu and
+eventually reached Shanghai which, however, became a closed port to him
+upon China's entry into the European war. It is to be hoped that his
+collections, which must be of great scientific value and importance,
+have arrived at a place of safety long ere this book issues from the
+press.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+CAMPING IN THE CLOUDS
+
+
+We hired four Moso hunters in the Snow Mountain village. They were
+picturesque fellows, supposedly dressed in skins, but their garments
+were so ragged and patched that it was difficult to determine the
+original material of which they were made.
+
+One of them was armed with a most extraordinary gun which, it was said,
+came from Tibet. Its barrel was more than six feet long, and the stock
+was curved like a golf stick. A powder fuse projected from a hole in
+the side of the barrel, and just behind it on the butt was fastened a
+forked spring. At his waist the man carried a long coil of rope, the
+slowly burning end of which was placed in the crotched spring. When
+about to shoot the native placed the butt of the weapon against his
+cheek, pressed the spring so that the burning rope's end touched the
+powder fuse, and off went the gun.
+
+The three other hunters carried crossbows and poisoned arrows. They
+were remarkably good shots and at a distance of one hundred feet could
+place an arrow in a six-inch circle four times out of five. We found
+later that crossbows are in common use throughout the more remote parts
+of Yün-nan and were only another evidence that we had suddenly dropped
+back into the Middle Ages and, with our high-power rifles and twentieth
+century equipment, were anachronisms.
+
+The natives are able to obtain a good deal of game even with such
+primitive weapons for they depend largely upon dogs which bring gorals
+and serows to bay against a cliff and hold them until the men arrive.
+The dogs are a mongrel breed which appears to be largely hound, and
+some are really excellent hunters. White is the usual color but a few
+are mixed black and brown, or fox red. Hotenfa, one of our Mosos,
+owned a good pack and we all came to love its big red leader. This
+fine dog could be depended upon to dig out game if there was any in
+the mountains, but his life with us was short for he was killed by our
+first serow. Hotenfa was inconsolable and the tears he shed were in
+sincere sorrow for the loss of a faithful friend.
+
+Almost every family owns a dog. Some of those we saw while passing
+through Chinese villages were nauseating in their unsightliness, for at
+least thirty per cent of them were more or less diseased. Barely able
+to walk, they would stagger across the street or lie in the gutter in
+indescribable filth. One longed to put them out of their misery with a
+bullet but, although they seemed to belong to nobody, if one was killed
+an owner appeared like magic to quarrel over the damages.
+
+The dogs of the non-Chinese tribes were in fairly good condition
+and there seemed to be comparatively little disease among them. Our
+hunters treated their hounds kindly and fed them well, but the animals
+themselves, although loyal to their masters, manifested but little
+affection. In Korea dogs are eaten by the natives, but none of the
+tribes with which we came in contact in Yün-nan used them for food.
+
+On our first day in the temple Heller went up the Snow Mountain for a
+reconnaissance and the party secured a fine porcupine. It is quite a
+different animal from the American tree porcupines and represents a
+genus (_Hystrix_) which is found in Asia, Africa, and southern Europe.
+This species lives in burrows and, when hunting big game, we were often
+greatly annoyed to find that our dogs had followed the trail of one
+of these animals. We would arrive to see the hounds dancing about the
+burrow yelping excitedly instead of having a goral at bay as we had
+expected.
+
+Some of the beautiful black and ivory white quills are more than twelve
+inches long and very sharp. A porcupine will keep an entire pack of
+dogs at bay and is almost sure to drive its murderous weapons into the
+bodies of some of them unless the hunters arrive in a short time. The
+Mosos eat the flesh which is white and fine.
+
+Although we were only twelve miles from Li-chiang the traps yielded
+four shrews and one mouse which were new to our collection. The natives
+brought in three bats which we had not previously seen and began a
+thriving business in toads and frogs with now and then a snake.
+
+The temple was an excellent place for small mammals but it was evident
+that we would have to move high up on the slopes of the mountain if
+gorals and other big game were to be obtained. Accordingly, while
+Heller prepared a number of bat skins we started out on horse-back to
+hunt a camp site.
+
+It was a glorious day with the sun shining brilliantly from a cloudless
+sky and just a touch of autumn snap in the air. We crossed the sloping
+rock-strewn plain to the base of the mountain, and discovered a trail
+which led up a forested shoulder to the right of the main peaks. An
+hour of steady climbing brought us to the summit of the ridge where we
+struck into the woods toward a snow-field on the opposite slope. The
+trail led us along the brink of a steep escarpment from which we could
+look over the valley and away into the blue distance toward Li-chiang.
+Three thousand feet below us the roof of our temple gleamed from among
+the sheltering pine trees, and the herds of sheep and cattle massed
+themselves into moving patches on the smooth brown plain.
+
+[Illustration: The Snow Mountain]
+
+We pushed our way through the spruce forest with the glistening
+snow bed as a beacon and suddenly emerged into a flat open meadow
+overshadowed by the ragged peaks. "What a perfectly wonderful place
+to camp," we both exclaimed. "If we can only find water, let's come
+tomorrow."
+
+The hunters had assured us that there were no streams on this end of
+the mountain but we hoped to find a snow bank which would supply our
+camp for a few days at least. We rode slowly up the meadow reveling in
+the grandeur of the snow-crowned pinnacles and feeling very small and
+helpless amid surroundings where nature had so magnificently expressed
+herself.
+
+At the far end of the meadow we discovered a dry creek bed which led
+upward through the dense spruce forest. "Where water has been, water
+may be again," we argued and, leading the horses, picked our way among
+the trees and over fallen logs to a fairly open hill slope where we
+attempted to ride, but our animals were nearly done. After climbing a
+few feet they stood with heaving sides and trembling legs the breath
+rasping through distended nostrils. We felt the altitude almost as
+badly as the horses for the meadow itself was twelve thousand feet
+above the level of the sea and the air was very thin.
+
+There seemed to be no hope of finding even a suitable snow bank when it
+was slowly borne in upon us that the subdued roaring in our ears was
+the sound of water and not the effect of altitude as we both imagined.
+Above and to the left was a sheer cliff, hundreds of feet in height,
+and as we toiled upward and emerged beyond timber line we caught a
+glimpse of a silver ribbon streaming down its face. It came from a
+melting snow crater and we could follow its course with our eyes to
+where it swung downward along a rock wall not far from the upper end of
+the meadow. It was so hidden by the trees that had we not climbed above
+timber line, it never would have been discovered.
+
+This solved the question of our camp and we looked about us happily. On
+the way through the forest we had noticed small mammal runways under
+almost every log and, when we stood above the tree limit, the grassy
+slope was cut by an intricate network of tiny tunnels. These were
+plainly the work of a meadow vole (_Microtus_) and at this altitude it
+certainly would prove to be a species new to our collection.
+
+The sun had already dropped behind the mountain and the meadow was in
+shadow when we reached it again on our homeward way. By five o'clock
+we were in the temple eating a belated tiffin and making preparations
+for an early start. But our hopes were idle, for in the morning three
+of the mules had strayed, and we did not arrive at the meadow until two
+o'clock in the afternoon.
+
+Our camp was made just at the edge of the spruce forest a few hundred
+yards from the snow stream. As soon as the tents were up we climbed to
+the grassy slope above timber line, with Heller, to set a string of
+traps in the vole runways and under logs and stumps in the forest.
+
+[Illustration: A Cheek Gun Used by One of Our Hunters]
+
+[Illustration: The First Goral Killed on the Snow Mountain]
+
+The hunters made their camp beside a huge rock a short distance away
+and slept in their ragged clothes without a blanket or shelter of any
+kind. It was delightfully warm, even at this altitude, when the sun was
+out, but as soon as it disappeared we needed a fire and the nights were
+freezing cold; yet the natives did not seem to mind it in the slightest
+and refused our offer of a canvas tent fly.
+
+We never will forget that first night on the Snow Mountain. As we sat
+at dinner about the camp-fire we could see the somber mass of the
+forest losing itself in the darkness, and felt the unseen presence of
+the mighty peaks standing guard about our mountain home. We slept,
+breathing the strong, sweet perfume of the spruce trees and dreamed
+that we two were wandering alone through the forest opening the
+treasure boxes of the Wild.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE FIRST GORAL
+
+
+We were awakened before daylight by Wu's long drawn call to the
+hunters, "_L-a-o-u H-o, L-a-o-u H-o, L-a-o-u H-o._" The steady drum of
+rain on our tent shot a thrill of disappointment through me as I opened
+my eyes, but before we had crawled out of our sleeping-bags and dressed
+it lessened to a gentle patter and soon ceased altogether. It left a
+cold, gray morning with dense clouds weaving in and out among the peaks
+but, nevertheless, I decided to go out with the hunters to try for
+goral.
+
+Two of the men took the dogs around the base of a high rock shoulder
+sparsely covered with scrub spruce while I went up the opposite slope
+accompanied by the other two. We had not been away from camp half an
+hour when the dogs began to yelp and almost immediately we heard them
+coming around the summit of the ridge in our direction. The hunters
+made frantic signs for me to hurry up the steep slope but in the thin
+air with my heart pounding like a trip hammer I could not go faster
+than a walk.
+
+We climbed about three hundred yards when suddenly the dogs appeared
+on the side of the cliff near the summit. Just in front of them was
+a bounding gray form. The mist closed in and we lost both dogs and
+animals but ten minutes later a blessed gust of wind drifted the fog
+away and the goral was indistinctly visible with its back to a rock
+ledge facing the dogs. The big red leader of the pack now and then
+dashed in for a nip at the animal's throat but was kept at bay by its
+vicious lunges and sharp horns.
+
+[Illustration: Hotenfa, One of Our Moso Hunters, Bringing in a Goral]
+
+[Illustration: Another Moso Hunter with a Porcupine]
+
+It was nearly three hundred yards away but the cloud was drifting in
+again and I dropped down for a shot. The hunters were running up the
+slope, frantically waving for me to come on, thinking it madness to
+shoot at that distance. I could just see the gray form through the
+sights and the first two shots spattered the loose rock about a foot
+low. For the third I got a dead rest over a stone and as the crash of
+the little Mannlicher echoed up the gorge, the goral threw itself into
+the air whirling over and over onto the rocks below.
+
+The hunters, mad with excitement, dashed up the hill and down into the
+stream bed, and when I arrived the goral lay on a grassy ledge beside
+the water. The animal was stone dead, for my bullet had passed through
+its lungs, and, although the front teeth had been smashed on the rocks,
+its horns were uninjured and the beautiful gray coat was in perfect
+condition. It so happened that this ram was the largest which we killed
+on the entire trip.
+
+When the hunters were carrying the goral to camp we met Yvette and
+Heller on their way to visit the traps just below snow line, and she
+returned with me to photograph the animal and to watch the ceremonies
+which I knew would be performed. One of the natives cut a leafy branch,
+placed the goral upon it and at the first cut chanted a prayer. Then
+laying several leaves one upon the other he sliced off the tip of the
+heart, wrapped it carefully in the leaves and placed it in a nearby
+tree as an offering to the God of the Hunt.
+
+I have often seen the Chinese and Korean hunters perform similar
+ceremonies at the death of an animal, and the idea that it is necessary
+to propitiate the God of the Hunt is universal. When I was shooting
+in Korea in 1912, and also in other parts of China, if luck had been
+against us for a few days the hunters would invariably ask me to buy a
+chicken, or some animal to sacrifice for "good joss."
+
+After each dog had had a taste of the goral's blood we again climbed
+the cliff at the end of the meadow. When we were nearly 2,000 feet
+above camp the clouds shut in and, as the impenetrable gray curtain
+wrapped itself about us, we could only sit quietly and wait for it to
+drift away.
+
+After an hour the fog began to thin and the men sent the hounds toward
+a talus slope at the base of the highest peak. Almost immediately the
+big red dog picked up a trail and started across the loose rock with
+the pack yelping at his heels. We followed as rapidly as possible over
+such hard going but before we reached the other side the dogs had
+rounded a sharp pinnacle and disappeared far below us. Expecting that
+the goral would swing about the base of the peak the hunters sent me
+back across the talus to watch for a shot, but the animal ran down the
+valley and into a heavily wooded ravine where the dogs lost his trail
+only a short distance above camp.
+
+I returned to find that Heller had secured a rich haul from the traps.
+As we supposed, the runways which Yvette and I had discovered above
+timber line were made by a meadow vole (_Microtus_) and in the forest
+almost every trap had caught a white-footed mouse (_Apodemus_). He also
+had several new shrews and we caught eight different species of these
+important little animals at this one camp.
+
+Wu, the interpreter, hearing us speak of shrews, came to me one day in
+great perplexity with his Anglo-Chinese dictionary. He had looked up
+the word "shrew" and found that it meant "a cantankerous woman!"
+
+The following day Heller went out with the hunters and saw two gorals
+but did not get a shot. In the meantime Yvette and I ran the traps and
+prepared the small mammals. While we were far up on the mountain-side,
+Baron Haendel-Mazzetti appeared armed with ropes and an alpine snow ax.
+He was about to attempt to climb the highest peak which had never been
+ascended but the drifts turned him back several hundred feet from the
+summit. He dined at our camp and as all of us carefully refrained from
+"war talk" we spent a very pleasant evening. During his three years in
+Yün-nan he had explored and mapped many sections of the province which
+had not been visited previously by foreigners and from him we obtained
+much valuable information.
+
+On the third morning we were up before daylight and I left with the
+hunters in the gray dawn. We climbed steadily for an hour after leaving
+camp and, when well up on the mountain-side, skirted the base of a huge
+peak through a dense forest of spruce and low bamboo thickets, emerging
+upon a steep grassy meadow; this abutted on a sheer rock wall at the
+upper end, and below ran into a thick evergreen forest.
+
+As we entered the meadow the big red leading dog, trotted off by
+himself toward the rock wall above us, and in a few moments we heard
+his sharp yelps near the summit. Instantly the pack was off stringing
+out in a long line up the hillside.
+
+We had nearly crossed the open slope and were standing on the edge of
+a deep gully when the dogs gave tongue and as soon as the hunters were
+sure they were coming in our direction we hurried to the bottom of
+the gorge and began the sharp ascent on the other side. It was almost
+straight up and before we had gone a hundred feet we were all gasping
+for breath and my legs seemed like bars of lead, but the staccato yelps
+of the dogs sounding closer and closer kept us going.
+
+When we finally dropped on the summit of the hill I was absolutely
+done. I lay flat on my back for a few minutes and got to my knees
+just as the goral appeared on the opposite cliff. The sight of the
+magnificent animal bounding like rubber from ledges which his feet
+seemed hardly to touch down the face of a sheer wall, will remain in my
+memory as long as I live. He seemed the very spirit of the mountains, a
+thing born of peaks and crags, vibrant with the breath of the clouds.
+Selecting a spot which he must touch in the next flying leap, I waited
+until his body darkened the sights and then pulled the trigger.
+
+The game little brute collapsed, then struggled to his feet, and with a
+tremendous leap landed on a projecting shelf of rock four yards below.
+Instantly I fired again and he sank down in a crumpled gray mass not
+two feet from the edge of the precipice which fell away in a dizzy drop
+of six hundred feet.
+
+The dogs were on him long before we had worked our way down the cañon
+and up to the shelf where he lay. He was a fine ram nearly as large as
+the first one I had killed. I wanted to rest the dogs for they were
+very tired from their two days of hunting, so I decided to return to
+camp with the men. On the way a second goral was started but it swung
+about the summit of the wooded ridge instead of coming in my direction,
+giving one of the hunters a shot with his crossbow, which he missed.
+
+It was a beautiful day. Above us the sky was clear and blue but the
+clouds still lay thickly over the meadow and the camp was invisible.
+The billowy masses clung to the forest line, but from the slopes above
+them we could look far across the valley into the blue distance where
+the snow-covered summits of range after range of magnificent mountains
+lay shining in the sun like beaten silver. There was a strange
+fascination about those mountains, and I thrilled with the thought that
+for twelve long months I was free to roam where I willed and explore
+their hidden mysteries.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+MORE GORALS
+
+
+Both gorals were fine old rams with perfect horns. Their hair was thick
+and soft, pale olive-buff tipped with brownish, and the legs on the
+"cannon bones" were buff-yellow like the margins of the throat patches.
+Their color made them practically invisible against the rocks and when
+I killed the second goral my only distinct impression as he dashed
+down the face of the precipice, was of four yellowish legs entirely
+separated from a body which I could hardly see.
+
+This invisibility, combined with the fact that the Snow Mountain
+gorals lived on almost inaccessible cliffs thickly covered with
+scrub spruce forest, made "still hunting" impossible. In fact. Baron
+Haendel-Mazzetti, who had explored this part of the Snow Mountains
+fairly thoroughly in his search for plants, had never seen a goral, and
+did not know that such an animal existed there.
+
+Heller hunted for two days in succession and, although he saw several
+gorals, he was not successful in getting one until we had been in camp
+almost a week. His was a young male not more than a year old with horns
+about an inch long. It was a valuable addition to our collection for
+I was anxious to obtain specimens of various ages to be mounted as a
+"habitat group" in the Museum and we lacked only a female.
+
+The preparation of the group required the greatest care and study.
+First, we selected a proper spot to reproduce in the Museum, and
+Yvette took a series of natural color photographs to guide the artist
+in painting the background. Next she made detail photographs of the
+surroundings. Then we collected portions of the rocks and typical bits
+of vegetation such as moss and leaves, to be either dried or preserved
+in formalin. In a large group, perhaps several thousand leaves will be
+required, but the field naturalist need select typical specimens of
+only five or six different sizes from each of which a plaster mold can
+be made at the Museum and the leaves reproduced in wax.
+
+After two days of rain during which I had a hard and unsuccessful
+hunt for serows we decided to return to the temple at the foot of the
+mountain which was nearer to the forests inhabited by these animals. We
+had already been in our camp on the meadow for nine days and, besides
+the gorals, had gathered a large and valuable collection of small
+mammals. The shrews were especially varied in species and, besides a
+splendid series of meadow voles, Asiatic mice and rats, we obtained a
+new weasel and a single specimen of a tiny rock-cony or little chief
+hare, an Asiatic genus (_Ochotona_) which is also found in the western
+part of North America on the high slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
+Although we set dozens of traps among the rocks we did not get another
+on the entire expedition nor did we see indications of their presence
+in other localities.
+
+The almost complete absence of carnivores at this camp was a great
+surprise. Except for weasels we saw no others and the hunters said that
+foxes or civets did not occur on this side of the mountain even though
+food was abundant.
+
+On the day before we went to the temple I had a magnificent hunt. We
+left camp at daylight in a heavy fog and almost at once the dogs took
+up a serow trail. We heard them coming toward us as we stood at the
+upper edge of a little meadow and expected the animal to break cover
+any moment, but it turned down the mountain and the hounds lost the
+trail in the thick spruce woods.
+
+We climbed slowly toward the cliffs until we were well above the
+clouds, which lay in a thick white blanket over the camp, and headed
+for the cañon where I had shot my second goral. Hotenfa wished to go
+lower down into the forests but I prevailed upon him to stay along the
+open slopes and, while we were resting, the big red dog suddenly gave
+tongue on a ridge above and to the right of us. It was in the exact
+spot where my second goral had been started and we were on the _qui
+vive_ when the rest of the pack dashed up the mountain-side to join
+their leader.
+
+In a few moments they all gave tongue and we heard them swinging about
+in our direction. Just then the clouds, which had been lying in a solid
+bank below us, began to drift upward in a long, thin finger toward the
+cañon. On and on it came, and closer sounded the yelps of the dogs. I
+was trembling with impatience and swearing softly as the gray vapor
+streamed into the gorge. The cloud thickened, sweeping rapidly up the
+ravine, until we were enveloped so completely that I could hardly see
+the length of my gun barrel. A moment later we heard the goral leaping
+down the cliff not a hundred yards away.
+
+With the rifle useless in my hands I listened to each hoof beat and the
+stones which his flying feet sent rattling into the gorge. Then the
+dogs came past, and we heard them follow down the rocks, their yelps
+growing fainter and fainter in the valley far below. The goral was
+lost, and as though the Fates were laughing at us, ten minutes later
+a puff of wind sucked the cloud out of the cañon as swiftly as it had
+come, and above us shone a sky as clear and blue as a tropic sea.
+
+Hotenfa's disgust more than equaled my own for I had loaned him my
+three-barrel gun (12 gauge and .808 Savage) and he was as excited as a
+child with a new toy. He was a remarkably intelligent man and mastered
+the safety catches in a short time even though he had never before seen
+a breach-loading gun.
+
+There was nothing to do but hurry down the mountain for the dogs might
+bring the goral to bay on one of the cliffs below us, and in twenty
+minutes we stood on a ridge which jutted out from the thick spruce
+forest. One of the hunters picked his way down the rock wall while
+Hotenfa and I circled the top of the spur.
+
+We had not gone a hundred yards when the hunter shouted that a goral
+was running in our direction. Hotenfa reached the edge of the ridge
+before me, and I saw him fire with the three-barrel gun at a goral
+which disappeared into the brush. His bullet struck the dirt only a few
+feet behind the animal although it must have been well beyond a hundred
+yards and almost straight below us.
+
+Hardly had we drawn back when a yell from the other hunter brought us
+again to the edge of the cliff just in time to see a second goral dash
+into the forest a good three hundred yards away in the very bottom of
+the gorge.
+
+Rather disappointed we continued along the ridge and Hotenfa made
+signs which said as plainly as words, "I told you so. The gorals are
+not on the peaks but down in the forest. We ought to have come here
+first."
+
+There were not many moments for regret, however, for this was "our busy
+day." Suddenly a burst of frantic yelps from the red dog turned us
+off to the left and we heard him nearing the summit of the spur which
+we had just left. One of the other hunters was standing there and his
+crossbow twanged as the goral passed only a few yards from him, but the
+wicked little poisoned dart stuck quivering into a tree a few inches
+above the animal's back.
+
+The goral dashed over the ridge almost on top of the second hunter who
+was too surprised to shoot and only yelled that it was coming toward
+us on the cliff below. Hotenfa leaped from rock to rock, almost like
+a goat himself, and dashed through the bushes toward a jutting shelf
+which overhung the gorge.
+
+We reached the rim at the same moment and saw a huge ram standing on
+a narrow ledge a hundred yards below. I fired instantly and the noble
+animal, with feet wide spread, and head thrown back, launched himself
+into space falling six hundred feet to the rocks beneath us.
+
+As the goral leaped Hotenfa seemed suddenly to go insane. Yelling with
+joy, he threw his arms about my neck, rubbing my face with his and
+pounding me on the back until I thought he would throw us both off the
+cliff. I was utterly dumbfounded but seized his three-barrel gun to
+unload it for in his excitement there was imminent danger that he would
+shoot either himself or me.
+
+Then I realized what it was all about. We had both fired
+simultaneously and neither had heard the other's shot. By mistake
+Hotenfa had discharged a load of buckshot and it was my bullet which
+had killed the goral but his joy was so great that I would not for
+anything have disillusioned him.
+
+It was a half hour's hard work to get to the place where the goral had
+fallen. The dogs were already there lying quietly beside the animal
+when we arrived. My bullet had entered the back just in front of the
+hind leg and ranged forward through the lungs flattening itself against
+the breast bone; the jacket had split, one piece tearing into the
+heart, so that the ram was probably dead before it struck the rocks.
+
+I photographed the goral where it lay and after it had been
+eviscerated, and the hunters had performed their ceremonies to the God
+of the Hunt, I sent one of them back with it while Hotenfa and I worked
+toward the bottom of the cañon in the hope of finding the other animals.
+
+It was a delightfully warm day and Hotenfa told me in his vivid sign
+language that the gorals were likely to be asleep on the sunny side of
+the ravine; therefore we worked up the opposite slope.
+
+It was the hardest kind of climbing and for two hours we plodded
+steadily upward, clinging by feet and hands to bushes and rocks, and
+were almost exhausted when we reached a small open patch of grass about
+two thirds of the way to the summit.
+
+We rested for half an hour and, after a light tiffin, toiled on again.
+I had not gone thirty feet, and Hotenfa was still sitting down, when I
+saw him wave his arm excitedly and throw up his gun to shoot. I leaped
+down to his side just as he fired at a big female goral which was
+sound asleep in an open patch of grass on the mountain-side.
+
+Hotenfa's bullet broke the animal's foreleg at the knee but without the
+slightest sign of injury she dashed down the cliff. I fired as she ran,
+striking her squarely in the heart, and she pitched headlong into the
+bushes a hundred feet below.
+
+How Hotenfa managed to pack that animal to the summit of the ridge I
+never can understand, for with a light sack upon my back and a rifle it
+was all I could do to pull myself up the rocks. He was completely done
+when we finally threw ourselves on the grass at the edge of the meadow
+which we had left in the morning. Hotenfa chanted his prayer when we
+opened the goral, but the God of the Hunt missed his offering for my
+bullet had smashed the heart to a pulp.
+
+On our way back to camp the red dog, although dead tired, disappeared
+alone into the heavy forest below us. Suddenly we heard his deep bay
+coming up the hill in our direction. Hotenfa and I dropped our burdens
+and ran to an opening in the forest where we thought the animal must
+pass.
+
+Instead of coming out where we expected, the dog appeared higher up
+at the heels of a crested muntjac (_Elaphodus_), which was bounding
+along at full speed, its white flag standing straight up over its dark
+bluish back. I had one chance for a shot at about one hundred and fifty
+yards as the pair crossed a little opening in the trees, but it was too
+dangerous to shoot for, had I missed the deer, the dog certainly would
+have been killed.
+
+[Illustration: A Typical Goral Cliff on the Snow Mountain]
+
+I was heart-broken over losing this animal, for it is an exceedingly
+rare species, but a few days later a shepherd brought in another which
+had been wounded by one of our Lolo hunters and had run down into the
+plains to die.
+
+When we reached the hill above camp Yvette ran out to meet us, falling
+over logs and bushes in her eagerness to see what we were carrying.
+No dinner which I have ever eaten tasted like the one we had of goral
+steak that night and after a smoke I crawled into my sleeping bag, dead
+tired in body but with a happy heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE SNOW MOUNTAIN TEMPLE
+
+
+On October 22, we moved to the foot of the mountain and camped in the
+temple which we had formerly occupied. This was directly below the
+forests inhabited by serow, and we expected to devote our efforts
+exclusively toward obtaining a representative series of these animals.
+
+Unfortunately I developed a severe infection in the palm of my right
+hand almost immediately, and had it not been for the devoted care of
+my wife I should not have left China alive. Through terrible nights of
+delirium when the poison was threatening to spread over my entire body,
+she nursed me with an utter disregard of her own health and slept only
+during a few restless hours of complete exhaustion. For three weeks I
+could do no work but at last was able to bend my "trigger finger" and
+resume hunting although I did not entirely recover the use of my hand
+for several months.
+
+However, the work of the expedition by no means ceased because of my
+illness. Mr. Heller continued to collect small mammals with great
+energy and the day after we arrived at the temple we engaged eight new
+native hunters. These were Lolos, a wandering unit from the independent
+tribe of S'suchuan and they proved to be excellent men.
+
+The first serow was killed by Hotenfa's party on our third day in the
+temple. Heller went out with the hunters but in a few hours returned
+alone. A short time after he had left the natives the dogs took up
+the trail of a huge serow and followed it for three miles through the
+spruce forest. They finally brought the animal to bay against a cliff
+and a furious fight ensued. One dog was ripped wide open, another
+received a horn-thrust in the side, and the big red leader was thrown
+over a cliff to the rocks below. More of the hounds undoubtedly would
+have been killed had not the hunters arrived and shot the animal.
+
+The men brought the serow in late at night but our joy was considerably
+dampened by the loss of the red dog. Hotenfa carried him in his arms
+and laid him gently on a blanket in the temple but the splendid animal
+died during the night. His master cried like a child and I am sure that
+he felt more real sorrow than he would have shown at the loss of his
+wife; for wives are much easier to get in China than good hunting dogs.
+
+The serow was an adult male, badly scarred from fighting, and had lost
+one horn by falling over a cliff when he was killed. He was brownish
+black, with rusty red lower legs and a whitish mane. His right horn was
+nine and three-quarters inches in length and five and three-quarters
+inches in circumference at the base and the effectiveness with which
+he had used his horns against the dogs demonstrated that they were
+by no means only for ornaments. In the next chapter the habits and
+relationships of the gorals and serows will be considered more fully.
+
+On the morning following the capture of the first serow the last rain
+of the season began and continued for nine days almost without ceasing.
+The weather made hunting practically impossible for the fog hung
+so thickly over the woods that one could not see a hundred feet and
+Heller found that many of his small traps were sprung by the raindrops.
+The Lolos had disappeared, and we believed that they had returned to
+their village, but they had been hunting in spite of the weather and
+on the fifth day arrived with a fine male serow in perfect condition.
+It showed a most interesting color variation for, instead of red, the
+lower legs were buff with hardly a tinge of reddish.
+
+November 2, the sun rose in an absolutely cloudless sky and during
+the remainder of the winter we had as perfect weather as one could
+wish. Yvette's constant mussing and efficient surgery combined with
+the devotion of our interpreter, Wu, had checked the spread of the
+poison in my hand and my nights were no longer haunted with the strange
+fancies of delirium, but I was as helpless as a babe. I could do
+nothing but sit with steaming cloths wrapped about my arm and rail at
+the fate which kept me useless in the temple.
+
+The Lolos killed a third serow on the mountain just above our camp but
+the animal fell into a rock fissure more than a hundred feet deep and
+was recovered only after a day's hard work. The men wove a swinging
+ladder from tough vines, climbed down it, and drew the serow bodily up
+the cliff; as it weighed nearly three hundred pounds this was by no
+means an easy undertaking.
+
+Our Lolo hunters were tall, handsome fellows led by a slender young
+chief with patrician features who ruled his village like an autocrat
+with absolute power of life and death. The Lolos are a strange people
+who at one time probably occupied much of the region south of the
+Yangtze River but were pushed south and west by the Chinese and, except
+in one instance, now exist only in scattered units in the provinces of
+Kwei-chau and Yün-nan.
+
+In S'suchuan the Lolos hold a vast territory which is absolutely
+closed to the Chinese on pain of death and over which they exercise no
+control. Several expeditions have been launched against the Lolos but
+all have ended in disaster.
+
+Only a few weeks before we arrived in Yün-nan a number of Chinese
+soldiers butchered nearly a hundred Lolos whom they had encountered
+outside the independent territory, and in reprisal the Lolos burned
+several villages almost under the walls of a fortified city in which
+were five hundred soldiers, massacred all the men and boys, and carried
+off the women as slaves.
+
+The pure blood Lolos "are a very fine tall race, with comparatively
+fair complexions, and often with straight features, suggesting a
+mixture of Mongolian with some more straight-featured race. Their
+appearance marks them as closely connected by race with the eastern
+Tibetans, the latter being, if anything, rather the bigger men of the
+two."[2] They are great wanderers and over a very large part of Yün-nan
+form the bulk of the hill population, being the most numerous of all
+the non-Chinese tribes in the province.
+
+[Footnote 2: "Yün-nan, the Link between India and the Yangtze," by
+Major H. R. Davies, 1909, p. 389.]
+
+Like almost every race which has been conquered by the Chinese or has
+come into continual contact with them for a few generations, the Lolos
+of Yün-nan, where they are in isolated villages, are being absorbed by
+the Chinese. We found, as did Major Davies, that in some instances
+they were giving up their language and beginning to talk Chinese even
+among themselves. The women already had begun to tie up their feet in
+the Chinese fashion and even disliked to be called Lolos.
+
+Those whom we employed were living entirely by hunting and, although
+we found them amiable enough, they were exceedingly independent. They
+preferred to hunt alone, although they recognized what an increased
+chance for game our high-power rifles gave them, and eventually left
+us while I was away on a short trip, even though we still owed them
+considerable money.
+
+The Lolos are only one of the non-Chinese tribes of Yün-nan. Major
+Davies has considered this question in his valuable book to which I
+have already referred, and I cannot do better than quote his remarks
+here.
+
+  The numerous non-Chinese tribes that the traveler encounters in
+  western China, form perhaps one of the most interesting features
+  of travel in that country. It is safe to assert that in hardly any
+  other part of the world is there such a large variety of languages
+  and dialects, as are to be heard in the country which lies between
+  Assam and the eastern border of Yün-nan and in the Indo-Chinese
+  countries to the south of this region.
+
+  The reason of this is not hard to find. It lies in the physical
+  characteristics of the country. It is the high mountain ranges
+  and the deep swift-flowing rivers that have brought about the
+  differences in customs and language, and the innumerable tribal
+  distinctions, which are so perplexing to the enquirer into
+  Indo-Chinese ethnology.
+
+  A tribe has entered Yün-nan from their original Himalayan or
+  Tibetan home, and after increasing in numbers have found the land
+  they have settled on not equal to their wants. The natural result
+  has been the emigration of part of the colony. The emigrants,
+  having surmounted pathless mountains and crossed unbridged rivers
+  on extemporized rafts, have found a new place to settle in, and
+  have felt no inclination to undertake such a journey again to
+  revisit their old home.
+
+  Being without a written character in which to preserve their
+  traditions, cut off from all civilizing influence of the outside
+  world, and occupied merely in growing crops enough to support
+  themselves, the recollection of their connection with their
+  original ancestors has died out. It is not then surprising that
+  they should now consider themselves a totally distinct race from
+  the parent stock. Inter-tribal wars, and the practice of slave
+  raiding so common among the wilder members of the Indo-Chinese
+  family, have helped to still further widen the breach. In fact
+  it may be considered remarkable that after being separated for
+  hundreds, and perhaps in some case for thousands, of years, the
+  languages of two distant tribes of the same family should bear to
+  each other the marked general resemblance which is still to be
+  found.
+
+  The hilly nature of the country and the consequent lack of good
+  means of communication have also naturally militated against the
+  formation of any large kingdoms with effective control over the
+  mountainous districts. Directly we get to a flat country with
+  good roads and navigable rivers, we find the tribal distinctions
+  disappear, and the whole of the inhabitants are welded into a
+  homogeneous people under a settled government, speaking one
+  language.
+
+  Burmese as heard throughout the Irrawaddy valley is the same
+  everywhere. A traveler from Rangoon to Bhamo will find one language
+  spoken throughout his journey, but an expedition of the same
+  length in the hilly country to the east or to the west of the
+  Irrawaddy valley would bring him into contact with twenty mutually
+  unintelligible tongues.
+
+  The same state of things applies to Siam and Tonking--one nation
+  speaking one language in the flat country and a Tower of Babel in
+  the hills (_loc. cit._, pp. 332-883).
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+GORALS AND SEROWS
+
+
+Gorals and serows belong to the subfamily _Rupicaprinæ_ which is an
+early mountain-living offshoot of the _Bovidæ_; it also includes the
+chamois, takin, and the so-called Rocky Mountain goat of America.
+The animals are commonly referred to as "goat-antelopes" in order to
+express the intermediate position which they apparently hold between
+the goats and antelopes. They are also sometimes called the Rupicaprine
+antelopes from the scientific name of the chamois (_Rupicapra_).
+
+The horns of all members of the group are finely ridged, subcylindrical
+and are present in both sexes, being almost as long in the female as
+in the male. Although no one would suspect that the gorals are more
+closely related to the takins than to the serows, which they resemble
+superficially, such seems to be the case, but the cranial differences
+between the two genera are to a certain extent bridged over by the
+skull of the small Japanese serow (_Capricornulus crispus_). This
+species is most interesting because of its intermediate position. In
+size it is larger than a goral but smaller than a serow; its long coat
+and its horns resemble those of a goral but it has the face gland and
+short tail of a serow. It is found in Japan, Manchuria and southern
+Siberia.
+
+The principal external difference between the gorals and serows,
+besides that of size, is in the fact that the serows have a short tail
+and a well developed face gland, which opens in front of the eyes by a
+small orifice, while the gorals have a long tail and no such gland.
+
+[Illustration: A Serow Killed on the Snow Mountain]
+
+[Illustration: The Head of a Serow]
+
+In the cylindrical form of their horns the serows are similar to some
+of the antelopes but in their clumsy build, heavy limbs and stout
+hoofs as well as in habits they resemble goats. The serow has a long,
+melancholy-looking face and because of its enormous ears the Chinese in
+Fukien Province refer to it as the "wild donkey" but in Yün-nan it is
+called "wild cow."
+
+The specific relationships of the serows are by no means satisfactorily
+determined. Mr. Pocock, Superintendent of the London Zoölogical
+Society's Gardens, has recently devoted considerable study to the
+serows of British India and considers them all to be races of the
+single species _Capricornis sumatrensis_. With this opinion I am
+inclined to agree, although I have not yet had sufficient time in which
+to thoroughly study the subject in the light of our new material.
+
+These animals differ most strikingly in external coloration, and fall
+into three groups all of which partake more or less of the characters
+of each other. Chinese serows usually have the lower legs rusty red,
+while in Indian races they are whitish, and black in the southern Burma
+and Malayan forms.
+
+The serows which we killed upon the Snow Mountain can probably be
+referred to _Capricornis sumatrensis milne-edwardsi_, those of
+Fukien obtained by Mr. Caldwell represent the white-maned serow
+_Capricornis sumatrensis argyrochætes_ and one which I shot in May,
+1917, near Teng-yueh, not far from the Burma frontier, is apparently an
+undescribed form.
+
+Our specimens have brought out the fact that a remarkable individual
+variation exists in the color of the legs of these animals; this
+character was considered to be of diagnostic value, and probably is
+in some degree, but it is by no means as reliable as it was formerly
+supposed to be.
+
+Two of the serows killed on the Snow Mountain have the lower legs rusty
+red, while in two others these parts are buff colored. The animals,
+all males of nearly the same age, were taken on the same mountain,
+and virtually at the same time. Their skulls exhibit no important
+differences and there is no reason to believe that they represent
+anything but an extreme individual variation.
+
+The two specimens obtained by Mr. Caldwell at Yen-ping are even
+more surprising. The old female is coal black, but the young male
+is distinctly brownish-black with a chestnut stripe from the mane
+to the tail along the mid-dorsal line where the hairs of the back
+form a ridge. The horns of the female are nearly parallel for half
+their extent and approach each other at the tips; their surfaces
+are remarkably smooth. The horns of the young male diverge like a V
+from the skull and are very heavily ridged. The latter character is
+undoubtedly due to youth.
+
+These serows are an excellent example of the necessity for collecting
+a large number of specimens from the same locality. Only by this means
+is it possible to learn how the species is affected by age, sex and
+individual variation and what are its really important characters.
+In the case of the gorals, our Expedition obtained at Hui-yao such a
+splendid series of all ages that we have an unequaled opportunity for
+intelligent study. Serows are entirely Asian and found in China, Japan,
+India, Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula.
+
+On the Snow Mountain we found them living singly at altitudes of from
+9,000 to 13,000 feet in dense spruce forests, among the cliffs. The
+animals seemed to be fond of sleeping under overhanging rocks, and we
+were constantly finding beds which gave evidence of very extensive use.
+Apparently serows seldom come out into the open, but feed on leaves and
+grass while in the thickest cover, so that it is almost impossible to
+kill them without the aid of dogs or beaters.
+
+Sometimes a serow will lead the dogs for three or four miles, and
+eventually lose them or it may turn at bay and fight the pack after
+only a short chase; a large serow is almost certain to kill several of
+the hounds if in a favorable position with a rock wall at its back. The
+animal can use its strong curved horns with deadly effect for it is
+remarkably agile for a beast of its size.
+
+In Fukien we hunted serows on the summit of a high mountain clothed
+with a dense jungle of dwarf bamboo. It was in quite different country
+from that which the animals inhabit in Yün-nan for although the cover
+was exceedingly thick it was without such high cliffs and there were
+extensive grassy meadows. We did not see any serows in Fukien because
+of the ignorance of our beaters, although the trails were cut by fresh
+tracks. The natives said that in late September the animals could often
+be found in the forests of the lower mountain slopes when they came to
+browse upon the new grown mushrooms.
+
+Mr. Caldwell purchased for us in the market the skin of a splendid
+female serow and a short time later obtained a young male. The latter
+was seen swimming across the river just below the city wall and was
+caught alive by the natives. The female weighed three hundred and ten
+pounds and the male two hundred and ninety pounds.
+
+Serows are rare in captivity and are said to be rather dangerous pets
+unless tamed when very young. We are reproducing a photograph taken and
+kindly loaned by Mr. Herbert Lang, of one formerly living in the Berlin
+Zoölogical Garden; we saw a serow in the Zoölogical Park at Calcutta
+and one from Darjeeling is owned by the London Zoölogical Society.
+
+Gorals are pretty little animals of the size of the chamois. The
+species which we killed on the Snow Mountain can probably be referred
+to _Næmorhedus griseus_, but I have not yet had an opportunity to study
+our specimens carefully. Unlike the serows these gorals have blackish
+brown tails which from the roots to the end of the hairs measure about
+10 inches in length. The horns of both sexes are prominently ridged for
+the basal half of their length and perfectly smooth distally. The male
+horns are strongly recurved and are thick and round at the base but
+narrow rapidly to the tips; the female horns are straighter and more
+slender. The longest horns in the series which we received measured six
+inches in length and three and three-quarters inches in circumference
+at the base. Like the serows, gorals are confined to Asia and are found
+in northern India, Burma, and China, and northwards through Korea and
+southern Manchuria.
+
+We hunted gorals with dogs on the Snow Mountain for in this particular
+region they could be killed in no other way. There was so much cover,
+even at altitudes of from 12,000 to 15,000 feet and the rocks were so
+precipitous, that a man might spend a month "still hunting" and never
+see a goral. They are vicious fighters, and often back up to a cliff
+where they can keep the dogs at a distance. One of our best hounds
+while hunting alone, brought a goral to bay and was found dead next day
+by the hunters with its side ripped open.
+
+On the Snow Mountain we found the animals singly but at Hui-yao, not
+far from the Burma frontier, where we hunted another species in the
+spring, they were almost universally in herds of from six to seven or
+eight. It was at the latter place that we had our best opportunity to
+observe gorals and learn something of their habits. We were camping on
+the banks of a branch of the Shweli River, which had cut a narrow gorge
+for itself; on one side this was seven or eight hundred feet deep. A
+herd of about fifty gorals had been living for many years on one of
+the mountain sides not far from the village, and although they were
+seen constantly the natives had no weapons with which to kill them; but
+with our high-power rifles it was possible to shoot across the river at
+distances of from two hundred to four hundred yards.
+
+We could scan every inch of the hillside through our field glasses and
+watch the gorals as they moved about quite unconscious of our presence.
+At this place they were feeding almost exclusively upon the leaves of
+low bushes and the new grass which had sprung up where the slopes had
+been partly burned over. We found them browsing from daylight until
+about nine o'clock, and from four in the afternoon until dark. They
+would move slowly among the bushes, picking off the new leaves, and
+usually about the middle of the morning would choose a place where the
+sun beat in warmly upon the rocks, and go to sleep.
+
+Strangely enough they did not lie down on their sides, as do many
+hoofed animals, but doubled their forelegs under them, stretched their
+necks and hind legs straight out, and rested on their bellies. It was a
+most uncomfortable looking attitude, and the first time I saw an animal
+resting thus I thought it had been wounded, but both Mr. Heller and
+myself saw them repeatedly at other times, and realized that this was
+their natural position when asleep.
+
+When frightened, like our own mountain sheep or goats, they would run a
+short distance and stop to look back. This was usually their undoing,
+for they offered excellent targets as they stood silhouetted against
+the sky. They were very difficult to see when lying down among the
+rocks, but our native hunters, who had most extraordinary eyesight,
+often would discover them when it was almost impossible for me to find
+them even with the field glasses. We never could be sure that there
+were no gorals on a mountain-side, for they were adepts at hiding,
+and made use of a bunch of grass or the smallest crevice in a rock to
+conceal themselves, and did it so completely that they seemed to have
+vanished from the earth.
+
+Like all sheep and goats, they could climb about where it seemed
+impossible for any animal to move. I have seen a goral run down the
+face of a cliff which appeared to be almost perpendicular, and where
+the dogs dared not venture. As the animal landed on a projecting rock
+it would bounce off as though made of rubber, and leap eight or ten
+feet to a narrow ledge which did not seem large enough to support a
+rabbit.
+
+The ability to travel down such precipitous cliffs is largely due to
+the animal's foot structure. Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn has
+investigated this matter in the mountain goat and as his remarks apply
+almost equally well to the goral, I cannot do better than quote them
+here:
+
+  The horny part of the foot surrounds only the extreme front.
+  Behind this crescentic horn is a shallow concavity which gives the
+  horny hoof a chance to get its hold. Both the main digits and the
+  dewclaws terminate in black, rubber-like, rounded and expanded
+  soles, which are of great service in securing a firm footing on
+  the shelving rocks and narrow ledges on which the animal travels
+  with such ease. This sole, Smith states, softens in the spring of
+  the year, when the snow is leaving the ground, a fresh layer of
+  the integument taking its place. The rubber-like balls with which
+  the dewclaws are provided are by no means useless; they project
+  back below the horny part of the hoof, and Mr. Smith has actually
+  observed the young captive goats supporting themselves solely on
+  their dewclaws on the edge of a roof. It is probable that they are
+  similarly used on the rocks and precipices, since on a very narrow
+  ledge they would serve favorably to alter the center of gravity by
+  enabling the limb to be extended somewhat farther forward.[3]
+
+[Footnote 3: "Mountain Goat Hunting with the Camera," by Henry
+Fairfield Osborn. Reprinted from the tenth _Annual Report of the New
+York Zoölogical Society_, 1906, pp. 18-14.]
+
+There were certain trails leading over the hill slopes at Hui-yao which
+the gorals must have used continually, judging by the way in which
+these were worn. We also found much sign beneath overhanging rocks and
+on projecting ledges to indicate that these were definite resorts for
+numbers of the animals. Many which we saw were young or of varying ages
+running with the herds, and it was interesting to see how perfectly
+they had mastered the art of self-concealment even when hardly a year
+old. Although at Hui-yao almost all were on the east side of the
+river, they did not seem to be especially averse to water, and several
+times I watched wounded animals swim across the stream.
+
+Gorals are splendid game animals, for the plucky little brutes inspire
+the sportsman with admiration, besides leading him over peaks which try
+his nerve to the utmost, and I number among the happiest hours of my
+life the wonderful hunts in Yün-nan, far above the clouds, at the edge
+of the snow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE "WHITE WATER"
+
+_Y. B. A._
+
+
+October had slipped into November when we left the temple and shifted
+camp to the other side of the Snow Mountain at the "White Water." It
+was a brilliant day and the ride up the valley could not have been more
+beautiful. Crossing the _gangheisa_ or "dry sea," a great grassy plain
+which was evidently a dry lake basin, we followed the trail into the
+forest and down the side of a deep cañon to a mountain stream where
+the waters spread themselves in a thin, green veil over a bed of white
+stones.
+
+We pitched our tents on a broad terrace beside the stream at the
+edge of the spruce forest. Above us towered the highest peak of the
+mountain, with a glacier nestling in a basin near its summit, and the
+snow-covered slopes extending in a glorious shining crescent about our
+camp. The moon was full, and each night as we sat at dinner before the
+fire, the ragged peaks turned crimson in the afterglow of the sun, and
+changed to purest silver at the touch of the white moonlight. We have
+had many camps in many lands but none more beautiful than the one at
+the "White Water."
+
+The weather was perfect. Every day the sun shone in a cloudless blue
+sky and in the morning the ground was frozen hard and covered with
+snowlike frost, but the air was marvelously stimulating. We felt that
+we could be happy at the "White Water" forever, but it did not prove to
+be as good a hunting ground as that on the other side of the mountain.
+The Lolos killed a fine serow on the first day and Hotenfa brought in a
+young goral a short time later, but big game was by no means abundant.
+At the "White Water" we obtained our first Lady Amherst's pheasant
+(_Thaumalea amherstiæ_) one of the most remarkable species of a family
+containing the most beautiful birds of the world. The rainbow colored
+body and long tail of the male are made more conspicuous by a broad
+white and green ruff about the neck. The first birds brought alive to
+England were two males which had been presented to the Countess Amherst
+after whom the species was named. We found this pheasant inhabiting
+thick forests where it is by no means easy to discover or shoot. It is
+fairly abundant in Yün-nan, Eastern Tibet and S'suchuan but its habits
+are not well known. Although the camp yielded several small mammals
+new to our collection, we decided to go into Li-chiang to engage a new
+caravan for our trip across the Yangtze River while Heller remained in
+camp.
+
+The direct road to Li-chiang was considerably shorter than by way of
+the Snow Mountain village and at three o'clock in the afternoon our
+beloved "Temple of the Flowers" was visible on the hilltop overlooking
+the city. As we rode up the steep ascent we saw a picturesque gathering
+on the porch and heard the sound of many voices laughing and talking.
+The beautiful garden-like courtyard was filled with women and children
+of every age and description, and all the doors from one side of
+the temple had been removed, leaving a large open space where huge
+cauldrons were boiling and steaming.
+
+We sat down irresolutely on the inner porch but the young priest was
+delighted to see us and insisted that we wait until Wu arrived. We
+were glad that we did not seek other quarters for we were to witness
+an interesting ceremony, which is most characteristic of Chinese life.
+It seemed that about five years before a gentleman of Li-chiang had
+"shuffled off this mortal coil." His soul may have found rest, but "his
+mortal coil" certainly did not. Unfortunately his family inherited a
+few hundred dollars several years later and the village "astrologer"
+informed them that according to the _feng-shui_, or omnipotent
+spirits of the earth, wind, and water, the situation of the deceased
+gentleman's grave was ill-chosen and that if they ever hoped to enjoy
+good fortune again they must dig him up, give the customary feast in
+his honor and have another burial site chosen.
+
+Every village has a "wise man" who is always called upon to select the
+resting place of the dead, his remuneration varying from two dollars to
+two thousand dollars according to the circumstances of the deceased's
+relatives. The astrologer never will say definitely whether or not
+the spot will prove a propitious one and if the family later sell any
+property, receive a legacy, or are known to have obtained money in
+other ways, the astrologer usually finds that the _feng-shui_ do not
+favor the original place and he will exact another fee for choosing a
+second grave.
+
+The dead are never buried until the astrologer has named an auspicious
+day as well as an appropriate site, with the result that unburied
+coffins are to be seen in temples, under roadside shelters, in the
+fields and in the back yards of many houses.
+
+Any interference by foreigners with this custom is liable to bring
+about dire results as in the case of the rioting in Shanghai in 1898. A
+number of French residents objected to a temple near by being used to
+store a score or more of bodies until a convenient time for burial and
+the result was the death of many people in the fighting which ensued.
+Mr. Tyler Dennet cites an amusing anecdote regarding the successful
+handling of the problem by a native mandarin in Yen-ping where we
+visited Mr. Caldwell:
+
+  The doctor pointed out how dangerous to public health was the
+  presence of these coffins in Yen-ping. The magistrate had a census
+  taken of the coffins above ground in the city and found that they
+  actually numbered sixteen thousand. The city itself is estimated to
+  have only about twenty thousand inhabitants.
+
+  It was a difficult problem for the magistrate. He might easily move
+  in such a way as to bring the whole city down about his head. But
+  the Chinese are clever in such situations, perhaps the cleverest
+  people on earth. He finally devised a way out. A proclamation was
+  issued levying a tax of fifty cents on every unburied coffin. The
+  Chinese may be superstitious, but they are even more thrifty. For a
+  few weeks Yen-ping devoted itself to funerals, a thousand a week,
+  and now this little city, one of the most isolated in China, can
+  truly be said to be on the road to health.[4]
+
+[Footnote 4: "Doctoring China," by Tyler Dennet, _Asia_, February,
+1918, p. 114.]
+
+[Illustration: The "White Water"]
+
+There are very few such progressive cities in China, however, and a
+missionary told us that recently a young child and his grandfather were
+buried on the same day although their deaths had been nearly fifty
+years apart. The funeral rites are in themselves fairly simple, but it
+is the great ambition of every Chinese to have his resting place as
+near as possible to those of his ancestors. That is one of the reasons
+why they are so loath to emigrate.
+
+We often passed eight or ten coolies staggering under the load of a
+heavy coffin, transporting a body sometimes a month's journey or more
+to bury it at the dead man's birthplace. A rooster usually would be
+fastened to the coffin for, according to the Yün-nan superstition, the
+spirit of the man enters the bird and is conveyed by it to his home.
+
+There is a strange absence of the fear of death among the Chinese. One
+often sees large planks of wood stored in a corner of a house and one
+is told that these are destined to become the coffins of the man's
+father or mother, even though his parents may at the time be enjoying
+the most robust health. Indeed, among the poorer classes, a coffin is
+considered a most fitting gift for a son to present to his father.
+
+We established our camp on the porch of the temple at Li-chiang and
+from its vantage point could watch the festivities going on about us.
+The feasting continued until after dark and at daylight the kettles
+were again steaming to prepare for the second day's celebration.
+
+By ten o'clock the court was crowded and a hour later there came a
+partial stillness which was broken by a sudden burst of music (?) from
+Chinese violins and pipes. Going outside we found most of the guests
+standing about an improvised altar. The foot of the coffin was just
+visible in the midst of the paper decorations and in front of it
+were set half a dozen dishes of tempting food. These were meant as an
+offering to the spirit of the departed one, but we knew this would not
+prevent the sorrowing relatives from eating the food with much relish
+later on.
+
+In a few moments a group of women approached, supporting a figure
+clothed in white with a hood drawn over her face. She was bent nearly
+to the ground and muffled shrieks and wails came from the depths of
+her veil as she prostrated herself in front of the altar. For more
+than an hour this chief mourner, the wife of the deceased, lay on her
+face, her whole figure shaking with what seemed the most uncontrollable
+anguish. This same lady, however, moved about later among her guests an
+amiable hostess, with beaming countenance, the gayest of the gay. But
+every morning while the festivities lasted, promptly at eleven o'clock
+she would prostrate herself before the coffin and display heartrending
+grief in the presence of the unmoved spectators in order to satisfy the
+demands of "custom."
+
+Custom and precedent have grown to be divinities with the Chinese, and
+such a display of feigned emotion is required on certain prescribed
+occasions. As one missionary aptly described it "the Chinese are all
+face and no heart." Mr. Caldwell told us that one night while passing
+down a deserted street in a Chinese village he was startled to hear the
+most piercing shrieks issuing from a house nearby. Thinking someone
+was being murdered, he rushed through the courtyard only to find that
+a girl who was to be married the following day, according to Chinese
+custom, was displaying the most desperate anguish at the prospect of
+leaving her family, even though she probably was enchanted with the
+idea.
+
+On the third day of the celebration in the temple at Li-chiang the
+feasting ended in a burst of splendor. From one o'clock until far past
+sundown the friends and relatives of the departed one were fed. Any
+person could receive an invitation by bringing a small present, even
+if it were only a bowl of rice or a few hundred cash (ten or fifteen
+cents).
+
+All during the morning girls and women flocked up the hill with trays
+of gifts. There were many Mosos and other tribesmen among them as well
+as Chinese. The Moso girls wore their black hair cut short on the
+sides and hanging in long narrow plaits down their backs. They wore
+white leather capes (at least that was the original shade) and pretty
+ornaments of silver and coral at their throats, and as they were young
+and gay with glowing red cheeks and laughing eyes they were decidedly
+attractive. The guests were seated in groups of six on the stones
+of the temple courtyard. Small boys acted as waiters, passing about
+steaming bowls of vegetables and huge straw platters heaped high with
+rice. As soon as each guest had stuffed himself to satisfaction he
+relinquished his place to someone else and the food was passed again.
+We were frequently pressed to eat with them and in the evening when the
+last guest had departed the "chief mourner" brought us some delicious
+fruit candied in black sugar. She told Wu that they had fed three
+hundred people during the day and we could well believe it. The next
+morning the coffin was carried down the hill to the accompaniment of
+anguished wails and we were left once more to the peace and quiet of
+our beautiful temple courtyard.
+
+Sometimes a family will plunge itself into debt for generations to come
+to provide a suitable funeral for one of its members, because to bury
+the dead without the proper display would not only be to "lose face"
+but subject them to the possible persecution of the angered spirits.
+This is only one of the pernicious results of ancestor worship and it
+is safe to say that most of the evils in China's social order today can
+be traced, directly or indirectly, to this unfortunate practice.
+
+A man's chief concern is to leave male descendants to worship at
+his grave and appease his spirit. The more sons, grandsons, and
+great-grandsons who walk in his funeral procession, the more he is to
+be envied. As a missionary humorously says "the only law of God that
+ever has been obeyed in China is to be fruitful and multiply." Craving
+for progeny has brought into existence thousands upon thousands of
+human beings who exist on the very brink of starvation. Nowhere in
+the civilized world is there a more sordid and desperate struggle to
+maintain life or a more hopeless poverty. But fear and self-love oblige
+them to continue their blind breeding. The apparent atrophy of the
+entire race is due to ancestor worship which binds it with chains of
+iron to its dead and to its past, and not until these bonds are severed
+can China expect to take her place among the progressive nations of the
+earth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+ACROSS THE YANGTZE GORGE
+
+
+In mid-November we left the White Water with a caravan of twenty-six
+mules and horses. Following the road from Li-chiang to the Yangtze,
+we crossed the "Black Water" and climbed steadily upward over several
+tremendous wooded ridges, each higher than the last, to the summit of
+the divide.
+
+The descent was gradual through a magnificent pine and spruce forest.
+Some of the trees were at least one hundred and fifty feet high, and
+were draped with beautiful gray moss which had looped itself from
+branch to branch and hung suspended in delicate streamers yards in
+length. The forest was choked with underbrush and a dense growth of
+dwarf bamboo, and the hundreds of fallen logs, carpeted with bronze
+moss, made ideal conditions for small mammal collecting. However, as
+all the species would probably be similar to those we had obtained on
+the Snow Mountain, we did not feel that it was worth while stopping to
+trap.
+
+At four-thirty in the afternoon we camped upon a beautiful hill in a
+pine forest which was absolutely devoid of underbrush, and where the
+floor was thinly overlaid with brown pine needles. Although the Moso
+hunter, who acted as our guide, assured us that the river was only
+three miles away, it proved to be more than fifteen, and we did not
+reach the ferry until half past one the next afternoon.
+
+We were continually annoyed, as every traveler in China is, by the
+inaccuracy of the natives, and especially of the Chinese. Their ideas
+of distance are most extraordinary. One may ask a Chinaman how far it
+is to a certain village and he will blandly reply, "Fifteen _li_ to
+go, but thirty _li_ when you come back." After a short experience one
+learns how to interpret such an answer, for it means that when going
+the road is down hill and that the return uphill will require double
+the time.
+
+Caravans are supposed to travel ten _li_ an hour, although they seldom
+do more than eight, and all calculations of distance are based upon
+time so far as the _mafus_ are concerned. If the day's march is eight
+hours you invariably will be informed that the distance is eighty _li_,
+although in reality it may not be half as great.
+
+In "Chinese Characteristics," Dr. Arthur H. Smith gives many
+illuminating observations on the inaccuracy of the Chinese. In regard
+to distance he says:
+
+  It is always necessary in land travel to ascertain, when the
+  distance is given in "miles" (_li_), whether the "miles" are
+  "large" or not! That there is some basis for estimates of distances
+  we do not deny, but what we do deny is that these estimates or
+  measurements are either accurate or uniform.
+
+  It is, so far as we know, a universal experience that the moment
+  one leaves a great imperial highway the "miles" become "long." If
+  120 _li_ constitute a fair day's journey on the main road, then on
+  country roads it will take fully as long to go 100 _li_, and in the
+  mountains the whole day will be spent in getting over 80 _li_ (p.
+  51).
+
+  In like manner, a farmer who is asked the weight of one of his
+  oxen gives a figure which seems much too low, until he explains
+  that he has omitted to estimate the bones! A servant who was asked
+  his height mentioned a measure which was ridiculously inadequate
+  to cover his length, and upon being questioned admitted that he
+  had left out of account all above his shoulders! He had once been
+  a soldier, where the heft of the men's clavicle is important in
+  assigning the carrying of burdens. And since a Chinese soldier
+  is to all practical purposes complete without his head, this was
+  omitted.
+
+  Of a different sort was the measurement of a rustic who
+  affirmed that he lived "ninety _li_ from the city," but upon
+  cross-examination he consented to an abatement, as this was
+  reckoning both to the city and back, the real distance being as he
+  admitted, only "forty-five _li_ one way!" (p. 49) ...
+
+  The habit of reckoning by "tens" is deep-seated, and leads to much
+  vagueness. A few people are "ten or twenty," a "few tens," or
+  perhaps "ever so many tens," and a strictly accurate enumeration
+  is one of the rarest of experiences in China.... An acquaintance
+  told the writer that two men had spent "200 strings of cash" on a
+  theatrical exhibition, adding a moment later, "It was 173 strings,
+  but that is the same as 200--is it not?" (p. 54).
+
+  A man who wished advice in a lawsuit told the writer that he
+  himself "lived" in a particular village, though it was obvious from
+  his narrative that his abode was in the suburbs of a city. Upon
+  inquiry, he admitted that he did not _now_ live in the village, and
+  further investigation revealed the fact that the removal took place
+  nineteen generations ago! "But do you not almost consider yourself
+  a resident of the city now?" he was asked. "Yes," he replied
+  simply, "we do live there now, but the old root is in that village."
+
+  ... The whole Chinese system of thinking is based on a line of
+  assumptions different from those to which we are accustomed, and
+  they can ill comprehend the mania which seems to possess the
+  Occidental to ascertain everything with unerring exactness. The
+  Chinese does not know how many families there are in his native
+  village, and he does not wish to know. What any human being can
+  want to know this number for is to him an insoluble riddle. It is
+  "a few hundred," "several hundreds" or "not a few," but a fixed and
+  definite number it never was and never will be. (p. 55.)
+
+After breaking camp on the day following our departure from the "White
+Water" we rode along a broad trail through a beautiful pine forest and
+in the late morning stood on an open summit gazing on one of the most
+impressive sights which China has to offer. At the left, and a thousand
+feet below, the mighty Yangtze has broken through the mountains in a
+gorge almost a mile deep; a gorge which seems to have been carved out
+of the solid rock, sharp and clean, with a giant's knife. A few miles
+to the right the mountains widen, leaving a flat plain two hundred feet
+above the river. Every inch of it, as well as the finger-like valleys
+which stretch upward between the hills, is under cultivation, giving
+support for three villages, the largest of which is Taku.
+
+The ferry is in a bad place but it is the only spot for miles where
+the river can be crossed. The south bank is so precipitous that the
+trail from the plain twists and turns like a snake before it emerges
+upon a narrow sand and gravel beach. The opposite side of the river is
+a vertical wall of rock which slopes back a little at the lower end to
+form a steep hillside covered with short grass. The landing place is
+a mass of jagged rocks fronting a small patch of still water and the
+trail up the face of the cliff is so steep that it cannot be climbed
+by any loaded animal; therefore all the packs must be unstrapped and
+laboriously carted up the slope on the backs of the _mafus_.
+
+At two-thirty in the afternoon we were loading the boat, which carried
+only two animals and their packs, for the first trip across the river.
+It was difficult to get the mules aboard for they had to be whipped,
+shoved and actually lifted bodily into the dory. One of the ferrymen
+first drew the craft along the rocks by a long rope, then climbed up
+the face of what appeared to be an absolutely flat wall, and after
+pulling the boat close beneath him, slid down into it. In this way the
+dory was worked well up stream and when pushed into the swift current
+was rowed diagonally to the other side.
+
+After four loads had been taken over, the boatmen decided to stop work
+although there was yet more than an hour of daylight and they could not
+be persuaded to cross again by either threats or coaxing. It was an
+uncomfortable situation but there was nothing to do but camp where we
+were even though the greater part of our baggage was on the other side,
+with only the _mafus_ to guard it, and therefore open to robbery.
+
+About a third of a mile from the ferry we found a sandy cornfield on
+a level shelf just above the water, and pitched our tents. A slight
+wind was blowing and before long we had sand in our shoes, sand in our
+beds, sand in our clothes, and we were eating sand. Heller went down
+the river with a bag of traps while we set forty on the hills above
+camp, and after a supper of goral steak, which did much to allay the
+irritation of the day, we crawled into our sandy beds.
+
+At daylight Hotenfa visited the ferry and reported that the loads were
+safe but that one of the boatmen had gone to the village and no one
+knew when he would return. We went to the river with Wu as soon as
+breakfast was over and spent an aggravating hour trying by alternate
+threats and cajoling to persuade the remaining ferryman to cross the
+river to us. But it was useless, for the louder I swore the more
+frightened he became and he finally retired into a rock cave from which
+the _mafus_ had to drag him out bodily and drive him into the boat.
+
+The second boatman ambled slowly in about ten o'clock and we felt like
+beating them both, but Wu impressed upon us the necessity for patience
+if we ever expected to get our caravan across and we swallowed our
+wrath; nevertheless, we decided not to leave until the loads and mules
+were on the other side, and we ate a cold tiffin while sitting on the
+sand.
+
+Heller employed his time by skinning the twenty small mammals (one of
+which was a new rat) that our traps had yielded. We took a good many
+photographs and several rolls of "movie" film showing the efforts of
+the _mafus_ to get the mules aboard. Some of them went in quietly
+enough but others absolutely refused to step into the boat. One of the
+_mafus_ would pull, another push, a third twist the animal's tail and
+a fourth lift its feet singly over the side. With the accompaniment of
+yells, kicks, and Chinese oaths the performance was picturesque to say
+the least.
+
+[Illustration: A Liso Hunter Carrying a Flying Squirrel]
+
+[Illustration: The Chief of Our Lolo Hunters]
+
+By five o'clock the entire caravan had been taken across the racing
+green water and we had some time before dark in which to investigate
+the caverns with which the cliffs above the river are honeycombed.
+They were of two kinds, gold quarries and dwelling caves. The latter
+consist of a long central shaft, just high enough to allow a man to
+stand erect; this widens into a circular room. Along the sides of the
+corridor shallow nests have been scooped out to serve as beds and all
+the cooking is done not far from the door. The caves, although almost
+dark, make fairly comfortable living quarters and are by no means as
+dirty or as evil smelling as the ordinary native house. The mines are
+straight shafts dug into the cliffs where the rock is quarried and
+crushed by hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THROUGH UNMAPPED COUNTRY
+
+
+We left the Taku ferry by way of a steep trail through an open pine
+and spruce forest along the rim of the Yangtze gorge where the view
+was magnificent. Someone has said that when a tourist sees the Grand
+Cañon for the first time he gasps "Indescribable" and then immediately
+begins to describe it. Thus it was with us, but no words can picture
+the grandeur of this titanic chasm. In places the rocks were painted in
+delicate tints of blue and purple; in others, the sides fell away in
+sheer drops of hundreds of feet to the green torrent below rushing on
+to the sea two thousand five hundred miles away.
+
+The caravan wound along the edge of the gorge all day and we were left
+far behind, for at each turn a view more beautiful than the last opened
+out before us, and until every color plate and negative in the holders
+had been exposed we worked steadily with the camera.
+
+We were traveling northwestward through an unmapped region which Baron
+Haendel-Mazzetti had skirted and reported to be one of vast forests
+and probably rich in game. After six hours of riding over almost bare
+mountain-sides we passed through a parklike spruce forest and reached
+Habala, a long thin village of mud and stone houses scattered up the
+sides of a narrow valley.
+
+Above and to the left of the village rose ridge after ridge of dense
+spruce forest overshadowed by a snow-crowned peak and cut by deep
+ravines, the gloomy depths of which yielded fascinating glimpses of
+rocky cliffs--a veritable paradise for serow and goral. Our camping
+place was a grassy lawn as flat and smooth as the putting green of
+a golf course. Just below the tents a streamlet of ice-cold water
+murmured comfortably to itself and a huge dead tree was lying crushed
+and broken for the camp fire.
+
+The boys turned the beautiful spot into "home" in half an hour and,
+after setting a line of traps, we wandered slowly back through the
+darkness guided by the brilliant flames of the fires which threw a warm
+yellow glow over our little table spread for dinner.
+
+We sent men to the village to bring in hunters and after dinner four or
+five picturesque Mosos appeared. They said that there were many serow,
+goral, muntjac and some wapiti in the forests above the village, and
+we could well believe it, for there was never a more "likely looking"
+spot. Although the men did not claim to be professional hunters,
+nevertheless they said that they had good dogs and had killed many
+muntjac and other animals.
+
+They agreed to come at daylight and arrived about two hours late, which
+was doing fairly well for natives. It was a brilliant day just warm
+enough for comfort in the sun and we left camp with high hopes. However
+it did not take many hours to demonstrate that the men knew almost
+nothing about hunting and that their dogs were useless. Because of the
+dense cover "still hunting" was out of the question and, after a hard
+climb. We returned to camp to spend the remainder of the afternoon
+developing photographs and preparing small mammals.
+
+Our traps had yielded three new shrews and a silver mole as well as a
+number of mice, rats, and meadow voles of species identical with those
+taken on the Snow Mountain. It was evident, therefore, that the Yangtze
+River does not act as an effective barrier to the distribution of even
+the smallest forms and that the region in which we were now working
+would not produce a different fauna. This was an important discovery
+from the standpoint of our distribution records but was also somewhat
+disappointing.
+
+The photographic work already had yielded excellent results. The Paget
+color plates were especially beautiful and the fact that everything was
+developed in the field gave us an opportunity to check the quality of
+each negative.
+
+For this work the portable dark room was invaluable. It could be
+quickly erected and suspended from a tree branch or the rafters of a
+temple and offered an absolutely safe place in which to develop or load
+plates. The moving-picture film required special treatment because of
+its size and we usually fastened in the servants' tent the red lining
+which had been made for this purpose in New York. Even then the space
+was so cramped that we were dead tired at the end of a few hours' work.
+
+One who sits comfortably in a theater or hall and sees moving-picture
+film which has been obtained in such remote parts of the world does
+not realize the difficulties in its preparation. The water for
+developing almost invariably was dirty and in order to insure even a
+moderately clear film it always had to be strained. For washing the
+negative pailful after pailful had to be carried sometimes from a very
+long distance, and the film exposed for hours to the carelessness or
+curiosity of the natives. In our cramped quarters perhaps a corner of
+the tent would be pushed open admitting a stream of light; the electric
+flash lamp might refuse to work, leaving us in complete darkness to
+finish the developing "by guess and by gosh," or any number of other
+accidents occur to ruin the film. At most we could not develop more
+than three hundred feet in an afternoon and we never breathed freely
+until it finally was dried and safely stored away in the tin cans.
+
+We left Habala, on November 28, for a village called Phete where the
+natives had assured us we would find good hunters with dogs. For almost
+the entire distance the road skirted the rim of the Yangtze gorge and
+there the view of the great chasm was even more magnificent than that
+we had left. While its sides are not fantastically sculptured and
+the colors are softer than those of the Grand Cañon of the Colorado,
+nevertheless its grandeur is hardly less imposing and awe-inspiring. If
+Yün-nan is ever made accessible by railroads this gorge should become a
+Mecca for tourists, for it is without doubt one of the most remarkable
+natural sights in the world.
+
+About two o'clock in the afternoon we saw three clusters of houses on
+a tableland which juts into a chasm cut by a tributary of the great
+river. One of them was Phete and it seemed that we would reach the
+village in half an hour at least, but the road wound so tortuously
+around the hillside, down to the stream and up again that it was an
+hour and a half before we found a camping place on a narrow terrace a
+short distance from the nearest houses.
+
+Next day we could not go to the village to find hunters until
+mid-forenoon because the natives of this region are very late risers
+and often have not yet opened their doors at ten o'clock. This is
+quite contrary to the custom in many other parts of China where the
+inhabitants are about their work in the first light of dawn.
+
+The hills above Phete are bare or thinly forested and every available
+inch of level ground is under cultivation with corn and a few rice
+paddys near the creek; the latter were a great surprise, for we had not
+expected to find rice so far north. The village itself was exceedingly
+picturesque but never have we met people of such utter and hopeless
+stupidity as its inhabitants. They were pleasant enough and always
+greeted us with a smile and salutation, but their brains seemed not to
+have kept pace with their bodies and when asked the simplest question
+they would only stare stupidly without the slightest glimmering of
+intelligence.
+
+It required an hour's questioning of a dozen or more people to glean
+that there were no hunters in the village where they had lived all
+their lives, but Wu, our interpreter, finally discovered a Chinese who
+told us of a hunter in the mountains. He asked how far and the answer
+was "Not very far."
+
+"Well, is it ten _li!_"
+
+"I don't know how many _li_."
+
+"Have you ever been there?"
+
+"Yes; it is only a few steps."
+
+"How long will it take to get there?"
+
+"About the time of one meal."
+
+We were not to be deceived, for we had had experience with native
+ideas of distance, and we ate our tiffin before starting out on the
+"few steps." A steep trail led up the valley and after three hours of
+steady riding we reached the hunter's village of three large houses on
+a flat strip of cleared ground in the midst of a dense forest.
+
+The people looked much like those of Phete but were rather anemic
+specimens, and five out of eight had enormous goiters. They were
+exceedingly shy at first, watching us with side glances and through
+cracks in the wall. Wu learned that we were the first white persons
+they had ever seen. I imagine that much of their unhealthiness was due
+to too close intermarriage, for these families had little intercourse
+with the people in Phete who were only "a few steps" away.
+
+As we were leaving they began to eat their supper in the courtyard.
+The principal dish consisted of mixed cornmeal and rice, boiled squash
+and green vegetables. All the women were busy husking corn which was
+hung to dry on great racks about the house. These racks we had noticed
+in every village since leaving Li-chiang and they seemed to be in
+universal use in the north.
+
+The hunter had a flock of sheep and we purchased one for $4.40
+(Mexican) but there was considerable difficulty in paying for it
+since these people had never seen Chinese money even though living in
+China itself. For currency they used chunks of silver the size of a
+walnut and worth about one dollar (Mexican). The Chinese guide finally
+persuaded the people of the genuineness of our money and we purchased
+a few eggs and a little very delicious wild honey besides the sheep.
+These people as well as those of Phete spoke the Li-chiang dialect but
+with such variation that even our _mafus_ could understand them only
+with the greatest difficulty.
+
+When we returned to camp we found that the coolie who had been engaged
+to carry the motion-picture camera and tripod had left without the
+formality of saying "good-by" or asking for the money which was due
+him. We had had considerable trouble with the camera coolies since
+leaving Li-chiang. The first one carried the camera to the Taku ferry
+with many groans, and there engaged a huge Chinaman to take his place,
+for he thought the load too heavy. It only weighed fifty pounds, and
+in the Fukien Province where men seldom carry less than eighty pounds
+and sometimes as much as one hundred and fifty, it would have been
+considered as only half a burden. In Yün-nan, however, animals do most
+of the pack carrying, and coolies protest at even an ordinary load.
+
+We left Phete in the early morning and camped about five hundred
+feet above the hunter's cabin in a beautiful little meadow. It was
+surrounded with splendid pine trees, and a clear spring bubbled up
+from a knoll in the center and spread fan-shaped in a dozen little
+streams over the edge of a deep ravine where a mountain torrent rushed
+through a tangled bamboo jungle. The gigantic fallen trees were covered
+inches deep with green moss, and altogether it was an ideal spot for
+small mammals. Our traps, however, yielded no new species, although we
+secured dozens of specimens every night.
+
+There were a few families of Lolos about two miles away and these were
+engaged as hunters. They told us that serow and muntjac were abundant
+and that wapiti were sometimes found on the mountains several miles
+to the northward. Although the men had a large pack of good dogs they
+were such unsatisfactory hunters that we gave up in disgust after
+three days. They never would appear until ten or eleven o'clock in the
+morning when the sun had so dried the leaves that the scent was lost
+and the dogs could not follow a trail even if one were found. Moreover,
+the camp was a very uncomfortable one, due to the wind which roared
+through the trees night and day.
+
+We were rejoined here by Hotenfa, who had left us at the Taku ferry to
+see if he could get together a pack of dogs. He brought three hounds
+with him which he praised exuberantly, but we subsequently found that
+they did not justify our hopes. Nevertheless, we were glad to have
+Hotenfa back, for he was one of the most intelligent, faithful, and
+altogether charming natives whom we met in all Yün-nan. He was an
+uncouth savage when he first came to us, but in a very short time he
+had learned our camp ways and was as good a servant as any we had.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+TRAVELING TOWARD TIBET
+
+
+Since the hunters at the "Windy Camp" had proved so worthless and the
+traps had yielded no small mammals new to our collection, we decided to
+cross the mountains toward the Chung-tien road which leads into Tibet.
+
+The head _mafu_ explored the trail and reported that it was impassable
+but, after an examination of some of the worst barriers, we decided
+that they could be cleared away and ordered the caravan to start at
+half past seven in the morning.
+
+Before long we found that the _mafus_ were right. The trail was a mass
+of tangled underbrush and fallen logs and led straight up a precipitous
+mountain through a veritable jungle of dwarf bamboo. It was necessary
+to stop every few yards to lift the loads over a barrier or cut a
+passage through the bamboo thickets, and had it not been for the
+adjustable pack saddles we never could have taken the caravan over the
+trail.
+
+Late in the afternoon the exhausted men and animals dragged themselves
+to the summit of the mountain, for it was not a pass. In a few hours
+we had come from autumn to mid-winter where the ground was frozen and
+covered with snow. We were at an altitude of more than 15,000 feet
+and far above all timber except the rhododendron forest which spread
+itself out in a low gray mass along the ridges. It was difficult to
+make the slightest exertion in the thin air and a bitterly cold wind
+swept across the peaks so that it was impossible to keep warm even when
+wrapped in our heaviest coats.
+
+The servants and _mafus_ suffered considerably but it was too late
+to go on and there was no alternative but to spend the night on the
+mountain. As soon as the tents were up the men huddled disconsolately
+about the fire, but we started out with a bag of traps while Heller
+went in the opposite direction. We expected to catch some new mammals
+during the night, for there were great numbers of runways on the bare
+hillsides. The ground was frozen so solidly that it was necessary to
+cut into the little _Microtus_ tunnels with a hatchet in order to set
+the traps and we were almost frozen before the work was completed. The
+next morning we had caught twenty specimens of a new white-bellied
+meadow vole and a remarkable shrew with a long curved proboscis.
+
+Everyone had spent an uncomfortable night, for it was bitterly cold
+even in our sleeping bags and the men had sat up about the fire in
+order to keep from freezing. There was little difficulty in getting the
+caravan started in the gray light of early dawn and after descending
+abruptly four thousand feet on a precipitous trail to a Lolo village
+strung out along a beautiful little valley we were again in the
+pleasant warmth of late autumn.
+
+The natives here had never before seen a white person and in a few
+moments our tents were surrounded by a crowd of strange-looking men
+and boys. The chief of the village presented us with an enormous
+rooster and we made him happy by returning two tins of cigarettes. The
+Lolo women, the first we had seen, were especially surprising because
+of their graceful figures and handsome faces. Their flat turbans,
+short jackets, and long skirts with huge flounces gave them a rather
+old-fashioned aspect, quite out of harmony with the metal neck-bands,
+earrings, and bracelets which they all wore.
+
+The men were exceedingly pleasant and made a picturesque group in their
+gray and brown felt capes which they gather about the neck by a draw
+string and, to the Lolos and Mosos alike, are both bed and clothing. We
+collected all the men for their photographs, and although they had not
+the slightest idea what we were about they stood quietly after Hotenfa
+had assured them that the strange-looking instrument would not go off.
+But most interesting of all was their astonishment when half an hour
+later they saw the negative and were able to identify themselves upon
+it.
+
+The Lolos are apparently a much maligned race. They are exceedingly
+independent, and although along the frontier of their own territory in
+S'suchuan they wage a war of robbery and destruction it is not wholly
+unprovoked. No one can enter their country safely unless he is under
+the protection of a chief who acts as a sponsor and passes him along to
+others. Mr. Brooke, an Englishman, was killed by the Lolos, but he was
+not properly "chaperoned," and Major D'Ollone of the French expedition
+lived among them safely for some time and gives them unstinted praise.
+
+Whenever we met tribesmen in Yün-nan who had not seen white persons
+they behaved much like all other natives. They were, of course,
+always greatly astonished to see our caravan descend upon them and
+were invariably fascinated by our guns, tents, and in fact everything
+about us, but were generally shy and decidedly less offensive in
+their curiosity than the Chinese of the larger inland towns to whom
+foreigners are by no means unknown. As a matter of fact we have found
+that our white skins, light eyes, and hair are a never failing source
+of interest and envy to almost all Orientals.
+
+[Illustration: Lolos Seeing Their Photographs for the First Time]
+
+Yvette usually excited the most curiosity, especially among the women,
+and as she wore knickerbockers and a flannel shirt there were times
+when the determination of her sex seemed to call forth the liveliest
+discussion. Her long hair, however, usually settled the matter, and
+then the women had decided the question of gender satisfactorily they
+often made timid, and most amusing, advances. One woman said she
+greatly admired her fair complexion and asked how many baths she took
+to keep her skin so white. Another wondered whether it was necessary
+to ever comb her hair and almost everyone wished to feel her clothes
+and shoes. She always would command more attention than anyone else by
+her camera operations, and a group would stand in speechless amazement
+to see her dodge in and out of the portable dark room when she was
+developing photographs or loading plates.
+
+We made arrangements to go with a number of the Lolos to a spot fifteen
+miles away on the Chung-tien road to hunt wapiti (probably _Cervus
+macneilli_) which the natives call _maloo_. Our American wapiti, or
+elk, is a migrant from Asia by way of the Bering Strait and is probably
+a relative of the wapiti which is found in Central Asia, China,
+Manchuria and Korea.
+
+At present these deer are abundant in but few places. Throughout the
+Orient, and especially in China, the growing horns when they are soft,
+or in the "velvet," are considered of great medicinal value and,
+during the summer, the animals are trapped and hunted relentlessly by
+the natives. In Yün-nan, when we were there, a pair of horns were worth
+$100 (Mexican).
+
+Thanksgiving morning dawned gray and raw with occasional flurries of
+haillike snow, but we did not heed the cold, for the trail led over two
+high ridges and along the rim of a tremendous gorge. To the south the
+white summits of the Snow Mountain range towered majestically above the
+surrounding peaks and, in the gray light, the colors were beautiful
+beyond description. To the north we could see heavily wooded mountain
+slopes interspersed with open parklike meadows--splendid wapiti country.
+
+Our tents were pitched two hundred yards from the Chung-tien road
+just within the edge of a stately, moss-draped forest. That night we
+celebrated with harmless bombs from the huge fires of bamboo stalks
+which exploded as they filled with steam and echoed among the trees
+like pistol shots. Marco Polo speaks of the same phenomenon which he
+first witnessed in this region over six hundred and thirty years ago.
+
+About nine o'clock in the evening we ran our traps with a lantern and
+besides several mice (_Apodemus_) found two rare shrews and a new mole
+(_Blarina_). I went out with the hunters at dawn but saw nothing except
+an old wapiti track and a little sign. All during the following day a
+dense fog hung close to the ground so that it was impossible to hunt,
+and, on the night of December 2, it snowed heavily. The morning began
+bright and clear but clouded about ten o'clock and became so bitterly
+cold that the Lolos would not hunt. They really suffered considerably
+and that night they all left us to return to their homes. We were
+greatly disappointed, for we had brilliant prospects of good wapiti
+shooting but without either men or dogs and in an unknown country there
+was little possibility of successful still hunting.
+
+The _mafus_ were very much worried and refused to go further north.
+They were certain that we would not be able to cross the high passes
+which lay between us and the Mekong valley far to the westward and
+complained unceasingly about the freezing cold and the lack of food
+for their animals. It was necessary to visit the Mekong River, for
+even though it might not be a good big game region it would give us
+a cross-section, as it were, of the fauna and important data on the
+distribution of small mammals. Therefore we decided to leave for the
+long ride as soon as the weather permitted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+STALKING TIBETANS WITH A CAMERA
+
+_Y. B. A._
+
+
+The road near which we were camped was one of the great trade routes
+into Tibet and over it caravans were continually passing laden with
+tea or pork. Many of them had traveled the entire length of Yün-nan to
+S'su-mao on the Tonking frontier where a special kind of tea is grown,
+and were hurrying northward to cross the snow-covered passes which form
+the gateways to the "Forbidden Land."
+
+The caravans sometimes stopped for luncheon or to spend the night near
+our camp. As the horses came up, one by one the loads were lifted off,
+the animals turned loose, and after their dinner of buttered tea and
+_tsamba_[5] each man stretched out upon the ground without shelter of
+any kind and heedless of the freezing cold. It is truly the life of
+primitive man and has bred a hardy, restless, independent race, content
+to wander over the boundless steppes and demanding from the outside
+world only to be let alone.
+
+[Footnote 5: _Tsamba_ is parched oats or barley, ground finely.]
+
+They are picturesque, wild-looking fellows, and in their swinging
+walk there is a care-free independence and an atmosphere of the bleak
+Tibetan steppes which are strangely fascinating. Every Tibetan is a
+study for an artist. He wears a fur cap and a long loose coat like a
+Russian blouse thrown carelessly off one shoulder and tied about the
+waist, blue or red trousers, and high boots of felt or skin reaching
+almost to the knees. A long sword, its hilt inlaid with bright-colored
+bits of glass or stones, is half concealed beneath his coat, and he is
+seldom without a gun or a murderous looking spear.
+
+In the breast of his loose coat, which acts as a pocket, he carries
+a remarkable assortment of things; a pipe, tobacco, tea, _tsamba_,
+cooking pots, a snuff box and, hanging down in front, a metal charm to
+protect him from bullets or sickness.
+
+The eastern Tibetans are men of splendid physique and great strength,
+and are frequently more than six feet in height. They have brick-red
+complexions and some are really handsome in a full-blooded masculine
+way. Their straight features suggest a strong mixture of other than
+Mongolian stock and they are the direct antithesis of the Chinese in
+every particular. Their strength and virility and the dashing swing
+of their walk are very refreshing after contact with the ease-loving,
+effeminate Chinaman whom one sees being carried along the road sprawled
+in a mountain chair.
+
+Of all natives whom we tried to photograph the Tibetans were the most
+difficult. It was almost impossible to bribe them with money or tin
+cans to stand for a moment and when they saw the motion picture camera
+set up beside the trail they would make long detours to avoid passing
+in front of it.
+
+What we could not get by bribery we tried to do by stealth and
+concealed ourselves behind bushes with the camera focused on a certain
+spot upon the road. The instant a Tibetan discovered it he would run
+like a frightened deer and in some mysterious way they seemed to have
+passed the word along that our camp was a spot to be avoided. Sometimes
+a bottle was too great a temptation to be resisted, and one would stand
+timidly like a bird with wings half spread, only to dash away as though
+the devil were after him, when he saw my head disappear beneath the
+focusing hood.
+
+Wu and a _mafu_ who could speak a little Tibetan finally captured one
+picturesque looking fellow. He carefully tucked the tin cans, given
+for advance payment, inside his coat, and with a great show of bravery
+allowed me to place him where I wished. But the instant the motion
+picture camera swung in his direction he dodged aside, and jumped
+behind it. Wu tried to hold him but the Tibetan drew his sword, waved
+it wildly about his head and took to his heels, yelling at the top of
+his lungs. He was well-nigh frightened to death and when he disappeared
+from sight at a curve in the road he was still "going strong" with his
+coat tails flapping like a sail in the wind.
+
+One caravan came suddenly upon the motion picture camera unawares.
+There were several women in the party and, as soon as the men realized
+that there was no escape, each one dodged behind a woman, keeping her
+between him and the camera. They were taking no chances with their
+precious selves, for the women could be replaced easily enough if
+necessary.
+
+The trouble is that the Tibetan not unnaturally has the greatest
+possible suspicion and dislike for strangers. The Chinese he loathes
+and despises, and foreigners he knows only too well are symptoms of
+missionaries and punitive expeditions or other disturbances of his
+immemorial peace. He is confirmed in his attitude by the Church which
+throughout Tibet has the monopoly of all the gold in the country. And
+the Church utterly declines to believe that any foreigner can come
+so far for any end less foolish than the discovery of gold and the
+infringing of the ecclesiastical monopoly.
+
+[Illustration: Travelers in the Mekong Valley]
+
+[Illustration: Two Tibetans]
+
+Major Davies, who saw much of the Yün-nan Tibetans, has remarked that
+it is curious how little impression the civilization and customs of the
+Chinese have produced on the Tibetans. Elsewhere, one of the principal
+characteristics of Chinese expansion is its power of absorbing other
+races, but with the Tibetans exactly the reverse takes place. The
+Chinese become Tibetanized and the children of a Chinaman married to a
+Tibetan woman are usually brought up in the Tibetan customs.
+
+Probably the great cause which keeps the Tibetan from being absorbed
+is the cold, inhospitable nature of his country. There is little to
+tempt the Chinese to emigrate into Tibet and consequently they never
+are there in sufficient numbers to influence the Tibetans around them.
+A similar cause has preserved some of the low-lying Shan states from
+absorption, the heat in this case being the reason that the Chinese do
+not settle there.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+WESTWARD TO THE MEKONG RIVER
+
+
+During the night of December 4, there was a heavy fall of snow and in
+the morning we awoke to find ourselves in fairyland. We were living in
+a great white palace, with ceiling and walls of filmy glittering webs.
+The long, delicate strands of gray moss which draped themselves from
+tree to tree and branch to branch were each one converted into threads
+of crystal, forming a filigree lacework, infinitely beautiful.
+
+It was hard to break camp and leave that silver palace, for every vista
+through the forest seemed more lovely than the one before, but we knew
+that another fall of snow would block the passes and shut us out from
+the Mekong valley. The _mafus_ even refused to try the direct route
+across the mountains to Wei-hsi and insisted on going southward to the
+Shih-ku ferry and up the Yangtze River on the main caravan route.
+
+It was a long trip and we looked forward with no pleasure to eight days
+of hard riding. The difficulty in obtaining hunters since leaving the
+Snow Mountain had made our big game collecting negligible although we
+had traveled through some excellent country. The Mekong valley might
+not be better but it was an unknown quantity and, whether or not it
+yielded specimens, the results from a survey of the mammal distribution
+would be none the less important, and we felt that it must be done;
+otherwise we should have turned our backs on the north and returned to
+Ta-li Fu.
+
+As we rode down the mountain trail we passed caravan after caravan of
+Tibetans with heavily loaded horses, all bound for that land of mystery
+beyond the snow-capped barriers. Often we tried to stop some of the
+red-skinned natives and persuade them to pose for a color photograph,
+but usually they only shook their heads stubbornly and hurried past
+with averted faces. We finally waylaid a Chinese and a Tibetan who were
+walking together. The Chinaman was an amiable fellow and by giving
+each of them a glass jam tumbler they halted a moment. As soon as the
+photograph had been taken the Chinese indicated that he expected us to
+produce one and was thoroughly disgusted when we showed him that it was
+impossible.
+
+Repassing the Lolo village, we followed the river gorge at the upper
+end of which Chung-tien is located and left the forests when we emerged
+on the main road. From the top of a ten thousand foot pass there was
+a magnificent view down the cañon to the snow-capped mountains, which
+were beautiful beyond description in their changing colors of purple
+and gold.
+
+Just after leaving the pass we met a caravan of several hundred horses
+each bearing two whole pigs bent double and tied to the saddles. The
+animals had been denuded of hair, salted, and sewn up, and soon would
+be distributed among the villages somewhere in the interior of Tibet.
+
+On the second day we saw before us seven snow-crowned peaks as sharp
+and regular as the teeth of a saw rising above the mouth of the stream
+where it spreads like a fan over a sandy delta and empties into the
+Yangtze. Here the mighty river, flowing proudly southward from its home
+in the wind-blown steppes of the "Forbidden Land," countless ages ago
+found the great Snow Mountain range barring its path. Thrust aside, it
+doubled back upon itself along the barrier's base, still restlessly
+seeking a passage through the wall of rock. Far to the north it bit
+hungrily into the mountain's side again, broke through, and swung south
+gathering strength and volume from hundreds of tributaries as it rushed
+onward to the sea.
+
+For two days we rode along the river bank and crossed at the Shih-ku
+ferry. There was none of the difficulty here which we had experienced
+at Taku, for the river is wide and the current slow. It required
+only two hours to transport our entire caravan while at the other
+ferry we had waited a day and a half. Strangely enough, although
+there are dozens of villages along the Yangtze and the valley is
+highly cultivated, we saw no sign of fishing. Moreover, we passed but
+three boats and five or six rafts and it was evident that this great
+waterway, which for fifteen hundred miles from its mouth influences the
+trade of China so profoundly, is here used but little by the natives.
+
+On the ride down the river we had good sport with the huge cranes
+(probably _Grus nigricollis_) which, in small flocks, were feeding
+along the river fields. The birds stood about five feet high and we
+could see their great black and white bodies and black necks farther
+than a man was visible. It was fairly easy to stalk them to within a
+hundred yards, but even at that distance they offered a rather small
+target, for they were so largely wings, neck, legs, and tail. We were
+never within shotgun range and indeed it would be difficult to kill the
+birds with anything smaller than BB or buckshot unless they were very
+near.
+
+[Illustration: The Gorge of the Yangtze River]
+
+Heller shot our first cranes with his .250-.300 Savage rifle. He stole
+upon five which were feeding in a meadow and fired while two were
+"lined up." One of the huge birds flapped about on the ground for a few
+moments and lay still, but the larger was only wing-tipped and started
+off at full speed across the fields. Two _mafus_ left the caravan,
+yelling with excitement, and ran for nearly half a mile before they
+overtook the bird. Then they were kept at bay for fifteen minutes by
+its long beak which is a really formidable weapon. As food the cranes
+were perfectly delicious when stuffed with chestnut dressing and
+roasted. Each one provided two meals for three of us with enough left
+over for hash and our appetites were by no means birdlike.
+
+Although the natives attempt to kill cranes they are not often
+successful, for the birds are very watchful and will not allow a man
+within a hundred yards. Such a distance for primitive guns or crossbows
+might as well be a hundred miles, but with our high-power rifles we
+were able to shoot as many as were needed for food.
+
+The birds almost invariably followed the river when flying and fed in
+the rice, barley, and corn fields not far from the water. It was an
+inspiring sight to see a flock of the huge birds run for a few steps
+along the ground and then launch themselves into the air, their black
+and white wings flashing in the sunlight. They formed into orderly
+ranks like a company of soldiers or strung out in a long thin line
+across the sky.
+
+When we disturbed a flock from especially desirable feeding grounds
+they would sometimes whirl and circle above the fields, ascending
+higher and higher in great spirals until they were lost to sight,
+their musical voices coming faintly down to us like the distant shouts
+of happy children.
+
+When we returned to Ta-li Fu in early January, cranes were very
+abundant in the fields about the lake. They had arrived in late October
+and would depart in early spring, according to Mr. Evans. We often
+saw the birds on sand banks along the Yangtze, but they were usually
+resting or quietly walking about and were not feeding; apparently they
+eat only rice, barley, corn, or other grain.
+
+This species was discovered by the great traveler and naturalist,
+Lieutenant Colonel Prjevalsky, who found it in the Koko-nor region of
+Tibet, and it was later recorded by Prince Henri d'Orleans from Ts'ang
+in the Tibetan highlands. Apparently specimens from Yün-nan have not
+been preserved in museums and the bird was not known to occur in this
+portion of China.
+
+Along the Yangtze on our way westward we shot a good many mallard
+ducks (_Anas boscas_) and ruddy sheldrakes (_Casarca casarca_); the
+latter are universally known as "brahminy ducks" by the foreigners in
+Burma and Yün-nan, but they are not true ducks. The name is derived
+from the bird's beautiful buff and rufous color which is somewhat like
+that of the robes worn by the Brahmin priests. In America the name
+"sheldrake" is applied erroneously to the fish-eating mergansers,
+and much confusion has thus arisen, for the two are quite unrelated
+and belong to perfectly distinct groups. The mergansers have narrow,
+hooked, saw-toothed beaks quite unlike those of the sheldrakes, and
+their habits are entirely dissimilar.
+
+The brahminy ducks, although rather tough, are not bad eating. We
+usually found them feeding in fields not far from the river or in
+flooded rice dykes, and very often sitting in pairs on the sand banks
+near the water. They have a bisyllabic rather plaintive note which is
+peculiarly fascinating to me and, like the honk of the Canada goose,
+awakens memories of sodden, wind-blown marshes, bobbing decoys, and a
+leaden sky shot through with V-shaped lines of flying birds.
+
+Mallards were frequently to be found with the sheldrakes, and we had
+good shooting along the river and in ponds and rice fields. We also saw
+a few teal but they were by no means abundant. Pheasants were scarce.
+We shot a few along the road and near some of our camps, but we found
+no place in Yün-nan where one could have even a fair day's shooting
+without the aid of a good dog. This is strikingly different from Korea
+where in a walk over the hillsides a dozen or more pheasants can be
+flushed within an hour.
+
+After two and one-half days' travel up the Yangtze we turned westward
+toward Wei-hsi and camped on a beautiful flat plain beside a
+tree-bordered stream. It was a cold clear night and after dinner and a
+smoke about the fire we all turned in.
+
+Both of us were asleep when suddenly a perfect bedlam of angry
+exclamations and Chinese curses roused the whole camp. In a few moments
+Wu came to our tent, almost speechless with rage and stammered, "Damn
+fool soldiers come try to take our horses; say if _mafu_ no give them
+horses they untie loads. Shall I tell _mafu_ break their heads?" We did
+not entirely understand the situation but it seemed quite proper to
+give the _mafus_ permission to do the head-breaking, and they went at
+it with a will. After a volley of blows, there was a scamper of feet on
+the frozen ground and the soldiers retired considerably the worse for
+wear.
+
+When the battle was over, Wu explained matters more fully. It appeared
+that a large detachment of soldiers had recently passed up this road
+to A-tun-tzu and four or five had remained behind to attend to the
+transport of certain supplies. Seeing an opportunity for "graft" the
+soldiers were stopping every caravan which passed and threatening to
+commandeer it unless the _mafus_ gave a sufficient bribe to buy their
+immunity. Our _mafus_, with the protection which foreigners gave them,
+had paid off a few old scores with interest. That they had neglected no
+part of the reckoning was quite evident when next morning two of the
+soldiers came to apologize for their "mistake." One of them had a black
+and swollen eye and the other was nursing a deep cut on his forehead;
+they were exceedingly humble and did not venture into camp until they
+had been assured that we would not again loose our terrible _mafus_
+upon them.
+
+Such extortions are every day occurrences in many parts of China and
+it is little wonder that the military is cordially hated and feared by
+the peasants. The soldiers, taking advantage of their uniform, oppress
+the villagers in numberless ways from which there is no redress. If
+a complaint is made a dozen soldiers stand ready to swear that the
+offense was justified or was never committed, and the poor farmer is
+lucky if he escapes without a beating or some more severe punishment.
+It is a disgrace to China that such conditions are allowed to exist,
+and it is to be hoped that ere many years have passed the country will
+awake to a proper recognition of the rights of the individual. Until
+she does there never can be a national spirit of patriotism in China
+and without patriotism the Republic can be one in name only.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+DOWN THE MEKONG VALLEY
+
+
+On December 11, we had tiffin on the summit of a twelve thousand
+foot pass in a beautiful snow-covered meadow, from which we could
+see the glistening peaks of the vast mountain range which forms the
+Mekong-Salween divide. In the afternoon we readied Wei-hsi and camped
+in a grove of splendid pine trees on a hill overlooking the city. The
+place was rather disappointing after Li-chiang. The shops were poor and
+it was difficult to buy rice even though the entire valley was devoted
+to paddy fields, but we did get quantities of delicious persimmons.
+
+Wu told us that seven different languages were spoken in the city, and
+we could well believe it, for we recognized Mosos, Lolos, Chinese, and
+Tibetans. This region is nearly the extreme western limit of the Moso
+tribe which appears not to extend across the Mekong River.
+
+The mandarin at Wei-hsi received us hospitably and proved to be one of
+the most courteous officials whom we met in Yün-nan. We were sorry to
+learn that he was killed in a horrible way only a few weeks after our
+visit. Trouble arose with the peasants over the tax on salt and fifteen
+hundred rebelled, attacked the city, and captured it after a sharp
+fight. It was reported that they immediately beheaded the mandarin's
+wives and children, and boiled him alive in oil.
+
+[Illustration: A Quiet Curve of the Mekong River]
+
+Although the magistrate offered to assist us in every way we could
+obtain no information concerning either hunting grounds or routes
+of travel. The flying squirrels which we had hoped to find near the
+city were reported to come from a mountain range beyond the Mekong in
+Burma, and Wei-hsi was merely a center of distribution for the skins.
+Moreover, the natives said it would be impossible to obtain squirrels
+at that time of the year, for the mountain passes were so heavily
+covered with snow that neither men nor caravans could cross them.
+
+It was desirable, however, to descend to the Mekong River in order
+to determine whether there would be a change in fauna, and on Major
+Davies' map a small road was marked down the valley. A stiff climb of
+a day and a half over a thickly forested mountain ridge, frozen and
+snow-covered, brought us in sight of the green waters of the Mekong
+which has carved a gorge for itself in an almost straight line from the
+bleak Tibetan plateaus through Yün-nan and Indo-China to the sea.
+
+Our second camp was on the river at the mouth of a deep valley, near a
+small village. Wu said that the natives were Lutzus and I was inclined
+to believe he was right, although Major Davies indicates this region
+to be inhabited by Lisos. At any rate these people both in physical
+appearance and dress were quite distinct from the Lisos whom we met
+later.
+
+They were exceedingly pleasant and friendly and the chief, accompanied
+by four venerable men, brought a present of rice. I gave him two tins
+of cigarettes and the natives returned to the village wreathed in
+smiles.
+
+The garments of the Lutzus were characteristic and quite unlike those
+of the Mosos, Lisos or Tibetans. The women wore a long coat or jacket
+of blue cloth, trousers, and a very full pleated skirt. The men were
+dressed in plum colored coats and trousers.
+
+The natives said that monkeys (probably _Pygathrix_) were often seen
+when the corn was ripe and that even yet they might be found in the
+forest across the river. Heller spent a day hunting them, but found
+none and we obtained only one new mammal in our traps. It was a tiny
+mouse (_Micromys_) but the remainder of the fauna was essentially the
+same as that of the Yangtze valley and the intervening country.
+
+For three days we traveled down the Mekong River. Although the natives
+said that the trail was good, we discovered when it was too late that
+it was too narrow and difficult to make it practicable for a caravan
+such as ours. It was necessary to continually remove the loads in
+order to lift them around sharp corners or over rocks, and the _mafus_
+sometimes had to cut away great sections of the bank. Usually only
+six or seven miles could be traversed after eight or nine hours of
+exhausting work, and we were glad when we could leave the river.
+
+The Mekong, on an average, is not more than a hundred yards wide in
+this region and, like the Yangtze, the water is very green from the
+Tibetan snows. The prevailing rock is red slate or sandstone instead
+of limestone, as in the country to the eastward, and the sides of the
+valley are so precipitous that it seems impossible for a human being
+to walk over them, and yet they are patched with brown corn fields
+from the summit to the water. Considering the small area available for
+cultivation there are a considerable number of inhabitants, who have
+gathered into villages and seldom live in isolated houses as in the
+Yangtze valley. Wherever a stream comes down from the mountain-side
+or can be diverted by irrigating ditches, the ground is beautifully
+terraced for rice paddys, but in other places, corn and peas appear to
+be the principal crops. Very few vegetables, such as turnips, squash,
+carrots or potatoes are raised, which is rather remarkable, as they
+are so abundant in all the country between the Mekong and the Yangtze
+rivers. In several places the water was spanned by rope bridges. The
+cables are made of twisted bamboo, and as one end must necessarily be
+higher than the other, there are always two ropes, one to cross each
+way. The traveler is tied by leather thongs in a sitting position to a
+wooden "runner" which slides along the bamboo cable and shoots across
+the river at tremendous speed.
+
+The valley is hopeless from a zoölogical standpoint. It is too dry
+for small mammals and the mountain slopes are so precipitous, thinly
+forested, and generally undesirable, that, except for gorals, no other
+large game would live there. The bird life is decidedly uninteresting.
+There are no cranes or sheldrakes and, except for a few flocks of
+mallards which feed in the rice fields, we saw no other ducks or geese.
+
+On December 20, we turned away from the Mekong valley and began to
+march southeast by east across an unmapped region toward Ta-li Fu. We
+camped at night on a pretty ridge thickly covered with spruce trees
+just above a deep moist ravine. In the morning our traps contained
+several rare shrews, five silver moles, a number of interesting mice,
+and a beautiful rufous spiny rat. It was too good a place to leave and
+I sent Hotenfa to inquire from a family of natives if there was big
+game of any sort in the vicinity. He reported that there were goral
+not far away, and at half past eight we rode down the trail for three
+miles when I left my horse at a peasant's house. They told us that the
+goral were on a rocky, thinly forested mountain which rose two thousand
+feet above the valley, and for an hour and a half we climbed steadily
+upward.
+
+We were resting near the summit on the rim of a deep cañon when Hotenfa
+excitedly whispered, "_gnai-yang_" and held up three fingers. He tried
+to show the animals to me and at last I caught sight of what I thought
+was a goral standing on a narrow ledge. I fired and a bit of rock flew
+into the air while the three gorals disappeared among the trees two
+hundred feet above the spot where I had supposed them to be.
+
+I was utterly disgusted at my mistake but we started on a run for the
+other side of the gorge. When we arrived, Hotenfa motioned me to swing
+about to the right while he climbed along the face of the rock wall.
+No sooner had he reached the edge of the precipice than I saw him lean
+far out, fire with my three-barrel gun, and frantically wave for me
+to come. I ran to him and, throwing my arms about a projecting shrub,
+looked down. There directly under us stood a huge goral, but just as I
+was about to shoot, the earth gave way beneath my feet and I would have
+fallen squarely on the animal had Hotenfa not seized me by the collar
+and drawn me back to safety.
+
+The goral had not discovered where the shower of dirt and stones came
+from before I fired hurriedly, breaking his fore leg at the knee.
+Without the slightest sign of injury the ram disappeared behind a
+corner of the rock. I dashed to the top of the ridge in time to see him
+running at full speed across a narrow open ledge toward a thick mass of
+cover on the opposite side of the cañon. I fired just as the animal
+gained the trees and, at the crash of my rifle, the goral plunged
+headlong down the mountain, stone dead.
+
+It fell on a narrow slide of loose rock which led nearly to the bottom
+of the valley and, slipping and rolling in a cloud of red dust, dropped
+over a precipice. The ram brought up against an unstable boulder five
+hundred feet below us, and it required half an hour's hard work to
+reach the spot.
+
+When I finally lifted its head one of the horns which had been broken
+in the fall slipped through my fingers, and away went the goral on
+another rough and tumble descent, finally stopping on a rock ledge
+nearly eleven hundred feet from the place where it had been shot. We
+returned to camp at noon bringing joy with us, for, as my wife had
+remarked the day before, "We will soon have to eat chickens or cans."
+
+Heller hunted the gorals unsuccessfully the following day and we left
+on December 23, camping at night on a flat terrace beside a stream at
+the end of a moist ravine. We intended to spend Christmas here for it
+was a beautiful spot, surrounded by virgin forest, but our celebration
+was to be on Christmas Eve. The following day dawned bright and clear.
+There had not been a drop of rain for nearly a month and the weather
+was just warm enough for comfort in the sun with one's coat off, but
+at night the temperature dropped to about 16°+ or 20°+ Fahr. The camp
+proved to be a good one, giving us two new mammals and, just after
+tiffin, Hotenfa came running in to report that he had discovered seven
+gray monkeys (probably _Pygathrix_) in a cornfield a mile away.
+
+The monkeys had disappeared ere we arrived, but while we were gone
+Yvette had been busy and, just before dinner, she ushered us into our
+tent with great ceremony. It had been most wonderfully transformed.
+At the far end stood a Christmas tree, blazing with tiny candles and
+surrounded by masses of white cotton, through which shone red holly
+berries. Holly branches from the forest and spruce boughs lined the
+tent and hung in green waves from the ridge pole. At the base of the
+tree gifts which she had purchased in Hongkong in the preceding August
+were laid out.
+
+Heller mixed a fearful and wonderful cocktail from the Chinese wine
+and orange juice, and we drank to each other and to those at home
+while sitting on the ground and opening our packages. We had purchased
+two Tibetan rugs in Li-chiang and Wei-hsi, as Christmas presents for
+Yvette. These rugs usually are blue or red, with intricate designs in
+the center, and are well woven and attractive.
+
+To the servants and _mafus_ we gave money and cigarettes. When the
+muleteers were brought to the tent to receive their gifts they
+evidently thought our blazing tree represented an altar, for they
+kneeled down and began to make the "chin, chin joss" which is always
+done before their heathen gods.
+
+Our Christmas dinner was a masterpiece. Four days previously I had shot
+a pair of mallard ducks and they formed the _pièce de résistance_. The
+dinner consisted of soup, ducks stuffed with chestnuts, currant jelly,
+baked squash, creamed carrots, chocolate cake, cheese and crackers,
+coffee and cigarettes.
+
+Christmas day we traveled, and in the late afternoon passed through
+a very dirty Chinese town in a deep valley near some extensive salt
+wells. Red clay dust lay thick over everything and the filth of the
+streets and houses was indescribable. We camped in a cornfield a
+mile beyond the village, but were greatly annoyed by the Chinese who
+insisted on swarming into camp. Finally, unable longer to endure their
+insolent stares, I drove them with stones to the top of the hill, where
+they sat in row upon row exactly as in the "bleachers" at an American
+baseball game.
+
+When we left the following day we passed dozens of caravans and groups
+of men and women carrying great disks of salt. Each piece was stamped
+in red with the official mark for salt is a government monopoly and
+only licensed merchants are allowed to deal in it; moreover, the
+importation of salt from foreign countries is forbidden. For the
+purposes of administration, China is divided into seven or eight main
+circuits, each of which has its own sources of production and the salt
+obtained in one district may not be sold in another.
+
+In Yün-nan the salt of the province is supplied from three regions. The
+water from the wells is boiled in great cauldrons for several days, and
+the resulting deposit is earth impregnated with salt. This is crushed,
+mixed with water, and boiled again until only pure salt remains. After
+passing a village of considerable size called Peiping, we began the
+ascent of an exceedingly steep mountain range twelve thousand feet
+high. All the afternoon we toiled upward in the rain and camped late in
+the evening at a pine grove on a little plateau two-thirds of the way
+to the summit. During the night it snowed heavily and we awoke to find
+ourselves in a transformed world.
+
+Every tree and bush was dressed in garments of purest white and between
+the branches we could look westward across the valley toward the
+Mekong and the purple mountain wall of the Burma border. There were
+still one thousand feet of climbing between us and the summit of the
+pass. The trail was almost blocked, but by slow work we forced our way
+through the drifts. Some of the mules were already weak from exposure
+and underfeeding, and two of them had to be relieved of their loads;
+they died the next day. Our _mafus_ did not appear to suffer greatly
+although their legs were bare from the knees down and their feet had no
+covering except straw sandals. Indeed when we discovered, on the summit
+of the pass, a tiny hut in which a fire was burning, they waited only a
+few moments to warm themselves.
+
+We met two other caravans fighting their way up the mountain from the
+other side, and by following the trail which they had broken through
+the drifts we made fairly good time on the descent. There had been no
+snow on the broad, flat plain which we reached in the late afternoon
+and we found that its ponds and fields were alive with ducks, geese,
+and cranes. The birds were wild but we had good shooting when we broke
+camp in the morning and killed enough to last us several days.
+
+On December 31, our weary days of crossing range after range of
+tremendous mountains were ended, and we stood on the last pass looking
+down upon the great Chien-chuan plain. Outside the grim walls of the
+old city, which lies on the main A-tun-tzu-Ta-li Fu road, are two large
+marshy ponds and, away to the south, is an extensive lake. We camped
+just without the courtyard of a fine temple, and at four o'clock Yvette
+and I went over to the water which was swarming with ducks and geese.
+
+Neither of us will ever forget that shoot in the glorious afternoon
+sunlight. Cloud after cloud of ducks rose as we neared the pond and
+circled high above our heads, but now and then a straggling mallard
+or "pin tail" would swing across the sky within range; as my gun
+roared out the birds would whirl to the ground like feathered bombs
+or climb higher with frightened quacks if the shot went wild. An hour
+before dark the brahminy ducks began to come in. We could hear their
+melodious plaintive calls long before we could see the birds, and we
+flattened ourselves out in the grass and mud. Soon a thin, black line
+would streak the sky, and as they drew nearer, Yvette would draw such
+seductive notes from a tiny horn of wood and bone that the flock would
+swing and dive toward us in a rush of flashing wings. When we could see
+the brown bodies right above our heads I would sit up and bang away.
+
+Now and then a big white goose would drop into the pond or an ibis flap
+lazily overhead, seeming to realize that it had nothing to fear from
+the prostrate bodies which spat fire at other birds. The stillness of
+the marsh was absolute save for the voices of the water fowl mingled
+in the wild, sweet clamor so dear to the heart of every sportsman. As
+the day began to die, hung about with ducks and geese, we walked slowly
+back across the rice fields, to the yellow fires before our tents. It
+was our last camp for the year and, as if to bid us farewell as we
+journeyed toward the tropics, the peaks of the great Snow Mountain
+far to the north, had draped themselves in a gorgeous silver mantle
+and glistened against a sky of lavender and gold like white cathedral
+spires.
+
+On January 3, we camped early in the afternoon on a beautiful little
+plain beside a spring overhung with giant trees at the head of Erh Hai,
+or Ta-li Fu Lake, which is thirty miles long. The fields and marshes
+were alive with ducks, geese, cranes, and lapwings, and we had a
+glorious day of sport over decoys and on the water before we went on to
+Ta-li Fu.
+
+Mr. Evans was about to leave for a long business trip to the south of
+the province and we took possession of a pretty temple just within the
+north gate of the city. Here we read a great accumulation of mail and
+learned that a thousand pounds of supplies which we had ordered from
+Hongkong had just arrived.
+
+Through the good offices of Mr. Howard Page, manager of the Standard
+Oil Company of Yün-nan Fu, their passage through Tonking had been
+facilitated, and he had dispatched the boxes by caravan to Ta-li Fu.
+Mr. Page rendered great assistance to the Expedition in numberless
+ways, and to him we owe our personal thanks as well as those of the
+American Museum of Natural History.
+
+All the servants except our faithful Wu left at Ta-li Fu but, with the
+aid of Mr. Hanna, we obtained a much better personnel for the trip to
+the Burma frontier. The cook, who was one of Mr. Hanna's converts, was
+an especially fine fellow and proved to be as energetic and competent
+as the other had been lazy and helpless.
+
+Our work in the north had brought us a collection of thirteen hundred
+mammals, as well as several hundred birds, much material for habitat
+groups, and a splendid series of photographic records in Paget color
+plates, black and white negatives, and motion picture film. But what
+was of first importance, we had covered an enormous extent of diverse
+country and learned much about the distribution of the fauna of
+northern Yün-nan. The thirteen hundred mammals of our collection were
+taken in a more or less continuous line across six tremendous mountain
+ranges, and furnish an illuminating cross section of the entire region
+from Ta-li Fu, north to Chung-tien, and west to the Mekong River.
+
+[Illustration: The Temple in which We Camped at Ta-li Fu]
+
+[Illustration: A Crested Muntjac]
+
+It is apparent that in this part of the province, which is all within
+one "life zone" even the smallest mammals are widely spread and that
+the principal factor in determining distribution is the flora. Neither
+the highest mountain ridges nor such deep swift rivers as the Yangtze
+and the Mekong appear to act as effective barriers to migration, and as
+long as the vegetation remains constant, the fauna changes but little.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+MISSIONARIES WE HAVE KNOWN
+
+
+During our work in Fukien Province and in various parts of Yün-nan we
+came into intimate personal contact with a great many missionaries;
+indeed every traveler in the interior of China will meet them unless
+he purposely avoids doing so. But the average tourist seldom sees the
+missionary in his native habitat because, for the most part, he lives
+and works where the tourist does not go.
+
+Nevertheless, that does not prevent the coastwise traveler from
+carrying back with him from the East a very definite impression of the
+missionary, which he has gained on board ships or in Oriental clubs
+where he hears him "damned with faint praise." Almost unconsciously
+he adopts the popular attitude just as he enlarges his vocabulary to
+include "pidgin English" and such unfamiliar phrases as "tiffin,"
+"bund" and "cumshaw."
+
+This chapter is not a brief for the missionary, but simply a matter of
+fair play. We feel that in justice we ought to present our observations
+upon this subject, which is one of very general interest, as
+impartially as upon any phase of our scientific work. But it should be
+distinctly understood that we are writing _only_ of those persons whom
+we met and lived with, and whose work we had an opportunity to know and
+to see; _we are not attempting generalizations on the accomplishments
+of missionaries in any other part of China_.
+
+There are three charges which we have heard most frequently brought
+against the missionary: that he comes to the East because he can live
+better and more luxuriously than he can at home; that he often engages
+in lucrative trade with the natives; and that he accomplishes little
+good, either religious or otherwise. It is said that his converts are
+only "rice Christians," and treaty-port foreigners have often warned us
+in this manner, "Don't take Christian servants; they are more dishonest
+and unreliable than any others."
+
+It is often true that the finest house in a Chinese town will be that
+of the resident missionary. In Yen-ping the mission buildings are
+imposing structures, and are placed upon a hill above and away from the
+rest of the city. Any white person who has traveled in the interior of
+China will remember the airless, lightless, native houses, opening,
+as they all do, on filthy streets and reeking sewers and he will
+understand that in order to exist at all a foreigner must be somewhat
+isolated and live in a clean, well-ventilated house.
+
+Every missionary in China employs servants--many more servants than
+he could afford at home. So does every other foreigner, whatever his
+vocation. There is no such thing in China as the democracy of the West,
+and the missionary's status in the community demands that certain work
+in his house be done by servants; otherwise he and his family would
+be placed on a level with the coolie class and the value of his words
+and deeds be discounted. But the chief reason is that the missionary's
+wife almost always has definite duties to which she could not attend if
+she were not relieved from some of the household cares. She leads in
+work among the women of the community by organizing clubs and "Mutual
+Improvement Societies" and in teaching in the schools or hospitals
+where young men and women are learning English as an asset to medical
+work among their own people. Servants are unbelievably cheap. While we
+were in Foochow a cook received $8.50 (gold) per month, a laundryman
+$1.75 (gold) per month, and other wages were in proportion.
+
+In Fukien Province the missionaries receive two months' vacation.
+Anyone who has lived through a Fukien summer in the interior of the
+province will know why the missionaries are given this vacation. If
+they were not able to leave the deadly heat and filth and disease
+of the native cities for a few weeks every year, there would be no
+missionaries to carry on the work. The business man can surround
+himself with innumerable comforts both in his home and in his office
+which the missionary cannot afford and, during the summer, life is not
+only made possible thereby but even pleasant.
+
+Yen-ping is eight days' travel from Foochow up the Min River and it is
+by no means the most remote station in the province. Very few travelers
+reach these places during the year and the white inhabitants are almost
+isolated. Miss Mabel Hartford lives alone at Yuchi and at one time
+she saw only one foreigner in eight months. Miss Cordelia Morgan is
+the sole foreign resident of Chu-hsuing Fu, a large Chinese city six
+days from Yün-nan Fu. In Ta-li Fu, Reverend William J. Hanna, his wife
+and two other women, are fourteen days' ride from the nearest foreign
+settlement. In Li-chiang, Reverend and Mrs. A. Kok and their three
+small children live with two women missionaries. They are twenty-one
+days' travel from a doctor, and for four years previous to our visit
+they had not seen a white woman.
+
+These are some instances of missionaries whom we met in China who have
+voluntarily exiled themselves to remote places where they expect to
+spend their entire lives surrounded by an indifferent if not hostile
+population. Can anyone possibly believe that they have chosen this life
+because it is easier or more luxurious than that at home?
+
+Some of the men whom we met had left lucrative business positions to
+take up medical or evangelistic work in China where their compensation
+is pitifully small--not one-third of the salary they were commanding at
+home. We did not meet any missionaries who were engaging in trade with
+the natives even though in some places there were excellent business
+opportunities.
+
+Consider the doctors as examples of the civilizing influences which
+missionaries bring with them. We saw them in various parts of China
+doing a magnificent wort Dr. Bradley has established a great leper
+hospital at Paik-hoi where these human outcasts are receiving the
+latest and most scientific treatment and beginning to look at life
+with a new hope. In Yen-ping, at the time of the rebellion, we saw Dr.
+Trimble working hour after hour over wounded and broken men without a
+thought of rest. In Yün-nan Fu, Dr. Thompson's hospital was filled with
+patients suffering from almost every known disease. In Ta-li Fu we saw
+Mr. Hanna and his wife dispensing medicines and treating the minor ills
+of patients waiting by the dozen, the fees received being not enough
+to pay for the cost of the medicines. Why is it that every traveling
+foreigner in the interior of China is supposed to be able to cure
+diseases? Certainly an important reason is because of the work done by
+the medical missionaries who have penetrated to the farthest corners of
+the most remote provinces.
+
+Aside from their medical work, missionaries are in many instances the
+real pioneers of western civilization. They bring to the people new
+standards of living, both morally and physically. They open schools
+and emancipate the Chinese children in mind and body. They fight the
+barbarous customs of foot binding and the killing and selling of girl
+babies. Until recent years it was not unusual to meet the village "baby
+peddler" with from two to six tiny infants peddling his "goods" from
+village to village. Not many years ago such a man appeared before the
+mission compound at Ngu-cheng (Fukien) with four babies in his basket.
+Three of these had expired from exposure and the kerosene oil which had
+been poured down their throats to stupefy them and drown their cries.
+The fourth was purchased by the wife of the native preacher for ten
+cents in order to save its life. This child was reared and has since
+graduated from the mission schools with credit. In Foochow a stone
+tablet bearing the following inscription stands beside a stagnant pool:
+"Hereafter the throwing of babies into this pool will be punished by
+law." This was a result of the work of the missionaries.
+
+Their task is by no means easy and, as Mr. Hanna once remarked,
+"Yün-nan Province has broken the heart of more than one missionary."
+The Chinese do not understand their point of view, and it is difficult
+to make them see it. A Chinaman is a rank materialist and pure altruism
+does not enter into his scheme of life. As a rule he has but two
+thoughts, his stomach and his cash bag. It is well-nigh impossible to
+make him realize that the missionary has not come with an ulterior
+motive--if not to engage in trade, perhaps as a spy for his government.
+Others believe that it is because China is so vastly superior to the
+rest of the world that the missionaries wish to live there. Eventually
+the suspicions of the natives become quieted and they accept the
+missionary at some part of his true worth.
+
+At the time of the rebellion in Yen-ping we saw Harry Caldwell, Mr.
+Bankhardt and Dr. Trimble save the lives of hundreds of people and
+the city from partial destruction because the Chinese officers of the
+opposing forces would trust the missionaries when they would not trust
+each other.
+
+An excellent piece of practical missionary work was done in Fukien
+Province, not long after our visit there. As we have related in Chapter
+III, several large bands of brigands were established in the hills
+about Yuchi. Brigandage began there in the following way. During a
+famine when the people were on the verge of starvation, a wealthy
+farmer, Su Ek by name, decided to do his share in relieving conditions
+by offering for sale a quantity of rice which he had accumulated. He
+approached another man of similar wealth who agreed with him to sell
+his grain at a reasonable price. Su Ek accordingly disposed of his
+rice to the suffering people and, when he had remaining only enough
+to sustain his own family until the following harvest, he sent the
+peasants to the second man who had also agreed to dispose of his grain.
+
+This farmer refused to sell at the stipulated price, and the people,
+angered at his treachery, looted his sheds. He immediately went to
+Foochow and reported to the governor that there was a band of brigands
+abroad in Yuchi County under the leadership of Su Ek, and that they had
+robbed and plundered his property.
+
+Without warning a company of soldiers swooped down upon the community
+and arrested a number of men whose names the informer had given. Su Ek
+made his escape to the hills but he was pursued as a brigand chief, and
+was later joined by other farmers who had been similarly persecuted.
+Unable to return to their homes on pain of death they were forced to
+rob in order to live.
+
+Su Ek and others were finally decoyed to Foochow upon the promise
+that their lives would be spared if they would induce their band to
+surrender. They met the conditions but the government officials broke
+faith and the men were executed. Similar attempts were made to enter
+into negotiations with the brigands and in 1915 two hundred were
+trapped and beheaded after pardons had been promised them. Naturally
+the robbers refused to trust the government officials again.
+
+The months which elapsed between this act of treachery and the spring
+of 1916, were filled with innumerable outrages. Many townships were
+completely devastated, either by the bandits or the Chinese soldiers.
+Little will ever be known of what actually took place under the guise
+of settling brigandage, behind the mountains which separate Yuchi from
+the outer world. It is well that it should not be known.
+
+During the spring of 1916 a missionary visited Yuchi. Business called
+him outside the city wall and just beyond the west gate he saw the
+bodies of ten persons who had that day been executed. Among these were
+two children, brothers, the sons of a man who was reported to have
+"sold rice to the brigands." The smaller child had wept and pleaded to
+be permitted to kneel beside his older brother further up in the row.
+He was too small to realize what it all meant but he wanted to die
+beside his brother.
+
+In the middle of the field lay a man whose head was partly severed from
+his body and who had been shot through and through by the soldiers. He
+was lying upon his back in the broiling sun pleading for a cup of tea
+or for someone to put him out of his misery. The missionary learned
+the man's story. It appeared that years ago a law suit in which his
+father had been concerned had been decided in his favor. In order to
+square the score between the clans, the son of the man who had lost
+the suit had reported that he had seen this man carrying rice to the
+brigands. He had been arrested by the soldiers, partially killed, and
+left to lie in the glaring sun from nine o'clock in the morning until
+dark suffering the agonies of crucifixion. Not one of those who heard
+his moans dared to moisten the parched lips with tea lest he too be
+executed for having administered to a brigand.
+
+The missionary returned to the city that night vowing that he would
+make a recurrence of such a thing impossible or he would leave China.
+He took up the matter with the authorities in Peking in a quiet way
+and later with the military governor in Foochow. He was well known to
+the brigands by reputation and visited several of the chiefs in their
+strongholds. They declared that they had confidence in him but none in
+the government or its representatives. It was only after assuming full
+responsibility for any treachery that the brigands agreed to discuss
+terms.
+
+Upon invitation to accompany him to the 24th Township, the missionary
+was escorted out to civilization by twenty-five picked men to whom
+the chief had entrusted an important charge. As the group neared
+the township the missionary sent word ahead to the commander of the
+northern soldiers to prepare to receive the brigands.
+
+[Illustration: Seal of a Pardoned Brigand.]
+
+As the twenty-five bandits appeared upon the summit of a hill
+overlooking the city, soldiers could be seen forming into squads
+outside the barracks. Instantly the brigands halted, snapped back the
+bolts of their rifles, and threw in shells. The missionary realized
+that they suspected treachery and turning about he said, "I am the
+guarantee for your lives. If a short is fired kill me first."
+
+[Illustration: The South Gate at Yung-chang]
+
+[Illustration: A Chinese Bride Returning to Her Mother's Home at New
+Year's]
+
+With two loaded guns at his back and accompanied by the brigands he
+marched into the city, where they were received by the officials with
+all the punctilious ceremony so dear to the heart of the Chinese. It
+had been a dangerous half hour for the missionary. If a rifle had been
+fired by mistake, and Chinese are always shooting when they themselves
+least expect to, he would have been instantly killed.
+
+This conference, and others which followed, resulted in several hundred
+pardons being distributed to the brigands by the missionary himself.
+The men then returned to their abandoned homes and again took up their
+lives as respectable farmers. Thus the reign of terror in this portion
+of the province was ended through the efforts of one courageous man. It
+is such applied Christianity that has made us respect the missionary
+and admire his work.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+CHINESE NEW YEAR AT YUNG-CHANG
+
+_Y. B. A._
+
+
+The last half of the expedition began January 18 when we left Ta-li Fu
+with a caravan of thirty miles for Yung-chang, eight days' travel to
+the south. The _mafus_ although they had promised faithfully to come
+"at daylight" did not arrive until nearly noon and in consequence it
+was necessary to camp at Hsia-kuan at the foot of the lake.
+
+We improved our time there in hunting about for skins and finally
+purchased two fine leopards and a tiger. The latter had been brought
+from the Tonking frontier. There were a number of Tibetans wandering
+about the market place and in the morning a caravan of at least two
+hundred horses followed by twenty or thirty Tibetans, passed into the
+city while it was yet gray dawn. They were bringing tea from P'u-erh
+and S'su-mao in the south of the province and although they had already
+been nearly a month upon their journey there was still many long weeks
+of travel before them ere they reached the wind-blown steppes of their
+native land.
+
+The trip to Yung-chang proved uninteresting and uneventful. We crossed
+a succession of dry, thinly forested mountains from 7,000 to 8,000 feet
+high which near their summits were often clothed with a thick growth
+of rhododendron trees. The beautiful red flowers flashed like fire
+balls among the green leaves, peach trees were in full blossom and in
+some spots the dry hills seemed about to break forth in the full glory
+of their spring verdure. We crossed the Mekong near a village called
+Shia-chai on a picturesque chain suspension bridge of a type which is
+not unusual in the southern and western part of the province. Several
+heavy iron chains are firmly fastened to huge rock piers on opposite
+sides of the river and the roadway formed by planks laid upon them.
+Although the bridge shakes and swings in a rather alarming manner when
+a caravan is crossing, it is perfectly safe if not too heavily loaded.
+
+In the afternoon of January 21, we rode down the mountain to the great
+Yung-chang plain, and for two hours trotted over a hard dirt road.
+The plain is eighteen miles long by six miles wide and except for its
+scattered villages, is almost entirely devoted to paddy fields. The
+city itself includes about five thousand houses. It is exceedingly
+picturesque and is remarkable for its long, straight, and fairly clean
+streets which contrast strongly with those of the usual Chinese town.
+At the west, but still within the city walls, is a picturesque wooded
+hill occupied almost exclusively by temples.
+
+We ourselves camped between two ponds in the courtyard of a large and
+exceptionally clean temple just outside the south gate of the city. It
+was the Chinese New Year and Wu told us that for several days at least
+it would be impossible to obtain another caravan or expect the natives
+to do any work whatever. It was a very pleasant place in which to stay
+although we chafed at the enforced delay, but we made good use of our
+time in photographing and developing motion picture film, collecting
+birds and making various excursions.
+
+Chinese New Year is always interesting to a foreigner and at Yung-chang
+we saw many of the customs attending its celebration. It is a time
+of feasting and merry making and no native, if he can possibly avoid
+it, will work on that day. Chinese families almost always live under
+one roof but should any male member be absent at this season the
+circumstances must be exceptional to prevent him from returning to his
+home.
+
+It is customary, too, for brides to revisit their mother's house
+at New Year's. On our way to Yung-chang and for several days after
+leaving the city, we were continually passing young women mounted on
+mules or horses and accompanied by servants returning to their homes.
+New clothes are a leading feature of this season and the dresses of
+the brides and young matrons were usually of the most unexpected hues
+for, according to our conception of color, the Chinese can scarcely
+be counted conspicuous for their good taste. Purple and blue, orange
+and red, pink and lavender clash distressingly, but are worn with
+inordinate pride.
+
+These visits are not an unalloyed pleasure to the bride's family. Dr.
+Smith says in "Chinese Characteristics":
+
+  When she goes to her mother's home, she goes on a strictly business
+  basis. She takes with her it may be a quantity of sewing for her
+  husband's family, which the wife's family must help her get through
+  with. She is accompanied on each of these visits by as many of
+  her children as possible, both to have her take care of them and
+  to have them out of the way when she is not at hand to look after
+  them, and most especially to have them fed at the expense of the
+  family of the maternal grandmother for as long a time as possible.
+  In regions where visits of this sort are frequent, and where there
+  are many daughters in a family, their constant raids on the old
+  home are a source of perpetual terror to the whole family, and a
+  serious tax on the common resources.[6]
+
+[Footnote 6: "Chinese Characteristics," by Arthur H. Smith, p. 200.]
+
+Religious rites and ceremonies form a conspicuous part in the New
+Year's celebration. At this time the "Kitchen God," according to
+current superstition, returns to heaven to render an account of the
+household's behavior. The wily Chinese, however, first rubs the lips of
+the departing deity with candy in order to "sweeten" his report of any
+evil which he may have witnessed during the year.
+
+Usually all the members of the family gather before the ancestral
+tablets, or should these be lacking as among many of the laboring
+classes, a scroll with a part of the genealogy is displayed and the
+spirits of the departed are appeased and honored by the burning of
+incense and the mumbling of incantations. While strict attention is
+paid to the religious observance to the dead, at New Year's the most
+punctilious ceremony is rendered to the living.
+
+After the family have paid their respects to one another the younger
+male members go from house to house "kowtowing" to the elders who
+are there to receive them. The following days are devoted to visits
+to relatives living in the neighboring towns and villages, and this
+continues, an endless routine, until fourteen days later the Feast of
+the Lanterns puts an end to the "epoch of national leisure."
+
+The Chinese are inveterate gamblers and at New Year's they turn
+feverishly to this form of amusement which is almost their only one.
+But they also have to think seriously about paying their debts for it
+is absolutely necessary for all classes and conditions of men to meet
+their obligations at the end of the year.
+
+Almost everyone owes money in China. According to the clan system an
+individual having surplus cash is obliged to lend it (though at a
+high rate of interest) to any members of his family in need of help.
+However, a Chinaman never pays cash unless absolutely obliged to and
+almost never settles a debt until he has been dunned repeatedly.
+
+The activity displayed at New Year's is ludicrous.
+
+  Each separate individual [says Dr. Smith] is engaged in the task of
+  trying to chase down the men who owe money to him, and compel them
+  to pay up, and at the same time in trying to avoid the persons who
+  are struggling to track him down and corkscrew from him the amount
+  of his indebtedness to them! The dodges and subterfuges to which
+  each is obliged to resort, increase in complexity and number with
+  the advance of the season, until at the close of the month, the
+  national activity is at fever heat. For if a debt is not secured
+  then, it will go over till a new year, and no one knows what will
+  be the status of a claim which has actually contrived to cheat the
+  annual Day of Judgment. In spite of the excellent Chinese habit of
+  making the close of a year a grand clearing-house for all debts,
+  Chinese human nature is too much for Chinese custom, and there are
+  many of these postponed debts which are a grief of mind to many a
+  Chinese creditor.
+
+  The Chinese are at once the most practical and the most sentimental
+  of the human race. New Year mist not be violated by duns for debts,
+  and the debts must be collected New Year though it be. For this
+  reason one sometimes sees an urgent creditor going about early
+  on the first day of the year carrying a lantern looking for his
+  creditor [= debtor]. His artificial light shows that by a social
+  fiction the sun has not yet risen, it is still yesterday and the
+  debt can still be claimed. . . .
+
+  We have but to imagine the application of the principles which we
+  have named, to the whole Chinese Empire, and we get new light upon
+  the nature of the Chinese New Year festivities. They are a time of
+  rejoicing, but there is no rejoicing so keen as that of a ruined
+  debtor, who has succeeded by shrewd devices in avoiding the most
+  relentless of his creditors and has thus postponed his ruin for at
+  least another twelve months.
+
+  For, once past the narrow strait at the end of the year, the
+  debtor finds himself again in the broad and peaceful waters, where
+  he cannot be molested. Even should his creditors meet him on New
+  Year's day, there could be no possibility of mentioning the fact of
+  the previous day's disgraceful flight and concealment, or indeed
+  of alluding to business at all, for this would not be "good form"
+  and to the Chinese "Good Form" (otherwise known as custom), is the
+  chief national divinity.[7]
+
+[Footnote 7: "Village Life in China," by Arthur H. Smith, 1907, pp.
+208-209.]
+
+Yung-chang appears to be almost entirely inhabited by Chinese and in
+no part of the province did we see foot-binding more in evidence.
+Practically every woman and girl, young or old, regardless of her
+station in life was crippled in this brutal way. The women wear long
+full coats with flaring skirts which hang straight from their shoulders
+to their knees. When the trousers are tightly wrapped about their
+shrunken ankles, they look in a side view exactly like huge umbrellas.
+
+One day we visited a cave thirty _li_ north of the city where we hoped
+to find new bats. A beautiful little temple has been built over the
+entrance to the cavern which does not extend more than forty or fifty
+feet into the rock. But twenty _li_ south of Yung-chang, just beyond
+the village of A-shih-wo, there is an enormous cave which is reported
+to extend entirely through the hill. Whether or not this is true we
+can not say for although we explored it in part we did not reach the
+end. The central corridor is about thirty feet wide and at least sixty
+or seventy high. We followed the main gallery for a long distance,
+and turned back at a branch which led off at a sharp angle. We were
+not equipped with sufficient candles to pursue the exploration more
+extensively and did not have time to visit it again. The cave contained
+some beautiful stalactites of considerable size, but the limestone was
+a dull lead color. We found only one bat and these animals appear not
+to have used it extensively since there was little sign upon the floor.
+
+At Yung-chang we saw water buffaloes for the first time in Yün-nan but
+found them to be in universal use farther to the south and west. The
+huge brutes are as docile as a kitten in the hands of the smallest
+native child but they do not like foreigners and discretion is the
+better part of valor where they are concerned.
+
+Water buffaloes are only employed for work in the rice fields but
+Chinese cows are used as burden bearers in this part of the province.
+Such caravans travel much more slowly than do mule trains although the
+animals are not loaded as heavily. Two or three of the leading cows
+usually carry upon their backs large bells hung in wooden frameworks
+and the music is by no means unmelodious when heard at a distance.
+Marco Polo, the great Venetian traveler, refers to Yung-chang as
+"Vochang." His account of a battle which was fought in its vicinity in
+the year 1272 between the King of Burma and Bengal and one of Kublai
+Khan's generals is so interesting that I am quoting it below:
+
+  When the king of Mien [Burma] and Bangala [Bengal], in India, who
+  was powerful in the number of his subjects, in extent of territory,
+  and in wealth, heard that an army of Tartars had arrived at Vochang
+  [Yung-chang] he took the resolution of advancing immediately
+  to attack it, in order that by its destruction the grand khan
+  should be deterred from again attempting to station a force upon
+  the borders of his dominions. For this purpose he assembled a
+  very large army, including a multitude of elephants (an animal
+  with which his country abounds), upon whose backs were placed
+  battlements or castles, of wood, capable of containing to the
+  number of twelve or sixteen in each. With these, and a numerous
+  army of horse and foot, he took the road to Vochang, where the
+  grand khan's army lay, and encamping at no great distance from it,
+  intended to give his troops a few days of rest.
+
+  As soon as the approach of the king of Mien, with so great a force,
+  was known to Nestardin, who commanded the troops of the grand khan,
+  although a brave and able officer, he felt much alarmed, not having
+  under his orders more than twelve thousand men (veterans, indeed,
+  and valiant soldiers); whereas the enemy had sixty thousand,
+  besides the elephants armed as has been described. He did not,
+  however, betray any sign of apprehension, but descending into the
+  plain of Vochang, took a position in which his flank was covered by
+  a thick wood of large trees, whither, in case of a furious charge
+  by the elephants, which his troops might not be able to sustain,
+  they could retire, and from thence, in security, annoy them with
+  their arrows....
+
+  Upon the king of Mien's learning that the Tartars had descended
+  into the plain, he immediately put his army in motion, took up his
+  ground at the distance of about a mile from the enemy, and made a
+  disposition of his force, placing the elephants in the front, and
+  the cavalry and infantry, in two extended wings, in their rear,
+  but leaving between them a considerable interval. Here he took
+  his own station, and proceeded to animate his men and encourage
+  them to fight valiantly, assuring them of victory, as well from
+  the superiority of their numbers, being four to one, as from their
+  formidable body of armed elephants, whose shock the enemy, who had
+  never before been engaged with such combatants, could by no means
+  resist. Then giving orders for sounding a prodigious number of
+  warlike instruments, he advanced boldly with his whole army towards
+  that of the Tartars, which remained firm, making no movement, but
+  suffering them to approach their entrenchments.
+
+  They then rushed out with great spirit and the utmost eagerness to
+  engage; but it was soon found that the Tartar horses, unused to the
+  sight of such huge animals, with their castles, were terrified, and
+  by wheeling about endeavored to fly; nor could their riders by any
+  exertions restrain them, whilst the king, with the whole of his
+  forces, was every moment gaining ground. As soon as the prudent
+  commander perceived this unexpected disorder, without losing his
+  presence of mind, he instantly adopted the measure of ordering his
+  men to dismount and their horses to be taken into the wood, where
+  they were fastened to the trees.
+
+  When dismounted, the men without loss of time, advanced on foot
+  towards the line of elephants, and commenced a brisk discharge
+  of arrows; whilst, on the other side, those who were stationed
+  in the castles, and the rest of the king's army, shot volleys in
+  return with great activity; but their arrows did not make the same
+  impression as those of the Tartars, whose bows were drawn with
+  a stronger arm. So incessant were the discharges of the latter,
+  and all their weapons (according to the instructions of their
+  commander) being directed against the elephants, these were soon
+  covered with arrows, and, suddenly giving way, fell back upon their
+  own people in the rear, who were thereby thrown into confusion. It
+  soon became impossible for their drivers to manage them, either
+  by force or address. Smarting under the pain of their wounds,
+  and terrified by the shouting of the assailants, they were no
+  longer governable, but without guidance or control ran about in
+  all directions, until at length, impelled by rage and fear, they
+  rushed into a part of the wood not occupied by the Tartars. The
+  consequence of this was, that from the closeness of the branches
+  of large trees, they broke, with loud crashes, the battlements or
+  castles that were upon their backs, and involved in the destruction
+  those who sat upon them.
+
+  Upon seeing the rout of the elephants the Tartars acquired fresh
+  courage, and filing off by detachments, with perfect order and
+  regularity, they remounted their horses, and joined their several
+  divisions, when a sanguinary and dreadful combat was renewed. On
+  the part of the king's troops there was no want of valor, and he
+  himself went amongst the ranks entreating them to stand firm, and
+  not to be alarmed by the accident that had befallen the elephants.
+  But the Tartars by their consummate skill in archery, were too
+  powerful for them, and galled them the more exceedingly, from their
+  not being provided with such armor as was worn by the former.
+
+  The arrows having been expended on both sides, the men grasped
+  their swords and iron maces, and violently encountered each other.
+  Then in an instant were to be seen many horrible wounds, limbs
+  dismembered, and multitudes falling to the ground, maimed and
+  dying; with such effusion of blood as was dreadful to behold. So
+  great also was the clangor of arms, and such the shoutings and the
+  shrieks, that the noise seemed to ascend to the skies. The king of
+  Mien, acting as became a valiant chief, was present wherever the
+  greatest danger appeared, animating his soldiers, and beseeching
+  them to maintain their ground with resolution. He ordered fresh
+  squadrons from the reserve to advance to the support of those that
+  were exhausted; but perceiving at length that it was impossible any
+  longer to sustain the conflict or to withstand the impetuosity of
+  the Tartars, the greater part of his troops being either killed or
+  wounded, and all the field covered with the carcasses of men and
+  horses, whilst those who survived were beginning to give way, he
+  also found himself compelled to take to flight with the wreck of
+  his army, numbers of whom were afterwards slain in the pursuit....
+
+  The Tartars having collected their force after the slaughter of the
+  enemy, returned towards the wood into which the elephants had fled
+  for shelter, in order to take possession of them, where they found
+  that the men who had escaped from the overthrow were employed in
+  cutting down trees and barricading the passages, with the intent
+  of defending themselves. But their ramparts were soon demolished
+  by the Tartars, who slew many of them, and with the assistance of
+  the persons accustomed to the management of the elephants, they
+  possessed themselves of these to the number of two hundred or more.
+  From the period of this battle the grand khan has always chosen
+  to employ elephants in his armies, which before that time he had
+  not done. The consequences of the victory were, that he acquired
+  possession of the whole of the territories of the king of Bangala
+  and Mien, and annexed them to his dominions.[8]
+
+[Footnote 8: "The Travels of Marco Polo the Venetian." Everyman's
+Library. J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., London; pp. 255-256.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+TRAVELING TOWARD THE TROPICS
+
+
+We left Yung-chang with no regret on Monday, January 28. Our stay there
+would have been exceedingly pleasant under ordinary conditions but it
+was impossible not to chafe at the delay occasioned by the caravan.
+Traveling southward for two days over bare brown mountain-sides, their
+monotony unrelieved except by groves of planted pine and fir trees, we
+descended abruptly into the great subtropical valley at Shih-tien.
+
+Mile after mile this fertile plain stretches away in a succession of
+rice paddys and fields of sugar cane interspersed with patches of
+graceful bamboo, their summits drooping like enormous clusters of
+ostrich plumes; the air is warm and fragrant and the change from the
+surrounding hills is delightful. However, we were disappointed in the
+shooting for, although it appeared to be an ideal place for ducks and
+other water birds, we killed only five teal, and the great ponds were
+almost devoid of bird life. Even herons, so abundant in the north,
+were conspicuous by their absence and we saw no sheldrakes, geese, or
+mallards.
+
+At Shih-tien we camped in a beautiful temple yard on the outskirts
+of the town, and with Wu I returned to the village to inquire about
+shooting places. We seated ourselves in the first open tea house and
+within ten minutes more than a hundred natives had filled the room,
+overflowed through the door and windows, and formed a mass of pushing,
+crowding bodies which completely blocked the street outside. It was
+a simple way of getting all the village together and Wu questioned
+everyone who looked intelligent.
+
+We learned that shooting was to be found near Gen-kang, five days'
+travel south, and we returned to the temple just in time to receive a
+visit from the resident mandarin. He was a good-looking, intellectual
+man, with charming manners and one of the most delightful gentlemen
+whom we met in China.
+
+During his visit, and until dinner was over and we had retired to our
+tents, hundreds of men, women and children crowded into the temple
+yard to gaze curiously at us. After the gates had been closed they
+climbed the walls and sat upon the tiles like a flock of crows. Their
+curiosity was insatiable but not unfriendly and nowhere throughout
+our expedition did we find such extraordinary interest in our affairs
+as was manifested by the people in this immediate region. They were
+largely Chinese and most of them must have met foreigners before, yet
+their curiosity was much greater than that of any natives whom we knew
+were seeing white persons for the first time.
+
+Just before camping the next day we passed through a large village
+where we were given a most flattering reception. We had stopped to do
+some shooting and were a considerable distance behind the caravan. The
+_mafus_ must have announced our coming, for the populace was out _en
+masse_ to greet us and lined the streets three deep. It was a veritable
+triumphal entry and crowds of men and children followed us for half
+a mile outside the town, running beside our horses and staring with
+saucer-like eyes.
+
+[Illustration: A Chinese Patriarch]
+
+[Illustration: Young China]
+
+On the second day from Shih-tien we climbed a high mountain and wound
+down a sharp descent for about 4,000 feet into a valley only 2,800 feet
+above sea level. We had been cold all day on the ridges exposed to a
+biting wind and had bundled ourselves into sweaters and coats over
+flannel shirts. After going down about 1,000 feet we tied our coats to
+the saddle pockets, on the second thousand stripped off the sweaters,
+and for the remainder of the descent rode with sleeves rolled up and
+shirts open at the throat. We had come from mid-winter into summer in
+two hours and the change was most startling. It was as though we had
+suddenly ridden into an artificially heated building like the rooms for
+tropical plants at botanical gardens.
+
+Our camp was on a flat plain just above the river where we had a
+splendid view of the wide valley which was like the bottom of a well
+with high mountains rising abruptly on all sides. It was a place of
+strange contrasts. The bushes and trees were in full green foliage but
+the grass and paddy fields were dry and brown as in mid-winter. The
+thick trees at the base of the hills were literally alive with doves
+but there were few mammal runways and our traps yielded no results.
+That night a muntjac, the first we had heard, barked hoarsely behind
+the tents.
+
+The _yamen_ "soldier" who accompanied us from Shih-tien delivered his
+official dispatch at the village (Ma-po-lo) which lies farther down the
+valley. The magistrate, who proved to be a Shan native, arrived soon
+after with ten or twelve men and we discovered that there was but one
+man in the village who spoke Chinese.
+
+The magistrate at Ma-po-lo by no means wished to have the
+responsibility of our safety thrust upon him and consequently assured
+us that there were neither game nor hunters in this village. Although
+his anxiety to be rid of us was apparent, he was probably telling the
+truth, for the valley is so highly cultivated (rice), and the cover on
+the mountain-sides so limited, that it is doubtful if much game remains.
+
+In the morning the entire valley was filled with a dense white fog but
+we climbed out of it almost immediately, and by noon were back again
+in winter on the summits of the ridges. The country through which we
+passed _en route_ to Gen-kang was similar to that which had oppressed
+us during the preceding week--cultivated valleys between high barren
+mountains relieved here and there by scattered groves of planted fir
+trees. It was a region utterly hopeless from a naturalist's standpoint
+and when we arrived at a large town near Gen-kang we were well-nigh
+discouraged.
+
+During almost a month of travel we had been guided by native
+information which without exception had proved worthless. It
+seemed useless to rely upon it further, and yet there was no other
+alternative, for none of the foreigners whom we had met in Yün-nan knew
+anything about this part of the province. We were certain to reach a
+tropical region farther south and the fact that there were a few sambur
+skins for sale in the market offered slight encouragement. These were
+said to come from a village called Meng-ting, "a little more far," to
+the tune of four or five days' travel, over on the Burma frontier.
+
+With gloom in our hearts, which matched that of the weather, we left
+in a pouring rain on February 6, to slip and splash southward through
+veritable rivers of mud for two long marches. In the afternoon of the
+second day the country suddenly changed. The trail led through a wide
+grassy valley, bordered by heavily forested hills, into a deep ravine.
+Along the banks of a clear stream the earth was soft and damp and the
+moss-covered logs and dense vegetation made ideal conditions for small
+mammalian life.
+
+We rode happily up the ravine and stood in a rocky gateway. At the
+right a green-clothed mountain rose out of a tangle of luxuriant
+vegetation; to the left wave after wave of magnificent forested ridges
+lost themselves in the low hung clouds; at our feet lay a beautiful
+valley filled with stately trees which spread into a thick green canopy
+overhead.
+
+We camped in a clearing just at the edge of the forest. While the
+tents were being pitched, I set a line of traps along the base of the
+opposite mountain and found a "runway" under almost every log. About
+eight o'clock I ran my traps and, with the aid of a lantern, stumbled
+about in the bushes and high grass, over logs and into holes. When I
+emptied my pockets there were fifteen mice, rats, shrews, and voles,
+representing seven species and _all new to our collection_. Heller
+brought in eight specimens and added two new species. We forthwith
+decided to stay right where we were until this "gold mine" had been
+exhausted.
+
+In the morning our traps were full of mammals and sixty-two were laid
+out on the table ready for skinning. The length, tail, hind foot,
+and ear of each specimen was first carefully measured in millimeters
+and recorded in the field catalogue and upon a printed label bearing
+our serial number; then an incision was made in the belly, the skin
+stripped off, poisoned with arsenic, stuffed with cotton, and sewed up.
+The animal was then pinned in position by the feet, nose, and tail in a
+shallow wooden tray which fitted in the collecting trunk.
+
+The specimens were put in the sun on every bright day until they were
+thoroughly dry and could be wrapped in cotton and packed in water-tight
+trunks or boxes. We have found that the regulation U. S. Army officer's
+fiber trunk makes an ideal collecting case. It measures thirty inches
+long by thirteen deep and sixteen inches wide and will remain quite
+dry in an ordinary rain but, of course, must not be allowed to stand
+in water. The skulls of all specimens, and the skeletons of some, are
+numbered like the skin, strung upon a wire, and dried in the sun. Also
+individuals of every species are injected and preserved in formalin for
+future anatomical study.
+
+Larger specimens are always salted and dried. As soon as the skin has
+been removed and cleaned of flesh and fat, salt is rubbed into every
+part of it and the hide rolled up. In the morning it is unwrapped, the
+water which has been extracted by the salt poured off, and the skin
+hung over a rope or a tree branch to dry. If it is not too hot and the
+air is dry, the skin may be kept in the shade to good advantage, but
+under ordinary field conditions it should be placed in the sun. Before
+it becomes too hard, the hide is rolled or folded into a convenient
+package hair side in, tied into shape and allowed to become "bone dry."
+In this condition it will keep indefinitely but requires constant
+watching, for the salt absorbs moisture from the air and alternate
+wetting and drying is fatal.
+
+We soon trained two of our Chinese boys to skin both large and small
+animals and they became quite expert. They required constant watching,
+however, and after each hide had been salted either Mr. Heller or I
+examined it to make sure that it was properly treated.
+
+On our first day in camp we sent for natives to the village of Mu-cheng
+ten _li_ distant. The men assured us that there were sambur, serow, and
+muntjac in the neighborhood, and they agreed to hunt. They had no dogs
+and were armed with crossbows, antiquated guns, and bows and arrows,
+but they showed us the skins of two sambur in proof of their ability to
+secure game.
+
+Like most of the other natives, with the exception of the Mosos on the
+Snow Mountain, these men had no definite plan in hunting. The first day
+I went out with them they indicated that we were to drive a hill not
+far from camp. Without giving me an opportunity to reach a position in
+front of them, they began to work up the hill, and I had a fleeting
+glimpse of a sambur silhouetted against the sky as it dashed over the
+summit.
+
+Two days later while I was out with ten other men who had a fairly good
+pack of dogs, the first party succeeded in killing a female sambur. The
+animal weighed at least five hundred pounds but they brought it to our
+camp and we purchased the skin for ten _rupees_. South of Gen-kang the
+money of the region, like all of Yün-nan for some distance from the
+Burma frontier, is the Indian _rupee_ which equals thirty-three cents
+American gold in that part of the province adjoining Tonking, French
+Indo-China money is current.
+
+My Journal of February 8 tells of our life at this camp, which we
+called "Good Hope."
+
+  The weather is delightful for the sun is just warm enough for
+  comfort and the nights are clear and cold. How we do sleep! It
+  seems hardly an hour from the time we go to bed until we hear Wu
+  rousing the servants, and the crackle of the camp-fire outside the
+  tent. We half dress in our sleeping bags and with chattering teeth
+  dash for the fire to lace our high boots in its comfortable warmth.
+
+  After breakfast when it is full daylight, my wife and I inspect
+  the traps. The ground is white with frost and the trees and bushes
+  are dressed in silver. Every trap holds an individual interest and
+  we follow the line through the forest, resetting some, and finding
+  new mammals in others. Yvette has conquered her feminine repugnance
+  far enough to remove shrews or mice from the traps by releasing the
+  spring and dropping them on to a broad green leaf, but she never
+  touches them.
+
+  We go back to meet the hunters and while I am away with the men,
+  the lady of the camp works at her photography. I return in the late
+  afternoon and after tea we wander through the woods together. It
+  is the most delightful part of the day when the sun goes down and
+  the shadows lengthen. We sit on a log in a small clearing where we
+  can watch the upper branches of a splendid tree. It is the home of
+  a great colony of red-bellied squirrels (_Callosciurus erythræus_
+  subsp.) and after a few moments of silence we see a flash of brown
+  along a branch, my gun roars out, and there is a thud upon the
+  ground.
+
+  Yvette runs to find the animal and ere the echoes have died away
+  in the forest the gun bangs again. We have already shot a dozen
+  squirrels from this tree and yet more are there. Sometimes a tiny,
+  striped chipmunk (_Tamiops macclellandi_ subsp.) will appear on the
+  lower branches, searching the bark for grubs, and after he falls we
+  have a long hunt to find him in the brown leaves. When it is too
+  dark to see the squirrels, we wander slowly back to camp and eat a
+  dinner of delicious broiled deer steak in front of the fire; over
+  the coffee we smoke and talk of the day's hunting until it is time
+  to "run the traps."
+
+  Of all the work we enjoy this most. With lanterns and a gun we
+  pick our way among the trees until we strike the trail along which
+  the traps are set. On the soft ground our feet are noiseless and,
+  extinguishing the lanterns, we sit on a log to listen to the night
+  sounds. The woods are full of life. Almost beside us there is a
+  patter of tiny feet and a scurry among the dry leaves; a muntjac
+  barks hoarsely on the opposite hillside, and a fox yelps behind us
+  in the forest. Suddenly there is a sharp snap, a muffled squeal,
+  and a trap a few yards away has done its work. Even in the tree
+  tops the night life is active. Dead twigs drop to the ground with
+  an unnatural noise, and soft-winged owls show black against the sky
+  as they flit across an opening in the branches.
+
+  We light the lanterns again and pass down the trail into a cuplike
+  hollow. Here there are a dozen traps and already half of them
+  are full. In one is a tiny brown shrew caught by the tail as he
+  ran across the trap; another holds a veritable treasure, and at
+  my exclamation of delight Yvette runs up excitedly. It is a rare
+  Insectivore of the genus _Hylomys_ and possibly a species new to
+  science. We examine it beside the lantern, wrap it carefully in
+  paper, and drop it into a pocket by itself.
+
+  The next bit of cotton clings to a bush above a mossy log. The trap
+  is gone and for ten minutes we hunt carefully over every inch of
+  ground. Finally my wife discovers it fifteen feet away and stifles
+  a scream for in it, caught by the neck and still alive, is a huge
+  rat nearly two feet long; it too is a species which may prove new.
+
+  When the last trap has been examined, we follow the trail to the
+  edge of the forest and into the clearing where the tents glow in
+  the darkness like great yellow pumpkins. Ours is delightfully
+  warmed by the charcoal brazier and, stretched comfortably on the
+  beds, we write our daily records or read Dickens for half an hour.
+  It is with a feeling of great contentment that we slip down into
+  the sleeping bags and blow out the candles leaving the tent filled
+  with the soft glow of the moonlight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+MENG-TING: A VILLAGE OF MANY TONGUES
+
+
+During the eight days in which we remained at the "Good Hope" camp,
+two hundred specimens comprising twenty-one species were added to our
+collection. Although the altitude was still 5,000 feet, the flora was
+quite unlike that of any region in which we had previously collected,
+and that undoubtedly was responsible for the complete change of fauna.
+We were on the very edge of the tropical belt which stretches along
+the Tonking and Burma frontiers in the extreme south and west of the
+province.
+
+It was already mid-February and if we were to work in the
+fever-stricken valleys below 2,000 feet, it was high time we were on
+the way southward. The information which we had obtained near Gen-kang
+had been supplemented by the natives of Mu-cheng, and we decided to go
+to Meng-ting as soon as possible.
+
+The first march was long and uneventful but at its end, from the summit
+of a high ridge, we could see a wide valley which we reached in the
+early morning of the second day. The narrow mountain trail abruptly
+left us on a jutting promontory and wandered uncertainly down a steep
+ravine to lose itself in a veritable forest of tree ferns and sword
+grass. The slanting rays of the sun drew long golden paths into the
+mysterious depths of the mist-filled valley. To the right a giant
+sentinel peak of granite rose gaunt and naked from out the enveloping
+sea of green which swelled away to the left in huge ascending billows.
+
+We rested in our saddles until the faint tinkle of the bell on the
+leading mule announced the approach of the caravan and then we
+picked our way slowly down the steep trail between walls of tangled
+vegetation. In an hour we were breathing the moist warm air of the
+tropics and riding across a wide valley as level as a floor. The long
+stretches of rank grass, far higher than our heads, were broken by
+groves of feathery bamboos, banana palms, and splendid trees interlaced
+with tangled vines.
+
+Near the base of the mountains a Shan village nestled into the grass.
+The bamboo houses, sheltered by trees and bushes, were roofed in the
+shape of an overturned boat with thatch and the single street was wide
+and clean. Could this really be China? Verily, it was a different China
+from that we had seen before! It might be Burma, India, Java, but never
+China!
+
+Before the door of a tiny house sat a woman spinning. A real Priscilla,
+somewhat strange in dress to be sure and with a mouth streaked with
+betel nut, but Priscilla just the same. And in his proper place beside
+her stood John Alden. A pair of loose, baggy trousers, hitched far up
+over one leg to show the intricate tattoo designs beneath, a short
+coat, and a white turban completed John's attire, but he grasped a gun
+almost as ancient in design as that of his Pilgrim fathers. Priscilla
+kept her eyes upon the spinning wheel, but John's gaze could by no
+stretch of imagination be called ardent even before we appeared around
+a corner of the house and the pretty picture resolved into its rightful
+components--a surprised, but not unlovely Shan girl and a well-built,
+yellow-skinned native who stared with wide brown eyes And open mouth at
+what must have seemed to him the fancy of a disordered brain.
+
+[Illustration: A Shan Village]
+
+[Illustration: A Shan Woman Spinning]
+
+For into his village, filled with immemorial peace and quiet, where
+every day was exactly like the day before, had suddenly ridden two
+big men with white skins and blue eyes, and a little one with lots of
+hair beneath a broad sun helmet. And almost immediately the little
+one had jumped from the horse and pointed a black box with a shiny
+front at him and his Priscilla. At once, but without loss of dignity,
+Priscilla vanished into the house, but John Alden stood his ground, for
+a beautiful new tin can had been thrust into his hand and before he had
+really discovered what it was the little person had smiled at him and
+turned her attention to the charming street of his village. There the
+great water buffaloes lazily chewed their cuds standing guard over the
+tiny brown-skinned natives who played trustingly with the calves almost
+beneath their feet.
+
+Such was our invasion of the first Shan village we had ever seen, and
+regretfully we rode away across the plain between the walls of waving
+grass toward the Nam-ting River. Two canoes, each dug out of a single
+log, and tightly bound together, formed the ferry, but the packs were
+soon across the muddy stream and the mules were made to swim to the
+other bank. Shortly after leaving the ferry we emerged from the vast
+stretches of rank grass on to the open rice paddys which stretched
+away in a gently undulating plain from the river to the mountains.
+Strangely enough we saw no ducks or geese, but three great flocks of
+cranes (probably _Grus communis_) rose from the fields and wheeled in
+ever-widening spirals above our heads until they were lost in the blue
+depths of the sky.
+
+Away in the distance we saw a wooded knoll with a few wisps of smoke
+curling above its summit, but not until we were well-nigh there did
+we realize that its beautiful trees sheltered the thatched roofs of
+Meng-ting. But this was only the "'residential section" of the village
+and below the knoll on the opposite side of a shallow stream lay the
+shops and markets.
+
+We camped on a dry rice dyke where a fringe of jungle separated us from
+the nearest house. As soon as the tents were up I announced our coming
+to the mandarin and requested an interview at five o'clock. Wu and I
+found the _yamen_ to be a large well-built house, delightfully cool
+and exhibiting several foreign articles which evinced its proximity to
+Burma.
+
+We were received by a suave Chinese "secretary" who shortly introduced
+the mandarin--a young Shan not more than twenty years old who only
+recently had succeeded his late father as chief of the village. The boy
+was dressed in an exceedingly long frock coat, rather green and frayed
+about the elbows, which in combination with his otherwise typical
+native dress gave him a most extraordinary appearance.
+
+We soon discovered that the Chinese secretary who did all the talking
+was the "power behind the throne." He accepted my gift of a package of
+tea with great pleasure, but the information about hunting localities
+for which we asked was not forthcoming. He first said that he knew of a
+place where there were tiger and leopard, but that he did not dare to
+reveal it to us for we might be killed by the wild animals and he would
+be responsible for our deaths; bringing to his attention the fact
+that tigers had never been recorded from the Meng-ting region did not
+impress him in the slightest.
+
+It did tend to send him off on another track, however, and he
+next remarked that if he sent us to a place where the hunting was
+disappointing we probably would report him to the district mandarin.
+Assurances to the contrary had no effect. It was perfectly evident that
+he wished only to get us out of his district and thus relieve himself
+of the responsibility of our safety. During the conversation, which
+lasted more than an hour, the young Shan was not consulted and did not
+speak a word; he sat stolidly in his chair, hardly winking, and except
+for the constant supply of cigarettes which passed between his fingers
+there was no evidence that he even breathed.
+
+The interview closed with assurances from the Chinaman that he would
+make inquiries concerning hunting grounds and communicate with us in
+the morning. We returned to camp and half an hour later a party of
+natives arrived from the _yamen_ bearing about one hundred pounds of
+rice, a sack of potatoes, two dozen eggs, three chickens, and a great
+bundle of fire wood. These were deposited in front of our tent as gifts
+from the mandarin.
+
+We were at a loss to account for such generosity until Wu explained
+that whenever a high official visited a village it was customary for
+the mandarin to supply his entire party with food during their stay. It
+would be quite polite to send back all except a few articles, however,
+for the supplies were levied from the inhabitants of the town. We kept
+the eggs and chickens, giving the _yamen_ "runners" considerably more
+than their value in money, and they gratefully returned with the rice
+and potatoes.
+
+On the hill high above our camp was a large Shan Buddhist monastery,
+bamboo walled and thatched with straw, and at sunset and daybreak a
+musical chant of childish voices floated down to us in the mist-filled
+valley. All day long tiny yellow-robed figures squatted on the mud
+walls about the temple like a flock of birds peering at us with bright
+round eyes. They were wild as hawks, these little priests and, although
+they sometimes left the shelter of their temple walls, they never
+ventured below the bushy hedge about our rice field.
+
+In the village we saw them often, wandering about the streets or
+sitting in yellow groups beneath the giant trees which threw a welcome
+shade over almost every house. They were not all children, and finely
+built youths or men so old that they seemed like wrinkled bits of lemon
+peel, passed to and fro to the temple on the hill.
+
+There is no dearth of priests, for every family in the village with
+male children is required to send at least one boy to live a part of
+his life under the tutelage of the Church. He must remain three years,
+and longer, if he wishes. The priests are fed by the monastery, and
+their clothing is not an important item of expenditure as it consists
+merely of a straw hat and a yellow robe. They lead a lazy, worthless
+life, and from their sojourn in religious circles they learn only
+indolence and idleness.
+
+The day following our arrival in Meng-ting the weekly market was held,
+and when Wu and I crossed the little stream to the business part of the
+village, we found ourselves in the midst of the most picturesque crowd
+of natives it has ever been my fortune to see. It was a group flashing
+with color, and every individual a study for an artist. There were
+blue-clad Chinese, Shans with tattooed legs, turbans of pink or white,
+and Burmans dressed in brilliant purple or green, Las, yellow-skinned
+Lisos, flat-faced Palaungs, Was, and Kachins in black and red strung
+about with beads or shells. Long swords hung from the shoulders of
+those who did not carry a spear or gun, and the hilts of wicked looking
+daggers peeped from beneath their sashes. Every man carried a weapon
+ready for instant use.
+
+Nine tribes were present in the market that day and almost as many
+languages were being spoken. It was a veritable Babel and half the
+trading was done by signs. The narrow street was choked with goods
+of every kind spread out upon the ground: fruit, rice, cloth, nails,
+knives, swords, hats, sandals, skins, horns, baskets, mats, crossbows,
+arrows, pottery, tea, opium, and scores of other articles for food or
+household use.
+
+Dozens of natives were arriving and departing, bringing new goods or
+packing up their purchases; under open, thatched pavilions were silent
+groups of men gambling with cash or silver, and in the "tea houses"
+white-faced natives lay stretched upon the couches rolling "pills" of
+opium and oblivious to the constant stream of passers-by.
+
+It was a picturesque, ever changing group, a kaleidoscopic mass of life
+and color, where Chinese from civilized Canton drank, and gambled,
+and smoked with wild natives from the hills or from the depths of
+fever-stricken jungles.
+
+After one glimpse of the picture in the market I dashed back to camp
+to bring the "Lady of the Camera." On the way I met her, hot and
+breathless, half coaxing, half driving three bewildered young priests
+resplendent in yellow robes. All the morning she had been trying vainly
+to photograph a priest and had discovered these splendid fellows when
+all her color plates had been exposed. She might have succeeded in
+bringing them to camp had I not arrived, but they suddenly lost courage
+and rushed away with averted faces.
+
+When the plate holders were all reloaded we hurried back to the market
+followed by two coolies with the cameras. Leaving Yvette to do her work
+alone I set up the cinematograph. Wu was with me and in less than a
+minute the narrow space in front of us was packed with a seething mass
+of natives. It was impossible to take a "street scene" for the "street"
+had suddenly disappeared. Making a virtue of necessity I focused the
+camera on the irregular line of heads and swung it back and forth
+registering a variety of facial expressions which it would be hard to
+duplicate. For some time it was impossible to bribe the natives to
+stand even for a moment, but after one or two had conquered their fear
+and been liberally rewarded, there was a rush for places. Wu asked
+several of the natives who could speak Chinese if they knew what we
+were doing but they all shook their heads. None of them had ever seen a
+camera or a photograph.
+
+The Kachin women were the most picturesque of all the tribes as well
+as the most difficult to photograph. Yvette was not able to get them
+at all, and I could do so only by strategy. When Wu discovered two
+or three squatting near their baskets on the ground I moved slowly
+up behind them keeping in the center of the crowd. After the "movie
+camera" was in position Wu suddenly "shooed" back the spectators and
+before the women realized what was happening they were registered on
+twenty-five or thirty feet of film.
+
+[Illustration: A Kachin Woman in the Market at Meng-ting]
+
+[Illustration: One of Our Shan Hunters with Two Yellow Gibbons]
+
+One of the Kachin men, who had drunk too much, suddenly became
+belligerent when I pointed the camera in his direction, and rushed at
+me with a drawn knife. I swung for his jaw with my right fist and he
+went down in a heap. He was more surprised than hurt, I imagine, but it
+took all of the fight out of him for he received no sympathy from the
+spectators.
+
+Poor Yvette had a difficult time with her camera operations and a less
+determined person would have given up in despair. The natives were so
+shy and suspicious that it was well-nigh impossible to bribe them to
+stand for a second and it was only after three hours of aggravating
+work in the stifling heat and dust that she at last succeeded in
+exposing all her plates. Her patience and determination were really
+wonderful and I am quite sure that I should not have obtained half her
+results.
+
+The Kachin women were extraordinary looking individuals. They were
+short, and strongly built, with a mop of coarse hair cut straight all
+around, and thick lips stained with betel nut. Their dress consisted of
+a short black jacket and skirt reaching to the knees, and ornamented
+with strings of beads and pieces of brass or silver. This tribe forms
+the largest part of the population in northern Burma and also extends
+into Assam. Yün-nan is fortunate in having comparatively few of them
+along its western frontier for they are an uncivilized and quarrelsome
+race and frequently give the British government considerable trouble.
+
+There were only a few Burmans in the market although the border is
+hardly a dozen miles to the west, but the girls were especially
+attractive. Their bright pretty faces seemed always ready to break into
+a smile and their graceful figures draped in brilliant sarongs were in
+delightful contrast to the other, not over-dean, natives.
+
+The Burma girls were not chewing betel nut, which added to their
+distinction. The lips of virtually every other woman and man were
+stained from the red juice, which is in universal use throughout India,
+the Malay Peninsula, and the Netherlands Indies. In Yün-nan we first
+noted it at the "Good Hope" camp, and the Shans are generally addicted
+to the practice.
+
+The permanent population of Meng-ting is entirely Shan, but during the
+winter a good many Cantonese Chinamen come to gamble and buy opium. The
+drug is smuggled across the border very easily and a lucrative trade
+is carried on. It can be purchased for seventy-five cents (Mexican) an
+ounce in Burma and sold for two dollars (Mexican) an ounce in Yün-nan
+Fu and for ten dollars in Shanghai.
+
+Opium is smoked publicly in all the tea houses. The drug is cooked
+over an alcohol lamp and when the "pill" is properly prepared it is
+placed in the tiny bowl of the pipe, held against the flame and the
+smoke inhaled. The process is a rather complicated one and during it
+the natives always recline. No visible effect is produced even after
+smoking several pipefuls, but the deathly paleness and expressionless
+eye marks the inveterate opium user.
+
+There can be no doubt that the Chinese government has been, and is,
+genuinely anxious to suppress the use of opium and it has succeeded to
+a remarkable degree. We heard of only one instance of poppy growing in
+Yün-nan and often met officials, accompanied by a guard of soldiers,
+on inspection trips. Indeed, while we were in Meng-ting the district
+mandarin arrived. We were sitting in our tents when the melodious
+notes of deep-toned gongs floated in through the mist. They were like
+the chimes of far away cathedral bells sounding nearer and louder, but
+losing none of the sweetness. Soon a long line of soldiers appeared
+and passed the camp bearing in their midst a covered chair. The
+mandarin established himself in a spacious temple on the opposite side
+of the village, where I visited him the following day and explained
+the difficulty we had had at the Meng-ting _yamen_. He aided us so
+effectually that all opposition to our plans ended and we obtained a
+guide to take us to a hunting place on the Nam-ting River, three miles
+from the Burma border.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+CAMPING ON THE NAM-TING RIVER
+
+
+Every morning the valley at Meng-ting was filled with a thick white
+mist and when we broke camp at daylight each mule was swallowed up in
+the fog as soon as it left the rice field. We followed the sound of
+the leader's bell, but not until ten o'clock was the entire caravan
+visible. For thirty U the valley is broad and flat as at Meng-ting and
+filled with a luxuriant growth of rank grass, but it narrows suddenly
+where the river has carved its way through a range of hills.
+
+The trail led uncertainly along a steep bank through a dense, tropical
+jungle. Palms and huge ferns, broad-leaved bananas, and giant trees
+laced and interlaced with thorny vines and hanging creepers formed a
+living wall of green as impenetrable as though it were a net of steel.
+We followed the trail all day, sometimes picking our way among the
+rocks high above the river or padding along in the soft earth almost
+at the water's edge. At night we camped in a little clearing where
+some adventurous native had fought the jungle and been defeated; his
+bamboo hut was in ruins and the fields were overgrown with a tangle of
+throttling vegetation.
+
+We had seen no mammals, but the birds along the road were fascinating.
+Brilliant green parrots screamed in the tree tops and tiny sun-birds
+dressed in garments of red and gold and purple, flashed across the
+trail like living jewels. Once we heard a strange whirr and saw a huge
+hornbill flapping heavily over the river, every beat of his stiff wing
+feathers sounding like the motor of an aëroplane. Bamboo partridges
+called from the bushes and dozens of unfamiliar bird notes filled the
+air.
+
+At eleven o'clock on the following morning we passed two thatched
+huts in a little clearing beside the trail and the guide remarked
+that our camping place was not far away. We reached it shortly and
+were delighted. Two enormous trees, like great umbrellas, spread a
+cool, dark shade above a sparkling stream on the edge of an abandoned
+rice field. From a patch of ground as level as a floor, where our
+tents were pitched, we could look across the brown rice dykes to the
+enclosing walls of jungle and up to the green mountain beyond. A
+half mile farther down the trail, but hidden away in the jungle, lay
+a picturesque Shan village of a dozen huts, where the guide said we
+should be able to find hunters.
+
+As soon as tiffin was over we went up the creek with a bag of steel
+traps to set them on the tiny trails which wound through the jungle in
+every direction. Selecting a well-beaten patch we buried the trap in
+the center, covered it carefully with leaves, and suspended the body of
+a bird or a chunk of meat by a wire over the pan about three feet from
+the ground. A light branch was fastened to the chain as a "drag." When
+the trap is pulled this invariably catches in the grass or vines and,
+while holding the animal firmly, still gives enough "spring" to prevent
+its freeing itself.
+
+Trapping is exceedingly interesting for it is a contest of wits between
+the trapper and the animal with the odds by no means in favor of the
+former. The trap may not be covered in a natural way; the surroundings
+may be unduly disturbed; a scent of human hands may linger about the
+bait, or there may be numberless other possibilities to frighten the
+suspicious animal.
+
+In the evening our guide brought a strange individual whom he
+introduced as the best hunter in the village. He was a tall Mohammedan
+Chinese who dressed like a Shan and was married to a Shan woman. He
+seemed to be afflicted with mental and physical inertia, for when he
+spoke it was in slow drawl hardly louder than a whisper, and every
+movement of his body was correspondingly deliberate. We immediately
+named him the "Dying Rabbit" but discovered very shortly that he really
+had boundless energy and was an excellent hunter.
+
+The next morning he collected a dozen Shans for beaters and we drove a
+patch of jungle above camp but without success. There were many sambur
+tracks in the clearings, but we realized at once that it was going to
+be difficult to get deer because of the dense cover; the open places
+were so few and small that a sambur had every chance to break through
+without giving a shot.
+
+Nearly all the beaters carried guns. The "Dying Rabbit" was armed with
+a .45-caliber bolt action rifle into which he had managed to fit a .808
+shell and several of the men had Winchester carbines, model 1875. The
+guns had all been brought from Burma and most were without ammunition,
+but each man had an assortment of different cartridges and used
+whichever he could force into his rifle.
+
+[Illustration: Our Camp on the Nam-ting River]
+
+[Illustration: The Shan Village at Nam-ka]
+
+The men worked splendidly under the direction of the "Dying Rabbit."
+On the second day they put up a sambur which ran within a hundred feet
+of us but was absolutely invisible in the high grass. When we returned
+to camp we found that a civet (_Viverra_) had walked past our tent and
+begun to eat the scraps about the cook box, regardless of the shouts of
+the _mafus_ and servants who were imploring Heller to bring his gun.
+After considerable difficulty they persuaded him that there really was
+some cause for their excitement and he shot the animal. It was probably
+ill, for its flesh was dry and yellow, but the skin was in excellent
+condition.
+
+Civets belong to the family _Viverridæ_ and are found only in Asia and
+Africa. Although they resemble cats superficially they are not directly
+related to them and their claws are only partly retractile. They are
+very beautiful animals with a grayish body spotted with black, a ringed
+tail, and a black and white striped pointed head. A scent gland near
+the base of the tail secretes a strong musk-like odor which, although
+penetrating, is not particularly disagreeable. The animals move about
+chiefly in the early morning and evening and at night and prey upon
+birds, eggs, small mammals, fish, and frogs. One which we caught and
+photographed had a curious habit of raising the hair on the middle of
+its back from the neck to the tail whenever it was angry or frightened.
+
+Although there were no houses within half a mile of camp we were
+surprised on our first night to hear cocks crowing in the jungle. The
+note was like that of the ordinary barnyard bird, except that it ended
+somewhat more abruptly. The next morning we discovered Chanticleer and
+all his harem in a deserted rice field, and he flew toward the jungle
+in a flash of red and gold.
+
+I dropped him and one of his hens with a right and left of "sixes" and
+found that they were jungle fowl (_Gallus gallus_) in full plumage. The
+cock was a splendid bird. The long neck feathers (hackles) spread over
+his back and wings like a shimmering golden mantle, but it was hardly
+more beautiful than the black of his underparts and green-glossed
+tail. Picture to yourself a "black-breasted red" gamecock and you have
+him in all his glory except that his tail is drooping and he is more
+pheasant-like in his general bearing. The female was a trim little
+bird with a lilac sheen to her brown feathers and looked much like a
+well-kept game bantam hen.
+
+The jungle fowl is the direct ancestor of our barnyard hens and
+roosters which were probably first domesticated in Burma and adjacent
+countries long before the dawn of authentic history. According to
+tradition the Chinese received their poultry from the West about 1400
+B.C. and they are figured in Babylonian cylinders between the sixth
+and seventh centuries B.C.; although they were probably introduced in
+Greece through Persia there is no direct evidence as to when and how
+they reached Europe.
+
+The black-breasted jungle fowl (_Gallus gallus_) inhabit northern
+India, Burma, Indo-Chinese countries, the Malay Peninsula, and the
+Philippine Islands; a related species, _G. lafayetti_, is found in
+Ceylon; another, _G. sonnerati_, in southern India, and a fourth, _G.
+varius_, in Java.
+
+We found the jungle fowl wild and hard to kill even where they were
+seldom hunted. During the heat of the day they remain in thick cover,
+but in cloudy weather and in the early morning and evening they come
+out into clearings to feed. At our camp on the Nam-ting River we could
+usually put up a few birds on the edge of the deserted rice fields
+which stretched up into the jungle, but they were never far away from
+the edge of the forest.
+
+We sometimes saw single birds of either sex, but usually a cock had
+with him six or eight hens. It was interesting to watch such a flock
+feeding in the open. The male, resplendent in his vivid dress, shone
+like a piece of gold against the dull brown of the dry grass and
+industriously ran about among his trim little hens, rounding up the
+stragglers and directing his harem with a few low-toned "clucks"
+whenever he found some unusually tempting food.
+
+It was his duty, too, to watch for danger and he usually would send
+the flock whirring into the jungle while they were well beyond shotgun
+range. When flushed from the open the birds nearly always would alight
+in the first large tree and sit for a few moments before flying deeper
+into the jungle. We caught several hens in our steel traps, and one
+morning at the edge of a swamp I shot a jungle fowl and a woodcock with
+a "right and left" as they flushed together.
+
+We were at the Nam-ting camp at the beginning of the mating season
+for the jungle fowl. It is said that they brood from January to April
+according to locality, laying from eight to twelve creamy white eggs
+under a bamboo clump or some dense thicket where a few leaves have
+been scratched together for a nest. The hen announces the laying of
+an egg by means of a proud cackle, and the chicks themselves have the
+characteristic "peep, peep, peep" of the domestic birds. After the
+breeding season the beautiful red and gold neck hackles of the male
+sometimes are molted and replaced by short blackish feathers.
+
+There seems to be some uncertainty as to whether the cocks are
+polygamous, but our observations tend to show that they are. We never
+saw more than one male in a flock and in only one or two instances
+were the birds in pairs. The cocks are inveterate fighters like the
+domestic birds and their long curved spurs are exceedingly effective
+weapons.
+
+We set a trap for a leopard on a hill behind the Nam-ting River camp
+and on the second afternoon it contained a splendid polecat. This
+animal is a member of the family Mustelidæ which includes mink, otter,
+weasels, skunks, and ferrets, and with its brown body, deep yellow
+throat, and long tail is really very handsome. Polecats inhabit the
+Northern Hemisphere and are closely allied to the ferret which so often
+is domesticated and used in hunting rats and rabbits. We found them
+to be abundant in the low valleys along the Burma border and often
+saw them during the day running across a jungle path or on the lower
+branches of a tree. The polecat is a blood-thirsty little beast and
+kills everything that comes in its way for the pure love of killing,
+even when its appetite has been satisfied.
+
+On the third morning we found two civets in the traps. The cook told
+me that some animal had stolen a chicken from one of his boxes during
+the night and we set a trap only a few yards from our tent on a trail
+leading into the grass. The civet was evidently the thief for the cook
+boxes were not bothered again.
+
+Inspecting the traps every morning and evening was a delightful part of
+our camp life. It was like opening a Christmas package as we walked up
+the trails, for each one held interesting possibilities and the mammals
+of the region were so varied that surprises were always in store for
+us. Besides civets and polecats, we caught mongooses, palm civets, and
+other carnivores. The small traps yielded a new _Hylomys_, several new
+rats, and an interesting shrew.
+
+We saw a few huge squirrels (_Ratufa gigantea_) and shot one. It was
+thirty-six inches long, coal black above and yellow below. The animals
+were very shy and as they climbed about in the highest trees they were
+by no means easy to see or shoot. They represent an interesting group
+confined to India, Siam, the Malay Peninsula, the islands of the Dutch
+East Indies, and Borneo.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+MONKEY HUNTING
+
+
+Our most exciting sport at the Nam-ting camp was hunting monkeys. Every
+morning we heard querulous notes which sounded much like the squealing
+of very young puppies and which were followed by long, siren wails;
+when the shrill notes had reached their highest pitch they would sink
+into low mellow tones exceedingly musical.
+
+The calls usually started shortly after daylight and continued until
+about nine o'clock, or later if the day was dark or rainy. They would
+be answered from different parts of the jungle and often sounded from
+half a dozen places simultaneously. The natives assured us that the
+cries were made by _hod-zu_ (monkeys) and several times we started in
+pursuit, but they always ceased long before we had found a way through
+the jungle to the spot from which they came. At last we succeeded in
+locating the animals.
+
+We were inspecting a line of traps placed along a trail which led up
+a valley to a wide plateau. Suddenly the puppy-like squealing began,
+followed by a low tremulous wail. It seemed almost over our heads but
+the trees were empty. We stole silently along the trail for a hundred
+yards and turned into a dry creek bed which led up the bottom of the
+forested ravine. With infinite caution, breathing hard from excitement,
+we slipped along, scanning the top of every tree. A hornbill sitting
+on a dead branch caught sight of us and flapped heavily away emitting
+horrid squawks. A flock of parrots screamed overhead and a red-bellied
+squirrel followed persistently scolding at the top of its voice, but
+the monkeys continued to call.
+
+The querulous squealing abruptly ceased and we stood motionless beside
+a tree. For an instant the countless jungle sounds were hushed in a
+breathless stillness; then, low and sweet, sounded a moaning wail which
+swelled into deep full tones. It vibrated an instant, filling all the
+forest with its richness, and slowly died away. Again and again it
+floated over the tree tops and we listened strangely moved, for it was
+like the music of an exquisite contralto voice. At last it ceased but,
+ere the echoes had reached the valley, the jungle was ringing with an
+unlovely siren screech.
+
+The spell was broken and we moved on, alert and tense. The trees
+stretched upward full one hundred and fifty feet, their tops spread out
+in a leafy roof. Long ropelike vines festooned the upper branches and a
+luxuriant growth of parasitic vegetation clothed the giant trunks in a
+swaying mass of living green. Far above the taller trees a gaunt gray
+monarch of the forest towered in splendid isolation. In its topmost
+branches we could just discern a dozen balls of yellow fur from which
+proceeded discordant squeals.
+
+It was long range for a shotgun but the rifles were all in camp. I
+fired a charge of B.B.'s at the lowest monkey and as the gun roared out
+the tree tops suddenly sprang into life. They were filled with running,
+leaping, hairy forms swinging at incredible speed from branch to
+branch; not a dozen, but a score of monkeys, yellow, brown, and gray.
+
+The one at which I had shot seemed unaffected and threw itself full
+twenty feet to a horizontal limb, below and to the right. I fired again
+and he stopped, ran a few steps forward and swung to the underside
+of the branch. At the third charge he hung suspended by one arm and
+dropped heavily to the ground stone dead.
+
+We tossed him into the dry creek bed and dashed up the hill where the
+branches were still swaying as the monkeys traveled through the tree
+tops. They had a long start and it was a hopeless chase. At every
+step our clothes were caught by the clinging thorns, our hands were
+torn, and our faces scratched and bleeding. In ten minutes they had
+disappeared and we turned about to find the dead animal. Suddenly
+Yvette saw a splash of leaves in the top of a tree below us and a big
+brown monkey swung out on a pendent vine. I fired instantly and the
+animal hung suspended, whirled slowly around and dropped to the ground.
+Before I had reloaded my gun it gathered itself together and dashed off
+through the woods on three legs faster than a man could run. The animal
+had been hiding on a branch and when we passed had tried to steal away
+undiscovered.
+
+We found the dead monkey, a young male, in the creek bed and sat down
+to examine it. It was evidently a gibbon (_Hylobates_), for its long
+arms, round head, and tailless body were unmistakable, but in every
+species with which I was familiar the male was black. This one was
+yellow and we knew it to be a prize. That there were two other species
+in the herd was certain for we had seen both brown and gray monkeys
+as they dashed away among the trees, but the gibbons were far more
+interesting than the others.
+
+[Illustration: The Head of a Gibbon Killed on the Nam-ting River]
+
+[Illustration: A Civet]
+
+Gibbons are probably the most primitive in skull and teeth of all
+the anthropoid, or manlike, apes,--the group which also includes the
+gorilla, chimpanzee, and orangutan. They are apparently an earlier
+offshoot of the anthropoid stem, as held by most authorities, and the
+giant apes and man are probably a later branch. Gibbons are essentially
+Oriental being found in India, Burma, Siam, Tonking, Borneo, and the
+Islands of Hainan, Sulu, Sumatra, and Java.
+
+For the remainder of our stay at the Nam-ting River camp we devoted
+ourselves to hunting monkeys and soon discovered that the three species
+we had first seen were totally different. One was the yellow gibbon,
+another a brown baboon (_Macacus_), and the third a huge gray ape with
+a long tail (_Pygathrix_) known as the "langur." On the first day all
+three species were together feeding upon some large green beans and
+this happened once again, but usually they were in separate herds.
+
+The gibbons soon became extremely wild. Although the same troop could
+usually be found in the valley where we had first discovered them, they
+chose hillsides where it was almost impossible to stalk them because
+of the thorny jungle. Usually when they called, it was from the upper
+branches of a dead tree where they could not only scan every inch
+of the ground below, but were almost beyond the range of a shotgun.
+Sometimes we climbed upward almost on our hands and knees, grasping
+vines and creepers, drawing ourselves up by tree trunks, crawling under
+thorny shrubs and bushes, slipping, falling, scrambling through the
+indescribable tangle. We went forward only when the calls were echoing
+through the jungle, and stood motionless as the wailing ceased. But in
+spite of all our care they would see or hear us. Then in sudden silence
+there would be a tremor of the branches, splash after splash of leaves,
+and the herd would swing away through the trackless tree tops.
+
+The gibbons are well named _Hylobates_ or "tree-walkers" for they
+are entirely arboreal and, although awkward and almost helpless on
+the ground, once their long thin hands touch a branch they become
+transformed as by a miracle.
+
+They launch themselves into space, catch a limb twenty feet away,
+swing for an instant, and hurl themselves to another. It is possible
+for them to travel through the trees faster than a man can run even on
+open ground, and when one examines their limbs the reason is apparent.
+The fore arms are so exceedingly long that the tips of the fingers can
+touch the ground when the animal stands erect, and the slender hands
+are longer than the feet.
+
+The gibbons were exceedingly difficult to kill and would never drop
+until stone dead. Once I shot an old male with my 6-1/2 mm. Mannlicher
+rifle at about one hundred yards and, even though the ball had gone
+clear through his body, he hung for several minutes before he dropped
+into a tangle of vines.
+
+It was fifteen minutes before we were able to work our way through
+the jungle to the spot where the animal had fallen, and we had been
+searching for nearly half an hour when suddenly my wife shouted that
+a monkey was running along a branch above our heads. I fired with the
+shotgun at a mass of moving leaves and killed a second gibbon which had
+been hiding in the thick foliage. Instead of running the animals would
+sometimes disappear as completely as though they had vanished in the
+air. After being fooled several times we learned to conceal ourselves
+in the bushes where we could watch the trees, and sooner or later the
+monkeys would try to steal away.
+
+The langurs and baboons were by no means as wild as the gibbons and
+were found in larger herds. Some of the langurs were carrying babies
+which clung to their mothers between the fore legs and did not seem to
+impede them in the slightest on their leaps through the tree tops.
+
+The young of this species are bright orange-red and strangely unlike
+the gray adults. As they grow older the red hair is gradually replaced
+by gray, but the tail is the last part of the body to change. Heller
+captured one of the tiny red monkeys and brought it back to camp in his
+coat pocket. The little fellow was only a few days old, and of course,
+absolutely helpless.
+
+When it was wrapped in cotton with only its queer little wizened face
+and blue eyes visible it had a startling resemblance to a human baby
+until its long tail would suddenly flop into sight and dispel the
+illusion. It lived only four days in spite of constant care.
+
+There are fifty-five species of langurs (_Pygathrix_) all of which are
+confined to the Orient. In some parts of India the animals are sacred
+and climb about the houses or wander in the streets of villages quite
+without fear. At times they do so much damage to crops that the natives
+who do not dare to kill the animals themselves implore foreigners to
+do so. The langurs are not confined to the tropics, but in the Tibetan
+mountains range far up into the snow and enjoy the cold weather. In the
+market at Li-chiang we saw several skins of these animals which had
+been brought down by the Tibetans; the hair was long and silky and was
+used by the Chinese for rugs and coats.
+
+The species which we killed at the Nam-ting River camp, like all
+others of the genus _Pygathrix_, was interesting because of the long
+hairs of the head which form a distinct ridge on the occiput. We never
+heard the animals utter sounds, but it is said that the common Indian
+langur, _Pygathrix entellus_, gives a loud whoop as it runs through the
+tree tops. Often when a tiger is prowling about the jungle the Indian
+langurs will follow the beast, keeping in the branches just above its
+head and scolding loudly.
+
+The baboon, or macaque, which we killed on the Nam-ting was a close
+relative of the species (_Macacus rhesus_) which one sees parading
+solemnly about the streets of Calcutta, Bombay, and other Indian
+cities. In Agra, the home of the beautiful Taj Mahal, the Monkey Temple
+is visited by every tourist. A large herd of macaques lives in the
+grounds and at a few chuckling calls from the native attendants will
+come trooping over the walls for the food which is kept on sale at the
+gate. These animals are surprisingly tame and make most amusing pets.
+
+On one of our hunts my wife and I discovered a water hole in the midst
+of a dense jungle where the mud was trodden hard by sambur, muntjac,
+wild boar, and other animals. We decided to spend a night watching
+beside it, but the "Dying Rabbit" who was enthusiastic in the day time
+lost his courage as the sunlight waned. Very doubtfully he consented to
+go.
+
+Although the trip netted us no tangible results it was an experience of
+which we often think. We started just at dusk and installed ourselves
+in the bushes a few yards from the water hole. In half an hour the
+forest was enveloped in the velvety blackness of the tropic night. Not
+a star nor a gleam of light was visible and I could not see my hand
+before my face.
+
+We sat absolutely motionless and listened to the breath of the jungle,
+which although without definite sound, was vibrant with life. Now and
+then a muntjac barked hoarsely and the roar of a sambur stag thrilled
+us like an electric shock. Once a wild boar grunted on the opposite
+bank of the river, the sound coming to us clear and sharp through the
+stillness although the animal was far away.
+
+Tiny forest creatures rustled all about us in the leaves and a small
+animal ran across my wife's lap, leaping frantically down the hill as
+it felt her move. For five hours we sat there absolutely motionless.
+Although no animals came to the water hole we were silent with a great
+happiness as we groped our way back to camp, for we had been close
+to the heart of the jungle and were thrilled with the mystery of the
+night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+THE SHANS OF THE BURMA BORDER
+
+
+We saw many Shans at the Nam-ting River, for not only was there
+a village half a mile beyond our camp, but natives were passing
+continually along the trail on their way to and from the Burma
+frontier. The village was named Nam-ka. Its chief was absent when we
+arrived, but the natives were cordial and agreed to hunt with us; when
+the head man returned, however, he was most unfriendly. He forbade the
+villagers from coming to our camp and arguments were of no avail. It
+soon became evident that only force could change his attitude, and one
+morning, with all our servants and _mafus_, we visited his house. He
+was informed that unless he ceased his opposition and ordered his men
+to assist us in hunting we would take him to Meng-ting for trial before
+the mandarin. He grudgingly complied and we had no further trouble.
+
+We found the Shans at Nam-ka to be simple and honest people but
+abnormally lazy. During our three weeks' stay not a single trap was
+stolen, although the natives prized them highly, and often brought to
+us those in which animals had been caught. Shans were continually about
+our camp where boxes were left unlocked, but not an article of our
+equipment was missed.
+
+[Illustration: A Shan Girl]
+
+[Illustration: A Shan Boy]
+
+The Nam-ka Shans elevated their houses on six-foot poles and built an
+open porch in front of the door, while the dwellings at Meng-ting and
+farther up the valley were all placed upon the ground. The thatched
+roofs overhung several feet and the sides of the houses were open so
+that the free passage of air kept them delightfully cool. Moreover,
+they were surprisingly clean, for the floors were of split bamboo, and
+the inmates, if they wore sandals, left them at the door. In the center
+of the single room, on a large flat stone, a small fire always burned,
+but much of the cooking was done on the porch where a tiny pavilion had
+been erected over the hearth.
+
+The Shans at Nam-ka had "no visible means of support." The extensive
+rice paddys indicated that in the past there had been considerable
+cultivation but the fields were weed-grown and abandoned. The villagers
+purchased all their vegetables from the Mohammedan hunter and two other
+Chinese who lived a mile up the trail, or from passing caravans whom
+they sometimes entertained. In all probability they lived upon the sale
+of smuggled opium for they were only a few miles from the Burma border.
+
+Virtually every Shan we saw in the south was heavily tattooed. Usually
+the right leg alone, but sometimes both, were completely covered
+from the hip to the knee with intricate designs in black or red. The
+ornamentations often extended entirely around the body over the abdomen
+and waist, but less frequently on the breast and arms.
+
+All the natives were inordinately proud of these decorations and
+usually fastened their wide trousers in such a way as to display them
+to the best advantage. We often could persuade a man to pose before the
+camera by admiring his tattoo marks and it was most amusing to watch
+his childlike pleasure.
+
+The Shan tribe is a large one with many subdivisions, and it is
+probable that at one time it inhabited a large part of China south
+of the Yangtze River; indeed, there is reason to believe that
+the Cantonese Chinamen are chiefly of Shan stock, and the facial
+resemblance between the two races certainly is remarkable.
+
+Although the Shans formerly ruled a vast territory in Yün-nan before
+its conquest by the Mongol emperors of China in the thirteenth century
+A. D., and at one time actually subdued Burma and established a
+dynasty of their own, at present the only independent kingdom of the
+race is that of Siam. By far the greatest number of Shans live in
+semi-independent states tributary to Burma, China, and Siam, and in
+Yün-nan inhabit almost all of the southern valleys below an altitude of
+4,000 feet.
+
+The reason that the Chinese allow them to hold such an extent of
+fertile land is because the low plains are considered unhealthy and the
+Chinese cannot, or will not, live there. Whether or not the malarial
+fever of the valleys is so exceedingly deadly remains to be proved, but
+the Chinese believe it to be so and the result is the same. Where the
+Shans are numerous enough to have a chief of their own they live in a
+semi-independent state, for although their head man is subordinate to
+the district Chinese official, the latter seldom interferes with the
+internal affairs of the tribe.
+
+The Shans are a short, strongly-built race with a distinct Mongolian
+type of features and rather fair complexions. Their dress varies
+decidedly with the region, but the men of the southern part of the
+province on the Nam-ting River wear a pair of enormous trousers, so
+baggy that they are almost skirtlike, a white jacket, and a large
+white or pink turban surmounted by a huge straw hat. The women dress in
+a white jacket and skirt of either striped or dark blue cloth; their
+turbans are of similar material and may be worn in a high cylinder, a
+low oval, or many other shapes according to the particular part of the
+province in which they live.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+PRISONERS OF WAR IN BURMA
+
+_Y. B. A._
+
+
+The camp at Nam-ka was a supremely happy one and we left it on March
+7, with much regret. Its resources seemed to be almost exhausted and
+the Mohammedan hunter assured us that at a village called Ma-li-ling
+we would find excellent shooting. We asked him the distance and he
+replied, "About a long bamboo joint away." It required three days to
+get there!
+
+Whether the man had ever been to Ma-li-ling we do not know but we
+eventually found it to be a tiny village built into the side of a hill
+in an absolutely barren country where there was not a vestige of cover.
+Our journey there was not uneventful. We left Nam-ka with high hopes
+which were somewhat dampened after a day's unsuccessful hunting at the
+spot where our caravan crossed the Nam-ting River.
+
+With a Shan guide we traveled due north along a good trail which led
+through dense jungle where there was not a clearing or a sign of life.
+In the afternoon we noted that the trail bore strongly to the west
+and ascended rapidly. Soon we had left the jungle and emerged into an
+absolutely treeless valley between high barren hills. We knew that the
+Burma frontier could not be far away, and in a few moments we passed
+a large square "boundary stone"; a hundred yards on the other side
+the hills were covered with bright green stalks and here and there a
+field glistened with white poppy blossoms. The guide insisted that we
+were on the direct road to Ma-li-ling which for the first time he said
+was in Burma. On our map it was marked well over the border in Chinese
+territory and we were greatly puzzled.
+
+About six o'clock the brown huts of a village were silhouetted against
+the sky on a tiny knoll in the midst of a grove of beautiful trees,
+and we camped at the edge of a water hole. The pool was almost liquid
+mud, but we were told that it was the only water supply of the village
+and its cattle. As though to prove the statement a dozen buffalos
+ambled slowly down the hill, and stood half submerged in the brown
+liquid, placidly chewing their cuds; meanwhile blue-clad Shan women
+with buckets in their hands were constantly arriving at the pond for
+their evening supply of water. We had no filter and it was nauseating
+to think of drinking the filthy liquid but there was no alternative and
+after repeated boiling and several strainings we settled it with alum
+and disguised its taste in tea and soup.
+
+After dinner we questioned the few natives who spoke Chinese, but we
+became only more and more confused. They knew of no such place as
+Ma-li-ling and our Shan guide had discreetly disappeared. But they
+were familiar with the trail to Ma-li-pa, a village farther west in
+Burma and, moreover, they said that two hundred foreign soldiers were
+stationed there. We were quite certain that they must be native Indian
+troops but thought that a white officer might perhaps be in command.
+
+We did not wish to cross the frontier because of possible political
+difficulties since we had no permits to shoot in Burma, but there
+seemed to be no alternative, for we were hopelessly bewildered by the
+mythical Ma-li-ling. We eventually discovered that there were two
+villages by that name--one in Burma, and the other in China, where it
+was correctly placed on the map which we were using.
+
+While we were discussing the matter a tremendous altercation arose
+between the Chinese _mafus_ and the servants. For some time Roy did not
+interfere, supposing it to be a personal quarrel, but the disturbance
+at last became unbearable. Calling Wu we learned that because we had
+been so careful to avoid English territory the _mafus_ had conceived
+the idea that for some reason we were afraid to meet other foreigners.
+Since we had inadvertently crossed into Burma it appeared to them that
+it would be an opportune time to extort an increase of wages. They
+announced, therefore, that unless extra money was given them at once
+they would untie the loads and leave us.
+
+They were hardly prepared for what followed, however. Taking his
+Mannlicher rifle, Roy called the _mafus_ together and told them that if
+any man touched a load he would begin to shoot the mules and that if
+they made the slightest resistance the gun would be turned on them. A
+_mafus'_ mules represent all his property and they did not relish the
+turn affairs had taken. They subsided at once, but we had the loads
+guarded during the night. In the morning the _mafus_ were exceedingly
+surprised when they learned that we were going to Ma-li-pa and their
+change of front was laughable; they were as humble and anxious to
+please as they had been belligerent the night before.
+
+The trail led over the same treeless rolling hills through which we
+had passed on the previous afternoon. There was only one village,
+but it was surrounded by poppy fields in full blossom. It must be a
+rather difficult matter for a native living in China near the border
+to understand why he should not be allowed to produce the lucrative
+opium while only a few yards away, over an imaginary line, it can be
+planted without restriction. Poppies seem to grow on hillsides better
+than on level ground. The plants begin to blossom in late February
+and the petals, when about to fall, are collected for the purpose of
+making "leaves" with which to cover the balls of opium. The seed pods
+which are left after the petals drop off are scarified vertically, at
+intervals of two or three days, by means of a sharp cutting instrument.
+The operation is usually performed about four o'clock in the afternoon,
+and the opium, in the form of dried juice, is collected the next
+morning. When China, in 1906, forbade the consumption of opium and the
+growing of poppies, it was estimated that there were from twenty-five
+to thirty millions of smokers in the Empire.
+
+We reached Ma-li-pa about one o'clock in the afternoon and found it
+to be a straggling village built on two sides of a deep ravine, with
+a mixed population of Shans and Chinese. It happened to be the weekly
+market day and the "bazaar" was crowded. A number of Indian soldiers in
+khaki were standing about, and I called out to Roy, "I wonder if any of
+them speak English." Instantly a little fellow approached, with cap in
+hand, and said, "Yes, Madame, I speak English."
+
+One cannot realize how strange it seemed to hear our own language
+from a native in this out-of-the-way spot I He was the "compounder,"
+or medical assistant, and told us that the hundred native troops were
+in charge of a white officer whose house was on the opposite side of
+the river gorge. He guided us to a temple and, while the mules were
+being unloaded, in walked a tall, handsome young British officer who
+introduced himself as Captain Clive. He was almost speechless with
+surprise at seeing me, for he had not spoken a sentence in English or
+seen a white person since his arrival at this lonely post five months
+before.
+
+He asked us at once to come to his quarters for tiffin and we accepted
+gladly. On the way he gave us our first news of the outside world, for
+we had been beyond communication of any sort for months, and we learned
+that the United States had severed diplomatic relations with Germany.
+
+Captain Clive's bungalow was a two-room bamboo house with a broad
+verandah and thatched with straw. It was delightfully cool and dark
+after the glare of the yellow sun-baked plains about us, and in perfect
+order. The care which Britishers take to keep from "letting down"
+while guarding the frontiers of their vast empire is proverbial, and
+Captain Clive was a splendid example of the Indian officer. He was as
+clean-shaved and well-groomed as though he had been expecting us for
+days and the tiffin to which we sat down was as dainty and well served
+as it could have been in the midst of civilization.
+
+The great Lord Clive of India was an ancestor of our young officer who
+had been temporarily detached from his regiment, the 129th Baluchis,
+and sent on border duty. He was very unhappy, for his brother officers
+were in active service in East Africa, and he had tried to resign
+several times, but the Indian government would not release him. When
+we reached Rangoon some months later we were glad to learn that he had
+rejoined his regiment and was at the front. Ma-li-pa was a recently
+established "winter station" and in May would be abandoned when the
+troop returned to Lashio, ten days' journey away. Comfortable barracks,
+cook houses, and a hospital had been erected beside a large space which
+had been cleaned of turf for a parade ground.
+
+Captain Clive was in communication by heliograph with Lashio, at the
+end of the railroad, and received a _résumé_ of world news two or
+three times a week. With mirrors during the day and lanterns at night
+messages were flashed from one mountain top to another and, under
+favorable conditions, reached Lashio in seven or eight hours.
+
+We pitched our tents a short distance from the barracks in an open
+field, for there was no available shade. Although Captain Clive was
+perfectly satisfied with our passports and credentials he could not
+let us proceed until he had communicated with the Indian government by
+heliograph. The border was being guarded very closely to prevent German
+sympathizers from crossing into Burma from China and inciting the
+native tribes to rebellion.
+
+In December, 1915, a rather serious uprising among the Kachins in
+the Myitkyina district on the upper waters of the Irawadi River had
+been incited by a foreigner, I believe, and Clive had assisted in
+suppressing it. The Indian government was taking no further chances
+and had given strict orders to arrest and hold anyone, other than a
+native, who crossed the border from China.
+
+Very fortunately H. B. M. Consul-General Goffe at Yün-nan Fu had
+communicated with the Lieutenant-Governor of Burma concerning our
+Expedition and we consequently expected no trouble, but Captain
+Clive could not let us proceed until he had orders to do so from the
+Superintendent of the Northern Shan States. Through a delayed message
+this permission did not reach him for five days and in the meantime
+we made the most of the limited collecting resources which Ma-li-pa
+afforded.
+
+Clive ordered his day like all the residents of Burma. He rose at six
+o'clock and after coffee and rolls had drill for two hours. At half
+past ten a heavy meal took the place of breakfast and tiffin; tea,
+with sandwiches and toast, was served at three o'clock, and dinner at
+eight. His company was composed of several different native tribes,
+and each religious caste had its own cook and water carrier, for a
+man of one caste could not prepare meals for men of another. It is an
+extraordinary system but one which appears to operate perfectly well
+under the adaptable English government. Certainly one of the great
+elements in the success of the British as colonizers is their respect
+for native customs and superstitions!
+
+The company drilled splendidly and we were surprised to hear all
+commands given in English although none of the men could understand
+that language. This is done to enable British and Indian troops to
+maneuver together. Captain Clive, himself, spoke Hindustani to his
+officers. In the evening the men played football on the parade
+ground and it seemed as though we had suddenly been transported into
+civilization on the magic carpet of the Arabian Nights.
+
+Every morning we went shooting at daylight and returned about nine
+o'clock. Conditions were not favorable for small mammals and although
+we could undoubtedly have caught a few civets, mongooses, and cats we
+did not set a line of steel traps for we expected to leave at any time.
+Our attention was mostly devoted to bird collecting and we obtained
+about two hundred interesting specimens.
+
+We had our mid-morning meal each day with Captain Clive and he dined
+with us in the evening. He had brought with him from Lashio a large
+quantity of supplies and lived almost as well as he could have done at
+home. Although the days were very warm, the nights were cold and a camp
+fire was most acceptable.
+
+Captain Clive was on excellent terms with the Chinese authorities and,
+while we were there, a very old mandarin, blind and infirm, called
+to present his compliments. He had been an ardent sportsman and was
+especially interested in our guns; had we been willing to accept the
+commission he would have paid us the money then and there to purchase
+for him a Savage .250-.300 rifle like the one we were carrying. The old
+gentleman always had been very loyal to the British and had received
+several decorations for his services.
+
+A few days after our arrival a half dead Chinaman crawled into camp
+with his throat terribly cut. He had been attacked by brigands only a
+few miles over the border and had just been able to reach Ma-li-pa. The
+company "compounder" took him in charge and, when Clive asked him about
+the patient, his evasive answers were most amusing; like all Orientals
+he would not commit himself to any definite statement because he might
+"lose face" if his opinion proved to be wrong.
+
+Captain Clive said to him, "Do you think the Chinaman will die?"
+Looking very judicial the native replied, "Sir, he _may_ die, and yet,
+he may live." "But," said Clive, "he will probably die, won't he?"
+"Yes," was the answer, "and yet perhaps he will live." That was all the
+satisfaction he was able to get.
+
+Clive told us of another native who formerly had been in his company.
+He had been transferred and one day the Captain met him in Rangoon.
+When asked if his pay was satisfactory the answer was typical, "Sir, it
+is good, but not _s-o-o_ good!"
+
+On the afternoon of our fourth day in Ma-li-pa a heliograph from
+Rangoon announced that "The Asiatic Zoölogical Expedition of the
+American Museum of Natural History is especially commended to His
+Majesty's Indian Government and permission is hereby granted to carry
+on its work in Burma wherever it may desire." This was only one of the
+many courtesies which we received from the British.
+
+The morning following the receipt of the heliogram we broke camp at
+daylight. When the last mule of the caravan had disappeared over the
+brown hills toward China we regretfully said farewell and rode away. If
+we are ever again made "prisoners of war" we hope our captor will be as
+delightful a gentleman as Captain Clive.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+HUNTING PEACOCKS ON THE SALWEEN RIVER
+
+
+From Ma-li-pa we traveled almost due north to the Salween River. The
+country through which we passed was a succession of dry treeless hills,
+brown and barren and devoid of animal life. On the evening of the third
+day we reached the Salween at a ferry a few miles from the village of
+Changlung where the river begins its great bend to the eastward and
+sweeps across the border from China into Burma.
+
+The stream has cut a tremendous gorge for itself through the mountains
+and the sides are so precipitous that the trail doubles back upon
+itself a dozen times before it reaches the river 3,500 feet below.
+The upper half of the gorge is bare or thinly patched with trees, but
+in the lower part the grass is long and rank and a thin dry jungle
+straggles along the water's edge. The Salween at this point is about
+two hundred yards wide, but narrows to half that distance below the
+ferry and flows in a series of rapids between rocky shores.
+
+The valley is devoid of human life except for three boatmen who tend
+the ferry, but the deserted rice fields along a narrow shelf showed
+evidence of former cultivation. On the slopes far up the side of the
+cañon is a Miao village, a tribe which we had not seen before. Probably
+the valley is too unhealthy for any natives to live close to the
+water's edge and, even at the time of our visit in early March, the
+heated air was laden with malaria.
+
+The ferrymen were stupid fellows, half drugged with opium, and assured
+us that there were no mammals near the river. They admitted that they
+sometimes heard peacocks and, while our tents were being pitched on
+a steep sand bank beneath a giant tree, the weird catlike call of a
+peacock echoed up the valley. It was answered by another farther down
+the river, and the report of my gun when I fired at a bat brought forth
+a wild "pe-haun," "pe-haun," "pe-haun" from half a dozen places.
+
+The ferry was a raft built of long bamboo poles lashed together
+with vines and creepers. It floated just above the surface and was
+half submerged when loaded. The natives used a most extraordinary
+contrivance in place of oars. It consisted of a piece of tightly woven
+bamboo matting three feet long and two feet wide at right angles to
+which was fastened a six-foot handle. With these the men nonchalantly
+raked the water toward them from the bow and stem when they had poled
+the raft well into the current. The invested capital was not extensive,
+for when the ferry or "propellers" needed repairs a few hours' work in
+the jungle sufficed to build an entirely new outfit.
+
+All of the peacocks were on the opposite side of the river from our
+camp where the jungle was thickest. On the first morning my wife and
+I floated down the river on the raft for half a mile and landed to
+stalk a peacock which had called frequently from a rocky point near
+the water's edge. We picked our way through the jungle with the utmost
+caution but the wary old cock either saw or heard us before we were
+within range, and I caught just a glimpse of a brilliant green neck
+as he disappeared into the bushes. A second bird called on a point a
+half mile farther on, but it refused to come into the open and as we
+started to stalk it in the jungle we heard a patter of feet among the
+dry leaves followed by a roar of wings, and saw the bird sail over the
+tree tops and alight on the summit of a bush-clad hill.
+
+This was the only peacock which we were ever able to flush when it had
+already gained cover. Usually the birds depend entirely upon their
+ability to hide or run through the bushes. After several attempts we
+learned that it was impossible to stalk the peacocks successfully. The
+jungle was so crisp and parched that the dry leaves crackled at every
+step and even small birds made a loud noise while scratching on the
+ground.
+
+The only way to get the peacocks was to watch for them at the river
+when they came to drink in the early morning and evening. Between
+two rocky points where we had first seen the birds there was a long
+curved beach of fine white sand. One morning Heller waited on the point
+nearest camp while my wife and I posted ourselves under a bush farther
+down the river. We had been sitting quietly for half an hour when we
+heard a scratching in the jungle. Thinking it was a peacock feeding we
+turned our backs to the water and sat motionless peering beneath the
+bushes. Meanwhile, Heller witnessed an interesting little drama enacted
+behind us.
+
+An old male peacock with a splendid train stole around the point
+close to the water, jumped to a high stone within thirty yards of us
+and stood for a full minute craning its beautiful green neck to get
+a better view as we kneeled in front of him totally unconscious of
+his presence. After he had satisfied his curiosity he hopped off the
+observation pinnacle and, with his body flattened close to the ground,
+slipped quietly away. It was an excellent example of the stalker being
+stalked and had Heller not witnessed the scene we should never have
+known how the clever old bird had fooled us.
+
+The following morning we got a peahen at the same place. Heller had
+concealed himself in the bushes on one side of the point while I
+watched the other. Shortly after daylight an old female sailed out
+of the jungle on set wings and alighted at the water's edge. She saw
+Heller almost instantly, although he was completely covered by the
+vines, and started to fly, but he dropped her with a broken wing.
+Recovering herself, she darted around the rocky point only to meet a
+charge of B.B.'s from my gun. She was a beautiful bird with a delicate
+crown of slender feathers, a yellow and blue face patch and a green
+neck and back, but her plumes were short and inconspicuous when
+compared with those of the male.
+
+Probably these birds had never before been hunted but they were
+exceedingly shy and difficult to kill. Although they called more or
+less during the entire day and we could locate them exactly, they were
+so far back in the jungle that the crackling of the dry leaves made a
+stalk impossible. We tried to drive them but were unsuccessful, for
+the birds would never flush unless they happened to be in the open and
+cut off from cover. Apparently realizing that their brilliant plumage
+made them conspicuous objects, the birds relied entirely upon an actual
+screen of bushes and their wonderful sight and hearing to protect
+themselves from enemies.
+
+They usually came to the river to drink very early in the morning and
+just before dusk in the afternoon, but on cloudy days they might appear
+at almost any hour. If undisturbed they would remain near the water's
+edge for a considerable time or strut about the sand beach just at the
+edge of the jungle. At the sound of a gun or any other loud sharp noise
+the peacocks would answer with their mournful catlike wail, exactly as
+the domesticated birds will do.
+
+The Chinese believe that the flesh of the peafowl is poison and our
+servants were horrified when they learned that we intended to eat it.
+They fully expected that we would not survive the night and, even when
+they saw we had experienced no ill effects, they could not be persuaded
+to touch any of it themselves. An old peacock is too tough to eat, but
+the younger birds are excellent and when stuffed with chestnuts and
+roasted they are almost the equal of turkey.
+
+The species which we killed on the Salween River is the green peafowl
+(_Pavo munticus_) which inhabits Burma, Sumatra, Java, and the Malay
+Peninsula. Its neck is green, instead of purple, as is that of the
+common Indian peacock (_Pavo cristatus_), and it is said that it is the
+most beautiful bird of the world.
+
+The long ocellated tail coverts called the "train" are dropped about
+August and the birds assume more simple barred plumes, but the molt is
+very irregular; usually the full plumage is resumed in March or even
+earlier. The train is, of course, an ornament to attract the female
+and, when a cock is strutting about with spread plumes, he sometimes
+makes a most peculiar rustling sound by vibrating the long feathers.
+
+The eight or ten eggs are laid on the bare ground under a bush in the
+dense jungle, are dull brownish white and nearly three inches long. The
+chicks are sometimes domesticated, but even when born in captivity, it
+is said they are difficult to tame and soon wander away. The birds are
+omnivorous, feeding on insects, grubs, reptiles, flower buds, young
+shoots, and grain.
+
+The common peafowl (_Pavo cristatus_) is a native of India, Ceylon, and
+Assam. It is held sacred by some religious castes and we saw dozens of
+the birds wandering about the grounds of the temples in Benares, Agra,
+and Delhi. Peafowl are said to be rather disagreeable pets because they
+often attack infirm persons and children and kill young poultry.
+
+In some parts of Ceylon and India the birds are so abundant and easily
+killed that they do not furnish even passable sport, but in other
+places they are as wild and difficult to shoot as we found them to be
+on the Salween River. In India it is a universal belief among sportsmen
+that wherever peafowls are common, there tiger will be found.
+
+A very beautiful variety which seems to have arisen abruptly in
+domestication is the so-called "japanned" or black-shouldered peacock
+named _Pavo nigripennis_ by Mr. Sclater. In some respects it is
+intermediate between _P. munticus_ and _P. cristatus_ and apparently
+"breeds true" but never has been found in a wild state. Albino
+specimens are by no means unusual and are a feature of many zoölogical
+gardens.
+
+Peacocks have been under domestication for many centuries and are
+mentioned in the Bible as having been imported into Palestine by
+Solomon; although the bird is referred to in mythology, the Greeks
+probably had but little knowledge of it until after the conquests of
+Alexander.
+
+In the thick jungle only a few hundred yards from our camp on the
+Salween River I put up a silver pheasant (_Euplocamus nycthemerus_),
+one of the earliest known and most beautiful species of the family
+Phasianidæ. Its white mantle, delicately vermiculated with black,
+extends like a wedding veil over the head, back and tail, in striking
+contrast to the blue-black underparts, red cheek patches, and red legs.
+
+This bird was formerly pictured in embroidery upon the heart and back
+badges of the official dresses of civil mandarins to denote the rank
+of the wearer, and is found only in southern and western China. It is
+by no means abundant in the parts of Yün-nan which we visited and,
+moreover, lives in such dense jungle that it is difficult to find. The
+natives sometimes snare the birds and offer them for sale alive.
+
+We also saw monkeys at our camp on the Salween River, but were not
+successful in killing any. They were probably the Indian baboon
+(_Macacus rhesus_) and, for animals which had not been hunted, were
+most extraordinarily wild. They were in large herds and sometimes came
+down to the water to skip and dance along the sand and play among the
+rocks. The monkeys invariably appeared on the opposite side of the
+river from us and by the time we hunted up the boatmen and got the
+clumsy raft to the other shore the baboons had disappeared in the tall
+grass or were merrily running through the trees up the mountain-side.
+
+The valley was too dry to be a very productive trapping ground for
+either small or large mammals, but the birds were interesting and we
+secured a good many species new to our collection. Jungle fowl were
+abundant and pigeons exceedingly so, but we saw no ducks along the
+river and only two cormorants.
+
+Very few natives crossed at the ferry during our stay, for it is a long
+way from the main road and the climb out of the gorge is too formidable
+to be undertaken if the Salween can possibly be crossed higher up where
+the valley is wide and shallow. While we were camped at the river the
+heat was most uncomfortable during the middle of the day and was but
+little mitigated by the wind which blew continually. During mid-summer
+the valley at this point must be a veritable furnace and doubtless
+reeks with fever. We slept under nets at night and in the early
+evening, while we were watching for peacocks, the mosquitoes were very
+troublesome.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+THE GIBBONS OF HO-MU-SHU
+
+
+It is a long hard climb out of the Salween valley. We left on March 24
+and all day crawled up the steep sides on a trail which doubled back
+and forth upon itself like an endless letter S. From our camp at night
+the river was just visible as a thin green line several thousand feet
+below, and for the first time in days, we needed a charcoal fire in our
+tents.
+
+We were _en route_ to Lung-ling, a town of considerable size, where
+there was a possibility that mail might be awaiting us in care of the
+mandarin. Although ordinarily a three days' journey, it was more than
+four days before we arrived, because I had a sharp attack of malaria
+shortly after leaving the Salween River and we had to travel half
+stages.
+
+When we were well out of the valley and at an altitude of 6,000 feet,
+we arrived at a Chinese town. Its dark evil-smelling houses, jammed
+together in a crowded mass, and the filthy streets swarming with ragged
+children and foot-bound women, were in unpleasant contrast to the
+charming little Shan villages which we had seen in the low country. The
+inhabitants themselves appeared to no better advantage when compared
+with their Shan neighbors, for their stares and insolent curiosity were
+almost unbearable.
+
+The region between the Salween River at Changlung and Lung-ling is as
+uninteresting to the zoölogist as it could possibly be, for the hills
+are dry and bare and devoid of animal life. Lung-ling is a typical
+Chinese town except that the streets are wide and it is not as dirty
+as usual. The mandarin was a jolly rotund little fellow who simulated
+great sympathy when he informed me that he had received no mail for
+us. We had left directions to have a runner follow us from Yung-chang
+and in the event that he did not find our camp to proceed to Lung-ling
+with the mail. We learned some weeks later that the runner had been
+frightened by brigands and had turned back long before he reached
+Meng-ting.
+
+We had heard from our _mafus_ and other natives that black monkeys were
+to be found on a mountain pass not far from the village of Ho-mu-shu,
+on the main Yung-chang-Teng-yueh road and, as we were certain that they
+would prove to be gibbons, we decided to make that our next hunting
+camp. It was three stages from Lung-ling and, toward evening of the
+second day, we again descended to the Salween River.
+
+The valley at this point is several miles wide and is so dry that the
+few shrubs and bushes seem to be parched and barely able to live.
+At the upper end a picturesque village is set among extensive rice
+fields. Although a few Chinese live there, its inhabitants are chiefly
+Shans who are in a transitory state and are gradually adopting Chinese
+customs. The houses are joined to each other in the Chinese way and are
+built of mud, thatched with straw. In shape as well as in composition
+they are quite unlike the dwellings of the southern Shans. The women
+wore cylindrical turbans, about eighteen inches high, which at a
+distance looked like silk hats, and the men were dressed in narrow
+trousers and jackets of Chinese blue. I believe that some of the Shan
+women also had bound feet but of this I cannot be certain.
+
+We camped on a little knoll under an enormous tree at the far end of
+the village street, and a short time after the tents were up we had a
+visit from the Shan magistrate. He was a dapper energetic little fellow
+wearing foreign dress and quite _au courant_ with foreign ways. He even
+owned a breech-loading shotgun, and, before we left, sent to ask for
+shells. He presented us with the usual chickens and I returned several
+tins of cigarettes. He appeared to be quite a sportsman and directed us
+to a place on the mountain above the village where he said monkeys were
+abundant.
+
+We left early in the morning with a guide and, after a hard climb,
+arrived at a little village near the forest to which the magistrate had
+directed us. Not only did the natives assure us that they had never
+seen monkeys but we discovered for ourselves that the only water was
+more than a mile away, and that camping there was out of the question.
+
+The next day, April 1, we went on to Ho-mu-shu. It is a tiny village
+built into the mountain-side with hardly fifty yards of level ground
+about it, but commanding a magnificent view over the Salween valley.
+Although we reached there at half past two in the afternoon the _mafus_
+insisted on camping because they swore that there was no water within
+fifty _li_ up the mountain. Very unwillingly I consented to camp
+and the next morning found, as usual, that the _mafus_ had lied for
+there was a splendid camping place with good water not two hours from
+Ho-mu-shu. It was useless to rage for the Chinese have no scruples
+about honesty in such small matters, and the head _mafu_ blandly
+admitted that he knew there was a camping place farther on but that he
+was tired and wanted to stop early.
+
+As we gained the summit of the ridge we were greeted with a ringing
+"hu-wa," "hu-wa," "hu-wa," from the forest five hundred feet below us;
+they were the calls of gibbons, without a doubt, but strikingly unlike
+those of the Nam-ting River. We decided to camp at once and, after
+considerable prospecting, chose a flat place beside the road. It was
+by no means ideal but had the advantage of giving us an opportunity
+to hunt from either side of the ridge which for its entire length was
+scarcely two hundred feet in width. The sides fell away for thousands
+of feet in steep forest-clad slopes and, as far as our eyes could
+reach, wave after wave of mountains rolled outward in a great sea of
+green.
+
+Our camp would have been delightful except for the wind which swept
+across the pass night and day in an unceasing gale. My wife and I set
+a line of traps along a trail which led down the north side of the
+ridge, while Heller chose the opposite slope. We were entranced with
+the forest. The trees were immense spreading giants with interlaced
+branches that formed a solid roof of green 150 feet above the soft
+moss carpet underneath. Every trunk was clothed in a smothering mass
+of vines and ferns and parasitic plants and, from the lower branches,
+thousands of ropelike creepers swayed back and forth with every breath
+of wind. Below, the forest was fairly open save for occasional patches
+of dwarf bamboo, but the upper canopy was so close and dense that even
+at noon there was hardly more than a somber twilight beneath the trees.
+
+Our first night on the pass was spent in a terrific gale which howled
+up the valley from the south and swept across the ridge in a torrent
+of wind. The huge trees around us bent and tossed, and our tents seemed
+about to be torn to shreds. Amid the crashing of branches and the roar
+of the wind it was impossible to hear each other speak and sleep was
+out of the question. We lay in our bags expecting every second to have
+the covering torn from above our heads, but the tough cloth held, and
+at midnight the gale began to lull. In the morning the sun was out in
+a cloudless sky but the wind never ceased entirely on the pass even
+though there was a breathless calm among the trees a few hundred feet
+below.
+
+My wife and I had just returned from inspecting our line of traps about
+nine o'clock in the morning when the forest suddenly resounded with
+the "hu-wa," "hu-wa," "hu-wa" of the gibbons. It seemed a long way off
+at first, but sounded louder and clearer every minute. At the first
+note we seized our guns and dashed down the mountain-side, slipping,
+stumbling, and falling. The animals were in the giant forest about
+five hundred feet below the summit of the ridge and as we neared them
+we moved cautiously from tree to tree, going forward only when they
+called. It was one of the most exciting stalks I have ever made, for
+the wild, ringing howls seemed always close above our heads.
+
+We were still a hundred yards away when a huge black monkey leaped
+out of a tree top just as I stepped from behind a bush, and he saw me
+instantly. For a full half minute he hung suspended by one arm, his
+round head thrust forward staring intently; then launching himself
+into the air as though shot from a catapult he caught a branch twenty
+feet away, swung to another, and literally flew through the tree tops.
+Without a sound save the swish of the branches and splash after splash
+in the leaves, the entire herd followed him down the hill. It was out
+of range for the shotgun and my wife was ten feet behind me with the
+rifle, but had I had it in my hand I doubt if I could have hit one of
+those flying balls of fur.
+
+We returned to camp with sorrow in our hearts, but two days later
+we redeemed ourselves and brought in the first new gibbons. We were
+sitting on a bed of fragrant pine needles watching for a squirrel
+which had been chattering in the upper branches of a giant tree, when
+suddenly the wild call of the monkeys echoed up the mountain-side.
+
+They were far away to the left, and we ran toward them, stumbling and
+slipping on the moss-covered rocks and logs, the "hu-wa," "hu-wa,"
+"hu-wa" sounding louder every moment. They seemed almost under us at
+times and we would stand motionless and silent only to hear the howls
+die away in the distance. At last we located them on the precipitous
+side of a deep gorge filled with an impenetrable jungle of palms and
+thorny plants. It was an impossible place to cross, and we sat down,
+irresolute and discouraged. In a few moments a chorus of howls broke
+out and we saw the big black apes swinging along through the trees,
+two hundred yards away. Finally they stopped and began to feed. They
+were small marks at that distance but I rested my little Mannlicher on
+a stump and began to shoot while Yvette watched them with the glasses.
+One big fellow swung out on a branch and hung with one arm while he
+picked a cluster of leaves with the other. Yvette saw my first shot
+cut a twig above his head but he did not move, and at the roar of the
+second he dropped heavily into the vines below. A brown female ran
+along the branch a few seconds later and peered down into the jungle
+where the first monkey had fallen. I covered her carefully with the
+ivory head of the front sight, pulled the trigger, and she pitched
+headlong off the tree.
+
+For a few seconds there was silence, then a splash of leaves and three
+huge black males leaped into full view from the summit of a tall tree.
+They were silhouetted against a patch of sky and I fired twice in quick
+succession registering two clean misses. The bullets must have whizzed
+too close for comfort and they faded instantly into the forest like
+three black shadows.
+
+For ten minutes we strained our eyes into the dense foliage hoping to
+catch a glimpse of a swaying branch. Suddenly Yvette heard a rustling
+in the low tree beneath which we were sitting and seized me violently
+by the arm, screaming excitedly, "There's one, right above us. Quick,
+quick, he's going!"
+
+I looked up and could hardly believe my eyes for not twenty feet away
+hung a huge brown monkey half the size of a man. Almost in a daze I
+fired with the shotgun. The gibbon stopped, slowly pivoted on one long
+arm and a pair of eyes blazing like living coals, stared into mine.
+I fired again point blank as the huge mouth, baring four ugly fangs,
+opened and emitted a blood-curdling howl. The monkey slowly swung back
+again, its arm relaxed and the animal fell at my feet, stone dead.
+
+It was a magnificent old female. By a lucky chance we had chosen, from
+all the trees in the forest, to sit under the very one in which the
+gibbon had been hiding and she had tried to steal away unnoticed.
+
+While my wife waited to direct me from the rim of the gorge, I climbed
+down into the jungle to try and make my way up the opposite side where
+the other monkeys had fallen. It was dangerous work, for the rocks were
+covered with a thin layer of earth which supported a dense growth of
+vegetation. If I tried to let myself down a steep slope by clinging to
+a thick fern it would almost invariably strip away with a long layer of
+dirt and send me headlong.
+
+After two bad falls I reached the bottom of the ravine where a mountain
+torrent leaped and foamed over the rocks and dropped in a beautiful
+cascade to a pool fifty or sixty feet below. The climb up the opposite
+side was more difficult than the descent and twice I had to return
+after finding the way impassable.
+
+A sheer, clean wall almost seventy feet high separated me from the
+spot where the gibbons had fallen. I skirted the rock face and had
+laboriously worked my way around and above it when a vine to which I
+had been clinging stripped off and I began to slide. Faster and faster
+I went, dragging a mass of ferns and creepers with me, for everything I
+grasped gave way.
+
+I thought it was the end of things for me because I was hardly ten feet
+above the precipice which fell away to the jagged rocks of the stream
+bed in a drop of seventy feet. The rifle slung to my back saved my
+life. Suddenly it caught on a tiny ragged ledge and held me flattened
+out against the cliff. But even then I was far from safe, as I realized
+when I tried to twist about to reach a rope of creepers which swung
+outward from a bush above my head.
+
+[Illustration: A Suspension Bridge]
+
+[Illustration: Mrs. Andrews Feeding One of Our Bear Cubs]
+
+How I managed to crawl back to safety among the trees I can remember
+only vaguely. I finally got down to the bottom of the cañon, but felt
+weak and sick and it was half an hour before I could climb up to the
+place where my wife was waiting. She was already badly frightened
+for she had not seen me since I left her an hour before and, when I
+answered her call, she was about to follow into the jungle where I had
+disappeared. We left the two monkeys to be recovered from above and
+went slowly back to camp.
+
+The gibbons of Ho-mu-shu are quite unlike those of the Nam-ting River.
+They represent a well-known species called the "hoolock" (_Hylobates
+hoolock_) which is also found in Burma.
+
+The males, both old and young, are coal black with a fringe of white
+hairs about the face, and the females are light brown. Their note is
+totally unlike the Nam-ting River gibbons and, instead of sitting
+quietly in the top of a dead tree to call to their neighbors across the
+jungle for an hour or two, the hoolocks howl for about twenty minutes
+as they swing through the branches and are silent during the remainder
+of the day. They called most frequently on bright mornings and we
+seldom heard them during cloudy weather.
+
+Apparently they had regular feeding grounds, which were visited every
+day, but the herds seemed to cover a great deal of territory. Like the
+gibbons of the Nam-ting River, the hoolocks traveled through the tree
+tops at almost unbelievable speed, and one of the most amazing things
+which I have ever witnessed was the way in which they could throw
+themselves from one tree to another with unerring precision.
+
+On April 5, we received the first mail in nearly three months and our
+share amounted to 105 letters besides a great quantity of magazines.
+Wu had ridden to Teng-yueh for us and, as well as the greatly desired
+mail, had a basket of delicious vegetables and a sheaf of Renter's
+cablegrams which were kindly sent by Messrs. Palmer and Abertsen,
+gentlemen in the employ of the Chinese Customs, who had cared for our
+mail. Mr. Abertsen also sent a note telling us of a good hunting ground
+near Teng-yueh.
+
+We spent an entire afternoon and evening over our letters and papers
+and, through them, began to get in touch with the world again. It is
+strange how little one misses the morning newspaper once one is beyond
+its reach and has properly adjusted one's mental perspective. And it
+is just as strange how essential it all seems immediately one is again
+within reach of such adjuncts of civilization.
+
+On April 6, we had the first rain for weeks. The water fell in
+torrents, and the roar, as it drummed upon the tent, was so incessant
+that we could barely hear each other shout. Because of the long dry
+spell our camp had not been made with reference to weather and during
+the night I waked to find that we were in the middle of a pond with
+fifteen inches of water in the tent. Shoes, clothes, guns, and cameras
+were soaked, and the surface of the water was only an inch below the
+bottoms of our cots. This was the beginning of a ten days' rain after
+which we had six weeks of as delightful weather as one could wish.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+
+TENG-YUEH; A LINK WITH CIVILIZATION
+
+
+After a week on the pass above Ho-mu-shu we shifted camp to a village
+called Tai-ping-pu, ten miles nearer Teng-yueh on the same road. The
+ride along the summit of the mountain was a delight, for we passed
+through grove after grove of rhododendrons in full blossom. The trees
+were sometimes thirty feet in height and the red flowers glowed like
+clusters of living coals among their dark green leaves. In the northern
+part of Yün-nan the rhododendrons grow above other timber line on
+mountains where it is too high even for spruces.
+
+It rained continually during our stay at Tai-ping-pu. I had another
+attack of the Salween malaria and for five or six days could do little
+work. Heller, however, made good use of his time and killed a beautiful
+horned pheasant, Temminck's tragopan (_Ceriornis temmincki_), besides
+half a dozen langurs of the same species as those we had collected on
+the Nam-ting River. He also was fortunate in shooting one of the huge
+flying squirrels (_Petaurista yunnanensis_) which we had hoped to get
+at Wei-hsi. He saw the animal in the upper branches of a dead tree on
+the first evening we were in Tai-ping-pu but was not able to get a
+shot. The next night he watched the same spot and killed the squirrel
+with a charge of "fours." It measured forty-two and one-quarter inches
+from the nose to the end of the tail and was a rich mahogany red
+grizzled with whitish above; the underparts were cream white. As in
+all flying squirrels, the four legs were connected by a sheet of skin
+called the "patagium" which is continuous with the body. This acts as
+a parachute and enables the animal to sail from tree to tree for, of
+course, it cannot fly like a bat As these huge squirrels are strictly
+nocturnal, they are not often seen even by the natives. We were told by
+the Lutzus on the Mekong River that by building huge fires in the woods
+they could attract the animals and shoot them with their crossbows.
+
+A few weeks later we purchased a live flying squirrel from a native and
+kept it for several days in the hope that it might become tame. The
+animal was exceedingly savage and would grind its teeth angrily and
+spring at anyone who approached its basket. It could not be tempted
+to eat or drink and, as it was a valuable specimen, we eventually
+chloroformed it.
+
+Just below our camp in a pretty little valley a half dozen families
+of Lisos were living, and we hired the men to hunt for us. They were
+good-natured fellows, as all the natives of this tribe seem to be, and
+worked well. One day they brought in a fine muntjac buck which had been
+killed with their crossbows and poisoned darts. The arrows were about
+twelve inches long, made of bamboo and "feathered" with a triangular
+piece of the same wood. Those for shooting birds and squirrels were
+sharpened to a needle point, but the hunting darts were tipped with
+steel or iron. The poison they extracted from a plant, which I never
+saw, and it was said that it takes effect very rapidly.
+
+The muntjac which the Lisos killed had been shot in the side with
+a single arrow and they assured us that only the flesh immediately
+surrounding the wound had been spoiled for food. These natives like
+the Mosos, Lolos, and others carried their darts in a quiver made from
+the leg skin of a black bear, and none of the men wished to sell their
+weapons; I finally did obtain a crossbow and quiver for six dollars
+(Mexican).
+
+Two days before we left Tai-ping-pu, three of the Lisos guided my wife
+and me to a large cave where they said there was a colony of bats. The
+cavern was an hour's ride from camp, and proved to be in a difficult
+and dangerous place in the side of a cliff just above a swift mountain
+stream. We strung our gill net across the entrance and then sent one of
+the natives inside to stir up the animals while we caught them as they
+flew out. In less than half an hour we had twenty-eight big brown bats,
+but our fingers were cut and bleeding from the vicious bites of their
+needle-like teeth. They all represented a widely distributed species
+which we had already obtained at Yün-nan Fu.
+
+From Lung-ling I had sent a runner to Mr. Evans at Ta-li Fu asking him
+to forward to Teng-yueh the specimens which we had left in his care,
+and the day following our visit to the bat cave the caravan bearing
+our cases passed us at Tai-ping-pu. We, ourselves, were about ready
+to leave and two days later at ten o'clock in the morning we stood on
+a precipitous mountain summit, gazing down at the beautiful Teng-yueh
+plain which lay before us like a relief map. It is as flat as a plain
+well can be and, except where a dozen or more villages cluster on bits
+of dry land, the valley is one vast watery rice field. Far in the
+distance, outside the gray city walls, we could see two temple-like
+buildings surrounded by white-walled compounds, and Wu told us they
+were the houses of the Customs officials.
+
+Teng-yueh, although only given the rank of a "ting" or second-class
+Chinese city, is one of the most important places in the province, for
+it stands as the door to India. All the trade of Burma and Yün-nan
+flows back and forth through the gates of Teng-yueh, over the great
+caravan road to Bhamo on the upper Irawadi.
+
+An important post of the Chinese Foreign Customs, which are
+administered by the British government as security for the Boxer
+indemnity, is situated in this city, and we were looking forward with
+the greatest interest to meeting its white population. At the time of
+our visit the foreigners included Messrs. H. G. Fletcher and Ralph C.
+Grierson, respectively Acting Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner
+of Customs; Messrs. W. R. Palmer and Abertsen, also of the Customs;
+Mr. Eastes, H. B. M. Consul; Dr. Chang, Indian Medical Officer, and
+Reverend and Mrs. Embry of the China Inland Mission; Mr. Eastes,
+accompanied by the resident mandarin, was absent on a three months'
+opium inspection tour so that we did not meet him.
+
+We reached Teng-yueh on Sunday morning and camped in a temple outside
+the city walls. Immediately after tiffin we called upon Mr. Grierson
+and went with him to the Customs House where Messrs. Abertsen and
+Palmer were living. We found there a Scotch botanist, Mr. Forrest, an
+old traveler in Yün-nan who was _en route_ to A-tun-tzu on a three-year
+plant-hunting expedition for an English commercial firm. We had heard
+much of Forrest from Messrs. Kok and Hanna and were especially glad
+to meet him because of his wide knowledge of the northwestern part
+of the province. Mr. Forrest was interested chiefly in primroses
+and rhododendrons, I believe, and in former years obtained a rather
+remarkable collection of these plants.
+
+From Mr. Grierson we first learned that the United States had declared
+war on Germany. It had been announced only a week before, and the
+information had reached Teng-yueh by cable and telegraph almost
+immediately. It came as welcome news to us Americans who had been
+vainly endeavoring to justify to ourselves and others our country's
+lethargy in the face of Teuton insolence, and made us feel that once
+again we could acknowledge our nationality with the pride we used to
+feel.
+
+On Monday Mr. Grierson invited us to become his guests and to move
+our caravan and belongings to his beautiful home. We were charmed
+with it and our host. The house was built with upturned, temple-like
+gables, and from his cool verandah we could look across an exquisite
+flower-filled garden to the blue mountains from which we had had our
+first view of Teng-yueh the day before. The interior of the dwelling
+was as attractive as its surroundings, and the beautifully served meals
+were as varied and dainty as one could have had in the midst of a great
+city.
+
+Like all Britishers, the Customs men had carried their sport with them.
+Just beyond the city walls an excellent golf course had been laid out
+with Chinese graves as bunkers, and there was a cement tennis court
+behind the Commissioner's house. Mr. Grierson had two excellent polo
+ponies, besides three trained pointer dogs, and riding and shooting
+over the beautiful hills gave him an almost ideal life. We found that
+Mr. Fletcher had a really remarkable selection of records and an
+excellent Victrola. After dinner, as we listened to the music, we had
+only to close our eyes and float back to New York and the Metropolitan
+Opera House on the divine harmony of the sextet from "Lucia" or
+Caruso's matchless voice. But none of us wished to be there in body for
+more than a fleeting visit at least, and the music already brought with
+it a lingering sadness because our days in the free, wild mountains of
+China were drawing to a close.
+
+During the week we spent with Mr. Grierson we dried and packed all
+our specimens in tin-lined boxes which were purchased from the agent
+of the British American Tobacco Company in Teng-yueh. They were just
+the right size to carry on muleback and, after the birds and mammals
+had been wrapped in cotton and sprinkled with naphthalene, the
+cases were soldered and made air tight. The most essential thing in
+sending specimens of any kind through a moist, tropical climate such
+as India is to have them perfectly dry before the boxes are sealed;
+otherwise they will arrive at their destination covered with mildew and
+absolutely ruined.
+
+On the day of our arrival in Teng-yueh we purchased from a native two
+bear cubs (_Ursus tibetanus_) about a week old. Each was coal black
+except for a V-shaped white mark on the breast and a brown nose. When
+they first came to us they were too young to eat and we fed them
+diluted condensed milk from a spoon.
+
+The little chaps were as playful as kittens and the story of their
+amusing ways as they grew older is a book in itself. After a month one
+of the cubs died, leaving great sorrow in the camp; the other not only
+lived and flourished but traveled more than 16,000 miles.
+
+He went with us on a pack mule to Bhamo, down the Irawadi River to
+Rangoon, and across the Bay of Bengal to Calcutta. He then visited
+many cities in India, and at Bombay boarded the P. & O. S. S. _Namur_
+for Hongkong and became the pet of the ship. From China we took him
+to Japan, across the Pacific to Vancouver, and finally to our home
+at Lawrence Park, Bronxville, New York. After an adventurous career
+as a house pet, when his exploits had made him famous and ourselves
+disliked by all the neighbors, we regretfully sent him to the National
+Zoölogical Park, Washington, D. C, where he is living happily at the
+present time. He was the most delightful little pet we have ever owned
+and, although now he is nearly a full grown bear, his early life is
+perpetuated in motion pictures and we can see him still as he came to
+us the first week. He might well have been the model for the original
+"Teddy Bear" for he was a round ball of fur, mostly head and ears and
+sparkling little eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+A BIG GAME PARADISE
+
+
+A few months previous to our arrival, Mr. Abertsen had discovered a
+splendid hunting ground near the village of Hui-yao, about eighty _li_
+from Teng-yueh. He had been shooting rabbits and pheasants and, while
+passing through the village, the natives told him that a large herd of
+_gnai-yang_ or "wild goats" lived on the side of a hill through which a
+branch of the Shweli River had cut a deep gorge.
+
+Although Abertsen was decidedly skeptical as to the accuracy of the
+report he spent two days hunting and with his shotgun killed two
+gorals; moreover, he saw twenty-five others. We examined the two skins
+and realized at once that they represented a different species from
+those of the Snow Mountain. Therefore, when we left Teng-yueh our first
+camp was at Hui-yao.
+
+Heller and I started with four natives shortly after daylight. We
+crossed a tumble-down wooden bridge over the river at a narrow cañon
+where the sides were straight walls of rock, and followed down the
+gorge for about two miles. On the way Heller, who was in front, saw two
+muntjac standing in the grass on an open hillside, and shot the leader.
+The deer pitched headlong but got to its feet in a few moments and
+struggled off into the thick cover at the edge of the meadow. It had
+disappeared before Heller reached the clearing but he saw the second
+deer, a fine doe, standing on a rock. Although his bullet passed
+through both lungs the animal ran a quarter of a mile, and he finally
+discovered her several hours later in the bushes beside the river.
+
+In a short time we reached an open hillside which rose six or seven
+hundred feet above the river in a steep slope; the opposite side was
+a sheer wall of rock bordered on the rim by an open pine forest. We
+separated at this point. Heller, with two natives, keeping near the
+river, while I climbed up the hill to work along the cliffs half way to
+the summit.
+
+In less than ten minutes Heller heard a loud snort and, looking up, saw
+three gorals standing on a ledge seventy-five yards above him. He fired
+twice but missed and the animals disappeared around a corner of the
+hill. A few hundred yards farther on he saw a single old ram but his
+two shots apparently had no effect.
+
+Meanwhile I had continued along the hillside not far from the summit
+for a mile or more without seeing an animal. Fresh tracks were
+everywhere and well-cut trails crossed and recrossed among the rocks
+and grass. I had reached an impassable precipice and was returning
+across a steep slope when seven gorals jumped out of the grass where
+they had been lying asleep. I was in a thick grove of pine trees and
+fired twice in quick succession as the animals appeared through the
+branches, but missed both times.
+
+I ran out from the trees but the gorals were then nearly two hundred
+yards away. One big ram had left the herd and was trotting along
+broadside on. I aimed just in front of him and pulled the trigger as
+his head appeared in the peep sight. He turned a beautiful somersault
+and rolled over and over down the hill, finally disappearing in the
+bushes at the edge of the water.
+
+The other gorals had disappeared, but a few seconds later I saw a small
+one slowly skirting the rocks on the very summit of the hill. The first
+shot kicked the dirt beside him, but the second broke his leg and he
+ran behind a huge boulder. I rested the little Mannlicher on the trunk
+of a tree, covering the edge of the rock with the ivory head of the
+front sight and waited. I was perfectly sure that the goral would try
+to steal out, and in two or three minutes his head appeared. I fired
+instantly, boring him through both shoulders, and he rolled over and
+over stone dead lodging against a rock not fifty yards from where we
+stood.
+
+The two natives were wild with excitement and, yelling at the top of
+their lungs, ran up the hill like goats to bring the animal down to
+me. It was a young male in full summer coat, and with horns about two
+inches long. Our pleasure was somewhat dampened, however, when we went
+to recover the first goral for we found that when it had landed in the
+grass at the edge of the river it had either rolled or crawled into the
+water. We searched along the bank for half a mile but without success
+and returned to Hui-yao just in time for tiffin.
+
+In the afternoon we shifted camp to a beautiful little grove on the
+opposite side of the river behind the hunting grounds. Heller, instead
+of going over with the caravan, went back along the rim of the gorge
+in the pine forest where he could look across the river to the hill
+on which we had hunted in the morning. With his field glasses he
+discovered five gorals in an open meadow, and opened fire. It was
+long shooting but the animals did not know which way to run, and he
+killed three of the herd before they disappeared. Our first day had,
+therefore, netted us one deer and four gorals which was better than at
+any other camp we had had in China.
+
+We realized from the first day's work that Hui-yao would prove to be a
+wonderful hunting ground, and the two weeks we spent there justified
+all our hopes. At other places the cover was so dense or the country so
+rough that it was necessary to depend entirely upon dogs and untrained
+natives, but here the animals were on open hillsides where they could
+be still hunted with success. Moreover, we had an opportunity to learn
+something about the habits of the animals for we could watch them
+with glasses from the opposite side of the river when they were quite
+unconscious of our presence.
+
+There was only one day of our stay at Hui-yao that we did not bring in
+one or more gorals and even after we had obtained an unrivaled series,
+dozens were left. Shooting the animals from across the river was rather
+an unsportsmanlike way of hunting but it was a very effective method of
+collecting the particular specimens we needed for the Museum series.
+The distance was so great that the gorals were unable to tell from
+where the bullets were coming and almost any number of shots might be
+had before the animals made for cover. It became simply a case of long
+range target shooting at seldom less than three hundred yards.
+
+Still hunting on the cliffs was quite a different matter, however, and
+was as good sport as I have ever had. The rocks and open meadow slopes
+were so precipitous that there was very real danger every moment, for
+one misstep would send a man rolling hundreds of feet to the bottom
+where he would inevitably be killed.
+
+The gorals soon learned to lie motionless along the sheerest cliffs or
+to hide in the rank grass, and it took close work to find them. I used
+most frequently to ride from camp to the river, send back the horse by
+a _mafu_, and work along the face of the rock wall with my two native
+boys. Their eyesight was wonderful and they often discovered gorals
+lying among the rocks when I had missed them entirely with my powerful
+prism binoculars. Their eyes had never been dimmed by study and I
+suppose were as keen as those of primitive man who possibly hunted
+gorals or their relatives thousands of years ago over these same hills.
+
+There were many glorious hunts and it would be wearisome were I to
+describe them all, but one afternoon stands out in my memory above the
+others. It was a brilliant day, and about four o'clock I rode away from
+camp, across the rice fields and up the grassy valley to the long sweep
+of open meadow on the rim of the river gorge.
+
+Sending back the horse, "Achi," my native hunter, and I crawled
+carefully to a jutting point of rocks and lay face down to inspect the
+cliffs above and to the left. With my glasses I scanned every inch of
+the gray wall, but could not discover a sign of life. Glancing at Achi
+I saw him gazing intently at the rock which I had just examined, and in
+a moment he whispered excitedly "_gnai-yang_." By putting both hands
+to the side of his head he indicated that the animal was lying down,
+and although he pointed with my rifle, it was full five minutes before
+I could discover the goral flat upon his belly against the cliff, with
+head stretched out, and fore legs doubled beneath his body. He was
+sound asleep in the sun and looked as though he might remain forever.
+
+[Illustration: A Sambur Killed at Wa-tien]
+
+[Illustration: The Head of a Muntjac]
+
+By signs Achi indicated that we were to climb up above and circle
+around the cliff to a ragged promontory which jutted into space within
+a hundred yards of the animal. It was a good three quarters of an hour
+before we peered cautiously between two rocks opposite the ledge where
+the goral had been asleep. The animal was gone. We looked at each other
+in blank amazement and then began a survey of the ground below.
+
+Halfway down the mountain-side Achi discovered the ram feeding in an
+open meadow and we began at once to make our way down the face of the
+cliff. It was dangerous going, but we gained the meadow in safety
+and worked cautiously up to a grassy ridge where the goral had been
+standing. Again we crawled like snakes among the rocks and again an
+empty slope of waving grass met our eyes. The goral had disappeared,
+and even Achi could not discover a sign of life upon the meadow.
+
+With an exclamation of disgust I got to my feet and looked around.
+Instantly there was a rattle of stones and a huge goral leaped out of
+the grass thirty yards away and dashed up the hill. I threw up my rifle
+and shot hurriedly, chipping a bit of rock a foot behind the animal.
+Swearing softly at my carelessness, I threw in another shell, selected
+a spot in front of the ram, and fired. The splendid animal sank in its
+tracks without a quiver, shot through the base of the neck.
+
+I had just ejected the empty shell when Achi seized me by the arm,
+whispering "_gnai-yang, gnai-yang, gnai-yang, na, na, na, na_" and
+pointing to the cliffs two hundred yards above us. I looked up just in
+time to see another goral flash behind a rock on the very summit of
+the ridge. An instant later he appeared again and stopped broadside on
+with his noble head thrown up, silhouetted against the sky. It was
+a perfect target and, resting my rifle on a flat rock, I covered the
+animal with the white bead and centered it in the rear sight. As I
+touched the hair trigger and the roar of the high-power shell crashed
+back from the face of the cliff, the animal leaped with legs straight
+out, whirling over and over down the meadow and bringing up against a
+boulder not twenty yards from the first goral.
+
+That night as I walked over the hills in the cool dusk I would not have
+changed my lot with any man on earth. The breathless excitement of
+the stalk and the wild thrill of exultation at the clean kill of two
+splendid rams were still rioting in my veins. I came out of the valley
+and across the rice fields to the blazing camp fire. Yvette ran to the
+edge of the grove, her hands filled with wet photographic negatives.
+"How many?" she called. "Two," I answered, "and both big ones. How many
+for you?" "Fourteen color plates," she sung back happily, "and all
+good."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII
+
+SEROW AND SAMBUR
+
+
+We had a delightful visit from Mr. Grierson during our first week in
+camp. He rode out on Thursday afternoon and remained until Sunday,
+bringing us mail, war news, and fresh vegetables, and returning with
+goral meat for all the foreigners in Teng-yueh. On the afternoon of his
+visit I had killed three monkeys which represented a different species
+from any we had obtained before. They were the Indian baboon (_Macacus
+rhesus_) and were probably like those of the Salween River at Changlung.
+
+I found two great troupes of the monkeys running along the opposite
+river bank. The first herd was climbing up the almost perpendicular
+rock walls, swinging on the bushes and sometimes almost disappearing
+in the tufts of grass. I could not approach nearer than one hundred
+and fifty yards and did some very bad shooting at the little beasts,
+but a running monkey at that distance is a pretty uncertain mark, and
+it requires a much better shot than I am to register more hits than
+misses. I did kill two, but both dropped into the river and promptly
+sank, so that I gave it up.
+
+Less than a half mile farther on another and larger troupe appeared
+among the boulders just at the water's edge. Profiting by my
+experience, I kept out of sight among the bushes and watched the
+animals play about until one hopped to a rock and sat quietly for an
+instant. I got six in this way, but we were able to recover only three
+of them from the water.
+
+Heller shot three muntjac at Hui-yao, besides the doe which he killed
+on the first day. One of the largest bucks had a pair of beautiful
+antlers three and one half inches long from the burr to the tip. The
+skin-covered projections, or pedicels, of the frontal bone, from the
+summits of which the antlers grow, measured two and one-half inches
+from the skull to the burrs. Evidently the muntjac are somewhat
+irregular in shedding for, although they were all in full summer
+pelage, two already had lost their antlers while the other had not.
+I can think of no more delicious meat than the flesh of these little
+deer and they seem to be as highly esteemed by the English sportsmen of
+India as they are by the foreigners of China.
+
+I did not see a muntjac while at Hui-yao, but was fortunate in killing
+a splendid coal-black serow which represents a subspecies new to
+science; although the natives said that serow were known to occur in
+the thick jungle on the south side of the river, none had been seen
+for years. Heller and I had gone to this part of the gorge to hunt for
+a troupe of monkeys which he had located on the previous day. We had
+separated. Heller keeping close to the water while I skirted the cliffs
+near the summit not far from the road which led through the pine forest.
+
+I was walking just under the rim of the gorge when suddenly with a
+snort a large animal dashed out of a thicket below and to the left. I
+caught a glimpse of a great coal-black body and a pair of short curved
+horns as the beast disappeared in a shallow gully, and realized that
+it was a serow. A few seconds later it reappeared, running directly
+away from me along the upper edge of the gorge. I fired and the animal
+dropped, gave a convulsive twist, rolled over, and plunged into the
+cañon.
+
+As the serow disappeared we heard a chorus of excited yells from below,
+and it was evident that some natives near the water had seen it fall.
+I had slight hope that they might have rescued it from the river, but
+my heart was heavy as we worked along the cliff trying to find a place
+where it was possible to descend. A wood cutter whom we discovered a
+short distance away guided us down a trail so steep that it seemed
+impossible for a human being to walk along it, and in proof I slid
+the last half of the way to the rocks at the river's edge, narrowly
+escaping a broken neck.
+
+When we reached the stream it was only to find a flat wall against
+which the water surged in a mass of white foam, separating us from
+the place where the serow had fallen. I tried to wade around the rock
+but in two steps the water was above my waist. It was evident that we
+would have to swim, and I began to undress, inviting Achi and the wood
+cutter to follow; the former refused, but the latter pulled off his few
+clothes with considerable hesitation.
+
+It was a swim of only about forty feet around the face of the cliff but
+the current was strong and it was no easy matter to fight my way to the
+other side. After I had climbed out upon the rocks I called to the wood
+cutter to follow and he slipped into the water. Evidently the current
+was more than he had bargained for and a look of fear crossed his face,
+but he went manfully at it.
+
+He had almost reached the rock on which I was standing with
+outstretched hand when his strength seemed suddenly to go and he cried
+out in terror. I jumped into the water, hanging to the rocks with one
+hand and letting my legs float out behind. The wood cutter just managed
+to reach my big toe, to which he clung as if it had in reality been
+the straw of the drowning man and I dragged him up stream until, to my
+intense relief, he could grasp the rocks.
+
+We picked our way among the boulders for a few yards and suddenly
+came upon the serow lying partly in the water. I felt like dancing
+with delight but the sharp rocks were not conducive to any such
+demonstrations and I merely yelled to Achi who understood from the
+tone, if not from my words, that the animal was safe.
+
+The men who had shouted when the animal fell over the cliff were only
+fifty feet away, but they too were separated from it by a wall of rock
+and surging water. They said that there was an easier way up the cliff
+than the one by which we had descended, and prepared a line of tough
+vines, one end of which they let down to us. We made it fast to the
+serow and I kept a second vine rope in my hands, swimming beside the
+animal as they dragged it to the other shore. It was landed safely and
+the wood cutter was hauled over by the same means.
+
+I had intended to swim back for my clothes but discovered that Achi had
+disappeared, taking my garments and those of the wood cutter with him.
+He evidently intended to meet us on the hilltop, but it left us in the
+rather awkward predicament of making our way through the thick brush
+with only the proverbial smile and minus even the necktie.
+
+The men fastened together the serow's four legs, slipped a pole beneath
+them and toiled up the steep slope preceded by a naked brown figure
+and followed by a white one. The side of the gorge was covered with
+vines and creepers, many of them thorny, and pushing through them with
+no bodily protection was far from comfortable.
+
+When we arrived at the road on the rim of the gorge I was dismayed
+to find that Achi was not there with my clothes. The wood cutter did
+not appear to be greatly worried and indicated that we would find him
+farther up the road. I walked on dubiously, expecting every second to
+meet some person, and sure enough, a Chinese woman suddenly appeared
+over a little hill. I dived into the tall ferns beside the road,
+burrowing like a rabbit, and from the frightened way in which she
+hurried past, she must have thought she had seen one of her ancestral
+spirits stalking abroad. We eventually found the boy, and, decently
+dressed, I faced the world again with confidence and happiness.
+
+On the way back to camp we saw a goral on the cliffs across the river.
+It was high up and fully three hundred and fifty yards away but, of
+course, quite unconscious of our presence. My first two shots struck
+close beside the animal, but at the third it rolled over and over down
+the hill, lodging among the rocks just above the river.
+
+Our entry into camp was triumphal, for fully half the village acted as
+an escort to the serow, an animal which few had ever seen. It was a
+female, and probably weighed about two hundred and fifty pounds. The
+mane was short and black and strikingly unlike the long white manes
+of the Snow Mountain serows; the horns were almost smooth. Getting
+this specimen was one of the lucky chances which sometimes come to
+a sportsman, for one might hunt for weeks in the same place without
+ever seeing another serow, as the jungle is exceedingly dense and the
+cliffs so steep that it is impossible to walk except in a few spots.
+The animal had been feeding on the new grass just at the edge of the
+heavy cover and probably had been sleeping under a bush when she was
+disturbed.
+
+Besides mammals and birds we made a fairly good collection of reptiles
+and lizards at Hui-yao, but in all other parts of the province which
+we visited they were exceedingly scarce. In fact, I have never been in
+a place where there were so few reptiles and batrachians. We obtained
+only one species of poisonous snake here. It was a small green viper
+which we sometimes saw coiled on a low bush watching mouse holes in the
+grass. Several species of nonpoisonous snakes were more common but were
+nowhere really abundant.
+
+We left Hui-yao the day after I killed the serow for a village called
+Wa-tien where there was a report of sambur. None of us had any real
+hope of finding the huge deer after our former unsuccessful hunts, but
+we camped in the early afternoon on an open hilltop five miles from
+Wa-tien where the natives assured us the animals often came to eat the
+young rice during the night.
+
+We engaged four men with three dogs as hunters, but awoke to find a
+dense fog blanketing the valley and mountains. It was not until half
+past nine that the gray mist yielded to the sun and left the hills
+clear enough for us to hunt. We climbed a wooded ridge directly behind
+the camp and skirted the edge of a heavily forested ravine which the
+men wished to drive.
+
+Heller took a position in a bean field while I climbed to a sharp ridge
+above and beyond him. In less than half an hour the dogs began to yelp
+in an uncertain way. I saw one of them running down hill, nose to the
+ground, and a few seconds later Heller fired twice in quick succession.
+Two sambur had skirted the edge of the wood less than one hundred yards
+away, but he had missed with both shots.
+
+The trail led into a deep ravine filled with dense underbrush. In a
+few moments the dogs began to yelp again and, while Heller remained
+on the hillside to watch the open fields, I followed the hounds along
+the creek bed. Suddenly the whiplike crack of his Savage 260-800 rifle
+sounded five times in quick succession just above our heads, and we
+climbed hurriedly out of the gorge.
+
+Heller shouted that he had fired at a huge sambur running along the
+edge of a bean field but the animal showed no sign of being hit. We
+easily picked up the trail in the soft earth and in a few moments found
+several drops of blood, showing that at least one bullet had found its
+mark. The blood soon ceased and we began to wonder if the sambur had
+not been merely scratched.
+
+Heller had seen the deer disappear in a second ravine, a branch of the
+one out of which it had first been driven, and while he watched the
+upper side I worked my way to the bottom to look for tracks. A few
+moments later the natives began to shout excitedly just above me, and
+Heller called out that they had found the deer, which was lying stone
+dead half way down the side of the gorge in a mass of thick ferns.
+The sambur had been hit only once but the powerful Savage bullet had
+crashed through the shoulder into the lungs; it was quite sufficient
+to do the work even on such a huge animal and the deer had run less
+than one hundred yards from the place where it had been shot.
+
+It was a splendid male, carrying a magnificent pair of antlers which
+measured twenty-seven inches in length. The deer was about the size
+of an American wapiti, or elk, and must have weighed at least seven
+hundred pounds, for it required eight men to lift it. The Chinese
+hunters were wild with excitement, but especially so when we began
+to eviscerate the animal, for they wished to save the blood which is
+considered of great medicinal value. They filled caps, sacks, bamboo
+joints, and every receptacle which they could find after each man had
+drunk all he could possibly force down his throat and had eaten the
+huge clots which choked the thorax.
+
+When the sambur was brought to camp a regular orgy was held by our
+servants, _mafus_, and dozens of villagers who gathered to buy, beg,
+or steal some of the blood. Our interpreter, Wu, took the heart as his
+perquisite, carefully extracted the blood, and dried it in a basin. The
+liver also seemed to be an especial desideratum, and in fact every part
+of the viscera was saved Because the antlers were hard they were not
+considered of especial value, but had they been in the velvet we should
+have had to guard them closely; then they would have been worth about
+one hundred dollars (Mexican).
+
+We expected from our easy hunt of the morning that it would not be
+difficult to get sambur, and indeed, Heller did see another in the
+afternoon but failed to kill it. Unfortunately, a relative of one of
+the hunters died suddenly during the night and all the men went off
+with their dogs to the burial feast which lasted several days, and we
+were not able to find any other good hounds.
+
+[Illustration: A Mountain Chair]
+
+[Illustration: The Waterfall at Teng-yueh]
+
+There were undoubtedly several sambur in the vicinity of our camp but
+they fed entirely during the night and spent the day in such thick
+cover that it was impossible to drive them out except with good beaters
+or dogs. We hunted faithfully every morning and afternoon but did not
+get another shot and, after a week, moved camp to the base of a great
+mountain range six miles away near a Liso village.
+
+The scenery in this region is magnificent. The mountain range is the
+same on which we hunted at Ho-mu-shu and reaches a height of 11,000
+feet near Wa-tien. It is wild and uninhabited, and the splendid forests
+must shelter a good deal of game.
+
+The foothills on which we were camped are low wooded ridges rising out
+of open cultivated valleys, which often run into the jungle-filled
+ravines in which the sambur sleep. Why the deer should occur in this
+particular region and not in the neighboring country is a mystery
+unless it is the proximity of the great forested mountain range. But in
+similar places only a few miles away, where there is an abundance of
+cover, the natives said the animals had never been seen, and neither
+were they known on the opposite side of the mountain range where the
+Teng-yueh-Ta-li Fu road crosses the Salween valley.
+
+On May 20, we started back to Hui-yao to spend three or four days
+hunting monkeys before we returned to Teng-yueh to pack our specimens
+and end the field work of the Expedition. On the way my wife and I
+became separated from the caravan but as we had one of our servants for
+a guide we were not uneasy.
+
+The man was a lazy, stupid fellow named Le Ping-sang (which we had
+changed to "Leaping Frog" because he never did leap for any cause
+whatever), and before long he had us hopelessly lost.
+
+It would appear easy enough to ask the way from the natives, but the
+Chinese are so suspicious that they often will intentionally misdirect
+a stranger. They do not know what business the inquirer may have in
+the village to which he wishes to go and therefore, just on general
+principles, they send him off in the wrong direction.
+
+Apparently this is what happened to us, for a farmer of whom we
+inquired the way directed us to a road at nearly right angles to the
+one we should have taken, and it was late in the afternoon before we
+finally found the caravan.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII
+
+LAST DAYS IN CHINA
+
+
+It was of paramount importance to pack our specimens before the
+beginning of the summer rains. They might be expected to break in full
+violence any day after June 1, and when they really began it would be
+impossible to get our boxes to Bhamo, for virtually all caravan travel
+ceases during the wet season. Therefore our second stay at Hui-yao was
+short and we returned to Teng-yueh on May 24, ending the active field
+work of the Expedition exactly a year from the time it began with our
+trip up the Min River to Yen-ping in Fukien Province.
+
+Mr. Grierson had kindly invited us again to become his guests and
+no place ever seemed more delightful, after our hot and dusty ride,
+than his beautiful garden and cool, shady verandah where a dainty
+tea was served. Our days in Teng-yueh were busy ones, for after the
+specimens were packed and the boxes sealed it was necessary to wrap
+them in waterproof covers; moreover, the equipment had to be sorted and
+sold or discarded, a caravan engaged, and nearly a thousand feet of
+motion-picture film developed. This was done in the spacious dark room
+connected with Mr. Grierson's house which offered a welcome change from
+the cramped quarters of the tent which we had used for so many months.
+
+Much of the success of our motion film lay in the fact that it was
+developed within a short time after exposure, for had we attempted
+to bring or send it to Shanghai, the nearest city with facilities for
+doing such work, it would inevitably have been ruined by the climatic
+changes. Although cinematograph photography requires an elaborate and
+expensive outfit and is a source of endless work, nevertheless, the
+value of an actual moving record of the life of such remote regions is
+worth all the trouble it entails.
+
+The Paget natural color plates proved to be eminently satisfactory
+and were among the most interesting results of the expedition. The
+stereoscopic effects and the faithful reproduction of the delicate
+atmospheric shading in the photographs are remarkable. Although
+the plates had been subjected to a variety of climatic conditions
+and temperatures by the time the last ones were exposed in Burma,
+a year and a half after their manufacture, they showed no signs of
+deterioration even when the ordinary negatives which we brought with us
+from America had been ruined. The other photographs, some of which are
+reproduced in this book, speak for themselves.
+
+The entire collections of the Expedition were packed in forty-one cases
+and included the following specimens:
+
+   2,100 mammals
+     800 birds
+     200 reptiles and batrachians
+     200 skeletons and formalin preparations for
+           anatomical study
+     150 Paget natural color plates
+     500 photographic negatives
+  10,000 feet of motion-picture film.
+
+Since the Expedition was organized primarily for the study of the
+mammalian fauna and its distribution, our efforts were directed
+very largely toward this branch of science, and other specimens were
+gathered only when conditions were especially favorable. I believe that
+the mammal collection is the most extensive ever taken from China by a
+single continuous expedition, and a large percentage undoubtedly will
+prove to represent species new to science. Our tents were pitched in
+108 different spots from 15,000 feet to 1,400 feet above sea level,
+and because of this range in altitudes, the fauna represented by our
+specimens is remarkably varied. Moreover, during our nine months in
+Yün-nan we spent 115 days in the saddle, riding 2,000 miles on horse or
+mule back, largely over small roads or trails in little known parts of
+the province.
+
+In Teng-yueh we were entertained most hospitably and the leisure hours
+were made delightful by golf, tennis, riding, and dinners. Mr. Grierson
+was a charming host who placed himself, as well as his house and
+servants, at our disposal, utter strangers though we were, and we shall
+never forget his welcome.
+
+We decided to take four man-chairs to Bhamo because of the rain which
+was expected every day, and the coolies made us very comfortable upon
+our sleeping bags which were swung between two bamboo poles and covered
+with a strip of yellow oil-cloth. They were the regulation Chinese
+"mountain schooner," at which we had so often laughed, but they proved
+to be infinitely more desirable than riding in the rain.
+
+With the forty-one cases of specimens we left Teng-yueh on June 1,
+behind a caravan of thirty mules for the eight-day journey to Bhamo
+on the outskirts of civilization. Our chair-coolies were miserable
+specimens of humanity. They were from S'suchuan Province and were all
+unmarried which alone is almost a crime in China. Every cent of money,
+earned by the hardest sort of work, they spent in drinking, gambling,
+and smoking opium. As Wu tersely put it "they make how much--spend how
+much!"
+
+About every two hours they would deposit us unceremoniously in the
+midst of a filthy village and disappear into some dark den in spite of
+our remonstrances. We would grumble and fume and finally, getting out
+of our chairs, peer into the hole. In the half light we would see them
+huddled on a "kang" over tiny yellow flames sucking at their pipes.
+At tiffin each one would stretch out under a tree with a stone for a
+pillow and his broad straw hat propped up to screen him from the wind.
+With infinite care he would extract a few black grains from a dirty
+box, mix them with a little water, and cook them over an alcohol lamp
+until the opium bubbled and was almost ready to drop. Then placing it
+lovingly in the bowl of his pipe he would hold it against the flame and
+draw in long breaths of the sickly-sweet smoke. The men could work all
+day without food, but opium was a prime necessity.
+
+It was almost impossible to start them in the morning and it became
+my regular duty to make the rounds of the filthy holes in which they
+slept, seize them by the collars and drag them into the street. Force
+made the only appeal to their deadened senses and we were heartily sick
+of them before we reached Bhamo.
+
+The road to Bhamo is a gradual descent from five thousand feet to
+almost sea level. Because of the fever the valleys are largely
+inhabited by "Chinese Shans" who differ in dress and customs from the
+Southern Shans of the Nam-ting River. Few of the men were tattooed and
+the women all wore the enormous cylindrical turban which we had seen
+once before in the Salween Valley.
+
+[Illustration: Map I: The red line indicates the travels of the Expedition]
+
+At noon of the fifth day we crossed the Yün-nan border into Burma. It
+is a beautiful spot where a foaming mountain torrent rushes out of the
+jungle in a series of picturesque cascades and loses itself in a living
+wall of green. The stream is spanned by a splendid iron bridge from
+which a fine wide road of crushed stone leads all the way to Bhamo.
+
+What a difference between the country we were leaving and the one we
+were about to enter! It is the "deadly parallel" of the old East and
+the new West. On the one side is China with her flooded roads and
+bridges of rotting timber, the outward and visible signs of a nation
+still living in the Middle Ages, fighting progress, shackled by the
+iron doctrines of Confucius to the long dead past. Across the river is
+English Burma, with eyes turned forward, ever watchful of the welfare
+of her people, her iron bridges and macadam roads representing the very
+essence of modern thought and progress.
+
+With paternal care of her officials the British government has provided
+_dâk_ (mail) bungalows at the end of each day's journey which are open
+to every foreign traveler. They are comfortable little houses set on
+piles. Each one has a spacious living room, with a large teakwood table
+and inviting lounge chairs. In a corner stands a cabinet of cutlery,
+china, and glass, all clean and in perfect order. The two bedrooms are
+provided with adjoining baths and a covered passageway connects the
+kitchen with the house. All is ready for the tired traveler, and a
+boy can be hired for a trifling sum to make the punkah "punk." Such
+comforts can only be appreciated when one has journeyed for months in a
+country where they do not exist.
+
+Our last night on the road was spent at a _dâk_ bungalow near a village
+only a few miles from Bhamo. We were seated at the window, when, with
+a rattle of wheels, the first cart we had seen in nine months passed
+by. That cart brought to us more forcibly than any other thing a
+realization that the Expedition was ended and that we were standing on
+the threshold of civilization.
+
+As Yvette turned from the window her eyes were wet with unshed tears,
+and a lump had risen in my throat. Not all the pleasures of the city,
+the love of friends or relatives, could make us wish to end the wild,
+free life of the year gone by. Silently we left the house and walked
+across the sunlit road into a grove of graceful, drooping palms; a
+white pagoda gleamed between the trees, and the pungent odor of wood
+smoke filled the air.
+
+The spot was redolent with the atmosphere of the lazy East; the East
+which, like the fabled "Lorelei," weaves a mystic spell about the
+wanderer whom she has loved and taken to her heart, while yet he feels
+it not. And when he would cast her off and return to his own again she
+knows full well that her subtle charm will bring him back once more.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next morning we entered Bhamo. It is a city of low, cool houses,
+wide lawns and tree-decked streets built on the bank of the muddy
+Irawadi River. Only a few miles away the railroad reaches Katha, and
+palatial steamers run to Mandalay and Rangoon. We called upon Mr.
+Farmer, the Deputy Commissioner, who offered the hospitality of the
+"Circuit House" and in the evening took us with him to the Club.
+
+[Illustration: Map II: Route of the Expedition in Yün-nan]
+
+A military band was playing and men in white, well-dressed women, and
+officers in uniform strolled about or sipped iced drinks beside the
+tennis court. We felt strange and shy but doubtless we seemed more
+strange to them for we were newly come from a far country which they
+saw only as a mystic, unknown land.
+
+On June 9, at noon, we embarked for the 1,200-mile journey to
+Rangoon, exactly nine months after we had ridden away from Yün-nan
+Fu toward the Mountain of Eternal Snow. Our further travels need not
+be related here. When we reached civilization we expected that our
+transport difficulties were ended; instead they had only begun. India
+was well-nigh isolated from the Pacific and to expose our valuable
+collection to the attacks of German pirates in the Mediterranean and
+Atlantic was not to be considered even though it necessitated traveling
+two thirds around the world to reach America safely.
+
+We left Rangoon for Calcutta, crossed India with all our baggage to
+Bombay, and after a seemingly endless wait eventually succeeded in
+arriving at Hongkong by way of Singapore. There we separated from our
+faithful Wu and sent him to his home in Foochow. It was hard to say
+"good-by" to Wu, for his efficient service, his enthusiastic interest
+in the work of the Expedition, and, above all, his willingness to do
+whatever needed to be done, had won our gratitude and affection. We
+ourselves went northward to Japan, across the Pacific to Vancouver,
+and overland to New York, arriving on October 1, 1917, nearly nineteen
+months from the time we left. We were never separated from our
+collections for, had we left them, I doubt if they would ever have
+reached America. It was difficult enough to gather them in the field,
+but infinitely more so to guide the forty-one cases through the tangled
+shipping net of a war-mad world.
+
+They reached New York without the loss of a single specimen and are
+now being prepared in the American Museum of Natural History for the
+study which will place the scientific results of the Asiatic Zoölogical
+Expedition before the public.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The story of our travels is at an end. Once more we are indefinable
+units in a vast work-a-day world, bound by the iron chains of
+convention to the customs of civilized men and things. The glorious
+days in our beloved East are gone, and yet, to us, the Orient seems
+not far away, for the miles of land and water can be traversed in a
+thought. Again we stand before our tent with the fragrant breath of the
+pines about us, watching the glistening peaks of the Snow Mountain turn
+purple and gold in the setting sun; again, we feel the mystic spell of
+the jungle, or hear the low, sweet tones of a gibbon's call. We have
+only to shut our eyes to bring back a picture of the bleak barriers of
+the Forbidden Land or the sunlit streets of a Burma village. Thank God,
+we saw it all together and such blessed memories can never die.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+  Abercrombie & Fitch Co., 76
+  Abertsen, Mr., Chinese Customs, employee of, 290, 294;
+    discovered hunting ground near Hui-yao, 298;
+    killed two gorals, 298
+  Africa, 4
+  Akeley, Carl E., 4, 76
+  Alaska, 4
+  Allen, Dr. J. A., x
+  American flags, 43
+  American Legation, Peking, xi
+  American Museum Journal, ix
+  American Museum of Natural History, 2, 5, 77, 200;
+    trustees of, specimens being prepared at, 321
+  Americans, 11
+  Ammunition, loss of, 79
+  Amoy, 16
+  _Anas boscas_ (Mallard ducks), 186
+  Anglo-Chinese College, 4
+  Animal life, lack of, 89
+  Annamits, 78
+  Antlers, 306, 312
+  Ape, gray (_Pygathrix_), 255
+  _Apodemus_ (white-footed mouse), 122, 176
+  Asia, x
+  _Asia_ Magazine, quoted from, 152
+  Asiatic Zoölogical Expedition, 2;
+    members of, 8
+  Assam, 241
+  Assistants, 4
+  A-tun-tzu, 198, 294
+
+  Babies, killing and selling of, 206
+  Baboon, brown (_Macacus_), 255
+  Baboon, Indian (_Macacus rhesus_), 279
+  Bamboo chickens, 26
+  Bandits, attack of, 95
+  Bankhardt, Mr., 82, 40, 42, 207
+  Bat apartment house, 80
+  Bat cave, description of, 29;
+    experience of girl in, 81
+  Bats, method of killing, 80
+  Batrachians, 310
+  Bear cubs (_Ursus tibetanus_), purchased at Teng-yueh, 296
+  Bedding, 93
+  Berger, Anna Katherine, acknowledgment to, xi
+  Bering Strait, 1
+  Bernheimer, Mr. and Mrs. Charles L., x
+  Betel nut, 241, 242
+  Bhamo, 294, 315, 317, 319;
+    railroad from, 81;
+    road to, 318;
+    description of, 320
+  Big Ravine, description of, 26;
+    temples near, 26
+  Birds, game, 90
+  _Blarina_, 176
+  Boat, Chinese, eye on, 15
+  Bode, Mr., 99
+  Bohea Hills, 64
+  Bound feet, 34
+  Bowdoin, George, x
+  Bradley, Dr., 78;
+    established leper hospital at Paik-hoi, 205
+  Brahmin priests, 186
+  Brahminy docks, 186;
+    habits of, 187
+  Bridge, suspension, description of, 218
+  Bridges, rope, 199
+  Brigand, seal of a pardoned, 210
+  Brigandage, 207, 208, 211
+  Brigands, 86;
+    beheading of, 41;
+    infest Yün-nan, 88;
+    description of, 96
+  British American Tobacco Co., Hongkong, 97, 100
+  British East Africa, 4
+  Brooke, Englishman, killed by Lolos, 174
+  Buffaloes, 265;
+    water, 218
+  Bui-tao, 60, 61
+  Bureau of Foreign Affairs, Director of, x
+  Burial, expenses of, 89
+  Burma, 8, 91, 191;
+    border of, 197, 241;
+    girls of, 242, 248, 248;
+    mammals caught near, 250;
+    frontier of, 264, 265, 294, 316;
+    boundary of, 319
+  Burmans, 289, 241
+
+  Calcutta, 297, 321
+  Caldwell, Rev. Harry R., xi, 8, 17, 20, 21, 22, 28, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29;
+    letter from, 82;
+    house of, 86;
+    stationed at Futsing, 44;
+    tiger hunting, method of, 45, 46, 55, 56, 61, 64, 141;
+    obtains serows at Yen-ping, 142;
+    purchases serow skins in Fukien, 148, 152, 154, 207
+  California, 8
+  _Callosciurus erythræus_, 89, 280
+  Camera equipment, 75
+  Canadian Pacific R.R. Co., Hongkong, General Passenger Agent of, xi
+  Cantonese, chiefly of Shan stock, 262
+  _Capricornulus crispus_, 140
+  _Capricornis sumatrensis_, 141
+  _Capricornis sumatrensis argyrochætes_, 29, 141
+  _Capricornis sumatrensis milne-edwardsi_, 141
+  Caravan, robbing of, 96; buying of, 104; renting of, 104
+  Caravan ponies, 104
+  Caravans, distance traveled by, 158, 197
+  Cary, F. W., Commissioner of Customs, 4, 77
+  _Casarca casarca_ (ruddy sheldrake), 186
+  Caverns, 162
+  Central Asia, 1
+  Central Asian plateau, 1
+  _Cervus macneilli_, 175
+  Chair-coolies, 317
+  Chairs, description of, 92, 517
+  Chang, Dr., 294
+  Chang-hu-fan, 20; night at, 21
+  Changlung, 273;
+    ferry at, 274, 281
+  Chien-chuan, 198
+  Chi-li, 7
+  China, 1, 2;
+    aboriginal inhabitants of, 3;
+    press, 13;
+    inland mission, 78, 101
+  Chinaman, Cantonese, 242
+  Chinese, Republic, xi, 2;
+    army of, 7;
+    face saving, 11;
+    Foreign Office, 11;
+    screaming, habit of, 15;
+    lack of sympathy of, 19;
+    not affected by sun, 22;
+    love of companionship, 22;
+    bride of, 69;
+    wedding of, 72;
+    dress of, 72;
+    Commissioner of Foreign Affairs, meeting with, 82;
+    education of, 88;
+    villages, description of, 90;
+    etiquette of, 102, 158, 190;
+    New Year, 212, 213, 214;
+    collecting debts of, 216
+  Chipmunk (_Tamiops macclellandi_), 230
+  Chi-yuen-kang, 26, 27, 29
+  Chou Chou, 99
+  Christians, native, persecution of, 21
+  Christianity, lesson in, 39
+  Christmas, 195;
+    celebration of, 196
+  Chu-hsuing Fu, 94, 204
+  Chung-tien, 172, 175, 176, 183, 201
+  Civet (_Viverra_), 246, 247
+  Clive, Captain, 268, 270, 378
+  Clothing, 75
+  Colgate, Mr. and Mrs. Sidney M., x
+  Collecting case, 228
+  Color plates, 240
+  Confucius, rules of, 67
+  Cook, difficulty in obtaining, 17;
+    description of, 105
+  Coolies, 54
+  Cormorants, 280
+  Corn, 91
+  Cows, used as burden-bearers by Chinese, 218
+  Cranes, 184; habits of, 185, 199, 236
+  Crossbows, 229
+  Cui-kau, 18;
+    description of, 80
+
+  Da-Da, 45, 54
+  Daing-nei, 54, 66
+  _Dâk_ (mail) bungalows, 319
+  Da-Ming, 33
+  Darjeeling, 144
+  Davies, Major H. R., ix, 93;
+    quoted, 137, 138, 139, 191
+  Dead, burying of, 151
+  Deer, 246, 301, 312, 313
+  Deer, barking, 63
+  Denby, Hon. Charles, 9
+  Dennet, Tyler, quoted, 152
+  D'Ollone, Major, member French Expedition, 174
+  D'Orleans, Prince Henri, 186
+  Dog, red, death of, 135
+  Dogs, description of, 115;
+   for food, 115
+  Doumer, M., Governor-General of French Indo-China, 93
+  Duai Uong, 51
+  Ducks, 90, 198;
+    brahminy, shooting off 199
+  Dupontès, Georges Chemin, assistance of, to expedition, 80
+
+  Eastes, Mr., Consul, 294
+  Education, foreign, 71
+  _Elaphodus_, 182
+  Elephants, 219, 222
+  Elk, 1
+  Ellsworth, Lincoln, x
+  Embry, Rev. and Mrs., China Inland Mission, members of, 294
+  Empress Dowager, 70;
+    issued edict prohibiting opium growing, 91
+  Equipment, purchase of, 4
+  Erh Hai or Ta-li Fu Lake, 199
+  Etiquette, 102
+  Europe, 1
+  European war, 8
+  Evans, H. G., xi;
+    assistance of, 100, 106, 186, 200, 298
+  Expedition, announcement of, 5;
+    applicants for positions on, 5;
+    results of, 316
+  Expeditions, preliminary, 2
+  Eye on Chinese boat, 15
+
+  Farmer, Mr., 320
+  Fauna, mammalian, 316
+  _Felis temmincki_, 108
+  _Felis uncia_, 108
+  Ferry, 160
+  Fletcher, H. G., 294, 295
+  Flying squirrel, 108, 191
+  Foochow, 8, 10, 11, 15, 16;
+    foreign residents of, 17;
+    streets of, 17, 23, 24, 85, 40;
+    mail from, 48;
+    schools for native girls at, 67;
+    woman's college at, 67, 206, 207, 209, 321
+  Food box, 74
+  Foot binding, origin of, 69;
+    method of, 70;
+    Natural Foot Society of, 70;
+    agitation against, 71
+  Forbidden City, 12
+  Ford, James B., x
+  Foreign Office, 97
+  Forest conservation, lack of, 88
+  Formosa, 11
+  Forrest, Mr., 294
+  Fossil animals, 108;
+    beds, 108
+  Francolins, 26
+  French Consul, 78
+  Frick, Childs, x
+  Frick, Henry C, x
+  Fukien Province, China, 8, 6, 10;
+    deforestation of, 24;
+    mammals of, 25, 26, 28, 29;
+    climate and temperature of, 68;
+    collecting in summer at, 68;
+    birds of, 64;
+    herpetology of, 64;
+    trapping for small mammals at, 64;
+    zoölogical study of, 64;
+    language of, 65;
+    travel in, 65;
+    servants in, 65;
+    serows hunted in, 148, 204;
+    missionary work in, 207
+  Funeral customs, 151, 158
+  Futsing, 43;
+    blue tiger hunting at, 54
+
+  Galapagos Islands, 4
+  _Gallus gallus_, 247
+  _Gallus lafayetti_, 248
+  _Gallus sonnerati_, 248
+  _Gallus varius_, 248
+  Gamblers, 215
+  Geese, 90, 198
+  Gen-kang, 224, 226, 229, 288
+  Gibbon (_Hylobates_), 258;
+    description of, 254, 255, 281, 284;
+    hunting of, 285
+  Goffe, Consul-General at Yün-nan Fu, 270
+  Goitre, prevalence of, 92
+  Gorals, 25, 76;
+    first hunt for, 120;
+    ceremonies at death of, 121, 123;
+    collecting for groups, 126;
+    color of, 126;
+    invisibility of, 128;
+    description of, 144;
+    horns of, 144;
+    distribution of, 144;
+    hunting of, 144, 194;
+    fighting of, 145;
+    habits of, 146;
+    feet of, 146, 194;
+    hunting of, at Hui-yao, 302, 309
+  Great Invisible, 44
+  Grierson, Ralph C, xi, 294, 295, 305, 317
+  _Grus communis_, 236
+  _Grus nigricollis_, 184
+
+  Habala, 164; hunting at, 165, 167
+  Haendel-Mazzetti, Baron, 113, 123, 126, 164
+  Hainan, description of, 77;
+    fauna of, 77
+  Haiphong, 77;
+    arrival at, 78, 79
+  Hanna, Rev. William J., xi, 79, 89, 101, 106, 201, 204, 205, 206, 294
+  Hanoi, description of, x, 79
+  _Harper's Magazine_, ix
+  Hartford, Mabel, 22, 23, 204
+  Heller, Edmund, 3, 4, 10, 61, 75, 79, 85, 94, 104, 105, 115, 116, 122,
+    123, 134, 135, 136, 146, 150, 161, 162, 173, 185, 195, 196, 227, 229,
+    247, 275, 276, 284, 291, 298, 299, 300, 306, 311, 312
+  Himalaya Mountains, 1
+  Hoi-hau, 77
+  Homes, 69
+  Ho-mu-shu, 281;
+    monkeys found near, 282, 283, 289, 291, 318
+  Hongkong, purchase of supplies at, 74, 200, 297, 321
+  Hoolock (_Hylobates hoolock_), 289
+  Hornbill, 245, 252
+  Horses, size of, 85, 104
+  Hospital attendants, 38
+  Hotenfa, 129, 130, 181, 182, 134, 185, 161, 171, 174, 193, 194, 195
+  Hsia-kuan, description of, 99, 108, 212
+  Hui-yao, 142, 145, 298, 300, 301, 306;
+    reptiles and lizards found at, 310, 313, 315
+  Hunan, 85, 86
+  Hung-Hsien, 11
+  Hunters, 114
+  Hutchins, Commander Thomas, 10
+  Hwa Shan (Flower Mountain), massacre at, 28
+  _Hylobates_, 254, 289
+  _Hylomys_, 281, 251
+  _Hystrix_, 116
+
+  India, 1, 57, 321
+  Inns, 98
+  Irawadi River, 81, 269, 297, 320
+
+  Japan, 5, 8
+  Japanese newspaper reporters, 6
+  Joline, Mrs. Adrian Hoffman, x
+  Jungle fowl, 247, 248;
+    habits of, 248, 280.
+
+  Kachins, 289, 269;
+    women, appearance of, 241
+  Katha, 320
+  Kellogg, C. R., xi, 11, 15, 17, 48, 61, 66
+  Kok, Rev. and Mrs. A., xi;
+    Pentecostal missionary, 108;
+    assistance of, 112, 204, 294
+  Koko-nor, 186
+  Koo, Wellington, 9
+  Korea, 6;
+    pheasants found in, 187
+  Kraemer, M., xi
+  Kucheng, 28
+  Kwang-si, 9
+  Kwei-chau Province, 8, 9, 137
+
+  Lane & Crawford Company of Hongkong, 77
+  Lang, Herbert, photograph of serow loaned by, 144
+  Languages and dialects, number of, 138;
+    reason for, 188, 139
+  Langur, 255
+  Langurs (_Pygathrix_), 257, 258
+  Lao-kay, first hotel on railroad, 81
+  Lapwings, 199
+  Las, 239
+  Lashio, 269
+  Legge, Prof. J., quoted, 68
+  Leopards, 25, 64
+  Leper hospital, 78
+  _Li_, length of, 84
+  Li-chiang, 96;
+    animal life on route to, 107;
+    arrival at, 107;
+    camp in, 108;
+    collecting in, 109;
+    mammals of, 109;
+    important fur market at, 110;
+    inhabitants of, 117;
+    return to, 150, 155, 157, 190, 196, 254, 257
+  Li-Hung Chang, 7
+  Ling-suik, monastery of, 61;
+    description of, 62;
+    priests at, 62;
+    collecting at, 63
+  Lisos, 191, 289, 292
+  Livingstone, H. W., xi, 19
+  Loads, weight of, 54
+  Lolos, 8, 184, 186;
+    depredations of, 137;
+    independence of, 188, 170;
+    dress of, 178;
+    capes worn by, 174, 188, 190
+  London Zoölogical Society's Garden, 141
+  Long Ravine, blue tiger seen at, 57
+  Lucas, Dr. F. A., acknowledgement to, x
+  Lui, Mr., salt commissioner at Hsia-kuan, 99
+  Lung-ling, 281, 282, 294
+  Lung-tao, 45, 54, 60, 63
+  Lutzus, 191, 292
+
+  McMurray, J. V. A., xi
+  _Macacus rhesus_, 258, 279, 305
+  _Mafus_, description of, 87
+  Mail, 290
+  Malaria, 274, 991
+  Malay Peninsula, 57
+  Ma-li-ling, 264, 266
+  Ma-li-pa, 265;
+    poppy fields at, 267, 269, 270, 272, 273
+  Mallard ducks, 186, 199
+  Mammals, small, importance of, 110;
+    preparing of, 227
+  Man, primitive, migrations of, 1
+  Man-eater, killing of, 49
+  Mandalay, 320
+  Mandarins, relations with, 102, 243
+  Ma-po-lo, low valley at, 225;
+    game at, 226;
+    fog in, 226
+  Marco Polo, 104
+  Massacre in Hwa Shan (Flower Mountain), 23
+  Meadow vole (_Microtus_), 118, 122
+  Mekong, 191, 197
+  Mekong river, description of, 192, 193, 201, 292
+  Mekong-Salween divide, 190
+  Mekong valley, 177, 182;
+    vegetables in, 193;
+    zoölogy of, 193
+  Meng-ting, 226, 233;
+    description of, 236;
+    mandarin of, 236;
+    Buddhist monastery at, 238;
+    market at, 238;
+    Cantonese visit and buy opium at, 242;
+    fog at, 244;
+    valley at, 244;
+    birds at, 244
+  Mergansers, 186
+  Methodist mission, 24
+  Mexico, 4
+  Miao village, 273
+  Mice, 176
+  _Micromys_, 192
+  _Microtus_, meadow vole, 118, 122, 173
+  Min River, 15;
+    life on, 19, 88, 204
+  Mission hospital, 36;
+    China Inland, 101
+  Missionaries, 35, 40, 59, 67, 202;
+    servants of, 203;
+    natives trading with, 205;
+    civilizing influence of, 206
+  Mohammedan Chinese, married to a Shan, 246
+  Mohammedan hunter, 261, 264
+  Mohammedan war, 101
+  Mole, 176
+  Molloy, Agnes F., acknowledgment to, xi
+  Money, carrying of, 97;
+    transmitting of, 97
+  Monkey, 192, 195
+  Monkey temple, 258
+  Moose, 1
+  Morgan, Cordelia, 94, 95, 204
+  Mosos, 110;
+    description of, 111, 155, 165;
+    capes worn by, 174, 190, 229
+  Motion pictures, 76;
+    developing of, 315
+  Mountain goat, 1
+  "Mountain Goat Hunting with Camera," quoted from, 147
+  Mouse (_Micromys_), 192
+  Moving picture film, 166
+  Mu-cheng, 229, 238
+  Muntjac, description of, 28, 132, 225, 258, 292
+  Museum authorities, 9
+  Mustelidæ, 250
+  Myitkyina district, 269
+
+  _Næmorhedus griseus_, 144
+  Nam-ka, Shans at, 260;
+    description of, 260;
+    camp at, 264
+  Nam-ting River, ferry at, 235, 243;
+    camping at, 244, 245;
+    hunters at, 246;
+    camp on, 249;
+    polecat trapped at, 250;
+    monkeys, hunting at, 252;
+    hornbill, seen at, 253;
+    monkeys found at, 258;
+    Shans seen at, 260;
+    caravan crossed, 264, 284, 289, 291, 318
+  _Namur_, S. S., 297
+  Natives, 91;
+    inaccuracy of, 158
+  New York, return to, 321
+  Ngu-cheng, 205
+  Non-Chinese tribes, 3
+  North America, 1
+  Northern soldiers, 35, 42
+  Northern troops, 40
+
+  Opium, 91;
+    growing of, 91;
+    inspection of, 91;
+    scandal, 91;
+    smuggling of, 91, 267;
+    smoking of, 318
+  Osborn, Henry Fairfield, quoted, 146, 147
+
+  Pack saddle, description of, 85
+  Pack, weight of, 85
+  Page, Howard, 82, 84, 200
+  Paget color plates, 166, 200, 316
+  Pagoda Anchorage, 15, 66
+  Paik-hoi, 78;
+    leper hospital at, 205
+  Palaungs, 239
+  Palmer, Mr., 290, 294
+  Pandas, coats of, 103
+  Pangolin, scales of, 103
+  Parrots, 244
+  Partridges, bamboo, 245
+  Passports, 11
+  _Pavo cristatus_, 277
+  _Pavo munticus_, 277
+  Peacock, black-shouldered, 279
+  Peacock, hunting of, 274;
+    habits of, 277;
+    eggs of, 277;
+    domestication of, 278
+  Peacock, Indian, 277
+  Peafowl, killed on Salween River, 277;
+    flesh of, 277
+  Peking, 6, 7, 11, 12, 82, 209
+  _Petaurista yunnanensis_, 103
+  Phasianidæ, 279
+  Pheasants, shooting of, 90;
+    Lady Amherst's, 150;
+    silver, 279;
+    horned, 291
+  Phete, 167; country about, 168;
+    natives of, 168, 170
+  Photographic work, 166
+  Photographs in natural colors, 4
+  Photography, cinematograph, 316
+  Pigeons, 280
+  Pigs, killing of, 22;
+    wild, 25, 64;
+    treatment of, 90, 188
+  Pin-toil, 199
+  Pleistocene, 1
+  Pocock, Mr., 141
+  Polecat, 250
+  Polo, Marco, 176;
+    quoted, 219
+  Poppy blossoms, 265
+  Poppy fields, 91
+  Porcupine, description of, 115
+  Portable dark room, 166
+  Prjevalsky, Lieutenant-Colonel, 186
+  P'u-erh, 212
+  _Pygathrix_ (monkeys), 192, 195, 258
+
+  Railroad, Hanoi to Yün-nan, 80;
+    description of, 81
+  Rain, last of the season, 185, 290, 315, 317
+  Rainey, Paul J., 4
+  Rangoon, 269, 272, 279, 320, 321
+  _Ratufa gigantea_, 251
+  Rebellion of 1918, 8
+  Reinsch, Hon. Paul, xi, 10, 11
+  Republic, 16
+  Rhododendrons, 291
+  Rice, 168
+  Rice fields, 89
+  Rifle, Mannlicher, 75, 256, 266, 300;
+    Savage, 75, 271;
+    Winchester, 60, 75
+  Riot in Shanghai, 152
+  Roads, descriptions of, 87
+  Rocky Mountain sheep, 1
+  Roosevelt, Colonel Theodore, 4
+  _Rupicapra_, 140
+  Rupicaprine antelopes, horns of, 140
+
+  Salt, preparation of, 196, 197
+  Salween River, 278, 278;
+    heat of, 280, 282, 288, 305
+  Sambur, 226, 229;
+    hunting of, 311;
+    blood of, 312
+  Sammons, Mr., American Consul-General, 12
+  Sampans, first night in, 20
+  San Francisco, 5
+  Scandinavian steamer, 11
+  Schools for native girls, 67
+  Sclater, Mr., 278
+  Screaming, Chinese habit of, 15
+  Sedan chairs, 16
+  Serows, 25;
+    hunt for, 27;
+    habits of, 29, 64;
+    hunting for, 184;
+    description of, 185;
+    color variation of, 186;
+    Japanese, 140;
+    difference from gorals, 140;
+    horns of, 141;
+    relationship of, 141;
+    appearance of, 141;
+    killed on Snow Mountain, 142;
+    obtained by Mr. Caldwell at Yen-ping, 142;
+    distribution of, 142;
+    habits of, 148;
+    weight of, 148, 305;
+    hunting of at Hoi-yao, 306, 307, 308, 309
+  Servants, wages of, 204
+  Shanghai, 11, 12;
+    riot in, 152, 316
+  Shans, 8, 225, 288, 242, 282;
+    description of village of, 284, 245;
+    houses of, 260;
+    heavily tattooed, 261;
+    tribes of, 262;
+    description of, 262, 288, 318
+  Sheldrakes, 186
+  Sherwood, George H., assistance rendered to Expedition by, x
+  Shia-chai, 218
+  Shih-tien, 223;
+    bird life at, 223;
+    natives, curiosity of, 224, 225
+  Shih-ku ferry, 182, 184
+  Shoverling, Daly & Gales, ammunition, guns, tents, furnished by, 4
+  Shrew, 178, 251
+  Shweli River, 145
+  Singapore, 321
+  Slave raiding, 189
+  Smith, Arthur H., quoted, 158, 214, 215
+  Snow Mountain, camp at, 112;
+    traveling to, 112;
+    description of hunters at, 114;
+    mammalogy of, 116;
+    camp on slopes of, 118;
+    mammals collected at, 127;
+    serows killed on, 142, 166, 176, 182, 184
+  Soldiers, guard of, 97;
+    guns of, 97;
+    expense of, 97;
+    use of, 97;
+    treatment by natives of, 98;
+    fight with, 187;
+    extortions of, 188
+  South America, 4
+  Specimens, packing of, 296, 315
+  Squirrel, flying (_Petaurista yunnanensis_), 291;
+    _Ratufa gigantea_, 251;
+    red-bellied (_Callosciurus erythræus_), 89, 280
+  S'suchuan Province, 8, 137, 174
+  S'su-mao, 178, 212
+  Standard Oil Co., xi;
+    launch of, 19, 82, 200
+  Su Ek, 207
+  Sun-birds, 244
+  _Sung-kiang_, S. S., 78
+
+  Tablets, ancestral, description of, 215
+  Tai-ping-pu, 291, 298
+  Taku, 160, 184
+  Taku ferry, 164
+  Ta-li Fu, soldiers guard to, 88;
+    road to, 99;
+    graves at, 100;
+    lake at, 100;
+    mandarin at, 100;
+    pagodas at, 100, 104, 105, 188, 186, 198, 200, 201
+  Ta-li Fu Lake, description of, 199
+  _Tamiops macclellandi_, 280
+  Taoist temple, 26
+  Tao-tai, 85
+  Tartars, 219, 221
+  Temple, camp in, 86
+  Teng-yueh, 4, 141, 289, 291, 298, 294, 295, 298, 318;
+    return to, 315, 317
+  Tents, 74
+  _Tenyo Maru_, 5, 9
+  Thompson, Dr., 205
+  Tibet, 8, 108, 172, 178;
+    monopoly of gold in, 181, 188
+  Tibetan plateaus, 191
+  Tibetans, description of, 178;
+    photographing of, 179;
+    dislike for strangers of, 180;
+    influence of Chinese on, 181, 183, 190, 191, 212
+  Tiger, 22, 25, 64;
+    man-eating, 44;
+    lairs of, 45;
+    stalking a goat, 45;
+    habits of, 46;
+    daring of, 47;
+    strength of, 48;
+    excitement of hunting, 49;
+    weight of, 50;
+    blood of, 50;
+    skins in temples of, 51;
+    food of, 51;
+    hunting in lair of, 51;
+    flesh and bones of, 51;
+    marking trees by, 52;
+    skins of, 103
+  Tiger, blue, 8, 43, 55;
+    description of, 56;
+    hunting of, 57;
+    trying to trap, 60
+  Tonking, 3, 77, 81, 93, 178, 212
+  Tragopan, Temminck's, 291
+  Transportation, difficulties of, 321
+  Trapping, methods of, 110
+  Traps, steel, 75;
+    method of setting, 245
+  Trees, marking of, by tiger, 52
+  Tribes, non-Chinese, description of, 138
+  Trimble, Dr., 32;
+    house of, 34, 36, 37, 205, 207
+  Trowbridge, Captain Harry, 77, 78, 79
+  Tsai-ao, General, 9
+  _Tsamba_, 178
+  Ts'ang mountains, 100
+  Tsinan-fu, 12
+  _Tupaia belangeri chinensis_, 89
+
+  United States, 4
+  Universal Camera, 76
+  _Ursus tibetanus_, 296
+
+  Vegetarians, 23
+  _Viverra_, 246
+  Viverridæ, 247
+  Vochang, 218
+  Vole, 173
+  Von Hintze, Admiral, 11
+
+  Wapiti, 1, 175
+  War, Mohammedan, 101
+  Was, 239
+  Waterhole, 258
+  Wa-tien, 310, 313
+  Wei-hsi, 182, 187, 190, 196
+  White Water, 149;
+    camp at, 149;
+    weather at, 149
+  Wild boar, 258
+  Wilden, Henry M., French Consul, 82
+  Wolves, 25
+  Woman's college at Foochow, 67
+  Women, position of, in China, 67
+  Worship, ancestor, 156
+  Wu Hung-tao, interpreter, x, 4, 77, 87, 102, 105, 108, 123, 136, 168,
+    187, 191, 200, 213, 238, 267, 289, 294, 312, 318, 321
+
+  _Yamen_, 39
+  Yangtze River, 19, 81, 137, 150;
+    road to, 157;
+    crossing of, 161;
+    barrier to mammals, 163, 184, 187, 193, 201, 262
+  Yangtze gorge, description of, 160, 164, 167
+  Yen-ping, 20, 22;
+    climate of, 24;
+    description of, 24;
+    residence of Mr. Caldwell at, 24;
+    Methodist Mission at, 24;
+    trapping at, 25;
+    rebellion in, 33;
+    refugees from, 33;
+    fighting in, 34;
+    attacked by rebels in, 35;
+    wounded in, 36;
+    schools for native girls at, 67;
+    Chinese wedding at, 72;
+    missionary buildings of, 203, 205, 207
+  Yokohama, 5
+  Yuan, 7, 8, 10, 12
+  Yuan Shi-kai, 7, 10;
+    death of, 12, 14, 34
+  Yuchi, 22;
+    brigands at, 23, 24, 35, 36, 204, 207, 208, 211
+  Yung-chang, Chinese New Year at, 212;
+    road to, 212, 214;
+    water buffaloes at, 218;
+    battle at, 218
+  Yung-chang-Teng-yueh road, 282
+  Yün-nan, xi;
+    size of, 2;
+    topography of, 3;
+    boundaries of, 3;
+    fauna of, 3;
+    natives of, 3;
+    language of, 3, 10, 25;
+    infested with brigands, 83;
+    zoölogical study of, 83;
+    meaning of, 88;
+    summer climate of, 99
+  Yün-nan Fu, 9;
+    foreign residents of, 82;
+    foreign office at, 97;
+    Dr. Thompson's hospital at, 205
+
+  Zoölogical Garden, Berlin, 144
+  Zoölogical Park, Calcutta, 144
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+Transcriber Note
+
+Minor typos corrected. Hyphenation was generally standardized to
+the most frequently utilized version. Text was rearranged to avoid
+splitting by images. The terms Irawadi and Irrawaddy seem to both apply
+to the same River and valley. Both names retained.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12296 ***